Hire Power Radio Show

Latest Episodes:

Mastering Conflict for Stronger Teams with Ryan Redding Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

Conflict is an unavoidable part of business, but how you handle it determines your company's success. Many leaders shy away from conflict, presenting an idealized company culture during hiring, only to create friction when reality sets in. Today’s episode tackles embracing and managing conflict effectively to build stronger, high-performing teams.

Rick Girard sits down with Ryan Redding, founder of Levergy and host of Blue Collar CEO, to discuss hiring challenges, organizational conflict, and how to create a healthy debate, trust, and alignment culture. Ryan shares a personal hiring misstep that led to a transformation in how his company approaches conflict resolution—and how you can apply these insights to your business.

Key Takeaways:

03:12 – The dangers of avoiding conflict in hiring
07:45 – A costly hiring mistake that changed everything
14:20 – Why conflict is essential for business growth
22:55 – How to build a culture of trust and open communication
29:30 – The Fist to Five method for team alignment
36:10 – How to create a hiring process that prevents bad cultural fits

Guest Links:

🔗 Ryan Redding: Website - Levergy
📖 The Book on Digital Marketing for Plumbing and HVAC Contractors – Amazon
🎙️ Blue Collar CEO – Podcast Link

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

The Hiring Trap: Why Resumes Fail and How to Avoid Costly Mistakes with Kristen Prinz Feb 26, 2025

Show notes

Hiring Smarter, Not Harder The hiring process hasn’t evolved much in the past century—we source candidates, review resumes, and invite people for interviews. But here’s the problem: resumes build bias, not results. We assume someone is a great fit based on a prestigious company name or top-tier school, but does that actually translate to job performance? Kristen Prinz, Founder & Managing Partner of The Prinz Law Firm, shares a real-world hiring horror story and the critical lessons every entrepreneur needs to learn. What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
03:12 The hidden dangers of hiring based on assumptions
07:45 A shocking hiring mistake—and its expensive consequences
14:20 How to set clear expectations from day one
22:55 The importance of overcoming unconscious bias in hiring
29:30 Why a structured hiring process leads to better employees 🎙 Guest: Kristen Prinz has been recognized as one of Chicago’s 50 Most Influential Female Attorneys and has saved millions for corporate clients in employment litigation. She’s here to help you make better hiring decisions. Links Kristen Prinz LinkedIn 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/prinzlawfirm/
Website 🔗 https://www.prinz-lawfirm.com/

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

Listen now and save yourself from regretting hiring!

The Red Wedding Business Decision with Adam Philipp Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

Listening to what your customers desire and having the courage to uproot your business model to accommodate them, takes guts. It’s essentially disrupting your own short-term profits for a long-term bigger picture.

Your employees who are “comfortable” will most likely leave as most people do not like change. Especially, radical change! Leaving the opportunity for others to step up and help to drive the business forward.

Today, we are going to delve into a story of what happens when you dare to disrupt your own business.

Guest Bio

Adam Philipp is the Founder & Patent Attorney of Aeon Law. Adam is a strategic attorney who focuses on innovative solutions for creators, entrepreneurs, and C-suite executives.

He believes that all of his clients deserve to understand how their IP tools will work for them, and their business model is designed to provide a transparent process with predictable budgets.

Problem:

Story of the Red Wedding (in 2010) due to switch to prebilling with fixed prices
Misaligned billing structure - eliminating billable hours
- Required changing the compensation structure as well
- Stop tracing the billable hour
- AR- pain point of collecting from clients
- Stopping the cycle of billable hours (not charging for revisions)
Able to hire experienced people who want to do high-quality work
Efficiency in getting paid twice as much for giving quality delivery
“If you want to succeed, stop doing what you hate” - billable hours
“If you give a hard job to a lazy person, he’ll find an easier way to do it”

Why is this important to the company?

Allow him to attract people who already have professional relationships
Less training on the company’s end

Rick’s Nuggets

My Restructure story

How do we solve the problem?

Implementing a new client payment and attorney compensation structure
Provide a fee schedule like a restaurant menu
People: approach attorneys who tried solo practitionership
They didn’t want to go back to unreasonable hourly requirements.
People wanted comradery, practice without getting their souls crushed
Pay a higher compensation with less overhead
- Push to 40% over 30%
- Invest in efficiency tools (automation of repeatable tasks)
- Hackers who set up tools.
Compensate at a fair level and provide tools to gain mastery
Choose your own adventure model.
Within 1 year with ½ the team, they doubled their income!
Long term Joy!

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

Clients love fixed prices - giving back the power to make business decisions again
Point in time when Clients are most willing to pay is before the project begins (avoid pricing disputes)
Money is in the trust waiting to be allocated upon the works completion - (eliminate collections)

Guest Links

LinkedIn: Adam Philipp
Company: AEON Law

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

How to Make a Culture Stand Out with Scott Hollrah Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

As a founder, your first hire is always the hardest. Most often we take the first person who will say yes. Not putting a lot of diligence into a conversation about setting proper expectations.

What ends up happening is that we either get really lucky (if it works out) or it becomes a cautionary tale of what not to do when starting a business. Often an expensive lesson to learn.

Starting with a strong culture in mind from day 1 is the key to having the difficult conversations that ensure a first hire's success.

Guest Bio

Scott Hollrah is the Founder & CEO of Venn Technology. Scott has built a reputation as a technologist, problem solver, and creator of great culture.

In his role at Venn Technology, he is focused on helping mid-market organizations be more effective through the use of automation. The company has won numerous awards that include Dallas Business Journal’s Best Places to Work, and Inc 5000.

In addition to family and work, Scott hosts In the Thick of It, a podcast that highlights the trials and triumphs of fellow founders. He is an expert in building a culture that stands out from his competitors.

Problem:

Started as a 1 man shop
Now at 30+ people
The first hire was the hardest thing he had to do
- Get over the fact that he eats last
- Is this person that I hire going to care about the customer as much as I do
- Introduced by a mutual connection
- First 12-18 months he had to learn to delegate
- People will do things different
Core value of Delighted Partners - reminder throughout the office - customer & partner logos - these are the folks who make us successful, we have a responsibility to make them successful
When we fail do everything to make things right
We are flawed, not perfect. But we own our mistakes
Accept you are not perfect and expect that you make things right as well
Culture has been the same from the outset
- Treat people how you’d like to be treated
- Wants to sleep well at night and not regretting his day
- Phrase - When you take PTO, take PTO!

Rick’s Nuggets

Having the difficult conversations

How do we solve the problem?

Doubled down on buying a building
An In-person culture
- I had an offer turned down
- Get stuck on a problem, tap someone on the shoulder, grab a whiteboard
- Build through proximity
One Team
- Chad Nelson Golden Toilet Brush Award
- Display ownership
- Sought to be very unconventional
- Bring a different energy!
Build the kind of company he wants to work for
- Very casual
- Mascot - Bijorn the Yeti
- Not afraid to let the freak flag fly
  - Texas Independence Day is a company holiday
Are we doing what we aspire to Join:
I want to work here because…
Watched your YouTube videos
Watched podcast
Read content
“Do they want the job or a job?”
Research people did on the company and him
When guests or prospective team members visit the office we literally roll out a red carpet and have a sign welcoming them
- Most people take a picture of it
- Makes a great first impression

Rick’s Nuggets

Values need to be polarizing

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

Know your values - talk about them frequently
- We have a standing weekly meeting and highlight one value each time
- One of our core values is “One Team” - each quarter we award someone the “Chad Nelson One Team Award” - also known as “The Golden Toilet Brush” - this is a high honor
Find ways to create community and fellowship among your people
- Quarterly hackathon
- Family party every summer

Guest Links

LinkedIn: Scott Hollrah
Company: Venn Technology
Facebook: Venn Technology
Instagram: Venn Technology
YouTube: Venn Technology
Podcast: In the Thick of It | The Junction

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

WIFM is the Key to People Retention & Growth with Steve Hamil Feb 21, 2025

Show notes

Today let’s start with the question, “Does our company make your life better?”

Ideally, the answer is yes. But in my experience as a top Silicon Valley headhunter, the answer is almost always NO.

This is one of my favorite questions to ask when I recruit people because it opens the door to providing a stronger opportunity with another company… Usually my clients.

If all companies just asked their employees how they could provide more than just a paycheck and a ping pong table, they would experience greater retention and more profitable growth.

Guest Bio

Steve Hamil is the Director of Operations of Populist Cleaning Co. The Populist mission statement and core values, which emphasize personal and professional growth, really resonate with him. He thrives in a place where he can make a difference. Not only that but where I’ll be challenged, as well.

Steve is an outstanding communicator with a passion for coaching, mentoring, training, conflict resolution, and guidance.

Problem:

A high turnover of 100-200% is normal..
Been able to get it down to 45% on a rolling rate average: 1st quarter 24 29%, 2nd quarter 47.5%
High turnover is costly
- Operational & Quality
- Time, training, QOS
- knowledge transfer

Why is this important to the company?

Populist life not better:
cost$ 6 months operation Populist lost $1026.89 in support staff coverage., Additionally, support travel time to site $4528.
+ hiring costs,
Employees life not better:
5 individuals were hired and did not work out 1 to 2 week; lots of train and re-training.
Stress on support staff/management
Customer life not better
Multiple people in and out of the account: extra work on badging/security
Quality – compromised with transfer loss between candidates.
Support staff not always full coverage

Rick’s Nuggets

The mail room from Elf
We need to stop looking at miss-hires as the cost of doing business
Opportunity cost loss -
- People from production
- Customer costs - their people

How do we solve the problem?

Customer success:
- When you find the right employees and customer fit
Populist life better
- 6 month managing $4378 above profit line
- Little turnover, especially in key roles.
Employees life made better
- Found the right person, right seat
- Happy with job, pay
Customer’s life made better through:
- Good communication
- Captured work through consistency of personnel
Using a Pre-interview phone screen, key questions that we ask to ascertain core value/cultural fit:
- What environment do you thrive in?
- Unfortunately, this industry can be a bit thankless. However, Populist has five Core Values we really try to stand behind in all we do. I’m going to state them, and you can let me know if one or more resonates with you. Our core values are Commitment, Hard work, Individual Responsibility, Respect, and Professionalism.
Placing steps of commitment in the interview process. Core value match first
Pre-interview phone screen –
- Background check
- Second interview, in person
- Orientation, in person (frist day)
- Culture engagement officer - phone screen
- Interview sheet- questions to relate to core values
- Core value grid. And seeking to match right person, right seat.
First 90-day Engagement
- Cultural Experience officer contacting the employee multiple times before 90 days (right person,right seat focus) and
- Operations properly onboarding/training/checking-in during first 90 days (right person, right seat focus).
- Touch and engagement followups, assessing first 90
- Quarterly teams call, whole company- 1 hour long
- Share EOS moments, training moments, HR moments, shout-outs

Rick’s Nuggets

Only 23% of the workforce is engaged at work
Ask the question: Are we giving you what you need?

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

Using a Pre-interview phone screen, key questions that we ask to ascertain core value/cultural fit:
Placing steps of commitment in the interview process.
Second interview using questions that have gone through a Core value grid. And seeking to match right person, right seat.
Engaging the employee from two perspectives: Cultural Experience and Operations

Guest Links

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

Why Phone Screens Matter in Playbook Adoption with Todd Gorell Feb 21, 2025

Show notes

Hiring great salespeople is not as tough as you might think… And the key to this is a great phone screen (aka: Discovery call).

Here is why the discovery call is so important. First, People are the most truthful in their first conversation because they have invested very little time or emotional bandwidth.

Second, interviewees are not expecting a level of diligence early on so they are not as guarded with the information given.

This allows us to gather accurate data to truly understand if a person is positioned right for our unique company based on the candidate’s desire and level of performance.

Guest Bio

Todd Gorell is the Chief Growth Officer of The Pavement Group. Where Todd is responsible for driving revenue and team growth for the most advanced, dynamic, and market-diverse facilities maintenance company in history.

With over 15 years of sales executive experience, Todd has built and led teams, developed new business segments, and fostered customer relationships across various

industries. Scaling the business 10x in the past 4 years!

Problem:

Story: Hired a very senior person who did not want to be part of the team.
Tended to go rogue. Loan Wolf salesperson
He was a Polished interviewer, with a good resume.
Did not need help, and didn't want anyone to tell him how to do the job.
His show
- At a customer meeting, got drunk at a work meeting
- Did not close the deal
- Fired the next day
Hiring people who are not coachable
- Seasoned people are not adaptable to your playbook
- Fit Culture

Rick’s Nuggets

Quickly understanding where the person will thrive
- Vision for the ideal company, type of work, size & Role
Evidence of past performance (key indicator of future performance)

How do we solve the problem?

Do not have a difficult time hiring people at all
Create a lot of attention through content a lot of people reaching out
Divide and Conquer
Two people interview - compare notes after both interviews are completed.
*** Phone screen- live sales situation
Follow a script (conversational)
*Comfortable talking about money
- What do you need to make? Get right to it
*Asking smart questions back
- Are they positioning themselves to sell us… good at asking questions
*Are they excuse-makers
- Why are things working/not working
Questions
- What was the last book you read
- What do you do for fun
- Why Questions
Culture- Core values
- Hire, fire, review based on core values
- 10x the company since 2020

Rick’s Nuggets

“If you could create your next opportunity from scratch, what would it look like for you?”
- What would the company look like?
- What work would you be doing?
- Why is this important to you?

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

Get as much out of the phone screen as you can
Disqualify quickly- don't waste anyone’s time
Team up on hiring- don't share notes until 1st interview is complete

Guest Links

LinkedIn: Todd Gorell
Company: The Pavement Group
Facebook: The Pavement Group
Instagram: The Pavement Group
YouTube: The Pavement Group

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

When the Mission Drives Growh and Culture with Darcie Durham Feb 19, 2025

Show notes

Tom’s shoes started with the mission of donating a pair of shoes for every pair bought. A powerful mission that attracts a lot of people. However, resonating with the mission is not enough.

To be successful in any organization, one must also naturally operate in a manner that is in alignment with the company’s core values.

What makes this critical to successful hiring is that it gives people the opportunity to thrive from day one. By eliminating most of the friction that is often encountered when the person steps into the new role.

Today, we are going to discuss how one company has been able to stay on mission and elevate their culture. All while experiencing 3x growth.

Guest Bio:

Darcie Durham is the COO/CFO of HTX Labs. Inc. HTX Labs is a fully remote, immersive learning software company that provides immersive XR classrooms on their EMPACT platform for the Department of Defense and others.

In the last 2 years, HTX Labs has experienced rapid growth, tripled in headcount and is experiencing record-breaking performance month over month.

Problem:

Protecting Culture is critical to their momentum
How not to lose culture when you have tripled in size
Values are the core to success with their customers
She joined as employee 26 now at 85 people
Strong culture and very intentional
Fully remote company
Challenge
- Being able to articulate culture in a way that people can identify a fit.
- Fully remote, meet with a lot of folks, peer interview
- Darcie is the final interviewer- how do they tie with the mission

Why is this important to the company?

The foundation of the culture
Two founders are still principals involved in day-to-day
Humble and open to listening to feedback
Embodies open to feedback - we can’t be experts on all things in an emerging field - no one has done this before - have to be okay with making mistakes, owning them, and moving on

Rick’s Nuggets

The Perfect Storm: Growth, Hiring & Culture
Need clouds judgment - the gut needs more evidence
Catch and release

How did we solve the problem?

Talking about mission and values
- They don't bring them up in the interview
Mission
- Ask why they want to come to work with us?
- Do they know what we do? Understand what our product/customer is?
- “What do you need in a work environment to feel engaged and excited about coming to work?” - understand the motivation
- How do you feel about a remote work environment?
“Something you are proud of or good at that would not come through on a resume?”
“What would people you worked with in the past say are key things to be successful in working with you?” - red flags
Does this person align with our behaviors that would make them successful
- On Fire - Driven, hungry, enthusiastic and passionate.
- In Touch - Proactive, discerning, intentional, realistic and reflective.
- No Fear - Nimble, adaptable, courageous, and willing.
- All In - Humble, candid, empathetic, appreciative, giving and welcoming.
Adaptable- We do not have a process for x. Would you like to take a stab at writing it? - screen for comfort in the “gray area” - reinforce throughout interviews and final interview.

Rick’s Nuggets

Tell me about a time when you fixed an issue that was… not assigned to you (driven)
Describe a time when you had to pivot to complete a project (adaptable)
- What prompted the pivot?
- How did the change affect the outcome
- Why was this important to you?

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

Don't compromise on culture. If you do, correct it quickly!
When you hire people you don't want to work with…. Productivity tanks!
If it’s not a slam dunk it should be a “no” - when we try to make it work, we’re compromising on something

Guest Links

LinkedIn: Darcie Durham
Company: HTX Labs
Facebook: HTX Labs
YouTube: HTX Labs

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

How to Squash Employee Turnover with Phillip Thune Feb 19, 2025

Show notes

We have all heard the phrase that people do not leave jobs, they leave managers…

This truth is supported by data from Gallop, 75% of over 1 million workers surveyed, left because of their bosses and not the work or the company.

So how do we combat this?

First, let’s train our managers. Second, let’s do a better job of hiring people who will align with the values of the company and the manager. Setting both parties up for success and ensuring the company’s forward momentum.

Guest Bio:

Phillip Thune, CEO of Adthena. Phillip has been involved in the tech startup and online search sectors for 20+ years and is a proven leader in the ad-tech and digital media space. Adthena is an award-winning search intelligence platform to help brands, marketers, and agencies dominate their competitive landscapes.

Philip is a values-driven leader who had helped scale four different companies from early stages, including FindWhat.com, which went from $500k of revenue and 35 employees when Phillip joined to $200 million, 500 employees, and a market cap of $700 million.

Problem:

Turnover - For at least 4 years, the company had not gone more than a few months without the departure of someone from the exec team
Soon after Phillip joined, the Chief Revenue Officer of Adthena left, but since then, not a single exec turnover, so it’s now been about 14 months and counting…
Before: Difficult to get any momentum with a high turnover
- Phillip replaced the founder, who had been CEO for 11 years
- The departed sales leader had only been there 3 months. His replacement, the company’s long-time UK sales leader, was the 5th leader of the sales team over a 6 month period!!
- CFO, CMO, CTO all rock solid. Lot of turnover with head of people, CRO, and CPO
Phillip started in March 2023. In Q3 and Q4 2023 very little turnover. Problem solved!?! Nope - a lot of turnover at the manager/team level in Q1 2024
- Shifted

How do we solve the problem?

Put in the don’t-quit rule & sherpa plans
- “Don’t quit without notice – whether it’s money, responsibility, ability to grow/learn, a new challenge, etc. – first try to see if we can fulfill that need at Adthena via your Sherpa Plan. If not, we will do everything possible to help you find a new job outside of Adthena that gets you what you want.”
- Reasons: tell us you are unhappy, and figure out if we can solve the problem
- Commitment: if we can't help solve the problem, we will give full support in terms of transitioning out
- Sherpa plan: formal understanding of what is available for you at Adthena. Career progression plan
Thought it worked, but discovered it didn't.
- Introduced the rule, but didn’t communicate well enough.
- In Q1, a few key people quit
Reintroduced the role formally
- Communicated the value of staying
- Interesting new opportunity

Rick’s Nuggets

Creating a safe environment for open communication
Leaders take leaving personal
If a person is not working out, take the time to replace them with a person who will thrive in your environment

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

If you want to be known among your current and former employees for something - in our case, it’s that we’re weirdly obsessed with our team member’s career growth - you need to
- 1) bring it up regularly and have it reinforced on a regular basis - in our case with Sherpa plans that must happen at least twice per year
- 2) it needs to benefit the employee as much as the company.

Guest Links

LinkedIn: Phillip Thune
Company: Adthena

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

Why You Should Stop Hiring Big Company Industry Experts with Forrest Derr Feb 18, 2025

Show notes

The classic blunder I have seen hundreds of times during my career is the “vanity hire”. Pulling out all the stops to get someone from a name-brand company who, in your mind, is the answer to all your prayers.

The reality is that that person turns out to be the cause of future nightmares. Not fitting in with the culture, pace, or the expectations of the team. This happens because your little entrepreneurial venture is not truly what that person desires.

Guest Bio:

Forrest Derr is the COO & Integrator at Sexton Lawn & Landscape. Forrest began his journey in the working world as a small business owner, managing a paper route in his neighborhood. He obtained a business management degree from University of Mobile and worked for an office furniture company for 18 years which provided experience in sales, operations, technology, and customer satisfaction. He also honed his skills in inventory management, team scheduling, and technology integration. He ascended to the level of VP of Operations and while there built and sold a tech consulting business.

In 2015, Forrest joined Altaworx, broadening his expertise in data-center management, finance, and marketing as President. Now, as part of Sexton Lawn & Landscape, He is leading their team into the future, leveraging EOS as their guiding business framework.

Challenge today?

Hiring for Skills & Network for people from major organizations does not translate to small businesses

Story:

Tried to talk him out of taking the job at a small company
Could not adapt to a small company environment
In large organizations it is easy to hide in the corner,
Not doing the work. Got real estate license while on their payroll
Kept him for 9 months.

Why is this important to the company?

Did not identify if he was a fit for the culture
Highly paid farmer not a new business dev person
Would not engage with the other employees
Big business culture person
Did not understand the metrics that were required
Thought they could save them from a corporate life
Inside industry hires were expensive

Rick’s Nuggets

The vanity hire will kill you every time
Your company is not the destination

How do we solve the problem?

Fired them
Stopped looking for people from the industry
Stayed away from people already in the industry
Focused on people skills, not industry skills
- Non-industry-specific skills
- People who developed complementary skills
Tell everyone interviewed to Join the company not take a job
- Team members have to be Flexible and willing to move around as need to fill gaps
- We leveraged the leadership team as part of the interview process
- Evaluated core values and culture fit over skills
- Disguise the core value in the question (around the value)
Retention improved as a result. Before they were terminating people quickly.
***Not a fit and why
Profit margins went up? Productivity dropped while wrong hires were working

Rick’s Nuggets

Positioning is your main concern
- Do they deeply desire your opportunity
Let them talk!
Stop Selling and start listening

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

Have core values clearly defined
Hire based on core values and don't focus on skills teach and mentor
Leadership bought into all members that are hired

Guest Links

LinkedIn: Forrest Derr
Company: Sexton Lawn & Landscape

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

Interviewing Patience Right Person Force Multiplier with Jeff Leitman Apr 26, 2024

Show notes

It’s human nature to get away from pain as quickly as possible.

As painful as it is to have an open role, it is even more painful to fill that role with a person who brings more pain. And that pain is most often delivered in the form of the Wrong Person in the Right Seat.

Today we are going to discuss what this means and how to have the patience to work through finding the right person for the right seat.

Guest Bio:

Jeff Leitman is the Founder and CEO of Rocksteady Corp. Rocksteady specializes in the production of the Rocksteady Stadium speaker system, renowned for its high fidelity and connectivity, and is distributed across North America. Family, team members, and creating a positive and supportive work environment are the foundations of the organization.

As a hands-on CEO, Jeff prioritizes the development and empowerment of his team, partners, and vendors, fostering sustainable long-term relationships.

Problem:

Right person = Aligns with company values, buys into the mission (value)
Right Seat = Skills & capacity to do the work
70% of successful hiring is Alignment …. 30% is skills
The focus is on the skills and stopping the pain quickly.
100% focus on skills and hope it works out

Finding the patience to hire the strongest person requires discipline. Especially when there is a dire need to remove the work from your plate.

Challenge today?

In a startup environment, how to define roles to fill first, and how to ensure that role is defined properly and filled with the right person.
Roles that need to be done but I can’t support or prioritize or don’t enjoy doing - finding people who enjoy their roles, are capable of filling the role, and who fit within the company culture.
Marketing, Sales, Accounting… for me, this was part of the A-team I needed. Creative, fulfillment, and supply chain
I love this and thus don’t need a senior person as quickly.
Or I need help to do it better, and I can be a positive partner and influence in driving a good result.
Remain engaged in the role, even if you hate it. Example: I hated marketing, and hired people to do it for me. It wasn’t until I learned to embrace it that it became effective.

Why is this important to the company?

Adding the right person is a force multiplier, and allows the company to grow at an accelerated pace. Hiring the wrong person is the exact opposite, so be diligent.

Rick’s Nuggets:

Skills-based hiring is transactional
- Low perceived value
- Lower engagement
- Biggest offer wins
Narrow focus- “Just fill this role quickly”
- Missing culture/value alignment
- Costs the company 3-7X the cash spent
  - Opportunity cost loss
  - Productivity
  - Disengagement

How do we solve the problem?

Define the position in detail, and be sure the candidate hits all the “has-to-have” criteria.
Don’t be lazy, keep going. Interview more people, check references, think of more questions. Be certain.
Don’t overplay your emotional position in an interview. Don’t fall in love with them (and see what you want to see), keep them talking. You lose power when selling your company too hard and too soon.
Work ethic is as important as knowledge or skills.
Expose the elephant in the room.
Check references, and ask the right questions - are they biased? Were they good managers? What was the result and reason for the separation?
What is their motivation? Can you keep them motivated (financially, career path)? And will they be happy employees?
Our process is not overly-formalized. If employees do the first interview, I provide guidance and direction but encourage my managers to also have their own criteria (counterpoint discussion).

Rick’s Nuggets:

Strongest Person =
- Positioned well (desire)
- Core values aligned

Accurate Seat =
- Capacity to do the work and grow
- Boost performance
- Increase productivity

Key Takeaways that the Audience can plug into their business today!

Adding the right person is a force multiplier, and allows the company to grow at an accelerated pace. Hiring the wrong person is the exact opposite, so be diligent.
Hire people who enjoy what they are doing.
Remain engaged in the role, even if you hate it. Example: I hated marketing, and hired people to do it for me. It wasn’t until I learned to embrace it that it became effective.
Be disciplined, be prepared, have a plan.

Guest Links:

LinkedIn: Jeff Leitman
Company: www.RocksteadyAudio.com
Facebook: Rocksteady
Instagram: Rocksteady

Host Links:

LinkedIn: Rick Girard
Company: Intertru, Inc.
Podcast: Hire Power Radio Show & Podcast
Book: Healing Career Wounds (Amazon)

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