In this questions and answers type episode, Alexander Torrenegra puts Andrés Cajiao and Erik Hare on the spot and interviews them, as he'd normally would with candidates looking to work alongside him.
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A big thank you to our post-production wizard, Vanesa Monroy.
[A moderately paced, trip hop song that is best described as chill and cruising. Synth and techno drums are the primary instruments in this track. This is our podcast background music, it starts playing at the very beginning]
[00:00:00] Andres: [00:00:00] Hi, I'm Andrés
[00:00:04] Josephine: [00:00:04] and I'm Josephine. Welcome to the Remoter Podcast.
[00:00:07] Andres: [00:00:07] Follow us in season one of this journey, as we cover anything and everything you need to know in order to successfully build and scale a remote first team. Someone who's been working remotely for over a decade, our CEO, Alexander Torrenegra, shares his personal experiences, lessons learned, and advice for those of you who're curious and interested in exploring the future of work.
[00:00:33] Josephine: [00:00:33] This podcast is brought to you by Torre, the end to end recruitment solution for Remoters. Get our free AI powered sourcing and processing tools, or let Torre recruit on your behalf at Torre dot co, that's T O R R E dot C O.
[Music stops playing]
[00:00:56] Alex: [00:00:56] So guys, the surprise is that I'm going to be interviewing you today. [00:01:00] The same way that I interview people that are going to be joining my team. I'm not going to be asking all of the questions that I usually ask, but I'm going to be asking some of the most interesting ones. Otherwise, people are going to be listening to this podcast, and then I'm going to be hiring everyone that interviews with me, and that's not a good idea.
[00:01:17] So there is only one rule in here and there is, you have to answer each question with one sentence, and one sentence only. Don't, don't do a long paragraph. Not two sentences, please. One brief sentence because I have a bunch of questions for you. Okay. So ready to get started.
[00:01:34] Andres: [00:01:34] Let's go
[00:01:35] Erik: [00:01:35] Born Ready!
[00:01:36] Alex: [00:01:36] Okay, good.
[00:01:38] First one, what have you made or what have you done, that you can say only you or very few other people have ever done or made? Who wants to go first?
[00:01:50] Erik: [00:01:50] I can go with that one.
[00:01:52] Andres: [00:01:52] Go ahead.
[00:01:53] Erik: [00:01:53] I have created, from scratch, an entire new approach to the oil and gas industry in North Dakota.
[00:02:00] [00:02:00] Alex: [00:02:00] Wow. No idea.
[00:02:01] Andres: [00:02:01] Selling, or marketing or...?
[00:02:03] Erik: [00:02:03] Marketing, yeah.
[00:02:04] Alex: [00:02:04] Andrés, no?
[00:02:06] Andres: [00:02:06] There's going to be a lot of silence.
[00:02:10] Alex: [00:02:10] Anyway. when this happens in real life, I tell the person, you have 30 seconds and it's okay. If you don't come up with an answer, you can always email me your answer within the next two hours.
[00:02:19] Andres: [00:02:19] Okay, I have 30 seconds. Give me 30 seconds at least.
[00:02:21] Erik: [00:02:21] Can we play the jeopardy thing?
[00:02:24] Andres: [00:02:24] I think that I'm one of the few people that has ever been able to ideate solutions. And how to communicate those solutions for recruitment industry, considering multiple variables. So multidimensional and strategic thinking for recruitment solutions and communication.
[00:02:39] Alex: [00:02:39] No specific answer. Thank you. One point for both of you.
[00:02:45] Next! What mystery would you like to know the answer for before you die? Andrés you go first this time.
[00:02:51] Andres: [00:02:51] Whatever happened to 9/11 really.
[00:02:54] Alex: [00:02:54] Erik?
[00:02:54] Erik: [00:02:54] Mystery. Wow. There are so many mysteries in this world. I would love to know [00:03:00] what life was really like 2000 years ago in some of the great empires. I mean, do we really understand what people knew? Because I have the suspicion that people were way more similar to us than we actually understand at this point.
[00:03:14] Andres: [00:03:14] That's a very good one.
[00:03:16] Alex: [00:03:16] Great. I think that the point goes through at this time.
[00:03:19] Andres: [00:03:19] Yeah. Just to clarify, mine is just because I somehow entered in a spiral of obsession of, of via YouTube videos and conspiracy theories that now if I don't, if I don't know that answer, it's going to be a big deal.
[00:03:35] Erik: [00:03:35] Talk to me about flat earth sometime, go ahead.
[00:03:38] Alex: [00:03:38] Okay. Who are the three smartest people you've met?
[00:03:44] Erik: [00:03:44] The three smartest people I've met are Mr. Rogers. I lived in his neighborhood briefly, I don't know if you know him. Bill Clinton, very, very briefly, but I'll tell you what, that guy could do to connect in 20 seconds of handshake was amazing. [00:04:00] I felt like I knew him at the end, and I'm going to end with uh Senator, Bob Graham from Florida. Uh, I had a chance to talk to him for a while, and I was just amazed. He. You could just tell that the guy knew everything about whatever topic he was talking about, but had to hone it in for his audience and just did it right immediately on the fly, even though he knew like everything, it's like, here's what you want to know. And I've never seen anybody else who could do that
[00:04:28] Alex: [00:04:28] You're quite well connected, Erik.
[00:04:31] Andres: [00:04:31] Uh, I don't know many people, so I think Richard Benson, uh, I agree with that on the, on the on the connecting thing. I met him very briefly, but he knows how to connect. I have an aunt that has two PhDs in uh nuclear physics. And from the two more prestigious, most prestigious universities in the world, uh, Sorbonne in France, and I don't recall the one in Russia, but one in Russia as well. [00:05:00] And, um oh, the other smartest... I don't know many people. I'll say you, Alex, you're one of the most smartest people I've ever met.
[00:05:09] Erik: [00:05:09] There you go.
[00:05:10] Alex: [00:05:10] Thank you. Three extra points for Andrés. One negative point for both of you for an extended answer. Pretty kind of you. Thanks. Let's go with the next one. What's the hardest problem you've solved? Andrés you go first this time. Remember, one sentence.
[00:05:30] Andres: [00:05:30] This is going to sound so bad and I'm going to get so much in trouble for this. The hardest problem I've solved so far was convincing you of a shift of strategy ones. I'm not going to say which one, but convincing your vision.
[00:05:46] Alex: [00:05:46] Good. I know which one. Erik?
[00:05:51] Erik: [00:05:51] I had to meet a temperature specification once as an engineer that I had no idea how to do it and six months later, [00:06:00] after like not just one eureka moment, but about five or six, uh, we finally came to something that, that worked. And when I look back on it, I was like, how did we do that?
[00:06:10] Alex: [00:06:10] That's really cool. Well, one point for each this time around. Next one. What's the most extreme thing you've done to achieve one of your goals?
[00:06:20] Erik: [00:06:20] Um, you know, coming here to San Francisco was pretty extreme. Packing everything in Manhattan into a UHaul and getting out here and I'm achieving a lot of goals. It's really great.
[00:06:32] Alex: [00:06:32] Welcome to San Francisco.
[00:06:33] Erik: [00:06:33] Thank you.
[00:06:35] Alex: [00:06:35] Me too.
[00:06:39] Andres: [00:06:39] Many things. Nobody actually come into, that's actually a good story on that. We can do a podcast. Not on my story on coming to San Francisco, but what San Francisco really means. Anyways. Um. So it was an entire week of sleeping, two to three hours, an average per day to complete, to finish a campaign in a strategy I was working on.
[00:06:57] Alex: [00:06:57] Good. One point for each. Good answers, [00:07:00] um, next one, simple question, complex, complex answer proudly, but still you have to stick it to one sentence. What's your goal in life?
[00:07:09] Andres: [00:07:09] Who do you want to answer first? Mine is pretty easy.
[00:07:11] Alex: [00:07:11] Andrés goest first, then Erik.
[00:07:13] Andres: [00:07:13] My only life is to make life fulfilling for as many humans as I can.
[00:07:18] Erik: [00:07:18] It's funny, the first thing I thought it was actually written by Kurt Vonnegut, um, to be the eyes and ears and conscience of the creator of the universe.
[00:07:28] Alex: [00:07:28] Beautiful phrase.
[00:07:28] Andres: [00:07:28] Wow.
[00:07:29] Erik: [00:07:29] I know. I love it so much. I wish I could say I wrote it.
[00:07:31] Alex: [00:07:31] Two points for each, this time around. You know what's the most common answer I get to that question?
[00:07:37] Andres: [00:07:37] What?
[00:07:37] Alex: [00:07:37] Be happy.
[00:07:38] Andres: [00:07:38] That's so abstract.
[00:07:39] Alex: [00:07:39] You know, I used to assume that like that was the purpose of people in general and I kept bugging a person. I'm not going to say who he is although he's going to know, once he listens to this, I noticed that he was distressed all the time and he wasn't happy. So I ask him, many times do you already know what's going to make you happy?
[00:07:59] You already know [00:08:00] what's going on. And he, he didn't know the answer until many years after asking him this question, he told me, you know, what makes you believe that everyone wants to be happy? Yeah. People that don't want to be happy and I may be one of them. Wow. Okay. Next one. I like this one. If you could be a character in any movie, who would you be?
[00:08:23] Erik: [00:08:23] Excellent. I think it's stuck with me. Darn. Yeah. You know, I can't believe I thought of this right away. The first thing I thought of was in the Pink Panther, Inspector Clouseau. For summary, you're talking about having fun, being just an idiot, bumbling on everything. I don't know.
[00:08:42] Alex: [00:08:42] Can you do the hamburger scene of the recent movie?
[00:08:45] Erik: [00:08:45] Oh no, I can't.
[00:08:47] Alex: [00:08:47] I love it. Andrés?
[00:08:49] Andres: [00:08:49] Mine is, mine is very basic. I'll, I will be...
[00:08:52] Alex: [00:08:52] I think I know.
[00:08:52] Andres: [00:08:52] What?
[00:08:53] Alex: [00:08:53] The Ironman guy.
[00:08:54] Andres: [00:08:54] Ironman any, day of the week.
[00:08:59] Alex: [00:08:59] I [00:09:00] interview Andrés when he joined the company and I asked some of those questions to him, I don't remember this answer.
[00:09:05] Andres: [00:09:05] But you know, except...
[00:09:07] Alex: [00:09:07] Tony Spark.
[00:09:08] Andres: [00:09:08] Stark. Tony Stark. Get it right. Except, except on the last movie. Except on End Game. Uh, cause he dies. Yeah. Spoiler alert. Um, he dies. So I don't like dying. So...
[00:09:20] Alex: [00:09:20] But they don't resuscitate people. Like...
[00:09:23] Andres: [00:09:23] That's what's weird! It's like they're resuscitating people all the time, but he, they can't, apparently, they just have to take it and they go to a funeral and I literally cried on his funeral.
[00:09:34] Alex: [00:09:34] Oh, that's a mood you came crying from. I remember. Okay. Then, um, no, I actually have two more. So this question is, borrow from the book "Zero to One" from Peter Thiel. It is, please share with me an opinion you have, where you know you're right, but most of the people you know that you value their opinion think that you are wrong, except family. Hmm. One sentence,
[00:10:00] [00:10:00] Andres: [00:10:00] The answer to that question is Torre being successful. I have many people who I, I agree on their vision and I, I align with them and I respect their opinions that don't believe that the strategy I am following or we are following, uh, will make us successful. And I think they're wrong. I'm gonna prove them wrong.
[00:10:19] Alex: [00:10:19] And for that, five extra points.
[00:10:23] Andres: [00:10:23] Erik?
[00:10:24] Erik: [00:10:24] A thing that I know I'm right about. I know that deep down, people around the world have the same basic values and that there is a strong commonality between people all over the world. And every time I talk about it, somebody challenges me and I'm like, no, no you're missing the point. And I try to be as kind and gentle about that, but I'm pretty sure I write about that.
[00:10:50] Alex: [00:10:50] You know, I disagree with you and for that I give you a point.
[00:10:57] Now, the last one I have for you today, [00:11:00] and that is, it's a long question, but the answer can be really, really brief. Most of the time, most of the day we are asking our brains to think about something. Like right now you're paying attention to my question and you're thinking about it, but every now and then, our brains can relax when we are not forcing them to think about anything in particular.
[00:11:21] Sometimes this happens when we are pacing around on the street, when we are in the car, in a traffic jam, when we are showering or so. What is that thing that your brain defaults to think about when you're not forcing it to think about something in particular. In other words, what does your brain think about when it's wandering around?
[00:11:45] Erik: [00:11:45] You know, it's funny, when ever my brain turns off, I wind up hearing music and it's specifically, it's, um, uh, Johann Sebastian Bach. I don't know if you're familiar with it. But his music had [00:12:00] such intense structure to it. And, basically, if I'm not thinking about the right thing or something's not working or whatever, my brain just starts trying to form structure out of nothing. And it's the, it's often musical. And then, and just the process of, of, you know, forming structure sometimes and forgetting whatever, whatever it was I was thinking about before. Sometimes I get that solution just because I'm concentrating on structure and that, so it's like a defense mechanism, I think. But I would always wind up just hearing music. When my brain goes into default, I have the background noise.
[00:12:35] Andres: [00:12:35] There's two things for me. The first one is related to biz, is more related to business, and it's about, um, for small profit organizations that can solve the biggest problems we have in humanity in terms of basic needs. That's the positive one. Um, so education, food, health and shelter. The other one, it's, um, death. And, uh, I actually have to shut that [00:13:00] thought down because when I, when I spiral down to it, I get depressed.
[00:13:04] Alex: [00:13:04] Wow. One point for each. The reason I asked that question, by the way, um, as we wrap up is because I found a correlation between people that are really good at what they do. And people that, by default, their brains wander around in topics that they do professionally. I remember, I think the second person I asked this question before. It's is that person that I just had met, but I had these, these questions fresh in my mind, because I had learned it a few days ago, and then before I even knew what she did professionally, I asked her, so what is that your brain do when, when it's playing around?
[00:13:48] And she said, I think of ways in which something that is written can be written in a better way. So we were having dinner. She said, for example, these menu. I, I'm thinking in the [00:14:00] many ways in which some of the elements in here could be phrased differently, and uh, I knew that she was successful professionally.
[00:14:06] I just didn't know adding particular because of the context we were in. And then she, I asked her, well, I'm the chief editor at Vogue magazine.
[00:14:15] Erik: [00:14:15] There you go.
[00:14:15] Andres: [00:14:15] Okay. Right?
[00:14:17] Alex: [00:14:17] Um, and that I've seen, uh, applies to many things. Tania Zapata, my wife, cofounder of many businesses, uh, chief people officer, her brain defaults to thinking about why people do things.
[00:14:28] She is always trying to understand the reasoning or the... not necessarily the, the, the, the logic, but the reasons behind people's actions and such. And that makes it a great person for HR. And now for the new startup that she's working on. Uh, in my case, by the way, in particular, in case you are wondering, yes, I default to thinking about why things work the way they do.
[00:14:55] And what was the rationale behind the [00:15:00] design that went into that. What were the designers, the system designers, the UX designers, the engineers thinking of, when they designed something to work the way. It works. That'd be the way ends up triggering a lot of thoughts about how things could work better and such. But yeah, my brain likes to understand...
[00:15:19] Andres: [00:15:19] Reverse engineering.
[00:15:20] Alex: [00:15:20] Reverse engineering of this stuff. Well, I'm happy to let you know that both of you are hired. Thank you for your time today.
[00:15:31] Erik: [00:15:31] Excellent!
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[00:15:39] Josephine: [00:15:39] That entire episode just gave me deja vu because I did that a month ago and I remember being in that interview with Alex. I'm just like, ready, I've looked up Torre, I've like done my research. And then the first question he asked me was like, if there's a mystery, if there's a mystery you want to [00:16:00] solve before you die, what would it be? And I'm like, what? Um, and I do remember saying, I wanted to figure out. The inner workings of serial killers. And if there's like a certain thing in people's brains that kind of turn them to like on that path...
[00:16:16] Andres: [00:16:16] What?
[00:16:17] Josephine: [00:16:17] Cause there's something... Doesn't that interests you? I don't know...
[00:16:20] Andres: [00:16:20] No! I don't want to know anything about them. I just don't want them anywhere near me. That's all I want.
[00:16:24] Josephine: [00:16:24] I am uh...
[00:16:27] Andres: [00:16:27] Are you a serial killer?
[00:16:28] Josephine: [00:16:28] No, I'm, I mean I, I'm the type of person to kind of go into Wikipedia and look up old crime cases and just like, cause I, I hate horror movies and all that. I can never watch anything, but I can read.
[00:16:40] Andres: [00:16:40] Okay.
[00:16:40] Josephine: [00:16:40] So that's why I've always like, and I went through this like crime phase a year ago where I was just reading all these books, like Helter Skelter was such a cool book. Um, not a cool crime. I'm not about it, but like, it was a cool story. I was about, I was interested in that.
[00:16:55] Andres: [00:16:55] I have no idea what you're talking about.
[00:16:57] Josephine: [00:16:57] Uh, Charles Manson, the..
[00:16:59] Andres: [00:16:59] I still [00:17:00] have no idea.
[00:17:00] Josephine: [00:17:00] Oh my God. Okay. Well we'll talk about this later. Um, yeah. In one of our dailies, I recently found out that I was the only person who had to write a Wikipedia bio for my interview. Um, and he, I don't think he tried this with anybody else cause he, when he asked the entire team, I was the only one who raised my hand for, um, the, for like, doing this bio. So basically he, uh, Alex gave me 30 minutes to write, like a Wikipedia type bio for myself as if I passed away. Like, what would you want it to say?
[00:17:36] Andres: [00:17:36] So I think he did that just for the Remoter Ambassador position.
[00:17:40] Josephine: [00:17:40] Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I found out. Yeah. And
[00:17:44] Andres: [00:17:44] He actually told me that yours was the most interesting.
[00:17:48] Josephine: [00:17:48] Oh.
[00:17:49] Andres: [00:17:49] But also we almost disqualified you because, because he said he was very strict on time and you said 30 minutes and I think you delivered it-
[00:17:58] Josephine: [00:17:58] No I didn't, I [00:18:00] delivered it within 30 and I was keeping track of it too. I was definitely on time. Like 100%.
[00:18:06] Andres: [00:18:06] Well, maybe it was someone else.
[00:18:08] Josephine: [00:18:08] No, I was 100% on time. So to the listeners out there, if you're still sticking with us, what did you think about this, uh, questions process? I don't know if, have you guys ever... gone through anything like this in a job interview? Uh, we'd love to hear your thoughts.
[00:18:22] Andres: [00:18:22] And more importantly, I love to hear, what is the weirdest question you will genuinely ask someone that wants to join your team? Please put that in the, in the comments, wherever you're listening or commenting or just email them to me. I'm really, I'm really, really curious.
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[00:18:40] Thank you so much for . A few last words. If you enjoyed that episode, please...
[00:18:45] Josephine: [00:18:45] Follow us on social media @remoterproject and let us know what you think about the latest episode.
[00:18:50] Andres: [00:18:50] We'd love for you to join us as we continue building the remoter library on our website, remoter.com. That's R E M O T E R dot com.
[00:18:59] Josephine: [00:18:59] If [00:19:00] you want even more resources, sign up for our free Founding and Growing Remotely online course. You can find that on our website or check the description for links. Don't forget to follow and subscribe to us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, wherever you listen to your podcasts.
[00:19:15] Andres: [00:19:15] And by the way, we've got some exciting news. We're gearing up for season two. This time, we're going to go further into interviewing remote work leaders all around the world, and we'd like to ask you, what are some questions or topics you'd like to hear covered next time?
[00:19:30] Who would you like to hear on the show and let us know through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email, um, you know, carrier pigeon, whatever it is you like, we're all ears.
[00:19:40] Josephine: [00:19:40] And remember, we're here to make work fulfilling. So what part will you play in shaping the future of work?
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