In this concise 7‑minute interview, Professor Pete Alexander talks with AJ Mizes, CEO and founder of The Human Reach, a human‑potential institute that helps leaders develop, builds strong company cultures, and accelerates career placement. AJ emphasizes the critical role of networking, noting that roughly 88% of current hires come from referrals, and challenges the common belief that online applications are sufficient. He introduces the concept of "High Tides Raise All Boats," arguing that companies succeed when they invest in true leaders rather than promoting top individual contributors into managerial roles. AJ advises businesses to hire proactively—planning a year ahead and starting recruitment 3‑4 months before a role is needed—to avoid being "behind the 8‑ball" and creating inadvertent "tollgates" where leaders become bottlenecks. He shares a personal lesson from his first job at Jamba Juice, highlighting the power of deliberate customer experience design, and recommends his former mentor Christine Salud as a future podcast guest. The episode concludes with AJ’s contact information (www.thehumanreach.com and social handles).
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hey Pete, I'm AJ Mises, and I am the CEO and founder of the Human Reach, which is a human potential institute based in the San Francisco Bay Area where we We help leaders become the best versions of themselves. We help companies thrive with great company culture, and we help people, uh, land jobs and their dream careers in record time.
Well, AJ, it's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
Um, I would say on the career strategy side, the Um, the fear of going out and actually having to network and talking with people that they don't know, um, and how valuable that is as part of the networking process and to get an interview at one of your dream companies. Um, in fact, 88% of companies that are hiring right now are doing so via referrals. So via people that you meet and that you know, which means that only 12% of the time that you're going to get a job from applying to things online. And so I always get a lot of, a lot of pushback when I tell people about my networking strategy, but it works.
Oh, I totally would agree with you. When I used to teach college classes, I would always tell my students very similarly, you need to go out and have conversations with people because everybody will just send the resume to the postings, but it takes that extra step that, as you said, you know, 88% of these jobs are being offered because of that networking. So you have to make make that next step effort. Am I right?
Absolutely.
Yes. Yeah, that's great, great insight. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
High Tides Raise All Boats. That would be the name of the chapter. And the reason behind that is your leadership team is the high tide, and the way in which you invest in your leadership team that you grow your leadership team and that you select the right leaders is one of the biggest differentiators between companies who succeed and those who flounder. So making sure that you are putting people into leadership roles who want to be leaders and who also are skillful in it. There's a lot of times where companies will promote people who were great independent contributors into a leadership role because that's quote unquote the natural progression. But more times than not, that is actually a flawed way of doing it because you're not actually putting people in leadership roles who are great leaders.
And, you know, it's so interesting that you say that. My career, I had so many opportunities working with sales teams, and the common thought process was the quickest way to ruin a great salesperson is to promote them to manager if they didn't have the skill set. And it's just what you're saying hits that so, so eloquently. So I hope our listeners hear that very clearly. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Hire before you think you need somebody. Um, and what I mean by that is, you know, think about the goals that your team or your organization needs to hire for, and then reverse engineer the type of position, a type of role, type of person that would need to be on your team in order to hit those goals. And oftentimes, but the time that we think that we need somebody, it's too late. And we're already falling behind the 8-ball. So think about— put it— put a year plan together, 12 months, and think about when you need to be hitting some of those goals. And then 3 to 4 months prior to when you need that person to start actually executing on that, that's when you should be hiring that person, or at least starting the hiring process.
And that is really, really important for people to understand. Because yeah, when you're behind the 8-ball, you're adding unnecessary unnecessary stress to, to your own, uh, work. Because if you don't have somebody there hired that's going to take care of what you anticipated that work to be, you— now it falls on someone else, or it doesn't get done, and, and it just starts to snowball. Is that what you've seen as well?
Absolutely. And oftentimes leaders will create inadvertent tollgates, which is where they're spending time in areas where they don't need to be because they have the people to be able to handle the things that they once were doing themselves. And so another question that I ask people is, you know, how often are people coming to you as the final decision maker? And if the answer to that is 50% or more of the time, you've inadvertently created a tollgate that is going to prevent you from hitting your goals and reaching your potential.
And I really like that term tollgate because it has a very good visual that people can appreciate and relate to. So well done with that.
It's one of my favorites.
Question number 5. What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
I think I would acknowledge— I, I would acknowledge Christine Salud. Christine Salud was, uh, one of my mentors at Facebook when I was there. I was there for almost 4 years. She's an incredible people leader, incredible HR exec, and I think she would— she would be a great, uh, person to have on the show and for people to learn from.
Wonderful. I look forward to talking to her. Thank you for that referral. And our final question, question number 6: please tell me about your first my first job was working at Jamba Juice.
I was a smoothie maker. And, you know, I love the job. I thought it was really fun. I specifically loved working the cash register. I think as a kid, I like, you know, we all play with different toys. I played with a cash register when I was a kid. And so I really liked that interaction with the guests and talking to people and seeing the regulars. But that whole experience really taught me the power of customer experience and not customer service, but customer experience. And Jamba Juice had a really great way of really housing the customer experience from the time somebody walked in the store to the time somebody left. And so I've taken a lot of those building blocks with me into how I lead and how I build my own business.
And, you know, if anyone's ever walked into a Jamba Juice and had a chance to have one of their juices and stuff, they're pretty darn good. And so— and really good. Yeah.
And that should greet you the second you walk in the door.
They did.
From the Jamba.
They did. And it's so funny, I, you know, it's something that I didn't take into consideration. But By you describing it, I thought back, and yeah, each time that I walked in, I, I had that experience. So it's, it's good to know that that was intentional. I love that story. So AJ, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Thanks for having me. You can find me on my website, which is www.thehumanreach.com, or on any and all social channels at AJ Mizes, M-I-Z-E-S.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Get hundreds of amazing business insights from previous latest guest episodes on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening.
