Mastering Decision Making - How to Align Actions with Core Values with Rick Girard

In a world where hiring decisions often hinge on assumptions and personal motives, one entrepreneur dared to defy the norm. Rick Girard, a seasoned pioneer in his field, stumbled upon a revelation that would change the course of his career. His journey to success wasn't a smooth ride; it was a wave of failures and lessons learned. But little did he know, his pursuit of aligning actions with core values would lead him down an unexpected path, one that would revolutionize the hiring landscape forever. Stay tuned to discover how this determined entrepreneur transformed his personal distaste for losing into a game-changing solution.

My special guest is Rick Girard.

Welcome to the mind of Rick Girard - a tireless advocate for value-based hiring processes. Venturing into the realm of entrepreneurship, he specializes in bringing clarity and purpose to the often chaotic hiring process within startups and SMBs. Known for being an avid believer in aligning actions with an organization's core values, he passionately fosters this philosophy both in his work and written masterpiece, Healing Career Wounds. Rick's innovative strategies prove that when a prospective employee's intrinsic values align with the business's ethos, their contribution far exceeds mere monetary value.

• Discover the key role a systematic hiring approach plays in startup success. 
• Learn how aligning your actions with your company's core values positively impacts decision-making and hiring processes. 
• Appreciate the art of attracting and onboarding the right talent for your budding enterprise. 
• Gain insight into the adverse effects of biases and assumptions in the recruitment process. 
• Understand how to engineer an unbiased and time-efficient hiring experience. 
• Uncover the indispensable value of a methodical hiring strategy for your startup growth. 
• Grasp how intertwining your actions with foundational values enhances decision-making and recruitment. 
• Master the power of securing the perfect team for your startup ambitions. 
• Realize the potential pitfalls of letting preconceptions steer your hiring selections. 
• Construct a fair, prompt, and effective recruitment process. 

How to find Rick:
Web: https://www.stridesearch.com/
BB: https://www.facebook.com/rick.girard.5
IG: https://www.instagram.com/rickgirard1/?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-girard-07722/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rick_girard?lang=en 

Chapters

• 0:00 Hiring the Best Talent for Startups
• 4:13 Exploring Work-Life Balance and Career Inspiration
• 10:34 Improving Hiring Process With Core Values
• 19:32 The Importance of Hiring for Startups
• 27:46 The Importance of Effective Hiring Process

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Again, there's not a whole lot of people that are wired that way.

Speaker 1: 0:03

Like you know, give me a bunch of Lego bricks and I'll build, you know, like, the Eiffel Tower or something like that, right, like.

Speaker 1: 0:09

So there's people who love that and that's where they flourish. Then there's, like, the next class step is that there's a lot of people who like to take something that's already there and make it better. Right, and that's a pretty important role for people once your company is a little bit more established. Right, because you want to make sure that, like you know, your sales are okay, but you want somebody to continue to the next level. Right, those are the level uppers, and I think I came to the realization that, like, I really wasn't making an impact on the world, and the legacy for me is that if I can do something to change the way in which people get into roles that they're going to do well in and companies can hire the people that they're going to help the company grow, you know, no matter how long you've been in business, finding great people to come work with you can be a challenge, and it's especially hard if you're a startup.

Speaker 3: 1:05

You know the inter-perview process alone is time consuming, sifting through resumes and scheduling maybe one or two rounds of interviews, only to have not only to have that hire not work out. Boy, can I relate to that? You know it's necessary work if you're at all interested in growing your business and transitioning the workload to others so you can focus on the important part of your business, and that's marketing, generating clients. Well, today, I guess, shares his passion for helping startups recruit and keep the best talent. But before we get into all that, I just want to remind you if you're interested in raising your standards as a father or husband and an entrepreneur, then I encourage you to participate in our Heroes Quest and actually your Heroes Quest. In this 90 day program you're going to accomplish more, develop more and become more than you ever have in the last 12 months of your life. And we can get more information for this stuff at the Awakened man Training Academy at memberstheawakenmannet. And with that, let's get on with today's episode.

Speaker 2: 2:01

The average man today is sleepwalking through life, many never reaching their true potential, let alone ever crossing the finish line to living a purposeful life. Yet the hunger still exists, albeit buried amidst his cluttered mind, misguided beliefs and values that no longer serve him. It's time to align yourself for greatness. It's time to become a revolutionary man. Stay strong, my brother.

Speaker 3: 2:30

Welcome everyone to the Revolutionary man podcast. I'm the founder of the Awakened man movement and your host, alan DeMonceau, so let me ask you a question have you ever conducted an interview and thought, wow, this person's going to be great, only to find out they weren't at all like their interview? You know, I can remember that story all too often. So what do we do to weed out the professional interviewer, as I call them, and find the real gems, the ones that help us move our business forward? Well, today we're going to find that out. I'm going to introduce my guest, rick Gerard, as a founder and CEO of Stride Search Inc firm, and he's extremely passionate about helping startup founders win the strongest hires to fuel unprecedented company growth.

Speaker 3: 3:18

Now Rick is also the author of Healing Career Wounds and he has invented a systemized hiring operating system, and the solution for leaders is so that he can provide they can provide the strongest hires by blowing up what we considered best practices with the humanistic, events driven and non-bias time efficient experience. Man, wish I had that 20 years ago. And so when we're I mean he's not running around, you know, just looking after school with these gifted mutants as Professor X, as he calls himself, he also hosts a higher power radio show and podcast. It's a weekly series on LinkedIn Live and it serves business leaders to as a resource to help solve their most difficult hiring challenges. It also completes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu but thing we're on the podcast and not face to face and has an affinity for any adrenaline pumping activities such as surfing, snowboarding, rock climbing and running with scissors. Oh my goodness, welcome to the show, rick. How are things brother?

Speaker 1: 4:18

Doing well, man, how are you? You did a great. That's even a better introduction. That can do my own.

Speaker 3: 4:24

We're just saying, getting on to the show today, I just take a little time to creep the socials and everything. You're doing some phenomenal work, rick. I got to say that this is just outstanding work and I thought that's why it was important, important for us to be on the show. Have you on the show today to talk about this? But first question I ask all of my guests that are on the podcast is we all talk about being on a hero's quest, as I was saying in our intro, so tell us a little bit more about what inspired you in your life to live the life you're doing today, how that experience has shaped you into the manual and the work that you're doing.

Speaker 1: 4:55

Oh man. So you know, I always like kind of joke around that like I fell into my career, like you know, like Bugs Bunny did, I made a wrong turn at Albuquerque. But you know, I fell into something that I loved and you know I've gone through this roller coaster ride of getting really good and then what's next, and then you know, but it's something that kind of just stuck with me throughout my life up until now, and you know, I've just had to kind of shift and reshift and kind of figure out what I was passionate about at each stage. That's kind of the thing that's kept me motivated. But you know, I've also I've also done a pretty good job, I think, of maintaining some sort of balance, both physical and mental balance.

Speaker 1: 5:40

You know, I think the two things that have kept me sane in my life although my wife would probably argue with that is, you know, having some sort of outlet, like physical outlet, and for me right now it's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, you know or surfing, or snowboarding. And then, you know, actually a few years ago I found meditation and that was something that like really kind of kept me from going crazy, because you know, I'm an entrepreneur too. I didn't put it like I don't put it out there yet, but we just launched a software company called Intertru in November and yeah, that's. You know. Now I'm a startup founder, I'm an that's my tag of insanity and you know it's. I think it was Peter Thiel that said you know, if you're running a startup, there's only two.

Speaker 3: 6:32

It's like two emotions that you feel is excitement and terror, and it's been a constant, you know, ride of that, which is yeah yeah, fun, yeah, absolutely, I totally, I totally feel you have been doing, been doing men's work here for just over two years, started just before the pandemic and you know kind of waffle through that time and so I totally can relate to it and that's why I thought it was so great to have you come on the podcast today, because there isn't an entrepreneur out there that isn't struggling with something in their business as well as at home, and that's, you know.

Speaker 3: 7:04

I'm really grateful that you brought up about the, you know, trying to maintain that balance and you know, and one of the things is that it's hard for us to do that, and I wrote an article about the myth of work-life balance and this one to get your take, before we dive into some into the book and some other work what's your take on what the idea of a work-life balance really means, especially as a startup business?

Speaker 1: 7:29

You know, I think for me personally, just I only have so much mental capacity, like for me to focus in and do work Before I start to go, you know. So, like I need something to break up those, the sprints. The way I operate best is that I operate in short sprints when, like I, can focus, get a bunch of work done, and then I need to step away and go do something else. You know, I, I, I don't function well where I have to sit in like just focus on one thing for a Long amount of time, which is why I never went into counting or something like that, right, like you know. But yeah, that that's just been, you know, for me the one thing, that that's that's made the huge difference in my life, at least.

Speaker 3: 8:13

You know, just Understand my, the way that I I operate best and then playing within that, that realm and I really like that, like that answer, because you know you're tying into, you understand how, what your makeup is and how you best Function in in work, and so I think for guys and then we get, we get into careers and maybe they were idea career, no, aspirate, aspirative, I guess, if that's the right word, I don't know. You know, when we were young, that's what I want to do. I know for me, I wanted to be a chef Years ago, like I'm in my mid 50s. So being a chef back then it was the galloping gourmet, was on TV, graham care. There wasn't food TV, there was no Bobby Flay, there was no iron chef. It wasn't cool, wasn't sexy to be a chef, but I really wanted to do that and that kind of that carried me for a longest time and then finally to To the.

Speaker 3: 9:05

As my career went, moved on. I just found I just lost the lack of that, that energy and zeal for it. And so it's great that you, that we find that piece, that we step into, that we understand how it works for us and how we work and so, being as many years as I was in in, you know, in hospitality I'm a multitasker, but I recognize that what makes sense in the kitchen doesn't make sense in business very much. When you're Partially doing things and you're all over the place, right tends to leave lots of loose ends. But you know, I really like that point.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Yeah, I've never been. You know, I used to pride myself in being a multitasker and then I realized that I'm really not. Yeah exactly. I was hoping I was, but you know, it was me fully myself, I think yeah, for sure I hear you.

Speaker 3: 9:52

So what inspired you to write this book, the books called healing career wounds? Yeah, inspired you write that and how that all come to be.

Speaker 1: 10:00

Well, you know something that I had thought of for quite some time. I've spent the past better part of the last 10 years Developing a methodology by which you know, like one of the things that one of the things that drives me is that I'm a Terrible loser like I do not, in my search business, like to lose. And so you know, in, in, in doing search work a lot of times, you know it's a lot of the way most people operate is it's about throwing as much shit at a wall and hoping something sticks. You know, and and you're just setting up lots of interviews in it. At some point in my life I just decided that that wasn't good enough anymore, like I needed to become better to where I could send in less people and get More people hired. So one of the things that I realized was that when were? One of my big choke points was when I said somebody who I recruited in for the interview, who I knew was good, the person would get in front of somebody else who you know, I didn't know their skills or, or you know, or or how much experience they had in doing these sort of like interviewing and those sort of things. And basically what I learned was hey, look at people, interview based off three things assumptions, bias and personal motives, and those, those are how they make decisions and there's no evidence behind any of it. So what ends up happening? And you know the the light bulb moment for me was when I sent I Was working at VP search for a software company and I sent a guy in for an interview, met with the CEO and I asked the CEO how it went.

Speaker 1: 11:42

He said oh my god, this guy's amazing. We want to hire him. I Would you guys talk about, walk me through the interview. Oh well, we talked for about 45 minutes about the Oakland A's. You know, it's my favorite baseball team, it's his favorite baseball team. So they, basically he wanted to make a decision to hire somebody based on the fact that they had a commonality. And I was like, well, how do you know the person's even good? You know, how do you know he's gonna work well with your organization? And he didn't really care. He's like you know what I think he's gonna do. Great, he came out of X button. You know, the assumptions part kicked in. He came out of XYZ company. I mean, obviously he's gonna do well here and I'm like man, I, you know, I don't. I think I've got other people that are probably stronger. And you know he moved forward, made the person offer. Six months later he didn't work out, and when that happened, who gets blamed for it?

Speaker 3: 12:36

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:38

This guy right. So so I really started to hedge my bets, and what I started to do is say hey look, I'll do searches for you, but this is how we operate. We actually put an interview process in place, and so we just started building in an interview process and coaching people and making sure that they were extracting the right data before they made a decision, and then that all culminated into the book, which is now culminating into the intertru platform that I mentioned earlier. So we figured out ways in which we can get AI to assist and help drive the interview process with with the human Outstanding, and so that's, that's perfect.

Speaker 3: 13:18

I made a couple of notes here. Y'all see, I'll do this lots or interviews, so I'm listening to. If you see my head pointed down, you net you talked about on the interviewer side. We're interviewing based on assumption, bias, personal motive. I think you said Yep, and so really, what in coming up with this, with this strategy, this business model and your software, is the problem, then what you're doing is removing that aspect out of it, and is that how you're guiding entrepreneurs through, or what's the what's the core issue that you're trying to resolve for entrepreneurs?

Speaker 1: 13:53

Yeah, we're trying to minimize. I mean, you can't fully eliminate it, but you can do a really, really good job of combating that right, because you know people do have you know assumptions and you know bias that they make. But what we do is we've designed the questions in such a way where we use behavioral interview questions. We front load those against the core values of the company first and then the skills second. So we want to do is we want to understand. One of the other things I realized was that when people align with core values of the company, they flourish, they do well, and then I get praised because it was the best person they ever hired. So I mean, purely selfish motives are why I came up with this. But you know, I just started seeing results that were working in, everybody's happy, including the person who took the job there, because they're in a place where they're going to do well. So that's that's kind of what drove me to continue this journey.

Speaker 3: 14:56

Man that makes so much sense. Recognize, you know, when I think about that, all the work we do here at the Awakened man is we really focus on helping guys understand their core values. And when we can get us and when we get a sense we understand what our big core values are, then we can shape and craft our life purpose, mission statement or our creed for our MO. We know how we're going to move forward and why, and that's a business idea, but it makes sense in our personal life and so it's not surprising for me to hear that both the interviewer and the interviewer that it's successful because they're speaking the same language. Ultimately, and if there's a, if there's ever a shortfall with a, with the, with a recruit or the recruitment I think you nailed it right on the head it will be that values misalignment and sometimes for companies and the other thing I've experienced in doing, in doing men's work, is that what we say is as a value, but what our actions and how we actually operate in the culture is. It may be different, not always, but sometimes it's different.

Speaker 3: 15:59

Like I may say that about that. I value health, but it's it's a real struggle for me when I, when I think about. I get snack time about 9 pm and I like saltyness, so it's about reminding me of okay. Well, I said I value that I'm healthy, especially as I getting older here and taking care of what I'm consuming, but are my actions matching my core values? Are you finding that that when you're doing this work with companies and they and you're doing the core values, are they aligning with that and what their culture is like? Or how and how do you, how do you make sure that? That's that those two are the same?

Speaker 1: 16:34

Yeah, so that's a really good point, because a lot of the work that we end up doing is that we, you know, people have core values and they're usually something they pulled out of a book or they're aspirational right, and and the thing is that, you know, the core values stem from the CEO of the company, from the leadership, you know, and it's how they operate. It's not, it's not what we want it to be, it's how we operate, you know. So the values are the thing that drives culture Like. These are the things that that really give people an accurate picture of what it's like on a day to day basis and how they make decisions right. So, yeah, you know what.

Speaker 1: 17:13

We do a lot of work with executives and we test it really. So you know somebody has a value like integrity, which you know Enron's number one value was integrity, by the way. So you know, when they have those like you've got to put language around what they mean, right, or how you would measure it. So if somebody says, hey, look at I'm, I'm living this value of you know, like one of our values is dig deeper, right, and so we're, we're really big in listening, to understand, not to respond Like that's. That's one of the pieces of our of, of how we operate, so it's defensible and I can. I can I can actually have a conversation with somebody about that and understand how well they understand, you know in whether or not they operate the same way that we do as an organization.

Speaker 3: 18:05

Right on. That's perfect. I mean, that makes so much sense, right? It's using that testing model just to make sure that that, that alignment's there. Now, getting back to your book you in your book you talk about there's three pillars and you use it interchangeably throughout the book and you walk us through it. Tell us a little bit about what each of those pillars are and how that model, how you're using that model as a framework for this work.

Speaker 1: 18:28

Yeah, so it links back to you know. The title is kind of it's you kind of think well, okay, if I'm looking for a job, I want to figure out how to heal my crew, and that's actually the punchline. Title is this is how you attract really strong players, your company. If you can demonstrate how you can provide value to them Before, like a paycheck, you can land Superior talent right, because most people go through interviews and what they do is they end up at the end of the comparing offer to offer and it's based on Benefits of money but there's no value. It's built into it for the most part. So you can demonstrate that and you don't, then you don't need to come up with a big, huge offer because you're giving something, something to that person they want. It's more important than the money.

Speaker 3: 19:17

That makes total sense right on yep. That to me sounds like man, that's gotta be a ton more work and working with a built in company. And then, on the other hand, I was sitting there going well, but there isn't any, anything in grain. There's no Culture that really truly has been set into. Tell me a reason for why start ups was was your passion and why you decide to pick that as a niche.

Speaker 1: 19:38

You know, I just like start a people better than corporate, I mean. I mean, you know, and here's the thing, like you know, there's a lot of people chase enterprises. I'm just not an enterprise guy and you know like it's like trying to turn the titanic is not something that I'm gonna be able to do. I'd much rather be on a small boat, you know, trying to jump the wake of the titanic rather than trying to steer the titanic. Like you know, and you know start ups are exciting. I, you know. Actually you know where we go after s&p, small, medium sized businesses. That's kind of our target. My passions for startups because I've been around startups my whole career. I've helped build a lot of Tech startups in the silicon valley over my career and it's just exciting, it's just fun.

Speaker 3: 20:25

You know, and you get to learn about all these cool things that people, you know cool Problems that people are trying to solve yeah, absolutely, and there's so much energy and passion there, right, like yeah, and like you're saying earlier, right, you've got the two sides of that coin right. There's excitement and then there's just running, running shit, scared some days because there's just stuff to do, and then you've invested probably everything you have to make this thing go to your passion and it just seems to be more, seem to be more open to at least hearing things and working on it. So tell me why, why is it important that the interview process needs to be so, so worked on for these startups? Because it doesn't sound, it sounds like today. Probably that's one of the things.

Speaker 3: 21:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we have to hire people, but it may not be one of their, one of their top priorities or the thing that they figured out. So why do you think that's so important for them? We're talking about hiring really good people, but let's go a little bit deeper than just about finding the good person.

Speaker 1: 21:23

Well, here's the thing if you don't have the right people, you fail like it's. It's a, it's the thing that'll kill your company all day long. I think if you really think about why companies fail Is because they put the wrong people on the bus and that might even include this the founder, you know like but I mean the companies exceed that, succeed, surround themselves with the right people. So it's really a question of whether or not you want to fail or not. Again, I told you I'm like a terrible loser and I just don't want to fail. So I've spent a lot of time Like talking to people and like really making sure that the people I bring on board my company are the right people. I was the strongest people that I can get, you know, and that has to do with whether or not the person's position right for the organization. You know, do I? Do they want what I offer, right? I also talk about builders and provers and maintainers.

Speaker 1: 22:18

If you're a startup or a smaller company, you need builders. You need builders. And guess what? There's not a whole lot of builders out there. Most people are usually on the the maintainer side of things and one of the one of the biggest mistakes I see I've seen throughout my career is that you get people that are enamored with you know, hey, we found this person out of Facebook or Google or some big company and we're super excited, we're gonna hire them. And then Six months later you ask them like, oh yeah, I didn't work out. I'm like it wasn't position brought. Like you recruited him to come to a startup Probably not the right person for a startup, you know. So how that experiment go for you not so good, right? And the other thing is, you know if you've got a lot of money coming in? I mean, I just think it's irresponsible for the business to burn through a whole bunch of capital just chasing somebody who's going to feed your ego.

Speaker 3: 23:15

Oh yeah, I'm just thinking back to a good friend of mine who in the early days of his business and trying to hire and going through recruiting firms and doing it on his own and it just seemed like it was perpetual challenge oh, this is the greatest employee. And then, like you said, six months to a year later then everything falls off the wagon. And I never considered. I really like how you position this. Depending on where season your business is in, you need builders, improvers and maintainers. So what would be a core characteristic of each of those profiles?

Speaker 1: 23:51

Well, builders are kind of. What's interesting is that when you talk to builders, that's what they talk about. Like I want to build something from scratch. Give me a blank sheet of paper and let me go. Right. And again, there's not a whole lot of people that are wired that way. Like you know, give me a bunch of Lego bricks and I'll build. You know, I'll build, like you know, the Eiffel Tower or something like that. Right, Like, so there's people who love that and that's where they flourish.

Speaker 1: 24:19

Then there's, like, the next class step is that there's a lot of people who like to take something that's already there and make it better. Right, and that's a pretty important role for people once your company is a little bit more established. Right, because you want to make sure that, like you know, your sales are okay, but you want somebody to continue to the next level. Right, because those are the level uppers, right. And then you have maintainers and maintainers.

Speaker 1: 24:44

To me, you know they're necessary for business, but they're most of the people that are out there that really have a J-O-B and they're there, you know they do good work, but they're not necessarily there like in the capacity that you need them to be, especially for a startup, and I think that's where startups get in trouble. You know, a lot of times somebody might get laid off from a company and this is no ditch on people who get laid off, right but you know, if you get laid off from an organization, you really have to think about where you want to be and then go after those types of companies. I think it's somewhat irresponsible to just take a job for a paycheck, you know, and I think that's what ends up happening a lot of times. Well, you know, I'll just take this job until I find what I'm really looking for.

Speaker 3: 25:37

Yeah, so true, and I think that's because it's a stepping stone, right, and they're just, for whatever reason, they need to pay bills and need to get in there. And then we get, you know, as an entrepreneur side of it, we get our. That's where we go back to our assumptions and biases and personal motives, right, and we think that, oh wow, look at this resume, look where they came from. They came from, you know, a Fortune 100 company. Maybe I should hire this person or whatever that looks that company looks like in your neck of the woods, or might not be a Fortune 100 or 500 even, but the point of the matter is, is that you know, we what I'm hearing a lot of and I get and I catch myself in this as I'm constantly in a recruiting mode of one way or another, and this is we tend to fall on, at least I do on this affinity side, right, and so things they sound like me, they talk to me, and that's why I referenced a professional interviewer, right, there's some people are really good at interviewing.

Speaker 1: 26:27

Oh yeah, they're going, man, I can't wait to ask yourself why people are good at interviewing too, because some of the best people I've ever come across are terrible at interviewing, like it's not a natural, like it's not comfortable. It's like going to the dentist and getting your teeth extracted for most people, right. But the people that are good at interviewing, why are they good at interviewing? Because they get lots of practice. You know they've, they've been doing it a lot right and that's not necessarily a good thing. And you know, I've heard the flip side of the coin too. Where, hey, this person, this guy, knocked the cover off the ball interviewing. So we went with this person. And then, when they start, you know it ends up being a dud and you know deep enough, right? Yeah.

Speaker 3: 27:16

Well, that's what I really like about what you're doing with this higher operating system, because I think it is. It helps take. It helps take the personality out of it and provides them. You talked about some real data and so it's touch point. So it sounds like there's lots of work in the front end, especially with the company you're working with, to help them get clear on exactly what they need in order for them to move their business, move their business forward by getting the right people on the bus, and not just on the right people on the bus, but in the right seat doing the right work. And so, as you're hiring people, how is your follow up process? How does that look for for folks that come in and do and do work with you?

Speaker 1: 27:54

What do you mean by follow up process?

Speaker 3: 27:56

Yeah, so you hire? You know I ask you, you know you and I are working together. You help me hire somebody? Is the program you've developed more of a like you're not doing I guess I'm you're not doing the interviews this is that you're just helping the startup be able to do that on their own so they can hire good people, and then and if that's the case, then you're not really necessarily involved You're not working as a as a recruiting firm. You're working as a more of a teaching company.

Speaker 1: 28:23

From what I'm understanding, yes, I think it's somewhat. It's funny because I still we still do search work. I mean I don't know if I'll ever get that out of my my like, I enjoy doing it. It's just kind of fun For some reason. I feel like a little chemist right, like I can go make a match. And it was funny because I I placed somebody not like it was a few months ago and I like it was super fun search. And then the person who hired the person said well, you know, I'm looking for, I'm looking for a mate. You think you can help me find a mate? And I'm like, no, I want nothing to do with that, cause I know who you're going to get mad at when it doesn't work out. It's going to be me.

Speaker 1: 29:02

But yeah, so what we're, what we do is is yeah, we have all the structure there. We help people to do the inter like we usually do our first the discovery call that we hand them off to the company. The company does a value alignment interview, then they do the skills piece, the skills interview which call at a working session, and then finally the final interview. We we kind of three step out the interview process. You can get such good data in those three steps that you can make accurate decisions we got. We have a lot of clients that are operating in the 90th percentile Nice, so yeah.

Speaker 3: 29:39

That's a great success rate, cause I would suggest that the success rate for hiring people is probably the, the, not much higher than the, than the divorce rate you know for yeah it's like I I I've heard it's like 49% if you don't have like an interview process and a bunch of other stuff.

Speaker 1: 29:56

So you almost have a better chance of like just walking in, flipping a coin, hedge your higher tails.

Speaker 3: 30:01

You're not like well, I'm not surprised, because it's so a lot of time that way too.

Speaker 3: 30:06

Yeah, oh, absolutely, it's time and and money right, and I think we talked to them on earlier. We talked about they don't, as entrepreneurs and startups, we not, may not, recognize the cost of of that recruitment, and that's why it's important that you know this work that you're doing is taking so much of the process. It's just you've just spelled it out for for entrepreneurs and startups, that they can take the the personal piece out of it and really do some analytical work, because that's what they would do in their business anyways. They wouldn't. They wouldn't do make decisions, At least I would think, not so much on emotion, Although that may play it. They're doing a gut check, but it's a lot, it's a it's more likely a last check, not a first check, and so it's so important that you're doing this.

Speaker 1: 30:50

Yeah, Hiring people. You know it's funny, because one of the things that I feel and I feel myself getting in this mode too is where I you just want to get the thing filled, Like you just want somebody to come in and do the work, and you really have to pull yourself back and say, If it's not a hell yes, then it's a no. There should be no doubt in your mind that this person's the right person, and it should be no doubt in your mind that this person's the right person because of X, Y and Z. You should have data behind it to back that.

Speaker 2: 31:27

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 31:28

And it's not just because I like this person and I think they're gonna do great here and he likes baseball. I like baseball.

Speaker 3: 31:38

Yeah, listen, and unfortunately, a lot of us make that kind of a decision. Right, I mentioned about the affinity side of it. Listen, through all this work that you've been doing, though, what's been the best piece of advice that you've received from someone that you've been doing this work?

Speaker 1: 31:56

Oh, gosh. Well, so I'm a new startup founder doing a software product and I've built a really strong base of advisors and, gosh, you know just some of the best advice is just deploy fast and then iterate. And one of the first thing that was recommended to me was read that book, the Lean Startup by Eric Rees. And yeah, there's just so many good nuggets. I feel like I get good nuggets on a daily basis almost too much good advice. It's where I can't make a decision sometimes.

Speaker 1: 32:37

Yeah, oh man, I hear you, but I think that the two. I actually got a piece of advice from Gino Wickman. I had him on my show a few months ago and he actually he wrote that for my book and Gino's like he gotta say no. You have to say no more, you know. So if it's not as part of your one thing that you need to accomplish, then say no.

Speaker 3: 33:05

Yep, 100%. Well, and when that request is measured up against our values, then it helps us get to that. No, because when we're not solid on what our values are, and does this move me forward? And it may be it might move you forward, but today, in this moment, is it the best piece in learning how to say no? Is so true? Yeah, you know you're doing all this work right, and so I wanna go a bit back and dive a little bit more into a personal question here. But you know you've married, you got work to do doing the startup. Tell me a little bit about what legacy would mean, what means for you.

Speaker 1: 33:44

Yeah, you know it's funny because I've been thinking a lot about that, like over the past couple of years is that? Yeah, because I did this reverse thing where I built up a company, I sold it and I spent a good part of my like 30s and early 40s like living in Hawaii surfing a bunch, and I think I came to the realization that, like, I really wasn't making an impact on the world. And the legacy for me is that if I can do something to change the way in which people get into roles that they're gonna do well in and companies can hire the people that they're gonna help the company grow, then that's what I was put here to do.

Speaker 3: 34:28

Right on.

Speaker 1: 34:29

Yeah. Yeah, I love that, it's not about me, it's about you know, it's about the entrepreneurs being successful, Right yeah?

Speaker 3: 34:37

I like, I love asking that question. I've only started doing that lately in my with my interviews, and it's always interesting to get a sense of where people come from, and it doesn't necessarily need to be about you. It's about living your calling right and how that ties into what you're doing, because it plays such an important role in who we are as men and in living our lives. And so, just grateful for that answer, really appreciate it, thank you. Thank you Of everything that we've spoken about today and maybe there was something we didn't get a chance to touch on. If there was one takeaway you'd like our audience to remember, what would that be?

Speaker 1: 35:11

You know, like the one takeaway would be if you're an entrepreneur, if you're building a company, if you're doing any hiring, I would say, look, two things need to happen. Number one if you're the person who's running your company, you need to be the best person as far as hiring goes in your company, like you need to be the person leading it. Because if you're the best interviewer, then it'll trickle down, like you know, other people will follow suit and they'll become a really strong interview. And you know, the interview is the one place where two people go into a room together and then somebody comes out with a decision. There's no visibility and you have no idea what happened. So it's really hard for you to trust your people. So give them the tools, give them the resources, give them a framework, give them a process, give them the questions so that they can be successful.

Speaker 3: 36:07

Love that, just love it, and you've provided that, so it's just great work that you're doing here. So I just want to say once again, thank you so much, rick, for spending time with me today. And we've given our entrepreneurs that it doesn't matter what length of business you've been in, whether you're really a brand new startup or you're in your first couple of years. You've helped us understand why the importance of having an hiring operating system, and by following your program, they can do that. And so, in speaking of your program, what would be the best way for men to get ahold of you so they can plug into the work you're doing and participate in any of your programs?

Speaker 1: 36:40

Yeah, so the best way to reach me via email is Rick at strides S-T-R-I-D-E. Search S-E-A-R-C-Hcom. You can also check out InterTrue. It's I-N-T-E-R-T-R-UA-I. You can catch me on my podcast. It's HirePowerRadio. It's H-I-R-E power P-O-W-E-R radio R-A-D-I-O. So it's not a religious show. Obviously. It's about hiring and, yeah, that's where you can get me.

Speaker 3: 37:11

Right on. I'll make sure all that information's in the show notes for today's episode so folks can get out there, and I encourage you to do that. If you're an entrepreneur, start up and you're looking for help, it's important to grow your business and by putting the right people, getting the right people on the bus and then getting them in the right seats and I know doing this work with Rick is gonna get you there. So once again, my friend, thank you so much for being on the show.

Speaker 1: 37:30

That's pleasure. Thank you for having me, brother.

Speaker 2: 37:33

Thank you for listening to the Revolutionary man podcast. Are you ready to own your destiny, to become more the man you're destined to be? Join the brotherhood that is the Awakened man at theawakendmannet and start forging a new destiny today.