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Hey, this is Sharan Srivatha. Welcome back to the Business School podcast. And everyone says that they want the best people. But most entrepreneurs, managers, founders, CEOs, they settle for whoever shows up because they don't plan and they don't set up the best a player pipeline. Here's the truth though. A players do not look for jobs. You and I have never been on a job board. They look for the next best thing for their future. So in this episode, I'm going to break down for you exactly how to attract a players. Why the timing never works in your favor and and the simple things that you can do to make these top a player talent say hey, why not me? So if you're serious about building a team, it doesn't matter if it's a VA in the Philippines or a CFO in the US or a salesperson in Latin America or whoever else that makes everything easier. This episode is for you and I break it all down starting right now.
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One thing is for certain, just because it's tried and true doesn't mean it's working right now. So the big question is this. Where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology and.
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The exact how to how to grow your business, how to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth.
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That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharan Srivatha and welcome to Business school.
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So most companies obsess over a business model for their business. They're like what is my go to market strategy? What is my business model? But they forget that the there is a underlying business model that actually drives everything and that is the business model of a player. So today I want to share the single biggest factor that I have probably seen drive the success in every business that I've invested in or had a chance to be a part of. And I will tell you right now, it is not your product, it is not your funding, it is not your market. It is who is in the building, who is in your Slack channel, who is in who is on your website. It is when you have a players, people who are smart and driven and a little bit different, a little bit odd. Because a players are smart, different and odd in a lot of ways, then that's when crazy things happen. In fact, if you don't have those, it doesn't matter how good your plan looks on paper, it will not work because you don't have great people driving a big idea for it. So I'm going to walk you through exactly how to find these people, how to build for them and why it's not why it's worth every bit of your effort. Now if you are thinking, man, I'm a small business. I don't have access to people. I can't pay big salaries. This has got nothing to do with big salaries. It doesn't matter if you need a big team. Your A player can be a a player virtual assistant. It can be an A player part time personal assistant. It can be an A player part time chef. An A player in every walk of your life will change your life forever. That is why I want you to think it doesn't matter if you have one person on your team or zero people, or you're a solopreneur, or you're a coach or a consultant or a real estate agent, or you run a big business. It doesn't matter. Or that is what you need. You need to figure out how highly competent people make it look really easy. But it never is. All right, so here's big idea number one. I just want to explain to you the power of a players. And you gotta like realize this. So here's the power of a players. A players often cost like 10 to 30% more, right? But they can have 10 times the impact. That is a trade you want to make every single day. So imagine this. I will never forget this story. I know it's very Triton cliche, but you know when JFK was visiting the NASA floor and he asked a janitor, you know, you know what he was excited about? The janitor just said, hey, I'm not mopping the floor, I'm helping put a man on the moon. Like that is how you want somebody to think. And by the way, I've had this happen over and over again. When I was a, when I was a banker at Goldman Sachs, everyone showed up like it was insane to do excellent work. Their commitment was insane, their focus was insane. They expected the same from every everyone around them. They assumed that everyone they were talking to was brilliant and smart. That was crazy. And that was the real advantage. So the question here, I would say is okay, I would make a list of everyone on your team and I would ask this one question. If I was leaving to start a new company tomorrow, would I hire this person? Would I rehire this person? Think about again. Just make a list of all the.
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People on your team and say if.
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I was leaving to start a new company tomorrow, would I re hire this person? That is the power of league players. All right, here's here's section number, kind of like big idea number two. And we have to treat recruiting like sales, meaning it has to happen all the time. I don't know if you know this, but LinkedIn, if you ask any recruiter, they will tell you LinkedIn is their primary source of finding new candidates. They call it sourcing. They look at candidates, they match the job profiles. They run their search. LinkedIn Sales Navigator, which is essentially the recruiting tool for people, is like the number one tool used out there. And LinkedIn found that over 75% of. In their algorithm, the top performers never apply for any jobs. They have to actually be approached. Think about that for a second. 75% of the best people on LinkedIn, according to all their algorithms, never apply for a job. They have to be approached because here's the crazy thing. A, players hire A players, and B, players hire C players. You know that because of the safety thing. So the question is this. A lot of people think the tactical idea is a lot of people think you only go out and source an A player when you want somebody. You don't want to do that. You know, talent trumps timing. What you want to do is you literally want to go every week and reach out to one person who you'd love to work with. Even if they seem kind of out of reach. You're like, hey, you just reach out to someone on LinkedIn saying, Hey, I loved what you're doing. I love this and this idea. We're working through a lot of some big opportunities. Would you be interested in having a conversation and getting to know each other? That's all I would do. That way, you're keeping the bench warm. You're getting to know the people. You're seeing if they're the right fit. You're sourcing the candidate even before they're ready. And that is the cool part in all of this. All right, so big idea number two is you got to treat recruiting like sales, because on the drop of a hat, a player's timing does not work out for you. All right, here's big idea, kind of number three. I literally call it talent over timing. Now, one of the biggest mistakes I see founders make or entrepreneurs make is thinking that timing is everything. They believe that, you know, the right candidate will be ready exactly when they need them. I will tell you that is never true. You cannot ever find the right candidate at the right time. It will never happen. It is super, super difficult. You only have what you have access to. I call. I use this as. This analogy as when you're trying to buy a house, right? You can only buy a house that has a sign in the yard. Generally speaking, if the house is not for sale, you really. Yeah, you could go knock on the door and ask if they're going to sell it to you. But the easiest way to buy a home is when they have a sign in the yard. Now a players are ready when they are ready, not when you are ready to think about that. You can't control their timeline. You can only control whether you're staying close enough, whether you're staying in touch and whether they do feel ready and you're the first call that they make. That is the most important thing. That's why I always say this. Talent beats timing every time. So when someone says, oh, we've got this, you know, really great candidate but we don't need them right now. Talent beats timing. You want a players will find a way to show up in an organization. They'll find what the hole that they need to fill, the gap they need to fill and they will deliver on it. You can get 10 A players in an organization and they can all have the same skill and they will still win. That's the best part about this. If you're always building the relationships, you will never ever get caught in a tight spot or flat footed. If you know that there is a role that you may potentially need to hire for a CFO or a CEO or a President or Director of sales sometime in the future. You need to start building the pipeline now because that is the job of a CEO. What is the job of CEO? Vision. People and cash. Vision. Where are you going? People who are going to help you get their cash. The resources that need you to get there. That's what it is, right? And the cash, the main part of the cash is what outside of buying technology and office is to pay for the people. And if you're like, man, I don't want any people, I'm a lone ranger, that's great. Someone else is going to hire the people and beat you. That's the problem. So the key part and again in all of this is if you don't have a short list of people that you'd love to hire and stay in touch with even when you're not hiring. You are crazy. Like you've got to be mining the talent all the time. And the, the cool part is when you're mining a player talent, when they have the next opportunity, they'll call you first. Otherwise they're just going to go take that Opportunity, right? Talent over timing. It's a Sharon original, by the way. All right, here's big idea number four is you got to reinvest in the talent. Like here's what I mean. A players create and get bigger, stronger results that compound over time. So like there's a great quote that says if you think it's expensive to hire a professional, wait until you hire an amateur, right? So every time we reinvested profits into better people, everything. Improved margins, improved morale, improved growth, improved. Every time you make more money, you got to do more. Like what is the A player business model? Like? I'll go through this with you, right? The A player business model is this. Number one, you hire A players, right? The best of the best you could find. Number two, you create a business model that is challenging and lucrative because if it's not challenging, they will leave. If it's not lucrative, they will leave. Right? And number three, when it's lucrative, it has to have good margin, which means you take all the profits and you hire more A players. That is the A player business model. Number one, hire A players. Number two, create a business model that is challenging and lucrative. We probably flip flop the thing where you say, number one, create a business model that's challenging and lucrative. Number two, hire great A players and number three, take all the profits and hire more A players. That is, that is the way you win. Why do you think the Goldman Sachs of the world and the Googles of the world are in are fighting for great talent? Because they've created this brand that it's the greatest place to go work. That's why they just get an outsized asymmetric number of A players and that is why they win. So here's the big idea here. You gotta like figure out right now, hey, what percentage of profits are you willing to put aside for hiring or keeping A players? Because I will tell you right now, I have my eyes on several A players in several organizations and I am going to hire them, I'm going to be on them. There's going to be a time where their, their leaders do some dumbass thing and they're going to call me first. And that is the job, that is the way I win. Because I probably have a list of 15 or 20 people that I would hire in a heartbeat and heck, I would hire all of them right now. Which if, if it, if that meant me taking zero comp for the year. Because when you can hire or keep A players, things get really, really fun. All right, so that's it. Section Number four, Big idea number four, which is like to reinvest in talent. All right, here's big idea number five. And a lot of people don't understand this. A players are everywhere. And we. When the world, you know, when the whole idea of the world is flat came out and the, the connected world came out, the Internet came out. I will tell you this. Talent is universal, but opportunity is not right? Talent is universal and opportunities are meaning there is talent everywhere, but not opportunities everywhere. I'll give you the truth. I've hired a CTO who never went to college. I have. I hired a CFO who went to community college. I hired a CFO who went to, you know, Ivy League school. I hired a C. I partnered with people running $100 million companies who have degrees in exercise science. And it's wrong to think that you only find them in big cities like San Francisco or L A or New York. It is wrong to think that like, one of my best operations manager is a virtual assistant in the Philippines I've worked with for over five years. Let me tell you this. She's so good, I haven't needed to talk to her even once this year. Like, think about that, right? And you want to like micromanage like their to do list. That's crazy. So here's the crazy part. Stop screening resumes and stop looking for big names. Look for people who show ownership and get consistent results. All you're looking for is like, hey, are they showing ownership? Have they been at a role for a while? How are they showing ownership? Have they been at a role for a while? Like, what are you seeing? Like big pictures. Pops of greatness I always like. My favorite thing is I'm always looking for big pops of greatness. And that may just be. They launched a great project. They built something cool. They went from X to Y. They left a big company and went to a small company. I'm looking for big pops of greatness. And big pops of greatness come with big pops of courage. That's big. All I want is courage. When you can get courage, a players have courage in droves. Like, courage will beat intelligence all day of the week. You can have a courageous person. I would, I would bet on a courageous person over an intelligent person every single time. Because courage is very, very hard to find, right? So a players are everywhere. You may just be hiring a virtual assistant or a part time bookkeeper or chef or a cfo, it doesn't matter. A players are everywhere and you just have to realize that talent is universal. But Opportunity is not meaning a players are everywhere, but opportunities are not everywhere. All right, so that's big idea number five. All right, here's the last big idea is big idea number six. And I think that there's a reputational issue. So I call this build for A players. Most entrepreneurs founders quote bosses, which is my favorite bad word. Like anybody says, I'm your boss, I'm like, I'll punch him in the face. Most founders think A players will just show up if they post a job ad, right? Yeah, maybe if you're at Goldman Sachs or maybe if you're at Google or maybe for Nvidia maybe, right? But in my experience, a players are watching from a distance to see if you are serious, to see if they you have a connection, to see if they can resonate with you, to see if they are proud to say that they work with you. I will tell you the one thing I've learned is when you call an A player and say, I have a cool opportunity, that is super, super important. So, like, here's. Here's the suggested call that I would make. If you know an A player right now, if you want access to more A players, here's what you do. You don't call them and offer them a role, right? That's dumb. What you should do is you can be like, hey, Jimmy, I have a cool opportunity. Do you know someone amazing who might be a fit? And about 50% of the time they will tell you why not me? That's the best part. That's what you're trying to get from them, right? It's like you want to use a players to get to a players because they have like, the screening threshold, which is really, really important. The part that I'm saying is the reason why you show up online and build a brand, the reason why you tell a company story, the reason why you have a great website, the reason why you post your ideas on LinkedIn, the reason why you have a great podcast that you're listening to. Like, can you imagine if somebody wanted to come work with us at acquisition.com, they would listen to my podcast and they'd be like, wait a minute, you know, I like this guy, or don't like this guy. They'll know because you use it as a magnet. You're putting your thoughts out there. You're putting your feelings out there. You're showing people how much you care. And that is really, really important. And so if you're not showing people that Persona that, that image of you where they want to come and work with you. Then you're, you're leaving a huge amount of value on the, on the, on the bench. Because now people are being like do I really want to work for this company or this person? Because they don't know anything about you. Because you don't find A players, you build for A players. Again, you don't find A players, you build for A players. What did Goldman Sachs do? They build for A players. They go to the best colleges, universities in the world and they tell them I want your best talent. What do they do? They just built a system to get all the best A players before anyone would ever get them. That's how they win. That's crazy. So I will tell you the easiest thing for you to do. It's hard. It's like the easiest script is you, you, you want to pick up the phone, get email, get a text message and you call some call or text some a player that you know it can be probably at another company your friend and, and that somebody that you respect and you say hey, that you have a great opportunity in whatever role in your business and that you'd love to talk to somebody that is extremely brilliant who should they kind of talk to and they will 50% of the time introduce you to somebody and 50% of the time they will tell you hey, why not me? And that's pretty amazing. So I gave you six big ideas. Idea number one is the there's the power of A players where they can have 10 times more impact. Number two is the you got to treat recruiting like sales because if you don't keep doing it, you will never actually get it. Number three, talent over timing. A players are ready when they are ready, not when you are ready. Big idea number four is you got to reinvest in your talent because your a, your A player talent is constantly being recruited away. They're loyal till they're loyal until they're not. Big idea number five is A players are everywhere. It doesn't matter what their resume is. It only matters what their output is. And so know that. And big idea number six, you got to build for the A players. You it's just posting an ad and job ad and on indeed is not really they're going to. They're not looking. I've never looked at a job board ever in my life. I don't even know where to go right. And that's the big idea. So figure out if you can build a pipeline for them. So here's what I'm trying to say. Hey, players are your biggest hidden advantage. They may cost a little bit more, but you know that they're going to crush it. You know the time when you hired that one person and life was significantly better by the way. They don't care where you went to school or what city you're in. They care whether your company, your firm, your team is worth joining where they can contribute. They are interviewing you more than you're interviewing them. It is your sales job on them. It is not their sales job on you. By the way, I will guarantee you timing will not line up perfectly. It is very hard, it is very, very hard for timing to line up perfectly. Rarely does it once every five years. So you have to stay connected. You have to be ready you when they are ready. And that's why talent trumps timing. So here's, here's my suggestion for you. How can you create a pipeline of a players for yourself? And I will tell you the easiest way and that is assume that the best way to build to get a players whenever you want is to just build a, build a pipeline of them. Just like scouts for the NHL, for the NBA or the NFL. They'll go to and watch high school soccer. They'll go watch junior year soccer and they start like talking to these candidates. It start to be there. Why? Because they're building the bench for the future. If you're going to be around in business for the next three to five years, you just got to build these relationships and you're not making any promises for jobs. You're just telling people where you are and you're making and you're inviting them to be connected with you. Because then as when you're ready, you win big time. All right, so the A players have a business model. Let me tell you the business model. Part one, you hire A players the best you can find. Part two, you create a business model that is lucrative and challenging. And part three, all the profit that you make from the lucrativeness you invest back into hiring A players because highly, highly competent people make it look easy, but it actually never is. Hey, I, I don't know if this was helpful to you. If you can do me a favor and if you like this, can you screenshot this and upload a social and tag me. That way I know you liked it and I can make more like this for you. All right, screenshot, tag me and I can make more like this for you. I hope you like that. That is the business model of a players. Literally no one will tell you that that is a hidden business model that drives the best companies in the world. And I hope it can drive yours too. Catch you on the next one.
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Hey Charon, I have a cool gift for you since you like this podcast. I actually have an ultra super secret private podcast that I make just for my partner companies and the CEOs and influencers that I advise. It's called 10K Wisdom because I try to run wrap $10,000 worth of value in every single episode in just under 10 minutes. That's why it's called 10K Wisdom. It's raw, it's real, it's got no intro or outro or anything like that. It's just straight to the point and to the insights. Since you like this podcast, I think you will like that. So for the first time I'm making it available to you. Just go to 10kwisdom.com and the number 10kwisdom.com and my team will activate it for you as my gift. Go to 10kwisdom.com I'll see you there.