Joshua NelsonSeven Figure Agency · Mentor / Coach at Seven Figure Agency

Hiring people like you is a mistake most founders make

Name: Hiring people like you is a mistake most founders make
Uploaded: 2026-05-09T16:01:34+00:00
Duration: 1 min
Channel: Joshua Nelson
Description: In this monologue, the speaker reflects on a recurring hiring error among founders: selecting candidates who mirror the founder’s own polished…

9 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this monologue, the speaker reflects on a recurring hiring error among founders: selecting candidates who mirror the founder’s own polished, articulate, and professional demeanor. While such hires impress during interviews and perform well in the initial "honeymoon" weeks, they often lack essential traits like follow‑through, consistent customer outreach, and fact‑finding, leading to missed calls, client complaints, reduced retention, and reputational damage. The speaker attributes the oversight to ignoring deeper psychological profiles—specifically the Kolbe assessment—which distinguishes quick‑start, high‑energy personalities (common among entrepreneurs) from candidates with high follow‑through and fact‑finding abilities. The core advice is to look beyond surface charisma, evaluate candidates on durable work behaviors, and use tools like the Kolbe profile to ensure hires can sustain performance beyond the early weeks.

Chapters

I've made a lot of bad hires, unfortunately, just because initially when we were growing the business, I was looking for somebody that was very similar to me. I was like, okay, I want somebody that can be articulate, that's gonna be great conversationalist, that's gonna be polished and professional. And so that was what I was looking for. And that's what I was like, oh, this person's gonna be amazing. I can think of a couple people we hired as account managers that they just, everything looked good on paper. I vibed with them, put them in the role. They were great for like the first week, the first 2 weeks in the honeymoon period. But then by month 2, they weren't following up on their calls. They weren't following up with the customers. So they were starting to get complaints. They were halfway checked out in the organization. And it cost us. It cost us client retention. It cost us reputation. And I think it was just a function of not realizing you got to look at their Kolbe profile, what their psychological— are they high follow-through? Are they high fact-finder? Are they just a good quick start? Because entrepreneurs like you and me and probably most of us listening, we're high quick start people. We're like, we're very polished and very professional. But sometimes your best candidate isn't that way. They're the kind of person that show up amazing on an interview, but they're going to stick with the role and they're going to do a great job.