How Architecture Firms Can Build High-Performance Remote Teams | EP668

0:00Now you have all of these other time to focus on more important things that create much better outcomes. Hello, architect nation and welcome back to the right place for you if you run an architectural practice on today's episode, your discover the secret hiring formula that helped one architecture focused company scale from zero to 650 professionals in just a few years without ever opening a traditional office. My most remote hires fail and how a simple change in time zone and mindset can instantly double your team's output. And how hiring pain could be your profit breakthrough and the little known win-win model that's helping small firms build lean loyal high performance teams. In today's episode I sit down with Camilla Bruga, founder and CEO of world teams who's helped over 200 architecture firms scale through high performing global teams since launching from scratch in 2019.

1:00When the background in sales, marketing and communications, she's a master at blending creativity and strategy to help firms grow sustainably. A passionate advocate for remote work and autonomy, Camilla proves you can lead a thriving business while embracing motherhood. You've built a practice that balances design, delivery and client trust, but when it comes to taxes, your firm's structure might be quietly working against you. At Gilt, we specialize in helping architecture firms uncover hidden tax inefficiencies, from outdated ownership setups to missed expense opportunities and project level tax traps. Even well-run studios can leave five figures on the table each year simply because their financial foundation hasn't evolved as the firm has. Gilt helps you design a smarter structure, one that turns your firm's growth into real savings and stronger take home income. First, tax strategy built for architects. Don't wait for next tax season. Schedule your complimentary consultation at joingilt.com. That's j-o-i-n-g-e-l-t.com to learn more and mention BOA when you sign up.

2:05Camilla, welcome to the business of architecture. How are you? Good. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure. Absolutely. You are the visionary founder and CEO of World Teams, which is an organization a company that's been quietly revolutionizing the way architecture firms scale up and how they operate by building international remote teams that really drive a lot of efficiency and performance for firms. You guys have been a firm favorite here at Business of Architecture for a number of years where almost, you know, in the first few weeks when we onboard our own clients, you're one of the very few companies that we're like, you want to build a team, you want to be outsourcing, go and talk to these guys because they will just make life so much easier. And it's been really, really great actually getting that feedback from our clients who have

3:07been working with you, like when we've been working with you ourselves, we've got Natalia and our team who's through you guys. And it's just so, such a useful, valuable service of being able to connect an architecture firm with skilled talent, be able to take advantage of, you know, kind of geo arbitrage in terms of, you know, just makes it easier for teams to be able to scale. I think it's been such a nightmare in the US since COVID, really. And the same in Europe, maybe not as much as, not as pronounced as in America. But a service like what you guys are doing makes life so much easier. And nowadays as well, the kind of wealth of talent that you guys have got, the experience that people can get. And then the talent that's available on the Latin American sort of continents is amazing. So welcome to the show. And perhaps we'll start with the question

4:15of how did world teams start? Yeah, I get that question a lot. Well, my parents are both architects, right? And they're, they really love architecture. And I think they're really good designers and they understand space very well, but they were very, very bad at the business part. So it was very unsteady, let's say. And I lived that very much in my childhood. We would go like, I'm, for example, amazing periods that we are going in these amazing vacations. And then all of a sudden my parents would be like, girls, I think I need to pull you out of school and things like that. So like that instability. I felt it being the eldest of four. I felt it a lot. And it was just there. You know, one of those things that it's there. And it's part of who you are and very deep from your childhood.

5:16And then like I coincidentally, I was good in math and growing. So it kind of made sense to study architecture. But I was like, no, I'm going to, I'm going to be broke. And I studied business when I did MBA and I worked for, for Renault and automotive company and then for fashion. And then then life pulled me back to this kind of like a home people of my country. And I was working with architects all the time. I had an architecture team that would just do this back. And, and, and, and just send out proposals. And I was talking to architects to try to sell them, you know, and tell us it's the whole thing for the building. And I was just like, I love this industry. It's the best industry. But I kept seeing this problem. A problem that I understood very, very well. And so I have family also of North.

6:20And, and they had the opposite problem. Like they had work, but they didn't have people. And it was hard to hire them. And we have a lot of good people, but not so much work. So it was like, you know, let's put two and two together and lucky. And these are the things that sometimes you just get lucky. This project started two months before the pandemic. And all of a sudden, you know, the world became remote. And so convincing someone, what do you care if you're hiring someone like two blocks away or a continent away? If they're going to work or not. And so it started scaling very, very fast. That's very interesting that you've had that kind of first hand experience of seeing the trials and tribulations of, you know, of being related to architects

7:21and how, you know, the business side of it often gets neglected and can be very, you know, makes an already challenging profession more difficult. I know both of us were very united in the kind of vision of, you know, making them powering the architecture industry to become business savvy and fluent. And this idea of distributed work is such a, it can be such a game changer for companies. And still I find that there's still a lot of resistance to it, even in a post-COVID world. Like before COVID, the idea of having somebody working with you intimately, who's on the other side of the planet, was quite an alien concept, unless it was for something like a rendering where it was a discrete package of work and that you send it out and you don't really talk to them and you come back and then you send some notes. But actually what you guys do is you provide team members, people who can plug into a team and become like a proper player in the organization

8:24and they're working intimately with the team. You know, they're there at meetings, they can liais with the clients as well. What are some of the misconceptions that people have about remote work and distributed work that you encounter? I don't think it's misconceptions, but there are certain things that like, maybe there are, there's part of truth into that, but not necessarily always. Like the main thing that people think is that if you have someone working remote and that it's not from US, you'll have a problem with quality. That's like the biggest thing. And a lot of our clients have had previous experiences without sourcing companies from Asia and they've had this quality problems. And there's a very logical explanation as to why that might happen. It's because if you are working with so many different in the hours,

9:26and you're not working at the same time, you send me a red line. I don't understand it. So I don't have there to make your questions, so I assume something. And then I go six hours on the wrong direction, and then you receive it. And it's like, you got to do it all again, but I need to wait for you to get a knife. And you can see that how that can happen with anyone, even if they're from the same culture. Another thing is like, a lot of companies have a front person. That's the person that talks to you, but the actual person that's drafting is always changing. And obviously, like, the acquired knowledge doesn't pass very well from persons to person. So again, you have quality problems. And obviously, if you are working with someone that has never, ever worked in projects in U.S. with like construction methods from U.S. with code, and so on, obviously there's a learning curve. All of the things that actually go to that, I wouldn't say misconception, but that fear of quality problems are true, but they can be solved.

10:39You can't have a person working at the same time as you. You can't have a person that knows what they're doing that they've seen a CD set before that they work with code that like they speak flawless English. And that actually becomes a team member. And the plus, which is something that people overlook is someone like that comes from a place where they don't have so much opportunities in terms of projects, in terms of cool things, in terms of just volume of work. We'll be very, very committed and very, very appreciative of the work. And that's something that's of great value. Someone that will just love to do all the things, even if they're repetitive, even if they're like not so designing and cool, and that they're committed and loyal.

11:39And so I think that's something maybe people don't think of. But when you get someone that's good, it's working in your same time zone and like really integrates into your team, and then it's committed. That's something that's almost priceless. Yeah, no, there's as we've often heard as well that the people that you work with their hungry for those opportunities and like they want to be able to use their talents and their skills and deploy it. And there's a kind of a very strong work ethic that comes that, you know, that's difficult to find always. And that can be very difficult to find when you're hiring. Tell me a little bit about how well teams is structured and, you know, how would you describe the company and where do you find your talent from? Yeah, those are three different questions. So how are we structured? Now we've gotten pretty big. We're about 650 people.

12:44So, but the internal team were about 80. So the team that those all the professionals that are working for other firms. And we have what we call a success team that basically is like the account managers at their point of contact with the clients to be kind of like their externally charge department. They have monthly meetings, they were like feedback, things that needs to be done if they need to, I don't know, at a person or maybe let someone go or reduce the hours or work on something specific. And the professional has what we call a coach. And this person has the same kind of touch based like the once a month with with the professionals and they follow everything and they kind of manage them and support them and help them grow. And I feel sad and kind of guide them through it. I don't know if, I mean, if you've seen billions that this areas, I know it. Yeah.

13:54Okay, so I like them to be like the Wendy, you know, the coaches are sick. And I always say this, you need to be the Wendy. You need to make people, you know, perform better. So that's like this. And we have a marketing team, a sales team, an admin team, a recruiting team that's pretty big. They have, we have like a sourcing team that they have to get about now the target is 3,500 per month architects, architects and other things that we might need. And then that gets filtered and like screen and until we get to the top two or three percent, which are the people that like fill all of our criteria. And those are the ones that we present to the clients. So that's, so that's so it's quite a, it's quite a stringent qualifying process that you have for to ensure the quality of people.

14:57Is that three and a half thousand applicants each month? Yes. Yes. Wow. And we feel they're like almost 3,000, like 60%. We filter it just like they might not have the English or the qualifications or so. And that's done by the sources, right? And also they see like if, if they certain people have a high score on different things like software knowledge, US experience and I love English that those those immediately go. Then the, the curcums that we are like on the edge fence about, we, we asked them for video interviews, then we see them. So there's a whole process. And, and then we kind of like have them as if it was like a stock, you know, like a full of talent, right?

16:00And everyone is going to categories, right? So like, okay, we have a rabid, semi senior drafter with commercial experience, specifically in restaurants, let's say, right? It's very specific. So, and, and we also put like if they work on certain states, like, oh, and he worked in California. So that gives us the ability that when a process comes in, it's very specific. We can just grow and grab, ask them, are you available? What's your availability? Like what, what are you looking for? And kind of easily, because we, we kind of can give you very high quality and very specific type of talent in like three days. And that's because we are screening all the time. So before you even ask, we already probably have the people that you're looking for. That's one of the reasons, you know, why we like, you know, we like remembering you guys because you take on the string and hiring process on the half of the architecture firm.

17:07You, you still give people like an options, right? They have, you know, a few people to check and to see if they're a fit. And what the other thing I like is that if somebody's not working out, it's very easy for that person to feed, you know, to very gracefully say, okay, we understand that person's not a fit for you. We've got three other people that might be and you can deal with the conversation that you have to have with the individual and perhaps coach them on what, what they, what you think was missing. And just replace them basically. Sometimes, sometimes it's like the person. We already saw some red flags and or for different reasons, sometimes like a big reason why people get off bordered, it's communication, not good communication. And now like we're not fast, it's world, like you need to communicate fast, like you need to answer emails, you need to be responsive and you need to be responsive to everyone that you're working with.

18:08So that's, that might be a big red flag for us. And so sometimes people, okay, that's the end of their journey. We're not placing you in another client, but sometimes it's really the fit. Sometimes it's really like, okay, no, this was not like the client for you. And we might place that person elsewhere. But going to what you said about like the ease for like the company. I was telling or I own also my husband, we call it, let's say, a restaurant and Lisbon. And if that service, the service that I provide for art that's existed in Lisbon for restaurants, like it would, I would just like, you know, be the best solution. I don't want to deal with this. I don't want to deal with the rotation of waiters and chaps. Like when someone fits, give me three options and they can be on board in a week. Where do I sign?

19:09And it's not even expensive. You don't like, you know, you don't even have to pay anything else at the beginning. It's just like our embedded in the cost, which is like also kind of half of what you would pay in America. It's a no. And and like in all other things that I see. Like literally the restaurant's the perfect example. Please world this into me create. That sounds like your next, your next move. No, no, not at all, but, but, but it would be such a good solution, you know, for any of this, like the ability to have people that are good, that, that are committed, that, and, and, and for any reason, because, you know, matching is hard. It's hard as to match couples. It's hard to match teams, right? Any reason, these are concerns in the work, then you get very fast, like a backup option. That's just like, you know, it's, it's, it's the way to not fear growth.

20:20So how do you match talent with the firms cope a culture and their work flow? What kinds of things are you looking for from the individual on your side and the company to make sure that there is a fit there? Is it just experience and kind of their technical aptitude or are there other things that you look for? No, we look for people. First of all, again, communication, and it's not only about being a high level of English, it's about like that you're actually listening to what the other person is saying, and you can respond assertively, like you understand, you're paying attention to what the person is saying. That, that you are connected, right? Like they send you an email, you respond fast, or a message that you show up, don't show up late, that all those things, right? That, that you're a person, that the other one's not going to be like, oh my god, so much work to manage this, this other person, right?

21:20And when someone is proactive, it's a great plus, and you can see it very fast and interview when you, when you have those personalities. In certain cases, we look a lot for that kind of, I want to say nerd, but it's like someone that's very focused, like in BAME, and like kind of obsessed about it. No, that's a good one. And so like that, those profiles are also profiles that people want. And, and yeah, so when we see those, like we've had very good experiences with that type, that maybe they're not such extroverts, but like big perfectionist. You can't much that with someone that's not, like when you have a client that's all over the place, and kind of wants a person to do a million things, and it's kind of doing some projects and other kind of others in revenue, he has a small house, and also a renovation of a bathroom, and you can't put in like a

22:29private, like obsessed person that wants to have everything tidy and the stuff, because they're not going to match, they're going to hate each other. So it's a little bit about analyzing personalities in a way, and then once we've had a client for a while, especially in like many of bigger clients, and we have, let's say, a manager or a project manager that actually has a little bit of resistance to having a remote team and so on. Sometimes we use personality tests like this and others, kind of to understand, you know, this person and what they like and how they like to communicate and how they like to get feedback and have everything, and we do the same with the candidates. What kind of challenges do architecture firms generally face when going remote or having remote workers, so I imagine, you know, there's a bit of a kind of cultural shift, some firms might have to go through.

23:42You know, some of our clients, when we talk about world teams, they have the same sort of visual concern of like, oh, we tried outsourcing once before in India or Philippines or whatever, and we had to get too much corrections, and you know, how you've just described it earlier was very on point of, yeah, it's probably part of the process that wasn't working, whereas this is quite different. But then there are still people who are very old school in their mindset and they're like, no, I can't, I can't imagine having somebody who's not sat over there in the office. And that's it. I think I don't want to be like generational here, but I will. A lot of older architects have more of a difficulty with it than younger firms was younger firms are kind of like, yeah, okay, we've got people already who are whole domestic team is across different states, so bringing somebody in from somewhere on Latin Latin America is not such a challenge. What sorts of challenges do you see architects firms having remote working and how do you help them overcome it?

24:50Yes, so I'm going to say to defend like the older guys, I'm just going to say we have some older older clients, maybe sometimes in their like 70s, that we work with very, very well, the key is it needs to be for you to change like with anything. It needs to be a real pain. So some of our clients that are older and love working with us, they've had several rounds of like hiring, hiring, hiring, then getting a big low of work and kind of just eating up all their savings. That pain is so deep in them because they've gone through so many cycles of that that they love working with us, even if they don't like sometimes we get sketches on like paper, like do this, right. But they love the thing is so bad about like, I don't want to again have an office like hire all these people and just have all my savings be it up when when a project gets delayed.

25:58And and and and maybe you know some some other young girls are like they've all brand about the cool office like you know they come let's say an ex-Gensler and ex big firm with a big you know like room where they were creative and they know and they kind of miss that and they're like, oh, but I wanted that I was always dreaming of that so like they have a hard time kind of putting that aside. They haven't felt the experience of like, okay, you put all your money into this cool off is that but then it's very hard to pay when when work is on the study. But and where we get the most resistance is when it's employees. So like mid-sized firms get an employee rather than a business owner that's not really seeing the final numbers right. They're just thinking I prefer to have someone here in the office and I have to work with someone that's not here so it's a little bit hard with the communication.

27:03But it's always the same like when if you want to have like a cool culture. In general, you need to put work into that and obviously not being in the same room presents a challenge and if you're not doing anything. Anything to kind of of investment of time or of effort to to work with that, then you're going to get that results. For example, we do a lease where we see each other and on Fridays we do a weekly that basically we're just talking about just fun things, you know, like what happened in Argentina and what happened in Colombia and what did actress did to this one and we do karaoke and we do just fun things like you would do like in an office, you know, like, oh, fun Friday or whatever, just remote. And we make sure that those spaces exist of like having fun and learning about your family and your dog and your cat and what you like and laughing and and having that space for like building our relationship that's not just about the task in hand.

28:17And that's something that doesn't come natural like people expect that the only way that you can do that is by being in the same building and not at all. There's a lot of ways to create a culture in a remote or hybrid space, but you need to like put those in place like like you would end of the year retreat, you know, with your team. There always do that through through so we do a lot of them, so we also kind of give ideas to our clients is to like what are the things that we've seen over the years that are best practices to kind of create that bond. Because once you're more in sync with someone, then the work becomes easier. And then one thing that we do also after a while also working with someone, we always suggest that the person can go visit. And after the first visit, the relationship usually changes and that's something that we share the cost like maybe we would like put by the tickets and then they can give the accommodation or something like that that word and that changes the relationship afterwards.

29:29But for sure it's something that you need to go into understanding that you'll have to commit to it like with any change anything that you want to change your life like all of a sudden, I don't know, you want to be slimmer. Well, okay, you're going to have to like eat leaner and do some exercise. So yeah, that's that's very very wise that there's actually, you know, to create that feeling of being together, you need to be kind of creative and put the energy into defining the this culture. I mean, we know as a, you know, all of us here at Business Architecture, we're a, you know, completely online business. We've never had a centralized office in the conventional sense. And we found it really useful to do things like meetups or a group of us will go together and rent out a house and we stay there with each other or just like, you know, when I was in Argentina, I wanted to make sure I went and actually met, met Natalia.

30:34And those things do make a, they do make a difference and they're not impossible to do. And as you say, and when you add it up financially as well, like having a weekend retreat compared to paying rent. It's so much cheaper. And it makes one much stronger bond, you know, yes, it's more impactful. It's more impactful. And sometimes like, yeah, because I work 10 years in buildings, right? So I would know the ones that work kind of close to me, but the ones from the other floor, like not really, you know, and we were all in the same building. And, and we do, we do those retreats with world teams with our internal team once a year, but then with everyone with all the world leads, we do twice a year in four cities. Of our main hubs in Colombia, in, in Argentina, in Córdoba, in Buenos Aires, and in Montevideo.

31:34And we do these different things. We've done all sorts of things like, you know, a day in a farm or like a, like a great Gatsby party or like whatever. But yes, it's, it creates a more impactful bond. And last year we actually flew everyone to Buenos Aires, which was a big thing. And like people came from all over. But, but we also do it with clients. We, we, we put like, make them travel, visit and, and we even had one client come like to that party that, that I was talking about the one I'm going to say it is. I'm coming. Like, but it's not for clients. I'm coming. I love it. I love it. It's very cool. How, or what would you say are the, the kind of key ingredients for an architecture firm when they're designing and building a high performance remote team? You mentioned there that they got to have a little bit of pain, right? So to, to be committed to it.

32:38When you use, use the weight loss example as well, you've got to be not pleased with your weight in order to make a change. Otherwise, it just becomes something that you're interested in or it will be a nice to have. And I think that's actually, and that's, that's actually a good, a good thing for a business to do is to really be honest with themselves about things that are not working and the level of performance in their team. It's just a, just the money aspect of it as well. I think that's something to, that's worth talking about here. And perhaps you could, you could address this a little bit. Some of the resistance I've had, not, not very often, but on occasion, there has been resistance to the idea of outsourcing somebody because no, we should be hiring, we should be hiring domestically, we should be giving jobs, keeping jobs in the US or in Europe. Or there's a feeling of discomfort with taking advantage of geo arbitrage.

33:40The fact that somebody in Colombia, the economy is very different to what it is in the US. And you're not going to be paying somebody in Colombia the same amount of money that you pay somebody in Southern California. It's just not. The economy is different. Cost of living is way different. But some people are very uncomfortable with that, that reality. But the reality is that argument which I've had very funny, because it's like, it's like you go to another country, right? And all of a sudden, let's say, like a state cost half a dollar, right? Like half a dollar and you're like, but I want to pay 50, right? And it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's like a, it's just not understanding that in the world, they're different economies. And that's a reality, right? That's why people produce in factories, in other places, that's like, they're different economies. And it's just that it's like a very bad misconception that's not, it's not informed.

34:47Like it's just like you're, you're not getting your information right? Because what happens with outsourcing is that we are actually changing lives of most of those people. And, and we like, I, I have hundreds of emails of people telling me like, you know, world teams change my life. And it doesn't necessarily have to be like, oh, because I don't know, I'm earning so much more money, which they do. They earn more money than what they would do in like a normal job. But the fact that it's out, allows for so many possibilities. Like people, for example, that are from a smaller town and they want to go back to their families to like their life. But there are, there are no jobs in that small town for what for architect, whatever. So they were forced to live in Buenos Aires, right? But they want to go back to Rioja, whatever.

35:47And, and they are able to or pull that, I don't know, a lot of young people that want to travel more and really don't like the idea of only being able to travel like 20 days in a year. Or they want to follow, like I just had two of my girls come yesterday here and they were in Portugal. And both of them are like following their love one is already like in Ireland for two years. And now this one others like, I'm moving to Palma de Mallorca. And it's like, great, you know, like you follow whatever still work, not lose your job. And, and so, and those change of realities like are very big and we do it all the time. So like thinking that you're doing something bad to someone just because of our reality that that's a different economy. It's, it's, it's really, it's ignoring reality.

36:47And, and this what I love about our business. And I, I told they used to work in fashion and I hated how the fashion industry worked because it's like lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose. You know, like, you know, the, the person in the factory, like, or very, because it's just, it's all about being fast and more and it's so competitive that everyone's kind of always changed. So it was just like, but this is win, win, win. And it is really like that because the professional gets more money and more flexible job. An ability to grow within us a lot because, you know, someone starts, but then they can become a project manager. They can get more clients. So there is a very clear growth path. We have people in world teams that earn more than when someone would earn in America. Obviously, they have managed a lot of things, but they do. And, and also we make money obviously we're not an NGO.

37:47And the client starts having a profit because now they have a team that again is super cost effective, super cost effective because we have semi-senior drafters and know what they're doing and all the things that I've said before for like under 20 bucks an hour. And, you know, for the same thing like in California, maybe you're paying 45. And also for a lot of architects, it's not even about the money. You have no idea the amount of clients of ours that it's not about the money. It's that they can't find people. They can't. I'm living in this place like Fort Mayors, right? For Mayors, like close to Miami, but it's like 12 hours and a half. So there are not so many architects in Fort Mayors, right? And it's a struggle to get, you know, people there. And like that, I could tell you a million places that are not complete your remote, but, you know, the pool of town there is, it's not that big.

38:50And maybe they're doing something specific. I was thinking about a client that, for example, he's focused on health care. So he wants people experiencing care in Fort Mayors. So that's hard, right? So even even if, even if like it wasn't as competitive, which it is, it's still hard to find. So like if he doesn't start thinking of solutions, another client, he lives in Buffalo and like needs MEP engineers. Right? Like it's hard to find them in Buffalo because there are two big firms that are taking all the people. And so if you're a mid-sized firm to get a good town, it's hard. So if they don't, if they don't start thinking of other solutions, they just can't grow. It's, it's insane sometimes. I'll sit there and I'll talk with somebody and they're in one of these kind of locations where they're not necessarily right close to one of the major hubs like Los Angeles or New York. And there isn't, there just isn't that abundance of talent in their local area.

39:53And there are other bigger firms that are kind of, they've got the capacity to pay more, they've got more work. They're just sucking up the talent pool. And you, you know, I speak with somebody and they'll have in these conversations with somebody who they've met remotely for a nut for on their, you know, responding to a job application that they've stuck on indeed or wherever. But this person is on the other side of the country and then negotiate with this person to try and have that person up and leave where they live and come over to this small town and relocate their entire life. And I'm like, that is such a, it's such an enormous upheaval for that individual to do. And there's so much additional costs that are involved in it. Like, of course, you're going to have, that's a difficult sell. It just is, it's just a hard, it's a hard sell. Maybe you have to, you have to overpay a lot just for all that effort that the other person is doing, you don't even know if you're going to like them.

40:57You know, we used to work with firms in the Bahamas, right? And the Bahamas you have to pay a working permit to get someone. And if you're relocating someone because there are no people in the Bahamas, you also think to say, where are they going to go to school, give them housing and the whole thing. My cousin used to say, you're in 30 grand before you know if the president said drunk. It's true. You know, like, it's just the all the cost of the before, right? Like, which is the same thing that happens when you're hiring like to head hunters or recruiting firms traditionally, they ask you for 20%. Like, you're putting all this money up front, but then maybe you're not a match, right? And it's just like, I've done it. Like, I was having a hard time finding a person for, for like a leader for my sales team.

41:57And I was trying to hire them internal, but it was taking so much of my recruiting team's time. And that's not my focus because I recruit for the marketing and marketing sector industry. So like, it was just like, I need a very senior like continent like salesperson. So I'm not going to do it with my team. I'm going to try head hunters. It's like, you're paying a lot of money and you don't even know if the person's going to work, you know, like so it was interesting for me to see. Okay, other models and it kind of highlighted more like the, the insane advantage that this represents, you're getting someone to look for you for three options, right? You're not paying anything. And when you start, if you at any point don't like it, you can stop it. You know, it just reduces, it just reduces the risk. It's interesting. I say to all of our clients when they kind of start consulting with us that you should have a part of your business, which is remote or outsourced.

43:04It doesn't, you don't have to have the whole team like that, but you need to learn the skill of bringing people on and try it because right now being being small and nimble and a lightweight business and maximizing what AI can do and maximizing having a remote team using something like world teams. It really puts you at an advantage and just can get you to the next level of where you're going in your business that much, that much more quickly. On the other side though, let's talk about some of the, like who, what kind of candidate or what kind of employee is not suitable for remote work? Because there is also, I mean, I share my opinion on this is that often inexperienced team members, young people straight out of university or very young architects find it more challenging to be part of a remote team, because they're not in the environment, they're not asking questions, they're learning curve is kind of

44:11hindered a little bit. Do you agree with that or do you think that's not that's not always the case and there are ways around that and and is there a kind of person who you think is a good fit as an employee to be remote worker. Obviously, Gen Z loves remote work, they like the idea for them, like 20, 23, 24 year old, that they have to be in the office all the time, the can trial and they can do it, they can't do whatever they want is like for them. It's funny because us that we come from being in the office is like, you know, I used to go even on Saturdays. What for us in terms of architects for clients or sweet spot is both that are around 28 to 30. So they're like young enough and they're very tech oriented and they're fast with technology and they're very into like new learning new things, technology wise and like

45:25communicating in all sort of channels and so on. But that they also have some experience of buildings put together how a city sets put together like how to have a boss, how to have how to be held accountable and so on. We have we have younger people and and sometimes it works sometimes there are problems with that to do with you is like they want to change all the time, like, you know, and they don't have certain experience, they don't they don't understand what they're actually building right like they're not. It's like they maybe never been in a job site right or something like that and so that those are things that sometimes our clients will tell us no i'm looking for someone more senior.

46:27When they're too senior, maybe they get bored with certain tasks, maybe they they're not as tech savvy, maybe they're not as fast so that's what I'm saying like around 28 to 30. Yeah, interesting, interesting and let's talk a little bit about your own personal story and leadership because what you created here with world teams. You and your diner is is quite amazing really and I know when I sat down with a diner at dinner when I was in Buenos Aires, she was she was speaking so highly of you and your and your leadership and it was really amazing is to hear that kind of partnership. But one thing that was kind of coming out was your resilience and determination as a as a leader and I was going to ask like how how has that been cultivated. And where does that determination come from and has it always been there was was world teams the sort of the project where you really felt galvanized and you were very aligned and.

47:39No, I think I was looking for I was looking for that break for that business my entire life. The first time I like I had my own thing I was seven years old and like different my my father let me for the first time go to like the super market that was close was made five blocks away my little bike so I bought this big thing of of of chocolates I divided into little bags and I put a stamp. In the garden of the house like the old to the neighbors the little chocolates subdivided so like I always wanted to have my own business and I always loved sales and and just yeah determination is like a big part of my character. I just I just don't think there are obstacles like I think they are obviously I just think that it's it's not a matter of the obstacles about how much energy you want to put into it to like go over it.

48:46And if you if you think of every obstacle like a challenge, then it's just it's just that like OK, this and this person doesn't want this is around OK, like how could we convince them and for me that's fun for other people maybe that's horrible for me that's fun. And and this project came after a lot of projects that had failed and a lot of experiences and a lot about a lot of things that I could talk about for hours that I tried in a lot of industries. And even like a few months before this I was trying to do like an up cycle with closed software. And so I had my apartment filled with like these bags of people close that smelled like that was like in the world. It was always like kind of trying to do that. But it was funny because I was always looking for this big idea right.

49:49And and the big idea ended up just solving something that kind of had was so so easy for me to understand because I understood it very young, you know, like this problem with architecture. So it was like OK, I'm solving what I would have solved my parents, but they didn't listen to me. So others will. And love it. How has you mentioned earlier that you've just had a little one and how has a coming a mother influenced your approach to leadership or even just work life integration. People say I'm nicer. You know, like when when I got pregnant, I was super afraid of losing my personality, which was stupid. That's why it like I was like I don't want to, you know, now become a mother and lose like my entrepreneurial leadership skills, like and be all about Google data and you know, like the bottle and the.

50:56And it like that. I mean, of course it changes you a lot. Now you have this person that you care about more than anything, but I, I became more focused. I used to like be in so involved in so many operational things like like a lot like an every little thing like a little small thing would happen with one profession and then one little small client. And I was there in that meeting and that like I was. And I got a coach right and I'm like, okay, I need to I'm going to get pregnant. I don't know how I'm going to do this. I restructured the company. I I got more people in place and not put me in a space where I could take the month off that I end up taking that when I came back. When I came back, I started just first of all like a work 10, 12 hours. I work six hours now a day.

52:00And and those six hours I'm doing just strategy strategy with my top tier team like with my management like. And maybe I'll get involved in some big clients conversations or I'll have like a teaching session with a team that I think. But I'm not involved in the only operational things that, you know, I think every entrepreneur like kind of has this feeling that if they're not there, things will crumble. But the truth is Steve Jobs died and like apples there, you know, with a very nice talk like, you know, no one is so necessary. And like and you can get out of a lot of things that probably your think you like yourself importance makes you think that you need there. But if something forces you out, you realize that, you know, people solve it in another way and things get done the same. Really not exactly the same as you would do it, but things get done. And now you have all these other time to focus on more important things that create much better outcomes.

53:06So I think to your being a mother kind of forced me to be more strategic. And that had a really interesting impact on our growth. Such a good answer. Thank you. And what's next for world teams? Well, I'm that very short term. It's in the next semester. We're focusing a lot in home builders. We've gone a few big ones. And so part from like typical architecture, like home builders is a big thing for us now. And there we have bigger teams and so on. It's, it works very well with our entire expertise. We've worked with tall brothers for years now. And so we understand it very well. And, you know, we, we see a market there. And also this is totally new. But because we were in AIA back in June.

54:07And we had this really cool neighbors and they did like kitchens and cabinets and so on. And I was like, those guys need drafting too in renderings. And there's, and there's, you know, like all of our architects also, you know, get their cabinets and their things from somewhere. So like, I think there's potential of growth there as well. But on the bigger vision, I see us as a, as a big hub of talent and solutions for the industry. And that's like is known everywhere in, in the US. And that, and that actually just allows people to think differently about possibilities that. All those people that think like I can't grow or I don't hire people.

55:09I want to remain small because I don't want to hustle or they can't like being very, very simple. I think that they can't make X money that that's not a reality that could ever happen to them. That the now, like we, we make it see that that is that they could, the ceiling can go up. Of what you want. And on your quality of life, we have a client who lives in Tennessee. And he wants a much North Carolina, right? But all my practice and my clients and like. That's your dream. Like we can make it happen. Let's, let's start planning towards that. You know, like that, that can happen or another client that he. Amazing. He's just like the coolest guy ever. And he's like, you know, I want to retire and like, and move upstate New York and just fish. And, but I have six kids and then I spend most of my money in their colleges and so on. And I'm like, well, but you have all these amazing contacts.

56:10Like, let's make some partnerships or something and like, let's make that retirement happen. You know, like, so if we could become at least that people come to. And, and change their perspective of what is possible to something bigger and better that fits their dreams better. That would be amazing. That's, that's what I'm rooting for. I love it. Amazing. Perfect place for us to conclude the conversation. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'll leave the details in the show notes of how people can get in contact with, with, with world team. They can get on your website and we're always advocating for you. So thank you very much for coming on the show and sharing your story and expertise. Thank you so much. Thank you for the time and the event conversation. Bye. And here's today's smart practice tool tip. You've built a firm worth something. Don't let it fall apart when you leave. Successors can't lead if you're clean to control and your vision won't last if it only dips in your head.

57:10This guide is your roadmap for a graceful exit and a firm that thrives with our youths. Move transition. Secure legacy. No drama. Download it free at businessmarkitecture.com. Transition ready. Thank you to our recent listeners who left reviews for the podcast on iTunes. Your reviews help others find this podcast so this rising tide raises all boats. To be acknowledged on the show, open the podcast app on your iPhone, central business of architecture and after clicking on the show, scroll all the way to the bottom to leave a review. You've built a practice that balances design, delivery and client trust. But when it comes to taxes, your firm's structure might be quietly working against you. At Gelt, we specialize in helping architecture firms uncover hidden tax inefficiencies. From outdated ownership setups to missed expense opportunities and project level tax traps. Even well-run studios can leave five figures on the table each year, simply because their financial foundation hasn't evolved as the firm has. Gelt helps you design a smarter structure.

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