WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.540 Hey guys, welcome back to the game. 2 00:00:01.540 --> 00:00:06.540 This is a different style of podcast than I have been doing. 3 00:00:06.540 --> 00:00:08.500 This is audio first. 4 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:10.780 You may or may not have realized that a lot of the audits 5 00:00:10.780 --> 00:00:14.180 that I have have been taken from other platforms. 6 00:00:14.180 --> 00:00:18.780 And they are heavily produced and very heavily 7 00:00:18.780 --> 00:00:19.740 prepared beforehand. 8 00:00:19.740 --> 00:00:22.820 And so there is not a lot of space. 9 00:00:22.820 --> 00:00:24.260 There's not a lot of gaps in there. 10 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:28.220 It's very tight, a lot of heart-hitting nuggets, tactics, 11 00:00:28.220 --> 00:00:31.900 action items, and Leila, my loving, beautiful wife, 12 00:00:31.900 --> 00:00:35.380 is a huge podcaster and listens to a ton of podcasts. 13 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:38.780 And she said, hey, I think you might be 14 00:00:38.780 --> 00:00:40.020 overwhelming your audience. 15 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:44.060 And I think that if you did what you did in the beginning 16 00:00:44.060 --> 00:00:46.900 that grew the podcast a lot, brilliant, right? 17 00:00:46.900 --> 00:00:49.300 Sounds like a hermosian, you know, growth strategy. 18 00:00:49.300 --> 00:00:51.100 Hey, do more of that thing that worked 19 00:00:51.100 --> 00:00:52.660 instead of stopping doing that thing that worked. 20 00:00:52.660 --> 00:00:53.740 Because obviously, just so you guys know, 21 00:00:53.740 --> 00:00:55.660 I started using the YouTube stock concept 22 00:00:55.660 --> 00:00:56.820 because we prepared it so much. 23 00:00:56.820 --> 00:00:58.220 I was like, it's growing everywhere else 24 00:00:58.220 --> 00:01:00.500 and it makes sense to use that also 25 00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:01.500 because it's a time commitment. 26 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:02.180 So it's both sides. 27 00:01:02.180 --> 00:01:03.020 I thought it would be better. 28 00:01:03.020 --> 00:01:04.700 And also, I prepared a lot. 29 00:01:04.700 --> 00:01:06.900 This is an experiment that I'm running right now. 30 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:08.420 I would love your feedback. 31 00:01:08.420 --> 00:01:10.140 If you prefer the stock content, obviously, 32 00:01:10.140 --> 00:01:10.980 I haven't heard the podcast yet. 33 00:01:10.980 --> 00:01:12.700 But if you prefer the stock content, 34 00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:14.540 if you can tag me on Instagram, it would mean the world to me. 35 00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:16.460 And if you share it, again, less so that I'm like, 36 00:01:16.460 --> 00:01:18.140 oh, I really need to grow the podcast audience. 37 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:20.740 My audience has been fairly, I've maintained it 38 00:01:20.740 --> 00:01:23.540 about a million downloads a month for almost 14 months. 39 00:01:23.540 --> 00:01:26.620 And so it has been good enough to retain people. 40 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:28.420 But not good enough to grow. 41 00:01:28.420 --> 00:01:30.500 And it was growing for a very long period of time. 42 00:01:30.500 --> 00:01:32.900 And the difference is I was making audio first content. 43 00:01:32.900 --> 00:01:36.700 And so despite the fact that I feel like I'm barely sleeping 44 00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:40.220 right now, I am going to try and prioritize doing this 45 00:01:40.220 --> 00:01:44.540 because I actually really do enjoy the documentation style 46 00:01:44.540 --> 00:01:46.500 of what's top of mind for me. 47 00:01:46.500 --> 00:01:48.860 But I haven't been doing it as much. 48 00:01:48.860 --> 00:01:50.340 And instead, just trying to teach stuff 49 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:51.900 that has worked for me in the past 50 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:53.740 rather than what's working for me right now. 51 00:01:53.740 --> 00:01:55.620 Stepping said, the first major topic that's 52 00:01:55.620 --> 00:01:58.700 top of mind for me is on hiring. 53 00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:02.380 And I have had, I don't want to say a revolution in my thinking, 54 00:02:02.380 --> 00:02:05.700 but I've had a second layer filter which 55 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:08.500 has been equally powerful that I never really thought 56 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:12.380 about until now that I am now applying going forward. 57 00:02:12.380 --> 00:02:14.580 And I think it's going to be already 58 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:16.900 is showing a key to tremendous growth 59 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:18.460 for us at acquisition.com. 60 00:02:18.460 --> 00:02:20.220 And so just for context, we've tripled our team 61 00:02:20.220 --> 00:02:22.500 in the last year, which is a lot of growth. 62 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:25.340 And I think we'll probably triple again by this time next year. 63 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:28.740 And so having really good frameworks around how 64 00:02:28.740 --> 00:02:32.620 we see and appraise the value of talent 65 00:02:32.620 --> 00:02:34.220 has been really, really valuable for me. 66 00:02:34.220 --> 00:02:36.140 And so I'm going to talk about intelligence, work ethic, 67 00:02:36.140 --> 00:02:38.140 and experience, how you value them, 68 00:02:38.140 --> 00:02:41.860 and which one to look for when you're growing the company. 69 00:02:41.860 --> 00:02:42.740 Hey, what's going everyone? 70 00:02:42.740 --> 00:02:45.700 I have a number of topics that I want to cover 71 00:02:45.700 --> 00:02:49.660 in the next few podcasts that I'll just be making podcasts. 72 00:02:49.660 --> 00:02:53.300 And they are more strategic business stuff 73 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:56.300 that is kind of like what's top of mind for me right now. 74 00:02:56.300 --> 00:02:58.780 And I kind of want to share those lessons with you, 75 00:02:58.780 --> 00:03:01.500 just kind of real stories that have happened in the background 76 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:03.700 that you may find helpful. 77 00:03:03.700 --> 00:03:09.060 And so if you do like that stuff, then please tell me. 78 00:03:09.060 --> 00:03:12.580 Otherwise, I will do more of the other way. 79 00:03:12.580 --> 00:03:15.340 So with that being said, let's dive in. 80 00:03:15.340 --> 00:03:18.780 Big picture, I have changed my tune 81 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:20.540 on how I think about hiring. 82 00:03:20.540 --> 00:03:22.100 And I think this is pretty material. 83 00:03:22.100 --> 00:03:26.020 When I started out, I hired anyone with a pulse. 84 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:29.980 And then over time, I was able to hire people who cost more 85 00:03:29.980 --> 00:03:33.580 and realize that people who cost more often times 86 00:03:33.580 --> 00:03:35.020 are better, not always. 87 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:38.260 And that the price that you are willing to pay someone 88 00:03:38.260 --> 00:03:42.180 is just a way of shortening how long it takes you to find them 89 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:45.300 more than it means that you help find a better person. 90 00:03:45.300 --> 00:03:47.460 So let me explain that really quickly. 91 00:03:47.460 --> 00:03:52.060 So if I say that I want to pay $40,000 a year 92 00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:55.660 for a particular role, I may be able to find someone 93 00:03:55.660 --> 00:03:57.740 who's absolutely perfect for that role. 94 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:00.700 I just have to find someone who's perfect for that role 95 00:04:00.700 --> 00:04:02.900 who's willing to work for that amount of money. 96 00:04:02.900 --> 00:04:05.700 And that may mean I might have 100 times the interviews. 97 00:04:05.700 --> 00:04:07.380 And so in order to decrease the amount of interviews 98 00:04:07.380 --> 00:04:09.540 I have to take, I would increase the compensation, 99 00:04:09.540 --> 00:04:10.820 which decreases the work. 100 00:04:10.820 --> 00:04:12.580 But if you are starting out, then it means 101 00:04:12.580 --> 00:04:13.940 that you usually have to overcompensate 102 00:04:13.940 --> 00:04:17.580 by looking at more people so that you can afford the talent. 103 00:04:17.580 --> 00:04:18.940 But you don't want to lower your bar. 104 00:04:18.940 --> 00:04:21.580 You just basically means you have to work more to find them. 105 00:04:21.580 --> 00:04:24.100 So that was kind of like the early trajectory 106 00:04:24.100 --> 00:04:26.460 of my life and thinking around skills and talent. 107 00:04:26.460 --> 00:04:28.540 Now over time, I was able to pay people more and more. 108 00:04:28.540 --> 00:04:30.740 I had my first $100,000 on your play, the $250, 109 00:04:30.740 --> 00:04:31.820 and the $500,000, and then a million, 110 00:04:31.820 --> 00:04:33.020 and then multiple millions, whatever. 111 00:04:33.020 --> 00:04:36.700 And so I've seen what money can buy. 112 00:04:36.700 --> 00:04:40.100 Now, the thing is, is that once you can afford all talent, 113 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:42.740 it doesn't mean that you necessarily should. 114 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:44.980 And so let me break that down. 115 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:49.740 So I used to say, hey, you know, at some point, 116 00:04:49.740 --> 00:04:52.300 you want to hire for, you know, been there done that. 117 00:04:52.300 --> 00:04:53.740 You want to hire for more experience. 118 00:04:53.740 --> 00:04:55.460 And I think there's elements of truth to it, 119 00:04:55.460 --> 00:04:57.460 but there's also another big thing 120 00:04:57.460 --> 00:05:00.740 that's kind of dramatically shifted how I see talent overall. 121 00:05:00.740 --> 00:05:02.020 Big picture. 122 00:05:02.020 --> 00:05:05.580 If we think about, you know, attitude, aptitude, 123 00:05:05.580 --> 00:05:07.260 all of these are just skills, right? 124 00:05:07.260 --> 00:05:09.420 So someone's, you know, very kind, 125 00:05:09.420 --> 00:05:11.860 and that's a bucketed term for many smaller behaviors. 126 00:05:11.860 --> 00:05:13.860 They smile, they nod, they call you by name. 127 00:05:13.860 --> 00:05:15.900 The things that you would then describe someone as kind 128 00:05:15.900 --> 00:05:17.100 when they do these things. 129 00:05:17.100 --> 00:05:20.460 And so it just takes less effort to teach someone a skill 130 00:05:20.460 --> 00:05:23.060 like how to work leads than it does to teach someone to be kind. 131 00:05:23.060 --> 00:05:25.100 And so you're always essentially hiring 132 00:05:25.100 --> 00:05:26.940 for the smallest skill deficit. 133 00:05:26.940 --> 00:05:30.700 And so if you use skills as the only litmus test, 134 00:05:30.700 --> 00:05:34.500 then that first theory pretty much ranged true, in my opinion. 135 00:05:34.500 --> 00:05:36.620 The hypothetical extreme on the other side of that example 136 00:05:36.620 --> 00:05:38.740 would be, let's say you want to have somebody 137 00:05:38.740 --> 00:05:42.060 who's got 10 years of development experience, like coding. 138 00:05:42.060 --> 00:05:44.100 Well, if they have 10 years of experience, 139 00:05:44.100 --> 00:05:47.380 then you might have to just, it would be more difficult 140 00:05:47.380 --> 00:05:48.740 to take somebody who's got a good attitude 141 00:05:48.740 --> 00:05:51.660 and then spend 10 years getting them to have the experience 142 00:05:51.660 --> 00:05:53.380 than it would be to teach them to be kind. 143 00:05:53.380 --> 00:05:55.620 And so again, we still hire for the smallest skill 144 00:05:55.620 --> 00:05:57.340 discrepancy, it's just that the skill discrepancy 145 00:05:57.340 --> 00:05:59.580 might be what we determine as soft skills, 146 00:05:59.580 --> 00:06:01.180 rather than hard skills. 147 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:03.060 All right, and so for lower level roles, 148 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:06.460 it makes more sense to hire for having the soft skills. 149 00:06:06.460 --> 00:06:07.820 And then training the hard skills, 150 00:06:07.820 --> 00:06:09.220 because there's less hard skills for that, 151 00:06:09.220 --> 00:06:10.860 we're fewer hard skills for them to learn. 152 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:12.500 And then as you get more senior, 153 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:14.540 then you hire for more hard skills, 154 00:06:14.540 --> 00:06:16.460 and then you train up soft skills. 155 00:06:16.460 --> 00:06:17.540 And so this is kind of a, 156 00:06:17.540 --> 00:06:20.780 it's a dichotomy to be managed more than a problem to be solved. 157 00:06:20.780 --> 00:06:22.260 But that's layer one, that's more like, 158 00:06:22.260 --> 00:06:23.260 I mean, hey, it's gotten me here, 159 00:06:23.260 --> 00:06:24.740 so I don't see it, this is really a bad thing. 160 00:06:24.740 --> 00:06:26.900 But I want to add another layer on top of that, 161 00:06:26.900 --> 00:06:29.540 which has really kind of gotten me, you know, 162 00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:31.860 struck me in my core, which is, 163 00:06:31.860 --> 00:06:33.620 when I look at the largest companies in the world, 164 00:06:33.620 --> 00:06:35.300 you look at the Facebook, you look at the Google, 165 00:06:35.300 --> 00:06:39.180 you look at Tesla, you look at SpaceX, whatever. 166 00:06:39.180 --> 00:06:41.820 They have this tremendous ability 167 00:06:41.820 --> 00:06:44.980 to recruit raw talent is what they call it. 168 00:06:44.980 --> 00:06:49.980 So people who have raw intelligence and horsepower. 169 00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:55.100 And so if we think about skills as the output of intelligence, 170 00:06:55.100 --> 00:06:57.700 then it means that intelligence is your rate of learning, 171 00:06:57.700 --> 00:07:00.140 it is your rate of skill acquisition. 172 00:07:00.140 --> 00:07:01.940 And the skills that you have acquired 173 00:07:01.940 --> 00:07:05.020 is the output of you using that intelligence. 174 00:07:05.020 --> 00:07:07.820 When you hire somebody who has tremendous work ethic 175 00:07:07.820 --> 00:07:09.260 and tremendous intelligence, 176 00:07:09.260 --> 00:07:12.340 then it means you have more potential for skill acquisition 177 00:07:12.340 --> 00:07:13.740 in a smaller period of time, 178 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:15.380 which means that you as a business owner 179 00:07:15.380 --> 00:07:17.980 get a higher return on your invested dollars 180 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:19.580 into that person than you would 181 00:07:19.580 --> 00:07:21.500 for somebody who has lower intelligence. 182 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:23.460 And so let's say that there's 10 skills 183 00:07:23.460 --> 00:07:25.060 that I need someone to learn. 184 00:07:25.060 --> 00:07:29.700 And we've got, you know, person one has five skills 185 00:07:29.700 --> 00:07:31.100 and they need to learn five, 186 00:07:31.100 --> 00:07:34.180 but they have a rate of learning intelligence, right? 187 00:07:34.180 --> 00:07:37.180 That is call it one new skill per quarter. 188 00:07:37.180 --> 00:07:38.140 Okay, fine. 189 00:07:38.140 --> 00:07:39.620 That means that after I hire them, 190 00:07:39.620 --> 00:07:40.980 it'll take them five quarters. 191 00:07:40.980 --> 00:07:45.180 So a year and change to get to proficiency, right? 192 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:47.300 Now let's say I've got this other person 193 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:49.980 who has zero out of 10 of the skills 194 00:07:49.980 --> 00:07:52.900 but has tremendous work ethic and raw intelligence. 195 00:07:52.900 --> 00:07:54.980 And with that raw intelligence, 196 00:07:54.980 --> 00:07:59.980 their ability to acquire skills is one skill per month. 197 00:07:59.980 --> 00:08:02.700 So that would be three times the rate of learning. 198 00:08:02.700 --> 00:08:05.060 That would mean that within 12 months, 199 00:08:05.060 --> 00:08:06.220 they would have 12 skills. 200 00:08:06.220 --> 00:08:09.340 So in 10 months, they would be as proficient 201 00:08:09.340 --> 00:08:14.340 as the other guy would be at his 15th month in business. 202 00:08:14.340 --> 00:08:16.260 Now here's where it gets really interesting. 203 00:08:16.260 --> 00:08:18.780 The day you hire the person with the experience 204 00:08:18.780 --> 00:08:21.100 who has five but lower intelligence, 205 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:22.820 that person will do better. 206 00:08:22.820 --> 00:08:25.460 But within a period of, let's see, 207 00:08:25.460 --> 00:08:27.260 once that person has one quarter 208 00:08:27.260 --> 00:08:28.660 under the belt that have six, 209 00:08:28.660 --> 00:08:30.700 which means that they would be three months in. 210 00:08:30.700 --> 00:08:33.540 So second quarter, they have seven. 211 00:08:33.540 --> 00:08:35.100 So that means they're six months in. 212 00:08:35.100 --> 00:08:36.740 Basically at quarter two, 213 00:08:36.740 --> 00:08:38.780 the raw intelligence person would have six skills. 214 00:08:38.780 --> 00:08:39.940 The other guy would have seven. 215 00:08:39.940 --> 00:08:41.780 They'd be about neck and neck. 216 00:08:41.780 --> 00:08:44.460 And so by your sixth or seventh month 217 00:08:44.460 --> 00:08:46.220 of hiring the more intelligent person 218 00:08:46.220 --> 00:08:47.580 every month after that, 219 00:08:47.580 --> 00:08:51.060 you would get an actual better return on what you put in. 220 00:08:51.060 --> 00:08:52.900 And then that doesn't even take into account 221 00:08:52.900 --> 00:08:55.900 that after that person acquired the 10th skill required 222 00:08:55.900 --> 00:08:58.860 for the job, they would be able to move up in the business 223 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:00.820 because they would be able to rapidly acquire 224 00:09:00.820 --> 00:09:03.420 the skills ahead of them and self-promote, 225 00:09:03.420 --> 00:09:05.980 which is this thing that Layla and I are a huge advocate of, 226 00:09:05.980 --> 00:09:07.260 which is if you want to move up in the company, 227 00:09:07.260 --> 00:09:08.940 just start doing the job ahead of you. 228 00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:11.900 Until eventually the promotion becomes more about 229 00:09:11.900 --> 00:09:13.460 what we kind of have to just change its title 230 00:09:13.460 --> 00:09:14.860 because he's already doing all this stuff, 231 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:16.580 rather than asking for a promotion 232 00:09:16.580 --> 00:09:18.420 and then trying to prove it. 233 00:09:18.420 --> 00:09:20.260 Just prove it before you ask for it. 234 00:09:20.260 --> 00:09:23.500 I have changed my tune to a large degree. 235 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:25.900 And I'll read you this tweet that obviously 236 00:09:25.900 --> 00:09:28.780 because it was about scaling and real business stuff 237 00:09:28.780 --> 00:09:31.340 it underperformed and motivational, whatever. 238 00:09:31.340 --> 00:09:32.180 But I want to read this to you 239 00:09:32.180 --> 00:09:36.380 because I think it will kind of explain more pithily 240 00:09:36.380 --> 00:09:37.900 how I see this. 241 00:09:37.900 --> 00:09:41.140 Experience is good, but intelligence is better. 242 00:09:41.140 --> 00:09:42.980 We hire for experience because we assume 243 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:45.700 what worked last time will work this time. 244 00:09:45.700 --> 00:09:48.540 But if they had the intelligence to figure it out last time, 245 00:09:48.540 --> 00:09:51.380 then they'll have the intelligence to figure out this time too. 246 00:09:51.380 --> 00:09:52.980 And if they didn't have the intelligence 247 00:09:53.060 --> 00:09:54.340 to figure it out last time, 248 00:09:54.340 --> 00:09:56.260 but just got the experience, 249 00:09:56.260 --> 00:09:58.180 then the experience won't matter this time either 250 00:09:58.180 --> 00:09:59.620 because this time's different. 251 00:09:59.620 --> 00:10:02.860 And so we have this assumption that somebody who has experience 252 00:10:02.860 --> 00:10:04.860 is going to be able to take whatever work there 253 00:10:04.860 --> 00:10:06.740 and be able to do it here with us. 254 00:10:06.740 --> 00:10:08.380 It's just that if they don't have the intelligence 255 00:10:08.380 --> 00:10:11.540 to be able to accommodate or change or adapt that strategy 256 00:10:11.540 --> 00:10:14.900 or those tactics to your particular context, 257 00:10:14.900 --> 00:10:18.540 then it will nullify the experience to begin with. 258 00:10:18.540 --> 00:10:21.220 And so then the hard part becomes, 259 00:10:21.220 --> 00:10:24.100 well, how do you measure intelligence 260 00:10:24.100 --> 00:10:26.500 when you're screening people on the front end? 261 00:10:26.500 --> 00:10:27.580 More difficult. 262 00:10:27.580 --> 00:10:30.820 And so I want to give a different perspective, 263 00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:34.260 which is experience we often conflate with tenure, 264 00:10:34.260 --> 00:10:37.380 meaning how long have you had this title of the job? 265 00:10:37.380 --> 00:10:41.020 Rather than what accomplishments do you have 266 00:10:41.020 --> 00:10:42.900 that we can clearly and prove 267 00:10:42.900 --> 00:10:45.740 that you are the one who is responsible for them? 268 00:10:45.740 --> 00:10:48.380 And so someone can have lots of accomplishments 269 00:10:48.380 --> 00:10:50.060 in a short period of time. 270 00:10:50.060 --> 00:10:52.660 And in my opinion, have experience 271 00:10:52.660 --> 00:10:54.940 rather than having lots of tenure. 272 00:10:54.940 --> 00:10:57.660 And so some people would say that I have a lot of experience 273 00:10:57.660 --> 00:10:59.700 despite not being super old. 274 00:10:59.700 --> 00:11:02.020 Now, talk to my engineers and I am now an old man, 275 00:11:02.020 --> 00:11:03.900 but everything's relative. 276 00:11:03.900 --> 00:11:06.980 But for example, it's like I know how to scale software company. 277 00:11:06.980 --> 00:11:08.660 We've done it before, I know how to scale physical products. 278 00:11:08.660 --> 00:11:10.100 We've done it before, we know how to scale brick and mortar, 279 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:10.940 we've done it before. 280 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:13.420 We know how to, at a scale service business 281 00:11:13.420 --> 00:11:14.260 to national levels. 282 00:11:14.260 --> 00:11:16.380 And so we have acquired all these experiences, 283 00:11:16.380 --> 00:11:18.460 these accomplishments that we can prove 284 00:11:18.460 --> 00:11:20.300 we were the ones who did it. 285 00:11:20.300 --> 00:11:21.420 They can attribute them to us. 286 00:11:21.420 --> 00:11:26.180 When I am looking for people now, I care far more 287 00:11:26.180 --> 00:11:29.940 about their ability to learn because now I have an asset 288 00:11:29.940 --> 00:11:31.820 that one, you can get below market 289 00:11:31.820 --> 00:11:34.500 because other people aren't smart enough to hire for this, 290 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:36.500 except for obviously the really big companies who do that. 291 00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:38.780 And I'm a big fan of modeling the people 292 00:11:38.780 --> 00:11:40.420 who are making way more money than me. 293 00:11:40.420 --> 00:11:43.020 But it means that they're willing to pay people 294 00:11:43.020 --> 00:11:45.300 who have no experience, more money to start 295 00:11:45.300 --> 00:11:48.220 because they're intelligent. 296 00:11:48.220 --> 00:11:51.580 And I think that's really just been my big shift 297 00:11:51.580 --> 00:11:53.420 and I'm doubling down on this. 298 00:11:53.420 --> 00:11:58.380 And so I wanted to make this kind of podcast to highlight 299 00:11:58.380 --> 00:12:00.500 this is a shift in my behavior. 300 00:12:00.500 --> 00:12:02.620 I'm acting differently going forward 301 00:12:02.620 --> 00:12:04.580 because of the returns that I have seen 302 00:12:04.580 --> 00:12:08.100 with more able, more intelligent, 303 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:11.300 less technically experienced people. 304 00:12:11.300 --> 00:12:12.620 And it's crazy. 305 00:12:13.300 --> 00:12:18.100 You look at a 40 or 50 year old leader in a business, 306 00:12:18.100 --> 00:12:20.260 they're married, they've got kids, 307 00:12:20.260 --> 00:12:22.060 they've got whatever else going on. 308 00:12:22.060 --> 00:12:25.020 And they're like, this is a career move for me, right? 309 00:12:25.020 --> 00:12:28.180 And then you look at somebody who's like 25 310 00:12:28.180 --> 00:12:31.780 and will practice a hundred times before they do something 311 00:12:31.780 --> 00:12:34.100 and will go crazy above and beyond 312 00:12:34.100 --> 00:12:36.340 because they're all in and they're trying to learn. 313 00:12:36.340 --> 00:12:37.860 And I think part of that's ego, 314 00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:39.700 I think part of that's personal standards. 315 00:12:39.700 --> 00:12:41.140 I don't know what it is. 316 00:12:41.140 --> 00:12:43.060 But I can tell you that that 20 year old 317 00:12:43.060 --> 00:12:47.140 is gonna beat the 50 year old, they will. 318 00:12:47.140 --> 00:12:49.780 And the extension of time horizon 319 00:12:49.780 --> 00:12:51.860 typically isn't as long as you think 320 00:12:51.860 --> 00:12:55.380 because most skills that I've found professionally 321 00:12:55.380 --> 00:12:56.660 don't take that long to learn. 322 00:12:56.660 --> 00:12:58.220 There's just many of them, 323 00:12:58.220 --> 00:13:01.580 more than any one of them is particularly difficult. 324 00:13:01.580 --> 00:13:04.860 And so it's like if I wanna learn how to edit video, 325 00:13:04.860 --> 00:13:06.460 I can become proficient pretty quickly. 326 00:13:06.460 --> 00:13:08.980 If I wanna learn how to cold call leads, 327 00:13:08.980 --> 00:13:11.460 you can become proficient in like three days. 328 00:13:11.460 --> 00:13:13.660 It doesn't take a long time to learn this stuff. 329 00:13:13.660 --> 00:13:15.060 But if you learn how to do that 330 00:13:15.060 --> 00:13:16.260 and then you learn how to qualify, 331 00:13:16.260 --> 00:13:17.100 then you learn how to close 332 00:13:17.100 --> 00:13:18.700 and maybe you can do that in a few months, 333 00:13:18.700 --> 00:13:20.380 again, to become proficient, 334 00:13:20.380 --> 00:13:22.580 then I would rather take somebody 335 00:13:22.580 --> 00:13:24.340 and then teach them the way I want them to do it 336 00:13:24.340 --> 00:13:26.980 rather than have them try and copy and paste 337 00:13:26.980 --> 00:13:29.660 things that worked somewhere else under a different context 338 00:13:29.660 --> 00:13:31.700 without the intelligence to be able 339 00:13:31.700 --> 00:13:33.620 to adapt it to the current situation. 340 00:13:33.620 --> 00:13:35.300 And so I think this is where a lot of, 341 00:13:35.300 --> 00:13:37.620 I would call it mid-aged founders, 342 00:13:37.620 --> 00:13:39.620 myself included, ran into trouble, 343 00:13:39.620 --> 00:13:42.780 were out higher people who had the supposed experience, 344 00:13:42.780 --> 00:13:44.020 they were trying copy, paste, 345 00:13:44.020 --> 00:13:45.940 what worked before into my business. 346 00:13:45.940 --> 00:13:48.220 And then within a year or two, 347 00:13:48.220 --> 00:13:50.980 I was like, this is just not right for us. 348 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:52.620 If you had to solve from zero 349 00:13:52.620 --> 00:13:53.620 and build it from the ground up, 350 00:13:53.620 --> 00:13:55.140 you wouldn't have built it this way. 351 00:13:55.140 --> 00:13:57.900 Eric Schmidt recently, it was the CEO of Google 352 00:13:57.900 --> 00:14:00.020 from very small to very, very big. 353 00:14:00.020 --> 00:14:01.500 I think he's worth like 10 or 12 billion now 354 00:14:01.500 --> 00:14:02.340 from the stocks he had. 355 00:14:02.340 --> 00:14:03.340 So he did pretty well. 356 00:14:03.340 --> 00:14:05.180 He talks about this. 357 00:14:05.180 --> 00:14:08.180 And he said that one of the things that Google famously did 358 00:14:08.180 --> 00:14:10.020 that they got a lot of heat for 359 00:14:10.020 --> 00:14:12.340 was that they hired for a zero experience. 360 00:14:12.340 --> 00:14:14.740 As in, they wanted people just with, 361 00:14:14.740 --> 00:14:16.380 I think he said just wrote intelligence 362 00:14:16.380 --> 00:14:18.220 or raw intelligence, whatever where he said. 363 00:14:18.220 --> 00:14:20.500 He's like, we wanted, just freaks, 364 00:14:20.500 --> 00:14:23.820 they wanted people who were incredibly smart, 365 00:14:23.820 --> 00:14:26.660 that they knew could figure things out. 366 00:14:26.660 --> 00:14:30.780 And I think that when we're thinking about talent, 367 00:14:30.780 --> 00:14:35.780 not often enough, I have not considered 368 00:14:35.780 --> 00:14:39.980 the ability to learn itself as one of the biggest assets. 369 00:14:39.980 --> 00:14:42.260 And I continue to put more and more into that. 370 00:14:42.260 --> 00:14:46.380 And seeing Facebook pull people right out of the Ivy Leagues, 371 00:14:46.380 --> 00:14:47.620 you don't know anything about social media. 372 00:14:47.620 --> 00:14:50.220 They just know they're smart in the work heart. 373 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:53.060 And if you can find somebody who didn't graduate from Harvard 374 00:14:53.060 --> 00:14:55.420 and is also still incredibly intelligent and works hard, 375 00:14:55.420 --> 00:14:57.820 then you'll probably be able to get a deal on that person 376 00:14:57.820 --> 00:14:59.300 and teach them a ton. 377 00:14:59.300 --> 00:15:00.980 And they'll be happy to do it because people 378 00:15:00.980 --> 00:15:03.380 who are intelligent in general in my experience 379 00:15:03.380 --> 00:15:05.580 tend to like learning and getting better. 380 00:15:05.580 --> 00:15:07.580 And so that is something that we are shifting about 381 00:15:07.580 --> 00:15:10.580 how we are thinking through talent and acquisition 382 00:15:10.580 --> 00:15:12.820 and even promotions within the business. 383 00:15:12.820 --> 00:15:15.140 I care zero about tenure. 384 00:15:15.140 --> 00:15:18.580 I care about experience in so far as it relates to speed 385 00:15:18.580 --> 00:15:21.020 of us getting what we want out of the role 386 00:15:21.020 --> 00:15:22.820 or out of the function of the department 387 00:15:22.820 --> 00:15:24.420 that the person is in charge of. 388 00:15:24.420 --> 00:15:26.660 So if you're looking at hiring people, 389 00:15:26.660 --> 00:15:29.340 if you are, if you have an HR director, 390 00:15:29.340 --> 00:15:31.940 if you find this valuable, I would mean the world to me, 391 00:15:31.940 --> 00:15:33.100 if you share it with them. 392 00:15:33.100 --> 00:15:37.980 And if you like this style of podcast, please tell me 393 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:38.980 because I will do more of it. 394 00:15:38.980 --> 00:15:42.420 If you prefer the more structured, more notes, 395 00:15:42.420 --> 00:15:45.060 denser podcasts, then I can do that too. 396 00:15:45.060 --> 00:15:48.140 But I have, Layla said, listen, a lot of people 397 00:15:48.140 --> 00:15:49.420 are driving, they're working out, 398 00:15:49.420 --> 00:15:51.460 and a lot of your stuff is so dense 399 00:15:51.460 --> 00:15:53.540 that they have to stop to write notes 400 00:15:53.540 --> 00:15:54.780 and it becomes really painful. 401 00:15:54.780 --> 00:15:56.180 Because they're like, shoot, I have to do this 402 00:15:56.220 --> 00:15:58.700 in front of a computer or otherwise, I'm going to miss out. 403 00:15:58.700 --> 00:16:01.380 And so if simply having changes and perspectives, 404 00:16:01.380 --> 00:16:04.020 which affect your decisions, kind of explain this way 405 00:16:04.020 --> 00:16:05.420 in a little bit more of a narrative style, 406 00:16:05.420 --> 00:16:07.260 is valuable to you, it would help me a lot 407 00:16:07.260 --> 00:16:09.300 if you told me and tagged me in it. 408 00:16:09.300 --> 00:16:11.380 So anyways, keeping amazing rock and roll 409 00:16:11.380 --> 00:16:14.460 and I'll make another one right now for you, 410 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:15.740 because I got a whole big list of notes 411 00:16:15.740 --> 00:16:16.660 that I want to share with you guys 412 00:16:16.660 --> 00:16:18.060 over the last couple of months.