Cameron Herold delivers a short coaching message urging leaders to proactively recruit "strong culture" people they encounter working at average companies (e.g., retail, food service, ticket counters). He recommends immediate outreach—collect contact info, invite coffee/zoom, and find a fit—arguing these hires bring energy that accelerates organizational growth. He supports the advice with two anecdotes (a GameStop encounter and a DHL customer-service find) and cites the Jim Collins principle of getting the right people on the bus.
Chapters
So I was doing a call this morning with a group of my CEOs that I coach and a group of COOs from the CEO Alliance. And one of them, Scott Shrum, mentioned that about a year or so ago he met somebody at a, a GameStop location. He said he was really impressed with the person, amazing energy, and he even grabbed his card for, you know, maybe connect with him at a future date. And I was like, hire him. Like, go find that guy. Go on Facebook, LinkedIn, scour the Internet, call the store, whatever. But when you spot strong people working at average companies, hire them. You know you're doing them a favor in bringing them into your organization. There's a million and million millions of average companies out there and great employees deserve to work with great companies. So I'm always hiring, I'm always looking, and when I spot great talent, I jump on them before somebody else does. So the next time you're at a 711 or a McDonald's drive through or a clothing store or at the mall or a restaurant, whether it's a waiter or a sales clerk or the guy servicing your car or a woman at a ticket counter, hire them just point blank, say, hey, we're always looking for great people. I don't even know what the role is for you yet, but I really want to bring you into my organization. Here's my email, here's my phone number. Can I write yours down right now? Can we grab coffee? Can I bring you into the office? Can we connect over zoom? But you deserve to work with a great company and we're a great company and we're going to find a fit for you. It's amazing when you actually look for those strong energy, strong culture people and you bring them into the organization and you find the right role for them, how much energy that brings in and how much it's going to grow your organization. So it's like Jim Collins said, you get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and get everybody in the right seats. When you identify those right people, bring them in, bring them, bring them in now. And don't let them get stuck in some average job in some average company. I was at a DHL location yesterday out by the airport. I had one negative, grumpy person servicing me and trying to get a package handed over to me before it got returned to Italy. And they said they couldn't find it, they couldn't find it. And then finally this woman poked her head and she goes, what was your name? And I mentioned it and she goes, oh my God, I think I know where your package is. And she went back out and found it. And that would be a great example of a person that you should absolutely grab. So I'm actually not in the market to be hiring anybody right now and I'm not really looking for that kind of a role. But if you are, if you find good people, just find ways to bring them into your organization. Just really, really go for those people right away. So hire the right culture people and find a seat for them in your organization and always be looking. Again, if you're looking for customer service people or sales people or just general ops people, when you find that really good keen energy, those people will really put their effort behind any jobs you put in front of them. So hopefully that's helpful for all of you. Let's hire all the great people and bring them into great companies.
