Lessons - Attract & Retain A-Players | Natalie Dawson - Hiring & Retention Expert (Cardone Ventures)

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All listeners can save 30% off their first order. Just head to cornbreadhemp.com slash success and use code success at checkout. That's cornbreadhemp.com slash success code success for 30% off your first order of these amazing gummies. In this lessons episode we explore why talent is the ultimate X factor in business success. Learn how to attract and retain high performers in a competitive job market build a workplace that fosters ambition and loyalty and create opportunities to keep top talent invested in your vision plus discover why the right hiring strategy can make or break your company's growth. So the X factor and I agree completely I mean I think too many people raise money I think that so yeah if you don't know how to read a PNL or even create one like that's a big issue. So the take away is don't raise money for most businesses build it profitably from the get go but the X factor like you can build SOPs people will understand the concept of building systems and processes around what they know even if they're not doing it they can do it tomorrow. The X factor is people the X factor is always people and I've heard this time and time again especially post-COVID and even I don't know what the rest of the US is like the rest of the world but I have friends that run businesses and I have not had to hire people in the US since COVID ended. So I've been able to hire all over the world pre-COVID was a different story we had people in Canada and the US but post-COVID it's all been it's all been all over but I friends who have tried to hire and they say that the talent landscape post-COVID is very difficult it's very difficult to get great people and I these people are not bad business leaders but it's like the wildest stories like somebody will be hired W2 employee and then negotiate a salary and then the first week they'll say I want more money like things that didn't happen in my life at least so the X factor is always people the first person like that founder led business they're making money themselves the higher sales rep maybe did not closing as much as the founder does so those first few higher super important how do you navigate the talent climate how do you find the right person what is like what is your framework because now you have thousands of employees so you figured it out what is that strategy I am a big believer that business is one through creating a people game and you have to think about yourself as a founder as an entrepreneur playing a game with finding great people it's not just I'm going to find one person and they're going to solve this problem and playing this game of checkers where it's just one piece at a time oh I need a marketing person oh I need a sales person okay now I'm going to go out and recruit it is a game that you have to play for a long period of time to help the market understand why you are the founder or the entrepreneur or the business that great people want to work with and so first it starts with how are you promoting that you are a great place to work at are you talking about in our business card adventures are you talking about the fact that people are winning inside your company not just your clients but your team members we have team members who came to work with us who were making $60,000 a year and are now making $400,000 a year we we've only been in business for five years we promote those stories but we're thinking about that when we make that initial hire of somebody who is saying I'm making $60,000 a year I'm applying for a job here at this compensation but I have radical goals so how do you find people who have radical goals but are at a starting point where the business can afford to hire that person most businesses cannot afford to hire somebody at $400,000 they can't afford to hire somebody who is hungry that's making $60,000 who has the vision for their life of wanting to make $400,000 but has has actually no idea how to get there because if they knew how to get there they would already be making $400,000 we live in a free market economy if somebody could go down the street and make that amount of money they would go and make that amount of money and so as a business owner if you're playing this game of people you're really thinking about I need to create a brand for our organization where great talent thinks of us as a place where people come to find success and to have their success be easier with me than they would be able to find success with somebody down the street so how are you promoting that how are you constantly recruiting for people and posting jobs even if you're not hiring for those roles to tell the market that you are recruiting and you're constantly looking for great talent and then once they come in the door how are you exemplifying that you are actually interested in their success I think what's made us successful in this hiring market over the last five years pre-COVID post-COVID is you're getting an opportunity to work alongside real leaders in a non virtual work environment we have an office here we have an office in Scottsdale they're seeing how I work every single day they're seeing how Brandon works every single day they are like rubbing shoulders with us constantly to solve the the largest problems inside our organization and if you take that and you apply it to a small business we had the exact same principles five years ago as we do today we create this environment that allows people who have this dream have this hope for their lives because we're marketing to them as a candidate journey not just a customer journey as a candidate journey because we're playing this people game and this candidate journey is telling them you can achieve your personal professional financial goals through working here alongside us we've achieved our personal professional financial goals up to a point so there is some success that you can follow but we have radical goals for this organization and we are committed to growth so once they're in the environment in order to keep them they have to actually see that we're really doing the actions that demonstrate that were committed to those things so if they saw us on vacation all the time or if they saw us not really being interested in their success that they saw us just like half-assing the work that we do with our clients it would be a different story but instead what they see is a team of people and leaders back then when we had zero employees all the way up to today when we have hundreds of employees working on the weekends and being here before people and being here after people leave and they really are understanding what it takes to be successful so it's the entire package of we sold the dream we're marketing to candidates that this dream is possible here because we have this target of where this business is going in the future and we're really clear about that target and then once they come in they are testing and watching and seeing how serious we are and so we have to be serious every day and I do find that a lot of business owners really struggle with that level of seriousness and that level of commitment because they create a business around a lifestyle and if you want a lifestyle business that's totally fine if that's your problem but you are going to lose a people game if somebody else is not actually fulfilling their side of the the not being role models for the yeah you're you're going to lose that person and somebody else is going to find the better talent because they actually want to be around people who are able to make their success easy when I just want to take a second and thank cornbread ham for supporting today's episode now cornbread ham CBD gummies have been this really nice addition to my wellness toolkit I don't use them every day just when I want to win wine after those extra busy weeks but they're perfect for those moments when you want to take the edge off and just find your balance really just shut off from work and what makes them special is how cornbread ham crafts them they only use a flower of USDA organic hamplants that's the best part for the purest most potent experience no fillers no artificial fluff just clean full spectrum goodness in delicious watermelon berry and peach flavor I keep them in my night stand for those moments when I just need a little extra help relaxing and I love how transparent they are to every batch is third party lab tested so you know exactly what you're getting and they put together a special offer for all success story podcast listeners all listeners can save 30% off their first order just head to cornbread ham.com slash success and use code success at checkout that's cornbread ham.com slash success code success for 30% off your first order of these amazing gummies here when you're trying to find that high performer because you're talking about all super high performers I mean somebody's make a 400 grand obviously highly ambitious person so how do you manage getting them to commit to your business while not also getting them to commit to any other side hustle any other thing they're trying to take on because now everybody is trying to be their own influencer and I mean I have my own thoughts about I do believe that if you hire people like I'm super happy if they build a personal brand start something on the side I think it helps them upscale this is my personal opinion and a lot that goes into that but for yourself I'm curious you know when you hire somebody like this is a very high likelihood that they are either looking for the next thing how to make more money when you start making 400k you're like comfortably poor at that point so now you realize that then life is good but I'm also in Miami so how do I make a million dollars a year and maybe it's not with an organization or maybe it is but the person who makes that kind of money I believe is inherently very entrepreneurial I think they are somewhat entrepreneurial because they're really striving and if they put that much energy into their own business there's a chance that they could actually succeed as well so how do you manage that personality type because everybody wants that person but then at the same time maybe it's easier if somebody is okay again nothing wrong with how much money you make you make 60k a 400k make a million make 10 it doesn't matter but if somebody's okay making 60k and they're not looking for the next thing and they're happy with that then maybe it's less of a liability to the company we start the conversation with our team members around their personal professional and financial goals that is a process in our business they are sitting down with their leader and saying this is what I want to achieve so if that person is saying I want to be making $400,000 a year over the next three years working here I want to then understand what is five years from now look like because what I know about being a business owner is it sucks most of the time and you could actually live a fantastic life working for somebody else making more money than you would make by yourself the stats with business do not lie the majority of businesses do not make a lot of money and even if you took a high performer inside a business it does not mean that they are going to be a high performance business owner and come with all of those challenges and all of that risk and so when we're having these ppf conversations with the team member if they're telling me that they want to own a business one day I really have to get down to like why do you want to own a business is it because you have to be the guy there's that quality where some people are just like I want to be the guy I want to be the person Mike okay that's cool part of that is a little bit of ego because they have no freaking clue what they're talking about they're making $60,000 a year they've never started a business before they don't understand what those components are going to look like and if they do think that they want to be the guy we're probably not going to retain that person to be honest with you in five years that hasn't happened for us our high performers have not left us especially the ones that started early on the ones that are making with people making 400 500 600 the highest paid person probably makes $1.2 million a year and a start all right so that's a lot of money isn't a bully yeah it's good money and going out and starting your business there's a lot of risk for you aren't going to be able to replace that income and all of the things that go into entrepreneurship and so for that person we're asking that they go all in on their goals by being really focused on the set of problems that we have if they if we have a set of problems for somebody who is a high performer making $400,000 a year that is not a nine to five job and we don't expect that they are going to be able to solve those problems at that compensation level in a nine to five environment because there's just more complexity than you clocking in and clocking out that's not the mindset so when we have that person though that doesn't see themselves being an employee forever how do we create the opportunity as carton ventures as any small business to show them how they could be a future partner and build inside of what we want to create which is a billion dollar organization they could be the president of one of our verticals they could be a president of our health vertical or our HVAC vertical or a roofing vertical or a dental vertical and see themselves growing inside our business because we don't want to lose those people and then they would still get the flexibility the autonomy that they're looking for while still getting to do it with really cool people the hardest part of starting a business is actually having to do it by yourself and it sucks and it's painful and most people don't make it through that so why wouldn't you want to continue to work alongside people who are always going to be pushing you and expecting more of you once you get to that level and partnering with you because there's more of a cushion there than you just going out and starting your own business and this has been successful for us because it's an easy story to tell people and it's also getting them focused on what the problems are today instead of I'm solving these problems in my day job but now I'm also solving these side problems and now my focus is split in two different areas that person is going to be less good at both of those things than the person who just does go all in and focus is on the one thing in their career yes they're choosing to take a gamble on the organization thanks for tuning in if you found this valuable don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode and if you want to dive deeper into this conversation check out the links in the description to watch the full episode see you in the next one