Episode 219: Human Resource Solutions with Lindsay Polyak

Aren't you fed up with calling a business only to reach a voicemail, phone tree, automated system or worse, someone who sounds busy, bored or actually annoyed you are calling. I can't believe how many businesses we interact with spend money marketing to drive phone calls and then completely fail at handling those calls. A full time assistant costs a lot of money, but at a fraction of the cost. Abby Connect provides businesses with a world class, professional and courteous team of receptionists specifically trained to take their calls. And based in the 247 city of Las Vegas, Abcony Connect has been wowing business callers for over 13 years. No wonder they are the highest rated live receptionist service for our listeners. Abby Connect is offering a no obligation free trial. And after your trial is over, our listeners will also receive $95 off their first bill. But only when you sign up at our special link abby connect.com profit first. That's Abby connect.com profit first. Sign up today to experience the difference. I first two things. First of all, you sing. When we're doing our show, you sing and you're fixing your hair. Right.

Or you're picking split ends. Yeah.

Oh, are you picking split ends? That happens. Is it one way with long hair? I don't even know what a split. I do know what a split end is, but I don't. I've never seen someone's short hair have it. Is that just long hair?

I think because I have accessibility to it, whereas shorter hair people don't, you know, can't exactly see when it's not eyesight.

And then you started singing too. Like you just start singing.

Yeah.

And you said once you had a pee in class.

Yeah. So apparently whenever I have to go to the bathroom, like I think it's when I'm uncomfortable, I will sing slash hum slash make weird noises and not even realize it really. So the first time it came to my attention was when that happened. And then when it came back, my friend was like, every time you have to go to the bathroom, you always sing this song. And it was like, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Oh, that's the song.

Yeah. And I was like, that's your tell. That wasn't me.

And you would deny it.

I literally didn't think that I did that.

Then how did you find out?

Now I realize pretty much every time I'm uncomfortable, I do something like that.

Really?

Yeah.

Okay, so I burned my lip this morning. I love your emphysema. Lindsay called your zombie laugh. So you know how I did it?

Yeah.

How I eat Oatmeal. Every. Almost every day. I just love oatmeal. So I'm making oatmeal this morning, and I get the instant. It says cook for one minute, put it in the microwave, and then you eat it. But the reality is it takes two minutes.

Thank you. Do you eat it?

I do eat. What do you mean, do I eat it?

You don't just look at it.

You're an a hole. So I put it in for a minute and I stir it and I put it in for two minutes. Well, this time I didn't stir it, so I put it in for two minutes. It almost exploded over the edges. I'm like, I'm late because I had that meeting this morning at 6:30. I grab a bite and a little driplet drops down. Thank God it didn't get in my mouth on my lower lip. And I'm like, it was so. It still hurts.

There's so many things amazing about that story, like how. How old are you? And you eat this every day. How did this happen?

What do you mean, how old am I? I eat oatmeal. I would say five days a week.

And how old are you?

I'm 46.

So do the math.

Oh, no, not for my entire life. Did I say that?

No, but the fact that you eat it every day.

I exaggerate. I do exaggerate. I do eat.

You manage to not cook it right and burn yourself?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's pretty easy. Cool. But this, I was in a rush, so I try to cut some corners. It should be one minute, stir, one minute, go. I did two minutes straight, and then I just went and I. I didn't let it sit. I was rushed, and now I'm. I'm permanently deformed.

It's not even temporarily deformed.

All right, let's get into the show. Kels.

Well, welcome, everybody. This is the Profit first podcast.

I want to say a little bit, stretch out a little longer because I didn't have the sound down, the music queued up. Do it one more time or longer.

This feels very wrong.

That's good. That's it. That's what I wanted to hear. Yes. That's what I was looking for. All right, everyone. This feels very wrong. That's right. Must be the Profit first podcast. I am Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit first, along with some other books, Clockwork. Do you have a copy of that? It's all about choreographed organizational efficiency. Also the Pumpkin Plan and other books. And this show is dedicated to driving Profitability in your business, Kelsey, to make your business more profitable than ever before, I'm joined in studio by my co host and good friend, actually adorable friend, Kelsey Ayers.

Hey, everybody.

And when you hear Kelsey humming, it's because she has to go to the bathroom. You can find us on what, Kelsey.

Itunes.

Yes.

Stitcher.

Correct.

Tunein radio.

Not even looking.

Any podcaster anywhere or profit first.

Podcast.com and Google Play.

Yeah.

And I think Google has its own Android app now, which. Yeah, I know your item. I just raised up like, what? Yeah, it's true. It's true. And I'm sure there's other podcasters we're on now because we use the Libsyn distribution platform, so we really don't know it's any podcaster.

Yeah.

And we're. We might be. This is a little tip off. We might even be doing something on Alexa in the future. That's the Amazon. Amazon Alexa, you have to go to the bathroom.

I know.

That's the Amazon Alexa. All right, so here's what we're doing today. I got a little icebreaker for us. We are going to bring on Lindsey Pollock. We're going to talk about how you can actually destroy your bottom line with HR mistakes and of course, how to then avoid those mistakes. And we're thank our corporate partners and we're going to review and recap what we learned in today's episode. But first, here's my question for you, Kels. Lindsey, are you there too? Because I want to ask you also. Yes. So here's the question. Is there any words that you struggle to pronounce? And what's that word?

Draw.

I couldn't understand what you're saying.

Drawer.

Drawer.

It was a drawer.

But a drawer.

A drawer.

A draw.

A draw. Like a painting? No.

What?

There goes the dresser. A drawer.

A drawer.

A drawer. Like.

A drawer. Oh, my God. I have a word too, so I can't wait to share my words. Lindsay, what's your word? Oh, this one's working out so far.

Okay, so my word is water. I say it like water, like with a d. And I don't know.

Yeah, that's how I pronounce it.

Where are you from?

I'm from Florida. Northwest Florida.

So I say water also instead. Water. Right. But. So this is a pronunciation thing.

But I also say. But I'm. But I live in Texas. Okay. Where water burger is king. And it's water. But I say water burger.

Ah.

Whataburger.

What? A burger. But I say what a burger.

Whataburger. And you used to pronounce it waterburger.

That's funny.

That's good. So my word. And I had to say it twice during the reading of Clockwork. I just finished yesterday doing the audio. I have to say it very slowly, otherwise I can't pronounce it. It's similar. Similarly.

Yeah, similarly.

Similarly. That was actually pretty good for me. Similarly. I.

Well, you know what it is? You crush your words.

Yes.

So they all go together. Like, even when you just said bottom before, it sounded like you said bum.

I know. I. I crunch my words. So the director there was kept on saying, mike, breathe. And I'm like, my nature is to speak so quickly that I blend these words. I can't.

Did you make up any words yesterday?

Yeah, of course, of course. And the director's like, whatever. I don't even know what that is. No, no. I mispronounced some words and she caught them and they were like. So cinquento was one of the words I say, and I was pronouncing cinquento. She goes, oh, it's not cinquento, it's cinquento. I'm like, there's no H in there. I'm like, I know it's cinquento. And she's like, no, it's cinquento. So we looked up the pronunciation. It's cinquento. Or it's similar to that.

Well, good for her for knowing.

Yeah, no, she was really good. So I love it. I'm going to try to plant as many times as possible for you to say the word drawer just to make. And you have to plant the words for me to say similar.

Yes. Yes.

Okay. Well, that was fun. Finally we had one that was a hit for us. For us. Right? Everyone else is like, oh, my God, this is the worst show. We're not even talking about profit. I do want to thank our corporate partners, make the show a reality. So thanks to Rights Networks, nextiva and Receipt bank, we'll give you more details on those folks near the end. Don't skip over because there's some powerful, juicy stuff. And do we have any community shout outs?

We do. This one comes from Kylie Martin. She says, I'm so over being anxious about seeing the yearly income. It's the end of the financial year in Australia and I'm dreading the question for my husband. So you would have earned heaps this year, darling.

Oh, that Was that her husband's voice?

Yeah.

That is a quote. Hey, keep going.

She says, I'm so over not being what I could be, I've been thinking it would be better just to go out to a job and get money that would be banked into my bank each week.

That was the best read. I have no idea if that's a shout out, if she's insulting us.

She has just committed to profitability.

Kylie, good job and I apologize for that reading. Kelsey just pulled this paper out of the drawer and you even skipped parts. You skipped the.

Ah, yeah.

Gosh, Kylie, thank you. And I'm happy you're doing profit first. And I will tell you one thing I found. Now this is, this sounds like a grandiose statement, but profit first has helped relationships like, because when there's no money there, there is conflict. So I've had people literally say to me, this has saved my marriage. And I think that's a little bit extreme. I don't think it's safe about it.

It's true.

Yeah, I think it is.

I think it's such a mindset shift.

Yeah.

And it brings so much kind of emotional ease and that definitely floods over to every aspect of your life.

I can barely hear a word you're saying because I'm. All I'm focusing on is my swollen lip. It really hurts.

It literally does not look like anything. I don't see anything.

I know. And I think I'm looking for you to say that. I think I'm just. It's subconscious. I know. You can't really see anything, right?

Yeah. No, literally nothing.

It's, it's. It stings a little bit. Her name is Lindsay Pollack. She's a Florida native turned Texan and she's worked in small businesses since 2000. From doing their processing to payroll, to managing her HR to overseeing sales and marketing efforts. She knows small business and she's also, by the way, a certified profit first professional since 2015. Now, here's something you may not know. Well, let me tell you we're going to talk about. And then something you may not know. We're going to talk about how you can wreck your businesses bottom line by HR mistakes. I think it's the most overlooked thing out there is the quality and the match that our people are to our organization. And when you don't do it right, it crushes your bottom line. But here's one thing you may not know about Lindsay. She is an autism warrior mom. And everything she does in her business is to better the future of her son Sawyer, who is a high functioning autistic man, Young man. And that's why she does what she does. So, Lindsay, we want to welcome you to the show.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Here's a big applause. So let's get right into it. People make bad hires, and it destroys the bottom line. But it's so easy to say, well, I just need people get stuff done. They're idiots. I hired an idiot. Let me hire another person. Do we really have any influence over this as an owner?

Yeah. So I think that businesses can get HR really right, and they can also get it really wrong. And I think hiring is just a part of that. There's several things associated with how things can go well or how things can go really, really bad well.

What does HR mean exactly? Is it just hiring?

So human resources is about a lot more than just hiring. And, you know, a lot of businesses look at it as a tactical means to an end.

Right.

I've got to shuffle papers. I've got to hire people. I might have to do some performance management, lay somebody off or fire somebody. But there's a lot more to it than that. And that's what I'm hoping we can dig into a little bit today.

Oh, well, we absolutely are. It seems like HR is kind of done post haste. Bring someone on board. And at least from our small business here, it's like, oh, my gosh, we. We need to figure out how to welcome them. Oh, my gosh. Like, do we need to get a copy of their license? Is that. Am I the only company?

No, you're not the only one. So, like, small businesses, you know, like, the first day somebody comes in, it's like, oh, here's the office manager. Here's some paperwork. There's a desk, there's a phone. Figure it out. There's no, like, deliberate plan for making for a great onboarding experience for an employee that's really going to want to make them stay. Now, you advertise in your hiring that you have to dart games at your office?

Yeah. Is that bad? Did you see that? We just put an ad.

No, that's. That's super cool. Like, that sounds fun and engaging. Like, what a cool place to work.

Which by, coincidentally, we haven't had a dart shootout here in the longest time. Our old office. I always forgot. Did you work the old office? We would shoot each other constantly because it was so easy. Like, Ron would be on the phone, and I would just shoot him right in the head. And then, you know, he would get a shot at me.

Jane has recently brought it back.

Jane has brought it back. His daughter works here. So well, let's talk about that ad specifically, or at least that concept. One thing we do in our ads, Lindsey, is we try to show the culture of the business here. We're a very small business. We don't have top dollars. We can pay to recruit the best talent. But we think our differentiator is we have an environment that people that can pay a lot of money don't have. Is that part of the move to get the right people on board? You know, I want our bottom line to improve and I know that means I get the right people. Is that smart to be doing stuff like that?

Yeah. So I think the statement has been made that every business has a culture. Whether it's cultivated or it just happens, every business has a culture. And so if you actually have a hand in creating that to be something, that's what, you know, a fun and engaging workplace where people want to come and have a good time and they're engaged, so they're productive and that leads to more profitability. If you can really get strategic about that, I think it's a smart move to make.

Okay, so let's talk about the wrong moves. Let's talk about hiring the wrong people. Why don't you kind of give me some of your bullet points or ideas on thoughts on how we hire the wrong people.

So I think from an overall perspective for human resources, most small businesses will have just an inexperienced staff or an admin person that handles all things A. So maybe the receptionist is responsible for hiring people, onboarding people, training them. Maybe they even have to deal with questions that come from them about their benefits or if they have to lay somebody off, they're scrambling to look for paperwork. They don't really know what to do for a write up, so they're googling that kind of thing. So I think, you know, for small businesses it's just kind of an afterthought normally and there's not really a strategy there. So I think looking for ways to put a strategy in place for hiring and onboarding the right people, making sure that your hiring process is helping you to get the right person in place in the first place so that you're not instead looking at it from a performance management perspective. So maybe approaching turnover from an avoidance standpoint instead of, oh my gosh, I got the wrong person in place. Now what? Right? So let's, you know, what do they say? Hire slow fire, fast. So really taking your time and working on getting the right person, that's a cultural match for your company and that has the right Character, like you can train somebody with skills, but character is something that's more innate in that person's DNA that you're not going to change.

Do you have any tips for attracting that person?

So you know, I work at Insperity, one of the nation's largest HR companies and so we're all about engagement and we feel like a company culture is going to help attract people. Salary is salary and maybe you can only pay what somebody else can pay. Maybe you can't even pay what somebody else can pay. So the culture is going to be really helpful. Benefits are going to be really helpful if you can manage to offer those to be, be competitive. And I think simple things like work life integration and flexibility, things that allow people the ability to maybe work from home some or work whenever they need to, can really build in a lot of value in finding the right person.

Yeah.

And so you talk also about coaching them, guiding them, the receptionist, you bring them on board and the, the perceptionist is effectively the coach. What's the best way to now you find the right person to get them ingrained in what's expected of them and the culture itself and all those elements.

So some things that I've seen that we do at Insperity is we're big on doing surveys of the employees of our clients. So finding out what about the company that they like, what about it that they dislike. So kind of getting the lay of the land and the feel for what's going on. And because we do that for our clients, we can do that in a confidential environment to where they know what they say isn't going to directly get back to their employer. So figuring out what people do like, figuring out what they feel like could use some adjustments and kind of going from there is one good way to go. And another thing is some companies just get really fire happy, like, wow, this just isn't working out. Let's just get rid of them. Right. But, but let's put a little bit more thought in that and let's, let's actually give them clear expectations so they know, here's your job description, Here are your KPIs or whatever you call them in your company. And then coaching them, providing some leadership and mentorship and then holding them accountable, you know, and if they're not meeting their KPIs and they're, they're not coachable, then let's document that. And you know, maybe if you feel in your gut that they're just not going to work out, we need to let them go. That's groovy. But let's have a little bit of documentation and. And put some thought into the process because like I said, this. This whole thing can just kind of become an afterthought for a small business because you got a lot of fish to fry and sometimes you need. You need some help and you need a partner in the game when it.

Comes to the survey part. You said your company, those surveys.

Yeah.

I don't know if you've even seen the results, but maybe have. Is there any kind of common dislikes that employees have for their employees, employers? Maybe we can glean some knowledge from this.

Geez, Mike. I mean, you know, some of the things that people talk about are we had a client that really they were losing a lot of employees and they couldn't figure out why.

Yeah.

And we went in and did some surveys and started asking some questions, and we found out in this particular company that the SVP of programs was just the devil. They were just really hard to work for and causing a lot of heartburn, and people were quitting over one particular person in this company.

Interesting.

And we found that out, you know, and so we were able to put together, you know, a couple pages of just information from the employees and took it to the CEO and said, here's what's being said about this person, how they're making it really hard. Did you know this? They had no idea. They didn't realize it was a big issue.

That must be a tough situation. You have a. An executive suite person that's a total a hole. And so what's a resolution for something like that? That's a tough one.

Well, in that particular instance, you know, we provide a lot of HR guidance and help. And so we worked with them and crafted an exit package for that person. They weren't able to be reformed or coached, and they were really a drag on the culture. And so we put that together for them, and it felt like just a really good move on both sides for them to. For them to move on. And it really impacted the business.

What if it's the business owner? I mean, for small businesses, oftentimes there really is only one boss, and it's the owner. What if they're the problem?

Well, hopefully they're coachable. Hopefully they can take some feedback and, you know, maybe. Hopefully they're not a total narcissist. And they'll do some learning and reading and read some books and I mean, you guys know entrepreneurs. We're always reading and learning and growing, and hopefully they're willing to do that.

You know, one thing we've done here is Kelsey now does the hiring and the firing. Unfortunately, we had a Casey where I used to do it.

Right.

And I wouldn't say a D bag and an A hole.

Sure.

But what I would say. But maybe I am. Maybe I am. No, but. No, I don't think I am. But what I. What I do do is I'm actually just like, I'm too just quick to make a hiring decision. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's just go right. And Kelsey's slowed it down and our hiring has been much better. Jeremy, this way. We brought Amy this way. Could an owner do that? Like, if it. If you're not. If you're the reason that people are not coming on board successfully to at least acknowledge that you're the cause. But maybe you're not fixable and you can find someone else within your organization to take over that role.

Dude. Yeah. If you. If you realize that I am the. I am the bottleneck here.

Yeah.

I'm causing issues, you know, maybe I need to have somebody else be the champion of this particular situation. You know, and in case of, you know, what I do with small businesses is maybe I need some outside help. Maybe I need some professionals to help us and for them to work directly with that champion and not with me.

And I think that comes into play, especially with compliance, like between me and you and everyone that's listening. And now it's publicly recorded. Like, I don't know if we're complying with anything. We buy that one form you can on the Internet and you stick it.

Up there and there's signs that they send you. We do that.

Signs they send you. We have like an old one from like 1993.

Yeah.

You know.

No, they don't let you get away with that.

The example, they have, like two people, like workplace harassment. And it's people wearing clothes from 1993 with the pant line goes above their chest.

And those big square glasses, those huge glasses with the feathered hair.

Everyone's hair is feathered. And we're like, that's the environment we want. They're all smiling.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

With their bell bottom pants. So what do you do when it comes to compliance and stuff like that? That technical stuff.

So, you know, a small company can skate by until something bad happens. And, you know, an EEOC claim.

What is the eeoc?

Equal Employer Opportunity. And so that's the government entity that oversees all of these claims that employees make against their employer. And so about $404 million annually goes from the pockets of employers to the EEOC. And those dollars are growing at a steady rate of about 9% a year. And the EEOC can just show up at any employer site anytime and conduct an investigation with or without notice. And so it' crazy what the impact can be toward an employer if they have an employee who is maybe in a protected class, you know, and there are so many protected classes now that, you know, we're not, you know, if unless you're under 40 years of age and you're a male who's in perfect health, you might be in a protective class. And. And it just takes an allegation to start a process that can derail a company from its focus. Takes a lot of time away from, you know, what they're trying to do, generate revenue and stay profitable. And, you know, if the EEOC determines that a claim needs to be paid out, I believe the average claim that was paid out last year was about $389,000. And that can really devastate a company. So, you know, harassment prevention is something that isn't really thought about. You know, they think, well, so and so isn't offended. You know, so and so down the hall that's making comments. You never really know if someone isn't offended until they have a really bad day and then they put a call in and make a claim. So we feel like, you know, having a professional organization that can help you make sure that you're dotting your I's and crossing your T's, but still maintaining your culture in a fun way, keeping a good balance there is helpful.

What about. And I staged this question. It's about kind of spying or getting insights on your own business. Kelsey, you and I were talking when we were down in Florida at Adrian Dorrison's event, you were saying, you know, we're talking about television because about once a year I get a call from a production house. Oh, you gotta do a TV show, right? And I'm like, okay, I'm in. Right. And we were talking about how that's a risky thing because if any of these shows, which none of them hit, like, and it's only a matter of time before you're burned out, your has been right.

It's got a shelf life.

You got a shelf life? Yeah. TV shows have these shelf life. So it may be something that's good to avoid. But my last, most recent pitch, this one show called me, said, we want to have you do any show. We don't care what it is. Just do a show. I said, here's my idea. There's all this. These businesses, Lindsay, have an organizational chart, but there's also a social web that's really driving the company forward. I said, really? We should get a spy in there. And I suggested be myself. Put me in a costume or something. You know, that's. Hire me as an employee.

A unitard.

A unit. I did your laugh.

You're so unobtrusive, Mike. They would never notice you.

I would totally go in a unitard with that one sling over the shoulder. I would go in a unitard and act as an employee and very quickly try to penetrate the social web and figure out who's pulling the strings and is there someone manipulating it? So, okay, that'd be fun for tv and goofy and the unitard. I get it. But my question is, in reality, how do we get the real insights on what's going on in our business, Lindsay?

Well, you know, from my perspective with what our company does is we're an objective third party. That's, you know, we're available to do these cultural surveys to see what's going on. And then also we have an entire department that handles EEOC claims. So, you know, when the posters are up, if the employee is, like, really uncomfortable with so and so saying something, we encourage them to give us a call and we'll talk through that with them and. And hopefully deal with this before it becomes a big issue. So it's, you know, from my perspective, what I've seen work is, is having some professionals that are on your side that are wanting your bottom line to increase and protect you as much as they can and also be there for your employees. So your employees feel like they have somebody in their corner that they can talk to that isn't gonna take any kind of retaliatory measures. Does that. Does that kind of answer your question?

Yeah, it totally does.

I love that.

Yeah, I can see that.

Super important for a small business.

Yeah. To have a third party come in.

Objective perspectives.

Yeah. But here's the flip side. Where's that movie? The Office or something? No movie.

The Office.

Yeah.

Movie or the show?

No, the Show. No, there's a movie where. Where the guy.

I'm gonna need you to stop working.

What was that?

Yeah.

See what I'm talking about?

Yeah.

Jennifer Aniston was in the movie.

Yeah, yeah. Office Space.

Office Space. That's it. Not the office, the swag, but the stapler. So Office Space is these third party consultants who come in, and everyone Knows what's going to go on. They're going to interview you and they're going to come back with their recommendation to fire everybody.

Yeah. That's terrible.

Right. So there's this fear I sense. If I told our little company here, was it 10 of us, eight of us, if I say, hey, everyone, we're bringing an outside consultant to improve our performance with our employees, that I think trigger panic?

No, I think the opposite.

Yeah.

Really?

Yeah, I think the opposite.

I mean, if you pose it that way like you just did. Yeah, I wouldn't think that at all. Like, I would think so. Maybe it's the culture, kind of third party.

Maybe it's the culture that can protect me because remember we brought in Darren Veraswamy.

Yeah.

And I wonder if it's the culture. We said we're bringing someone in to improve. We did this exact same thing. We used a company owned by a friend of mine who really did an analysis of individual employees and matched their strengths up. Oh, Darren was on our show and we paid him with a bass guitar. Let that be known. Yeah, that's how we pay. Yeah.

I thought it was wine bottles.

That's what we do with you. And potentially drugs, too. I'm not saying. So bringing in a third party, can it cause intimidation and cause people to actually be fearful of their job or position? How do you navigate that, Lindsay?

The way we navigate that, Mike, is first of all, when insperity, as a peo, professional employer organization goes to work with a company, we do it on an ongoing basis. So this isn't just like a hit it and quit it one time. We're going to come in and do consulting and leave. This is a. We are a resource available every day, all day for your company. And we tell the employees, look what your employer is doing for you. They're giving you access to top notch Fortune 500 level benefits. They're giving you access to HR services and leadership and development and training courses. If you want to. If you want to get better at Excel or PowerPoint or some, you know, obnoxious software, we've got training on it or some soft skills. We're gonna hear. We're here to help you. And this is what your employer is doing for you. As an added benefit to just make this an even better place to work. And. And the employees love it. They love the support.

Yeah.

What does PEO stand for and what exactly?

National Employer Organization.

Okay, awesome.

Nicely done.

I wrote it down because I never heard that before.

That's nice.

Yes.

Give us the technical Makeup of what that. What a PEO is and what your company does.

So we are a professional employer organization, just like Kelsey said. And we're in the HR business and we have been ever since we started. And so our goal is to partner with small businesses to mitigate risks, to minimize distractions, things that keep them from focusing on things that generate revenue, and to contain costs on benefits. So we're able to bring a small business into our pool of Fortune 500 level benefits that has nearly 300,000 lives on it. So we can contain costs on benefits. We take on a lot of the liabilities associated with being in business and having employees. So those EEOC liabilities, Department of labor, unemployment, work comp, things like that, we take on those liabilities from the business so they don't have to deal with that. It's. It's a sigh of relief that they exhibit. And then by being their HR partner, we're able to offset a lot of those just distractions and things that take away their focus when it comes to their people so we can partner with them and help them in that area.

And how do you get compensated if I do this with you? I pay you a monthly fee or how do I. Yeah.

So we take a look at the total payroll burden for everybody that they have on staff. So what, they're paying them their taxes, their benefits, their unemployment, work comp, and all that. And then we build a similar payroll burden where we pay the taxes for them, we put them on our benefits, and we have a medical allocation for that. We give them a discount on workers compensation, we handle the unemployment. And so on top of that, we charge a flat fee per person per month. Or you could break it down to the calendar day if you wanted to, but it's just a flat fee. And so no matter, matter how much they make, that doesn't change. And we are available as much or as little as they want to help them with all of these HR things. And I think the smartest clients use us the most because we're there for them.

I love it.

I love that too.

I love that you love it, Kelsey. Yeah, I love the love that's going around right now.

So much love.

Yeah. So much love. All right, we gotta rock and roll, Lindsay. But before we let you go, we want to know a little more about how people can find out about yourself and inspire.

Yeah. So insperity.com, i N S P E R I T Y go check out our website. We're a publicly traded company and we are all 50 states and love to help you. I personally, because I understand profit first, would love to be a resource for you, for your business. So check me out on LinkedIn. My last name is P O L Y A K. And you'll see it in the notes. Lindsay Pollock. But connect with me. I'd love to chat with people about this and send me a message on LinkedIn and we'll talk.

Awesome. Awesome. That's what we'll do. All right. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you later.

Thanks, Lindsay. Thanks, y' all.

Bye. All right, punch me. Oh, I almost did the timing perfectly. Didn't.

Almost.

Almost. There's a little pause when I push the button. There's a click and a pause. I clicked. So I go.

I was distracted by your back.

I did a loud. Bye. What's the loudest buy? Like, what's the. I'm sorry. What's the most inauthentic buy you've ever done? Like, how do you say it? Bye. Bye.

I feel like anytime I'm getting off the phone, it's awesome.

Bye.

Bye. Oh, you always say, like, bye, bye.

Yeah, you do. You go, bye, bye. You're very high. I like that, actually, because I know you're done. Like, I know the conversation. Yeah, you're like, bye, bye. I do. I think I ditch the Y sound. It's more like a ba. Like, almost a blow off. I'm saying my worst bye. I think that's my worst bi. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting when I say I do attract sheep, it's like I'm a sheep herder. A sheep whisperer.

Very interesting.

All right, here's what we're gonna do. We are going to recap what we learned from Lindsay this afternoon or this morning or. No, it's morning. Still here. Then we are going to answer listener mail. Right? We got listener. Don't give me that condescending look like, what we're gonna do now, Michael. Yeah, you are. And then I want to thank our corporate partners, but not in that order. I do want to thank our corporate partners first.

Great. Yes. That's cool.

Okay, do it. Do you have the next tiva phone at home?

I do.

And you work home once a week on Wednesday. So you have a cool schedule. I think you have a cool schedule. You work four days a week.

Yeah, that whole, like, thing that she was talking about flexibility as being, you know, an attractive attribute. You like, I love that. I feel like it's a game changer.

And you've been working four days a week ever since we Started this company.

Yeah.

And you've been here. We're approaching two years.

Yeah.

When's the two year anniversary?

October.

October. Are we doing something special?

We should.

We should. Let's do something special. Yeah. I'm excited.

I'll bring my unitard.

Yeah, I'm gonna wear your unitard. All of a sudden I'm wearing it upside down, though. I love your zombie laugh. So where was I going with this? Thank our corporate partners. So how is the Nextiva phone?

It's excellent.

Is it any different than like a old traditional phone? Is it just.

Yeah, it's super different because it rings at the office as it does at my house. So it makes it seamless. That whole process of being home, nobody knows the difference. I got to say, like, oh, call me on my cell today. I'm at home, like, super seamless. And you can link it to your phone too. So even if you're out your cell, it'll ring your cell phone and you can call the same number.

Same number consistently. If you call out from your cell, you can do through the nextiva app. Yeah.

And I don't need a phone line.

That's what I like about it. And I like about just the ease. So we moved into the new house. I got to get you out there. It's awesome.

Yeah, I got to get you out of mine too.

I know. I got to come out there. I'm falling in love with our house now. Finally. It took a while and so I have a little office at the house and set my next diva phone up. And it was like five minutes before a call. I'm like, oh, I'm not gonna have time to do this. But I'm the type person. Like, I'll just get started. And within two minutes, it was done. It was done. I just, I plugged it in, I called support and they said, what's the Mac address? I'm like, they're like, just turn the phone, read this number. I read it and they're like, oh, you're all set. Ready to go. I'm like, I still have three more minutes. Like, what do I do now?

How was your day?

Yeah, so what are you, what are you doing? Next step? And the funny thing is, they'll stay on the phone with you.

Yeah, yeah.

She's like, well, my day was good. Well, how's your day? Oh, I gotta tell you about my. Remember, next call to next podcast we do to tell you about my.

The hotel.

My first car. Oh, and hotel. And my first car. And how many things. How we talk. And my hotel.

Okay.

Because it reminded me of the next even phone system. All right. Receipt bank. You can scan in all your receipts. You don't have. I don't know. We've never installed it on your phone. I don't think. You don't have a receipt bank. So I use it and Ron use it. Probably because we're the guys who are spending all the money. And what it does is it scans in all your receipts, syncs it up with your accounting system, make sure you're compliant for if you ever get audited or any of that stuff. And says a great tracking mechanism. Receipt bank. Love them. And I dare say they're sponsoring profitcon.

They are. And a workshop that we're doing.

Oh, my God, they're awesome.

Yeah.

And then write networks. That's a way to get your legacy apps on the web or your entire business on the web once and for all. I'm not talking like Google G Drive or something like. This is your actual apps running on the web. So you can be anywhere in the world, plug in, and you're running the app. It's not just access to the data, it's the entire app. That's right. Networks. So go to WriteNetworks.com for them, Nextiva.com for Nextiva, and Receipts bank for dot com for. You guessed it. Receipt bank. All right, Kels, where's my. What did you learn today? Here it is.

So what'd you learn today?

What did you learn?

That professional employer organizations exist and.

Oh, that was a joke. You didn't know that already?

You didn't either. You asked me.

I know, I know. I didn't. I don't. I know.

Don't act superior.

I'm sorry.

No. I feel like this is such a wonderful solution for those intermediary.

Oh, it's not one of your words. Intermediary.

Yeah. It's not one. What?

Well, you stumbled on it a little bit, so you keep going. Where do you keep your paperwork, by the way? For the company?

I keep it in a thing that pulls out another thing.

What else did you learn there? Cheating.

And I learned that it's perfect for those intermediary companies. Right? Those companies that they're not making enough money to have an HR person solely. That's what they do. Or not even if they don't make enough money, but there's not enough bandwidth for that person, nor do they have the ability to offer great benefits.

Yes.

So this is kind of like the best of both worlds. And I just love the idea of having an advocate for employees. And I mean, obviously they're working on the behalf of the owners as well. But I feel like it's so crucial.

I do.

You know, human relationships, it's always going to be hard times. There's always going to be those awkward things that could easily be solved by a third party.

At that point, these companies are in purgatory. I guess when you're like a one or two employee company, maybe you can handle it.

Yeah.

But it's when you. I don't know what the number, the magic number is. I don't either, but it may. It's three or maybe it's 10 or there's a certain point where you really need sophisticated HR but you can't afford an HR professional.

Right.

Yeah. Perfect. I like that. For me, just a couple of buzzwords. She said fire happy. I was like, oh, yeah, there's some businesses that are fire hamster. This person's not working out. Let's can them. And often there's just no structure to get them up to speed, you know?

Yeah. No, I want to say that it's almost more common that companies don't really have a leadership structure. There's not a real understanding of how to coach employees. It's more like, this is your task. Do your task, you're not doing it. Goodbye. Like, yeah, I think there is this critical component that has to happen.

Agreed.

You know, it's nuance. It's not just, this is your task, it's how do you work to do this task? How can I manage you to do this task?

That makes me think of Amy Cortelli, who Drew Jones recently. I bet you if Amy went to another business that was regimented on the task, like, oh, you have to do this data input or something. She's been out of the workforce, would she say, 15 years? Right. So she's. She said when she applied, she, I have no computer knowledge, but I have a desire to work for you guys. Yeah, I. She's amazing, right? Yeah, amazing. But I wonder if she was put to the task of, oh, do this data entry, figure out the spreadsheet and stuff, that she would get canned right away.

Yeah, exactly. And the thing, because that's the thing with Amy particularly is so much of it is about building her confidence. So much of it is about understanding that she is able to do so much more than she thinks that she is and taking it, you know, these little baby steps for her breaking it down. And these little baby steps that she. There's no question that she can do. It. Right, right. It's not this overwhelming thing that feels too right.

And that's kudos to you because you've been the one coaching her and that's exactly what you've done. You've put it into incremental steps where she can get momentum as opposed to thrust into something where there's this huge outcome expected that she has no way to navigate to on her own. And she's set for failure and she's excelling here.

Yeah, yeah. Because she's brilliant. Like, she's so amazing in her own right, but she just doesn't know it.

Did you hear in today's huddle, I don't know if it was Aaron or Ariel. Someone's like, oh, we have to wait for Amy. Amy's off today. Right. We wait for Amy to come back because she's leading that now.

Yeah.

I'm like, what was she leading?

Oh, because she just naturally does it.

Yes. She naturally stepping into stuff. Okay, so that's what we learned. That's what we learned. We want to know what you learned or maybe have an insight like that emphysema laugh that Kelsey has really should get checked out.

Or do you prefer emphysema or zombie or zombie? I actually prefer zombie laugh.

You prefer zombie laugh? Yeah, I like that.

Emphysema, like, alludes to me being a smoker. I'm not.

No. But I wonder if you have a health.

I'm a zombie. I would much prefer to be a zombie.

Exactly. I don't have. I'm fine. I don't smoke. I'm just dead and been brought back to life. So much better when you laugh. Do not leave that microphone. You pull your face away. You can't do that anymore.

I have to now.

No, don't be. Don't be so self conscious. Do we have to do something else? Cows. Oh, listen to mail.

Yeah.

Okay, hold on. Wait. I push a button. You've got mail. Pattern baldness. Did you hear Scott Gerber laughing his ass off on that one last week?

Yeah.

Right. So that's. Listen, I know everyone listening to the show right now. You're like, I hear that same freaking male pattern baldness joke over and over. I say that again. Male pattern. I hear that male pattern baldness joke over and over again. I'm getting tired of it. But understand, this is not for you, listener. This is for the brand newbies. Yeah, they're welcoming, they're welcome to the family. They're being inoculated. All right, what do you got for me?

Okay, so this One comes from Angus Pryor, which I don't know if you remember, he was the first one who did an audio shout out.

I think he's Australian, right?

He is indeed.

From the first name, I guess.

Yeah. So his question is about taking profits, salary versus reinvesting for growth. As my business grows, personally I'm prone to want to just keep reinvesting for further growth. What is a safe, sensible approach in this regard? Should I take my minimum salary, profits no matter what, or can I play around with the figures?

Okay, so it's funny, so I was half, only half listening because you wanted.

To see if I was going to.

We just had a job applicant come in for that scheduling position and I know whose person is. So it's really.

So glad you focused on the market.

Yeah, no, but I understood the context. You know, what do I use profit for, right? Can I just take as a celebratory thing or do I reinvest it? Right. Here's the thing. The second you take profit and put it back in your business, it's no longer profit, it is now an expense. So like Kelsey, if I said, Here's $100 for the company's profit and then I said, oh, use that money, we need to buy some more rewind bars from Ryan, you know, from Ryan Lee. And you buy it while we're getting his amazing rewind bars, it's now an expense. We called it profit. But it's a shell game, right? That's not profit, it's an expense. So a profit is used for one purpose, distribution to the shareholders in the business. And how we do it is the people that founded the business or the employees of the business, they are the shareholders. The ones are vested in success. And it's given to those individuals for their own use. Usually celebratory. You know, buy that new. I finally have that couch ready for you, but buy that new couch or you get the new flooring at your house or use it any, or save for your future, but you determine how to use it. If you reinvest in the business, you're basically unwinding the business's ability to learn, if you will, how to run off of what's really available for expenses. So, Angus, I hate to be a hard ass on you, but. No, that profits for you, my brother. Spend it, celebrate, fly out here to the United States.

But is there ever a point that you would shift those percentages?

You can shift the percentages. You can, you can. But people shift it too quickly. They keep on reducing profit and say I need more money to grow, and I'm not growing as fast as I want. And they reduce profit by more. And no, growth comes from my experience out of innovation. And the less money you have, the more innovative you come, you become.

Yes.

Make sense?

Yes, absolutely.

Okay.

You gotta think outside of the box.

All right. I asked. I asked one of our. One of our. It was actually Aaron here at the office. I said, aaron, let me ask you just one time and just be super clear with me. I have a circumstance where a client wants to take their money and reinvest it. Is that okay? And here's her response recorded.

Oh, hell no.

See, there you go. Yeah, that wasn't funny at all. No, no, it wasn't even close. All right, Kelsey, anything else we got to talk about?

No, that's it. But please leave us comments or ratings on any of your podcasters, but also on profitfirstpodcast.com.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we monitor those. Right? We're all over it. Yeah, we want to hear it and we'll respond to it.

Yeah.

And hey, maybe. Maybe you have your own profit first story. You know, we're gonna start shifting toward in the future episodes toward more stories of people implementing profit first. Yeah, we start doing that pretty soon. Those recordings.

Yes.

You're asking me?

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, they're.

They're coming.

Yeah.

So we're trying to balance between expert interviews like Lindsay, we had Scott Gerber on a few weeks ago, those type people, but also people that are living through profit first and people are facing some tough challenges. You know, we want to hear the real stories so we can share them with you, maybe navigate them on. On the podcast with that person. And how about you? Why don't you come on the show? So if you have a powerful profit first story or you're struggling with profit first, we're here to help you live on the show. Just email Kelsey Kelseykemicalicz.com Yes. Okay. Oh, and I forgot to say last week, and I want to hire a profit first professional. Yeah, I totally forgot last week.

It was a rush.

It was a rush. But you can go to profitfirstprofessionals.com right now and click on the find one option, and we'll introduce you to a profit first professional. Hopefully. I don't know if it's true, but by the time this episode comes out that the new software we've developed to do auto assignments as opposed to manual assignments will be in place, which simply means you'll get a better connection made faster. Right now we got to kind of do it manually. We make matches, and sometimes we mismatch, and it's not perfect. We got to go through it again. Hopefully that'll be fully automated now. So it means you get to profit even faster.

Exciting.

Yeah. Go to prop first professionals.com and click on find one. I think that's all I got.

Yeah.

All right, let's get out of here.

Bye, everybody.

Sam.