Linda Cirigliano, CEO and founder of New York-based firm LC Three does more than just work as a project manager. Her firm was founded on the fact that homeowners undergoing a major build or renovation need a strong advocate who knows the ins and outs of the construction industry. 

In this episode of Women at WIRC, Cirigliano tells us more about her role at LC Three, the job she takes on as an owner's representative, and how she walks the line between client and contractor. 

Welcome back to Women at WIRC, where our editors from sister media brands—Pro Builder, Pro Remodeler, and Custom Builder—sit down with standout women across home building, remodeling, and design. We share their stories and business insights, and explore how women are reshaping the residential building industry.

Catherine Sweeney: Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Women at WIRC podcast. I'm your host, Catherine Sweeney, and today I'm joined by Linda Cirigliano. She's the founder and CEO at LC Three, a New York-based owner’s representation firm. Linda, thanks for joining me today.

Linda Cirigliano: Thanks for having me.

Catherine: You know, I'm really excited to have you here because I don't think that we've ever had an owner's rep on the podcast before. So, I'm just curious, you know, for anyone who might not be as familiar or who isn't familiar with your company, can you tell me a little bit about what you do? You know, give us some background.

Linda: Sure, I’d love to. In the simplest terms, an owner's rep is brought into a project and hired by a client to truly be their advocate. Sometimes I think the term should be owner's advocate more so than owner's representative, but I guess they're kind of synonymous in a lot of ways. And what we are really here to do is to act on the best interest on behalf of the client to help build a team, to help guide the project, to help manage all components of the project, and that could be anywhere from hiring consultants, designers, architects, you know, budget projections, timing of municipalities, whether that's local to New York City or outside of the city.

So really, what you're doing is is you're kind of being the master conductor of the entire project. And within that, there's a lot of different components. So that's probably the best way to describe it without going too down the rabbit hole.

Catherine: Sure, and I'm curious too, how did you get into this? You know, did you notice a specific gap in the market that needed filling, or you know, what kind of led you to founding LC Three?

Linda: So to answer your question, yes, I was a project manager for about 15 years, working in high-end residential construction in New York City, and I started my company 11 years ago. And at that time, owner's reps were very different than they are today. There were far less of them than they are today. And my experience with working with the owner's reps was actually very frustrating as a project manager, because I did not feel that they were coming to the table all the time, really acting in the best interest of the client. They were almost taking too much time to make decisions, like really dragging the project out. You know, not really representing them on a fiduciary level, and as a project manager, I found that I was kind of started to wear both hats.

But the other big component for me was that I didn't find them to have construction knowledge, so they were coming at being an owner's rep from the legal side, the financial side, having worked for the client potentially in some other capacity, and when you don't know construction, it's very hard to lead the charge.

So, I came up with this idea that I could do it differently and I could do it better, and that's what inspired me to start this firm. It took me a while to start it, but that's that was where my inspiration came from.

Catherine: And can you tell me a little bit about what your process looks like? You know, how involved are you as an owner's rep? And you were talking about project management. Are you kind of taking a holistic approach, or are there specific areas where you find that an owner's rep has the most value.

Linda: It's a great question. It's a really great question. So basically, I don't sleep because I work a lot. So to answer your question, it's a very holistic approach. You really have to be available for your clients in a lot of different capacities. But what I would say is that what I do best, and what I think I I work on is really taking a very at the onset of a project is taking a very macro look at things, and that's spending time with the client to understand who they are as people, their personalities. What are the things that read most important to them? Of course, their design tastes, things that are, you know, important to them, and then from there, build out a team. Talk about everything, kind of timelines, like what, based on everything we're trying to achieve, what do I feel the master timeline is going to be, and also really work with them on the concept of budget, because, you know, construction is just one component of these projects.

Construction is the hard cost, as we call it. There are multiple layers of soft costs and carrying costs that go into it. So, the job is really to kind of set a grand picture, a landscape, so to speak, for the project, and then from there, once that's accepted and and you know the client trusts you and they believe in that process, then you can start to kind of create these micro divisions within.

Catherine: And what have you in your time doing this? Maybe this is like a very broad question, but you know, what have you learned from the client's perspective? Because I think you know we can understand a lot from the builder's perspective, or you know, someone else on the project team. You can kind of understand their perspective. But what have you learned? Like, are there specific pain points that you're seeing a lot that the consumer has?

Linda: I don't think that they’re—I wouldn't call them pain points per se. But what I would say is what I've learned is that what clients are really looking for is kind of a trusted ally, is somebody to speak the truth to them, and I also think that they just they want to understand, and they just want somebody that can explain it to them. And so, you know, once you're able to find the best method of translation or communication, and these days we all know that that's a job in and of itself, it's really creating that relationship.

So for me, what I find is that my clients have questions, and they just want a go-to person that they can ask all of their questions to, that will just get them the answer and get it done. Instead of going to 10 people, they just want to have one. And even if I don't have the answer, I might say, "Please hold, I'll be back. But it's one person that they know is going to treat them with respect and and provide for them the information that they need to make decisions.

Catherine: So obviously, representation is pretty helpful for the client. Would you say that having someone there, you know, could also be helpful for someone on the other side, a contractor or someone else? Do you find that having sort of a go-to person that can kind of, you know, walk that space and understand both sides is is helpful for them as well?

Linda: I would say that after Realtors, contractors are probably my biggest source of referral. They, especially in the high-end industry that I work in, or ultra-high net worth, whatever you want to call it, there is a definite need for somebody to act as kind of a moderator or a go-between, and, you know, most of the contractors that I work with really, really enjoy and look forward to having an owner's rep because it's hard. You have to wrangle a lot of decisions from a lot of people, and when you have one person that you can rely on to do that, and they're actually able to deliver, it makes the project that much smoother. So I would say that you know, I'm fortunate that in the time that I've been doing this, all of my colleagues welcome me with open arms to work with. There are a few who don't welcome me so much, but that's another story.

Catherine: Yeah, and can you speak to that a little bit as well? Like how are you balancing when there is an issue, like if, you know, things aren't being translated properly, how do you kind of hold both sides accountable?

Linda: Well, accountability is like the main hat that I wear, right? And that includes myself and my clients, but it's sometimes having the difficult conversations. You know, I don't know how to put it any other way. You know, I've come into projects in the middle where I've kind of come in to kind of "save a project" and you know, you just kind of walk in and you're like, all right, well, I'm not here because things were going really well, right? So let's just rip that Band-Aid and and let's kind of talk about what the pain points are, but I think what I try and do is I allow every person to be heard because it's very rare, Catherine, that on these projects there's like one person or one thing that's the problem. It's usually a couple of different things.

So I think it's just, again, it's deflating the egos, it's deflating the stress, and allowing people to say, "For me to be an ear, a trusted ear, lay it on me. What do you have?" But then taking all that information to find solutions, and that's I think one of my superpowers is being able to listen really well, and then be able to turn it around,

Catherine: Right? And and you know, kind of, what about the other side of things, like having a good working relationship with, you know, someone on the other side of the aisle? You know, not the client, but you know, a contractor or someone else on the project team. How are you managing to, I guess,  manage their expectations?

Linda: You know, I'm so fortunate that I work with people that I really like, and we respect one another. And, you know, there are people who are not perfect, and there are people who are not—how do I put it? They don't necessarily sing the same show tune, right? It's not to say that they're doing anything wrong or I'm doing anything wrong. We're just not in harmony. Best analogy I can come up with, and those are just people that are just not in my immediate circle. Is it that I can't work with them? Of course not. Of course I can work with anybody. But you know, if I have an opportunity to build a team, first and foremost they have to align with the client, but after that, it's also people that I have good... I mean, they're my friends. I I spend most of my time working, so I have to like the people that I work with. So you know, I I really pride myself, and if for nothing else, it's just for a respect of the work.

Catherine: And you had mentioned just a bit ago, you're kind of talking about that it's not, you know, one issue usually. It's like a whole host of things. But I am curious, like, are there specific issues that you know you commonly run into, or what are the biggest solves that you kind of find yourself in?

Linda: So, what I would say is that one of the issues is in the team building process. It's not just about the talent levels of each person, but it's whether or not they work in the same way, they carry the same ethos, they collaborate openly, they are open to input, and I think a lot of times when I've come into situations that have been sticky, it's usually that somewhere somehow you have kind of a rogue person in the group that just is not kind of playing well in the sandbox. You know, you have a bunch of kids, and then you have the one person who likes to throw sand as opposed to build the sandcastle, right? Or they're the ones that are going to like go to the to the water and just dump water on the top of it. And so that's usually one of the issues.

And I just think that's in team building. Like, as I said, I have to align the team. Not every architect is for every client. Not every GC is for every client. Not every consultant is for every architect. So, you have to think that through, and then other instances. I would say the big trouble spots are just that clients are kind of led down a path where they've maybe spoken their goals from a schedule perspective, from a budget perspective, from an aesthetic perspective, and they're just not heard clearly, or somebody is listening to them, but they're not hearing them, and then they get six months, eight months, 10 months into the project, and they turn around and they're like, wait, this isn't what I wanted. This is way more expensive. This isn't going in the direction I wanted to, and a lot of it is just because nobody's kind of tapping back to say, "Hey, are we on the right path? Or ae you feeling good with this? And I think that's another thing that I really try and make sure that my clients are heard by every party.

Catherine: Right. And so, as we're, you know, kind of talking about some of the challenges, I'm also thinking when all is said and done, and you've been up against challenges, whatever they may be, when you walk away from a project, what do you consider to be a successful outcome?

Linda: Oh, when the client's happy.

Catherine: Yeah.

Linda: You know, when the client's happy. I mean, it's funny. Everybody always says like the client's going to remember the beginning and the end. They're not necessarily going to remember the chaos in the middle, but you know, when you have a client that you move in, and there's always going to be a few phone calls and a few texts, but for the most part, they're happy and they're like, "oh my god, this is great, thank you so much," or you know, "we never would have made this happen without you," or you know, I'm building people's homes, and I just take that really personally, sometimes to an extent that's kind of a little cray-cray, but you know, just because I feel like I want to ensure everything is right for them. But I think that's just a gratifying experience, and you know, listen, it's also about the referral. It's about the fact that the team did well. You know, when a client says, "Hey, I want to have everybody over for a bottle of wine to celebrate. This was a great, and the GCs invited, and the architects are invited, and you just know the team did well. There's kind of really no greater feeling, and it also, it really creates a vibe amongst the people who have worked together to build it because you spend quite a lot of time together in construction.

Catherine: Oh, for sure, for sure. I just wanted to ask if there's, you know, any any final thoughts, or you know, if there's anything that you want to leave the audience with, or you know, anything you want people to know about owners' representation.

Linda: Thank you. I think owners' representation is, I think it's becoming more and more in certain instances a necessity, just because of the language that's spoken and the details that go into these projects. But I'd actually like to also just offer out that I I love the industry I work in. I love construction, and I love the build industry and all facets of it.

And so, one of the other things I would like to just say is in the work that I do and how I work that I continue to inspire other people to do better in their work because the better we all are, the better we can deliver for our clients. So I think that one of the things I try and do from the perspective of an owner's rep is to inspire the team that I'm working with, and so I think that shows in how I can deliver for my clients. So that's probably what I would say. I just, you know, I'm fortunate. I love what I do. It's like, you know, not a lot of people can say that. 

Catherine: Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on again. I really appreciate it, and I think this has been a really great conversation. So thank you.

Linda: It was a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Catherine: Thank you.

Thanks for listening to Women at WIRC. This podcast is a spinoff of our annual Women in Residential Construction Conference, which we’ve hosted since 2016. You can learn more about the conference and see when we’ll be in your area by visiting womensconstructionconference.com. Women at Work is a production of Endeavor Business Media, a division of Endeavor B2B. Until next time, keep up the good work.