Episode 73: Hire SlowER and Fire Fast

Welcome to the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. 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.

Greetings friends. This is Mike Stromco. And welcome to the next episode of the Unstoppable Profit Podcast. I am coming to you live from the Living Agency Laboratory. And today I wanted to bring you an update because it has changed. And remember, if we want things to change, we get to change. We don't have to change, we get to change. What an incredible opportunity that is. And my encouragement is to you. Keep changing, keep growing, keep getting better every single day, because that is when the big breakthroughs are going to come. I learned in recent Mastermind sessions with our platinum coaching members that when you have a breakdown is when you will have a breakthrough. When you have a breakdown is when you'll have a breakthrough. So those breakdowns will come. And we need to shift, we need to be agile, we need to change. Now the other encouragement for you is the big change is we've said for years and if you look at my book, it talks about the fact that higher slow, fire fast. No, it has changed. Hire slower and still fire fast. And I want to dive into that a little bit today because 80% of the emergency calls that we receive in our coaching programs are concerning the famous first P. And the three P's are people, processes and promotion in that order. But it's the people. And I just got done in my own personal growth and development reading a book, up youp Business by Dave Anderson. And he said it's the people stupid. And that's no disrespect to anybody, but it is. It's all about having world class people on your team to create that and deliver that experience to your clients, to your prospects, to your communities and everybody else surrounding that. So let's dive in. Recently authored a piece on that specific subject, been sharing it with everybody in all of our programs and they've been having really solid results. And up upping their team, upping the quality of their team, identifying that they don't have best players in place and making the change that needs to be made so they continue to grow their business, create wealth and have more freedom so they can live life on their own terms, which is what we want for everybody. It's three simple words, my friends, peace of mind. And that's what we want. For all of you. So culture eats strategy and everything else for breakfast. That's the title of the document that I authored and it's absolutely accurate. It's your culture, but it's your people who create that culture. So you've got to get the best players on the bus and you cannot be satisfied with anything else. The first P is not only the driver of the most profits and it's the driver of loss of focus, loss of profits, loss of sleep and agony, my friends. Think about that. When you've had something go wrong with a person on your team or anybody for that fact, you lose focus, you lose profits, sometimes you lose sleep, and it's agonizing. We've all been there in my journey in business in over 40 years, I've witnessed it time and time again and I've experienced more often than I care to share. Ok? But I have learned. I have learned how to get better all of the time. And we have just developed a brand new facet within our UPP atmosphere to help with that. And we will get to that in just a minute. So get the first P right, you will win more. Get the first P wrong, you will experience more lessons. And lessons are also known as failures, but those are learning and growing opportunities. So get it right. You know, I think back to my journey in the very beginning. I started on my own in 1998, all by myself, zero people. And I was working, working, working, working, working, working to get to a certain point where I could hire that very first person. And I finally got to the point after about six months, I was generating enough revenue where I could bring that person on. And so I did. And. And she was awesome. I was out there in the wild and I'm going to talk about the five places that you can find the next best team member in just a couple of minutes. But she was out there in the wild, which is 20% of where you're going to find these best players. So she was out there in the wild and I hired her and she was awesome. She was answering the phones, she was taking everything off of my plate so I could be doing the things that I needed to do to continue to grow your business. And today I've identified my top three personal gifts, talents, vital functions, whatever you want to call them. And my friends, you should be identifying those as well. You should know your top three personal talents, gifts, vital functions, and what you do to contribute to the growth of your business. We'll talk about that in a future upcoming episode in the Unstoppable Podcast. So I hired this gal. She was awesome, but she decided to start a family, and she got pregnant. And ultimately, at the end of the day, she left. And then after that, had a couple of lessons, if you will, through hires. And then because of our marketing acumen back then, we were doing yellow page ads. Yeah, some of you may not have heard of that, because that was a while ago, back in the 90s, last decade. But at the end of the day, because of our marketing acumen, a gal who had just moved to the area found us, and she looked in the yellow pages and she said. Because I said to her, I said, how did you find it? She goes, I saw your ad in the yellow Pages. I said, well, what made you respond? She goes, your ad was completely different than anybody else's. I knew you were a marketer. And I want to be in an agency that knows how to market, because I want to be busy and productive of the time. That hire my friends changed the future of our agency forever. She was an absolute rock star. So my first encouragement for you is once you recruit, and you always should be recruiting, you've always got to be recruiting, my friends, all the time. Never stop. Even if you get six people into your funnel that raise their hands to begin the interview process, you've always got to be recruiting. Okay? So at the end of the day.

You know, once you get people into your funnel, remember this. We're all in sales. We're all in sales, my friends. So we are selling people on what we have. And the best. They want to know what you've got to help them grow, because they're looking for other people on your team who are the best players. They want to be part of something significant. They want to be part of something special. They want to be part of something that's going somewhere. So we've got to sell them on that. They want to be challenged. The best people want to be challenged every single minute of every single day. So that's why it's important that you have the three P's working in synchronicity every single day, in every single way. It's just critical to the success of your operation, my friends, and the growth and the profitability in every way. Next. They want opportunity. They want opportunity to grow. They want to see a pathway to a better future. And you've got to give them that vision. Vision is the art of seeing things that other people can't see. So give them that vision, my friends, because they want to see something special into the future. Fourth, they want to grow. People want to feel better about themselves. Why do you want to achieve? Why do you want to get better? Why do you want to grow your business? Let's be real. Because you may feel better when you grow your business. You feel better about yourself. And you know, I talk a lot about. It's not about you, it's all about them. It's not about you, it's all about them. And that's true. But let's face it, we're human beings. We've got that little selfish nature within us and we want to feel better about themselves. And it's the same for the people. The best players that you're trying to attract to your organization, hire slower, fire fast. Okay, and number five, it is about the money. But when you think about this, the ads that you're putting out there in the world, whether it be offline or online, offline or online, and you should be using both. Because if you want to reach 100% of the prospect marketplace, meaning your next best player, your A players, not the best available, the next A player. My friends, you've got to design the ad to attract that right person and align it and match it with your organization. And most importantly, align it and match it with the leader, the organization. My friends, you've got to sell both the position, but more importantly the company to the candidate. We are all in sales every single day in every single way, personally and professionally. So where, oh where can you find these best players? My friends, I'm going to share with you the five areas that I have personally identified through the growth of our insurance agency operation. Remember, I've been there, I've done that. But I'm still doing it. I still have a growing, thriving independent insurance agency business that I get to be in the trenches every single day, carrying on my shoulders seven days a week just like the rest of you. So in this growing and thriving organization, I want to share with you the five areas. Higher, slower, fire fast. Now let me share with you before I go to those five strategies for you. Why did it change to hire slower? Okay, because we've always said hire slow, fire fast, be diligent, don't miss a step in the process and bringing on your next best team player. And that's 100% accurate. However, recently we recruited some people into our recruitment from our recruiting funnel. Enter the interview stages within our agency and we start with a phone screen. The first thing we do is a phone screen. The second thing we do is a first interview. It's face to face, whether it Be face to face in the office or nowadays because of the current environment that we're in, Zoom, it does not matter. It's a first interview. We've got the whole thing scripted out the phone interview, the first interview. After that we go to aptitudes and after that we go to a team interview. And the roadblock was the team interview because we require that multiple leadership people on our team be in that team interview. It's about an hour either face to face or via zoom or video conferencing. But at the end of the day, what we found.

People couldn't make the meeting. I mean somebody had an appointment, somebody's on vacation, this, that, this, that. And we couldn't get everybody to the table so we kept delaying the team interview. But what happened was, remember these candidates, they want to grow, they want to take action, they want to be part of something special. And so we don't want to delay that opportunity in any way. Ok? So at the end of the day, our lesson from that, because we lost two candidates which we feel, excuse me, were very solid candidates. So we now have this higher, slower mentality. And, and if a person can't make the interview, we keep on going with the interview. They just can't make it. They just can't make it. It is what it is. All right? So don't delay, don't delay because these candidates will not sit there forever because if they are a players the best available, they will go find a position. They're not going to wait for you. They don't need you, my friends. Okay? So at the end of the day, don't delay. Hire slower, not too slow, but cut the ties. Fire fast, hire slower, Fire fast. So where aware are you gonna find these best players? Well, 20% of the best players, and this is research that I've done within industries outside of our own industry as well. Okay, at the end of the day, 20% of the best players are within your personal network. Everybody's got a personal network. You, everybody on your team, your best friends, the people you might go to church with. Everybody, everybody, everybody has a personal network. People they know well, people they. There's trust usually present in a personal network. For example, look at the number of people connected to anybody on their social media profiles, on their personal email list. Out in the wild, everybody's got a personal network. So when within that personal network of you and everybody else, you know, 20% of the best players come from that 50% of the best potential team members come from an employee network. Yes, your team Members, all of your team members also have a personal network and other people they know in their personal networks, out in the wild, in their own lives, whatever, through coaching and sports activities, kids activities, etc. Etc. Everybody's got that. So your employee network. So use your employee network to find your next best team player and build in incentives. Your team members want other people that they can collaborate with, that they can grow with, et cetera, et cetera, on your teams, okay? Only 10%, and this is a key point, only 10% of your next best team members are going to be found on online job boards. Unfortunately, online job boards, a lot of people that are on unemployment, they got to apply. They gotta apply. They gotta apply to continue to receive unemployment benefits, they apply in job boards. So you've got to be strategic, diligent, and everything else when that happens, okay? So at the end of the day, you have to know, all right, online job boards aren't the coup d', la, if you will. You've got to use all of the ways, okay, to get people from those online job boards, okay? And in addition to that, you've got to make sure that you do your work in the interviewing process in that particular realm, okay? And we have a brand new resource in that realm to help you make the right choices. In addition to that, like I said, if you want to reach 100% of the marketplace, you've got to use 100% of the ways, all right? So it's a facet of what you're doing. But don't rely solely on the online job boards, because when people identify you, when they raise their hand, when they identify that you might be the organization for them, at the end of the day, they're going to go look at you online and they're going to find out everything they can about you. So you want to be present there all of the time, and you want to be present there with something that is attractive to people, that attracts them into your funnels, okay? The next 20% is out in the wild. Out in the wild is like your vendor supplier networks, your carrier marketing reps, your client networks. We just had a platinum coaching member who found a potential very excellent a player within their client network, okay? Your association groups, your church peer groups. My friends, at the end of the day, only your imagination is the limitation. So you've got this. You've got to be diligent. And just like in marketing nowadays, in today's environment, we find that we need to invest three times more in marketing dollars to attract the kind of organic growth that we want to attract. And with regarding to the hiring slower, firing fast mentality, we also need to invest three times more time in evaluating the next best team player to get the right people on the bus to continue to grow, to continue to service, to continue to keep our unstoppable agencies thriving. In today's environment, my friends, there is no limitation to anything preventing you from continuing to grow your business, to creating wealth, to having more freedom to live life on your own terms. And like I said, there's nothing that will suck your time faster than making that.

Mistake on the first p. And don't hesitate to hire hiring slower, but don't hesitate to fire fast as well. It's a key strategy we remember. I had this situation many, many years ago in my evolution as an agency entrepreneur. I identified when I needed to go in and fire fast. I was struggling with it because this gal had a huge heart. She was an incredible person. I didn't want to. She was referred by one of my wife's best friend's neighbors. She was the daughter of one of my best friend's neighbors. It was really, really hard for me. And driving to the office, I was thinking, how am I going to do this? You know, I don't want to do this, but she needs to go. We had written her up and etc. Etc. She needed to go. So at the end of the day and driving to the office, I said, aha. It was one of my biggest aha moments in my journey so far. I thought, you know what? This is a business decision. So as an encouragement to wrap this up today, there's two kinds of relationships, my friends. There's personal relationships and there's business relationships. They are two different things. We've got businesses to run. We need to continue to make business decisions, to support and to continue to cause our agencies to thrive in the current environment. It's not a personal relationship. It's nothing personal. It's a business decision. I hope this fuels you. I hope this gives you new ideas to hire slower, fire fast. Until the next time, get out there and make a difference. Be unstoppable. Leave no regrets. This is Mike Tromso coming to you live from the Leaving Agency Laboratory. And don't forget to subscribe to the Unstoppable Profit podcast on this page. Make sure you subscribe. That way, all of our future podcasts will drop right into your funnel. In addition to that, if you get value out of our Unstoppable for Profit podcast, please share it with anybody and everybody you know we just want to make a difference and be unstoppable and leave no regrets. Making an impact in people's lives personally and professionally. I'll talk to you soon. Take care.

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