In this talk, the speaker argues that home‑improvement and sales companies are fundamentally "people businesses" and should operate as talent organizations. To scale in a tight labor market, he advocates hiring smart, high‑aptitude individuals and using aggressive commission‑heavy compensation instead of high salaries. He emphasizes mental aptitude testing, a fast‑paced, call‑center‑style recruiting process he calls "speed to resume," and an "extended interview" where new hires undergo a rigorous 2‑3‑week on‑the‑job evaluation while recruiting continues. He prefers hiring people who are "on their way up" rather than seasoned veterans, rejecting the "other‑company syndrome" mindset. The speaker also stresses the need to "hire fast, fire faster," echoing Brian Elias, and warns against "sacred cow syndrome"—keeping long‑term, low‑performing employees that drain profit. He urges leaders to set personal bias aside, replace or remove such employees, and maintain a lean, high‑performing team that drives growth, scalability, and work‑life balance.
Chapters
What's your secret sauce? What got you to $100 million? What got you to $200 million? How'd you do it? It's people, okay? People. We are a people business. We're home improvement companies, we're sales and marketing companies. You know what we really are? I'm giving you mixed messages. We're talent organizations, okay? We are talent organizations. Your people pull the levers, okay? And in order to have the right person understand that really cool complex plan that you put together, you got to hire smart people, okay? Mental aptitude test them. They need to be smart enough to work their comp plan, okay? When you interview with me, it is a whole process. I do a lot, a lot of interviewing. That's where I spend most of my time, is in recruiting, recruiting talent, because I don't feel like scheduling installs anymore and I don't feel like I don't want to be managing salespeople anymore. I want to get people to do that, right? So I'm administering mental aptitude tests. And then I'm getting people that are willing to bet on themselves with an aggressive bonus plan, okay? They don't need a high salary. That is a misnomer. I'm telling you right now. I'm a millennial, so I'm going to poke fun at millennials, right? They'll be like, everybody's like my generation, like this Gen Z or whatever it is right now, they're so lazy, they're crazy. I got to pay them too much. You don't. There's hustlers out there, guys. And what we do, we hustle. That's what we do in this business. Okay, so find those people. They don't need a high salary. The people that I want, when I get somebody that says, yeah, well, I'm not sure about commission sales because I need some security. Cool. Go find it somewhere else. Okay? Because I'm offering you an opportunity that you can make beaucoup bucks. And if you're not willing to bet on yourself, then I'm certainly not willing to bet on you. All right? Another key point here is I like to get people on their way up, all right, versus having a lot of experience. There's different schools of thought in this. Me personally, I don't like the, what I call OCS, other company syndrome. I don't care how you did it at that company, this is how we do it at our company. I provide a safe place. I like to hear ideas and all that kind of stuff. But I want to get people on their way up. I want to get young people, vibrant people, people that are willing to work hard and get into it. So there's the old saying that goes, hire slow, fire fast. All right. And Brian Elias has a way better take on this, one of my favorite people. So I stole it. I did ask permission, but I never reinvent a good wheel. And it is hire fast and fire faster. If you are not running your recruiting like a call center, like marketing, you're doing it wrong. You want lots of speed to resume, right? I just made that up, that one's for free. Speed to resume instead of speed to lead, right? You want to get those resumes, get them called, lots of interviews, lots of aptitude testing, lots of behavioral profiles. That's all I want to do, I want to move people. And then when I do hire them, the first 2 to 3 weeks of training, you know what that is? It's not training, it's an experience. Extended interview, okay? And I am putting that person through the wringer in their first few weeks. And you know what else I'm doing in those first few weeks? Anyone wanna take a guess? I'm still recruiting, I'm still interviewing. I'm always gonna hedge my bets, all right? Now, one of the final things I'm gonna talk about here is the sacred cow syndrome. Sacred cow syndrome is a profit drainer and a lot of us deal with it in our businesses. Okay, these are your long-term employees that just don't produce milk any longer. And they're good people, they've been with you from day one, right? But the people that got you to where you are aren't always the people that are gonna get you to where you want or need or are going to be, okay? So you need to take action, guys. You gotta find another seat on the bus or get 'em off the bus, okay? And to do this, my best advice, is to just put your personal interests aside. Your businesses are living, breathing beings and organisms, okay? They will survive without your sacred cows. In fact, I don't know if anybody else has ever been in this situation, but I certainly have, where I haven't let go of a sacred cow, and then they quit, like, a few years later. And I hire somebody else, and I'm like, oh my God. I cannot believe I didn't do this sooner. Just me? Anybody else? Thank you for some company in that. So, put that personal interest aside and make action, all right? Just do it. Find another seat on that bus or get them off the bus. The reason these people are so important is because these people, your leaders, pull all the levers that we just talked about. They are so important to your growth, to your scalability, to your work-life balance, having a business that works for you instead of you working for it, getting you out of that vicious cycle.
