[00:00:00] Hi everyone and welcome back to the A EC Marketing for Principals Podcast. This is your host, Katie Cash, and today I’m joined by someone who brings a mixture of strategy, some humanity, and a serious. Power of execution to the world of architecture. Natalia Castro is the Chief Operating Officer at Salts Michelson Architects, which is a Florida based legacy firm who is celebrating their 50th year of impact across the great state of Florida. But make no mistake, folks. Natalia isn’t just helping the firm honor its past. She has been. Actively part of determining and designing and driving its future. So whether it’s building internal systems or processes or developing talent with a strategic focus or helping the firm enter into new markets like aviation, which is totally new, she is really representing the modern day A-E-C-O-O, so well, and I’m so excited to [00:01:00] have her on the show today to talk about. Along her career and kind of what’s shaping the future of a e from her perspective. So Natalia, welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us.
Uh, thank you very much Katie. That was a very warming welcome. I appreciate it.
Well, no embellishments at all. If anybody checks you out on LinkedIn, they know that everything I just said was just kind of scratching the surface of your background. and I think that’s the perfect place to start. You know, you find yourself, in the role of COO, but your background isn’t in architecture.
And you told me multiple times, you’re like, I’m not the voice of design. Make no, no mistake.
right.
maybe talk a little bit about your career journey, kind of that unconventional path that led you to a EC and ultimately led you to your role at Salts Michelson.
Sure. So I like to say that not being an architect or not being an engineer is my superpower. Just because it gives me a clear vision [00:02:00] of what the business is and puts me in the right spot with the right perspective to be in a COO role. Right? So my background is a little bit different from, the conventional COO or, or business operator.
I went to school initially for crime analysis with a minor in forensic psychology and, training to be an analyst. it really taught me to see the world in a different way. And especially like when you’re in college and you really don’t know what you wanna do and, you know, you’re kind of like, like, did I really choose this?
And, and it’s. Look at me like I went for crime analysis and today I’m running an architecture firm. It’s that kind of situation. But I realized when I was working for a law firm during the summers that was during the, um, 2008 financial crisis, the collapse that happened, and even criminal defense at that time took a hit and we needed to reinvent ourselves.[00:03:00]
And I was in the middle of that. we were able to turn that firm around, very quick. And I realized at that point that I had a keen sense of seeing what a business need to thrive whatever I learned. Being trained as an analyst, I could take it into business. So it’s reading, the environment, reading, I would say like the world outside of the walls, and then making adaptations internally to see how we can, thrive.
So that’s pretty much, a rough summary of how everything started, how I moved from what I initially aspired to be, which was a federal agent To running a business. So I started making money very early on, kind of just helping business run operations and why would I take back a, huge pay cut to be a federal agent?
So that’s what, so money was, was my motivator to, to start with. yeah.
So I know like sometimes you’ve called yourself, a business [00:04:00] operations manager. You’ve called yourself, course the CEO, but you’ve also referred to yourself as a coach. What do you actually do? Natalia, like, I know every day doesn’t look the same.
but when you are really looking at the organization and you’re trying to determine, okay, are we where we need to be?
Are we where we wanna go? How do we grow in that direction? What are you really doing?
that’s a great question and a very loaded, which I love, because puts me into perspective, but I believe that, Our jobs in the service industry, and we’re all in the service industry, no matter which business you,
you are, and it’s to make our clients satisfied and happy and, good that they made the decision to hire you.
And who service those clients? It’s our employees. It’s the environment that we create internally if we don’t have a connection with our employees and those that are servicing our clients. If our employees are not happy, if the environment that we are [00:05:00] serving from, it’s not a good environment, that result, which is the end result of a client satisfaction, it’s also not gonna be there.
So instead of looking at the end goal at the bottom line of getting, reaching the, that client or, you know, gaining new contract, let’s backtrack and figure it out. What’s gonna keep that client in? What’s gonna make that client come back and how our service is going to be what the client’s gonna choose over time.
And it’s not gonna be because we draw the best lines in CAT or Revit. It’s really gonna be who is that, project manager, who’s that? principle servicing that client directly and how that. Project manager or or employee makes that client feel. So when you ask about being a coach, is really reading between those lines and creating an environment internally that will set the best stage for that, employee to thrive with the client.
I love that you called us out. You know, we all are in a [00:06:00] service driven industry. We like to call ourselves professional services ’cause we wear white collar and you know, bow ties or glasses or whatever it might be. But one of the things that I think is really special for you in your role is when you look at. The practice of architecture, let’s just take it in the. A ton of small firms. Right? I think a I a calls small firms, those under nine employees, and I think it’s like 75% of architecture firms today would fall into that category. And then you’ve got some that are, you know, a little bit more, you know. 12 or 12 to 50 is kind of that mid-size, and you, then you get a little bit bigger, and then you, you’ve got the really large, you know, perpetual global firms. but for a firm like your size, I think it’s really insightful that you all decided that you needed someone such as yourself who’s focused on looking at the operations of the business, [00:07:00] and not just focus on client execution. So maybe talk a little bit to our listeners. are some of the determining factors that might warrant now’s the time to bring on an operations manager or A COO, and how do you carve out something for them to really make an impact in the organization?
It brings me back to that first question that I skipped over. how do I get to the role that I am today? And the reason is I came in at a very crucial point for salt microns. So the first. Because the firm was founded by Mark Saltz, an excellent businessman and an architect.
And when he decided to sell the majority of the shares to his partner, which has been Charles, Charles Michelson, Charles has always been, the minority shareholder. And then when Mark decided to, Retire he was gonna transfer , the majority to Charles. Well, Charles is a, an amazing architect, and Mark knew that we needed Charles to remain an amazing architect [00:08:00] versus running the business.
So he decided to bring somebody in to run the operations and run the business itself while, Letting Charles be the amazing architect that he’s today. So that’s how I come in. and the big challenge that we do have in our industry, and I’m also A-P-S-M-J,, consultant, and we all know PSMJ, and one of the biggest challenges that we see in the industry, not only with locally, but everywhere is.
People not having that sense of business or not having a sense of business operations or what it takes to run a firm. Everybody wants to be a shareholder. Everybody wants to be a partner in a firm, but there’s a huge disconnect in what it really takes to run a firm or run an operations on a firm.
So looking outside of the profession, and hiring somebody there’s a misconception. Oh, but you know, um, it’s overhead time, right? So it’s too much overhead for that person. Well, but if that person is making [00:09:00] your business more effective, running a lot more smoother, and clients are coming back and your people are happy, It’s about the result, not necessarily what the degree that person holds. So that’s how I came in and, and knock on wood, we’ve been very successful ever since. I think, like you said, like I’m a proving example of hiring outside of the profession for such a role. The works.
I, I really love it. And, what I really love is your, your fresh perspective on things while. have a really good knack of understanding the legacy of the firm and kind of, you know, it’s not brand new, right? You’re celebrating your 50th year in business. in some areas you are a household name. In other areas you’re kind of. Just starting to make a name for yourself maybe, and then some might not even be, remotely on the lips of anyone yet. and so you, you’ve talked a lot about kind of making sure the firm doesn’t get stagnant and reliant on its legacy, but finding new ways to reintroduce the firm, [00:10:00] keeping yourself current, keeping yourself. relevant and evolving the identity as you move forward with the focus of where the business wants to go. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Sure. So one of the, main things that I, guide myself on, when helping make decisions within the firm is certainly the legacy component, right? The firm was founded by Mark Saltz, and he started out of his garage and he built an amazing, legacy and a business around that concept.
Also the relationships that he created along with Charles. So they created a lot of those relationships. So from my perspective is how can we honor whatever was built, those relationships, the concept of being a family oriented firm pretty much, but yet be able to compete with the mega firms because that’s who our competitors are, So it’s a, huge balance between the two but. We are very well rooted on the foundations that Mark [00:11:00] set, and I never wanna lose that because that is what drove us for almost 45 years. being able to read what. The industry is calling out for. So, the industry had a lot of, technological changes, right?
from blueprints to CAD to Revit, which I was able to come in and, and, and be able to seed that transition between CAD and Revit. And now, we have ai, and AI is a major disruptor in our industry, and everybody acts with the fear, oh, it’s gonna take over jobs but I see as opportunities.
So instead of looking to the outside and, oh, there’s gonna be a recession, or there is, you know, COVID. So COVID, we thrived during COVID, we saw opportunities. So that’s how I, I like to see, how I like to balance it out. So how can I leverage. The legacy that the firm has established, the relationships, the name, the projects, and what drove us to be who we are today with the [00:12:00] opportunities that we see with the ever-changing environment outside.
I really do appreciate when people have the perspective that you have where everything isn’t doom and gloom and just a challenge and, Sure it was a, it was a major shift from blueprints to CAD and from CAD to Revit. And you know, now you’ve got enhanced programs, you know, that are kind of sitting on top of Revit and different things. but you’ve always maintained this kind of. Calm about you and let’s look at it as opportunistic and let’s be positive about it. ’cause there’s, we can solve it. At the end of the day, you are a group of problem solvers. It’s what you do for your clients. Y’all are the best at it. And so looking at each of these kind of business challenges as an opportunity, and I really do think that’s allowed you to kind of think beyond, the old ways of. We’re gonna do good work. So then we’re gonna get more work and just let the phone ring. You guys have kind of gone to market a little bit more [00:13:00] strategically, so maybe Natalia, talk a little bit about from your analyst perspective, how are you evaluating? The performance of the organization and determining if and when it’s time to go to new markets where you might look into new geographies and expanding that service footprint.
Or like you guys recently decided, hey, there’s a lot of investment happening in the world of aviation, especially here in in your home state of Florida. There’s lots of opportunity for us to parlay our experience into that. So how do you, how do you approach and kind of look at things and keep that opportunistic culture internally
Well, like I said, mark and Charles have a very well established base for us to, a platform for us to launch from. Right. So with the vast experience that they gathered throughout the years, either retail, medical, et cetera, et cetera. So they were able to diversify the firm to the point that we were [00:14:00] able to achieve or, solve many problems in different, types of projects.
the aviation part of it specifically came down because a Fort Lauderdale airport is literally a mile away from our office. And we were like, well, we know that there’s, uh, just like in hospital requires constant work, requires constant renovation, it requires constant upkeep. why is that client that is literally two miles away from our office, not our client?
that potential client is not our client. how can we get to that client? and the mentality has always been, well, We don’t have aviation experience well, but we do have, hospitals that run 24 7 experience. We have, schools that need to be done really quick on a turnaround time.
So we have all those other leverages that we could use to present to the client and say, Hey, we’re very willing to learn if you’re willing to have us. and finding the right partner for, that also has been, a major component. Part of being a [00:15:00] local legacy firm, we are always willing to, join other bigger firms that would have that sort of experience and help us breach these different clients.
So, that’s pretty much how I read that one specifically, which was literally down the road. It’s a client, the county is one of our biggest clients. And it was just, An area that we haven’t tapped before that we decided to take a chance and we got it so it was successful.
and I think in our industry sometimes we, we tend to beat ourselves up about it, right? Like there’s these great more key projects happening all around us. in our hometowns where we have office locations and you’re like, oh, I’d love to do that, but we’ve never done this or we’ve never done that.
But when you start breaking down the components of it, it’s really easy to draw some parallels and some similarities. So I love, you know, kind of what you said, Natalia, you know, when you start unpacking your portfolio, okay, what have we done that’s like an airport? Well, hospitals [00:16:00] operate 24 7. they don’t make any money if they’re not operational.
Neither do airports. Okay. Heightened sense of security. Okay. Those are the same. Okay. What else is really similar? Well, these projects have to be done super timely. Okay. Well, I don’t know about you, but have you ever tried to do summer construction on a school site because they got,
you know, what is it, 10 weeks or
something like that to get things done? So I love that you kind of approach that. And I’ve actually been hearing from the owner side of things where they’re kind of getting tired of their current consultant base ’cause they feel like. They’re not coming up with new ideas where they’re deliberately asking people say, Hey. I want someone that does hospitality to come and do the new Sky Club, for example, because it’s not about having aviation experience. This is a hospitality environment.
So it’s great that you’ve done terminals and jet bridges and all the technical stuff, but have you done a place that people [00:17:00] want to be at that is, Indicative of our brand and having this white label customer service and how do you bring that through? Or Hey, you know, we really want to bring this element forward and and whatever.
So I think that’s really good advice to any of the listeners to think about. Who should be your client, right? And how do you get them to be your client? What kind of story can you share with them that’s helpful, that’s relevant, that helps to connect your world to their world, and bringing your worlds together.
Yeah, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard you and Judy talk about this before. Architecture firms in general tend to talk a lot about. Ourselves, how great we did this, how many projects we did that. Uh, and then, many firms do fail to look at the client’s needs and talk directly to that need and that problem solving.
So if we are approaching a new client, I don’t wanna. You know, I’m not gonna win him over basically saying, yeah, we’ve done, you know, 20 hospitals and you know, [00:18:00] we’ve held these many contracts. I really wanna take my time and I really want to study , the pain point for that client is and be able to speak directly.
To that based off the experience that we have or based off the qualifications that we have. But I think that’s one of the main components that we do. I see presentations and we do a lot of research before presenting and, That’s one of the main mistakes. And if there’s anything that I could leave on this podcast would be that just, listen to your clients instead of talking over them and you know, like, you are great.
We get it. If you aren’t great, they won’t be selecting you. But now listen to them even when you’re presenting.
Yeah. it’s funny you mentioned that and architects are great. They are, what you guys do is, is amazing and very artful and thoughtful. We live and work and experience our world through the facilities that you guys design. But I’ve heard it more often than not when I’m doing [00:19:00] debriefs on behalf of clients.
or, you know, even doing some of the owner interviews that we do here on the podcast, the architecture community as a whole. Tends to not put their listening ears on as frequently as engineers seem to always be listening. ’cause they’re trying to find ways like they, they like to be the hero, right? Like they love to be the hero.
They love to solve the challenges. They are always listening. contractors are pretty good about listening ’cause they know that if they don’t hit those dates or they don’t manage
expectations, they’re the ones that are gonna get yelled at. But I, I’ve heard lots of clients being like, you know what? they don’t listen to me. I’ve told them multiple times, they don’t hear me when I say, you know,
right.
just keep telling me what they wanna say, but I really, I value their opinion, but they’re not listening.
Yeah. And that’s one of the main things that I say here in the firm that, , the architects that really excited when there’s a new project and there’s a problem for them to solve or designed for them to develop. and This has been one of the major shifts [00:20:00] that, we’ve done internally, that we want to come prepared to that first client meeting.
So what I would see happen is that they would design concepts or just provide solutions before that first client meeting. And I’m like, what are you doing? Like you haven’t even listened to what the client wants yet. All we have is a piece of paper basically saying that they trust us to move this forward.
So we’re not putting the pen on the paper until we hear the client. And I think that’s the main point. I think architects needs to step back a little bit and from that perspective, yes, we know that you have talent. Yes, we know that we’re capable of solving this problem, but let’s.
Put yourselves in the client’s shoes. And what if you were the one hiring somebody? And that’s, the example that I give hearing the firm all the time. If you hired an architect to design your kitchen and comes up to you with a, you want like a farmhouse kitchen and they come in with a modern kitchen even before you start the meeting, would you hire that person?
No. Or, [00:21:00] you know, you know.
start off on the wrong foot,
Right. yeah. I think, you know, having those, those drawings and those details are helpful at conveying the mediums in which you all can communicate, but you’re right, absent of listening, it’s often an unnecessary risk that you don’t have to take in those first initial meetings. I like to say we want people to, to listen. Listen with their eye so that they’re keen in on what’s going on. But then it’s gonna sound a little cheesy. Listen with your heart too, and like kind of pay attention to the undertone of emotion or passion or concern that might be coming from the owner’s group that’s gonna tell you a lot about them.
You know, where are they in, their pain points, what do they really care about? What, where’s their currency in terms of, How they’re viewing the, the stakes of the project. Because in our world, most of these projects are pretty large. Either they’re highly complex, you know, complicated systems, they’re large [00:22:00] budgets, or they’re large reputational risks, right?
When they, if they don’t pick the right firm. And so a big advocate for listening, listening with your eyes and not multitasking, listening with your heart to try to understand where the other person might be coming from and, and leaning into that moment.
Natalia, I wanna go back to something that you kind of started speaking to just a moment ago, and you’ve mentioned, you know, adoption of technology and AI disruption, and then you kind of started talking about, Getting your, your architects prepared for some of those interviews or meet and greets, but what are some of the structures that you put in place that do provide some functional guardrails without stifling the creativity or overcomplicating the process when you’re leading a group of architects or other creative individuals?
Part of my background too, I, I was in the Navy Reserves, so I come from a military background where it’s a very structured environment. There’s predictability. There is, you know, [00:23:00] what time you’re gonna get up, you know, what time you’re gonna go to bed, you know, what time you’re gonna take a shower, there’s a procedure for this, there’s a procedure for that.
So, in the beginning of my career, it was challenging to kind of balance it out to be such a trickler to procedures and, organization, which I think I come to a happy medium. But the basis is predictability. So how are we servicing our clients in a way that is predictable, in a way that is consistent no matter which project manager they’re gonna get from the firm.
some of the things that we established were, just the way we communicate with the client like simple ways of communication or how do we run meetings? Simple way of establishing guardrails or stop. Establishing, best practices for that. the systems that we also put in place as far as, okay, so we are gonna go to this meeting prepared, and these are the questions that we’re gonna ask the client from the get go instead of making assumptions.
The way that we produce our drawings. How are we managing our production staff in a [00:24:00] way that it is consistent. From the beginning to end. One of the things that we pride ourselves in is the fact that whoever starts with the project at SMA ends with a project at SMA.
Some firms, they jump around, right? So sometimes, it will be somebody that will do the concept. The other one will do, design development. The other one will do construction drawings, and another person will do ca. you kind of miss the threat of the decisions that were made in that very early meetings.
So one of the things that we do here is that the person who starts the project ends the projects, period. So there’s consistency. So I would say that I, I think that predictability, consistency has been the key tools that we’ve put into place. And some of ’em are kind of trade within our firm that it will be challenging for me to speak about.
But yeah, a lot of, process and procedures with substance versus just the mechanical of doing things. So every time that we. Do anything we put a new tool or we [00:25:00] do a new procedure. There’s always substance behind it, and there always a, fundamental motive and reason for it.
Yeah, the context. Why, and so your military heritage, I feel like, serves you well in herding all of the cats that are architects I think there’s a lot of similarities between practicing professional services and serving in the military, right? We, we all had try to hold ourselves to a high degree of ethics, all really try to, work as a team. All kind of have this spirit of continuous improvement, but knowing that there’s technical expertise you need along the way, whether it’s a geotech or as a structural engineer, and kind of allowing everybody to own their own posts, right as you come about. Competing the project. let’s talk a little bit more Natalia, about the other portion of your job that you, I know, spend so much time on.
And that is your culture [00:26:00] building your talent retention, kind of the coaching part of your role. And, I know this is something that, that you feel really strongly about, really passionate about. Getting beyond just meeting the deadlines, but really growing and pouring into a group of individuals that will stay with you and
continue to grow as the firm grows.
Talk a little bit about that
I always say that we spend more time at work than anywhere else in life, right?
for sure.
than with our families, with our partners, with our friends. So either. I really want people to be at SMA that really love SMA and love the environment because if you’re not loving your life while you are SMA, and this is just a paycheck for you, it’s not for you.
Pretty much. So that’s kind of the motive here and the fact that when we hire somebody, we don’t only hire based off qualifications, but we also hire based off what [00:27:00] we feel that person is going to match within the rest of the group. We bring other people, not only, the decision makers to interview that person, but also to gauge on that person’s, the vibe personality, because we feel that the group.
Is very, very important because of that component.
Is super important. I would echo that.
Sure.
and like I mentioned in the beginning of the podcast is, they are gonna be the one servicing your client. And if they are unhappy, your clients are also gonna be unhappy. Imagine walking into a hotel reception and that person just had a really bad, like, because they hate their supervisor or they hate, you know, they’re not gonna service that.
hotel guests, the way that if they really love being there for work, not just a paycheck. And that’s the premise that I take. So, it’s not only about taking care of clients, it’s mainly taking care of your people, qualifying them through training, [00:28:00] through exchange, through mentorship, which is a big thing in our industry today that people lack, is we’re not thinking enough about how do we mentor the younger generation.
And because of the generational gap or because the generational difference, people tend to. walk away from that mentorship component or thinking about what can we do to bridge the gap between generations. And I think that’s the main thing because we don’t speak the same language.
We, you and I are millennials, right? So we, we joked about that before, and how there’s a gap with the baby boomers and how we communicate it differently. So I’m, I’m from Brazil. my first language, my main language is, is Portuguese. And if I’m trying to communicate with somebody that, understands English, but perhaps the main language is in Portuguese, I kind of need to adapt myself.
So that person understands the context that I’m trying to speak. And it’s the same thing between the generational gap. as a millennial walking into a firm [00:29:00] that was established by baby boomers and spoke a different language, I needed to adapt, to be able to service, to, manage that.
And it’s the same thing moving forward. How can we talk to Gen Zers to service the clients and for them to feel happy. So as long as they’re happy, as long as they’re growing as, as long as their professional needs are being met within the firm, but also on the personal side is they’re spending eight hours a day, in the firm, they should be happy as well.
It’s funny, it’s like every new generation that enters the workforce, it’s like we’ve never assimilated together before. You know? Like all the communication
and all this stuff is all like, oh, there’s a new generation. How are we gonna, however, I. Your predecessors before you found a way to, to, work together.
I’m sure we can figure it out now with all the tools and technologies and different things that we can do, but I’m with you. The, the fit almost matters more than their technical competence. people that [00:30:00] love what they do, that really comes through. I feel like those individuals invest more in their professional development.
They care more. . They are able to take criticism better, because they understand kind of where it’s coming from. And so I think all of that is, is really quite special. and realizing that even those that have been in the industry, our industry, I. Their entire careers. There’s always something new to learn, Codes are changing. There’s new materials being developed. You’re learning and meeting with new providers that might work a little bit differently. You’ve got technology coming to hand, so kind of maintaining that, always eager to learn and mentor and be mentored, I feel like is super important for success in the industry as a whole.
For sure, and I think, regardless of the generation that you come from. And let’s say you have 30 years in the profession, 40 years in the profession. Keeping that curiosity, be curious about what I don’t know and always trying to improve. And what I see what happens is sometimes, you know, you [00:31:00] have that professional that’ve been there for, for a while, and they feel that they have reached the amount of knowledge they could get in life and then they shut themselves down to the adaptation that happens on the outside world.
What we see a lot is, but what can that new employee that Gen Z can teach me that I’ve been here for 40 years? Well, there’s a lot, there’s a lot that that person can teach you. So there’s a reverse mentorship component that people should have their minds, open to, which is that, maybe the language of technology that Genzer is.
Have, and they grew up with, could be the facilitator for that seasoned profession to exchange information there. And then there’s an exchange. And you have the industry and you have the profession. You, you’ve seen it all and you know how to navigate through problems, but that person also knows, can add on in whatever stage in life you are in.
So there’s an a valuable exchange there.
one of the things that I love about [00:32:00] my job as a. Consultant is I get to work with so many different brands and I get to, peer in and kind of see what individuals like you and yourself and others are doing, and kind of see who’s doing it really well, where others might be having some challenges.
But an overarching theme that we’re starting to pick up on is, our staff is becoming younger, but our buyers are becoming
Exactly.
so, Next February, February 25th and 26th, I believe, of 2026 Smart. Jesus is hosting our annual Smart Win conference, and it’s a two day event. It’s really geared for bringing together. Technical professionals and heads of sales and marketing all across design and construction together. And kind of talk about, you know, how do we work better together? And one of the panels that we have assembled, Natalia, that I’m super excited to be moderating, just gonna have a millennial moment here, is it’s a panel, all of commercial real estate buyers.
So those that buy [00:33:00] architecture, engineering, and construction services who are under the age of 40.
the whole discussion is gonna be about how do they approach purchasing? You know what, what considerations come into play when they’re trying to vet different firms? You know, are they really looking people up on LinkedIn?
Like. The millennial group did and finding out, hey, does their proposal match what they look like online? , Do I wanna work with them? Are they checking us out in other ways? How reliant are they on ai? Like, all the different things. so I’m really excited to kind of see how these younger folks that are coming up in the industry are really doing things the same or different.
And I think we’re gonna learn a lot in that
whole
Yeah, that’s a great point. And, and that, that was something that we had discussions, uh, years ago about that, that as we were. having presentations or having, client meetings, mark and Charles realized that they were closer to my age than their age, [00:34:00] and there was a bond there immediately that we had.
just because, you know, we’re in the same cohort. We are in the same group, and. The relationship, being able to relate to somebody, it’s a easier sell versus there’s a huge generation gap. And like you mentioned, throughout millennia, we always had the difference in, in generations.
And it’s always going to be like that. It’s not going away. But,
Right.
And people tend to. go towards those that they feel more similar or they feel related to. that’s why I mentioned that that reverse mentorship is super important because the more that you connect with that younger staff.
the more successful you’re gonna be because you’re gonna be relatable. If you don’t exchange, if you just stay with the senior group or just stay with, the principals and the senior PMs and the senior engineers and you’re not really mingling on or, developing a relationship, you’re not gonna be relatable to them.
So I love that panel and I think that it’s gonna be super important. [00:35:00] I think that it’s also gonna shine a perspective that new generational, client and buyers really wanna see. That’s great.
Natalia, this has been such a great and insightful conversation and I knew it would be, I wanna ask you one last question before we
wrap up for today, what do you believe is one operational blind spot that a lot of firms have that they should be addressing?
I think communication, I think How to streamline your communications internally. Communication has been the, the culprit of many issues. Not only with the client, not only internally, uh, not only with the accounting team, the marketing team, I mean overall.
And if you’re able to streamline the communications internally, I think it’s going to pay off. the clients because it’s gonna to show,
I think no matter how big or sophisticated your firm is, everybody has room for improvement related [00:36:00] to communications,
Oh hundred percent. Yes.
Yes.
Hundred percent.
Well, this has been great, and to the listeners, thank you for sticking it out. I hope you’ve got some nice takeaways from Natalia. Make sure you check her and her firm out on LinkedIn and make sure that you subscribe to a EC Marketing for principles so you don’t miss any future episodes. feel free to share this episode with your favorite COO out there or any other operations minded leader so they can get the takeaways that Natalia was so generous. And sharing in the conversation today. But until next time, everybody, stay smart out there. And thanks for listening.