Crafting the Ultimate Team: The Secret to Hiring for Entrepreneurial Success

12 Feb 2024 · 8 min

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Epic Entrepreneurs Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title

Crafting the Ultimate Team: The Secret to Hiring for Entrepreneurial Success

Host

Bill Gilliland

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Episode Overview

In this episode of *Epic Entrepreneurs*, host Bill Gilliland shares insights on the crucial process of hiring to build a successful and dynamic team. Drawing from his personal experience in recruiting a marketing manager, he emphasizes the need for a proactive and detailed approach to hiring, rather than the common "post-and-pray" method.

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Key Themes & Discussions

The Importance of Hiring Right

  • Transformative Power of Hiring: The hiring process can significantly impact a business's success and the owner's ability to achieve freedom and flexibility.
  • Avoiding Laziness in Recruitment: Bill stresses that many entrepreneurs settle for a lazy hiring process, which can lead to suboptimal team performance.

Steps to Effective Hiring

  1. Define Who You Want:
  2. Create a detailed list of desired characteristics, skills, and attitudes (suggested 60 traits).
  3. Clarity on the type of candidate you need is essential before defining job responsibilities.
  1. Clarify the Role:
  2. Determine the outcomes you expect from the new hire, even if the day-to-day tasks are not fully defined.
  1. Broad Marketing of the Position:
  2. Advertise the job across multiple platforms (social media, job boards like Indeed and LinkedIn) to attract a diverse pool of candidates.
  3. Consider remote candidates, thereby expanding your options globally.

The Recruitment Process

  • Initial Application Phase: Bill noted that he received 239 applications after marketing the position effectively.
  • Screening Applicants: To filter out less serious candidates, he required an introductory video from applicants, reducing the pool from 239 to 14.
  • Group Interviews: Conducted group information and interview sessions on Zoom, narrowing it down to 9 attendees.
  • Final Selection: The top 5 candidates were asked to submit a one-page marketing plan, leading to a final interview with the standout candidate.

The Value of Dedicated Hiring

  • Investment of Time: Bill acknowledges that spending time on a thorough hiring process is crucial, even amidst other business responsibilities.
  • Getting the Right People: The concept of ensuring that the right individuals are placed in the right positions resonates with the philosophy of "getting the right people on the bus," as popularized by Jim Collins in *Good to Great*.
  • Avoiding Common Pitfalls: He warns against the dangers of hiring the wrong person, which can cause more harm than good to the business.

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Conclusion Bill concludes by encouraging business owners to stop being lazy in their hiring efforts. By implementing a structured, detailed hiring process, entrepreneurs can build a team that aligns with their vision, ultimately leading to a more successful business.

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Actionable Takeaways

  • Invest Time in Hiring: Dedicate necessary time and effort to define your hiring criteria and processes.
  • Be Proactive: Use multiple channels to seek out potential candidates.
  • Screen Effectively: Implement initial filtering methods to ensure committed candidates progress through the selection process.
  • Focus on Outcomes: Define clear expectations for the role to better align the new hire's contributions with business goals.

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Additional Resources

  • Free Book Offer: Listeners can download Bill's book, *The Coach Approach: Five Principles to Build an Epic Business*, for free at [giftfrombill.com](https://giftfrombill.com).
  • Contact Information: For further inquiries or assistance, listeners can reach Bill at his email: williamgilliland@actioncoach.com.

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Note Encouragement to subscribe and leave a review to support the podcast's growth and reach.

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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it.

0:37Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs powered by Action Coach Growth Partners. You likely went into business to have more freedom and flexibility so that you could spend more time with your family, do more things or travel or enjoy your hobbies or whatever it is that you like to do in your spare time. We're here to help you find better ways to make more money, build better teams and get that time back so that you can have that freedom and flexibility. will help you simplify things and make sense of business, investing, and wealth building so that you can be epic and achieve all your dreams and goals.

1:10And now, enjoy the show. Hey there. Hope you're having a fantastic week. Most of the time when I'm doing these videos and podcasts, I'm talking about always being like becoming something else. But sometimes you need to stop a few things in order for you to become something else, in order to create the room to become something else. So today, I want you to stop being lazy in your hiring. Let me tell you a story. So I decided that we needed a full-on marketing manager. And the reason I decided that is because I was the marketing manager. A, I'm a business owner. I'm running a company. The truth is, I am not an expert in digital marketing.

1:49I know enough to coach people on it. I know enough to know when to get experts. I also know that I was doing it part-time. And therefore, being the manager part-time is not working. Brad Sugars, my friend, told me, he said, look, if you're not getting the results you want in an area, it's likely because you don't have anyone in charge. And I added the codicil. Or you've got someone in charge who is incompetent or can't put their full energy into it. So I knew I couldn't put my full energy into marketing because I've also got a business, a couple of businesses to run, and I've got some coaching.

2:21So what makes sense? It makes sense to hire somebody. But let me explain to you a hiring process that works and why you shouldn't be lazy. What I see too many people doing is just putting an ad out, getting resumes in, reading resumes, doing some interviews, hiring somebody. You need to put in the work to hire the right person. What is more important? Your people or just getting someone in the slot? So let's talk about how to do this right and how you can stop being lazy and do the work and hire the right people. So here's the story. I wanted this marketing manager. Now, what do you do first? The first thing you do is you figure out who you want.

2:55You want to market for these people. So who do you want? Get clear on who you want. Get clear on their attitudes. Get clear on their skills. Get clear on all the other characteristics. Make a list of the 60 things you want in this person. That's the who. Do that before you even figure out what you want them to do. The second thing is figure out what you would like for them to do. What are the outcomes that you want? You may not know exactly the details of everything they need to do day to day, but you're going to figure out the outcome. So get the who and get the what. So once you've got that, then you can go, Mark.

3:27Now, where are you going to market? You should tell friends. You should ask for referrals. You should put it on social media. You should put it on all the digital versions like Indeed and LinkedIn and those kind. But you should not just put it in one place. You want to fish with a net. You want a whole bunch of candidates. Well, it turns out that I decided that this marketing person did not need to be local. So they could be anywhere in the world. Well, that opens up a world of possibilities of who could actually work for us. We're a bit of a virtual firm anyway. way. Most of our team worked from their home, except when they're out, you know, meetings and networking and that sort of thing.

4:02So we already had to set up to hire a virtual marketing person. And so here's what I did. I put it on Indeed. Now, once you get clear on this, let me tell you what happened. You get tons of applications. In fact, I was so clear. So, and it was such a hot item. And so many people want to do it that I got 239 replies, people who press the button. See, that's what you're waiting on. You think that you just, that a lot of people just think they can press the button and apply for a job. Well, so that took 239. I had so many in two days, I cut off the egg. And then what I did was I asked them to make me a video and explain to me a couple of things about themselves and why they wanted the job, why they thought it was a good fit for them.

4:42Well, I went from 239 to 14. That just got rid of all the lazy people, all the button pressures, all the people that thought they, oh, well, maybe I'll just apply for a job and I'll get them. So we set up a group information and interview session on Zoom. Nine showed up for that. Okay. We did the information session, did the interview session piece of it. I cut it. They were all decent. They were all had skills. They all were pretty good. They had all gone through the process. So I cut it down and I asked the top five to send me a one page plan of how they were going to attack our marketing and generate the leads that we need to have generated to build our business.

5:21So they all five did it. I interviewed all five of them. One-on-one, one stood out. So I had an additional meeting with him. And eventually we came to terms. I made him an offer and he's accepted job. But you can see that that process, I had to stop. Now I'm out selling, coaching, building businesses. I had to stop long enough to do it right, to take the time, to be industrious, to not be lazy in my hiring. So if you don't have process in your business to hire that at least that detailed, or maybe more detailed to get the right people on the bus. Remember Seth, you know, Tom Peters says you got, I mean, not Tom Peters, good to great said, you gotta get the right people on the bus.

6:03He also said you need to get the wrong people off, but you got to get the right people on the bus. The way to get the right people on the bus is to have a process that makes it a mutual things so that there's a fit. So stop being lazy in your hiring. Do the work. You'll be glad you did. And until next time, all the best. Thanks for joining us for this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. Here's four things you can do. First, you can listen every week on Biz Radio Mondays at one. Second, you can subscribe to the podcast. Hey, you get it. The more subscribers we have, the more cool things we can offer you.

6:37Three, you can also go out and give us a five-star rating everywhere. And number four, if you'd like a free copy of my book, The Coach Approach, Five Principles to Build an Epic Business, just go to giftfrombuild.com. It's your roadmap to building your epic business. That's giftfrombuild.com. Until next time, all the best.

6:59Hey, thanks for listening to the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast. Here's three things that you can do. Number one, remember to subscribe to the podcast. It takes very little effort on your part. It's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs. Plus, you guys know how it works. The more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly.

7:46Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.

From the publisher

Discover the transformative power of meticulous hiring to unlock the freedom and flexibility you've been dreaming of as a business owner. This week's conversation is all about ditching the lazy approach to recruitment, sparked by my own eye-opening adventure in seeking a marketing manager. Through my experience, we'll dissect the crucial steps to attract stellar candidates and why the common "post-and-pray" method falls short. We'll navigate the art of marketing your open positions, handling a flood of applications, and the paramount importance of clarity in the 'who' and 'what' when fishing for that diverse pool of potential hires.

Strap in for a masterclass on building your dream team, whether they're just around the corner or across the globe. We're peeling back the layers on how to effectively cast your recruitment net far and wide, ensuring you snag not just any team member, but the right one. From local talent to virtual mavens, this episode is brimming with actionable insights to help you construct a robust team that propels you towards your entrepreneurial aspirations. Don't miss out on these golden nuggets of wisdom that could spell the difference between merely running a business and leading a powerhouse.

Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!
Bill

Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!

Bill

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