One Key Hire: How To Bring On The Best & Stay In Your Zone Of Genius #FreedomFastLane

I have three rules for hiring team members in these types of positions, and these rules are.

Build a business, invest the profits. I'm Ryan Daniel Moran, and this is Freedom Fastlane.

Hello, boys and girls. Ryan here. Welcome to Freedom Fastlane. This is where you call in and you bring your business to me, and we see how we can make it grow faster, bigger, be more profitable, and see what you're leaving on the table. Today I'm joined by longtime listener Omar, who runs an agency, and he talks about hiring that key employee that can help set him free to do the things in his business that he ultimately wants to do. This is a common challenge for us entrepreneurs who are struggling, starting to grow a little bit, and we've got way more to do than we want to do. And so we need that anchor person, that integrator, that project manager. Depending on how much you want them to be there, the title will change. But the way that you approach this person is probably going to be the same across the board, at least for 90% of you. So Omar and I walk through what he needs to do to find this person, and I think that you will benefit a great deal from by seeing how a business that's already starting to take flight is going to bring on that person that can hold down the fort so that you or Omar are freed up to go build the business that you want. Actually, maybe once in a while, take a day off or something crazy like that. If you stick through the whole episode. We also go into a little bit of a lightning round where Omar asks me some lingering questions that he's wanted to ask me based on some of the things we've talked about on the podcast here for years. So. So there's a lot in this, especially for those of you who are like, I'm so overwhelmed. I don't know how to hire somebody to help me build this thing. This is going to help fix that for you. You'll really enjoy this chat.

Okay, Omar, so why don't you give me a little bit of background? Just tell me a little bit about your business and what you're trying to do, and I'll see how I can help.

Okay. No problem. Okay. My business, yeah, the main business that we have is Amazon Listing Optimization.

We have done. I mean, we haven't obviously not begun directly with Amazon Listing Optimization. We began with seven years ago with a lot of small things like customer service reviews. And little by little, we got to understand Amazon. Obviously, you cannot understand everything. Every day we're learning new things. But I think in the seven years we pretty much get an understanding of how Amazon works and especially how the optimization works when Amazon not changing the algorithm, obviously. Yeah, this is the main business what we're doing since seven years now. And yeah, we're looking forward that we can make the business grow a lot bigger. As it is right now we have about 14 remote employees right now we do not only the usual optimization like I know in the US there's a lot of companies which do the optimization, but we translate them into five languages because we are from Europe.

Translate them in five languages and then.

Optimize the listings. We do ebc, we copyright as well. In English. Obviously not me, I'm not an English native speaker, but we have English native speaker who are professional copywriters and from them, from there they go into.

So you have an agency that is serving Amazon sellers with listing optimization and some other things that they can outsource.

Exactly.

Tell me a little bit about what you're trying to accomplish or how you'd like my help.

Yeah. Okay. What we are doing at the moment is we're trying to grow. That's the first. The company is run by me, by myself and my wife. Obviously we have two different jobs. I'm doing more the operational stuff and she's doing the financial stuff. But anyway, what we want, we want to grow and we need some kind of guidance as well for. Because we have the 14 employees, we are obviously not altogether in an office. We have them all around the world and to bring them together, it's okay, everything is fine. But as you understand, there is some complication in there. So we need to put in a project manager in order to keep them all in one because it's getting too much for me and I need to concentrate on the clients.

Great. So what's the biggest challenge that you're facing right now that you'd like to solve?

The biggest challenge now is actually to recruit somebody who I can 100% trust. Not 100%, but you know, trust in terms of. Yeah. To manage my team, which I'm and my wife currently managing. Yeah, this is, this is one of the things which we need to find out. My, my aim or my goal is already that I need to open up an office. And this, if it's okay for me to, you know, visualize this or plan this for the next 10 months, that I will open an office and have some of the management stuff in there. Staff in there will manage these 14 employees or they will grow as well.

Okay. So Omar, this is great because this is very classic solo entrepreneur growing pains. So you're in good company, my friend. So let me just recap to you what I'm hearing. It sounds like you've got this agency that's doing well. You and your wife started it. You've got 14 remote employees. You've grown to capacity, but you want to keep going. And you think that the best way for you to grow is for you to bring in someone who. Who can take all the operational stuff away from you and your wife so that you can focus on actually growing the company. Is that a correct summary?

Yes, that's correct. That's correct.

Okay, great. And the first thing that you think needs to happen is for you to find that rockstar, right hand, trustworthy, organized project manager that can help alleviate the burden of communication of systems and processes, of. Of all of the details that are flowing up to Omar so that Omar can have time to think and sleep again so that his next idea comes to him. Am I close?

Yes. Yes, that's correct.

Okay, good, good. Usually when I hear relief in someone's voice, it means we've identified the correct problem. All right, so have you ever hired a project manager in the past?

Yes, I have. I mean, not hired, but I have been.

Some interviews, you know, I did some interviews with them and I was not happy 100%, but I got one very good example out of it. And I asked them, what do they think about our structure? So directly they said, you need to concentrate on one thing. And this is. I listened to that advice and this was very good. But no, I didn't recruit one yet.

Okay, so I have to ask the question, Omar, and I can totally help you begin this process and find the right person, But I've got to ask. You've got 14 remote employees, so you've obviously hired a lot of people in the past. What's preventing you from hiring this role? What's the difference?

The difference is that actually I can these people I need to guide on a daily basis. So we have procedures in place.

We have a lot of things in place for them as well, for the. For the software that we're using that they can as well access.

So I can. You know, this is kind of closed already, you know, I mean. Yeah, because they need more training.

Okay, so these 14 team members are coming into a situation where they just need to do what you tell them to do. The role that you're hiring for is not something you've done before and have systemized before, is that right?

That's correct.

Okay, got It. So I have three rules for hiring team members in these types of positions, and these rules are they have to have done it before. Not can they grow into it, but have they done it before?

Number two, are they really jazzed about what we're up to in the world?

And number three, do they have a network that they could call upon in the event that they hit a roadblock? So they're not coming to me, they're going to their. Their support network.

Exactly. The network is very. Yeah.

So those are my three rules. Now, what I have found is that entrepreneurs like you and me, Omar, think that people like that are rare. We think that they're needles in a haystack. And there's some truth to that because there's a lot of people in the world, but we only need to find one that meets this. This criteria and this qualification. And it would be better for you to take six months to hire the right person than for you to find this person quickly and put them into a situation where you can't thrive. And you're firing them in six months. Ask me how I know.

So my recommendation for you is to spend the next two to four weeks building out that job description for this project manager and take the time to do it over a couple of weeks, because if you sit down and write it out now, you'll write about what you're stressed about right now, but in two weeks, you'll have other things you're stressed about or other things that are more important that you'll want to add or modify in that job description. And as the month goes on, you'll build out a very detailed job description for this role that you can then begin to take to the market. Are you with me so far?

Yes. Yes, exactly.

What do you think of that so far?

I think it's pretty good because actually, I was listening to one of your podcasts from before. You had already some of the hiring and firing, I think you must remember.

In the show, and it was pretty interesting, you know, because hire fast and fire faster. Yes, that was one thing which got. Yeah, I think it's pretty clear. Two to four weeks makes a lot of sense because obviously you need a bit of time every day and to put something together. Yes.

So that's. Step one in my world is to put together that job description that's going to be your foot into the world, your foot in the door, into different places where we'll find those team members, which we'll talk about here in a second. But the second piece is I Want you to put together a 90 day plan that is your set of expectations of what needs to happen within that role over 90 days. That does not mean what Omar thinks this person needs to focus on for 90 days. It's the results that you expect within 90 days. So the way we do it is we have, Here are my 30 day sets of expectations, 60 days and 90 days. So in 30 days you've got to have this in place, this in place and this in place. And then 60 days you got to have this in place, this in place and this in place. And in 90 days you've got to have this result. Do you know what I'm saying?

Yes.

And it's just a set of expectations that you can give someone during the interview process and you ask, can ask them the question, how does this set of expectations look? How would you go about doing this? Don't tell them how, just tell them what the result is that you want at the end of those 90 days. And it might be, you know, by day 90, Omar and his wife can go on a trip for four days without email and phone and nothing breaks.

It might be as simple as that. It might be Omar can go on podcasts and advertise the agency because all customer service responses are now answered faster than they were 90 days ago. So these are the sets of expectations that you're giving to this, this project manager and you're just going to listen to them tell you.

In the interview how they get it done. I want to give you a piece of an insight that I think will be really helpful for you. One of my mentors who was guiding me on team building told me this and she was so on point. I'll never forget this. She said the best thing about interviewing is that it's free consulting.

So the best part about interviewing is that it's free consulting. So a lot of times we look at interviewing like we're trying to figure out if they're the right fit and like we got an agenda, they've got an agenda. But if you know exactly what you want, then treat the interview like you're going to someone for advice. Hey, this is what we're trying to do. How would you get this done and then just let them talk? You'll learn a lot about people by doing that. You with me so far?

Yes. It's true. It's true. When I spoke to one person, it's true. You can already understand them.

Yeah. And a lot of times we take the burden and the responsibility of I've got to make the right decision. I've got to find the right person. I'm worried that this person's not going to work out. But if you treat it more like a consulting meeting, how do you get this done? Tell me about it. We need help. Man, do we need help. It's why we're talking. We so suck at this. I say that all the time in interviews. Look, we suck at this and that's why we're having this conversation. So can you help? And that's a. That's a much more fun way to begin the conversation.

Than tearing into somebody's background, if that makes sense. So what questions or challenges coming up for you right now? Give me some feedback on this so far.

Just something personally for you. I want to talk about the goals of marginbusiness.com, the general goals, what we have and where we want to go and why we do all this. Because. Because, you know, for you, I know you have a lot of personal ambition. One of the things you want to acquire the Cleveland Indians. It's a wow goal. I was quite surprised when I heard that. Yeah, for us, the next 10 years, we would like to put the profit and I set the bar pretty high for the next 10 years. And I would love to acquire a lot of small smaller businesses which are doing the same as us and are not that ambitious as us. So yeah, this is one of the goals I have and as well to. Yeah, when we are there, I mean to do a charity, a big charity for charity organization actually.

So is the question, how do you start to position yourself to acquire those smaller companies? Exactly, yeah, great question. So number one, please don't make the same mistake I've done of acquiring businesses that don't complement your existing set of operations. So when you acquire a business, it should be a complement, like a puzzle piece to the rest of your set of operations. It would be a really big mistake to just buy up a competitor because they're a competitor. There needs to be some sort of amplification by bringing the two together. So maybe if you buy a competitor that is really good at promoting products and you're really good at the optimization of those promotions, that could be a fit because now you have two services. You can offer the same client, the same person, but don't buy a business just because it's cash flowing or they're smaller than you and you're trying to do a, you know, just a consolidation, I don't see that go well. There needs to be compliment, like complementary assets to them from there I would highly recommend that one of the things that Omar spends his time doing is networking with other leaders in his competitive circle. And.

I'm recording this right now from my lake house in Austin where one of the rooms in my house is built out to be a mastermind room so that I can call up my buddies in certain industries, bring them in, hey, let's have a lake day. Let's cater in some food, let's chat about business. And it allows me to, in a fun way, connect with other leaders that I'm trying to do business with or that I just want to spend more time with. So I would recommend that once you have this project manager freeing you up out of the day to day grind, that part of your focus becomes building the relationships with the leaders of other businesses. Because they know other leaders, they run companies and you might want to buy or invest in them at some point. So I would encourage you to put your focus there and start building those relationships because ultimately all of your deal flow is going to come from relationships down the road.

Yes. There was another podcast you mentioned exactly this as well. How to go from 5 million to 50 million. Yes. Okay, thank you for that. Another question I would have. Yeah, because you invested in a company called Turnkey.

Yeah, I'm not an investor, but I do advise them. Yes.

Or partner. I don't know. But anyway, what do you think about the company and why this company?

That's a really interesting question, Omar. So the reason why I partnered with Turnkey specifically is because I have all the confidence in the world in the entrepreneur behind that business, who's Jeff Lieber. And at the end of the day, every good decision and every bad decision you make is going to be the result of a person. So I have had a lot of deal flow brought to my attention. That was a good idea. That was a good business, that did not have a good entrepreneur. And those are the. Those are the deals you should run far, far, far away from. On the other hand, I recently invested in a project called Outstanding Foods. They have their. Their signature product right now is called Pig out chips. They're meatless bacon chips. And the product is like, you know, good. Now, I'm not their target market, but a lot of people really love them and they've got a cool vision for the company and it's in a cool sector that I like. But ultimately what I bought was the team Rockstar. Amazing, experienced, conscientious, focused, exciting team. At the end of the day, everything that you're investing in is people. This project Manager, you hire your wife. The people that you invest in, we're building team all the time. And so when I make a decision to partners with someone, invest in someone, I am investing in the person way more than I am investing in the project or anything else. So the direct question to your direct answer to your question is, you know, my partnership with Turnkey is based in my complete and total faith in the fact that if I turn an Amazon seller over to turnkey, I know they're taken care of because I trust Jeff and that team and I've seen the results. So it's. It always comes back to people. Always, always, always, always, always, always comes back to people.

Okay. Okay. That's very. Yeah, very interesting point actually. Very interesting point.

Just. Yeah. I think I have another question for you.

Sure.

There was you, you mentioned. I mean, it's not that I. I'm not, I'm not the guy that's going to acquire insurance or anything like this. It's just something interesting. What you have mentioned about if Amazon changes. There is people who have all. Or maybe I misunderstood as well, but there is people who have actually insurances in Amazon changes. So if Amazon changes, they have an insurance for any loss of money or anything like that. Is that correct?

What you're referencing is something called captive insurance. Captive insurance is not Amazon insurance. It's private insurance that small businesses own. So if. Now, forgive me, I'm not a tax dude or a law dude or dudette, so this is entertainment purposes only.

But the captive insurance play is when a small business creates their own insurance policy for risks in their business. So if you are.

Heavily weighted on Amazon, you could create an insurance policy within a captive insurance plan that was basically a store of money. And if you got booted off Amazon, you could file a claim with the insurance company and you own the insurance company. The reason people do that is because it has a couple things, is because these are real risks in businesses, but also they're very, very tax advantageous. So if you have a captive insurance plan, some people will tell you that you can store a lot of cash away tax free in the event of one of these risks happening. So it's basically a way to hedge against unforeseen risk in your business. And that's called a captive insurance plan.

Okay. Okay, that was my. Yeah, that was exactly what I wanted to know.

Cool. So, Omar, do you have any final thoughts or questions about the agency and where you want to go and how it can help?

Yes. Yeah, I just wanted to know because now we spoke about the employees and everything because.

Obviously because of the automobile at the moment I am mentored by. Yeah, with Joe Reichsfeld. I don't know if you know him. Really good mentor and learning a lot from him as well. Amazon specialist and.

He actually do the automation process for us. So from this side we're really good. I think we advanced a lot during the last three months. But I'm still thinking to put some of these employees into an office because everything is offline and it takes too much time. I need to have to look people in the eyes, you know.

It'S more personal for me. It's more personal. I need to have them with me. So what do you think?

How do you manage this? I mean I'm sure you have as well. Everyone is online for you and there is only a few people online for you. What staff do you have actually offline and online? What is your strategy?

Yeah, I mean it's funny you should ask because I've done a 180 on this. I mean as I record this with you right now, we're having our mid quarterly meeting this week which is when all team members fly in and we look at what's working and what's not working so that we can hit our goals for the quarter. But as it so happens, it's only one person flying in. Everybody else has either moved here or already lived here because we have not been able to replicate the virtual model with the same effectiveness of having that in person experience. So I have a couple thoughts to this, Omar. Number one, having an extremely clear vision and set of expectations goes a very, very long way. If people know what is expected of them and they know what the deadlines are and there's good communication.

That goes 60 to 70% of the way. But there is an extra oomph that happens when you are face to face with someone. Now I don't want to go to an office every day. No one in my team wants to go to an office every day.

Sure, sure.

But we at least have two to four all person, like everyone on deck. Everyone look each other in the eye every quarter those days. And then the team that's local is working together a couple days a week. So we're a mix of a virtual, non virtual company. But that requires us to be so clear about expectations and when the expectations aren't clear, I know it because nothing's getting done. From my perspective I'm like, nothing's getting done? What's happening here? People are doing things but nothing's really getting done. And so.

If you can set extremely clear expectations for all team members and then have a few key team members who are local to you in the same town, working out of the same place, that you'll be just fine. That, to me is the sweet spot.

Okay, perfect. Perfect. Yeah, that sounds good. That sounds good. But like I said, for us, it's pretty hard. We have been based.

We were traveling a lot before. Now we try to settle down and do everything really. It's not that we're not concentrated when we travel, but when you're really.

Focusing 100% a lot more get done.

Oh, 100%. 100%. So I would say to you that project manager has got to be local to you and that person needs to be mentored by you for a while so that they can hold down the ship when you decide to travel and do other things. Got it?

Yes, exactly. Yeah, perfect.

Okay, my friend, well, I wish you all the success in the world and please keep me posted on your progress.

Yes, we'll do that. 100%. Thank you so much. And yeah, we hope we speak again. And, and thank you for inviting me. Yeah, thank you.

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