Evan Carmichael hired Alex, a former student at his Toronto Dance Salsa business, as manager by testing him on small projects first. He prioritized personality and willingness to learn over experience, and a moment when Alex stepped in to teach a class showed the hustle and adaptability that sealed it.
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How did I find a trustworthy manager? We're going to answer that question in today's episode of Lunch and Earn. So I recently got asked a question from one of my YouTube audience, love you guys, Xoro, who wrote in to say, how did I find a trustworthy manager? So what he's referring to is for Toronto Dance Salsa, I made a video recently about this business that I've recently taken over, and I hired somebody to come and help me do all the operations and run the business because I have a lot of different things going on right now. And I wanted to have him on with me, it's Alex, he's been on the channel channel a couple of times already, but Alex is sick today. He's at home, he's throwing up, he's lying down. And so instead of Alex, we have Alex's girlfriend Ruzanna, who was a part of the process as well. And we're going to talk about how this whole thing came to be.
A couple of months ago, um, I was traveling with my best friend to Greece and Armenia. Alex started calling me in the middle of the night and super excited. He told me about the offer from Evan You know, he had a job at the moment when Evan asked him to join TDS and run the business. I thought it was a huge responsibility, first of all. So my first thought was like, wow, this is big. This is such a big responsibility. And I could never think about being part of TDS. TDS since then has become part of our lives, big part of our lives. Like, we spend so much time here. Every day he wakes up, it's all about, you know, how excited he is about the business, how excited he is to run the school and work with Evan. But anyway, when he first mentioned about the opportunity, I thought it was awesome. I thought it was a great idea, but I was a little worried about it because he was in sales at the moment, and then switching from sales into something that has a responsibility from operations perspective, from marketing, it was a very different world. But since I met Alex and I met him in TDS, he always wanted to dance. He was so passionate about SaaS, and I always believe that if you have the opportunity to work in an area that you love, you will be the luckiest person in the world. Of course, there's a lot of challenges, there's a lot of things that, you know, Alex has to get to know and work, but every day he wakes up and he's so excited to help the students, make sure that people are having fun dancing, making sure that everything is running well, that I thought it was a great challenge, great opportunity. I'm super excited that Alex has accepted it.
Cool. So a couple of things that I wanted share to add on to that. One, Toronto Dance School is all about family, right? Our one word is family. And so all of the major hires that we make in the school is, is people who are part of the family. So Alex started as a student and then became a helper, and a helper is an advanced student that comes back to volunteer at the more entry-level classes. So one of the most important things for me when I'm hiring somebody, bringing somebody aboard my team, is the personality, right? I need to know that I can work with them, that I can train them, that I can develop them, and Alex is somebody who was also a friend, right? Like, Alex and Rosanna had been friends for a while, and I had known Alex as being a student in the classes and as a helper. Interesting thing, when I was sitting down with the previous owner of the business and we're thinking, okay, who could we have to come and run, help run this business? Alex was one of the people that we talked about, and she met with Alex, and he actually turned it down. He said, thank you so much, I'm really flattered, but I don't think it's a good fit for me. And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, so I got to talk to Alex and it may not be a fit but I thought it was a really strong fit and I had to have a conversation with him. And we had multiple conversations leading up to it. In my businesses, I want to make sure that people have a happy personal life too. Even though Rosanna and Alex are not married yet—
you know?
Alex! Come on. Get to work. Get to work. Everybody on YouTube, leave a comment to tell Alex that he needs to get to work. You know, their relationship means a lot to me, and having them be happy with this too. And at the time when we had to make this decision, Rosanna was away, and I wanted to have a conversation with her too to make sure that all of her questions were answered and she was comfortable with it. And we ended up connecting.
You were on Skype in the middle of the night in Armenian time.
Couldn't talk.
Yes, my family was sleeping, so I was typing and Evan was talking. Yeah, it was actually a pretty awesome experience.
And so in terms of finding managers, I think one, it's important to find somebody that you trust, that you know, that you like. It's not just about the skill set. I would actually rather hire somebody who has the personality that I feel like I can groom and give the skill set to, because skills can be learned. And somebody like Alex who likes to hustle, who likes to learn, will get better. Even though he may not have the skills yet, he wants to get better, and he'll get better a lot faster than somebody who has the skills but is has kind of checked out as apathetic, right? And then somebody who you can see growing into a bigger role. And I think that was really important for me in finding somebody who I already knew. I think it's easy to get lost in just hiring people off of skills and off of a resume and say, yeah, I need a programmer, great. I'm gonna hire that programmer because they have all the skills. And you start working together and it doesn't work out. And so find someone that you know, you like, you trust. I would even suggest start on a small project First, what actually convinced me to work with Alex, I didn't think Alex would be a good instructor for TDS at the start because I thought he had too much ego. Because when he was in my level 6 class, he would always give me crap in that he didn't want to take my advice, right? And he was a friend, and so it's fine, like, great. But I thought, you know, Alex, I love him as a guy, but I don't think he'd be a good instructor because dude can't take feedback, right? But what happened was the, the current owner then wanted to make an instructor and said, fine, I'm on board, I'll help train him. And she got sick and I had to jump in and train him. And in those moments, that's when he surprised me. Initially, what the owner wanted me to do was just, I'll be at the front and give him some opportunities. And I said, Alex, you know what, I'm not going to learn anything being at the front teaching. I want you to go and do it if you're ready. And it was like the day of And he said, "Okay, I'm going to do it." And I just threw him in front of the class, and he really surprised me with how prepared he was, how energetic he was, how— yes, he made mistakes, but was quickly willing to fix them and work on himself. And that experience made me comfortable in saying, "Man, this guy, when he commits to something, really goes all in and really cares." And so that little mini project together made me comfortable to really fight for him to become the manager. Of the school. So the question we have for you guys today is—
so this question about Evan's business came from you guys, and if you have another question about his business, please leave it in the comments and we'll get back to you.
I like it. If you have another question about Toronto Dance Salsa, leave it below and I'll make a video response. Thank you guys for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
