Q&A with Dave and Shannon

Business Brain, episode 680 for Wednesday, September 3rd, Global Talent Acquisition Day 2025. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take some ideas, we crunch them, we dissect them, we use them to tune our business brains so that we can each keep on living those charmed lives. Our sponsors for this episode include masterclass.com businessbrain. That's where you can go to get an additional 15% off any annual plan, and bitdefender.com brain, where you can go to save 30% on keeping your business safe with Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security. We'll talk more about those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, as usual, I'm Dave Hamilton and I'm.

Still out here in Northern California. I'm Shannon Jean. How are you doing? How was the long weekend?

The long weekend was actually pretty good. I had a gig on Saturday night, which felt like a gig on Friday night, which was really nice because I had all day and yet still two days before the normal routine started again. So it was nice. A lot of family time. Went to a fair yesterday. Now that it's like September, it's fair season in New England, so country fair, country fair kind of stuff.

Oh.

Which is fun. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

That is awesome.

How about you?

It's really good. Yeah, it was great. We took my mom, who is 97 and a half. It's funny when you're a little kid, the halfs really matter.

Yes.

And when you're. What? It's a. When you're a nonagenarian. Is that the word?

Yeah.

In your 90s.

Yeah.

The half. The half start to matter again as well. So. Yeah, we took her up to our river house and it was cool. We had a great time. You know, it's awesome. And I love, you know, but when you're. Either you have little kids or older parents, you're managing, you know, those situations, so. But it was great. We had a really nice time. The weather was cool. Went and saw a band, the Baby Backs and. Yeah, yeah. At a bar. And it was cool. It was nice. Good to get back and, you know, I worked most of the day yesterday. We got back on Sunday, but it was, you know, holidays are for. I mean, I choose to work whenever I want, so it's cool. I don't mind working when I'm around on a holiday. It's no big deal.

Yeah, yeah, it's totally fine. We have a ton of mail from all of you. We say every episode, please send us Stuff to feedbackusbrain show. And we've gotten so into our routine of kind of talking about the stuff that comes up in our lives that we haven't been talking about the stuff that comes up in yours. One of the things that we talked about recently was interview questions. And Mike has a fantastic one. He says, hello, Dave and Shannon. My favorite interview question is how many ways can you use a pencil? Followed by interesting. What are your top five? I've heard everything he says from an instant. 3,724 answers to a blank stare. And two, most people think for a moment and say something around a dozen. It's essentially a throwaway question. But I'm hoping to hear that they can see something mundane and also something useful. You know, sticking them into the ceiling at school or flying them around like spaceships or anything like that is good.

Defending yourself.

Yes. Plus, there you go. Yeah, exactly. Plus it throws them off their memorized interview game. Yeah, I like that.

That's, that's a key right there is getting someone to be more conversational than nervous. And you know. Does he say when he asked that what part of the interview?

No, he didn't. And I'd be interested to hear when, when he does. So Mike, feel free to let us know. But I would do it probably about. If it's. Let's say it's a 15 minute first interview. Right. If you're gonna do it in the first interview, I would do it about seven minutes in, maybe five minutes in. Because you want the benefit of it.

Yeah.

But you don't want to just come out of the gate with like, hey, Shannon, pleasure to meet you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How many ways can you think of to use a pencil? It's gonna seem a little weird. You know, maybe.

Yeah, you want to kind of get it now. Maybe. But I agree, I like that. Getting into it a little bit and then trying to break cadence of the.

Yeah.

Answers back and forth. Because you really are trying. I mean, you can't, you can't learn it all and. But you can certainly. Like, I loved when we had our internship program at Tech Restore because we, it was like a hundred hour job interview. Right, right. And so you're able to really see what they're like in the day to day. And you know, we hired right out of that, that pool, of course, all, all the time. Yeah, it was really good. Yeah, that's a, that's a great question that the, it's, you know, it serves multipurpose. It's like that Jordan Belfry Wolf of Wall street, you know, sell me this pen.

Yes, right?

It's understanding, getting the process. Like, you can't sell me the pen. You got to start asking me questions and this. Different things, trying to get people to think different. Right?

Yeah. My. My favorite twist on that. Sell me this pen shows up as a meme every now and then on. On various social platforms where somebody says, you know, I was applying for a job at Circuit City, and the guy hands me his laptop and says, all right, sell me this laptop. So the guy who was interviewing takes the laptop, puts it in his bag, and goes home and guide Circus City. Calls him up, and he's like, you have to bring that laptop back. And he's like, great, I'll sell it to you for 300 bucks. Nice.

Nice.

Maybe don't do that on a job interview, but it's creative thinking. I do like that twist of it. I don't think you get a job doing that, but it's probably theft, but creative thinking. Yeah, Patrick, I like it. We talked about email signatures, and Patrick wrote in and said, shannon, I couldn't agree with you more on the email signature issue. To make my life a little easier, I have a bunch of email signatures stored in an app called Keyboard Maestro. But you could store it in any kind of text expansion app he says, that I use as my text expander. He says, for example, capital T, Capital T. Capital T expands to thanks. And then my name S. Capital SSS is sincerely. And then my name HH is Happy Thanksgiving. And my name. You get the idea. He says, it allows me to leave a customized signature without having to type everything any time. And yeah, I like it.

We did a whole episode. We've done maybe a couple of episodes about text expanders and the tech. The app called text expansion, but Text expander, but there's some other. A bunch of other options as well. And yeah, those things, man, they will change your life, change your. Certainly your productivity, and highly recommend you go back and listen to that. We'll put a link in the link.

Yeah, yeah. But your phone, if you have an iPhone, it has and. Or a Mac, it has text expansion built into the keyboard settings. It's rudimentary, but for this kind of thing, it works perfectly. I have WWR in mind. And then that says, warm regards, Dave, and that's it, you know, and I like. I don't even think about it. That rolls off of my fingers so easily. And the nice part about doing it that way is it's one hand, because WWR right there Left hand. Yeah. So I like that. I am kind of a maniac about, you know, efficiency and all that stuff. So.

Yeah, that's pretty good. I do a lot less email than I used to in my, in my business. A lot less. Much more, you know, direct messages, chat, you know, that kind of. I do a lot of that. But I would say far less follow ups back and forth. I do a lot of slack, you know, that kind of stuff and, and chats. And I, I do, I would say more texting now too. But you. The good thing about that, you can do the expansion in.

Oh yeah.

In any of that with a Mac or an iPhone. Right?

Yeah. The only thing, my only issue with texting for anything I need to follow up on is there's no easy way, at least on Apple products to pin a specific message for follow up.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No built in reminder type thing, right?

Yeah. You've got to take it and move it to something else in a somewhat manual fashion to.

I agree. I had. Speaking of texting, this is a little bit of segue, but I had a dream last night. It was very long and complex, but part of the dream was that I was using my phone and one of the features was the louder I yelled, I was doing a voice to text to someone and the louder I yelled, the larger the font got.

That's really funny, dude.

And I was like, I woke up and I was like, this is a great feature that it should have. Because if I was really, whatever, trying to get my point across or upset with my kid or whatever, and I was like, you know, it should just kind of go. I mean, it worked perfectly in my dream.

Yeah, of course it did.

Yes, yes, yes, of course. But I just thought it was just so amazing and you know.

Right. Yeah.

Wouldn't that, wouldn't that be good? You know, you couldn't build something around it because Apple or Samsung, Google would just be like, oh, we can implement that. Yeah, right. But I think that would be a really interesting way to, Way to stress.

You could, you could vibe. You could vibe code a keyboard for that though.

Oh yeah. You'd have to switch keyboards, which is always like. I've tried to use. What's that Whisper. Yeah, Whisper thing. I have a hard time with it. Apple's so freaked out about permissions, I can't get work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So anyhow.

Yeah, no, it's good stuff. All right. We have more of your emails to talk about here and some fun stuff in them. The next thing that we are going to talk about is our sponsors. Because you know that feeling when you're scrolling on your phone and an hour disappears and you've got gained nothing? Well, you can swap that habit for something that actually makes us all better. Masterclass. Shannon and I have been checking it out and with Masterclass, you learn from the best to become your best. I've been digging into Daniel Pink's class on sales and persuasion because let's face it, we entrepreneurs are always selling ideas, products, even convincing ourselves to keep grinding. His lessons can give us the tools we need and put them into practice immediately. And then, then there's the art of intelligence with former CIA officers. Let's just say their strategies for reading people and managing high stakes negotiations. Yeah, they translate surprisingly well into business, folks. Plus, if I ever need to run a meeting and escape an embassy undetected, you know, maybe I'm covered. With plans Starting at just $10 a month, billed annually, you get unlimited access to over 200 classes across business, leadership, creativity and more. And three out of four members say they leave every class feeling inspired. That's how we live our charmed lives, folks. Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual membership@masterclass.com businessbrain. That's 15% off@masterclass.com businessbrain masterclass.com businessbrain and our sincere thanks to Masterclass for sponsoring this episode. And this episode is also brought to you by bitdefender, our sponsor and a global leader in cybersecurity. Look, cyber threats aren't just hitting big corporations anymore. Small businesses are prime targets and most of us aren't prepared. I used to think we're small, we're under the radar, right? But one scam email like I got, we told you about that or a data breach could wreck your business. So you've gotta be protected.

Don't.

Bitdefender ultimate small business security designed specifically for small businesses. You can install it in minutes, add your team and you're good to go. You get scam and phishing protection, unlimited vpn, password manager, data breach alerts. All the tools you'd normally have to piece together separately are now all in one package. You even get real time notifications if something suspicious is flagged, which, honestly, that would give me more peace of mind that I didn't know I needed. Right? And the best part, you don't need to be a tech person. You can be and still use it. Obviously it takes all that load off, but you don't have to be. Keep your small business safe with Bitdefender ultimate small business security. And save 30% when you go to bitdefender.com brain that's bitdefender.com brain for 30% off. And our sincere thanks to Bitdefender for sponsoring this episode. All right, more listener feedback has come in. We have two reviews to read. Shannon.

Oh, that's sweet. That's exciting. I love those.

Yep. The first one comes from Jeffrey S. Beam on Podchaser. Five stars says I've been a listener through at least two name changes. Proof that the show evolves with the changing business landscape and marketplace. They consistently deliver what their listening partners need. What sets this show apart is is its staying power. Driven by practical, honest conversations, every episode offers actionable insights and grounded opinions backed by real long term experience. If you're feeling like you'll never get out of this maze, you'll find the host's openness about their own failures both refreshing and relatable. They truly get it. Have a question? Just email them. They'll address it. Absolutely. Worth every minute. Thank you for that, Jeffrey. That's amazing. Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool. I love to email us feedbackusbrain. Chill, Jeffrey. So we can get you entered to win that MacBook that we're giving away in just a few months.

That's right. Yeah. It's coming up here. Yeah. Yeah. I love the idea of listening partners. I like that. I hadn't ever thought of that. That phrase before.

It's pretty good.

I like that. Yep. We have a second review from Rich W. To read here. Rich's five star review comes on Apple Podcast. It's from Rich wportraits. I should have said that. The title being wow. Great advice. Great tips and advice. I'm a very small. I am. Yeah. I am a very small business. Owner of a portrait photography business. I wasn't sure if I was going to benefit from this podcast at first. I was so wrong. Every time I listen to this podcast, I learned something new. I can apply to either my startup business, my day job, or just my life in general. With the addition of AI tips, I'm discovering ways to work smarter and not harder. Thank you. By the way, I listened to Matt Geek Gab and so there I was. Also shows in the Backbeat Media Network and one of them's mine. The hosts have great stories and insights. I look forward each and every week. Rich W. Rich W. Thank you. Make sure you send us an email to feedback businessbrain show so we can make sure you are entered into that drawing too.

That's Great. Yeah. Because, you know, if you ran this podcast for 11 years, 680 episodes, you know, sometimes you think you're talking to the abyss. Right. And so you don't get that feedback. It's one of the few. I wouldn't even call it a complaint. It's one of the few things about doing a podcast, the show that can sometimes drive me crazy because you don't get that my brain is powered by dopamine, and I'm looking for feedback, like, all that stuff. So thank you so much for letting us know what you think. It really means a lot.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's pretty amazing. It's like Shannon and I would talk about this stuff anyway. We did before we started the show. But being able to do this together and with all of you, it's a force multiplier. Certainly for me, it is. Yep. And hopefully for all of us.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Cool. We have. I think we have a little bit of a. Are you on a weird connection today, Shannon, perhaps?

I don't think so, but it does seem like a little bit of delay. Yes, it seemed like my.

It does. Yeah, it does.

Maybe it's.

Yeah, it'll sort itself out. All right.

Maybe. Yeah, we'll figure it out.

We got an email.

What else we got today, Dave?

Yep, there's that delay. We got an email from Taylor, who says, I just got home from a forcing party where friends and I forced each other to do things we've been avoiding so far. A passport has been filed for, an inbox has been zeroed, a personal website has been created, and more. I recommend this format. Yeah, it's like. It's accountability. Right. But in real time, you're sitting down, everybody brings the thing or the list of things.

You do it right, then.

You do it right then. That's right. You do it. Yes. You carve out hours of time and figure it out. So. Yep. I like it.

I love it.

I love it. Same, same.

It's good.

Yeah.

I think that is. You're gonna be. Because I've got this delay going on. I'll talk. No, I like the concept because it's similar to entrepreneurial groups or, you know, we had the guy who was the CEO roundtable on the show one time and talking about holding their members accountable. We had Brian o' Connell on years ago, who's the CEO of a company where the group he was in said, oh, unless you hire a cfo, you are. If you don't hire a CFO by the next meeting, don't come back yes.

Yes, absolutely. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Accountability. It's one of the reasons I love having business partners with my. My businesses, because you. You get that built right in that accountability. It's. It's the other reason that I liked having a co host with my podcast, too, because we. Yeah, we schedule time to record, and we just do it. But this idea of the things that you kind of need to do for yourself but are easy to sort of kick the can down the road, I like this idea, and I think there's. There's a world. We're having these, you know, forcing parties. I get it. I get. I get the name. I think accountability party is probably something easier to digest, but the idea of having this kind of forcing party or accountability party, I think it can work with. With your business, too. Even.

Sure.

You know, even with something like, okay, like, with your. Your team, you don't even need, like, other business owners to do it with you. Sit down with your team. It's like, all right, we all have things that we got to do. Let's. Let's do it right now. You know, Here we go.

Yeah. Look at. Look at the lists and. Yeah, and just start checking. Start checking things.

Start checking things off. That's right. Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's great. You know, I've. I've done this on Zoom, now that we're talking about it, I've done it without even thinking about it. When I. Generally with programming will, you know, I'll get together with Adam, who is somebody that I've been programming with and really is the one that does the heavy lifting of most of the stuff that we do. But we'll get together and we'll talk about what needs to be done. We'll kind of strategize a little bit, and then we leave the Zoom open. We don't have video on. We just have audio on. We'll leave the Zoom open. But, you know, 10 minutes, 20 minutes can go by before any of either of us has said something.

But you're working on your part of what you discussed.

Correct. And then it's like, hey, you still there? Yep. Okay. Yep. I have a thing. Let me know when you're ready. Okay. Yeah, I'm ready. You know, then we can talk about it. And it's. But we're doing it while we're there, and it's. Instead of, well, let's talk about it, and then. All right, well, whenever either one of us has time, we'll. You know, we'll. We'll do the work and then get back together and then weeks go by, you know, so. Yeah, yeah, there's something.

It's. Yeah, I agree. It's similar to that. I made the comment earlier that I do far less email than I used to.

Yeah.

And I think it's because that real time collaboration, whether it's in Slack or some kind of chat or you know, that kind of thing where that part I really like. I do see the, you know, the. Sometimes the threaded part can get problematic.

Yeah.

But I do love it. And interestingly enough, the reason that. For that delay is I just killed an AI agent process. I knew it.

I was like, you have a. You have a CPU problem.

I knew it. I looked over. Because I'm trying out this new agent, which we'll talk about on our Friday I episode on the 4th. Right. This Friday on the 5th.

But that's okay.

It'll be the 5th. We'll do. We'll do it again on the 5th.

That's right. We'll record it. You can listen to it on the 5th.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or any day after. But yeah, I just looked over, I was like, what is causing this? And I see this thing just chewing my CPU power. And. And it will. It'll be a good topic to discuss.

Yeah.

Love it on there.

Love it. Cool.

Very good.

I love it. Thanks for sending in all your feedback, folks. This has been. We love it. We love getting all your feedback. Send more. We have more in the queue to share. But, but Please, feedback at BusinessBrain Show. We absolutely love hearing from you and love talking about this stuff. Like we never would have come up with the idea of this accountability forcing party.

That's right.

On our own. Because we don't do it yet.

Yeah, you. You can pick a topic.

Yes.

So, yes. Listening out there. There are tens of thousands of you listening to this show over and over and over again. You get to pick the topic. Feedback at BusinessBrain Show. We'll dive in, break something down. You want to hear us talk about more things that we screwed up on?

Just ask. That's it. Just.

Just ask. It's all. That's all it takes.

It's all it takes. Thanks for hanging out. Like we said, feedback at businessbrain Show. If you want to review the show, go to BusinessBrain Show Review. That's the best way to get down that path and keep living that charmed life. We'll see you on Friday.

See you.