I overheard something at a party that would terrify every founder in this group...

I was talking to a 22-year-old who is currently looking for work. She told me she won’t even look at a job that pays less than $80,000 a year.

The kicker? She has zero skills. No real experience. She just felt that was the "starting price" for her time.

It hit me right then: the local labor market has officially detached from reality.

For a long time, I felt like I was failing because I was overpaying for "meh" results. I thought I was a bad leader. But I finally realized I was just fighting a battle that was rigged against me.

So, I decided to stop fighting and exit the local labor war entirely.

I started looking past my own zip code. What I found changed everything for my businesses. I realized I could find people in places like the Philippines or Colombia who:

Have college degrees and high-speed fiber internet.
Have way more "heart" and loyalty than the people down the street.
Cost about 70% less than that $80k entry-level hire.

But I learned the hard way that you can’t just "dump" tasks on a site like Upwork and hope for the best.

That’s how you get ghosted and end up with more work on your plate.

The secret isn't just the person—it's the rhythm you put them in.

I use two simple "Management Minimums" to keep my team running at a high level in about 10 minutes a day:

The 10-Minute Huddle: A quick video call every morning to stay on the same page.
The EOD Report: A simple note they send before they log off telling me what they did and if they’re stuck.

The fear of "going global" goes away once you have that loop in place. It’s the only way I’ve found to get high-quality work at a price that actually lets the business scale.

I’m curious - is anyone else seeing this "Entitlement Gap" with local hiring, or have you already made the pivot to a borderless team?

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