3 Ways to Build a Powerhouse Team

0:00A little bit of tea. I had a consultant come up to me and she said, Jasmine, I'm wildly impressed with your hiring process. Wildly. That was the word she used. And then I immediately panicked because I'm going to explain more like why in a second, but let's get back to that consultant. She explained that before setting into her current consulting firm, the team that I was working with, she interviewed at the biggest, most internationally recognized firms. She told me that our hiring process was almost identical to Accenture's hiring process. Now, if you're not familiar with Accenture, I'm going to say this is the exact definition, quote, a global professional service leader providing strategy, consulting, digital technology, and operation services to major businesses, governments, and organizations worldwide, end quote.

0:45Okay, so the easiest way to understand it, there are big dogs in the consulting world. So after explaining what she went through during the interview process, yeah, it was. Our recruiting and hiring process was very similar to theirs. And then I panicked because I didn't want her to think that I was posturing or acting like I was far more strategic than I was. I cannot stand fake or inauthentic people. Those are people great on me. So that's the last person I wanted to be associated with or like that's the kind of person Jasmine is. So I prefer to be totally straightforward. Like deal it to you straight, no chaser.

1:21And so I said, I really want to say thank you. I want to say that we've always known what we were doing, but I am going to be very honest. Saying thank you for the compliment on our hiring system feels like saying thank you for stumbling across a treasure chest I just tripped over. I mean, yeah, I found the treasure, but it was simply because I didn't stop stumbling around the desert for it. So if you're looking to hire for your team, as simple as hiring a VA to help you get out of the weeds of your business or an executive hire, this episode is for you. I am inviting you to grab a front row seat to my presentation that I gave for my mastermind for seven-figure founders.

2:00This is a presentation that breaks down our system in three different ways. One, hiring from within. Two, hiring from my network. And three, hiring with a recruiter. Now, before I do that, I want to add a quick note of clarification. There are a ton of nuances when it comes to hiring a powerhouse team. In today's show, I'm not going to be getting into the nuances. So please know this is a high-level perspective to get you insights into what we're doing. But before I do that, for the sake of this conversation, I'm going to be breaking down hires into two groups, system builders and system implementers.

2:34So also, if you're familiar with Kim Scott's book, Radical Candor, she calls them superstars and rock stars. When I'm hiring an executive or a director, I'm on the hunt for a system builder or what Kim Scott says, superstar, builder, builder. Somebody who can solve problems on their own, create their own solutions and build their own systems. They are big thinkers. They need little to no oversight and they operationalize the business. When I'm on the hunt to build a team of system implementers, what Kim Scott calls rock stars, people who implement, people who do, I am looking for people who can take the system and follow the system.

3:14So implementers and rock stars are the lifeblood to any good business. But it's really important to know which you're hiring for and how the hiring process changes for each type of hire, the system builder or the system implementer. Every business needs both types of people. And I am incredibly thankful that I am fortunate to work with truly the most amazing people. And I can say that because they're a reflection of a powerful hiring and onboarding process. So with that, let's dive in. We had to first really get very, very, very clear on if you expand your team really fast, we have to know that the culture stays intact.

3:51Who are we? How do we behave? And how do we show up with each other, with the team, but specifically for our customers? So three ways to hire a powerhouse team using a personal brand. So this mastermind, you will see a lot of focus around personal brand. So this is going to be like the common thread. What did Dr. Natasha talk about today in terms of leadership of knowing who we are and what we're about ourselves and putting ourselves out? I am talking about building a team on personal brand because there will come a point in time where I probably won't be able to leverage it in that way. But I know that the path for me, and I believe the path for you, is if you can leverage your personal brand, you're going to bring people in who are already synergistic with the culture you're trying to create.

4:37Does that make sense? Three ways to hire a powerhouse team within, externally, and using a recruiter. So we're just going to break this down real quick. We'll get into any sort of Q &A, and then we'll have Dr. Natasha come in to create synergies and or finish off her presentation in regards to who we need to be. But she's going to be picking up cues around the conversations that are happening in the room. So three part, we're going to dive right in. From within, this is probably the most familiar for people with small teams. It is the fastest, it has the least friction, and it is the quickest ramp up.

5:15Getting from zero to a million, this is what likely will happen. Everything's on fire. And we're like, you, come in, help. And then you just start doing all these other things, all these other things. And you're like, ooh, the burden of having to hire and find somebody. I'm just gonna keep on giving this person more responsibilities. And whether or not that person was a good fit for all the roles they're doing, we just keep them because we're like, well, what we know is safer than what we don't know. Okay. Our preference is hiring people from within who've expressed interest. We don't just say, you're here, do you want this?

5:48We want people to self-select and say, hey, I think that that's where I want to go. So we don't just offer it because you're there. I've learned mistakes, I don't want to repeat them. So how do we avoid disappointing a current team member who's asking for it? We'll use a very specific time that this just happened. before I do that the way that we do not disappoint a new hire or our employee is we have a clear role description expectations and KPIs we set that in advance so if somebody on the team is even considering it they could actually see the job description and know immediately what they would be expected and then they that person can self-select do I think I have it in me they do the same test as all candidates.

6:35We do a test when we hire anybody at all because we want to see what you can do. People on the team will be still doing that same test. They are judged on the ability as the best candidate for the role, not because they're already on the team. We literally say that. So an example recently, we had a team member who's really, really, really qualified. She has like two master's degrees in human resources. We hired her for specifically human resources. We, she had, we believe due to the size of our team, the max capacity for her salary is X. We don't have a hundred person team, but she is, we all know she's overqualified for being in this business, but I am not going to pay for overqualification.

7:20What we hired her for was this team size. She agreed to those terms. A new role opened in the organization for client success lead. When we announced it, we told her obviously as HR that we were going to be bringing in a new role. And she's like, that sounds very interesting. It also came with a pretty considerable pay difference. So what did we do? Here's the job description. You will be doing the same test as everybody else. And I want to hear you say, I want to grow with you. You are on this team. You belong in this team. I don't know if this role is for you. If we don't pick you for this role and you see another role, go to that role too.

8:01But the goal here is to build a business so big that it justifies a pay increase of somebody who's doing HR, which is her passion. So I said, I just don't want there to be any bad blood or hard things between us. We're going to pick the best candidate. And she was like, I got it.

8:19Okay, I'll try my best to get as close as possible. But it was essentially, I want to have a real conversation. We're going to give you the test. And we're going to choose the best candidate. And if you are the best candidate, it would make us so happy. And if there's another candidate who's better, I don't want you to think it's because we don't believe in you. We don't think that you have the capacity for this. But what we're hiring for is somebody who could do this specific job at this level. we gave her the test and I will speak candidly I wasn't sure how she was going to do not because she's not freaking brilliant she'd never done it before so I said cool let's go they will train and I had a note of clarity that might just help Lauren with that Lauren what we also did is we said really clearly if this is not the right role for you you still retain your current role and we are fully supportive you kill your current role so we didn't want her to think that my entire job with this company is on the line.

9:21Yeah.

9:25It was a 15 or 20. 15K more. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So if we're elevating within the team, our culture is you are going to train your replacement. So as good as you are at your job, it's your responsibility to bring that person in. We think that that protects culture, the quality, and the support. Because if for some reason the ball dropped with the new hire, we go back to the person who trained them. So everyone's wanting to make sure that they leave their role fully intact and making sure that that person can run on their own. So here is a different example. We hired a part-time content project manager for a particular project and we had a listing for a marketing project manager.

10:06It was more hours and more pay. We decided we liked how this person worked in terms of our content project management. How were the roles different and what justified a different pay rate? Well, there was more room for expansion from a marketing project manager and this person had more responsibilities. Our marketing has a lot of different arms. Our content was very siloed. So she saw this opportunity for more hours and more pay. There was also diversity in projects. When it's content, it was very clear. We need you to do X, Y, and Z. You get to determine your time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

10:42Here, it's like ad strategy, organic. podcasting, anything that was going out on half of Jasmine Star brands, she was going to be project managing. She had the opportunity in this role, in the content role, the systems were built. We just need you to move the ball down the line. In the new role, she would have an opportunity to build improved systems, not just follow the systems. And marketing is creating new content systems. I was like, everything's changing on this side. We don't have a system. So what we're going to do is we're going to test you on creating a system from scratch. Because only experience we had of her is we created the system.

11:18Here's the SOP, do the job. Now the test became, can you create something? And I knew where she had come from and I knew she would be able to do it, but she needed to raise her hand. She needed to accept the terms and she needed to have a very clear KPI. Are there any questions in regards to hiring from within? Abby. okay so i already had this conversation with katie and i have somebody on my team who is customer service and he's going to be moving away from he's part-time with us so he's only like contractor role he's gonna be moving away from his other main thing okay and he has expressed interest he came to us with wanting to do more in the business now i don't need somebody to work eight hours a day in customer service but he has project management and sop capabilities to where he could manage certain projects for us, which would definitely fill a lot of admin work that we need to do.

12:10That being said, he's not going to leave the customer service side of things. He would be in it. And he would also then go through this whole process that you just talked about, potentially be taking on a project. What are some things to look out for? What are your thoughts around two different roles, essentially, knowing the size of my business? Yeah. Other things. Very common. Very common. And so what we want to do is we want to assure him that his role in customer success because you've explained to me he's very vital. You're like, the role in customer success is yours. It's awesome. What we need to do is we're going to test you on your project management abilities and SOPs.

12:44So you're like, oh, how do I create this test? Please talk to Katie. She's so really great at understanding any role and saying this might be a good way for you to see what you would need him to do. I guess I didn't say it very well. The clarifying question is we hear a lot of times in these rooms like, don't have them wear multiple hats. Oh, got it. So, yeah, no, I mean, no, no. I mean, at the size of somebody's business, it's very common for people to wear multiple hats in the organization. But what is vitally clear is when you create an org chart, make sure you know where he sits and you've clearly identified.

13:18So you're in this role and you're in this role. Each role has KPIs. each role has KPIs people but they happen to be the same person so when you do a performance review you're going to do a performance review on role a and role b and you might be missing the KPIs and role b and you have a conversation about we might remove you from role b and move someone else in it so you can't think of it you have to kind of think of it like I don't if you look at our org chart all of us are in like multiple different places and then as that role grows we could then hire for it, but two job descriptions, two KPIs.

13:54It's not like a unicorn. Cool. Awesome. Okay. Second way to be hiring a team is externally. So I make content documenting the journey. I am open about the lessons I learned. I am open about how I'm growing. And I understand that my content doesn't attract everybody. It actually pushes a lot of people away and I'm okay with that. Because the people who it does attract, they're the right people for me. This is a content conversation because we're talking about hiring from our personal brand. It's a content conversation, except for the fact, how do we leverage it? You're likely in the room due to at least one piece of content that I have created.

14:35We're all speaking language. This isn't very foreign. We understand content attracts. Cool. But how do we use content to attract or repel when it comes to our followers, listeners, customers. I started using this as the more I talk about the internal side of my business, my growing pains, my struggles, what I'm doing, I'm pushing away people who would never want to work with the team. And I'm also attracting a lot of people who would. So same idea, personal brand content, attract or repel, personal brand content to attract or repel teammates. So I leverage my personal brand on Meta, LinkedIn, and YouTube to get my feelers out for people.

15:17It is very common for me to strategically drop. So I was in the process of looking for a content manager, but I had to learn these three lessons before I did. I want the person who says, are you still working for a content manager? Good, good. One time I had a woman reach out to me because I had posted my goals for 2023 and it was an Instagram story. She screenshot the story. She expanded the story, screenshotted it and said, are you still looking for a project, a podcast project manager? I was like, creepy and I love it. That might not be for everybody, but I was just like, atta girl. I like how you move.

15:55Scrappy. I like it. Not for everybody. I've leveraged this and I use this, but it can be amazing and very hard to deal with the volume of people that apply. I give you an inside look at what my DMs look like. If I'm like, I'm looking for this, it's like, oh my gosh, how do we streamline this? So we created a very simple, yet highly effective way to vet candidates from social media. It's not perfect, but I am telling you, it has radically changed the way we secure top talent off social platforms. So I record a story using a trigger word synced up with a many chat automation. This is not new. I do this a lot.

16:36So this is a sample. I'm like, I'm looking for an appointment setter, response setter. They respond setter and we have an automation that says we're growing our team, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Find out more and apply here. When they click on that link, the automation goes to a Google form. And at first I was like, oh, it's not on brand. I'm not sure. but I was like, I need to move fast. I need to make it quick. I need to get organized. So we said, how do we get enough starting information to just quickly vet out who's gonna be qualified? So what you're looking at here is I said, comment setter.

17:14The setter would comment setter. They would get the automation. We would take them to a Google form. And what you're looking at right here are basic things. Name, email address, what country you live in. That was gonna be a priority. What's your availability each week? What's your availability total hours? What's your setting experience? Are you currently working as a setter? Have you invested in sales training? Who inspires you when it comes to sales? What about this role interests you? I'm just like, if you're not gonna answer these questions, great. For the people who did, we immediately went through.

17:42Great, great, great. And we already had parameters on the back end. We wanted an experienced trainer. We wanted somebody who was actively in a program. We had all these other things. Katie on the back end is organizing what this actually looks like. Number three, the next step is to send them formal steps to apply. Once we had their information and it was highlighted, Then the team reached out and said, we'd love for you to apply. And then we send them to a traditional application form. This is just how do we get as many feelers out there, streamline and open our funnels to not have to pay for a recruiter.

18:11This is a perfect way to become invested and our communication is personalized. Each candidate will complete a test or a project specific to their role to assess their skill set. We had a test of what we wanted to test a setter for if they applied and they followed the directions. One of the simplest ways, we had said, when you reply to this email, turn the subject line to I'm perfect for or something like that. We gave them a directive. Anybody who didn't reply back with that directive, we know you don't pay attention to details and you don't read in everything. Immediately, it's a no. So what we sent them, we're so happy you want to apply.

18:53You guys, this is on a Google Doc. It is so ugly. We actually created pages on my website, but the website was overly designed that it became difficult to read. And I said, forget it. Put everything in the Google Doc. We want to go fast. And so we just explained everything they needed to do in great detail. We gave them their assignment. Katie followed up with the exact time that they should be replying to us. This is scrappy as all get out, but it was fast, it was clear, and it was detailed. We knew we needed to start hiring fast. So if they've shown exceptional results with the test project, please understand that we are looking for exceptional.

19:33There was a lot of great candidates, qualified candidates. We were looking for somebody exceptional. They're going to move into a series of interviews with the team. They will interview with our head of HR. They will interview with Katie. And anybody who's finalized will be doing their final interview with me. Because we were moving so fast and setters were like a small group of people, I said, I will do a group interview. And I was immediately able to read who's a fit. Who's a fit? Here's an example. We used the same process. What you just saw that trigger word for setter. We use the same process for coaches.

20:05We knew we wanted to build a coaching team on the inside of a consistent 10K. So we followed the exact process and the quality and the caliber of people blew our minds. I was like, you want to coach with us? What the heck? So this is how we hired our setters and our coaches. Selena. That example that you just had, I'm assuming that was for the coaches, not for the setters. Oh, great. So same process, though. They were also sent to a Google club. Those questions were for the coaches. Correct. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. Denise. I was a recruiter for 26 years, so I'm going through your process.

20:49Yeah. So you sent out the questionnaire and then you qualify based on that. And then you sent out the application. Yeah. And then based on that, you have them test. Yes. Before anyone. No, the application lists the test. Oh. So Katie. Y 'all, my husband says it's harder to apply to the Jasmine Start team than the FBI. So it was Google form, which was just, I needed basic details, right? I needed what country you And it had to be fast, but I could screen people real fast. If they met all those basic details and they got sent, I need your cover letter, I need your resume, I need a two-minute video.

21:24They passed those qualifications, test project. You passed that, group interview with me and our head of HR. At the end of that, we would take the top one or two and give them to Jasmine. So five steps. They are paid. Okay, and so we're going to give the mic back to Denise. I love this. I love this. Okay, so I will argue. This is just from my, I dealt with the Kelms. So they have a different mindset, financial people. True A players, you really know your shit and you're really good at what you do. You may just be like, this is cute. I'm not going to get it. So I love that it worked, but I don't, I wonder.

22:05I'm just playing devil's advocate. How many people didn't follow? I freaking love this. She's, okay, she's coming with literally decades of experience as a recruiter. And what she said is key thing as an A player, We needed amazing candidates for closers and coaches, but we needed doers. We needed good doers. This process works phenomenal for good doers. We became very clear with that. We're going to talk about, we use a recruiter. We used a recruiter twice last year. And what we wanted, A players, and we paid recruiters for those prices. So she brings up a very good point. it's not to say that this wouldn't work for other roles, but we were clear around who is in my audience, what networks do we have?

22:47And so thank you for that clarification. Yeah, I feel like for this level, I could see where that would work. But if you're like a CMO or someone. Oh, yes, no. Professional level. No. This. And we're going to get to that in part three, but like a hundred, 110%. Thank you for the clarity. Is that a simple question? Did you give the personality test? Did Do you have them do the personality test? Personality test comes with cover letter, resume, personality test. And it's just a screenshot of Myers-Briggs. We may change that in the future. But then their YouTube, like two minute introduction on YouTube.

23:22Those four steps. And the reason why we ask for a video as we get to the next question is because we are a virtual team and we want a virtual business. If you don't know how to show up on video, it's going to be impacting what it is that we're building. Deanna? Just so I know, why did you use the term setters instead of a closer? Or is it one in the same online these days? So now that I'm in the sales team world, there's cues. A setter does something different than a closer. A setter is literally setting the appointment for the closer. So when I'm saying I'm looking for an appointment setter, it's queuing out to people who are in the know.

23:54The vast majority of my audience has no idea what that is. But the people who did, they were like, skirt, I know exactly where I'm going. But aren't your closers? No. We have a team of setters and we have a team of closers. yes we didn't hire closers this we did not hire closers through this no we hire we worked with the recruiter to hire our closers yeah because we were looking for sharps

24:17yes yes and now so much so so much so that now i just send them to that google form like jasmine star.com forest life center and then what what am i doing i'm like in case we have any churn we're building out a list of qualified leads it's like who do we need to fill the pipeline let's go let's go let's go let's go mm-hmm just have one more question um so I tried this something similar last from when I was here last time and I looked at the job role that you posted and I asked for a YouTube video and whatever I think I'm so much more of a small well smaller company no presence online so I feel like it was really hard to get anyone to do this.