0:01 - Madeline
So on today's episode, we had Michaela Sochi, who is with We Motors and Entree Architects. Do you want to go into that?

0:09 - Andy Richardson
She works for a company called We Motor. They provide remote talent for architectural companies. They also work with other AEC professionals as well. And also, she moderates an Entree Architect group, which they help business owners of architectural companies to improve business and get through pain points.

0:33 - Madeline
I really feel like the episode today, y'all went over a lot of talking about working virtual and having employees that are virtual and I thought that was a very interesting, I thought it was very applicable to you because you're a post-COVID remote company as you like to say all the time and I thought it was very applicable to you. Was there anything else you wanted to hit on there?

0:56 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, I mean she She helps companies that need to source talent for whatever reason. It might be various reasons. And so we get into the pros and cons of remote work and mostly pros, obviously, with her position. But she gives a lot of reasons for that and just really opened my eyes to some of the benefits to not only remote talent, but also her, specifically, the Latin America, which is where she provides talent. And then also the entree architect and her being a moderator for that, a lot learned from, you know, just the lessons learned there. And the pain points that business owners have and the things they deal with, so we got into that. It was really interesting to find out some of those pain points and how people deal with those things.

1:49 - Madeline
Yeah, I thought that was really interesting to hear y'all going off about that. So I like the curveball question you had for today, that opener. So I was gonna throw it at you.

1:58 - Andy Richardson
Oh no, okay.

1:59 - Madeline
Pun intended. If you could put one message on the billboard for AEC leaders about remote teams, what would it say?

2:06 - Andy Richardson
Oh, about remote teams. So, well, if I could, I might would steal hers, but I don't want to do that because I don't want to steal But I would say it would be three words. Collaboration is key. Collaboration is key. So yeah, I think collaboration is key. And what's interesting is I think that's key for remote or not remote. So that's the benefit of that phrase is collaboration is key for this industry, for architects, engineers and contractors. You have to communicate, you have to collaborate, and if you're not collaborating, you're getting errors, you're getting problems, and you're getting rework, which rework costs money, it costs time, and it causes headaches. So collaboration is key.

3:05 - Madeline
Would you say collaboration along the lines of like communication?

3:08 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, I mean collaboration is a fancy word for communication, but really communication is a of collaboration. So, yeah. You have to have, yeah, I can have communication and maybe I'm not fully collaborating, if that makes sense, because I think I'm communicating but I'm not actually, it's not getting heard or it's not getting heard in a way that is connecting with that person. So that's the full collaboration piece. I just learned about all this, but that's a separate issue. So, but I would say collaboration is key. Well, my name is Andy Richardson and I'm a professional engineer. I've been doing this 27 years and this is the producer Madeline. And this is the enhanced podcast where we interview professionals in the AEC industry and find out their what and their why. Let's get started.

4:15 - Madeline
Welcome to Enhance, an AEC podcast where we learn the why behind AEC professionals so that you can learn your why.

4:22 - Andy Richardson
Welcome to the Enhance podcast today.

4:25 - Micaela
Pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

4:27 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, definitely.

4:29 - Andy Richardson
So looking forward to today. So I've got your opener question for today is if you could put one message on a billboard, for AEC professionals about remote teams, what would you say?

4:42 - Micaela
I have a lot of things to say. If I had to Read just one message, I would say, consider that remote solutions allow you to work smarter, not harder. And a little addition to that, the best way to make remote solutions work is to consider they are not outsiders. Consider them part of your team.

5:13 - Andy Richardson
I love that. Yeah, I agree with that 100%. So that's what I really, I mean, and this is 2025. This is post-COVID. So people are, I think people are open to this remote concept way more than maybe even five years ago. But that's for sure. You also have different arrangements. That are happening part-time, full-time, contract, remote, and I think what you just said is one of the key parts of it is you're a part of the team. You're not just, hey, you're over there and we're over here. We're all part of the team trying to get one thing done. So I like what you said there, but you said you had a lot more others. It sounds like you just have of ideas about remote work and your passion for your job, it sounds like, too.

6:09 - Micaela
Well, yes, especially for the AEC industry, there are a lot of traditional firms out there that they have this feeling they're losing their identity and their quality if they transition to remote work instead of seeing it as an enhancement of what they're doing. Well, for the enhancement, this podcast, it makes a lot of sense. But yes, honestly, there's a little bit of fear, even though we're in a post COVID world, I see a bit of fear. And again, this idea that remote teams are not able to connect and be part of your culture. It's something we should leave behind and just refocus on all that it can bring and how it can support, you know, our businesses.

7:03 - Andy Richardson
And what do you think is driving that fear?

7:06 - Micaela
Well, there are a lot of bad experience, horror stories, to be honest. And I understand that. We usually, when I talk with new clients, they always say, yes, you know, I work with a freelancer or with a contractor or with this agency. I don't even know where they were. It didn't work out because this and this and that. And it's true. Remote work, it's a complex thing to develop. But if you don't have a structure, if you don't have processes, of course, it's a recipe for disaster. And I understand why those bad experiences have this industry, you know, with no more energy to try it again. But everything that structure and everything that has a process can be perfected and it can be actually a mission start recipe and not necessarily a recipe for disaster. The process and the communication is the key here.

8:11 - Andy Richardson
Yeah and you guys have the keys to unlock that I imagine, right?

8:18 - Micaela
I don't want to say that we have the keys to unlock that. I mean we're not doing rocket science We just have a lot of experience. We're experts in this field. And we're a bit obsessed with perfecting that. And we treat all of our clients or processes as if they were unique. And we give a lot of support. And that support, that concept of creating remote workflows together and understanding what your client knows and what they want able to do what the candidates know, because taking into consideration, I have two types of clients. Candidates that are all around Latin America, we don't work with junior candidates. So all of my candidates are semi-senior, senior profiles, project managers, lead architects, super, super high-value talent that is excited and ready for these long-term careers. And then on the other side, this firm, this business owner, that's, again, looking to scale and fighting in a market that fluctuates a lot, having to compete with maybe big corporations. We work with small and mid-sized companies. So, they're fighting against these big corporations and chasing projects. And whenever we're able to actually create process that makes sense to these different parties and build this workflow together, well, we see a lot of success. But again, this is not rocket science. This is just experience.

9:58 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, well, I appreciate your humility on that. I may have, I didn't mean to prop you up too much there with that one, but that was a good response. So I want to get to know you a little bit more about your background and really what got you started. I mean, you have an HR background from your education. And so forth, but you got into the AEC industry. What drew you to that industry?

10:24 - Micaela
Exactly, yes, so I actually studied international business, people management, HR, so nothing to do with the AEC, but my father, he's actually a developer. I'm from Argentina, and he's a developer in Argentina, and I remember going to job sites together and meeting the lead architect and the engineer and being part of meetings, I had no idea what they were talking about, but the dynamic, seeing all these different personalities working together and having to collaborate and having so much passion for a creative industry and that making it a reality, it was inspiring to me, even though, of course, I don't have the capacity of being architect, and I love what I'm doing, and I'm a people-first approach, so I love HR. This industry, it gives me, you know, a lot of curiosity.

11:24 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, so it's a perfect match. You have your skills, and then you have a passion for the architecture industry. What part of Argentina are you from

11:34 - Micaela
Cordova, Argentina.

11:37 - Andy Richardson
Which part?

11:38 - Micaela
Cordova, Argentina. So it's the second biggest the middle of the country, basically. We have mountains, lakes, a little bit of everything.

11:48 - Andy Richardson
Okay, yeah, so one thing about me, I don't know if you knew this, my wife and I, we're learning Argentine tango.

11:55 - Micaela
Wow, no, I love that.

11:57 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, so one day, one of my goals is to come down and try it in Argentina, where it was, of course, invented.

12:06 - Micaela
You should definitely go to Buenos Aires, go to this, you know, small bars and you have tango nights and everyone is just dancing with each other and learning and drinking really good wine. It's a beautiful, it's part of our culture and it's beautiful. Love that you're learning tango.

12:23 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, I can't wait to make it down there sometime.

12:27 - Micaela
Let me know.

12:29 - Andy Richardson
And where are you? Are you in Argentina now or are you in the U.S.?

12:32 - Micaela
Right now I'm in Argentina. Yes, I'm coming and going to the U.S. Pretty often. I'm usually based in Florida. But to be honest, we have clients and I go to conferences a lot as well. So next week I'll be in Boise, Idaho, then the following one I'll be in Houston, Texas, then I'm going to Florida again, and then to Dallas, Texas again. So it's constantly moving, but it's also fun as well.

13:03 - Andy Richardson
And I imagine that's how you get a lot of your customers is through these conferences.

13:09 - Micaela
Again, pretty related to the fact that until they see a face and they get to know you on a personal level and we create trust, that's what we're aiming here. Long-term partnerships, building trust with each other and not just being a vendor. We try to be key partners for our clients.

13:33 - Andy Richardson
And so I want to get back to you a little bit on the remote architecture. I mean, this is going to apply, I imagine, to my field, engineering. But you're specifically focused on architects and connecting architects with their, I guess, hires, right?

13:52 - Micaela
Well, yes. To be honest, architecture firms are our bread and butter. But we do work with engineering firms, home builders, construction companies. We have in Cordoba, actually, in Argentina, Cordoba, we have the biggest BIM cluster. And we have a pretty good university for architects and engineers. So, we have a really good talent pool. And architects are just the ones I've been closer to. I'm part of the entry architect community with Mark LePage. I don't know if you know him.

14:32 - Andy Richardson
I don't know directly, no.

14:35 - Micaela
Well, he's a great leader and to be honest we have a lot of referrals as well and a lot of our architectural clients refer us to each other, but we serve the entire AC industry.

14:49 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, I definitely want to get into the Entre architect here in a moment, but first I wanted to go ahead and so basically you're working with mostly architects, you work with some other other industries as well. But as far as, I mean, one of our primary markets and our target audience really is architects as well for the Enhanced podcast. And so, yeah, so that's okay. We're gonna be talking to them primarily. But also, I mean, my point was other professionals can learn from these points as well, I would imagine.

15:25 - Micaela
For sure. Yeah, for sure. Remote workflows are important for almost every industry. And there are a couple of things that apply to us all, whether you're an engineer, you're an artist, or in whichever field you're working, being able to work on remote setups is going to give you a great advantage. So it's important information for everyone, I would say.

15:55 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, OK, thank you. So here's a question for you. Remote architects can work inside a studio without hiring culture. When did you realize this?

16:08 - Micaela
Well, there's a funny story. I met in one of these conferences an architect. She's a firm owner in Texas, and she actually had a hybrid team. A couple people on site, then a couple people that were far away from the city. So they were working hybridly. And she thought that these two, actually these two members specifically, they were not really performing. And it was really due to the fact that they were not always on the office. And at the same time, they had this specific lack on a software that they were using. It's called Archicad. So after a conversation with me, we decided, OK, let's start a sourcing process together, and let's find an architect that can support your end-to-end process and be proficient in ARCHICAD. And what we did is we sourced for a candidate that he was actually an ARCHICAD professor. So he was a teacher of the software down here in Argentina. And as soon as he got started with this client, I mean, you could actually see how much value he able to add almost immediately how he was able to actually train the rest of the team members on the software and create templates and standards. So, it's not really about the remote setup or not. It's about the fit. These other members she had in the past, probably they were not a good fit. She was doing specifically residential projects and this Archicad teacher, he was a big fan of residential, so it was a perfect match, and this is just a little example of how, again, we, I'm a bit obsessed on being a professional matchmaker, and we pay a lot of attention to the cultural fit, the mission of the company, the future projects of the company, because those things are also super important when hiring, and hiring remotely, it's super to that as well. The success comes from both ends.

18:22 - Andy Richardson
I'm sure you have people that, I mean like you mentioned the fear earlier. The fear of maybe a poor fit but also there's a disconnect it feels like, Like I don't know what they're doing over there halfway across the world. How do you How do you connect to somebody who is on basically a different continent than you?

18:51 - Micaela
Well, if there's a micromanagement issue, I cannot really do anything around that. And that happens a lot, to be honest, especially at first. Again, they feel this disconnection and they feel that they have to be checking in on them a hundred times more as if they were in the office. But aside from And in most of the cases, what we do is we create familiarity. We give a lot of support on the onboarding process. And we request that our clients feel these, I call our remote workers, remoteers. So we request that the clients feel these remoteers are actually in-house. So introduce them to the rest of the team, get to know them on a personal level, tell them the company's mission, the company's values, the future projects. If they're able to jump on a virtual call with a client, make them part of that call as well. We have a saying here in Argentina, make sure that they get the team's jersey. So make them fan of you and your company. Make them believe in you. We all want to be part of something. So if you make them part of your company, and again, them like outsiders. The level of trust and confidence that can be built, it's amazing. For the micromanagers, we also have a couple tools like time tracking system, you know, scheduled meetings, and a couple other details that help them with that anxiety at first. And we also have performance reviews, those are great, great tools to create career paths together and that gives them more certainty.

20:41 - Andy Richardson
If you're a micromanager, you're going to have a challenge whether you're working in the office or whether you're working, you know, elsewhere, I would say. And it reminds me of, I think about a colleague of mine and when he started out, he worked in an office I mean, this was, you know, before anybody really thought about remote work, probably 20, 30 years ago. But he worked in an office, but his boss was the architect of record, and he was gone all the time. And so, basically, he was working remotely, but because his boss wasn't there. And so, in other words, what I'm getting at is we've been doing remote work, even though we haven't really been doing remote work, because, you know, a lot of times, the owner or the architect of record is gone anyway. They're at meetings, they're doing business or connecting with people, and the design architects are there doing all the work, basically, and doing all the drawings. And so why not hire somebody over in Latin America or elsewhere? It's my theory. I mean, we have some remote workers as well. I like a combination. Well, we're purely remote at our company, but I mean, when I say, I guess I'm saying like overseas, we have some overseas, we have some in the US as well, but we're all remote. But I definitely see the pros and cons of it in terms of the in-house and being able to have those conversations that are more, it feels more personal. You know, like the water cooler talk mentality, and there's sometimes those things lost with that. Do you have any suggestions for how to get around those type things as far as that kind of water cooler talk?

22:37 - Micaela
Of course, yes, and comments aside here, I see a lot of firms, agencies offering remote work that say everything can be done remotely. To be honest, for me, that's not true. I think that that combination that you probably have handy, a little bit of remote, a little bit on site from time to time. That's what a firm should be aiming. And there are things that my people cannot do 100% remotely. So I'm not saying that we have a magic pill here and that everything can be solved with remote work. I'm saying that it should be a good mix. And there's a lot of work that can be done remotely perfectly well. But to answer to your question, we also have with our clients what we call the side meetings, where we propose them, you know, meetings to do with their remote teams and just play a little game or do a little exercise at the beginning of the week. Again, ask questions, get to know each other. Over time, we also have a lot of clients that have done immersive trips, remote years, that means that our remote people went to, I don't know, North Carolina once during an entire week and met the team on site, and they were able to actually see the projects they were working on the last year, the year before, and see them, you know, in real life. And that is a resource as well. And having someone on an on-site project, you know, it's not a thing to do. It's pretty easy to do. Again, it's just a matter of being methodical, having processes, and finding good quality talent.

24:32 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, okay, awesome. Well, I want to go into, sometimes I go a little bit off of the questionnaire. I got in trouble about that not too long ago. I want to make sure you're okay with that. But yeah, I want to talk a little bit about, you mentioned it, Entre Architect, and how you got started with Entre Architect.

24:57 - Micaela
Well, first I'm going to introduce the Entre Architect community for maybe listeners that don't know it. It's actually an online community of architects, small, maybe a couple of mid-sized firms that actually want to work on their entrepreneurial spirit learn, connect with each other. It's a beautiful, beautiful community. Mark Lepage is leading it. He's awesome as well. I got introduced by a client and he mentioned, you know, Michaela, you have a lot of things to say. You like talking, basically. Why don't you join this community and maybe you can serve and learn a little bit as well. So I got started the mastermind group. We used to meet once a week. This mastermind group was actually with allies, allies of the industry, vendors, manufacturers, people supporting the architecture industry just like me. And we became friends. We became business partners. They were my mentors as well. And I love this community so much that I'm also now moderating special sessions in which I interview these allies. The architects can also get to know the allies of the community as well. They have an on-site event. I think that Mark is hosting it like every two years, and that's a great event as well. It's a great resource for those architects out there that want to feel they're part of something, learn more, listen to each other's experiences, and it also teaches me a lot. Again, I'm not an architect. I would love to be an architect, but I'm not, and I get to learn from them every day, and that's awesome.

26:49 - Andy Richardson
But this is more about the business of architecture.

26:52 - Micaela
Yes, yes, yes.

26:54 - Andy Richardson
Like this isn't necessarily as much about design and things of that nature, but more struggles of an architect, right?

27:02 - Micaela
Yes, of course. It's actually for firm owners, and it's it has that orientation, being good leaders, how to scale, financial advice. There's a lot of things you can learn around it, but again, yes, it's more related to the business of architecture, not design itself.

27:24 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, but I mean, do architects, do you find that there's a lot of struggles in the business of architecture? That they're dealing with?

27:35 - Micaela
Well, I think that architects, unfortunately, are not thought to be business owners. In school and everywhere, architects are thought to be designers, creative minds, productive minds. But at the same time, you never actually, well, most of architects don't have that free previous experience or studies or background running a business, doing business development. Doing business development is something hard for everyone, not just for the architecture industry. And those skill sets need to be learned and practiced. So, yes, I do see a struggle in the architecture field with that. Architects are usually working with clients that probably have the same mindset as me. So we don't really talk the same language. Probably architects are talking about, you know, well, this material would be awesome, etc. And I cannot even imagine how that material would look in that wall. So being able to wear different hats, it's something that probably our universities are failing us, to all of us in many ways. And this community is doing a job to closing that gap.

29:01 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, that's a fair assessment. And because if you went to school to be an architect, if you're a really good architect, I mean, we can't all be good at everything, right? It's hard to be good at both architecture and business. And so I guess if you have both, then that's usually the ones that do very well and I think about there's an author, his name is Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad, ever heard of that book before? But he's a pretty funny guy because he says that he's not the best author. He says, I'm the best selling author. So, they mentioned business development and I think sometimes That's one area that people struggle with as architecture firms, not to mention other AEC professionals. Are there other struggles that you're seeing on a common, you're moderating these groups, basically, right? And so, are you seeing other struggles in those groups?

30:11 - Micaela
Well, a little bit of everything, of course. To be honest, I think there are two main struggles, business development and leadership. Especially for small firm owners, mid-size owners that are transitioning, that are trying to, you know, create processes. Please go back to the fact that, sorry for these architects that are listening, architects tend to be control freaks. So delegating and being able to trust in your team so you can focus on maybe more strategic or core aspects of the business, that's something I see a lot of struggle. How to be leaders and how to engage probably with new generations as well. There's, you know, this big talk everywhere about working with Gen Z people and how to approach it, how to hire. Well, again, how to implement processes, career path for these new generations that are coming in. It's, again, a main struggle that I see, yeah, for sure.

31:22 - Andy Richardson
Okay, yeah, those are good areas to work on if you're in the architecture industry or really any the AEC industry. So, those are some good pain points to really work on and obviously hiring, I imagine, is one and getting talent, which is your area of work. How else has being a part of Entree, or I guess I should say, how has being a part of Entree Architect impacted your work with WeMotor?

31:57 - Micaela
Well, as I said before, I'm lucky enough to have a lot of contact with clients from the Entree Architect community, members of the community that are not my clients, and by seeing how they think, how they're everything intertwines in their business, then WeMotor is able to better serve them. One of the key things we do here, apart from being the employer of record, EOR, I know that probably in your line of business, it's engineer of record or as its employer of record, so apart from being the employer of record and handling time tracking and those things, we function as an external HR department. That means that we support both ends. We want to support our business owners on how they're being leaders, on how they are creating goals and career paths for our winners. And being able to have, you know, that close contact and having friends on the industry and having, you know, these open conversations on those mastermind groups allow me to actually position myself if I was in an architect's mind. And that is something that my father used to talk to me when we used to go to those job sites and we were meeting all these characters of the industry, the subcontractors and the engineers. And then we would have these long conversations in which we will think, of course, the architect is going to be mad with the subcontractor because the architect is focused the deadline that he has in his mind, so we were always trying to position ourselves as these different members, and that's something that I still do nowadays, trying to position myself as the people and members I have in front of me, understand them, understand their priorities, their fears, and again, it allows us to better serve our clients, Yeah, I mean, it's an important lesson to learn, and I think your experience being on the job site is significant to be able to relate to the architects that you're working with. It was a lot of experience. My father experienced, my dad, he was super experienced, and I was just, you know, learning everything he had to say. I wasn't on job sites forever, but yes, it was super super enriching to me.

34:35 - Andy Richardson
So you mentioned leadership and you're a co-founder of this business yourself, so you are very well familiar with business and leadership. What's one of the hardest leadership decisions you've made in the past year?

34:51 - Micaela
A lot of decisions, a lot of big decisions this year. And probably the one that it was harder for me on a personal level was saying no to just having this big amount of clients and just focusing on quality over quantity of our clients. Again, for us, it's important to interview and prevent candidates and to make sure that our clients are also choosing well and going through interview processes as they should, etc. So just saying no to someone and having to tell them, you know, for this quarter, we won't be able to take any more clients until we solve these or to tell them, I have specific cases of architects that came to me like, Michaela, I'm desperate for, I don't know, a B modeler. And I need them for yesterday. And me having to tell them, sorry, of course, we will try to help you. But this is our time frame. This is how we work. And this is going to show you quality. We try to be as fast as possible. And we have a pretty smooth process, of course. That's what we do for a living. But having to say to a client, I cannot make this happen in 24 hours. It's a tough decision for me. And that is something I have done over this last year, but probably in previous years. I would say, OK, yeah, let's give it a try and let's see. And and it's probably a recipe for chaos. I always say that when we have the perfect match and that takes a little bit of time from both ends, then that we mature. It's our brand ambassador. And the next time our client is thinking of expanding their team, they'll come back to us and and probably promote that we mature. They already have. Again, quality over quantity of clients.

36:57 - Andy Richardson
Yeah, I love that. And I think there's a big lesson learned for everybody. And I mean, because in the AEC industry, we're always about hair on fire. I don't know if you use that term or not. But, you know, it's this idea that everything's got to be done in 24 hours. I mean, what's the deal with, you know, these time frames? I mean, yeah, a day or two, I think we can live with, right? Or maybe a week in some cases. So, but I'd rather have, take a week personally and get the right person that's going to be here hopefully for a long time and get a lot of work done over the years. That would be my opinion. So I'm glad that you, I mean, it's very hard to do that though, because you want to win the job. You want to win the project and you want to say, yeah, I can do that. And, but that's a, lesson learned. Thank you for sharing that. So I want to talk a little bit about, you know, the benefits of really what you do and it's, you know, we motor it, it highlights removing delays and costs of traditional hiring. But what, what drove you to, I mean, I think that's one of the biggest benefits and what, what drove you to to provide this resource for various companies?

38:23 - Micaela
So basically, outsourcing, we all know that it has a bad connotation to it. There's a lot of horror stories. And what we did here is basically flipping the script. So we're providing in-sourcing solutions. With a specific methodology. We don't work on a project base. We work with long-term partnerships. And what we're aiming here is to cover, well, those two pain points that you just mentioned. The speed, the time that it takes, and the cost of hiring. Hiring, you have two options. Whether you try to do it yourself and just, you know, discover how to use LinkedIn or other platforms and go over 100 interviews and Read a lot of resumes and just to try to discover it by yourself, or you have to hire an agency. There are a lot of traditional agencies that have a lot of bureaucracy. They're super expensive as well. So what we did, it's basically creating a methodology that would remove all those barriers that we had right in front of our face. So, we use this methodology that is called PROS. It means professional staffing at a cost-effective solution for long-term partnerships and real-time collaboration. And this is key here. There are great professionals all around the world. But one of the main issues in remote solutions is communication. Bad communication, not being able to work on the same time zone, not setting standards, not setting limits and responsibilities that's harming the industry. So we hire people that's around Latin America. So we're able to mirror your time zone. And we, again, we support the entire process to make sure that this workflow is being created in a way that's going to last.

40:34 - Andy Richardson
And you mentioned. Time zone. Are there any other benefits of Latin America versus other parts of the world?

40:41 - Micaela
Well, for sure. I'm Argentinian, so I'm gonna say there are a lot of benefits, but honestly, there are three main things. Time zone compatibility. Latin America is basically the backyard of the U.S. Well, let's not say backyard. Probably we can say that we are in this on your sphere of influence. So there's a great cultural fit. And Latin American people, we learn about the American culture from movies, from books, TV, everything. I mean, Hollywood has done a great job and we basically are a bit better suited than maybe other cultures to work with you. And to be honest, again, there are a lot of highly, highly talented professionals out here and ready to start, you know, providing services right away and adding value right away.

41:55 - Andy Richardson
So I want to get into to really the point of the whole podcast is called Enhance. We really wanna understand people's why is what we call it. Why are you doing what you're doing? Some people just, hey, I wanna make money or I wanna, maybe that's it. But is there a deeper why for you in terms of what you're doing here in the AEC with WeMotor?

42:28 - Micaela
Yes, to be honest, it's super simple as well. And I think we have already talked it a little bit. But basically, I believe that talent is everywhere. And I want to be able to remove the barriers to remote talent and connect great businesses with bright talent, provide opportunities for both ends, and again, work smarter, not harder. I think this is a great thing that we see here. And it even relates to a little bit of what you just mentioned that architects have this culture and engineers, the industry in general have this culture of you can only scale with suffering basically. And I don't think that's true. I think that we can create good processes and scale on and smartly as well.

43:22 - Andy Richardson
Yeah and do you have any good examples where I mean somebody just impacted their life? I mean not necessarily specific names or anything but I mean do you have any examples where it just really impacted them in a long-term way?

43:43 - Micaela
Yeah sure so we have a client that's actually based in Ireland there are two business owners and they work together they've been together I don't know how many years and they have the specific goal related to let's just say sustainability and they're working with big projects and they have been trying to hire locally or engineer I don't know how many He mentioned it was like he had seven or eight people that rotated through the office and he was not able to fulfill his personal dream of this big sustainable project because he was always circling back to this need of start recruiting again and interviewing and going over and over and onboarding people. So he was wasting time, money, of course, and energy. He was just tired when we first met he was like to be honest I don't really want to handle this anymore tell me what you're doing just and let's let's give it a try because I really don't know what else to do so and well we started our own internal sourcing process in this case we did headhunting because we have our own talent pool but in particular case the perfect fit. And we are, we're not staying with what we have here on our bench, let's call it. So we do headhunting and we search for a boy from Brazil. I'm about to, I'm always about to say names and I want to avoid that. So he's from Brazil and he had all the expertise he, this team was looking for. And also, He was a really good communicator, and that's something not so common in engineers. He was able to express himself and ask the perfect questions and, you know, just make sure that he was moving forward in the right direction. He was on board to this team, and right from the start, he was able to, you know, get responsibilities out of these two business owners' shoulders, and they were able focused on this big sustainable project. And it was honestly a relief for them. And we all have personal dreams outside of our jobs, or at least we all should. And these two business owners were completely, completely focused on operational tasks. Due to this problem, they were, you know, caring months and months and months. So being able to hear from them like, you know, Micaela, I was able to circumvent on this project and now we're moving forward with these and just seeing that they're happy and able to regain time for themselves, it's something that's truly valuable.

46:47 - Andy Richardson
Awesome, well it sounds like you've really helped that company get over an incredible hurdle and now they can enjoy what they're doing and do their sustainable work and their design work, so that's pretty awesome. So what's next for Makayla and WeMotor?

47:10 - Micaela
What's next? I think that a lot of things can change over the next couple years due to AI. I want to be able to support my clients and my teams with more AI education. So that's a thing that's coming for sure. And also, I want to dive deeper into other sectors of the AEC industry. And that's, that's just, you know, me, I want to be able to scale and to serve not just architects, serve more engineers, more home builders, and actually expand. We have been in the US for than three years, so we haven't been here forever and make a name of ourselves and just better serve our clients and be able to expand nationally in the U.S. I think that's our next bigger challenge.

48:13 - Andy Richardson
Awesome, sounds like a big goal for you, so it's good to have goals moving forward. Well, is there anything else you want to discuss today, Michaela?

48:23 - Micaela
Not anything in particular, just do you happen to have any questions that you think are important for your audience to hear?

48:34 - Andy Richardson
I mean, you know, I definitely hit on most of the ones I think are important. There's so much that we could continue to talk about with, you know, remote work and all the lessons you've learned, but I think we on most of them for me today.

48:52 - Micaela
Yeah, I think so too.

48:55 - Andy Richardson
Maybe you could, so I'm gonna do this, and you're originally, I had to get your name pronounced right, but it's Michaela Sochi. Did I do that okay? And so thank you for being on today, and I guess your background is from Italy, but you live in Argentina currently?

49:20 - Micaela
So yeah. So my family is originally from Italy and we've been in Argentina after the war. And I had the pleasure of traveling a little bit while I was young. So I went to the U S for a couple months. I went to Australia a lot in Southeast Asia. I have been able to be in touch with a lot of different cultures. And that's why, again, I think I have this feeling that talent is everywhere, and we can enrich ourselves just by connecting with people. And it's honestly something that I think can be done super, super easily through remote solutions.

50:09 - Andy Richardson
I mean, it's a flat world we live in right now, is the term I've used. We want to support our local people too. I mean, that's one of the pros and cons aspect. But at the same time, like with this company in Idaho, sometimes you just can't find local talent or maybe you can't get ahead with local talent or there's no local talent. So there's reasons why you need that. So I mentioned earlier that one of my goals is to go to Argentina and I've been working on my Spanish a little bit.

50:44 - Micaela
Please, go ahead.

50:46 - Andy Richardson
I'm kind of embarrassed, but I'm trying to do this anyway. Yo quiero... Yo quiero... Learn. I was going to say learn. Yo quiero aprender Español. I was going to ask if you could teach me a little saying maybe or something.

51:16 - Micaela
Well, a basic thing here, it's un vino, por favor, una copa de vino. It's a glass of wine.

51:27 - Andy Richardson
Un vino, por favor.

51:29 - Micaela
Una copa de vino, por favor.

51:32 - Andy Richardson
Una copa de vino, por favor.

51:36 - Micaela
perfect perfect good okay I I said yo uh let's see it's uh only yo yo aprender muy poquito and and one thing one thing I'm just remembering avoid at all costs saying soccer football football yeah yeah in argentina we're big football fans, Messi fans, so everywhere you go, I want the Messi, and you'll be happy.

52:13 - Andy Richardson
Okay, very good.

52:15 - Andy Richardson
Well, maybe we'll have to edit that out of there, it wasn't as good, I didn't practice very well.

52:19 - Micaela
No, it was good, actually good pronunciation.

52:23 - Andy Richardson
Okay, so my producer, she's laughing in the background here, so we do our preview you know, of the show before.

52:34 - Andy Richardson
So, well, Michaela, it was a joy to have you on today.

52:38 - Andy Richardson
And where can people find you?

52:42 - Micaela
Sure, yes.

52:43 - Micaela
So, you can reach me out pretty easily at my email, Michaela at WeMotor.com or on LinkedIn as well, Michaela F.

52:55 - Micaela
Sochi.

52:59 - Micaela
I'm pretty active on those social media.

53:01 - Micaela
Follow me around there or just follow our website, wemotor.com.

53:07 - Andy Richardson
Okay, awesome.

53:08 - Andy Richardson
Well, it was, again, thanks for being on the show today.

53:12 - Micaela
Thank you for hosting me, Andy.

53:14 - Micaela
Pleasure to meet you and speak with you.

53:17 - Andy Richardson
Okay, bye.

53:19 - Madeline
Hey, everybody.

53:20 - Madeline
Thanks for listening to today's episode of Enhance, and please leave a like, a subscribe, or a follow, and we'll see you next time.