Eliminate Mental Noise & Chaos, Work Less, & Attract Great Team Members

Kevin. Good morning, my friend. It is good to see you.

Great to be here. It's been a while.

This beard that you are sporting right now is making me jealous. Can I, I have to ask, what product on Amazon did you buy to make that beard look so awesome?

I. I just naturally have an awesome beard. I'm fortunate.

So. So that. That nice like deep move right here that you. That just grows in all naturally. You don't put any like miracle beard grow on it or anything?

No.

All right. And we're caught up. There's your how to guide on how to have an amazing beard, ladies and gentlemen.

I feel like we have a delay going on right now.

Right now.

We do. Streamyard will sometimes catch up after like a minute or so, which is weird. I don't know why it does that, but sometimes it does that. So I mean, I could talk to you all day. How you been, my friend? Let's start there. And then I want to introduce kind of your why you're. Why you're amazing to the rest of the group.

I've been doing, doing awesome. Life's going really well. Getting married in a month, Got a fast growing business, going to be moving to Austin in about six months.

That's great news. That makes me very happy. Congratulations on everything. And the business that is growing so fast is. Would you describe that in 30 to 60 seconds?

Yeah. The local marketing agency. So. So we go into specific local industries and perfect the online ad campaign for that industry and then we can replicate in every city across the country and get an exclusive client in each city where we generate a lot of inbound customers for that local business.

And is that like niche specific? Like you have one market that you really own and own in every market, or do you take on a bunch of different industries?

Yeah, we have been focusing on emergency home service industries like pest control, water damage companies, appliance repair companies, H vac companies.

And so those companies come to you because you're doing Internet marketing to get them leads, is that right?

Correct.

And so are they paying you for shows for leads on a month to month basis? Just help us understand the business.

Yeah. What we've found, we tested a bunch of pricing models. So charging them a monthly fee based on how much their ad spend is. So they have a couple different levels. So as they want to grow, increase their ad spend and our fee goes up accordingly.

Got it.

So on average they pay us around $1,000.

Okay. So I got so $1,000 per client. Ish. And they're paying for local marketing to do, I'm guessing like Facebook ads and.

Google Ads and all that or Facebook ads depending on the industry. So then we set up like a whole brand specific for that industry. So look, and we position ourselves as the specialist or expert in that industry to get them business using online marketing.

Got it. Cool. And so you set yourself up as an expert in this industry. You know how to get leads specifically on Google and you're managing that for local businesses. And is that your. In the time I've known you, we don't see each other as much as we used to. But you used to have multiple things going on. And then like a couple years ago something switched where you just got like happy, fit and rich. In the course of. Of. Of like nine days it was like, it was, it was like your whole life flipped. Like I want to talk about this because I mean you were, you were known in the space, pretty well known in the space.

Spoke on stages, referenced from stages in masterminds. Pretty much everybody knew who Kevin was. And one day you completely flipped the model. You became really happy, got engaged and your whole life seemed to change. Would you tell me what in the world happened in those nine days?

Oh man, that's a big question.

So I used to have a training company called Nitro Marketing. Very well known in the industry. A lot of people either worked for like got their start through us. Like simple example like back in the day, Russell Brunson applied to be our affiliate manager. Before anybody knew who Russell Brunson was. And of course we didn't hire him, we hired somebody else that didn't work out.

Although I can't see Russell keeping a job for very long.

So it was best for everybody. But then I just, I loved the training business and making a difference for people or I love training and making a difference in people's lives. And my mind is really just naturally a trainer at heart. But I didn't like the business model behind training.

I felt like to make the business work we always had to come up with the next thing to sell people. And everything we created was great but it added actually created more overwhelm in people's lives versus the.

Generally more overwhelming. I just felt like out of integrity of what I had to do to make the business work wasn't always in line with what was going to make a difference. And.

So I got sold that business and I also had my. So I taught people how to do local marketing and start their own agency and taught thousands of people before anybody else did that. And I also have my Agency, where that's what we did as well. So I, like, you know what? I just want to focus exclusively on my agency. That's the bigger opportunity of actually doing it, because I can scale and grow, creating a large company that we could eventually sell.

So I did that and back in 2016, and my partner at that time didn't want to do that. He had. He was making more money than ever before, more freedom than before. He just wanted to, like, enjoy his life and didn't want something bigger. So he bought me out. I sold my company. Both deals actually closed on the same week, which was crazy, and it was great. I. I removed everything from my calendar and looked at the next week, and I literally had nothing on my calendar. Is this whole new, like, sense of freedom I never had. Took some time off and then started my current agency the next year with one of my best friends. And that's what I've been doing since.

So go ahead, Go ahead.

I guess going back to what made the difference for me is this. I just went more into my own personal growth. Like, what caused me to get burnt out and miserable and have a business that wasn't thriving and all that. I had to, like, work through my own kind of growth to move past that and create what was next for me.

So I want to talk about that more because I think it's so easy to talk about where you are now without providing any context or for the foundation that brought you here. And if we don't get that context and that foundation, I think we've missed all of the juice. And I know it seems to me from the outside. I remember when we were in Jackson Hole together, me telling you, like, it just seems to me like you are as happy as you have ever been. And this is your reaction. Yep.

Like, you seem happier and calmer and just like you're ready for the next chapter. And it seems like the next chapter has kind of unfolded your way with a lot more ease than previous chapters. And first of all, I want you to tell me if that's a right assumption. And number two, what did that area of personal growth look like in order to set up the chapter where you are now?

So, on a personal growth side, it was just going deep.

In a. I guess, a mythology. So the route that I took was through landmarks programs, and it's all about identifying the stories we unconsciously created in the past growing up that just dictate how life goes for us and how we see life. And we're just, like, replaying the same stories over and over again. So to be able to start to peel back the curtain or the onion and uncover what are those unconscious patterns and stories that are running my life, that are creating the same outcomes over and over again, allowed me to change everything. Gave me the freedom to get rid of my business I didn't want anymore. It allowed me to see the same like path I was going on with dating that was unsuccessful for me. And that same year I sold my, both my companies. I met Graciela, which we're now getting married. Just absolutely amazing relationship. And then we've been on a path of growth together.

So I guess that's a, a quick summary of it all.

What I love about what you just said was that you said you just decided to go deep with a modality because.

Pretty much all self work is discovering what stories got us here and what stories feel empowering for us to move forward. And I know I've been guilty of skimming the surface of a lot of different modalities, but they're all kind of the same. Like they're all, they're all trying to address the same, the same, the same. Cause if you will, just looking at it from a different way and the work is really identifying those stories and peeling back those stories. Would you, would you give us an example of a story you didn't know was there that once you unpacked, gave you a new, like a new perspective that was more powerful?

Let me kind of think of a good example. So one that really drove my life is growing up, grew up on a farm in small town Iowa. So back in the 80s, Farmer's was not a great profession to be in. And I saw my parents struggle financially and then how that created conflict amongst. Amongst them and a positive of that, it gave me a huge drive to not experience that as an adult. And that's what propelled me to, as a kid, I thought the pathway out of that was to have my own business and be in control of my future. So I was always entrepreneurial. But the downside of like laying in bed at night upstairs, listening to my parents yelling and arguing downstairs and crying myself to sleep, I just created the stories. Like, I'm all alone, nobody cares about me. My, my parents still love me. So if my mom doesn't love me, that means like, how could women love me? And I just created this dynamic of I was just alone and isolated and.

Nobody actually could love me. And to unpack all that was.

Very impactful. Like I'm just like in tears as I'm like uncovering the story. But then the freedom of the other side that that offered me was life changing.

And what does it look like on the other side to unpack that? Do you then frame a different story?

Yeah. So I was very disconnected from my family. And for like years and years I would create in my goals, beginning of the year, like I want to have a better connection and like loving relationship with my family. But all I saw was everything that drove me crazy about them. I'd go home once a year for Christmas and they're like having the same conversations. They're, they're telling the same stories I've heard before. They're comparing which gas station has the cheapest gas in town. And I'm just like, oh my God, this is like unrelevant. Like this is not who I am. And I just check out and can't wait until I get to go home and like cross it off the list and go back. And it didn't matter. Nothing ever changed with that. Like year after year I'd have the same goal and the same experience. And then the next time I went home after I did my first program and I unpacked that story and I created.

Unconditional love with my family, like it actually instantly changed. The second day I was in this program, I. I called my mom and had like a profound conversation with my mom. I called my dad for the first time as an adult on the phone. Like I unknowingly blamed my dad for my parents divorce. So he went from being my hero in life to now being this person I can't stand. Like even the way he ate his food would like annoy the crap out of me. And then I actually like had a real conversation and connection with my dad for the first time as an adult, told him I loved him. And then I called my sister. And during that conversation I realized all those stories I had about my family literally disappeared. Because once you distinguish an unconscious story or belief you have, you can now be free from that and put in place what you want, which I put in place. Unconditional love. So from that moment forward, all I've like had for my family was unconditional love. And now I look forward to going home. I talk to him regularly on the phone and I have a. Like now my dad has such a huge place in my life. Like no matter what happens, I can have total.

Sense of peace of who my dad is for me. And I even had him come out and spend a week with me in New York. And that was amazing as well.

There's Something you said that I need you to illuminate a little bit more, which is as soon as you recognize the unconscious story, it disappears or evaporates or frees up. I don't remember the language that you use, but would you comment on that a little bit more?

When you go through a methodology, it's the one that they work through. There's other people. Tony Robbins has his own.

I mean, one of my favorite books that I've given out, the Most Untethered Soul, is a great entry point to this. But once you distinguish what actually happened separate from what we make it mean, it's like as soon as something happens in our life, our brain instantly puts a meaning on what that is about us and life around us. So all that happened as a kid is my parents are having a conversation downstairs with. At a loud tone, and that's all that actually happened. But then my brain as a little kid, 10 year old kid or whatever was now created this whole world of what that actually meant, but the meaning, is it real and does it exist in reality but for the rest of my life? That was how life was for me. So. So once you can actually peel apart what happened from the story, you get freedom from the story, running your life. And now you can create something new because you have this blank slate that you just created for yourself. Free. Free from the story.

The thing that you just said that was so true is the story doesn't exist in reality. Yeah, but we make it true over and over and over and over and over. I could be here a while. Over and over and over again.

Because from that moment forward, our brain now just looks for evidence that the story we just created is real.

So.

I love how.

We'Re getting there.

Look at that. I promise, give me. Give me 82 more seconds.

You know, I might actually meet.

Me too. Me too. I actually might flip the order today. I'm really enjoying this. I might finish up this part of this, then hit AJ and Wayne, and then come back to talking about. About hiring. Are you guys. Are you guys cool with that? If we flip the order, I'm really enjoying going down this rabbit hole.

And I also. AJ's sitting here drinking in his car, so I would really like to hear what's on his mind and then we'll go into the hiring stuff. All right, cool. So Kevin, talking about how that kind of creates the filter for all the evidence that we see. I've been playing with this idea of, can we flip it? Can we just believe a story and look for evidence the story and allow our brain to start creating that meaning. Like could we pick what it is that we want to see and then find evidence for it? I'm curious your thought on it.

Real life example right now. So back the last economy, recession, 2008, 2009.

I was not prepared for that. It just like came out of nowhere and, and really devastated my business back then. People just stopped buying. So now I like every day at the end of the day, I like worked the entire day as long as possible. I'm now sitting on my couch and I'm just left with the thoughts going in my head and it'd just be this constant spiral of death and destruction that was going to happen in my life where my business was going to fail. I was going to lose my house and I was going to have to move back to Iowa and live in my mom's basement. And that was just like the thought process over and over again. And fortunately like I made it out of that. And that's what set me on the path to focus on local marketing, helping local businesses and all that. So now back in March of this year, very apparent that this was going to be a massive impact on business, probably even bigger impact than what I experienced back in 2008 and 9. So I'm like, well, I'm going to have this go different than how it went before. And what I learned is during times of the biggest change is where the biggest opportunity shows up. However, it's not going to show up doing what you've been doing before. You have to actively go out and look for where the opportunity is in the shifting landscape that's out there. So I told myself I am choosing that this is going to be the biggest opportunity in my entrepreneurial life up until this point. And I've been in business since 96 when I was in college. So over 2020, what's that, 24 years now? I said this is going to be the biggest opportunity in my, my entrepreneur life and I'm just going to be on the lookout for it. And then I created that reality with my team, with my business partner, my team, with myself, and I just went on the search for it. And that's what showed up is.

Everything that came out of that. So our best growth that we've had actually started once everything started falling apart in March. So we've been growing faster than we ever have before in the three plus years of my agency and what we're creating for the future. I'm like super excited about.

That's fantastic, great work thank you for sharing that.

But if I did it, go back to what you're asking. If I did it create that, then whatever, something by default was just going to show up. The default usually is not what we want in our lives.

Well, it's usually a past story, and past stories are usually disempowering. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing. All right, so here's what we're going to do. There's a few of you here in the waiting room. You obviously don't have questions about hiring because we haven't talked about it yet.

So we'll just bring you on, rap about it, and then Kevin and I will do our previously planned shindig about hiring funnels. So, aj, give me a thumbs up if you're ready to come on here live. Alright, cool. What's up, aj, Good to see you.

What's going on, Ryan? How are you doing?

Great, man. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Thank you for having us.

What's on your mind?

Not on a lot. I wanted to agree with Kevin. That landmark for me, I went in 2017, and I would say that was a turning point, not only for me as a business person, but even personally in my marriage, understanding that the stories that we create are not true. You know, things happen and then like Kevin just said, we assign meaning to them. So a lot of the stories I was able to, it wasn't easy, but I was able to break some of the cycles that I created for myself. And even though, you know, I'm not in this seven figure club yet, or millionaire yet, I've been able to make more money in business and have more opportunities for myself even more than I even know what to do with. So that's why I kind of joined capitalism after following you for a while, is to try to not only scale up what I'm doing, but understand.

You.

Know, if I can scale that to a place where I can put a team around it, maybe there are some other opportunities. And then I have so many clients that are asking me for help, I don't know how to, how to work with them and what to do with them. So, you know, that's, that's kind of what I was. The question that I had. But this is great for me.

So before I answer your question, can I, can I play with you for a second?

Sure.

All right, so the, the thought that you said that was most interesting to me was quote, even though I'm not in the millionaire club.

Mm.

That's just an interesting statement. And I know you said it. You know, Just as a statement, like, I'm not there yet. But the way that you said it kind of indicated that there was an assumption of less than. Like, there's these, there's these millionaires and then there's I'm not there, I'm not there yet. That was like the kind of the underlying thought I heard, which was, I'm not there yet. And so, so let me ask you a couple questions.

Are you in a group of people that is a high concentration of millionaires?

So.

So. Well, I mean, just with that one, I mean, the answer is yes, if you're here. Right, right. Okay. And. And are you. How long have you been in business?

This is year six.

All right, cool. And you're full time in your business?

Yes, yes.

And that's, that's what you always wanted, right, was to be a full time entrepreneur.

Right.

And. And you're growing along the way and you're starting to talk about hiring and teams and that kind of stuff.

Yes, yes.

So it sounds like you're in a perfect spot to me. It's like you've made it in a lot of people's eyes. So everything that we do from here is just gravy and cherries and excitement and fun and play and all that stuff. So I just wanted to call out, like, saying, I'm not in the millionaire club. You have everything that every millionaire wants, which is to be in the mode of. I'm now able to be in creative, fun, play mode because I have built a business that can sustain me and my family and I want to grow personally and professionally. And so that to me is millionaire status. Because you've, you've made it. You've gotten to the level that all of us shoot for, and now you get to play. When I, when I tell you that, how does that resonate with you?

I feel like the trajectory that I'm on and, you know, joining these calls and listening to some of the stories that people share in the group that I just need to tweak what I'm doing and get the right systems in place and I, I can see a path which, you know, I couldn't see even last year. Right. So. So I feel like I'm on the way or. Let me change that story.

You caught, you caught it this time. Yeah.

Right. Because I have time, freedom. I have, you know, I don't have to depend on any particular client or anything like that to sustain my life and to take care of my wife and my daughter. So. So like you said, I'm there But financially, I have some other goals that I want to accomplish. I think that's a better way to say that.

That was a better way to say it because you have, you have. You're excited about now and eager for more.

That's perfect.

Like saying I'm eager for more or feeling eager is a lot more empowering than saying, I'm not there yet. Those are different worlds, but they're this, they're, they're, they're like. Some people would say they're the same, but they're completely different feelings and completely different perspectives. Like, I. I'm eager for more. I'm excited for more. Way different than I'm not there yet.

Hi.

AJ's friend, right?

Right.

Let's change a barista's life, ladies and gentlemen. Hey. Let's all have a simultaneous sip in honor of the barista.

Let's sip to that.

With eyes.

Kevin, a penny for your thoughts, please.

This, like, sitting here watching you.

Has brought up with this, like. Like, I've known you since 2008 back you were still in college. It might have been like we were the first track traffic conversion event that we all went to.

We went to lunch in my car, and you're this little college kid that's still trying to figure life out. So I've known you during your entire entrepreneurial journey.

I remember I really wanted to bring personal growth to the online entrepreneur world, and I invited you the first five day.

Camp that I put together for entrepreneurs.

I'm so terrified with how this story is going. Please continue.

And I was telling sue, like, actually, everybody knows Sue. So sue actually worked for Nitro Marketing for a number of years. She was a content writer. Then we brought her on board full time to be head of content. And then when you reached out, asked me, would she be a good fit for you, like, to all the stuff. So it's great to see her really thriving with you. So she was there as well. And I'm like, so super excited about how this is going. Like, I thought it was going great. And then like halfway through, I asked, hey, Ryan, because I asked, I invited you to come because I thought it'd make a difference for you on the. Where you're going in life. And you go, kevin, this sucks. I hate it. I can't believe it. I'm here and I'm like, crushed inside.

Because then you're just like a naturally, like, kind of pessimist about everything. And you weren't really into personal growth yet. And it's great to see your own journey that you've been on over the years, and you've really dug into your own growth. And now I mentioned this over message, like, a while ago. Like, you have really developed a skill set where you can, like, listen to people and hear what's actually going on behind the words that they have.

First of all, thank you for that last statement, for your previous statement. I have no recollection of this at all. And sue has told me that story through your words. And, like, I don't remember. I remember being really unhappy for the first day and a half and being like, God, I hate it here because. Because.

For several reasons. And then about a day and a half being like, you know what? I'm being an asshole, and I'm thinking being really selfish, and I'm just gonna flip this and focus on everybody else. And then everything changed. Like, my experience changed. The people around me changed. I remember coming up to you in tears, and we'd be like, I cannot thank you enough for inviting me, for keeping me here, for, like, for putting up with me. That's the part I remember. I don't remember telling you I hate this, and this so sucks, but I don't doubt your story.

Well, it goes back to what you. Your core message now. Like, when you focus on an audience and not yourself, everything changes in life. And that's what happened for you.

Well, thank you for giving me that experience. It's probably the reason we're here. Put me in the middle of the rabbit hole, and here we are. And I actually, as I am really honest with myself, Bram Sparrow will be very happy to hear me say, say this. The more I go down my own work, I really believe that I'm.

The legacy of capitalism.com will be that it gave entrepreneurs a personal transformation more than it did a business transformation. Because that's what we're all here for anyway, right? Business is actually a personal transformation, and the minute we're honest about that, we can get what we want a lot faster.

Aj, it sounded like you had a technical question or a tactical question about hiring in teams. So why don't you go ahead and ask that and we'll see how we can help.

So last Wednesday, actually, Wednesday before last. So one of the businesses, the business that I think can get me to seven figures is helping authors write and publish their books. And I've helped almost. Almost 60 people. So I'm. And it's been myself and my project manager for the most part. And I brought on my first account rep last Wednesday. But again, I don't have any processes in place yet, and I understand that I need to have them in place. No, thank you. But I wanted to know your advice for system putting systems in place so that I can hire multiple account reps for all the authors that are coming into our ecosystem.

Kevin, do you want to tackle that?

Sure. So what I have found works well for me and our business is the next time you're going through what needs to happen, go through with the mindset of, like, let me actually see what I do. Because you've done it enough that it's kind of unconscious to you and you gotta, like, unpack the unconscious work that you do so you're like, actually paying attention. Oh, I'm doing this and then I'm doing this. What I do is I take some notes to document what I'm doing the next time I do it, and then the time I do it after that, I document it in a way that I can pass off to somebody else. So I'll usually, like, use video like a loom or whatever you do to like screen capture recording to capture what's happening on your screen as you talk through it in a way that you can have somebody else understand it. So between.

A bullet point list of things to do and a screen capture recording to not only say what to do, but just as important the thinking that's going on in your brain that goes into it. So that way they actually understand the. The why that behind it so they can start owning it for themselves. It's not just a, like a process that they're trying to do, but it's something that they can start owning because they're understanding why you're doing what you're doing.

Understood.

But if you don't start creating that structure and that process, what's likely is it will become a big disaster as you hire people, because the people you're hiring generally are not ones that are going to be great at creating the structure themselves. They're great at following the structure that you have in place.

And we can, like, when you get in the training side of it, like, I can go into more detail, like, in that as well. There's like, all kinds of, like, little things that I thought would be valuable for the community that I can pass on.

Make sense. Aj, thank you. You bet. It's good to see you, dude. Thanks for hanging out with us.

Thank you, man.

All right, see you, bud. Hey, Paul, are you ready to come join us and then we'll go into our regular scheduled programming? All right, Paul, let's do this.

Hey, Paul.

Good to see you, dude. You are muted, my friend. There we go. What's up, Paul?

What's up? Can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Yes. It's good to see you.

Yes. Same here. It seems that I've become a regular. I watch all the time. I watch all the time and I've seen myself twice.

Paul brings up a good point. So let's talk about something for a second. If you are in Austin, which is where I live, and you drive three hours that way, you will arrive at Joel Osteen's church. Now, I went to school to be a pastor. I'm no longer religious, but I like. I like Joel Osteen. And Joel has a rule at his church that if you come three times, you're considered a member. There's no application process. You just. Once you're there three times, you're a member. So Paul just gave me the idea that we're going to run with. If you appear on two Sunday Coffee Lives, you're now a regular. So that's going to be our church language moving forward. Thank you, Paul, for your contribution to the cult this morning. You are now officially the first regular on the one in the 1%. What's up and what can we do for you?

Okay.

As you know, maybe you don't, but I'll refresh your mind. I was on the. On the program and my interest is to serve the audience of men over 50 that are interested in a healthy lifestyle.

It took me a while to, with your help, to narrow down this. This group. I even flirted with the idea of even narrowing it more down, but now I abandoned that, which was that also like yoga and traveling.

And I remember we walked through that your market was too broad and what you were really looking for was other people like yourself who are 50 and over and interested in being not just okay, but really optimizing the second half of their life and having a fun, enjoyable, like regeneration of their youth. I remember that was our conversation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So this week, while I created the page and found the title for the page, I ran into two problems. And those are the two questions I have. The first one is, okay, when I look at this group that I want to serve.

There'S many things that this group does.

And there are many different subgroups. And in each of those subgroups, there's different pain points. And I cannot aspire to fulfill all the pain points because that's unrealistic. So for me, the relevant issue here is exercise, dieting and supplements. They're related. In order to have a healthy life, you need to feed yourself properly.

And.

That feeding properly is difficult because it's a dynamic thing. Sometimes you, you skip lunch, sometimes you eat fast food. Sometimes, I don't know, you go into some habit of eating ice cream in the evening.

Paul, I know exactly where you're going. Can I coach you on this for a second?

Sure, sure.

Because what you're really asking me is I'm serving complex, multifaceted human beings. How do I make a simple business that gives me the clarity of how I can move forward to serve this group? That's really kind of, that's really, that's really the context of the question that, that I think you're asking me.

Yes.

Right.

And so what you have kind of done is come up with an equal, complicated thought process about how to serve this complicated person. And so I want to encourage you to massively simplify this to the point that it makes it really easy for you to move forward. Now stick with me for a second because I can see you're a little bit surprised. So something that I say in this amazing book called 12 months to 1 million, is that easiest to serve someone when they're at the beginning of a new journey? So right at the beginning stage of the new journey is when you can get them and speak to them, and then you can lead them down a path of doing these three different areas of exercise, food and supplements. But the first thing that they're doing, the first thought that somebody who is 55 and wanting to reclaim their help is like, man, I gotta get a hold on this, I gotta get a handle on this, or plug your ears, children. They're like, I can't get it up anymore.

Or they're going, I can't pee anymore. Or they're going, I need to lose some weight or I can't keep up with my grandkids anymore. The first thought they have is, something has gone wrong.

That's the beginning of a new journey. Something has gone wrong. And so you can come up to that person, be like, I got you, man. I got this food pyramid and this exercise regimen and this supplement regimen. And if you do this for the next 18 months, you can pee and get it up again. I don't want to hear that. I want to hear that you've got a direct answer to a very specific pain point. And if you solve that, then I want everything that Paul has to offer. And so your job right now is to look at this 55 year old or 60 year old who has the thought something has gone wrong, and you address one of those things that has gone wrong, and you develop the best product in the world for that one thing.

If you do that, then a year from now you'll have four products that do the exact same thing for other pain points. And you can be talking about food supplements and exercise. But until then, your job is to give those. Give those men that first thing they need to go down the rabbit hole of reclaiming their health, because that's what they need the most at this part of the journey. You with me so far?

Yeah.

Does that feel. Does that feel simpler?

Yes, definitely. Definitely. Actually, it focuses. It takes all the noise out of focusing into one issue and moving with one issue as opposed to trying to move on all the fronts simultaneously.

That's right. And Kevin will laugh at me for this. I hate going to Masterminds and I hate going to Masterminds because one of my thoughts that I have, especially if I'm in a room of people who are more successful than me, is I look at everybody in the room and I immediately have the thought, you motherfuckers aren't even good and you're doing better than me. And I hate that feeling because I struggle with the same thing that you're bringing up.

Right.

I over complicate things.

I want to serve a whole person. I make it this long process. But the people who are really helping people and who are financially successful quickly address one specific pain point. They do it really well, and then they move on. Okay, so I'd like to save you five years by getting you to think about one specific thing.

Thanks for the five years. You bet. Second question. Once I land on that solution, I asked the question in the group, but for some reason I'm still struggling with how the workflow. I build a group, a page, a site, a YouTube channel, and Instagram.

What?

What's the first thing? And then.

If. Okay, maybe you forgot tick tock.

You forgot tick tock, Paul. It's all broken. Remember.

Remember, I'm a 52 year old millennial, but I'm not into TikTok.

You understand what I'm saying when I joke like that?

Yes.

Like you're taking the same complicated approach to how to launch this thing as how to build this thing. So. So first of all, let we simplify the business drastically to. I. I'm just, I'm just gonna say it this way so that you remember it. We've gone from this complicated, like five year plan to you selling boner pills that's that's this. That's the simplified way of thinking about it. One thing. Boner pills. And so there's your start and then you go from there. Okay, what's my next step from here of building the audience A. It's taking a damn sale. Which means putting the product up for sale before you have an audience. Because you have more momentum in your thought process of what the product is, is going to be, then who the audience is going to be. So you take that first product and you make it available for sale. And then from there you document the experiences of your customers on one platform. Just one. And I want you to pick whichever one you are most active on.

Just one. You will over complicate the process if you are thinking about YouTube and Instagram and a blog and all these things. I want Paul to pick whichever one he is most active on because that means that you will be more likely to interact with your customers, screenshot their reviews, help them, go live with them and answer their questions. That's your job. So which platform is that for you?

I would say that I will choose Facebook.

That's your job?

That's your audience? Yeah. We just solve all your problems.

Yes. I would say 99.9.

Good. So focus on that rather than the 0.01% where you're still confused.

Yes.

Because you will let the 0.01% stop you from being clear 99.99% of the way.

This is your job, Paul. I want you to come back here on the next live or post in the Facebook group before next Sunday what your first product is.

Okay.

And share the face and share the Facebook page that you're going to be documenting it on.

Okay.

And I'm telling you that is, that is your. That step puts you on pace to have a million dollar business a year from now.

Okay. You said page. I have a group.

That's fine. That's fine.

The group and the page work the same way.

All I care about is that you're regularly getting in front of people who want what it is that you've got. That's all that matters to me.

Okay, Good.

Good.

Thanks.

Because all, all you need is a few hundred people to be raving fans for you to have a million dollar business.

Okay.

Okay.

So you, I need you to come back here and post in the Facebook group a week from now what your first product is and tell me the momentum that you've got behind that product. And. And you will be on pace for a million dollar business a year from now. Got It.

Thank you.

Good to see you, Paul.

Yep, same here.

Hey Kevin, do you know anything about hiring people?

I've learned a little bit over the years.

Awesome.

27 odd years.

Like you've. I mean you. One of the things I really admired about you when we first met was that you had a virtual team that still had like a culture and still worked well together and had defined roles and you were. I really learned a lot from your example. So I'm excited to see what you've been kicking around. Do you need to share your screen or do you just want to walk us through your model?

I'll just talk through it.

All right, cool. I'd love to hear.

First. There's likely two groups of people listening right now. So group number one is all the people that never hired anybody yet or you tried and it didn't work out. So that's probably the majority of people in this group. And everything I'm going to go through is like super relevant, probably change your life. Second group is those that have success with hires and want to get better at it. So you're going to just like pick up some like valuable like strategies and tactics you just immediately put into use to really elevate your building out your team. So those are two groups. The topics we'll go through is first is for that first group we really need to look at the mindset around hiring because there's a lot of baggage that comes with hiring people that we got to address first. Then we'll talk like who to actually go out and hire and then where to find where and how to find your ideal team members. And this is like the secret sauce I figured out over the years is the automated hiring funnel that does all the work to actually find that ideal team member and have them like really interested to be a part of your company. And then if we have time, we can talk a little bit about how to manage people once you bring them on board.

Beautiful. Love it.

So when it comes to hiring, the reason this is extremely critical is you building a team is almost always a requirement to achieve both the financial freedom and absolutely the time freedom you like, deeply desire for your business. So if you don't build a team, the financial and time freedom is most likely not going to happen for yourself because without it, your business is just going to over time run your life and make you miserable and burn you out. Also, it's critical if you ever want to eventually sell your business is there needs to be a team that does the work, not you, otherwise you don't really have a business. You just have an income that pays you well. So that's why building a team is critical. And there's three mental roadblocks. Almost everybody runs into going down this path. The first one is it is going to scare the crap out of you because it's a. It's seen as a huge financial risk that you're taking on. You deeply doubt if you and your business is going to be ready for it. And all you can see is what if it fails? And I'm going to fail at doing it because I've never done it before. So it's likely I'm going to fail. And we. That is completely normal. I felt that way. Ryan's felt that way. Everybody else that's built a team has felt that way in the beginning. So. So nothing wrong with that. That's just like, what's by default there. Also what we all believe in the beginning is, man, nobody can do this as good as I can do it. And that is just, again, a default belief, like, I'm good at this. Like, how can somebody else be as good as me at doing this? And that's just a trap that keeps you stuck from doing anything. So what is going to happen is, guess what, they won't be as good as you at. At the beginning. So guaranteed they will not be as good as you. Nothing wrong with that. So if you go in expecting that going in, they won't be like, won't be as good as you. You're not going to view it as a disappointment or failure when that's the reality that shows up. If you think they're going to be as good or better and they don't, like, instantly like, this is a failure. I failed. This is the wrong person. And you're going to, like, repeat the same mistake over and over again.

I am already feeling guilty and we're. We're four minutes in and I'm like, oh, yep, I've done all of these things.

We all have. Like, everybody that's built a team has made all these mistakes. I'm just, I'm very good at, like, seeing the big picture and identifying the key, most important points and, like, condensing it down into simple strategies. So then what you're looking for is if they can actually do the work and they're good at learning from your feedback, if they have both of those qualities, then they are going to quickly get better at it and soon they're going to be as good as you at doing it and pretty and eventually they'll become better than you can ever be at doing it.

Than you have been, because this is what their specialty is.

So that's one.

So hold on. I. The notes that I have are. It's gonna scare you. They're not gonna be as good as me. And if they get better than me, then they'll. First of all, I won't. I won't have purpose. And two, they'll leave that. That's. That's what has come up for me in the past. Well, I'm guilty, and I'm guilty of all of these.

So now the last point is there's two, like, secret purposes of your first hire that nobody really talks about. So purpose number one is to actually hire your first person and cross that critical milestone because you will never replace yourself out of every role in the business that you shouldn't be doing until you actually build up the courage to go out and hire somebody. So otherwise, until you hire somebody, you're just going to be doomed yourself to a freedomless life that is dominated by every constraint your business will, which will eventually lead to your burnout and likely the collapse of your business. So, like, one, actually hiring somebody is going to set you on that path of freedom and success.

Also, with your first hire, if you screw everything up and it will still be a success because you actually took this, like, critical, important leap forward and accomplish this first goal, it's like, that's what you should do. Your first hire is not that it work out or not, but you actually made the leap forward in something that's super scary and intimidating, and you did it and you're going to learn from it. If you do, like, follow the things we're going to talk about, it's likely to be a huge success. But even if it's not, you've, like, made a huge leap forward. So that's one. Like, the secret purposes of hiring your first person is to actually hire your first person. And then the second thing is you're actually going to be on the path to freeing up your time, your mental energy, your focus, your creativity, that you can now invest all that into making a much bigger impact in your business while having a life you love. Because we both come from Dan Sullivan's world of unique ability is a core concept. So you have a unique ability, like a few things that you're really great at. Everything else, you're either adequate or horrible at, but there's other people out there that are great at the things that you're not. So, like, in. In my agency world, a Huge.

Turning point is when I figured out how to go out and hire people that are excellent and love cold calling businesses to set appointments. Like, I would never actually pick up a phone and cold call a business ever in my life. But the first person we hired using our automated hiring funnel, she'd been doing it for 20 years. She's like, world class at it. She absolutely loves the challenge of, like, within minutes, being able to build a rapport with somebody that's never talked to her, have them see an opportunity of what we have to offer and say yes to set an appointment and get that win and do that over and over. So in her first day, she booked two appointments. After working three hours in her first week, she booked like 12 or 15 appointments. And we signed up two clients prior to that moment, we would average one to two clients a month. And all of a sudden, in one week, we just signed up two clients and now have a process in place that we replicate that over and over again. Because that's what her unique ability is, doing that one specific skill. So there's, no matter what, you don't like doing your business, there's people out there that absolutely love doing that and want to become be in a company that appreciates that and creates an environment for them to thrive and grow at what they love doing. Yeah.

So a great example of this is I still to this day can't understand why anybody wouldn't love being on stage. And. And people tell me, like, how do you. How do you do that? Like, how do you go on stage? I'm like, how do you know? Not like there's a stage there and people watch you and then they clap. Why would you not want to run up there and. And that there. But there are people on my team who love organizing events and never want to be on it. And I'm like, why in the world would you want to organize an event? There's so much work. And they're like, yeah, isn't it great? And so I like. One of the reasons I like this term that I've been using a lot lately of collaborative capitalism is, is because the more I go into what Kevin is talking about, where you define your own unique ability and you bring it together with somebody else's unique ability, it's almost like the world has ethically conspired for us to collaborate with one another.

Yeah. Yeah. So a couple things I've learned over the years when it comes to hiring is I remember way back in the beginning of my first company, so, like, this was like, 2002 or something.

It was just me and my business partner for a number of years, and we were doing everything. So we, like, knew we needed somebody to handle customer support because neither one of us wanted to do it. Like, we really sucked at it. But it's something that has to happen. And we just, like, agonize over. We're not ready for this person. I don't think we can afford this person. Like, all these, like, thoughts I talk about were, like, right there. And then when we went out and hired her, our first customer support person, Meredith, it was a total game changer in her business because she loved doing that. She, like, took it over, made it, like, ownership of that role. So what I've learned over the years is that first hire in a business is always a game changer for you and the business that usually more than paid for itself. So. So instead of it being this expense, it actually was a great investment we just made in the business. And every good hire I've made over the years, especially, like, when I look at my current company, when we do our quarterly planning and we had a great hire, we always wish we made that hire sooner rather than waiting for whatever time that we waited to make that leap. So great hire, we wish we did it sooner. So now we always are. Like, how. How can we. Like, what's the next key, people? And let's get a little bit out of our comfort zone to go find and bring that person on. And then also every bad hire, in hindsight, we wish we would have cut ties sooner. Like one of my great. Like, there's a saying, like, your greatest strengths are also your greatest weaknesses. So I'm a highly loyal person, both me and my business partner, especially me. So loyalty and optimism are two of my things. So, like, that's great as a leader, to be very loyal and highly optimist has seen the best. But that it creates this huge blind spot of I'm loyal and seeing all the ways something could work out with somebody that's absolutely not the right fit. So I always wish we, like, would have cut ties sooner if as soon as we, like, realize that this is the right one. So now we just put things in place to compensate for our blind spots in the business.

I'm guilty of. It's like, we're twins, Kevin. I think these are just common.

Yeah.

But the more you can be present to what's actually real, like, if this is just, like, what's going to be there by default, you can plan around it and plan for success by addressing These So when it comes to who to hire there's like two, two different routes you can use and we use a combination of both. One is just finding that if it's like a skill or role that you can outsource.

So like somebody to do graphics. Like we're not going to have somebody on our team that we're going to pay to do graphics because if we need somebody, you're just going to go find somebody that's good, good at that or copyrighted. So when we need a new landing page created to split test for our in our marketing system. Well we eventually have found this copywriter on upwork that's asked what his expertise is and he like does the copywriting cost us like 400 to build us a new landing page that we split test or a content writer or or paid media. So there's that category is like a highly specific, specific skill or role that you might be easier in the beginning to just outsource versus like a team member that you bring on board on your team. So your for people's first hire is probably somebody that's going to do customer support and or like a virtual assistant that can like handle a lot of like daily task work that needs to get done. In that case, you'd likely want to hire like a part time team member that starts out part time and can grow into a full time role down the road.

I've experienced in my in in we almost take this as a rule now that our best hires, every single person has has like tested something first. Like they've done they we've, we've done something where we've tried working with them first and then we brought them on full time. And what I'm hearing you say is like sometimes those roles are like very defined tasks that they're doing and then they work themselves into something that's a little bit more established. There's a lot of questions in the comments about should you hire full time or part time, Your first hire, should you do a VA or somebody who's local, like what should you do? And my advice is to just do something that is small and easy for you to do and then that can grow into something else. Is that kind of what you're observing as well, Kevin?

Well if this is going to be your first hire, you're like kind of growing this business early stages. I would sit down and look at what's consuming the majority of your like a big chunk of your time, your attention and your energy.

That you also really don't want to be doing so it's also like a lot of your frustration and dread. Like what is that role? It might be like customer support and just like dealing with that. Or it might be like all these like daily tasks that have to get done in the business, but make me do a bunch of daily task work every day. Like I'm going to be miserable and I'll do everything possible to not do those things. It's like taking.

A summary of what do you do in your day and week and just start creating a list of what are those things and then look at that and figure out, well, what's the thing that would be the biggest impact for you personally if you didn't have to do that. It would really free up both time and your mental capacity to put to what you really want to be doing.

So I'm just gonna publicly say this just because I feel the impulse to. My biggest thing right now that I want to be free up because it would just open up. A next level for me is cold acquisition funnels. Somebody who is just a master at cold acquisition of leads and front end sales. If all day they could come up with new new hooks and angles and offers and upsells to be able to acquire more front end people at scale. That frees me up to do more of this kind of stuff, which is what I really like to do. So I just wanted to put that out that I'm very aware of what that is and this is a blind spot for me because I think no one can do it as well as me, which isn't that good anyway. No, nobody can. Nobody will. No, there's nobody who will do this for my business. So this is a blind spot for me and this is what I'm working through as well.

Great, great.

Well then there's like there's two places that I have learned like where I get people from. So the first one were in my previous company. Like pretty much everybody we hired came from either my personal network of people I knew or my audience and customer base that I had. And I would create a role.

And like write a sales letter selling people on that role. Like here's the opportunity to be a part of our company, what we're about, what this role has to offer you, what is expected of you. And it's like a sales letter that I just like email out to our email list. And then we get all these like applications coming in that like fill out a, like an in depth questionnaire and. And all this stuff. So that's one my first company, that's where everybody came from. So like what you're looking for that's might be like where you'd probably like start with is because I've learned if you have a, as your audience grows, you have people on there from all walks of life with all kinds of expertise. Regardless of what you, you, you sell. These are still people that have jobs in life and skills and expertise. But now my current business, well we're in an agency so I don't have this big audience of like people. So I learned how to become good at using job boards to find people. So if it's a US based role, indeed we found to be the best place to find people indeed.com and if you want like an an overseas virtual assistant then we just use online jobs ph to find people that we want in a, like a, an overseas role. And for this, when you're using these like job boards, they have no idea who you are or a company. So there's like no established relationship. The great thing with your audience is they're already bought into what you're about as a company and what you're about as like a leader. And they are, they bought in and like love that. So like sue who she was a customer of ours and then we put out, we're looking for like a writer and she like was one of the people that responded and signed up and all that. So that's how we build it. Because they're like passionate about what you're about. But when you're doing job boards that doesn't exist. So you have to kind of create it. That's where this automated hiring funnel is like the secret sauce that makes it all happen for you.

Makes sense.

So did you say that indeed was the best place that you're finding us based?

Yes. Yes.

Huh.

That surprises me.

Why is that?

I've just never used it but at the same time I'm sitting here going well where would we go? And it's always been like outreach or network. I've. I guess I've always had a blind spot that using public places was a bad idea because like ziprecruiter is just crap.

We had very little success.

Indeed is like night and day difference.

That's so interesting. I'm so glad you told me.

And there's what like if you're looking for like a customer support person or maybe some other roles.

What like a good person is likely somebody that's like a stay at home mom that wants a part time role that she can work from home and have flexibility in her schedule. Well, I mean it's kind of different now, but where she could take her kids to school and pick them up at the end of the day. And there's starting to become more spike specialized job boards for stay at home moms. When we tried it out in the past like a year or two ago, they weren't as good. But I've seen more and more like starting to pop up, become more popular. So that might be like people that want to dig into the research and find. All right, here's some. The current stay at home job boards for moms. And we can see which ones are like good now. But by default our go to is always.

Indeed. Then we also will post the role on upwork to see what we can get from upwork as well.

Go ahead. Why do you also use upwork when you're using indeed? Because those seem like polar opposites of each other.

Upwork can be hit or miss because those are. They're already like working from home. They're like independent contractors looking to get gigs for whatever their specialty is. So they may or may not be great team members if that's what you're looking for.

Because they might just want to. They love like the variety of doing different stuff for different people and they've like become good at using upwork to do that. But there's also a whole lot of those people that hate the grind of always looking for your next gig that you're doing work for. And they love the security and future that you give them by doing what they do just for you. And they're great starting out part time and expand into something bigger. So it's like hit or miss if you can find that person that's actually looking for a home versus. They love the variety of the independent contractor work.

Yeah, that, that, that makes a ton of sense to me. I'm fascinated to hear about the hiring funnel. When I hear funnel, that to me means like there's step, like there's steps along the way. Which to me means you've got a process for taking this wide world, crazy chaotic world and bringing them closer to finding ideal people. If I'm right, would you share a.

Little bit about that process? Absolutely. And this was a game changer in our business because before I was so used to hiring people from my audience or network and I just have them go to sales page, fill out a in depth questionnaire and interview like the top people. But now like I don't have that. So like we were trying to define in our Cases trying to find an appointment setter. Because what makes success in our our business is having appointments on the calendar with business owners that we can sell our service to. So if you don't have appointments then you like you don't have a business. And we really struggle with that. And we tried to use upwork to find this person and that was like always like failed. Tried to go through my network and it failed. And.

Like we're friends with Ari Meisel and he's a New York guy, so he's a like automation master. And he like walked us through his automated hiring funnel how he built a team of like a hundred plus virtual workers over a course of a year all in like different specialties for his virtual outsource business. And it said like the whole secret is this automated hiring funnel. And like, like it just blew my mind. Like oh, this is like the missing piece. To find these people that have no idea who we are to filter through them. Because if you posted an ad online like on Indeed.com you're going to get hundred or several hundred responses is total overwhelming. So just like a great sales funnel, you take a large group of people and through the steps filter it down. Like they, they opt in, then they read a sales letter, then they buy an entry level product, then they go through some upsells, then you like watch a webinar to sell a high priced product and you filter a large group of people to find the small group of like ideal ones at the very end. So that's what a hiring funnel does as well. So first is you're posting on the job site a.

In essence like a sales letter for your role and you don't want it to look like a typical like job posting because that's what everybody else does. Like you actually are selling them on the opportunity you have to offer working for you and it really like stands out. So that's one is like a great job posting that using like good copywriting to sell them on the opportunity. Then they go and the next step is you send them an email. Like when they reply on indeed you can set up like an auto response where it automatically sends them an email to a link to your hiring funnel. And step one in our case is we ask how much experience do you have in this role? So for like a cold calling appointment setter they need to have at least three or more years of experience. If same thing as like customer service. You want them to have experience because.

It'S way like if they are already like successfully doing a role, the learning curve to get them up and running is dramatically shorter than if they don't have the experience. So we, that's one is like how much experience. So if they have enough, that's like step one. If they meet that criteria, then the next step that they move on to, they get an email to the next stage and it's like a series and a of open end or not open a series of multiple choice questions to identify.

How well do they actually know that role.

And then it's going to auto grade them based on their answers to those like handful of questions. I think in our case it's like 10 questions and if they like score 75% or higher, well all right, so this person look like, looks like a, a possible fit. And then they upload their resume at the end of that questionnaire and you only look at the resumes of the people that score higher enough. So now.

I want to clarify something. So before they ever even get on your radar or upload their resume, they're going through a questionnaire that filter out the people that are not. The right like mindset and the right skill set set for the role that you're hiring is that it's almost like a quiz funnel.

There's two things you're doing. Your first, you're one, filtering out unqualified people so you're not wasting your time with those. And you're also selling the qualified people on the opportunity. So both are like happening as you move through it.

So how much experience? So that's going to remove at least half or more of the people instantly because they're just going to randomly be like applying to roles on. Indeed. So they, they worked in a retail store so they think they like have sales experience.

Completely irreverent. Irreverent to what we're looking for.

Yeah, you get rid of those and that, that eliminates like at least half the applicants which already makes your life easier or more.

More. And then the next one is like a series of like simple questions that send somebody that's done this role over a long period of time could answer successfully and then upload their resume. So now maybe only 10 to 20% of the people. Are you looking at their resume? In my case, I just open it up and within 30 seconds I'm making a decision if I want to move them forward or not based on what experience is on that resume. Is it the kind of experience that I'd want them to have or not? And then I move them on to the third stage where they watch a Video, like a five minute video that I created selling them on the opportunity as a company that we have to offer the opportunity in this role and what we're expecting them to do. So that way they can self select themselves in or out based on what I'm offering them. And then if they decide like they're still interested, then there's a couple of open ended questions that they answer that I can read and then there's a test task I give them. So when we hired our customer support person, the task was here is a voicemail from an unhappy client and here is an email from an unhappy client. Record.

The voicemail you'd leave for this unhappy person and write the email on how you respond to this and then upload that voicemail and then put in that that email response and submit it to us. So one, you're hearing how they sound.

How their voice sounds when they talk, can they handle basic technology to record and upload an audio to the site and what is their thought process on how they're actually responding to this post person. And now you have this great data set based on the questions that they answered and then this task that you give them. So like a virtual assistant we had them, there's like a multi step process that needs to happen. Our business, we had it documented out on like a process like a Google Doc of like here's the steps, we just give them that Google Doc and have them submit the outcome that they would do after this like six or seven step process and just see what did they follow it as designed or did they like make mistakes along the way like how detail oriented are there like so that's what we did like for ba but there's some sort of task that's critical because that's a key defining point to filter out even more people. And at the end you're going to have like six to eight people that come out of those three steps that you then give them a link to schedule an interview on your calendar. And then I just have a like interview document that I go through the same questions to identify if this is the right person or not. And what's going to a couple of things happen is they've never experienced this process before. So if they're an A player they're like you have really elevated your company in their eyes because of what you just put them through. And even if you're like a solo entrepreneur that still like early phases, you're going to look like a highly valuable company that they want to be a part of because of your hiring process that you created.

What I love about all of this is once this is built, the only thing you have to do is show up for really highly qualified interviews.

All the screening process, which is the hardest part, is taken care of on the automated side. And then.

The only thing you're doing is showing up for that interview with the person who has already met the criteria, watched a filtering video and decided that it was a right fit for them. So you're not selling them on the opportunity, you're not recruiting them, they're showing up on your calendar.

And then the, the funnel can just be running as long as you need it. And if you need to like replace them or anything else, like in our like appointment setting role.

What usually happens is the first one or two people I interview, I'm like, already, like, this is like an ideal fit. Like, if this is the worst I can bring on board, I'm going to be super happy with this one. And then from that point forward, it's always like, can I find somebody even better than that one? And that puts you in a great mindset when you already have found somebody that you would, you'd totally be happy bringing on board when you're doing the next interviews because you're looking for like even better than a great fit. And.

Also if.

I mean, there's things I've learned over the time to better, like we, when we bring somebody on board, usually there's like a trial period of one week or whatever, whatever is appropriate for that role. And we let them know in the interview, like, we'll do this trial just to make sure it's a good fit for you and for us.

And then you just identify what would success look like for you in that first week.

And put them through that trial. And if they're not a great fit, well, you just either have the hiring funnel continue on and you just go back and start like moving people through and all that. And within a week or so you can find the next person or you can have your second place person. I always let them know if there's somebody else that I would have hired. But I did it because I found somebody better. I let those people know, like, hey.

Had a lot of response, you would be great for this role. But we don't currently have a need for you right now. But that might change here in the near future because they're growing quickly and I kind of put them on like a, the back burner in case I need to go back to them.

Kevin, what softwares or Tools are you using to build the like the first stages of this, like that first part of the process?

Well this is like the frustrating part. Like I created a whole course teaching people how to do this in the agency world and all that. And.

We, the first one we used was like $3,500 for one year subscription. All the other platforms are like hundreds of dollars. So it's a like a. Hiring platforms are expensive but we found one that was free called Vervo V E R V O E But over the past couple weeks they eliminated their free version and that now no longer is like an option. So we're, we're in the this like phase of trying to figure out what's a and better solution that we recommend to people. And we currently don't have that but in development.

Well, I mean theoretically could you do this with something like a Google spreadsheet or with even like SurveyMonkey is what came to mind for me, which is a couple hundred dollars a year. But it has like smart filtering where if somebody answers the this way, this way and this way you can move them to a different page. So theoretically could you do something like that?

And we're looking at SurveyMonkey or JotForm like the form.

Analysis, like they fill out the form, it auto grades them and then it needs to put into like a command style board like a Trello or something like that where you have a deal for a record for each person that you can move them through the different stages.

So we're looking at combining a couple tools or there's this whole no code platforms that are out there like bubble. Can we use something like that? We're still trying to figure it out. If people are really interested in this, you're welcome to message me on Facebook or send me an email and I can let you know once we have.

A solution that we are recommending to people.

Great, appreciate that and please post in the Facebook group when you've, when you've got one as well.

Okay.

Okay Kevin, we need to wrap here in a couple minutes. So what did I not ask or do we not get to that we should have carved out time for?

Another thing that.

Plays a big role in us in our business that I would recommend to others is.

The entrepreneurial operating system. So there's a great book that you can learn about attraction by Gino Wickman and what he did is he's like been mentored by the top people out there. So like Dan Sullivan, Vern Harnish.

Lencioni like all these people and he like took all these different things that like books we've read, things we've learned that we should be doing and condensed it down into a simple operating system to run an entrepreneur driven business. So once I made that switch back, I don't know, 2013 I think is when I first came across this stuff and I follow that. It's made a huge difference in my business. In my like entrepreneurial group I'm a part of, we all use that as well. So I would definitely recommend that as a framework that you can use to manage and run your business moving forward.

The traction model or something specific in that that was particularly helpful.

The whole, like it's a whole framework to manage and grow an entrepreneurial driven business. So the entry point would be the book Traction by Gina Workman and he calls it EOS or Entrepreneurial Operating System.

Beautiful. Kevin, go ahead.

Another great resource that will be very helpful for you is taking the Kolbe assessment K O L B E. And it measures how you instinctively take action and also resist taking action. And it's ingrained in who you are. It can't change. And once you know what it is, you can really leverage your natural action taking ways and work around the ways you can't do it. And it becomes really helpful when you start building a team because if you find out what their Colby like profile is and what yours is, there's going to be synergies and conflicts between the two. If you don't know what the conflicts are, it can cause all kinds of problems. So I imagine like Ryan, you're like a high quick start. So you're all about like let's just jump in, get started and we'll figure this out later. Or maybe not.

That's right.

And a lot of entrepreneurs are that way. But then that creates a, it's a great superpower because you are always like moving forward but it creates chaos in your wake. And then you have these people around you that are like high fact finders. So they're very like detail oriented, they create structure or I'm a high follow through. So I'm all about like what systems and processes and, and all that. So you.

So like there's, they all fit together. But if you're like a high quick start and it's somebody else's high fact finder, like you're not going to want to know all the details. And you like they drive you insane the way they're operating. And then you drive, you drive, you drive them insane because you're moving way Too fast without giving them enough information or details that they need. But when you see that you can actually work together from a highly synergistic way and leverage both both of yours expertise and natural action taking methods.

Yeah. The story that we like to tell about this is one time for a backroom event. We were going to San Francisco and we were kind of talking about the different things we could do. And right before I was leaving the office, I was, I said, you know, let's. I wonder if we could have like dinner in the redwoods. And I left. And that's all I remember. But what Melinda remembers is being told, go find dinner in the redwoods. And she spent two days researching if we could have dinner in the redwoods to find that it was illegal and there's regulations against that and those are protected areas. You can't go in there. And she like came to me all like concerned that I was gonna find her for bringing this. I was like, I don't even remember saying that.

So we can't. What we realized was that when I'm in brainstorming mode, people who think in more process are going to take that and put into a process. And so we need to have a communication for when is something a decision and we're moving forward versus brainstorming. And so sue on the team is, is my resident brainstorm partner. And we get on the phone and we talk for an hour about a bunch of ideas and we, the team never knows about most of them.

Yep, that's right. That's right.

Yeah. Like for you, it's just like throwing out ideas, not like they're not meant to like be followed through. So you have to like give clarity for your team. Like what's actually like an idea and what's, I guess like you said, a decision that we should take action on.

That's right. And in my mind, they're all brilliant and they're all perfect and they're all well thought out. And then the people who are legitimately well thought out end up filtering my ideas and putting them into a process. And that's a, that's a learning process of learning how to work with people, how to, how to work with how you work best. Sometimes it takes six months of working with somebody to really solidify your language and your communication and, and that's all okay.

But we, we cannot do this game alone with most of the aspirations that we have and we don't really want to. We want to be collaborating and doing good work and bringing that to the world. World Kevin, do you do any public content? Do you do anything that, where people can follow you or do you have anything where people could dive into your world a little bit more?

I did create a course teaching this whole like hiring model for agency owners called Simple Agency Sales System. I don't the person I sold my training company to publishes that. So normally I would like say hey, go get that. It's going to give you everything you need. But without the hiring funnel solution it's not really viable. So other than that I don't really do training or talking or any of that. One thing I wanted to add in, I saw Rebecca said the hiring funnel blew my mind. So a way to I guess hack it right now is I would create a two step one where step one is just a simple question of how much experience and have a couple Multiple choice answers like 0, 1 to 2, 3 or like whatever. That way when anybody that filled out the experience level that you want to have, like you manually move them to the next stage by sending them an email. The next stage is like a page with the video and the questions below that that you have them do. So just a couple open ended questions and the test tasks that you want them to do and they fill that out and you're just like manually going through that as well as well as their resume that they upload and then you choose the ones that you want to interview and email them to go interview. So it's more manual work that's happening. But you can replicate what I talked through by kind of simplifying it and just using some basic forms like SurveyMonkey, JotForm or whatever. You can replicate that.

Beautiful. Well my friend, it is good to see you.

If you're, if you're watching live, please give some hashtags and some thank yous to Kevin.

If people want to reach out to me, I guess email would be the best way. My emails. Kevin. Kevin Nitro n I t r o gmail.com Would you say that one more time? Kevin Nitro n I t r o gmail.com Beautiful.

I know this is a huge sticking point for a lot of you. Like how do you find good help? How do you know even what to ask for? And this, this clears up a lot of it. So show some love for Kevin. Kevin, you've had a huge impact on my life, my business, my mindset as we kind of joked about. I probably wouldn't be talking about mindset nearly as much as I do had I not met you 2008. So thank you for the impact you've had on me and for the impact you're having on entrepreneurs everywhere.

Love to see your growth.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. I love you, buddy. It's good to see you. Thanks for hanging out with us. All right, team, thanks to Kevin for hanging out with us. Thank all of you for hanging out with us on your Sunday morning. Next week, we have a general Q and A call. So I'll just be taking questions and hanging out with you guys on Sunday morning. And this week, I'll have some announcements on some upgrades and changes coming to the 1%. So stay tuned for that. All right, guys, we'll see you next week. Take care.