Episode 5: Hire Slow and Fire Fast

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This podcast will give you all the tools to grow your business and live life on your terms. Millionaire agents and entrepreneurs think and act differently than others. This podcast will give you a simple, proven three step blueprint to grow your business. Over the past 31 years of research in your industry, Mike Stromso has created a unique philosophy called the three People process and promotion. This outside the box thinking and guidance provides agency entrepreneurs just like you the knowledge and tools you can quickly implement to explode your agency business. He has been there, done that, and he's still doing it. Wherever you are today, if you're starting with nothing or are well on your way to the success you desire, with the right people, processes and promotions in place, you will be unstoppable. And now I'd like to introduce your host, Mike Stromso.

Hey, welcome to episode five of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. This is Mike Strompso coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today we're going to be talking about the subject that of all the agents that we get to coach with, we get to consult with, that we speak with all over the country, it's the number one subject that challenges them and it's something we affectionately call the first P. What is the first P? Well, if you remember, it's the people, the processes and the promotion that if you've all got those working in synchronicity, you're going to have in a business that will grow, that will create wealth and you can have more freedom if you've got it all working together. But you know, this first P thing continues to be a challenge and it's a changing dynamic. So the first P is your people, and it's excellent people is what you're looking for to get on your team today. I want to share with you some 10,000 foot level thoughts and experiences from our own recruiting and hiring over the last 31 years to create that excellent team. The thing I want you to write down, and I hope you have something to write with and write on, it's better to ink it, not think it, or what gets written down and crossed out gets done. Hire slow and fire fast. I want you to write that down right now. Hire slow and fire fast. And how current is this information? Well, about 17 minutes ago, I had a gal that was sitting at my desk that just got through step number three in our systematic hiring process and she challenged me a little bit. She said, hey, we just went through the aptitude testing, by the way. The aptitude testing is done here in our office. It's never done at their place because we don't know who's taking the aptitude test. I want to see their eyes, I want to see their face. I want to know that they're the ones I'm getting the information on. So she got done with the aptitude testing and she hey, by the way, I just wanted to verify the next steps in the process. And I said, okay. And I explained it to her. She goes, well, the reason transparently that I wanted to share this with you is because I actually got another offer this morning. So was she challenging me? I don't know. But see, this is all part of it. You've got to understand and you have to be aware of what's going on. So let's get back to the 10,000 foot level thoughts and experiences because in future podcasts I'm going to share with you some exact details about this entire first P process. Because ladies and gentlemen, it's the most important thing that we do. It's the most critical thing that we do. And if you ever, when you get to the point, I should say when you get to the point of having more freedom, you don't want to be thinking in the back of your head what's going on back at the office. You want to know without question that everything is fine, that your clients are being taken care of, that your future clients are being taken care of, that your representation in the communities around the places in which you do business is in great hands. So what's the most important thing? It's really simple. It's trust.

You've got to know at the end of the day that you can trust and every person on your team. So why are you going to go to such great extents to evaluate people? Because you've got to make sure that that trust is 100% there. Alright, so what is the first step? Well, first, the first step is you've got to find the pond, as we say, in which you're going to fish. Okay? So you've got to identify where you're going to begin to build these relationships. All right? And before you cast the line into the pond, I want to share with you the most important thing that you're going to put out there. Okay, so let's reverse that. Before going to the pond, what's the most important thing that you're going to put out there? Well, it's you. And my dad told me when I started working for him when I was about 12 years old. Shortly thereafter, when I passed muster, I guess we'll say, after a period of months, he said, you know what? As you go along in business and in life, there's one thing you've got. There's one thing that you've got that nobody else can be better, that nobody else can trump, that nobody else can improve more, that nobody else can.

Raise the bar higher than. And he said, that's you. So whatever you've got, make it the best that you can be. So the challenge was on my encouragement for you. If you're going to put something out there into the pond, the first thing that you've got to put out there is you, your organization, your team, and everything about it. So because you know when you go cast your fishing line into the pond to bring more team members in, you've got to make sure when they get up on shore and they look at you, that everything that they see is the best that it can be. Because ladies and gentlemen, they're watching and they're looking at you in every way possible. Everything from your website to your social media channels. They're going to talk to other people that may be on your team already. They're going to ask everybody they know in the community about you. Have you ever heard of this organization? What do you know about this organization? It's all important. And if you're not doing everything else that we talk about that's involved in the first three Ps, the people, the processes, promotion, because you know what people find when we cast the line out there into the pond of the area in which our office is, we find that most people have mostly positive things to say about our organization. So when people walk in, say, for that first interview, let's say they get to that point, my first question for them always is, share with me what you've learned about our organization. Did you visit our website? And if you did, what did you learn about us on your website? You see, this is all critical information. And then of course, when you ask a great pointed question like, what did you learn about us when you visited our website? Yes, you shut up. You got to shut up because you've got two ears and one mouth. And you got to listen for everything they're going to tell you because they're going to tell you everything you need to hear and everything you don't want to hear, which is what you need to hear, okay, at the end of the day, because it's all about an evaluation process. You've got to make sure that you continue to Dig that you continue to dig, and you continue to dig because you got to uncover everything that's going on in their heart, in their mind and in their soul about what they know about you. So, and like I said earlier, the thing that you need to work on the most as you begin to get ready to cast that line out into the pond is who you are and what kind of quality bait. To continue with the fishing analogy, what kind of quality bait are you putting out there in the water that people are going to bite and be real, Dan? So, you know, you've got to continue to work on yourself just like you got to continue to work on yourself in business and in life. Because if you want to have more, you've got to become more. And so what you got to continue to do is pretend, picture this, if you will, with me, pretend your agency is a brilliant, big, shiny diamond, alright? You've got to continue to polish that shiny jewel all the time and make it the best that it can be. Because if you continue to polish that shiny diamond and continue to make it very brilliant and valuable, you're going to attract the same kind of people to your organization. I hope you can envision that. Hope you can picture that. Because really, ladies and gentlemen, what I want to share with you today, that's what it's all about. That is the key to your hiring processes and systems. Yes, the way you get out there in the world is important. Yes, the way that you present and everything else that you do after that. Yes, the interview process is all uber important. But at the end of the day, friends, it's all about how you present and what you present and who you are and who you've become. That's going to attract the kind of people that you want to attract to come within your organization. So, you know, let's talk about today, what kind of ponds you're going to be casting your line into and your bait into. And in future podcasts, I'll share with you more of the nuts and bolts of exactly what your information that you're putting out there to the world might look like. Okay, so let's talk about the ponds that you're going to fish in today. All right, it could be your networks. Who do you know? Who do you know in your business? Networks. It might be local networks, it might be beyond that. I mean, there's been people that I've known in the past that check in networks across the country. They're willing to invest money to move somebody or to pay a portion of the moving cost to move somebody from, you know, middle of America to the west coast or the east coast. If you get a person that that's value that is that valuable, that's at all possible. I mean, there's people that can work remotely to that extent if it's right for the position. So don't limit your to think just locally. Think about as far as you can. But your networks and your word of mouth, who do you know? Make sure that you tell the people closest to you. Most people, as we learned in the book Endless Referrals by Bob Berg. Bob taught us that everybody has a list of about 250 people that would either come to their wedding or that will go to their funeral. So everybody's got that list. So know your list. And my greatest encouragement is we have a personalized email as part of our processes and systems that we can help you send out to your own email list. Okay? So know your own network first. That's one of the most important places that you can begin to fish for great, excellent team members. Secondly, yes, job websites are out there nowadays. It seems to me though, in my working with agents all over the country that some of these job networks like Indeed and ziprecruiter and Glassdoor and all of those.

They'Re good for some marketplaces, Some marketplaces, they're not quite as effective as they used to be. But what I want you to remember is this. Also write this down. This is another writer down addition to hire slow and fire fast. Ready. You've always got to be recruiting. You always have to be recruiting. So what the job websites are good for all the time is, you know, just having that line out in the water all the time because you don't know who's been trolling. You know, what I've learned about job websites and the such is that, you know, normally people who might be in those particular forums might be people who are unhappy in their current situation. So if they're unhappy in their current job situation, why are they unhappy? Back to the digging, right? Are they constantly unhappy with everything all the time? Of course, that's not somebody that you want on your team, right? You want some somebody who's happy, who's productive. So ultimately you want to be also trolling for, if you will, or looking for all the time is the best of the best, right? So yeah, it's okay to have it on the job networks, but do not let that be your only pond that you're fishing in for your next great teammate. Social media outlets, yes, absolutely. A great place to look, if you're looking for people in business, though, you know, one of the hottest ones, as far as the time of the recording of this podcast, is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great place for business. It's a great place where business people hang out, especially people that are in business. Not necessarily employers, but employees of all types are hanging out there as well. So LinkedIn, Facebook, all of that is an opportunity. But at the end of the day, let's jump to a promotional thought process or mindset for just a couple seconds. Think about this with me for a minute. When somebody sees your ad, do they think, oh, my gosh, I've never seen anything like that before, or is it just the same old, same old? You see, remember the marketing thought process and the marketing mindset. Look at what everybody else is doing and do the exact opposite. Be the one that stands out from the crowd. Maybe it's a video. Maybe it's a team video. Maybe it's a fun team video. Maybe it's just wording that's different than everybody else. Maybe it's something that talks directly to the kind of people that you're looking to attract. Some of the lessons that I've learned is I'm using the wrong wording. I'm using the wording that might attract me, but not necessarily the people that I need to do what I need to get done. And I hope that made sense to you. So your networking, your word of mouth, your own networks, job websites, all forms of social media out there. And I would also encourage you to use, like I said, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Put pictures of your office up there. Put a little visual inside that, a text overlay, if you know what that is, just says, welcome to your next home. Or just give them the reason why it might catch their attention, why it might make it stand out. All right, Outsourcing. Outsourcing to other people who have expertise in that particular area. You know, headhunters, they're out there. They're relevant for some. Some areas, they're not quite as good. We've, in the last 12 months have used headhunters. We've not had a lot of success. We tested it internally. It did not work out. I was working with an agent this week in another state, and it's worked wonderfully for them. So you don't know what you don't know. So you got to ask lots of great, pointed questions and continue to test from a marketing mindset. Again, in this realm, as marketers, we test. All right. The other thing, if you Keep a resume file. We keep a resume file that goes back years. And I was looking within the last couple of years for somebody, and so I went back to my resume file and I found one. And I said, I remember this gal. She was an absolute winner. I remember dialoguing with her. And I went back to her and she remembered me, which is a good thing. She said, mike, hey, I found a home, and I'm really, really happy where I'm at now. But I remember you. Thank you for checking in with me, and if I ever change my mind, I will let you know. And I asked her one last question. I said, is there anything that I can say or write to you that would get you to change your mind? And she said, no. And I said, I respect that. I said, keep in touch. So my next question is concerning the pond. Do you have some kind of drip messaging system that's tagged for your recruiting funnel only that drips on these people week after week, month after month, all of the time sharing with them the great things that are happening in your organization and over in the third p in the promotional realm, if you're following what we teach, you've got multiple messages going out all the time to everyone on all of your list. And they should be included because they're going to continue to say, they're going to go, wow, look at the kind of stuff that they're doing. I've never seen anything like it. Got it. I hope you get what I just said, because you're completely separating yourself from everybody else that's out there. Okay, so look at your past, resumes that you've talked to people. You never know if they took a position. You never know if they're happy in it. They might have just taken a position because they had to. Maybe they didn't necessarily want to. And of course, the most important thing, if you're ever going to reach out to people as part of your fishing in the pond, you always want to start with your own email list as well. Again, we have specific messaging. I go into my own private Outlook portal and I send that message. What I do, here's the tip.

I address the email to myself and I bcc everybody else on my own personal list. And that way it just goes to me and everybody else gets it. And I always get a couple of responses. And working with some agents, just this week, again, we were dialoguing in that realm, and the agent said, you know, I've got a bunch of commercial clients. I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to go fishing in the pond with them and just see if I can give back to my commercial clients. Remember, money follows trust and the trust is already there. So I'm going to go out to them and see if I can help them in any way. But maybe they know somebody in their resume archives that can become part of us. So, ladies and gentlemen, the sky is the limit. And the best, most important thing that you can do is begin to continue or not begin to continue. Continue to polish your diamond, the shiny jewel that your agency business and everything about it make it more brilliant than anything else out of the landscape. Because picture this with me for just a second, okay? So if somebody is looking for an agency home because something happened in their current position, maybe it was sold, maybe the owner passed away, maybe somebody retired or whatever, whatever, whatever. Okay? They're no longer happy there. They just got a rub with the new people that came in to run the agency and they're looking for a new home. Okay, so if they look at 10 different agencies out there in the landscape when they see yours, how are they going to feel? How are they going to be emotionally attached? And can they picture themselves? Can they picture in their own mind them being connected with you? And if you're not attracting, if you're not the one out of those 10 that stand out above all other friends, we just have more work to do. And that's okay. Alright, so position yourself, create this amazing portrait of your agency that everybody wants to be a part of and give them every reason to join your team. Eliminate every reason not to join your team and make sure that your team's on board as well. All right? Because ultimately it's a team effort. Remember, the definition of team is together. Everybody achieves more. There's nothing more important than your agency team. There's nothing more important than your agency people. There's nothing that will drag you down faster than having the wrong people on your team. It will distract you every waking hour of the day and sometimes non waking hours of the day. Friends, we don't want that for you. That's why this is so important and we're going to end it with that today. So Paul, my message for you today is number one, hire slow and fire fast. Two, always be recruiting. Three, continue to polish the shiny jewel that your agency every moment of every day. And number four, make sure that you get the list of all the ponds that you're going to be fishing in for that next great agency team member lined up, ready to go. And on an upcoming podcast, we're going to share with you how you position yourself in ads and everything else that you do to minimize the amount of time that you have to invest to talk to people. And then we'll subsequently get into interviewing, the number of steps that are needed in an interview process. And we will help you get through all of that. So, friends, I hope that gives you a lot to consider. Get to work on yourself. It's the most important thing. You've got to present your agency in a way unlike anybody else, ladies and gentlemen. I hope that helps you. And remember, it just takes one bad apple to spoil the whole cart, so don't let it happen to you. Hire slow and fire fast. And one last thought for you today. How great would it feel to have a systematic process in place that consistently churned qualified candidates into your hiring funnel, begging to join your team? We're going to help you get there. Stay tuned. This is Mike Strompso, live from the Living Agencies Laboratory, encouraging you strongly to make a difference, to be unstoppable, and to leave no regrets. Please go implement, execute and take action and I'll catch you on the next podcast. Thank you for listening. If you would like to listen to more episodes or share this podcast with someone you care about, please visit www.unstoppableprofitpodcast.com now go out and make a difference. Be unstoppable and leave no regrets.