Meet Brad Holley | Outdoor Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brad Holley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brad, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
When the phrase “work/life balance” gets brought up, the thing I think about most is this extremely stubborn psychological artefact that comes from the old world of toxic masculinity. It’s this idea that no matter the circumstances, no matter the difficulty, no matter the obligation, and no matter the illness–men should never take a day off from work.

“We are rugged, indestructible machines that never break down, and we are only as good as our last perfect attendance streak!” (/s)

This idea is harmful, regressive, and just flat-out stupid, and it needs to die.

The weird thing about it is, I can’t think of a single person who ever explicitly said or taught me this, and I think it’s because no one person actually did. It’s like there’s just always been this unspoken agreement between men (from all walks of life, and for reasons we don’t actually understand) that we all need to quietly reinforce this idea and punish each other for not being in our chair, in our workplace, every single day. It’s in our jokes, our judgements, our frustrations and even our childish gossip; it’s the suggestion that there’s weakness, or insufficiency or inferiority in any man who would ever dare to have something more important to do than come into work.

I have lived under the tyranny of this idea for the majority of my adult life, but it’s only been within the past 2 to 3 years (with the help of my wife) that I’ve been able to realize how completely idiotic and irrational it is. Although, simply realizing it isn’t always enough. When you’ve been haunted by this idea your entire life, it can be hard to fully internalize a new perspective. It’s like a phantom pain or a Pavlovian response. When it comes time for me to request a day off or (god forbid) call in sick, I find myself overwhelmed by a sense of dread and guilt, and I can’t help but feel the strong urge to start apologizing for what I’m about to do.

And sure, I can rationalize it. I can use logic. I can be my own reassuring advocate. I can tell myself things like, “Hey buddy–they gave you this paid vacation so that you can use it. You earned it. You’re allowed to take the time off to recharge and maybe even get inspired.” Or, “Hey man–your fever is over 103 and we live in a post-Covid world. Nobody wants to be around you today. STAY HOME!” Or my new favorite, “Listen–you have children now. Your son deserves to have you at his school for the ‘Donuts With Dad’ event, and you know you wanna be there too. You can be a little late that morning.”

And here’s the thing–I DO take the time off. I DO stay home. And I WILL show up late. But boy, is it like pulling teeth in the depths of my soul. And this needs to stop. As someone who probably used to help reinforce this idea in others when I was younger, I’m now deciding that enough is enough. We don’t need this idea anymore. It’s not helpful. It’s not constructive. It’s not serving any of us.

All of us are already struggling to be 𝚐̶𝚘̶𝚘̶𝚍̶ acceptable at all of the things we’re juggling as it is. Be happy for others when they’re able to take a vacation. Encourage your friends, your family, your co-workers, your employees and even your superiors to take a day off when they’re sick (heck, maybe even two). Celebrate anyone who chooses to be present for their family and for all of those little fleeting, invaluable moments with their kids which they’ll never get back if they miss them. And guys–if David from two offices down the hall simply decides that he just needs a “mental health day” today, don’t be the moron that starts making “entitlement” jokes or starts that very boring and unoriginal diatribe about Avocado Toast or Starbucks or whatever. Just say, “That sucks man–I’ve been there. I’m glad you’re taking care of yourself. And also, let me know if I can do anything for you”. (Wow. Listen to how human that sounds! It’s almost like we’re real people)

From this point on in my life, my family and my health comes first, and I’m working hard to never feel guilt or shame about that. At time of writing, age 40 is just a few months away for me, and that means I now qualify as a big kid. And as a card-carrying big kid, I know how to tie my own shoes AND I can balance my home life with the demand I have at work. I know how and when to take time off (no matter the reason), and I know how to either catch up or get ahead if I need to compensate. If that means waking up early one morning to get some work time in during the quietest hours of the day, I can do that. If it means going to bed a little later once or twice a week, I can do that. And if it just means calling a client and explaining (as human beings tend to do) that “something came up”, and “would it be okay if we moved that Zoom presentation back a day or two?” I can do that too.

And look, I know this is going to sound totally revolutionary and maybe even a little bit extremist, but… maybe we should just start treating other people, like people again. Because at the end of the day, we are, in fact, still people, with hectic and unpredictable lives and people-y things to do and to take care of. It’s the rule of reciprocity. I’m going to treat you the same way I want to be treated, and it also means I’m going to stop shaming and pressuring others in ways I don’t want to be shamed or pressured.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The headline for my larger story would probably read something like, “The World Needs Less Gate-Keepers”.

I only have myself to blame for not having the discipline to go to college when I had the chance to. I was just in too much of a hurry to enter the adult world, start working, and start my own life. In some ways, you could call it a setback. But you might also say that this was exactly the path I needed to be on, because it ended up leading me exactly to where I am today.

My positive outlook, my open-mindedness and my dedication and strong work ethic led me from one job opportunity to another through the friends and positive impacts I made along the way, and it was at one of these jobs where I unintentionally stumbled upon the 3D modeling software, “SketchUp”. I quickly developed an obsession with it and started using it on every device I owned just for fun. That hobby led me (again, by accident) to a job posting to be an assistant for Randy Angell. And Randy would be the person who would take my obsession with SketchUp and my unhinged knack for creativity and slowly turn it into something useful.

After 7 years of being mentored and trained by Randy, he eventually encouraged me to enter into our industry’s most difficult design competition, the “Million Dollar Pool Design Challenge”. I knew that I would be competing with the very best in the entire country, and I never expected to be among them. But I was optimistic and I was curious to see how my skills would compare. In 2022, I ended up earning 4th place out of ~50 entries. I was blown away. After that, I basically just started counting down the days until the next one. When it was time to do it all over again in 2023, I really took my time and put everything I had into my design entry the second time around. And it paid off because I ultimately won 1st place in 2023.

All those years working under Randy and learning about our industry, I just felt like an outside observer who was simply just happy to be there. It’s a fun industry. We get to do really cool things for some very interesting people. I mean, sure–I too was also a designer creating my own things for Randy’s company, but I didn’t feel like one of the superstars of the industry like Randy was. Those were the people who lived up on the high pedestals who I followed on social media. They were the really talented people who were all out there getting articles written about them and having their projects featured on the covers of magazines and in TV shows. That wasn’t me. I was just some guy working for one of them. And after I won the competition, suddenly all of the people I was following were now looking at me and talking about me as though I was one of them. It was all very strange, and I still haven’t fully processed that. The imposter syndrome is very much in full effect.

But getting back to the point here; One of the things that’s important to me about this story is that all of the reasons I ended up in this industry to begin with were all based on total accidents. I didn’t plan to be here. It’s not as though I had a particular affinity or attraction to the pool industry when I was younger. I had no goals of becoming a successful designer. And as a reminder, I had no formal education either. I didn’t go the traditional route. Many of the amazing, talented designers I follow who do this kind of work have formal education, college degrees, several technical certifications and lots of hours of continuing education. I have none of that. And while I feel like a bit of an anomaly, I also don’t think I’m particularly special.

You will never hear me denigrate a college education or the people who have the discipline to earn a degree. There is value in going that route, and I can even understand why many of them would expect to demand a higher value for their efforts. After all, they put in the time and the extra work. They should get something for that. But let’s face it–a college degree is quickly becoming unaffordable and even unreasonable for those who don’t want to be saddled with student for the rest of their existence. And even if it suddenly became free, are we really telling ourselves that the best, the brightest, and the most capable are *only* going to be found somewhere inside the higher education system? How many opportunities are we robbing ourselves of when we limit our hiring/training pool to only people with degrees? What would be some advantages to considering someone without a degree who can still show creativity, dedication, eagerness, or an intense passion for a particular role?

I believe in a world where we bring back the concept of mentoring and apprenticeship. Everyone is extremely capable of learning anything they might be interested in or predisposed to by shadowing and watching particularly talented people like Randy Angell. And I think this goes for virtually any job that’s out there. I have no idea where I would be if Randy (or someone like him) had not given me the opportunity that he did. I probably never would have ended up in this industry, and I don’t know if I would feel as proud, successful or as accomplished as I do right now, and it’s all because someone took a chance on me despite my lack of credentials or experience.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I have two kids now who are my whole world, and that means I’m not the spontaneous young-man-about-town that I once was. The majority of my excitement now unapologetically revolves around my boys and my wife and finding things we can all enjoy together. That being said, if I had a friend coming to stay with me and do all of the fun things I do now, it’s probably going to be someone who is fully invested in hanging out with me and my whole family, and that means a week together is going to look a little different now. That being said, back in 2022 when I planned, organized and executed one of my proudest achievements so far (The “Dallas Side Quest” treasure hunt event), I was able to discover tons of new interesting places and new businesses that I wasn’t familiar with before, and many of them are places I would tell others to go to now:

Shows:

Before kids, concerts and live music were a regular occurrence for us. If I had a kid-free evening, I might see who was playing at “The Factory” or “Trees” in Deep Ellum.

For a really entertaining improv show, I’d grab some tickets to go see “Four Day Weekend”

Fun and Games:

FreePlay Arcade is always a hit for people of all ages. You can never go wrong with the nostalgia of classic video games and cold drinks. I typically go to the one in East Richardson, but they have locations all over the metroplex.

Arcade 92 in downtown Mckinney is another cool one for those of you up North.

Bowling at the Rowlett Bowl-A-Rama.

BowlGames for a few rounds of “Pintoss”.

Outdoors:

We would probably go hiking at Spring Creek Forest Preserve, Arbor Hills Nature Preserve, or the Trails at Squabble Creek.

If they’ve got something with wheels, we might spend an hour or two at the Mckinney or Allen Skate Park.

A cable park like Hydrous Wake Park would be a fun activity in the Summertime.

Or, if we could come up with an extra OneWheel, I might challenge them to a race through the woods around the Woodbridge Golf Course.

Parks and Playgrounds:

Hope Park in Frisco is huge if we’re in the NorthWest area.

Kids Kingdom / Pecan Grove Park if we’re out East.

Downtown Garland recently opened their brand new “Garland City Square” and there’s plenty to do and walk to all the way around it.

The Harbor at Rockwall is another great destination for a day outside with the whole family.

For a really cool paid outdoor activity, I might take everyone to the “Go Ape Zipline and Adventure Park” inside the Oak Point Nature Preserve.

And probably one of our favorite ticketed family excursions is still the Dallas World Aquarium. It just never disappoints.

Food:

I have traveled around the world and eaten all kinds of delicious foods that I never imagined I would get to try, with some of it even being Michelin-star-rated. But on any given day, there are two specific meals that I always crave, and they are the following:

Stuffed Avocados with Chicken (with extra Bella Blanca sauce) from the fast/casual diner “Chiloso”.

Hashbrown Bowl from “Waffle House”, with bacon, eggs, cheese, mushrooms, grilled onions and extra jalapenos–everything well done. (Somewhere out there, my wife is rolling her eyes and silently shaming me)

As a dad, sometimes the ideal meal situation just has to answer three simple questions:
Can I get a beer?
Do they serve food my kids will eat?
Can I drink my beer while I watch them play outside on a playground?
And I’ve learned that (as mundane as this might sound) “Hat Creek” is often the answer to all of those questions.

For everyone else who might be looking for something a little more unique, I would suggest the following:

One of my favorite patio restaurants is “Smoky Rose”, across from the Dallas Arboretum.

“Urban Crust” in downtown Plano for pizza, as well as their rooftop bar, “32-Degrees” for a unique view in that area.

No matter where I go, if I see Brisket Tacos on a menu, I’m automatically getting that. And some of the very best that I’ve ever had were from a newer restaurant in West Plano called “Dream Tacos”. They’re simply outstanding. And you might as well get the chips and queso while you’re at it.

For a different kind of Brisket Taco, I would recommend the Burnt End Tacos from “Good Union BBQ” in Richardson.

If you haven’t tried Hot Pot, I’d suggest the “Seapot” in Plano, or “Yoshi Shabu Shabu” in Richardson.

And while I don’t think you can go wrong with sushi from virtually any restaurant, one of my favorites is still “Deep Sushi” in Deep Ellum.

One of our regular neighborhood spots that’s always a hit for the whole family is “Frankie’s Casa” in downtown Wylie, which is also within walking distance from “Shoemaker & Hardt Coffee” and “Say It With Sugar” bakery (for some delicious treats).df

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My biggest shoutout will always and forever go to Randy Angell (Randy Angell Designs). That man took my passion and creativity and gave me an invaluable skillset which altered the course of my life, arguably changing the trajectory of my entire family as a result, and I’ll probably never be able to pay him back for it. But if I could take myself and my gratitude toward him out of the equation for a moment, I’d say to you that he is also one of the most notable and imitated outdoor/swimming pool designers in America. I wouldn’t say that he’s the entire reason that Dallas homeowners everywhere are modernizing their backyards. But I can tell you with certainty and objectivity that his portfolio of work has had a huge impact on people’s Contemporary sensibilities and Modern preferences when they go to renovate their backyards or build new outdoor spaces. He has profoundly affected the direction of outdoor design, even amongst people who don’t know who he is and have never worked with him. I can guarantee you that there are lots of people out there, casually thinking about tackling a big outdoor project in the not-too-distant future. They’re scouring Google and Pinterest, Instagram and Houzz, and they’re building up a collection of inspiration photos to show to whoever it is that’s going to help them plan this new project. And even though the name “Randy Angell” has never floated into their ears or occupied their brain space, little do they know that they already have several images of his work saved in their inspiration folder. He’s an absolute legend and he deserves way more credit and recognition than he currently has.

Instagram: @brad_holley_designs_things

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-holley-dallas-tx

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Image Credits
Yuvie Styles (“V the Photographer”)
Ashley Holley
Brad Holley