#1 Hiring Podcast Designed Specifically For Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs Tuesdays @12PM (PST), LIVE on LinkedIn, YouTube, & Facebook Our mission is to enable values-driven startups to win-win the strongest hires by sharing insights from top-performing entrepreneurs, game-changers, & industry thought leaders. www.hirepowerradio.com www.rickgirard.com
Episodes
Thursday May 23, 2019
Marinela Gombosev: An Alternate Route for a Startup to Hire Salespeople
Thursday May 23, 2019
Thursday May 23, 2019
Alternative ways to hire salespeople when your company is getting started. Sales are the lifeblood of a company but what do you do when you need to grow revenue but have a limited budget? You get creative. Today we are talking about an interesting alternative to driving sales in the form of Independent sales reps.
Today’s Quote:
"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, 'Make me feel important.' Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life." - Mary Kay Ash
Guest Bio:
Marinela Gombosev is the President & COO of Evoke Neuroscience, a commercial-stage diagnostic company focusing on early detection of Alzheimer’s and other dementias with a vision of ultimately eradicating dementia. Marinela is a roll up the sleeves leader who strives to work across all levels of the organization, lead from a place of authenticity, and effectively represent the company to its clients, partners and investors.
Over 50,000 patients have been assessed using Evoke’s technology and under Marinela’s leadership, the company has twice been ranked in the Inc. 500|5000 fastest-growing private companies.
Show Highlights:
- The good bad & ugly of hiring independent sales reps
- How to hire them in the most efficient manner
Problem:
Why hire Independent sales reps?
Independent manufactures reps?
- Upside
- No money to spend, a great way to get growth
- Don't pay anything until they close a deal
- Fast
- Rephuner.net
- Downside
- Control or visibility
- Way to monitor, don't want to be managed
- Misunderstand the product, regulations, Get burned a lot
- Can put you in a legal liability
- Misrepresentation of contacts & skills
Solutions
How do you hire them?
- Dirty secret: You are buying their relationships
- Hiring because they are trained. Many are pretty bad. Where she has been successful are the ones with relationships. Once they sell their relationships.
- Similar types of products.
- Who are your call points? Personal network? Other reps that work with you?
- Place an ad and make sure profile is written for reps
- Who are you selling to, what are you selling, how much $ am I going to make
Schedule call
- Evaluate call points
- Level of interest
- Product Understanding
- Amount of time they can invest
- How many other clients they have
- Where am I on the priority scale
Hire
- Sign NDA
- Disclose comp plan
- Sales rep agreement
Comprehensive Training Plan
- On boarding program & test
- Access to all the training materials
Rules
- No exclusive territories
- Lead registration program / lead protection
- Demo product
- Short term play once the network is exhausted they usually burn out
- Internal expertise helps to close leads
- *One to Two phone call hire
- 3-4 hour time investment per person
- Product margins to support it
- A revolving door of recruiting. Have to constantly recruit
- Need 50 because most of them are not selling
- 80/20 rule
- *** Prepare for a love/hate relationship
Thursday May 16, 2019
Angel Iscovich: Routine Hiring is Great for Business!
Thursday May 16, 2019
Thursday May 16, 2019
We are hard-wired to follow a routine. This is why we perform certain tasks better throughout various times of the day. So designing your hiring routine to follow a person's optimal performance is crucial making the right hiring decision.
Understanding and evolving your personal and company routines are vital for attracting talent!
Today’s Quote:
"Celebrate life in all its glory - challenge yourself to let the routine sing, and the new dance." - Maximillian Degenerez
Guest Bio:
Conventional wisdom suggests the best way to navigate our noisy new world is to accept change: Open up to novelty. Go with the flow. Embrace the relentless pelting of content minute by minute. Dr. I. is here to say this is not the best way to journey through our lives — and in fact, may go against our very nature.
Dr. Angel Iscovich is the President of Inflexion, LLC and the Author of his new book: Routineology: the Art and Science of Routine. Find out more on his web page www.angeliscovich.com and Routineology for Instagram and Doctor I on Twitter.
The crux of Dr. I’s book is that humans not only require structure, they thrive in it. From the womb to the tomb, we create and recreate numerous dynamic “Time Bubbles,” offering us meaning, fulfillment, and purpose. He is excited to show how implementing routine in one's life can lead to better, health, joy, and fulfillment.
Show highlights:
- The science of a routine
- Benefits and negatives of a routine
- Build a strong routine into your hiring practice
Problem:
What is a routine and why does this matter?
The science of a routine
- We are wired for regularity
- Change is not necessarily good for us.
- Routine is boring because you are doing the wrong things, wrong habits
Leadership
- Importance to develop regularity, routine & structure
- Routines become rituals and rituals drive the culture of the company
- Doing things regularly enhances performance
Solutions:
Personal Routine
- Make a routine of spending 45 minutes alone - reflecting
- Turn off the data, social media
- Especially if you are being creative or making a big decision
- Wired to regularity: being smart about what we do and when we do it
- Knowing your Circadian rhythm
- Technology is not able to replace Humanity, “Techmanity”, or how we are wired, is important in hiring talented people.
- Company rituals need to be re-engineered to meet the needs of the people
Interview & work productivity routine
- Task-related activity 8-10 am
- People Engagement 10-12pm (people are most social)
- Postprandial dip after lunch recovery time (task-related)
- Cortisol levels drop by 3 pm (Starbucks coffee, tea time) - Innovation time
- Least productive time - the body needs an energy boost
- Good time to meditate
- NOT a good time to interview!
- Great time for Innovation though... brainstorming
- Another hour of productivity 4-6pm
- Send people home at 3 pm and log on for another hour of work at 7 pm
- *Optimal interview time between 10-3
Rick’s Input
- Hiring routine with the purpose of being impressive
- Interview people when they are most
Key Takeaways:
- We are wired for Regularity and our unique Routines in themselves give us meaning and purpose.
- Our Circadian Rhythm provides us with when we are at our best and when we can be most productive.
- We need leaders to make for stable environments for our team members that create Routines, Rituals, and our Company Culture.
Friday Apr 12, 2019
Anthony Camacho- Sniffing Out Excellence When Hiring Salespeople
Friday Apr 12, 2019
Friday Apr 12, 2019
The average annual turnover in sales is 25 to 30%. That is the equivalent of hiring & training the entire Sales organization every 4 years! How do you know you are hiring a good salesperson? Why you look for evidence of success that is transferable to your organization. Today we are going to really help you sniff out the correct information to hire the right talent.
Today’s Quote:
"There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?"- Woody Allen
Guest Background:
Anthony Camacho is the Founder & CEO of Top Producer Factory. Having worked with start-ups to $40 million ‘small businesses’, Anthony is a sales and performance mentor to everyday entrepreneurs as well as Fortune 500 companies. He has personally cold called millions of dollars in sales, using techniques and strategies which he freely shares from the stage. A former Dale Carnegie Coach and certified sales coach through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, Anthony, 37, has 20 years of experience in cold calling, generating new prospects, bringing in new business, closing deals and managing sales teams.
Working with corporate clients, executives and small business rockstars; Anthony is currently on tour in the United States and Australia, delivering sales and leadership seminars and keynote talks.
Based in Southern California, Anthony – a father of four girls – is also a yogi, pursuing the lifestyle of Bikram Yoga in his downtime.
Anthony is the Author of 3 x best-selling books (Buy them on Amazon.com ») Anthony Camacho® has presented at more than 500 live events including TedEx style talks, workshops, seminars, Expos & industry-specific conferences. He has been a speaker/emcee for:
- Habitude Warrior Conference (Erik Swanson)
- Evolution Seminars (Matt Brauning)
- Free to Bounce (Paul Cummings Worldwide Enterprises)
- Guest lecturer (University of California, Riverside)
- Miss West Coast Beauty Pageant
- Corporate America including Fiesta Insurance Corp and Excellence Real Estate Empire
- REEMA Beauty Charity Events
- Various Chamber of Commerce
Show highlights:
- How to identify great salespeople
- How to sniff out the frauds
- What to do in the interview process
Problem:
How do we identify great salespeople
Both parties need to be prepared. The interviewee should be asking about growth, opportunity, and professional development. Rate people on the quality of questions they ask.
How they interview? No structured interview process. Sometimes they just want a body… mentality about hiring the right person… run on Turn & Burn. Companies don't consider how much how much they really lose by making the right hire. Ultimately, hurts the company morale and customer base. Referral hires - no shortcuts.
Managers take a Narrow view or let complacency set in
- Unrealistic High bar…. Looking for “rock stars”
- Status quo is a business killer
***Sales management -The reason bad sales hires are made, bad leaders hiring bad people. The biggest challenge is Mid-level Management. Mid managers are delegated.
*** Making people managers without training. How do I duplicate myself?
- Letting middle managers learn & grow… giving someone a shot. (hope strategy)
- Clarity on job description/expectations or even a clear compensation plan (not defined or clear)
- How they get paid…. They lose their enthusiasm
Is the C- level is setting people up for failure?
Rick’s Two Cents:
- Be wary of Stars!
- Research indicates an A player at one company doesn't necessarily transfer to another
- Train your leadership before they start hiring. I failed miserably when I was promoted to manager
- Test answers
Solutions:
What to do in the Interview process
- First prepare people & be prepared
- What to bring, and prepared questions to have for us
- Show the person that you are serious.
- Private office, punctual (preferred early),
- Observe how they present themselves, time frame.
Note: Starbucks & Denny’s are for MLM pitches.
What to look for: Anthony’s Ingredients of a good salesperson
- Integrity- trust with the customer
- Above and beyond in serving the customer
- prior job experience/history
- Loves door to door salespeople- most grueling job ever
- Manual labor- if they know how to sweat, making a phone call is easy
- Life goals, financial goals/aspirations = hungry for themselves
- Closing ratio/formula to make a sale. Day to day sales activities break down (know their numbers, how do you get to that?
Hiring Management:
- Promoting managers- good salespeople need to be trained to be a leader.
- Training received before becoming a manager. Time to learn before accepting the responsibility- learn how to delegate, motivate, lead
- Get a curriculum for leadership
- Companies managers/ not leaders
Rick’s Insight
- Focus on behaviors- Look for evidence
- Understand how customer relationships are developed
- Hire for core Values Alignment
- Cultural fit
- Look for transferable skills to provide growth opportunity
- Locating transferable skills requires creativity
- Training
Key Takeaways:
- Benchmarks •Know your closing ratio and understand the closing ratio for your team
- Desire •Does your sales professional and the team have a “BIG WHY” You can teach everything but you can’t teach desire
- Buy-in •Sell the objective to your sales team
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Friday Apr 05, 2019
Diversity & Inclusion is critical to your company’s success but it is not a strategy. Here’s why... D&I needs to be built into the DNA of your company instead of being treated with kid gloves. Besides, hiring like-minded people is bad for business!
Today’s Quote:
"Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same." - Angelina Jolie
About the Guest:
Mike “Batman” Cohen is the Founder of Wayne Technologies, a recruitment training and search firm. Mike has over a decade of experience placing technologists, recruiters, and business development professionals, and has conducted training for Corporate and Agency Recruiters.
Throughout his career he’s learned several things that he’s committed to paying forward:
- We can’t make it on our own - we need community
- There is no “secret sauce” - we should be sharing our skills, tips, tricks, etc. openly
- Data is extremely important
- Being a good human is more important than data
He has worked with a diverse group of clients ranging from GIPHY, Spotify, TripAdvisor, Digital Asset, MacDonald Miller, etc.
He contributes articles to SourceCon, has a chair in the Program Committee with ATAP, helps run SourceHouston, and is a Brand Ambassador for ERE.
Mike has spoken at:
- Talent42 (June 2019)
- TechRecruit Los Angeles (July 2019)
- TechRecruit Chicago (September 2019)
- HireConf (October 2019)
- HRTX Dallas
- RecruitCon
- ATAP Webinars
- TalentNet
- SourceHouston
- ERE
- HR Houston
- Scala Up North
- Scala.io
Show Highlights:
- Why Diversity & Inclusion is not a strategy
- How to embed diversity into your Company's DNA while staying true to your company values
Problem:
Why is Diversity & Inclusion such a hot topic?
-
- Diverse communities are growing and matriculating faster than any other
- Organizations are realizing that diverse thought doesn’t just come from people who went to different schools or studied different subjects, it comes from background, upbringing, etc.
- We all want females, minorities & orientations.
- Candidates are placing a large focus on organizations that put a value on D&I - if you want the best candidates - this is one of the things that’s important to them!
Why is this important to organizations?
- Are we hiring because of D&I to check off boxes?
- Shouldn’t we be looking deeper into diversity of thought rather than physical characteristics?
- Hiring people who are different from you and are included in your culture
Shouldn't we just be concerned with hiring the best person?
- Just start hiring people who make you uncomfortable
- Embrace the differences
- Hiring like minded people is bad for business
What about the alignment of core corporate values?
- Define corporate culture.
Solutions:
If Diversity & Inclusion isn’t a strategy, how do we accomplish it?
- You don't want to hire someone just because they are a certain classification
- It has to go beyond “skin deep” - this isn’t about the way someone looks, it’s about integrating all different walks of life or trains of thought or images into your brand.
- Not to diversify to make things different, but to create a culture where diversity is the norm - that is how you create inclusion
- The desire to have different people is not a business strategy
- It is a top-down mind-set as to how the business operates and what it considers important, successful, and a good fit
- Vetting issue- how does one determine who the best person is. Not the values or mission
- Grey area- Defining the gray area or you will fail.
- Focus for cultural alignment vs skills
- Perks that attract like-minded people, like Ping pong and foosball tables & kegerators, reduce D&I.
- The Strategies to achieving D&I are merely the execution of a goal.
- Companies aren’t built on strategies - they are built on vision and mission - Strategy is simply how we get there - is your company built on top of a foundation (mission and vision) that doesn’t celebrate diversity, but instead values it as a competitive advantage?
- These values and mission themselves should come with a very diverse perspective.
- The more avenues of thought the quicker and higher quality it will take you to that mission.
Rick’s two cents:
What should be your strategy?
- Hire People who perform
- Hire People who bring different perspectives
- Hire People who will challenge you
Key Takeaways:
- D&I isn’t a strategy, it’s a business mindset
- Dissonance is a good thing! Just be respectful
- Diversity is a mindset, Inclusion is turning that mindset into the norm
Friday Mar 29, 2019
Special Event: Erik Huberman from TiECon SoCal
Friday Mar 29, 2019
Friday Mar 29, 2019
Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, Managing Director of Nest Equity Partners, and Operating Partner of Arrowroot Capital Management
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Mark Angel: How to Hire, Build Process & Lead in a Distributed Startup
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
What are the biggest challenges in building a distributed team as a startup? Today we discuss how to Hire, build process and lead in a distributed model. We will learn that uncovering the right people hinges on the Individual's desire and their emotional intelligence.
Today’s Quote:
“Completing one another is more important than competing with one another." - John C. Maxwell
Show Guest:
Mark Angel is the CEO and Co-founder of Amira Learning, the company reinventing learning to read with AI. Amira is a rapidly growing, venture-funded startup bringing the first intelligent reading assistant into K-3 classrooms.
Mark formerly served as Chief Technology Officer at Renaissance Learning, where he led the R&D organization and worked on the two most successful reading apps in the United States – Accelerated Reader and STAR. He has worked for 30 years in the Silicon Valley as a CEO, CTO and General Manager for innovators in the realm of Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (Ernst & Young, Nuance, KANA Software).
Mr. Angel is the founder of three successful start-ups. He is a chief inventor on more than 10 patents in the areas of search.
Episode Highlights:
- The Story of the Challenges faced when building a distributed company
- 3 biggest issues you struggled with
- Tools & solutions that worked best for your team
Problem:
Challenges in Hiring a Distributed Team:
- Hire for the distributed model
- Learn to screen for people who are truly able to function in a distributed environment
- People not really self-aware.
- Build process around the distributed model;
- Challenge: creating infrastructure and culture of behavior to help people to collaborate
- Choices in tooling that turned out to be wrong
- Have to "servant-lead" for the distributed model.
What issues have we struggled with around hiring?
- Where they will Thrive!
- People are not self-aware around work mode…
- The focus seems to be around the technologies they want to use or the comp they want.
Discuss the Model
- Need to put the issue up front before people get excited about the rest of the story and fool themselves and consequently us
Core Values alignment
- We need to be conscious that some folks like talking/collaborating and for others, it’s not the most pleasant part of the day. We aren't going to change a leopard’s spots.
Creating a situation where there is a balance of work and not having too many meetings. Keeping people in a place where they are getting constructive work behavior. Getting that work done but also helping others to get the work done. People are happiest when you find the “groove”.
Rick’s Challenges
- An issue of Upfront Expectations alignment
- Continually ask “Why”
Solutions
What have we done about this?
- Put this issue front & center in the interviewing process
- Getting out of the skills-based mindset.
- Screening - needed to find people who are able to cope with the nature of the model.
- Intentional about the need for people who are wired to work in a distributed environment.
- -talk about the distributed issue up front.
- Hired a recruiting expert
- Learned to screen for being at least somewhat "outgoing" and "opinionated"
- "Servant-leadership" for the distributed model.
How do we manage work?
Baking collaboration into everyday environment. Tools like google suite/slack/zoom/github/atlassian -- basically emphasis is on creating the norms around the tools. Understand when they should be using the tools
- Slack, Zoom, Gmail suite, Google docs works really well, hangouts did not for them.
- tools around design thinking.
- Set of heuristics and norms around the tools.
Allow people Flexibility
What went right & wrong in the process?
- right -- took a "team experiment" approach
- right -- recognized they needed help & hired an expert
- wrong -- didn’t push hard enough to create norms
Rick’s first step
- Take the time to understand a person’s desires before you “Pitch” the company
- People will tell you what they want. You just have to ask.
- "If you could design your ideal company, what would that look like for you?"
- A company where you will Thrive!
Key Takeaways:
- Hire people who are self-aware - Hire for EQ & cultural fit first
- Experiment with popular tools to find the tools that “best fit" for your team
- Recognize you are fighting human nature and hire to overcome
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Special Event: Beerud Sheth from TiECon SoCal
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Thursday Mar 28, 2019
Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO of Gupshup
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Special Event: Brian Frankel from TiECon SoCal
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Wednesday Mar 20, 2019
Brian Frankel, Marketing Consultant of Ignite.Consulting, TiE Charter Member, and Founder, of Mentor Matchmaker
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Special Event: Ravi Sharma from TiECon SoCal
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Tuesday Mar 19, 2019
Ravi Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO of OOtify, TiE Charter Member, Investor, and Mentor
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Erik Huberman: Dissecting a Hire Gone Wrong
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
Thursday Mar 14, 2019
The mistakes we, as entrepreneurs and hiring managers, make when building our companies. Often our need to fill overrides our logic in determining the fit between both parties and as result Core Values are often ignored. Assumptions, unclear expectations, and lack of diligence make for a perfect storm of a disastrous hire.
Today’s Quote
"Hiring people is like making friends. Pick good ones, and they'll enrich your life. Make bad choices, and they'll bring you down." - Jason Fried
Show Guest
Erik Huberman is the founder and CEO of Hawke Media, the fastest growing marketing agency in the United States. Launched in 2014, Hawke Media has serviced over 1000 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba. Hawke Media has taken home numerous industry awards including inclusion on the Inc. 5000 2017 list of “Fastest Growing Companies”, Fortune Magazine’s “50 Best Workplaces in Southern California” and Forbes’ “Content Marketing Companies to Check Out in 2018."
"Prior to Hawke, Erik founded, grew and sold two successful e-commerce companies. Huberman is the recipient of numerous awards including Forbes “30 Under 30,” Inc. Magazine’s “Top 25 Marketing Influencers,” and Best in Biz North America’s “Marketing Executive of the Year.” A regular contributor to major publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur and CS Q. Huberman is also a well-known keynote speaker.
Episode Highlights
- Break down one of your early hires and talk about the decisions that were made and why
- What we learned and how you can avoid making our mistakes
Making a wrong Hire: Walk through the story
- Hired an executive, all-star, great background
- “Why would you buy a dog if you're the one barking on the corner”
- Discussing expectations, but not the HOW.
- Had a budget, revenue numbers, really clear…
- Takes time for executives to ramp up
- Hired from a large company- a different mindset
- Taking people through a more formalized process.
- Properly frames the mindset as a professional environment
- You are taken more seriously
- *Onboarding Process
- Didn’t have a process. Throw people to the wind
- Unprofessional entrance + people didn't view it professionally
- Made the mistake of selling perks
- Hired 7 people in the beginning, only one stayed past 6 months.
- Bridging the gap with the business.
* Post hire, you are not done once you made the hire. Once someone is hired, real-time investment into their success.
Rick’s Hiring Mistake
- Hiring Friends without clear expectations
- created an expectations document
Key Takeaways
- Stick to a hiring process - It must be Professional
- The more senior the hire, the more time investment to align expectations - May take up to a year to come up to speed
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
Tevis Trower: Re-Humanizing the Interview Process By Shifting Our Language
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
Thursday Mar 07, 2019
We don't hire for human competency but for skill set. Our language is inhuman in spite of the very real experience of working with HUMANS. People want Connection and Authentic Interaction. We need to understand What makes you, you?
Today’s Quote:
“Learn everything humanly possible about everyone you do business with." -Harvey Mackay (Swim with the Sharks)
Show Guest:
CEO of Balance Integration Corporation | Advocate for Corporate Culture & Employee Engagement
Tevis Trower is a pioneer in optimizing corporate cultures. Heralded in bestselling Megatrends 2010 as “corporate mindfulness guru for the new millennium”, Tevis has assisted powerful organizations ranging from Disney to Morgan Stanley in optimizing their most precious assets: human beings. She has created and facilitated global executive immersions for prestigious organizations including Harvard Business Review Events, Young Presidents Organization, PWC, Bloomberg LP, Viacom, Google and The Economist on issues including mindfulness, executive lifestyle, personal mastery, innovation, and the role of consciousness in creating radical success.
You can find profiles and expert advice from Tevis featured in respected media outlets including Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Glamour, YogaJournal, CIO, Pink, RealSimple, Crain’s, New York Post, Financial Times, WWD, New York Observer, MSNBC, FoxBusiness, NY1 and Martha Stewart. As NYU Faculty teaching Business Creativity & Personal Mastery, Tevis has also served as worklife expert to WebMD and Huffington Post. Tevis lives what she teaches spending time in NYC, Montauk and Woodstock, enjoying surfing, snowboarding and entertaining friends at home with her dachshund, Ruby.
Episode highlights:
- Why it is important to re-humanize your hiring process
- Changing the mindset by shifting the language
- The formula for a successful shift
Problem:
Why is this important?
- Because we focus upon skill development to get into the roles we aspire to, we buy into the notion that work and life are separate. But the reality is that we are only one person, one being.
- Through this buy-in to self-abnegation, we leave ourselves out of the workplace and all but guarantee to burn out and disillusionment. When we approach interviewing that way, we’re bound to forget that the person across from us is first and foremost a human being.
- Impostor syndrome of the interviewers (hiring managers!)
- IS-is there a place for me here? Everyone feels a little like a fake/fraud.
- Myth: This person is only as good as their resume.
- Truth: Most of the best people, have the worst resumes
Mindset
- Creating a corporate culture happens one conversation at a time. Talking about what you are passionate about, what matters to you.
- Work is home
- It is a demand market.
- * we forget we are hiring a human being… not filling a seat.
- Bring an entire life into the company
Rick’s Thoughts
- Stay away from “stinkin thinkin” - Transactional thought
- Judging people based on a piece of paper
- Restructuring the recruiting department to touch those who apply
Solutions:
By shifting the language we begin to shift the mindset.
Changing the language - humanize
- What does it mean to be human at your company?
- Don’t talk headcount, filling a seat
- life count, heart count.
- Talk about finding the “right new colleague”
- Not filling a seat or role, rounding out our community
- Shift to human terms
The breadth and depth of this person.
- Talk about the eulogy and not the resume
- Think of everyone in terms of a peer
- Values -
- The framework is in the questions, not the answers
If the adage is that people leave managers, not companies, they probably refuse offers from managers as well. Foster a culture that supports the value for success. Are they Google-ly? And what happens when being googly becomes a weakness? Homogeneity can be a downfall.
Rick's Plan
Cut out words like “candidate”, Job Description, industry terms
Key Take Away:
- Tune into your own Humanity
- Humanize the language
- Slow down the interview process to give more room & space
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
Thursday Feb 21, 2019
Employer branding is a very hot topic! Today we are here to challenge conventional wisdom and say that people pitch their company and themselves wrong.
They pitch what the company does and the perks they offer rather than the problems they are solving first. Talented people want to solve challenging problems!
Now I am a huge believer in looking at what everyone else is doing and doing the opposite… it works for me!
Today’s Quote
"A problem is a chance for you to do your best." - Duke Ellington
Show Guest
As a global Keynote Speaker and Managing Partner of InfluenceTree, Ryan Foland helps executives harness the power of vulnerability and authenticity to build better, more relatable, more profitable brands. Recognized by Inc. Magazine as a Top Marketer and named a Top Personal Branding Expert by Entrepreneur Magazine, Ryan is the inventor of 3-1-3® Method, a discovery process that helps communicate ideas into three sentences, which is condensed into one sentence and then ultimately boiled down to three words. His book Ditch The Act: Unleash the Surprising Power of the Real You for Greater Success, will be published in October 2019 by McGraw-Hill. When he is not speaking, he is likely sailing.
Episode highlights
- Why the positioning of your messaging does not attract people to your company
- Share our methods for engaging talent to be drawn to your company
Problem
- No one cares what you do or who you are.
- Try instead promote the core problem you solve.
- Lack of Aspirational influence.
- People not Inspired by the impact your company will have on the world
Psychology
- The mindset of the person you are talking to when presenting your opportunity
- Reptilian brain- in charge of our survival
- Fight or flight, sexual behaviors, anger & fear reside
- Keeping people out of the fear zones
- Rick’s Switch theory
- The words that you chose to come out of your mouth either turn people on or off
Solutions
3-1-3 process - Tease out the problem you solve to uncover the actual pain! Solve the problem of.....
- 3-problem you solve in one sentence (problem, solution, market)
- 1- condense to 1 sentence
- 3- Words (Marriott of marketing)
Pain being solved by the position & pain of the company that they solved by their customers. Alignment of pain points.
Eliminates being another me too company
Example of a good 3-1-3
The difference between success and failure hinges almost entirely on a company’s ability to hire the right team. One bad hire can destroy the company. We provide a step by step process that eliminates wrong hiring decisions. Startups need a competitive advantage when fighting for talent.
Rick’s first step
- Open with a slap in the face by Locating a career wound!
- Locate the pain first. Match the problems solved with the solutions the person can gain by joining your company.
- Lead people down a path and let them draw their own conclusions
Key takeaways
- Nobody cares about the words coming out of your mouth
- People are attracted to the problems you solve
- Change your messaging! Problem, Solution and Market
Ryan's Social Media
Monday Feb 11, 2019
Monday Feb 11, 2019
Today we are discussing the Steps to building & scaling headcount in growth mode. Making sure that execution & time to fill are aligned.
Today’s Quote:
"Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together." - James Cash Penney
Show Guest:
Brendan Rogers, Co-Founder & Leading Recruiting of Wag Labs, has raised over $360 million in venture capital, most recently $300 million from Softbank's Vision Fund. Wag! connects pet parents to dog walkers and is currently live in over 110 U.S. cities. He co-founded a social discovery service to meet new people which grew to over 50 million users in over 10 countries and was acquired by IAC in 2014.
Brendan's next big event will be speaking at the ERE Conference on April 22-24th.
Episode Highlights:
- How to ramp up from 0 to hero
- Steps to put in place to avoid making hiring mistakes
You company closes your first round of funding
- 10 -12 roles from Nothing
- no resources & no systems in place
- Spreadsheets, manual task-oriented, process
Preparation before go mode
- Building out pipelines, similar spaces, consumer-related companies.
- How to avoid making the wrong hire.
- How to scale for maximum impact
- Tools needed. Process in place, a foundation to scale.
- Get really good at identifying the right people, connecting the dots, sourcing- research
- He does a ton of research, knows his space.
- Strive to keep quality really high. Target specific businesses.
Action Plan & Execution
- First hire should be a recruiter
- Identify what is needed & write job descriptions
- Right messaging
- Tackled building pipeline, hired.com
- Spreadsheet
- Hired a recruiter, brought in an ATS (applicant tracking system)
First:
- Get an ATS system first! -like Newton, Google (hire with Google) Greenhouse, lever
- - take open requirements and intake with each hiring manager. Know the roles from top to bottom
Second:
- Build a pipeline, training managers on how to use the ats, become partners with the hiring managers
Third:
- Hire a recruiter only after 5+ open roles.
- Admin- for cost savings
- Having a foundation will only help you to scale.
Key Take-Aways
- Be best friends with your Hiring Managers
- Be on top of everything
- Always be available
- Invest in the right tools
Thursday Jan 17, 2019
Liran Kotzer: Will AI Really Keep People Engaged with Your Company?
Thursday Jan 17, 2019
Thursday Jan 17, 2019
What do perspective Employees really want? A Personal connection or an automated interaction? I argue personal connection!My hope is that AI will be the disruptor that eliminates the transactional relationship from the recruiting process. AI is here and already starting to affect the way in which people interact with potential employers.
Today’s Quote:
"Automation is going to cause unemployment, and we need to prepare for it." - Mark Cuban
Our Guest:
Liran Kotzer, Founder & CEO of Woo.io. A serial entrepreneur, Woo.io is Liran’s third startup. For the past decade, he has been immersed in helping redefine and advance the online tech recruiting and hiring market sector. Liran spotted a market gap for helping employers and tech talent find each other much more efficiently, without all the hassles and wasted cycles between the two groups.
Show hightlights:
- Where AI is already having an impact & where it is REALLY useful
- Should you Leverage AI to maximize your impact (employment brand awareness)
What AI can and cannot do NOW in terms of recruiting
- very interaction is totally transactional- can not be humanized...yet
- Can’t yet fake a “Personal” connection
- The nuances of human interaction
- @scale- need technology to do the heavy lifting
- Continuing an ongoing relationship
- Automation using AI & ML
- What do people (candidates) really want?
- Personal connection to release or an automated release?
- Communication, feedback & closure
- Cultivate a relationship for relevant skills for future
- Can automation REALLY cultivate relationships??
- No- Neither can email or texting
What recruiting functions is AI replacing
- Transactional components
- Sourcing, Gathering intel (contact information), Farming
- Process
Where is AI in recruiting relevant now
- AI & ML to keep a pipeline warm.
- Ability to create communication with the candidate in a unique & personalized way to help them to keep them engaged. To be able to recognize changes in behavior.
- Understand your relevant audience. Can do the job and feed the culture (flexible)
- Expand your target audience ("official" resume vs. True Skills)
- Content?
- Skills-based recruiting
Take Aways
- Shifting from transactional recruiting into a long term relationship is a critical component for winning the right talent ahead of the competition
- Technology can mainly assist you in maintaining long term relationships with your pool of talent and also with scouting the right people at the right time
- Technology will not replace human interaction.
Friday Dec 28, 2018
Brenan German Part Deux: Overcoming Your # 1 Hiring Failure for 2019
Friday Dec 28, 2018
Friday Dec 28, 2018
The One change you must make for 2019. Overcoming hiring failures. Spoiler Alert: it is your Interview Process… 1950 called and they want their process back!
Today’s Quote:
"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." -Jimmy Dean
Show highlights:
- Divulge the secret of an effective interview
- Halos & Horns
- Layout our interview structure
Up front, What is the secret to an effective Interview?
- Process
- Alignment
- Engagement
Halo’s & Horns
- Bias, Conclusions & Assumptions
- Your attitude determines your altitude
- Gut decisions
- Coin flip methodology
Effective Interview Structure
Brenan’s Format
- Plan
- Build
- Decision
- Scoring methodology
- Practice
Rick’s Format
- Structure (Organized, Timed, real time feedback)
- Pre-determined questions
- Give & Receive Feedback
Differentiate your company by closing the process with Everyone you decide not to move forward with!
Brenan German is Founder and President at Bright Talent Resources, Inc., a boutique Human Resources Advisory, Project Management, Training, and Recruiting Services firm.
As lead consultant, Brenan acts as an advisor to organizations wanting to re-engineer or develop a high performing, measureable, technology enabled, human resources function. Brenan has over 20 years of hands-on Human Resources leadership experience developing intelligent and successful talent management functions within some of the country’s most respected and well-known companies such as The Gallup Organization, Edwards Lifesciences, and Black & Decker. Brenan’s particular expertise involves the alignment of talent management strategies to business goals, and the implementation of systems and processes to reach measureable objectives, demonstrating clearly the bottom line impact expected of strategic Human Resources programs.
A graduate of the University of California, Irvine, Brenan is an active participant in a number of organizations: Chair of the Orange County Employment Managers Association (OCEMA), Founding Board Member of the Talent Acquisition Group of San Diego (TAGSD), Member of the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM), and Advisor to Sigma Pi International Educational Foundation.
Thursday Dec 20, 2018
Christian Spletzer: Managing Expectations of Time to Hire Key Talent
Thursday Dec 20, 2018
Thursday Dec 20, 2018
After years of experience in the challenging world of executive search, Christian Spletzer founded Clockwork Recruiting to improve how search firms and their clients work together on retained search projects. He designed Clockwork to help recruiters demonstrate their consultative value to their clients at every stage of each project.
Prior to founding Clockwork, Christian worked as a recruiter and in operations at CT Partners, a Top 10 Global Executive Search firm. Previous to that, he worked within the Private Client Group of Merrill Lynch, and in an e-commerce start-up, 86.com, where he met his Clockwork co-founder, Jay Greene. Christian has a BA in Economics and a Juris Doctorate, and is a licensed attorney in NY, CT, and SC.
Today is all about Timing! Managing expectations for time and performance to make a key hire is more important than ever. The data is in and we are going to give you performance benchmarks of what your expectations should be.
Today’s Quote:
“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” - Colin Powell
Show highlights:
- The challenges and data to support today’s hiring challenges
- Measurement for performance and what a Great search looks like
Measuring your search performance
- Data from over 30,000 search projects
- Placement rate
- Days to Placement
- **Missing: Quality of Hire
- Key hires are taking an average of 123 days with a 71% placement rate on retained search
- People don't know how to pick a retained search firm. Most buyers of a retained search run off of bad data. No objective criteria to measure a search firm.
- Time matters- the longer it takes to get the seat filled, the shorter the ROI. Amazingly costly if a search fails.
- 22% failure rate
- Motivations may be wrong.
- The company is 50% of the equation in a successful outcome
Companies can go to:Benchmarks - Clockwork Recruiting
What good search looks like and how to choose the right partner
Detailed analysis
- Great- Average under 115 days and over 83% success rate
- Seniority
- Managers- lowest placement rate, 80+ days to place
- C-Level 130+ days, 78% placement rate
- Department
- Industry
- Region
- New York City - 60% success rate with longest days to hire
- Seniority
What to look for in a search firm
- Judge on time/success rate. Buy based on the experience and track record of success.
- Access to that information. Pick based on the one best suited for the search.
- Do not bet on the relationship only. Find the company with the track record- if you don't know where to look, you don't want to be sold. Getting more data before buying
- Track record
- Specialization in that particular department
- Inquire about Success rate/Stick rate: good hire vs. bad hire. Still around after a year, two years.
- Expectations: are very different than contingency search
- Meta data on actual projects. Who does it the best
- Hire the firm who brings value above and beyond just presenting candidates
Thursday Dec 13, 2018
Charles Antis: Discovering Your Company's Purpose
Thursday Dec 13, 2018
Thursday Dec 13, 2018
It’s all about Purpose... Why? Because if your model exists just to make money, you won’t be relevant anymore. What is your companies purpose? Today we are going to help you discover your purpose and share ways to build purpose into to your hiring process.
Today’s Quote:
“When you're surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible.” - Howard Schultz
Show highlights:
- Discovering your purpose
- Getting others to rally around your company’s purpose (super power)
- How to hire Purpose-driven people
Let’s start by talking about how you discovered your companies purpose
- Origin Story:
- Reason to exist other than making money
- you have to have a Why
- “We exist to keep families safe and dry” - Antis purpose
Why is it important to have a purpose?
- The purpose of a company is to make money!
- Involved in changing people’s lives
- Benefits of Purpose
- Retention
- Increased productivity
Hiring with Purpose
- Have a reason why
- Getting others to buy in
- Knowing your “Why” and building it from the inside out.
- Helping employees discover their “Superpowers”
Tribal leadership- when the culture goes wrong. survival
Demonstrating that as a leader, you are there to serve them
Interviewing for Purpose
- Messaging
- Clear and consistent with how the leaders lead
- Interview
- Core values alignment
- Hire for alignment over skills
- Discovery of superpowers in the interview
Results
- 20% culture lift in a month- gift card that they can donate to a cause that is near and dear. To someone who did
- Retain 93%
- Melt away silos builds a stronger bond between individuals and departments
Charles Antis, Founder & CEO of Antis Roofing & Waterproofing is a well-respected and widely known roofing expert, entrepreneur and humanitarian. Charles began his career as a roofing professional in 1984. Since then, he has become one of the most trusted names in the Southern California roofing industry, as well as an inspirational business leader championing social corporate responsibility.
Charles has been the recipient of many prestigious awards over the years and was recently honored with the 2017 US Chamber of Commerce Foundation Corporate Citizen Award, Small and Mid-Size Business. In 2017, he was also named as National Philanthropy Day Honoree, Outstanding Corporation or Business, Mid-Size; the Civic 50 Orange County Honoree; and received the top honor with the CNA Insurance/National Roofing Contractors Association (CAN/NRCA) Community Involvement Award.
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
Lindon Crow: The Anatomy of a Recruiting Call. Stop Triggering Fight or Flight!
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
Thursday Nov 08, 2018
The Anatomy of a Recruiting Call. People do not respond to you because you are sending the wrong message! What do You Say that is Triggering a person’s Fight or Flight Response?
Today’s Quote:
“Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge”. - Plato
Show highlights:
- What happens in the brain when someone is trying to recruit you
- What Triggers Fight or Flight response
- Techniques to approach the conversation to avoid triggering negative responses
I call you to recruit you for a new job.
- What happens in the brain
- What is naturally desired by people - intrinsic desire
- What choices or options mean to a mind. What too many/too few options means
- What motivates people - primal instinct, reptilian brain
- Tune out to the sales pitch
- How do I get rid of this person?
What triggers Fight or Flight response?
- Recruiting is disruptive to the brain. It breaks safety
- Create environment of loving, self esteem, self actualization
The Conversation
- Creating a process that creates a sense of Familiarity & Achievement
- Authority (achievement) Daniel pink's Drive
- $ is a motivator up until $70k
- Positioning:
- Purpose of the call is to get to the Truth
- It’s not about you!
- Listening:
- Stop Fishing
- People are busy and don't care about what you are selling
- “What's happening in your current role…”
- Test the waters - Question the timing & the Why
- Lead the Path:
- What problem needs to be solved?
- How they desire it to be fixed?
- Wound, Desire, Achievement - like Plato’s emotion, desire, knowledge
- Celebrate their wins
Lindon Crow is the President of Productive Learning. As a workshop facilitator and trainer, he has helped more than 2,500 clients achieve higher levels of emotional awareness, self-mastery, and personal fulfillment. Lindon is known for his provocative, straightforward, and compassionate communication style and his keen ability to forecast potential outcomes. This helps his clients make better educated decisions about their current directions and opportunities for growth.
Thursday Oct 18, 2018
Nicole Washington: You Closed Your First Round of Funding, Now What?
Thursday Oct 18, 2018
Thursday Oct 18, 2018
Congratulations! You closed your first round of funding, what's next? To scale, you better have a plan, a structure and commitments for who’s on board.
Today's Quote:
“If you're trying to create a company, it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion.”
- Elon Musk
Show highlights:
- The importance of having a structured plan
- Stick to the plan
- Layout structural elements
Stick to the defined plan!
- Cause, Mission, Vision
- Should have an active pipeline ready to go
- Key positions in place, partners, hr strategy in place
- Hiring without compromise- values and mission driven alignment
- Investors should have dig into core company values and compromise levels of hiring
- Just a bunch of people winging it… you won't be able to hire right in today’s landscape
Create a team that investors will continue to invest in
- No, no’s
- Knowing the difficulty creating a team
- Hard for people to find a good technical people
- Don't hang out in the same places
- Setting Expectations & writing them down
- What happens when it doesn't work?
Structure… Have everything lined up!
- Company values in cement
- Define your Road map
- Set the stage for what happens next
- All documents & agreements in place
- Getting people to join before you have funding or a product
- Leverage university talent, students, - easier to get people to resonate with them
- Students: finding the ones who are doing research in your particular field
- Develop the relationship with the professors
- Reach out directly to the student *attractive to investors
Takeaways:
- Do not make compromises!
- Goals of the company first
- Hire with the end result in mind
Nicole Washington, Director of Innovation and Growth of OCTANe OC, focuses on engaging with strategic partners to accelerate the growth of early to later stage ventures and small to medium size business throughout the entire Southern California Ecosystem.
She currently serves as Chair of the Academic Committee and Trustee of the Board of Education for Samueli Academy. A (STEM) high school that delivers state of the art education to a large population of underrepresented youth.
Nicole is a member of the Ohio TechAngel Fund, the 2nd largest Angel Investor Network in the United States, where she served as the due diligence team, technology lead for several years.
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
Wednesday Sep 26, 2018
In honor of this weeks DisruptHR, today we are talking about disruption. Disruption will impact your business and it is coming faster than you think! You can either eat your own lunch or someone will eat it for you. Are you prepared?
Today's Quote:
"Disruptors don’t have to discover something new; they just have to discover a practical use for new discoveries.” - Jay Samit
Show highlights:
- What is disruption & are you prepared
- Confirm that someone is going to eat your lunch for you
- How to disrupt your business starting with how you hire
What is disruption?
- Term synonymously used with both innovation and transformation
- Disruptive innovation is happening at a staggering rate.
- (uber, airbnb, facebook)
Where does disruption come from? How will it affect your business?
- Blindsided disruption?
- Self-disruption
- Technology (ie: AI, ML, Blockchain, Automation)
Why it is important to start by innovating the way you approach hiring?
- Values
- Live & breath your values
- business strategy
- What can I eliminate
- Reduce
- Need to expand
- What to create
- Automation is making recruiting more Transactional
- Less engaging
- Problem-solving is the Key!
- Solve a real problem for the candidate / heal the career wound
- Desire: What does someone really want?
- Listen …. Channel potential
How to disrupt your organization
- Not forcing the talent to the job specifications but hiring talent and allowing them to innovate.
- Building a Tiger Team
- Change your mindset!
- The game has changed…. Adapt or Perish!
- Approach
- Solving a problem for your customer- potential employee (Career Wound)
- Desire alignment
- Accomplishment- evidence of success
- Do the Opposite of what you are doing now!
- Shift the focus from the work to the person
- Organize-
- Build hiring process like your sales process
Scott Hamilton is CEO of the Executive Next Practices Institute, a large C-suite research and forum organization that is a community partner organization located at the University of California-UCI Applied Innovation. He is also NextWORKS Strategy (2018 Innovators of the Year nominee- Orange County Business Journal), a premier provider/advisors of strategy development, alignment, talent management, board effectiveness, and executive performance programs to middle-market companies. He serves on the boards of several organizations.
Hamilton is a well-known thought leader & speaker in the field of “next practices” improvement of leadership and organizational performance for the Global 1000, emerging and mid-market companies. Scott helps leaders and organizations be more effective in how they strategize and perform.
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
Shawn Andrews: What Is Emotional Intelligence And How Is It Relevant To Hiring?
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
Thursday Sep 20, 2018
Why should we care about Emotional Intelligence when building a company today? People with high EQ, work better with others, manage customers more effectively and cultivate an accepting company culture.
Today's Quote:
“Emotion is more powerful than logic” - Albert Einstein
Show Guest:
Dr. Shawn Andrews is a keynote speaker, organizational consultant, and the founder and CEO of Andrews Research International. She serves as adjunct professor at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, where she teaches courses on Organizational Behavior, Women in Leadership, Diversity in Organizations, and Leadership and Ethics. She was the 2017 Diversity & Inclusion columnist for Training Industry Magazine, and is the author of the book, The Power of Perception: Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Gender Divide (Amazon.com)
Episode highlights:
-
- EQ, What is it?
- How to you get it?
- Incorporate into your hiring
What is EQ?
Set of emotional and social skills that collectively establish how well we:
- Perceive and express ourselves
- Develop and maintain social relationships
- Cope with challenges, manage stress and make decisions
- Use emotional information to guide our thinking and action
- Managing emotions
- Manage stress
- Overcome obstacles
- Inspire toward collective goals
- Self perception, Self expression, interpersonal, decision making, Stress Management
- Tied into core company values
Why is it Important?
- Low Emotional Intelligence breeds bad cultures
- “Hire hard, manage easy”
What if you don’t have EQ? How do you get it?
- Get EQ assessment
- Read a book
EQ for different roles:
Leadership:
- Interpersonal relationships
- Assertiveness
- Self-awareness
Sales:
- Self-actualization
- Assertiveness
- Happiness
Marketing / Creative:
- Optimism
- Reality testing
- Independence
Customer Service:
- Stress tolerance
- Assertiveness
- Happiness
Product Development /Manufacturing:
- Flexibility
- Problem solving
- Independence
Interviewing for EQ
- Behavioral Interviewing
- Comfortable candidate- feel conversational, warm & informal
- Start: difficult challenge that was solved, commend… then go granular
- “Hire hard, manage easy”
- Deep reference checking
- Evidence of low & high EQ behaviors
Thursday Sep 13, 2018
Darrell Gurney: Breaking Bad, Career And Hiring Habits!
Thursday Sep 13, 2018
Thursday Sep 13, 2018
Why is it that we put more thought into lunch choices than we do our career or hiring decisions?
Today we are going to discuss the top three bad habits that both candidates and companies do throughout the hiring process that kill their ability to make a smart decision.
Today's Quote:
“To change habits, we must study the habits of successful role models.” – Jack Canfield
Show Guest:
Darrell Gurney is a career expert, executive coach and authority in supporting people through successful transitions. He brings back the power of social connection by teaching professionals that you’re simply one face-to-face relationship away from your dream job life.
He is the author of the Amazon bestseller “Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest."
As founder of both CareerGuy.com and TheBackForty.com, Darrell’s motto for both career and life is, as Frank Sinatra sings, “the best is yet to come, and won’t it be fine!”
Episode highlights:
- The top 3 bad habits we need to stop right now!
- Why these habits are so detrimental
- Good habits to replace the bad
Hiring bad habits from both sides:
Darrell’s top 3:
- 1. Looking to see what jobs are available & Going through the front door by applying for open positions.
- Take charge of their career path vs be at the effect
- Get out of your box: the house, the computer screen, the phone, and get in front of people.
- 80% of all jobs are filled before they are ever advertised by the people in the know bringing in the people they know
- 2. Failing to develop relationships beyond the job search process.
- Never submerge in your job or your life. Get out, be making connections, be talking to people about your interests and passions
- 3. Not treating yourself like a business
- Realize that you have your own business, and you always have -- you simply lease out your employable assets
- A business owner is always concerned first and foremost about two measures: ROI (Return on Investment) and ROE (Return on Equity). You want to similarly always watch, manage and monitor your own Return on Individuality and Return on Effort.
Rick’s top 3:
- Winging it-
- company values -clueless
- Not clear on what the business needs
- Work that needs to be accomplished
- Listening!
- Interview Process
- Not clearly defined
- Following the pack -
- Accepting the Status quo
- Testing people before engaging
- Transactional relationship
- Not understanding the person across from you
- Focus on skills
- Protective of the culture
Why are these habits bad?
- How can you get where you are going when you don’t know where you are?
How do we fix these habits?
- Winging it- not clear on what the business needs
- Build preparation time into your schedule
- Define what the business needs (not your wants) and who you need to take you there
- Interview Process
- Structured, Organized, Timed & Purpose Driven
- Get to the Truth!
- Transactional relationship
- Heal the person’s wound with your opportunity
Thursday Sep 06, 2018
Thursday Sep 06, 2018
Founders need to build the cultural foundation before building the product! Building the right team is more important than just any team.
Today's Quote:
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” ― Helen Keller
Show highlights:
- The importance of taking the time to select the right team
- Recognizing the team challenges
- How to set the right foundation for building a great team
Challenges we see with teams:
- What you really need in a team...Taking anyone is not the right thing to do
- Hiring anyone or for skills dramatically increases the likelihood of failure.
- Founder need to develop their muscles to make smart hiring decisions
- The foundation- transparency & culture
- Purpose- What's in it for me?
- How and who makes decisions?
- Most importantly, How does the team solve problems?
- Develop the EQ to have the difficult conversations
Framework for Building the Right Team from the Beginning:
- Establish mission, vision & values (as a team)
- Communication standards
- Foster transparency
- Business Model Canvas (product driven)
- Establish process
- Define who you are BEFORE you make your first hire
- Only hire people who mirror your core values and align with your vision
- Great things often come out of conflict
Takeaways:
- Culture first
- Transparency
- Hire people who will take you where you want to go
Melinda Kim is the Executive Director, co-founder of PeopleSpaceOC, an incubator and workspace located in Irvine, Ca. She is a proven executive/entrepreneur who facilitates collaboration and innovation between developers and business entrepreneurs from around the world.
Aside from her responsibilities, Melinda is also a Startup Weekend Facilitator and NASA Space Apps Lead. She specialize in Statistics Driven Product Analysis, Business Strategy, Growth, Community and Social impact.
Thursday Aug 16, 2018
Lori Torres - Diligence and Vetting are Critical in Building an Outstanding Company
Thursday Aug 16, 2018
Thursday Aug 16, 2018
Invest the time to really get to know the people you are going to hire. Especially in the beginning stages of your company. Be picky! Your companies success hinges on your ability to hire people who will help push the car uphill. Do not let your need to hire override the fit for both parties.
Today's Quote:
"Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence."
-Buddha
Show highlights
-
- Experience hiring at the early stages
- Hiring challenges as you grow
- Provide solutions for hiring through the various stages
Your experience when you first started hiring & received the funding, what happened next?
- Hard to hire- Keys: networking & due diligence
- First 60-70 people came from referrals
- Plan out company needs
- Build, cultivate and maintain a candidate pipeline
- Utilize your Referral network
The challenges you faced
- Attraction in a tight job market
- Company’s mission vs. $$
- Think in a bigger way
- Ignoring people’s bias
- Ways to measure ownership in an interview
- needed big thinkers & doers
- Desperation takes over & bad hires result
- Your need overwhelms your reason sometimes
- Hired a person hastily, due to desperate need and it was not a good fit for either party.
Start with your Core Company Values
- Why these values?
- Integrity
- Comradery
- Customer Centric
- Relentless
- Solution finders
- Knowing & Living your company values!
Interview process:
- Garnering accurate information! -The Truth!
- Interview process:
- Interview tools for vetting-
- culture index
- Interview- multiple times, 3+ interviews-* test endurance … up to 5 people interviews - own agenda.
- Due diligence & vetting
- Checking references!
- Backdoor references
- Leading people down the path
- Betterment of both parties -healing a wound
- Preparation for the desired outcome
Take Aways
- Use outside resources to hire
- Ask for help... people are willing help you!
- Believe in and listen to your Gut
- Planning for the desired outcome
- Hiring is not a sprint, it is a marathonResult of proper veting is a great company
Lori A. Torres is the founder and CEO of Parcel Pending, the nation’s leading provider of innovative package management solutions. Prior to Parcel Pending, Lori was SVP of property operations at The Irvine Company.
She has been recognized on multiple occasions for her leadership, including being named 2017 “Innovator of the Year” by the Orange County Business Journal and chosen as one of 13 entrepreneurs admitted into the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ 2017 North America class.
Thursday Aug 09, 2018
Thursday Aug 09, 2018
Don't underestimate the power of giving and receiving feedback in the interview process. Feedback helps your company improve your hiring process and it provides a positive “candidate experience” for the interviewee!
Today's Quote:
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions.” – Ken Blanchard (one minute manager books)
Show highlights:
-
- The Whys’ of interview feedback
- Giving & receiving feedback
- Provide the tools to create feedback channels into your Interview process
You must first have an interview process:
- Feedback is process improvement
- Candidate Experience
- Time management &
- Candidate Attraction
Feedback Challenges:
- Don't have it - Go get it!
- Have it but not sure how to deliver it
- Companies not required to provide feedback
- Legality of feedback - fear of litigation
- Fear of Discrimination lawsuit
- Not everyone can accept feedback - low EQ
- CASE STUDY: 70% of companies do not provide unselected job applicants with any feedback
- Make feedback a constant throughout the process- give & receive
- Is there any reason why you would not hire me
- Is there any reason why you would not accept an offer with our company
*Mystery creates distrust
What you can and cannot give as feedback:
- Skills
- Problem solving abilities
- Interview Preparation
- Alignment with Cultural/Values
- Evidence based feedback
- Discriminatory in nature
- Your too Old
- Never give a woman feedback that she is not assertive enough
- Body odor
Aaron’s process for giving & receiving feedback:
- Balanced
- Build in feedback time (10 minutes after the interview has ended)
- Feedback based on competency - bullet points, not short stories
Rick’s process for giving & receiving feedback:
- Feedback starts at the first contact (gauge ability to give/receive feedback)
- discuss concerns & fit between career & company goals
- Ask Questions:
- What are your thoughts?
- How do you feel about that?
- Why is that important?
- Assign a facilitator of Feedback
- Ie: recruiter or admin
- Provide something constructive
- Give & Get feedback in Real Time -interview wrap up
How to professionally release a person from the process:
- Call Them!
- A 5-10 minute phone call to ensure a positive image of your company.
- Be specific. Facts without any value judgment.
- Help people to learn. Focus on improvement & help them to find the right fit
- Be empathetic.
The candidate experience: Integrity & Transparency in the hiring process creates less likelihood of a lawsuit, especially when you leave the door open.
Erin Wilson is the Co-Founder & Talent Engineer of Hirepool, Inc. He has personally interviewed more than 10,000 job seekers. Erin has helped build a company that exited for $640M, and just released a consumer Interview preparation software product (Hirepool.io) being used by job seekers around the world.
Friday Aug 03, 2018
Friday Aug 03, 2018
Today we are talking about the chemistry of your team! Look, you can have the greatest product in the world but without a strong team chemistry, your company will ultimately fail.
Today's Quote:
"Skills are Cheap. Chemistry is expensive" ― Mal Pancoast
Show highlights:
- Why chemistry is so important
- How to Monitor your team chemistry
- What to do to encourage or change the chemistry
Elements of good team chemistry:
- Constructive Chemistry
- *Good chemistry, Your brains produce more Oxytocin, which is the hormone that helps us feel more connected to other people. Higher levels of Oxytocin produce more pleasure, deeper trust, and stronger intimacy.
Warning signs of bad chemistry:
- Destructive Chemistry
- Identify bad chemistry early on… disrespectful, not being productive, dropping the ball, personal issues.
- Adding value or afraid of adding value
- Lieing, false information or not saying anything.
- Personal Issues- ie: How do you deal with someone involved with drugs? (JC’s Story)
Monitoring your chemistry:
- Proactive, Honest
- Best Monitor: Praise is the most important element of a team. People will give more because they feel valued
- checks and balances, always questioning
Interviewing to uncover chemistry:
- Understanding Yourself & Your business needs…. Vision - opposing working styles
- How to identify in the interview - Wound, Desire, Accomplishment
- Best job in vetting people. Honesty is not that common. People can turn in a heartbeat
- Optimistic pessimism
- Behavioral Questions - Evidence & Knockouts!
Ways to omit bad chemistry:
- Communicate
- Identify & change with minimum impact to the organization
- Hire slow, fire quickly
J.C. Ruffalo joined the OCTANe OC team in June 2014 and is the Director of LaunchPad SBDC and Investor Relations. JC Mentor's hundreds of companies each year and has assisted LaunchPad companies to achieve over $750 million in capital infusion and, as a result, create over 3,500 new jobs in Southern California.
Prior to Octane, JC co-founded a small startup (Double Splash Media), which was involved with email marketing. He also worked for LKQ, a large corporation that is the world’s largest supplier of automotive replacement parts, as a buyer and general manager.
Friday Jul 27, 2018
Friday Jul 27, 2018
According to Wikipedia, Gamification is the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts. Gamification commonly employs gamedesign elements to improve user engagement, organizational productivity, employee recruitment and evaluation, and more.
We are all used to being gamefied. In fact, our lives have been programmed to do things based on reward. Everything from our GPA to buying a new iPhone pulls from principles of Gamification. A lot of Companies Gamify pieces of the organization, mainly those associated with revenue. It is not commonly implemented throughout the whole organization, especially the operational side of the organization. Full organizational gamification has increased employee engagement by 92% and productivity is hitting record strides!
Today's Quote:
“The Game gives you a Purpose. The Real Game is, to Find a Purpose.”
Show highlights:
- Discuss the benefits of gamification to your business
- What's needed to gamify your company?
- The structure to implement gamification into your company
Why did your company decide to gamify?
- Our lives are gamified
- Isn't gamification a form of behavioral modification or conditioning?
- Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism or Pavlovian response
- Benefits to the company?
The gamification you use at iPlace. How does it work?
- Launchpad
- Customer, Employee & Company goals
- *Launchpad: each person earns a star each week for successfully completing tasks. Each week mini performance review- Agile sprint?
- 40 stars = pay raise, 120 stars promotion.
Why does gamification work in terms of Engagement?
- Build a culture of performance and healthy competition
- UNDERPERFORMERS CAN NOT HIDE
- Put management on auto pilot. Unscheduled leaves have declined over 93% since they have eliminated by escalations (they and all of team loses stars)
- Sets expectations up front
Hank Levine is the President and CEO of iPlace USA, which is widely regarded as the highest quality company providing professionally managed sourcing and recruiting services for US-based companies from India. Over the past twelve years, he has helped over 240 American companies establish offshore recruiting operations.
Hank spearheaded the development of a very innovative “company operations system” based on gamification. He was the keynote speaker last May at the StaffingTec conference where he spoke about how progressive companies are using gamification to scale their operations, align company and client goals, improve the health and wellness of their employees, and even eliminate performance reviews.
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Dane Petchul: College Debt Is Hindering Your Ability To Hire the Strongest Talent!
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Student loan debt is certainly a major issue and yet it is not often addressed in the hiring process. Some would argue that the overwhelming pressure to start paying back the loan often results in a person making the wrong career decision out of necessity. Companies could do more to alleviate some of that pain by targeting talent out of their specific industry and creating benefits or incentives to help with this burden.
“When you get in debt you become a slave.” - Andrew Jackson
Show highlights:
- The effect student loans have on career choices
- How companies might capitalize on debt to help attract talent
Ways in which an individual can reduce the amount of student loan debt:
- Planning
- Cost reduction programs
- Hidden gems of free money?
What are the inherent challenges related to student loan debt:
- Default on the loan -7 million people are in default
- Limits ability to get a job- ie:govt related
- License suspension -nursing, teachers, lawyers, realtors emergency technicians
- Shackled to what you hate to pay the bills
When people make poor career choices because of necessity it impacts the company that they join. The regret over poor job choice does not only impact the employee but the employer as well. Job regret leads to:
- Apathy
- Low motivation
- Poor employee performance
- Spend work time searching for other employment
How might companies be able to attract the right people by helping to alleviate the student loan debt wound?
- benefits
- Recruit people from outside industries (look outside the box)- accomplishment based hiring
- Opportunity
- Provide an avenue
- Look at the debt as an opportunity to provide performance incentives to offset the debt
Dane Petchul is the Founder and President of Oracle College Planning. With a long history of helping people with their retirement in the finance world, Dane shifted the focus to help families – parents and children – identify the best path to take for a financially responsible college experience..
Dane committed himself to helping families carefully protect their life-savings from soaring college costs while ensuring that a proper financial pathway would be in place so that students wouldn’t be saddled in debt after graduating. Therefore enabling them to make better career decisions.
Friday Jul 13, 2018
Anita Kanti: Abolish the Resume!
Friday Jul 13, 2018
Friday Jul 13, 2018
A majority of the most talented people have terrible resumes. Why? Because they are busy making things happen!
Companies miss out on great people because they never make it past the resume screen. Automating the process and screening for buzzwords is just not an effective tool for finding the right people for your business. We are in the people business when we recruit. So, pick up the phone and judge based on your conversation and not the resume.
Today's Quote:
"Insanity is knowing that what you're doing is completely idiotic, but still, somehow, you just can't stop it."
- Elizabeth Wurtzel
Show highlights:
- Positive points of resumes
- Everything wrong with a resume
- Alternate solutions to resumes - solve the resume black hole
What resumes are good for:
- Contact information
- Career History
- The “white space”
What is wrong with the resume:
- Keyword dependent -wrong keywords or no keywords
- Designed to match with wish list of skills
- Too heavily relied upon in the interview process
- People lie
Alternate options to a resume:
- Video clips
- Video talent snapshot (resume) - Why is this a good idea?
- -discrimination bias?
- - how can a 1 minute video give you an accurate picture?
- AI
- Actual assessment - conversation
- Wound, Desire, Accomplishment
Effective use of a resume and how to identify great people:
- Just a tool, not a wall
- A guide to formulate skills based questions - Transferable skills
Anita Kanti is the Executive Talent Manager of Huawei Technologises. She is a global business partner and senior manager supporting executive leadership deliverables' for leadership talent acquisition needs for the US and China marketplace.
As both a motivational life coach and strategic talent manager, Anita Kanti offers progressive solutions to help her company and clients optimize their strengths and create a pathway of success. Anita is a proven expert in talent recruitment, both in leading corporations such as Broadcom Inc., and United Healthcare, as well as building a company of her own, Anita K Solutions. Anita K has combined her expertise in talent development and leadership with her training in motivational techniques to create a unique and effective life coaching philosophy.
Thursday Jul 05, 2018
Thursday Jul 05, 2018
Public sector VS private sector! We put on the gloves in an epic showdown of today's episode, to settle the differences and find out the better career option. Let's see who will come out victorious!
The 3 rounds for the undisputed championship:
- Round 1: Brenda - bashes up the logic behind joining a startup
- Round 2: Rick - negatives of the public sector
- Round 3: Each counter the punches from their opponent
Round 1: Why do you think it is silly to work for a startup?
- No career security
- Lack of stability
Round 2: Cons of working for the public sector (federal, state, county, city)
- Slow moving
- Not entrepreneurial, Doesn’t attract the strongest people
- Clamored with politics and red tape
- Ability to innovate severely limited
- Mediocre Pay / No Stock Options
- Not sexy… at all (unless you are an officer or firefighter)
Round 3: Counter Punches! Closing argument Evidence
- Pace
- Innovation
- Career Growth
- Challenging
- Compensation & Benefits
- Attractiveness- to attract talented people
- Engagement- the perception of each worker
- Brenda’s Knock out Punch! *Interview Process - You probably do NOT have an effective process!
Brenda Diederichs has been serving as the Chief Human Resources Officer for the County of Orange since June 2016. Brenda began her HR career at San Bernardino County, while earning her BA in Political Science, from California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She next worked for the Southern California Rapid Transit District for 10 years in both HR and Labor Relations. While there she earned a law degree from Loyola Law School.
Brenda went on to practice labor and employment law providing and serve as the labor and employment law department chair for two major public law firms for 10 years, before returning to public service as the Executive Officer for Labor and Employment, Human Resources and Training for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. She opened her own law firm in 2007, which she operated until returning to public service in 2014 as the Human Resources Director for the City of Riverside.
Thursday Jun 21, 2018
Mark James: Preparing for Your Interview is the Key to Winning a Great Hire!
Thursday Jun 21, 2018
Thursday Jun 21, 2018
Today’s show is all about Preparation! Preparation is the first step in conducting an effective Interview. Both interviewer and interviewee parties need to be prepared. Just showing up without an idea of where you are going is the quickest way to lose an opportunity. An Interview without Preparation is really just PreparationH! In this episode we stressed the importance of preparation and how it needs to happen.
Show Guest:
Mark James is the Founder and President of Hire Consulting Services and the author of his new book, “Keys to the C Suite”. (Amazon.com) Mark is a Certified Personnel Consultant and has been providing executive career transition coaching and executive search consulting services for over 20 years. He is also a Certified Partner with the Predictive Index suite of behavior assessments. Mark coaches executives in career transition on a daily basis which makes him an expert in today's topic.
Episode highlights:
- Interviewee/candidate preparation
- Hiring manager preparation
- Provide a process for how each party needs to prepare
Why is it important to prepare for an interview?
- Preparation puts you in the right MINDSET … sets the tone, eliminates surprises
- Set proper objective - get the offer/make the hire
- Being prepared = being impressive- demonstrates success
Interviewee:
- Research the company to determine something that the company may not know themselves
- Not prepared to tell their story
- Ask for the interview schedule & format
Hiring Manager (company):
- Research the person
- Knowing what needs to be accomplished
- Prepare your interview team
The dangers of not preparing for the interview:
- Wasted time, frustration
- Inaccurate picture of who you really are
- Lose the person
- Increase the likelihood of making a bad decision
How to best prepare to get hired:
- Self-assessment, presenting yourself, researching the company
- Research company
- Ask targeted questions
- Know how to showcase your accomplishments to make them relevant to the company mission
- Proactive
Best preparation practices to attract the right talent:
- Schedule time to prepare - assuming all else has been covered
- Review assessment notes, LinkedIn profile, social channels, resume- look for commonalities, interests & data points to cover
- Prepare interview team- provide targeted behavioral questions
Look for cultural fit, evidence of success & transferable skills:
- Performance Metrics- what needs to be accomplished
- Have a plan: Connect the dots- competitive advantage
- Give & receive feedback -in real time
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Event Interview:Paul Pickle From Octane OC's Technology Innovation Forum
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Wednesday Jun 13, 2018
Paul Pickle, Former President & COO, of Microsemi & MC of Octane OC's 2018 Technology Innovation Forum. We discussed the future of Semiconductor and whats on the horizon.
Monday Jun 11, 2018
Event Interview: Ryan Permeh From Octane OC's Technology Innovation Forum
Monday Jun 11, 2018
Monday Jun 11, 2018
Ryan Permeh, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist of Cylance! I had the pleasure to sit down with Ryan for a quick interview at Octane OC's Technology Innovation Forum Event. He shared some great Insight on Leveraging the Cybersecurity hub in SoCal.
Thursday Jun 07, 2018
Thursday Jun 07, 2018
Picking the right recruiter partner is not easy. Today’s episode is all about the different options available and how to find a search firm who has your company’s best interest at heart. Start by establishing the following.
Show highlights:
- Defining & understanding your company - values, culture, & plan
- Expectations of your team, company goals, needs
- How to evaluate a search firm and chose the one that best fits with your organization
Begin with the root of where we should start. As a company, who are we?
- Company’s core values
- Culture
- Plan for success
Understanding your Company’s “Needs” and defining expectations:
- Needs vs. Wants - your company needs trump ego
- Speed vs. quality
- Recruiting mentality Driver vs. Order Taker
Determining the best type of search for your specific needs:
- Staffing
- Contingency
- Retained
- In House
How to pick the right recruiting partner:
- Process
- Cultural & Business understanding
- passion
Tom Chaparro is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of The Newport Group - Executive Search Consultants.
As EVP & GM, Tom is responsible for firm-wide management of day-to-day operations and quality control, as well as providing leadership and training to managers and staff.
Mr. Chaparro combines deep, hands-on expertise in a variety of verticals, with an uncanny business insight for the international marketplaces in which his business partners operate. With proven executive search experience, and an unmatched knowledge of the real estate development, construction and oil & gas industries
Thursday May 24, 2018
Thursday May 24, 2018
Is your benefits strategy the right one to land great people? Highlights discussed on the show:
- How Benefits drive Retention
- Effective vs. Ineffective benefits
- How Benefits can help land Talent
How benefits drive retention
- Hard for employees to leave when employers demonstrate the value. Employee feels like they can not get as good of a package somewhere else.
- Total compensation statements- powerful tool
What benefits are Effective? Ineffective?
- What people expect & at what level?
- Strategy for different company sizes
- Botique benefits- pet insurance, Financial well being.
How do benefits help land talent?
- Reduces days to fill
- Impact cost to hire associate
- Strong release pitcher role.
- Medical needs
Ron Herrera is Vice President of Consulting Services with the Precept Group, a national employee benefits consulting firm and insurance brokerage. Precept offers a variety of services including health and welfare consulting, health management programs, benefits administration and technology, retirement plan services and more.
Ron partners with employers across the United States to reduce healthcare expenditures and stimulate organizational culture. Prior to joining Precept, Ron led Human Resources operations in Vice President and Director roles with multiple healthcare organizations.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Thursday May 17, 2018
Richard Franzi:Unintended Consequences Of A Poor Hiring Process
Thursday May 17, 2018
Thursday May 17, 2018
Bad hires are the negative effect of a unstructured hiring practice and will manifest itself in the performance of your company. So how do you minimize the risk of bad hires? A hiring structure needs to be in place to drastically increase the chances of making a great hire.
Show Guest:
Rick Franzi is the Founder & CEO of Critical Mass for Business. He is the author of the best selling book “Killing Cats, Leads to Rats” -Mitigating the unintended consequences of Business Decisions.(Amazon.com)
Rick currently chairs CEO Peer Groups® throughout Los Angeles and Orange County, CA through his partnership with Renaissance Executive Forums. He is the host of Critical Mass Radio Show & Podcast here on OC Talk Radio.
He is a nationally recognized thought leader on the power of peer learning for CEOs and business executives. Rick's work has been featured in national media forums such as Forbes & Inc.com
Topics covered in “unintended consequences”:
- Symptoms
- Diagnosis: the disease is not Hiring with a process
- Secure Model for Hiring
- Prescription
What are the symptoms (issues)?
- Company’s hire for Skills
- Winging it
- Asking the wrong questions
- Down hiring
The diagnosis: disease is not having a hiring process. Why?
- Repels great talent (unstructured is unimpressive)
- Unstructured interview (only a 6% chance of making the correct hire)
- Bad hire will infect 30% of the people around that person - drop in performance
Prescription/solution - implementing the SECURE Model
- S stands for slow down the decision-making process.
- E stands for expand your knowledge.
- C stands for clarify the desired outcome.
- U stands for unify the team
- R stands for retain control of the process.
- E stands for ensure you stay outcome focused.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Thursday May 10, 2018
Thursday May 10, 2018
True transparency maximizes trust and enables a company to thrive! Vincit promotes proactive leadership and a bottom up leadership approach. The results: a rediculously successful business with no attrition and incredible engagement and productivity.
Episode highlights:
- True Transparency- what it looks like to a company that is thriving
- Proactive leadership
- How this structure attracts outstanding people!
Explain what transparency looks like in you company
- Publish Salaries openly- colleagues nominate for raises. Twice a year
- Satisfaction guarantee for new employees. Pay people to leave within first two months
- Eliminated middle management
- Company credit card
How does transparency Maximize Trust?
- Bottom to top approach to leadership - focus on listening and reacting. Leadership as a service- created a platform. LaaS
- Increase Management workload? - lowers load because you are not predicting situations to handle situations. Individualize the model. People end up managing themselves
Transfer into your hiring process?
- What do they do in hiring?
- Screening to eliminate the mediocrity? they test interviews in teamwork based situations.
- Look for collaboration, skills and cultural fit. Have to be able ask questions, “having dialog”
Results?
- Attrition
- Engagement
- Productivity
Ville Houttu is the Founder and CEO of Vincit California, Inc. Previously, he helped to take it public in Nasdaq First North marketplace. After the IPO, Ville moved to California to start Vincit’s local subsidiary. During the first year of operations he built a team of 20 developers in Irvine and acquired OC’s hottest digital branding agency, XTOPOLY. The team operates in Irvine and Palo Alto, where they help companies such as Logitech and Yamaha to develop their mobile apps and digital services.
Ville is passionate about creating lean working environments and scaling operations without creating policies. He is also one of the few Ironman triathletes who plays steel guitar on several albums on Spotify.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Friday May 04, 2018
Friday May 04, 2018
We all have unconcious bias. It is important to recognize and identify them, especially in the workplace. When we acknowledge these biases, then they can be eliminated in the interview process, creating smarter hires for your business.
Episode highlights:
- What Unconscious bias is
- How to acknowledge it
- Eliminate it from the hiring process
What is Unconscious Bias?
- Relative to gender, race, age
- We all judge but the key is not to pass judgement until…
- Unconscious (or implicit) biases are learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence behavior
How do we recognize and identify our bias?
- EQ, Self Awareness
- Roots
The value of Bias in the workplace
- Diversity in thinking
- Leverage Enlightenment
How do we Eliminate Unconscious bias from the interview process?
- Understand the value around bias in the workplace
- Harvard Business Review:
- Seek to understand- “Organizational conversation”,
- Job descriptions- perception words, gendered words-balance:”build and create”
- Blind resume review- ignore the name
- Accomplishment focus
- Structure Interviews
- Value fit
- Diversity goals
Chris Steely is the Managing Director of GPS Business Group. He is a transformational business leader, author, trainer, and business coach, who has trained thousands of business leaders worldwide on how to refine and apply optimal capabilities to their business. Chris focuses on delivering business effectiveness services to clients across the globe. He’s co-authored two books, and has been featured as a business expert on countless international stages.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Thursday Apr 26, 2018
Thursday Apr 26, 2018
Insights on Proper Interview Communication and the ways to incorporate them effectively for the Hiring Process:
- What are the broken issues in the Interview communication
- Fix the crucial areas
- Utilize Solutions and Tools that are available to enhance communication and overall candidate experience
With all the technology & tools available, Why is this still a problem today?
- We try really hard to take out the human element from the process
- Lost art
- Transactional
Where the challenges lie
- Recruiter & Interviewee
- Recruiter & hiring manager
- Interviewee & hiring manager
Forms of Communication & Issues
- Video interviewing vs phone interviewing, Video cons: implicit bias
- Chatbots- engagement /screening tool
- Text messages
How do we make interview communications effective?
- Recruiter & Interviewee
- Recruiter & hiring manager
Tools
- Interview Data/Evidence
- Remember your Conversations
- Reduce misinterpretation and bias
- Remove redundant interview steps
- Other Tools:videos, Chatbots
- Technical tests
- Take home tests
Nick Livingston is CEO of Honeit Software. He has been scaling recruiting teams and companies in San Francisco and New York City for 15 years. Nick started his career as a technology headhunter in NYC. After a successful IPO at TubeMogul (now Adobe) while attending business school at UC Berkeley, he co-founded Honeit Software to rethink interview communication and simplify the hiring process. At MTV, Nick was the Recruiting Director responsible for digital media and interactive technology talent. Nick worked at HR Technology companies Taleo and NextSource. He received his MBA from Berkeley, with BS in Applied Mathematics.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Thursday Apr 19, 2018
Todd Raphael:Hiring Practices That Are Driving Great People Away From Your Company!
Thursday Apr 19, 2018
Thursday Apr 19, 2018
Companies complain that they can’t find people yet they do a lot of alienating of potential hires through their actions. Identifying and fixing what drives people away in each stage of the interview process, looking at data of where the best hires are produced, and learning the trends in the Industry will increase the pool of better candidates for your business.
Episode highlights:
- What drives candidates away?
- How do we fix these issues
What drives people away?
- Job description- selfish, not engaging,
- First contact - too selling job focused
- Interview - prepared, structured, Format
- Follow up process
Hurdles in Applicant tracking systems/Interview process
- Tests
- Missing human connection
Job boards are getting less traction
- Evolution of video interviews & ai… matching
- Candidate experience- cannot do @ scale
- Automated process & gaming
Look at your data. Where are the best hires produced?
- Changing the mix of were you recruit. *do the opposite of what you are doing now!
- Job ads- alienating people….need to Engage people, *contact & follow up
- Blind resumes? *eliminate bias
- Messaging- party environment
- Getting past bias
What needs to be fixed?
- Job description
- First contact
- Interview
- Follow up process
Trends in the Industry
- What’s working & What’s not
Todd Raphael manages global publications and conferences for ERE Media, a global community of recruiters and others in the talent field. He has appeared on Sirius XM, VoiceAmerica.com, Wall Street Journal, Time, Forbes, and more.
Todd was named DevSkiller's 2016 "50 Most Game-Changing Influencers In Recruitment." Named Glassdoor's "2015 HR & Recruiting Thought Leaders" and HR Examiner's "Top 100 Influencers" list in employment/human resources and its top 25 Online Influencers.
He was listed on Mike Vangel of TMP's "60 Or So True Influencers In Social+Mobile Media and/or Recruitment."
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Monday Apr 16, 2018
Monday Apr 16, 2018
Brenda Diedrichs, Chief Human Resource Officer and Hilda Gracia, Employee Relations Analyst of County of Orange
Monday Apr 16, 2018
Monday Apr 16, 2018
Ryan Logan, Certified Financial Planner & CEO of RAL Financial & Insurance Services
Thursday Apr 12, 2018
Thursday Apr 12, 2018
Leisa Reid: The 3 Keys To Transformation For Yourself And Your Business!
Thursday Apr 12, 2018
Thursday Apr 12, 2018
The 3 keys to transformation and how to apply them for success:
-Understanding of yourself (past)
-Awareness (present)
-Compelling vision (future)
Leisa Reid is a presenter with Productive Learning, a boutique personal growth company founded in 1992, and has trained thousands of people on the power of the mindset. After 20+ years of Management, Sales and Executive Leadership, Leisa dedicated her life to assisting others invest in their personal development. Why? Because she personally experienced the powerful results as a client of Productive Learning. She loved the company so much she joined them in the pursuit of living an extraordinary life.
Leisa is also the Author of the book “Manage to Success: A Guide to Cultivating Happy & Productive Employees” (Amazon.com)
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Thursday Apr 05, 2018
Thursday Apr 05, 2018
It is important to have a proactive talent strategy when planning and building your pipeline for your hiring process. Know when and how to tap into the pipeline. Developing a solid foundation, always recruiting by using your referral resources, and utilizing the tools and changes that companies can make promotes successful hiring searches.
Show Guest:
Ken Schmitt grew up in an entrepreneurial household with a father who was a Jack in the Box franchisee for 25 years, and a mother who left the accounting world to become a real estate agent. After spending 9 years working for a local boutique firm and one of the world's largest Executive Search firms, Heidrick & Struggles, he launched TurningPoint Executive Search in 2007. The past two Years, TurningPoint has been ranked one of the Top 150 Fastest Growing Private Companies in San Diego (SDBJ).
Ken is also the Founder and CEO of the Sales & Marketing Leadership Alliance (SMLA), and the annual Sales & Marketing Leader of the Year Awards (SMLYs). Ken is a thought leader in executive search and takes a high touch, concierge-style approach to placing first class talent. Which makes him the perfect guest for today’s topic! He is the Author of LinkedIn Hiring Secrets for Sales and Marketing Leaders. (Amazon.com)
Episode highlights:
- The importance of a proactive talent strategy
- Building your pipeline
- When & How to tap into the pipeline
The Why… Process is Reactive
- Starting at Ground zero (Avoid reinventing the wheel with each new search)
- Pre plan questions
- Organize- time, pace, resume/profile
Foundation - Developing The Plan
- Proactive mindset
- Always be recruiting (ABC….)
- Consistent message, not being transactional
- Look at recruiting as a revenue generating or sales process.
Building the pipeline. Always be Recruiting
- Employee referrals
- Industry leaders
- Top performers
Tools & Tweaks that companies can make to succeed
- Simple spreadsheet on excel
- Poor job of mining their own data.
- Someone owning the process.
- Employee referral program- on going notification
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Friday Mar 30, 2018
Friday Mar 30, 2018
What is needed to attract investors, the importance of a team, and how to enagage the right people for your company. Develope a plan that will scale. Hire the needed technical, marketing and leadership expertise to raise capital and to build the business.
Episode Highlights:
- What is needed to attract an investor
- The importance of the team
- How to attract and scale your team
The Foundation - What really needs to be in place to attract seed round investment?
- Pick up 1-2 key customers with a working prototype
- Seed round: Have team, some customers, some revenue, working model. & need funds.
What is typically the right scenario for a TCA investor?
- TCA- a 20-40% small percentage are open for execution delivery role.
- *Understanding, awareness & belief
What is the biggest hurdles you see from entrepreneurs?
- Giving up equity is often the big issue.
- Angel members open to teaming up as a co-founder.
Building the Team - How do we attract the right person?
- Resources
- How to scale a team. Long term engagement, needs of the business.
- Operator, needs to give up “control”.
- Use advisors to vet talent, first reluctant to bring in the help.
Scale
- When to start?
- Evaluation & Planning
- Analogy of championship sports teams- key pieces of the puzzle but not all the right pieces at the right team.
Hicham Semaan is an experienced CEO, GM, senior executive, angel investor, senior, and board member to CEOs, management teams, private equity, startup companies. He is a respected leader with strong vision, value creation, turn around, and acquisition expertise, and has successfully grown and exited businesses. Hicham is considered an expert in the technology, education, and real estate industries and has been a featured speaker at several industry events.
He is the newly elected Tech Coast Angels-Orange County President and has received the “Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award” from the OCBJ and was recently named “New Investor of the Year” by Tech Coast Angels.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Thursday Mar 22, 2018
Thursday Mar 22, 2018
All interviewees should be treated with the same positive hiring experience, rather they be an active or passive job seeker. When you eliminate pre-judging and biases, build rapport, and follow up with your candidates, it creates positive results: brings the truth, leads to referrals, and produces positive reviews.
Episode highlights:
- How to treat all candidates
- Contact & Feedback
- Results
What is a Active job seeker vs. a Passive job seeker?
Why do we treat an active job seeker and a passive job seeker differently? What are companies missing?
- Eliminate: Pre judging & Bias
- The Resume… laziness by not calling. Leads to referrals if not a fit.
Why no feedback when I apply to an ad?
- Eliminate: Pre-judging & Bias
Act as if you are the candidate… Process for relationship building.
- Looking for value in the conversation.
- Follow through… set timeline, being considerate
Results
- The truth
- Referrals
- Positive feedback (Glassdoor)
Deborah Kantor is the President of Kantor Sales Associates. She has mentored and trained countless sales professionals in her four-decade-long sales career path. Deborah has been a student in every aspect of the sales cycle, from prospecting to close, and in the building of trusted partner relationships along the way. She has been a top performer in the staffing and real estate industries prior to her current coaching/training business. Beyond the sales skills necessary to open doors, Deborah is passionate about knowing how to present VALUE PROPOSITION, and communicate the WHY.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Monday Mar 19, 2018
Monday Mar 19, 2018
What should a proper Interview Structure should look like, how to Prepare and Plan the candidates for the Interview, and the right way to Execute the interview process. Having the right hiring structure will audition the interviewee for the company's cultural fit and determine those that may or may not be congruent to your organization's core values.
Episode highlights:
- What a proper Interview Structure should look like
- Preparing & Planning for the Interview
- How to Execute an outstanding interview process
The Foundation - How should an interview be Structured?
- Timed with a person leading the process
- 3-5 individuals, auditioning for cultural fit
Preparation
- Pre plan questions
- Organize- time, pace, resume/profile
What does an interview plan look like?
- Share the plan with the candidate before hand
Executing the Interview
- Alleviate the pressure … keep congruent with your environment
- Conversational
- Knock out questions
- Testing & digging
- Wrap up… set timeline
Checking References & Referrals
- Challenge the white space
Scott Kuethen is the CEO at Amtec, Inc., a professional recruiting organization specializing in placing professionals in Contract and Regular-Full-Time positions with companies ranging from small entrepreneurial start-ups to the fortune 100. He is an avid teacher, and writer in the areas of talent acquisition and selection, organizational planning, and business management. Scott’s life purpose is helping people find meaning in their work.
In his spare time, Scott enjoys photography, SCUBA diving, swimming, drone flying, and other activities that keep him young-minded.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Thursday Mar 08, 2018
Thursday Mar 08, 2018
A 5x tech entrepreneur and his unique approach to hiring great people for his companies, using the 3 C’s: Culture, Capacity for Mastery, and Craft. Utilizing this interview methodology can take your company from good to great!
Episode highlights:
- What the 3 C’s are?
- Apply this methodology to your hiring for your company
A really unique approach to hiring, the 3 C’s
- Culture: Values- evolution of culture, Ethos (montrose), Traits
- Capacity - critical thinking & problem solving skills
- Craft- skills (not defined by)
How to apply this methodology
- Narrative arc interview
- White space interview
Jordan Ritter is an accomplished entrepreneur and technologist, having co-founded several companies including music company Napster, messaging security platform Cloudmark, labor-as-a-service platform CloudCrowd and most recently, personal digital search engine Atlas Informatics. He also served as the CTO of entertainment company Columbia Music Entertainment, as well as fan interaction platform Zivity. Jordan is also a regular open-source contributor, having authored free software commonly included in modern Linux distributions as well as Windows software licensed by Microsoft. Several of his projects have been featured in well-known publications and books, and incorporated into University-level curricula.
His works have won numerous nominations and awards spanning across Comdex, DEMO, SIIA, PC World, PC Magazine, and WIRED. Jordan speaks at technology conferences around the world on topics ranging across entrepreneurism, startup culture, AI, computer and messaging security, and the music industry.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.
Thursday Mar 01, 2018
Jean Latu: Fractional Leadership As A Viable Option In Building Your Business!
Thursday Mar 01, 2018
Thursday Mar 01, 2018
The benefits of fractional help in your organization. Fractional work can bring important value while companies are experiencing change, such as a new leadership, merger and acquisition, or a resignation. Knowing when and how to engage a fractional person will provide the solutions needed for your company.
Episode highlights:
- What is Fractional - High end Temps!
- When & how to engage fractional help
Jean Latu is the Founder & CEO of Ingenio Solutions, a consulting firm focused on accounting and finance. She leads a talented team of experts in finance and accounting who work with clients to solve problems, create efficiencies, and improve the bottom line.
Jean has worked on projects for companies like CarrAmerica, Coldwell Banker, and Marriott as a consultant. She joined Jefferson Well as a Director of Finance Operations and led their finance and accounting practice. She grew the practice to 40 consultants from 5 and increased annual revenues to $10M from $1M in 3 years.
Check out the Blog on the Stride Search, Inc site for the supplementary “show recap” article with detailed takeaways/insights from the interview.