Latest / The Daily Writer / Mitch Gray: How to Hire a Great Assistant

Transcript

Mitch Gray: How to Hire a Great Assistant · The Daily Writer

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_06: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Rider.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_06: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_06: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with writers, as well as teaching that helps us apply what we're learning.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_06: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_06: Before I get into today's episode, I want to give you a quick heads up about something, and then I want to tell you how it ties into today's interview.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_06: So the thing I want to tell you is that going forward, you're going to see more of a business focus here on the podcast.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_06: And there's a couple of reasons for this.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_06: First, it's the direction that my own life and business are going.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_06: Now, you probably already know that I'm a full-time ghostwriter.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_06: I'm also working on my next couple of books, and of course I have the Daily Writer Podcast, which you're listening to now, as well as the Daily Writer community, which is my membership community for writers.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_06: So there are several different business activities happening in my realm.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_06: Second, I want you to think of your writing as a business.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_06: And I know for some of you that comes naturally, but for others of you, it feels like a stretch.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_06: And that is totally okay.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_06: Wherever you are on this journey of writing and business and building an audience and all that stuff, I want you to be aware of things like book marketing, sales, copywriting, networking, productivity, and all the other things that go into a business.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_06: Now, why is that?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_06: It's because if you want to sell books and if you want to reach people with your writing, you're not just an author, you're also a business person.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_06: So with all that being said, let me introduce today's guest who is here to help us understand an important aspect of running a successful business, and that is hiring an assistant.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_06: My guest is Mitch Gray, who has combined over two decades of experience as a former pastor, life coach, entrepreneur, community developer, and creator to develop a brand of leadership that at its deepest level is human.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_06: Taking his heart for inspiring others and his passion for empowering leaders, Mitch creates the space needed to consider a new way of leading.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_06: Mitch is the creator and the host of the Mitch Gray Show podcast, author of multiple inspirational books, and a highly regarded speaker.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_06: Mitch has a new book coming out very soon, and it's called How to Hire and Keep Great People.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_06: The book focuses on designing great culture, where to find great people, the art of interviewing, how to develop employees once they're hired, and how to invest in your employees so they're fulfilled and want to build your company with you.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_06: And that's the very topic I wanted to ask Mitch about, since at the time of this recording, I was considering hiring an assistant to help out with the podcast and with the Daily Writer community.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_06: And in this conversation, we actually turn the tables and Mitch does a coaching session with me about why I need an assistant and the process for hiring someone.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_06: And as you're going to hear, Mitch offered a lot of great suggestions, which I followed in my hiring process.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_06: And I am thrilled to say I'm now working with a fantastic assistant.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_06: So if you're considering hiring someone for your team, you'll find a lot of value in this conversation.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_06: So let's get to the conversation with Mitch Gray.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_06: Mitch, welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_06: I'm so excited to have you on this episode.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_06: We've been planning this for a while.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_06: So glad that we have been able to do this and enter into this strange and wacky format we're going to do on this episode.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: Hey Ken, thanks for having me.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: I love it.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm excited, never done this before.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_04: So let's uh let's roll, see what happens.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, let's do it.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_06: Um, as I explained in the intro, uh, which I'll record that that separately a little bit later on.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_06: But as I explained, what we're doing here is kind of a role-playing kind of a deal.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_06: Uh would that be the most accurate way to do this, to say it is role-playing?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_04: I love the phrase role-playing.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_04: I tend to use it a lot, but it scares people.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_04: And so it does.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes I substitute role playing for maybe demonstration or you know, some prep practicing, but I love the term role playing.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: Let's bring it back.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_04: I love that.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, let's bring it back.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_06: So, not to be confused with cosplay, which is a whole different like I'm not dressed up as Gandalf right now.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_05: Or Bob is waiting, you're not, you're not?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_05: No, I'm I got dressed, I got dressed up for nothing.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_05: What's happening here?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, the the fact that you thought I was Gandalf, but I'm not.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_06: My wife tells me I need to update my wardrobe.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_06: She's like, hey, the 90s called, they want your dress shoes back.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_06: So I need to really take a look at this.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but here's the thing about fashion, brother, is it comes around.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_04: So if you keep doing a few more years, I feel like you're gonna look on you know GQ one day and see those same shoes from 95.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm you're at the point now, just hang on to them.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_06: I do literally have a pair of sweatpants from like 1991 that are still functional.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm gonna I'm just gonna hang on to them forever.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_04: Do it, do it, they're like disintegrating and stuff.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_04: Speaking of sweatpants, there's a brand called Champion, right?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_04: And Champion was big in the 90s, they disappeared.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_04: In the last couple of years, they made a major comeback.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, yeah, I should have totally hung on to that champion gear from the early 90s.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, yeah.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_06: I should have kept my my high tops for 87 or whatever it was.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, I'm getting I'm getting us off track.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_06: I'm derailing my own podcast here.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_04: I love it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_06: So the idea of this is um you have a book coming out called How to Hire and Keep Great People.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_06: And I love the title, by the way.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_06: I'm a big book title nerd, and that's a super direct title that explains what the benefit of it is.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_06: So I love that.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_06: But I am getting ready to possi very possibly hire my first assistant.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, this will be a virtual assistant.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_06: And so you're gonna walk me through some questions that I need to be thinking about, kind of like a coaching session.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm sort of like the client, you're sort of like the the coach asking questions.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_06: So let's dive in.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_06: I have no idea what you're gonna ask, but uh but I'm game for whatever you want to do.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um, to be honest, I don't either.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_04: We're just I'm gonna go off of my years of experience and we'll see how that plays out.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty good.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_04: I do want to tell people real quick um uh a little bit more about the book for for just a short kind of summary.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, an idea.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, first of all, it'll release in June, uh, probably probably the end of June.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_04: And so they can be it'll be available anywhere they can order or buy books.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it'll be in some brick and mortar stores, but I feel like right now everyone's ordering online.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: So um the book is really geared toward towards small business.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_04: And normally when people talk small business, they talk 30,500,000 employees or less.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely principles that anyone running any type of business, whether it's someone like you hiring an assistant or a corporation with many employees, the principles in the book are based on humanity and our behaviors and our desires and frailties and all of that.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, there's one thing I always tell people whether you're hiring one person or you're a solopreneur or you're running a corporation, human behavior doesn't change.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's the same.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_04: And it doesn't matter if you're Jeff Bezos or if you're uh Mitch Gray, human behavior doesn't change.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_04: And and the amount of money you have or the amount of employees you have doesn't change your behaviors.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_04: It may change your inclination just because you have more buying power per se.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_04: But human behavior doesn't change.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_04: So the book is very apropos to anyone.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the things and questions I'll ask you for you to consider are the same questions I would ask, you know, a small business owner with 400 employees.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_04: And so I know your audience is a lot smaller, but if someone listens to this, the questions don't change, they stay the same.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_04: And the reason the questions don't change is because humans don't change.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we are who we are, and for the most part, our behaviors stay the same again, regardless of how we scale those.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_04: And so I think people miss that.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I think, and that's what really led me to write the book is to me, the greatest missing piece when someone goes to interview, hire, recruit, develop is they forget the humanity of it.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and and even someone solo like you can be so focused on, well, I need certain tasks completed, and I don't necessarily have time for it.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: So you, but in thinking from that perspective, you're all of a sudden pulling the humanity away from the person you're hiring.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_04: You're focused on the task rather than focused on the person.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_04: And that's what you see, especially when teams get larger, four, five, six, seven hundred people.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_04: They're so focused on the job that needs done, they forget the most important value.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: And the most important value is the humanity of the person doing the job and the humanity of the person receiving whatever that job provides in the world.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_04: And when you shift it to that perspective, one of my favorite words is alignment.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: When you shift to an alignment perspective, it changes the game when it comes to deciding who you want, how you're gonna get them, and what you're gonna do with them after you do.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_04: So that's just kind of a general two-minute summary of what the book kind of touches on.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, thank you for the compliment on the title.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_04: You know, you've been in the book world long enough, you know you have a good title when every single person you talk to says, ooh, that's a good title.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_04: And that's the response I get every time.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm like, okay, I don't need to change the title.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: We're good to go.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: Nope, it's perfect.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, let's step into the role play, uh, Ken.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_04: So you're you're wanting to hire, you're wanting to hire an assistant.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_04: Um, first question is what's leading you to want to hire an assistant?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_04: What what what what thoughts have come into your mind?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_04: What challenges have you faced?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, what considerations have you made?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_04: What does that look like?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_06: So that's a great question.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you, uh, by the way.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_06: Let me share a little bit about what my business actually is.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_06: And this will actually maybe be informative for podcast listeners because even people who listen to this show regularly, they they may not actually know what goes on in my business.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_06: You know, they know obviously I have a podcast that I promote my daily writer community pretty frequently.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_06: They know I have you know some digital products and things like that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_06: I mentioned that I'm a ghostwriter occasionally on the show, but here's what my actual business looks like.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_06: So there's actually two parts to what I do in my business.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_06: One is is the client side, one is the kind of the community side.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_06: On the client side, I ghostwrite books typically for business leaders.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_06: I do some memoir stuff as well.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_06: But I have um right now I'm working on two books simultaneously, which is not unusual for ghostwriters.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_06: And I've got two or three others that are very strong possibilities.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_06: So that's one thing that I do in my business.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_06: The other side of it is um sort of the writer training side, which this podcast is a part of that.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_06: I run uh my daily writer community, that's a part of that.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_06: And um what else do I do?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_06: Is I write my own books.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_06: I'm working on actually three books right now that'll be out within the next two years as part of that stuff too.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_06: So I have those two sides of it, but I'm spending a lot of my time doing administrative stuff instead of being on more Zoom calls with prospective clients, instead of creating my own content.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_06: I'm I'm just doing a lot of stuff like podcast show notes.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_06: Um I recently outsourced my podcast editing, actually.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_06: So that was helpful.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_06: Saved a little bit of time, but I'm doing a lot of just a lot of little things that eat up 30 minutes there, an hour there, 15 minutes here and there, when I really need to focus on the things that are driving revenue and creating content because I know those are the two activities that I need to be focusing on.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so you're looking at really in in in one sentence, maximizing your time.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: So you can focus on output and not necessarily have to focus on day-to-day administrative.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_04: There are quite a few of those things you could you could source out however that looks.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and maybe a little bit more info.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_06: So here's the so my main source of revenue currently is ghostwriting books.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_06: Those tend to be large projects, they take up a lot of time.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_06: Um, like an average book project, if I'm ghostwriting it, um, I'm gonna say it's anywhere from 100 to 150 hours, depending on the book, could be more than that, depending on what the book project is.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_06: So these are these are kind of very large projects that pay well, but they also take up a lot of time as well.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_06: So um then there's the other side of it where I make revenue from uh my my daily writer community membership fees, um, digital products, book sales, a little bit of affiliate income.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_06: Um that's pretty much it.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_06: So I want to focus on doing things that are driving revenue in those different things.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_04: What um a few questions that'll kind of line up with that.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_04: What what's differentiating uh you from hiring more of a based on a project, um, project a project versus maybe hiring someone?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna use the phrase full time, they may not be full-time.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um so in other words, you have a few options.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_04: You you could hire a VA virtual assistant, project a project, or you could hire someone to have more consistently.
• 13:52
  unknown: Okay.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_04: What's differentiated those those two paths for you, or have you differentiated those?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_06: I haven't really differentiated those things.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_06: I've I've not uh I've paid freelancers for things like graphic design, editing, stuff like that, but I've never hired an assistant for anything.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm really, really inexperienced with all this.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm not sure I have differentiated.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_04: So that would be one thing to differentiate those two.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_04: In other words, if you're you know looking, let's just use accounting, for example.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe you already have an accountant, but let's just say you did and you've got some accounting type things with you know, maybe you're increasing your revenue, so you're gonna have to increase your output a little bit financially, and you're like, Man, I really need someone to give me 10 hours a week on this.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so there's there's that cup.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, there's the cup of administrative type stuff.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe it's documentation, maybe it's contracts, maybe it's pitching.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_04: So then there's that cup.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_04: And so then the decision is okay, do I hire obviously an accountant and administrative maybe totally separate, but I think you get the point of different tasks could fall under into different cups.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_04: Um so then the thought would be what are you desiring?
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: You know, that's the real question.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_04: Do you desire someone that can really be a true or more traditional assistant?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_04: You know, back in the day, an assistant was someone that could do everything from bringing a cup of coffee to uh send out your next pitch line to uh send out your batch emails, or you know, there's that traditional assistant, and then there's the more specialized things.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_04: And so it's really what is your desire?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: Is your desire to have someone available 20 hours a week, or is your desire just to let go of some of those responsibilities that um are taking away from your creative output?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_06: I would say it's a mix of both things.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_06: Initially, my thought was to hire somebody for uh kind of on a trial basis of like five hours a week.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_06: Um really, I would have enough work to have somebody do probably easily 15 or 20 hours a week if I if I really wanted to.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_06: That would take a lot of stuff off my plate, honestly.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_06: But starting out probably five, maybe even 10 hours a week, doing a variety of things from proofing podcast show notes, probably writing my podcast show notes, which sounds weird because it's I've done that for forever, um, uploading stuff to my website, you know, formatting blog posts, um sending things to podcast guests, um, maybe even scheduling podcast guests, just uh loads of stuff like that, and also some things related to my writing community.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_06: Like, for example, whenever we have a community call, we do those on Zoom, like everybody else does, and it generates a video.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_06: Well, that video has to be converted, it has to be uploaded to YouTube, then I have to put it in my membership site.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_06: I've got to have the audio extracted from that.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_06: I've got to write up a description for it, it's got to be posted in the Facebook group.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I send out an email every week to this.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_06: There's lots of little things like that that I really need somebody to take off my plate.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_04: So real, real traditional kind of assistant type.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_04: I would say so.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_04: So that'd be the first thing is really to clarify what what you're wanting and what your desire is.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_04: And then and then it would be have you written down that list?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_04: Like you just rattled off a bunch of a bunch of.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_06: No, I have not written it down yet.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's the idea of organizing that list and saying, okay, if I have 10 hours a week, this is exactly what I need this person to do.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: And the reason that's valuable is when there is no clarity, it causes incredible frustration, both from your vantage point and from the person you're hiring.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: And the other thing is you can't hire someone if you have no clarity.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_06: Exactly.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_04: And and and it's not just with solopreneurs like you, this is across the board.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_04: You read job boards, and people think they're giving a great job description, but I read the two-page job description and still go, I have no idea what that person is going to be doing.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_06: It's all written in corporate speak and all that jazz.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's exactly right.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_04: And it's kind of the same, but but again, I go back to the idea of human behavior.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_04: Kind of our human behavior says in your situation, well, I know I need some things done.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: I know I'm really busy, I know I need to let go of some things.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_04: But oftentimes we never sit down and go, okay, what are those actually, what do those things actually look like?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_04: What is that person going to do with every hour of their time with those 10 hours a week?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_04: How because without that clarity, two things are going to happen.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: You're going to have low functionality and you're going to have little accountability because it's impossible to hold someone accountable with something they don't understand.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_04: And so that would be your next step is writing down those things that you just mentioned and going, okay, I would have two columns.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_04: One column is here are the things that I think I need done.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_04: And then after you've written that column, the second column is here are the things that I really need done, taken from caught from column A.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_04: Because oftentimes reading through what you think you need done, you can either let go of some things, do them yourself, or eradicate them totally.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that's just kind of day-to-day living as humans.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_04: So that's task, that's jobs, right?
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_04: So that'll help you come up with your job description.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: The next question is what type of person do you want to be aligned with?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_04: What's that?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_04: You you mentioned emails and you mentioned editing, and you mentioned um, you know, maybe some interaction with your community.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_04: That person is acting on your behalf, and so there is a moral compass that has to be defined there.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_04: What does that person look like, speak like, feel like, act like?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: Who is that person?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_04: Let's just define your ideal situation.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_06: So the type of person that I'm looking for, somebody who is uh good with writing, they don't have to be Shakespeare, but they can do basic proofreading.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_06: They can look over a blog post and recognize, hey, I need to fix Kent's grammar here because I still my problem is that I write stuff so fast that I literally this happens all the time.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_06: I literally leave out words and sentences because I just I just write so quickly.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_06: So it would help to have somebody who's good with uh with those kinds of things.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_06: Um but the flip side is that uh they not only need to be good with that, they also need to be good really good with people.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_06: That's actually more important, probably because they've got to be uh empathetic, kind, they have to follow up quickly, reply back to people.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_06: Um I'm not sure what other language to to put on that, except they just need to be good with people.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_04: How would this person look in their personal life?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, that's a good question.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_06: I I never really thought about that.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um what kind of activities would they participate in?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_04: Who what would their friend circle look like?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, okay.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_06: I would say they need to they need to to be a person who loves books, they love to read.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_06: They love writing, they love what writing can do.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_06: They don't have to be an expert, but uh they they have a uh I I would consider it a uh a necessity, they would need to have a basic love for reading and writing, and and then the culture of what that means.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_06: And what I mean by that is they they regularly are buying and reading books, they love to talk about books, they love to talk to authors, they love authors and they want to help writers.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_06: Like if if the if a person doesn't have a basic love for the culture of writing in books, then that to me is an automatic uh they're probably not the best fit for what I'm doing.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_06: That's to that's kind of hard to define, even when you're asking somebody about that.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_06: But I think when you have a conversation, you can kind of pick up they really love this area.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, yeah, I love that.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_04: What outside of books, uh kind of language culture, what type of activities do they?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Take part in this perfect person you're hiring.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_06: Wow.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_06: Um I have never given that a second's thought.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_06: I have no idea.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not even sure what I would look for.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_06: I except I would probably say they need to have some awareness of probably pop culture.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_06: I think they need to be a fan of the arts because that's a big part of my heart is engaged with creativity and culture and music and movies and storytelling and things like things like that.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_06: Um and it doesn't mean they have to be a movie geek like I necessarily.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_06: But but I think it does mean whenever they're reading over my content and helping with it, they need to understand the references I'm making to some degree.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_06: When I talk about Gandalf, you know, or when I when I talk about uh, hey, this thing happened in the Empire Strikes Back, I think most people know what that means, but but they need to have kind of an awareness of that.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I think to be effective.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_04: Why do you think, you know, that's that's a few questions that are kind of like your response has been, oh wow.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I can tell from your response, it's like, okay, so how is that connected to hiring the right person?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I think it is connected for sure.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's it's totally connected because then the question becomes, why is that valuable?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: Why is it valuable to really identify what that person, you know, how they live, move, and have their being outside of workplace culture.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:27
  unknown: Yeah.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: And for so for you, the question becomes, why is that important for you?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_06: Well, it's it's really important for me because a major value that I have is that the people that I collaborate with, whatever that collaboration looks like, I need to basically be in sync with those people, meaning that we need to value very similar things.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_06: I'm a I'm very much a no-drama person.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_06: I hate I hate conflict.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I don't I don't hate good conflict.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_06: I hate unnecessary conflict, drama, interpersonal drama, gossip, and all that garbage.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_06: Like I just have zero tolerance for it.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_06: Um, because peace and harmony is something I value very highly in my life.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_06: I'm very, very generous.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_06: I'm I'm kind to the people in my life.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_06: And that to me is like a super basic, really, really important aspect of people that I that I work with that I would want to hire.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_04: That's exactly right.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_04: And far too often, and again, it doesn't matter if you're a solopreneur, very small business, small business or corporation, far too often people forget that that those type of alignments really, really matter.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they matter because if you if you hire people that are happy and you continue to empower and ignite that happiness, that person's performance and loyalty and opportunity for success is going to continue to rise.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_04: In fact, it's I I could argue that it'll never be untapped.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_04: And when you hire people that aren't aligned with everything you just mentioned, it causes frustration for you and it causes frustration for the employee.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_04: And um, that that is this is what I call proactive hiring.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's really painting the picture of who you're looking for, what they believe in, what their life looks like.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_04: And so many people get scared of that because 30, 40 years ago, when uh diversity and inclusion became kind of first became a really major movement, that's kind of when the whole, you know, we don't, we're not gonna, we're not gonna penalize you for your sex, rake that race, ethnicity.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_04: And it's almost like the pendulum swung.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_04: And so this language of who are they, what do they look like?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_04: Oftentimes people get scared of that language because they're like, Why I I will accept any race, ethnicity.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that's not what we're talking about.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_04: We're talking about at a human level.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_04: Is this person involved in social clubs, bowling clubs?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_04: You you named it, they read a lot, they love reading, they love the culture.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: That's what we're talking about.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_04: And if if more leaders and employers would proactively hire, it changes the game.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_04: It changes the game.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: And because right here with your situation, you're hiring one person, you better get it right.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because it's actually more cost costly for someone like you to hire one person and get it wrong, yes, than it is for a corporation to hire 40 people and get it wrong.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's much more costly to you.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_04: Because they could wreck my whole business potentially, 100%, or set at minimum set you back.
• 26:37
  unknown: Yeah.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: Minimum set you back with energy output.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_04: So then the next question becomes I want to come back to that a little bit, but then the next question becomes what is your um, I'm gonna use the word brand because we have to think about that.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_04: What is your brand presence?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_04: What is your brand compass when people look at you and your business and and the presence that you have on this earth?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_04: What do you want them to see?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_06: Wow, that that's a good that's a very good question.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_06: I'd never really thought about it like that.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_06: What I perceive that my brand is in terms of how people interface with me related to business things.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_06: Now, that would, to me, that would include obviously clients.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_06: It would include people in my community, people who listen to this podcast, people who are interacting with me online, uh, those kinds of things, newsletter, subscribers, that kind of stuff.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_06: Uh what I perceive that my brand is is um number one, a little bit self-deprecating, and these are not necessarily in order of importance, a little self-deprecating, like I don't take myself too seriously, you know.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_06: Um number two, empathetic.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_06: Um place a high value on relationships and other people's experiences and am sensitive to that and never want to make anybody feel dishonored or that kind of stuff.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_06: Uh number three, obviously loves books and writing.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_06: Um gosh, what else?
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_06: I I think kindness and relationship are the that is consistently what people tell me.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_06: One of the areas where they feel like I I really exceed is relationships with people.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_06: I'm constantly connecting with people.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_06: I try to be generous and thoughtful and helpful.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_06: Uh which actually a minute ago I I wrote down a couple things as far as like fundamentals that I would want in an assistant, these are things that I feel like are fundamental in my whole business.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_06: Number one is a positive orientation.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_06: Meaning just a positive outlook on life.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_06: It doesn't mean you always have to be on cloud nine, but it it I think it does mean you're generally you're just oriented as a positive person.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_06: And I think people are you're either positive or negative.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_06: Um but the second thing is just an orientation of how can I help other people.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_06: You're engaging with every situation and every interaction with the idea of how can I add value to this person?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_06: What can I bring to the table?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_06: Regardless of whether you think it's going to result in something, it's just a life attitude of I'm gonna interface with this day and with other people in a way where I'm always thinking, what value can I add to others?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_06: And the reason I think that's important is because that's when we're actually the happiest, whenever we're trying to help others.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_06: And that's when we're most blessed.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_06: And I think that's when we tend to have better clients and we have better interactions, and it's just kind of a life orientation.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm really glad you're asking all these things because it's making me think of things that I would not have thought of otherwise.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_06: That was a long answer, by the way.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I love that.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, those are all incredibly valuable because, and again, I want to point out kind of the missing piece, and and this is where many leaders miss the point of hiring.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_04: The point of hiring is not for someone else to get a job done.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: The point of hiring is to equip your brand, company, business with the most empowered army of representatives possible.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_04: Because when you have that empowered army of representatives that are aligned, that know their job well, that do their job well, that are excited, in your case, empathetic, compassionate, good listeners, excited about the reading culture.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_04: When you get that army of one for your situation correct, it'll change everything.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I could argue that just having that person for 10 hours a week might possibly double your opportunities in business over the next year at minimum.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_04: At minimum.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_04: But it's that clarity.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_04: And when you go in without that clarity and without that reflection of what do I really want my brand to be?
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_04: What do I want people to think about when they see my company, when they see my logo, when they see my name?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, when my representative is representing me, how do I want their voice to come across?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I don't want them to be a robot, but I need them to be aligned with certain things.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_04: That voice is powerful.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_04: And so you've you've you've spelled out your desire, you've kind of written out here's exactly what I need this person to do, and you can work through that.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_04: You've painted the picture of what you want this person to look like very well, in my opinion.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_04: And so then now I'm gonna give you the gold, right?
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_04: Here, here's the real gold.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_04: And by the way, for anyone listening that may have a friend in business that may happen to be a part of a small business or corporation, all these uh principles and actions are applicable.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: The gold is this.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_04: So, where do you find that person?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_06: So, actually, I already I I have someone in mind, I'm actually interviewing them this afternoon.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_06: It's not even really an interview, it's just kind of a conversation about the potential of it.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_06: I was actually not considering really hiring somebody until this friend of mine said, Hey, I've got this person who I've hired part-time, they're really, really awesome.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_06: And then I was like, Oh man, I should really think about doing that.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_06: I could really use some help.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_06: So I I wasn't even really looking for this.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_06: But aside from that, that that's a great question.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_06: If this other person wasn't kind of on my radar screen, I know there's VA hiring agencies, and I know lots of people who have assistance and stuff.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_06: So I guess I would just ask some of them where they hired people.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not really sure what else I would do, honestly.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's um a great point because that's where a lot of people find themselves.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna give you some opportunities to consider.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_04: You could either use these for actually finding a person or use them to practice finding a person.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_04: I believe 100% in recruiting firsthand, especially if you're a one-off like yourself trying to hire one person.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um, bookstores are the obvious answer in your situation.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_04: I would go to every and things are opening up right now.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_04: So I would go to every bookstore and I would just watch as you're sitting there shopping for books, watch the workers, watch how they interact with customers.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_04: When you're sitting by the customer service table perusing a magazine, because really you're just out recruiting, and you overhear the customer service person say, Oh, yeah, I can show you that book.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_04: And by the way, we just got another new book in by a similar author.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_04: That's when your antenna goes up.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_04: They're great at customer service.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_04: They suggested something outside the box and they know their stuff.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_04: They're obviously excited about it because they want to sell it.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_04: So you're looking for those little tips while you're in the bookstore.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um, for your person, coffee shops would make another great place to recruit.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_04: Pete baristas are normally a blanket statement, but they're normally pretty creative.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_04: They're normally outside the box stinkers, they're normally hard workers, and quite frankly, most of baristas I know are book lovers, yes, movie lovers, and they just love the idea of culture and creativity.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, which is a huge part of what I do.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_04: Another opportunity you have is college campuses.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: The English department, the literature department, college students, especially now, they're looking for part-time opportunities.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_04: I guarantee you there is a raving literature student or uh or English department student that would love nothing more than to work for someone like you for 10 hours a week.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_04: It lets them use what they've learned in real-world situations.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_04: It lets them get their foot in the door with someone like you.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe they're going to get to network and meet other people.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_04: College students for someone like you is prime material for getting that person that's ready to work hard, ready to network.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_04: I love the idea of college students for someone like you because they're probably ahead of the curve on technology a little bit.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_04: They love social media.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, you and I joked about this before.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: We're kind of that age that we we use social media because it's there.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_04: We don't really love social media.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_04: And so to find someone's does.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_04: To find someone that their whole life is kind of built on that and that generation is, that's another um idea for you.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_04: So I think I think bookstores, coffee shops, and college campuses.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: And if your interview today doesn't hit it out of the park, I would go to those places just to learn how to scout and how to recruit.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because there are crazy, and you can do the same thing online, you know, on LinkedIn.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_04: You can find book clubs that people are part of.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you can go find, you know, various subcultures, maybe on Reddit or somewhere like that.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: Look at the conversation those people are having and get to know some of those people.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_04: And you can find pipelines of opportunity um that maybe you haven't dug into before.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_06: That's fantastic.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_06: Wow.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_06: I had never thought about any of those places for potentially hiring people because all of my friends who have an online business and this kind of stuff, they're a lot of them are hiring people from overseas, which is totally fine.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_06: Um, they're going to lots of other places, but there is something valuable about that face-to-face connection as well.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_06: Even if the stuff they're doing is online, just knowing somebody in real life, I think can be really helpful.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_04: And to see that with what I call skin on, to see someone in in the bookstore performing, they're not in an interview, they're doing the things they do every day, you're gonna get a much better feel.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_04: And again, for someone that's in maybe a larger business or wants to hire someone virtually, I would still go use those principles and practice what you're looking for.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_04: Because then when you see it online, uh you know what that looks like.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_04: And you and you, your radar is at a much higher level than if you don't have a frame of reference, if you're just going in blindly.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_04: Which which really leads kind of quickly to my second piece of gold.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_04: Again, for any level of business, um, we're dealing with you with one person, but that second piece of gold is what questions are you going to ask in an interview now that you've mapped out some of these things that you want to see?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_06: That is a great question.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_06: And the answer is I don't know.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_06: I have not really thought about that.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_06: Uh it's something obviously I need to think about.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and you're about to do an interview, so yes, a way of work to do that.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, well, I it's not necessarily an interview I'm doing.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_06: It's kind of just talking about this person's background a little bit and getting to know them a little bit.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, it's just an introductory conversation, but it is kind of an interview, I guess, in a way.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm going to give you five questions that anyone can ask in an interview and that you're going to ask today because you have to practice.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_04: The first question is my$64 million question that I ask in any interview I've ever done in my life, and that is it's a statement.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me a little bit about yourself.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_04: That's the opening statement of every interview.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_04: So, Sarah, tell me a little bit about yourself.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_04: The reason that's so powerful is within their response, I would say 80% of the time you can tell if it's going to be someone you're going to hire or not.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_04: Because if I say, hey, Kent, tell me a little bit about yourself, and you start telling me how you really love podcasts and you love movies, and you're a ghostwriter and you love books, I'm now really intrigued.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_04: But if your response is, well, like, what are you looking for?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_04: Then it's like, okay, I'm going to see where this conversation goes, but so far it's not going great because I want someone who takes initiative.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_04: I want someone who's creative.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_04: I want someone who's a connector.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_04: And an initiative, uh, a person who takes initiative is creative, and a connector is never going to respond with, I'm not sure where to go.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, they're gonna they're gonna figure out where to go without being told.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, that's exactly right.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_04: The other reason that statement, tell me a little bit about yourself, is valuable because depending on the story they tell, you can chase trails.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_04: So, in other words, um, if I'm interviewing you and you tell me, yeah, I'm a ghostwriter, I'm gonna be like, ooh, I want to hear more about that.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_04: So later on, I'm gonna come back to that question.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, tell me a little bit more about ghostwriting.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_04: What made you get into that?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_04: Because what that tells me, assumptively, this guy's a ghostwriter.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_04: Is he also writing books on his own, or does he just love the value of ghostwriting?
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_04: That says something about you, and I want to learn more about what that's telling me.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: You're telling me a story as an interviewee, and all I'm doing is asking the right questions to learn more of that story.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_04: Because I know in my head who I want to hire, and so now I need to hear your story so that I know if you're the person that aligns with what and who I'm wanting.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_04: So the first of the five is a statement.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_04: Tell me a little bit more about yourself.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: The next four questions are going to relate to your clarity on what you want.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_04: So you mentioned empathy about 10 times.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: So the question the question for you specifically would be Hey, can you tell me a time that you either experienced or gave someone empathy?
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_04: Share with me a time that you gave empathy or share or experienced empathy.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_04: For you specifically, question number three would be Do you love books?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_04: And if so, after they answer it, why do you love books?
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_04: A book lover in your situation, and this could be applied to anything.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_04: If someone is listening and they work in IT, it could be, do you love technology?
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_04: If someone's working in fashion, do you love fashion?
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_04: Because people when they're interviewing go, well, that's too clear of a question.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, it's that's exactly what you want.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_04: You want a clear-cut question.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_04: Do you love books?
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_04: A book lover is gonna say this.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_04: Kent, I will never forget my first book.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_04: It was Old Yeller when I was in elementary school, and this is my true story.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_04: And I remember being in second or third grade, and our teacher read it to us because she said it was such a powerful story that she wanted to read it to us.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I remember being a child at the end of the story, just tears running down my face from the story of Old Yeller.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_04: I remember the first book that was given to me, it was Max Lacato in the Eye of the Storm.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_04: And spiritually, that was such a major book for me.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_04: I had to have been 11 or 12 years old, I don't remember, and someone gave me that.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_04: I think my dad gave it to me as a gift.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_04: And I consumed that book, and it was just such a powerful story of how you know God, the universe, Jesus, how how we have that presence with us even in the moment of the storm.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_04: I read that book 30 something years ago, and I can still remember.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_04: I love books, I love written word.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_04: So, a book lover, when you say, Do you love books?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_04: they're not going to tell you yes or no.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_04: A real book lover is gonna share with you in the spirit.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_04: That's what you want to hear.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_04: Question number four Why are you interested in this position?
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: The response to that question is incredibly uh telling.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_04: Why are you applying for this position?
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I just need a job.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_04: I just saw the ad on indeed and thought I would try.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_04: Not really digging that response, right?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_04: I applied I applied for this position because I want to learn more about writing, because I believe in the power of books, because I love culture, because I want to connect with more people.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_04: That's the person you're really looking at.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_04: And the last and final question, and again, these are questions that could be reshaped for any industry, any size.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_04: The last question is what makes you get up every day?
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_04: What's your motivation for life?
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_04: Something to that effect.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_04: So those are just those are just really four questions in one statement.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_04: But those are just five elements of an interview that after those simple questions, you'll know everything you need to know if that's the right person or not.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_06: You know, the interesting thing is that these are questions that I need to think through myself because clients often ask me different versions of these questions.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_06: Sometimes the exact questions they always ask me when I meet with somebody for the first time, they always ask me, so tell me a little bit about yourself.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_06: They literally say that exact thing.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_06: And so you know, this is this is so helpful because if we do client work, we we've got to think through how are we going to answer this.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_06: Um because really, at least with ghostwriting, people tend to ask the same questions over and over again.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_06: They ask me, tell me a little bit about yourself, how does the ghostwriting process work?
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, and other relationships.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_06: So man, this is helpful.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_06: You have like solved a major problem that I didn't even know that I had.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_06: So I think that's right.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_06: Like that's just that's the mark of a great coach, really, is uh you're you're demonstrating that hey, you got a problem.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_06: Here's how you solve it.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_06: So this is this is awesome.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_04: You're welcome.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_04: And again, I want to say for the listeners, this is applicable, no matter if you have 5,000 employees or one, everything in between, no matter your industry.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_04: And the reason that you you identify the common um common thread between when you're kind of being interviewed for a potential client.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_04: The reason they're asking the same questions is because they understand human behavior.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't change.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: And we started the conversation on that on that note, is it's it's all about bringing the humanity back.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_04: And I will I will give a little bit of a forewarning.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not a major fan of third-party hiring apps and virtual interviews.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not a major fan of that.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_04: Virtual, by virtual, I mean word, um, camera is different, but I'm not a fan of that because when you look at at applications from third-party apps or when they want to ask your resume, they don't ever include those five elements.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_04: They never tap into the humanity of it.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_04: They give you the job description, they want to know your um your certifications or your education or your training or your experiences.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_04: The problem with it is I can have all of those and still be a terrible employee for your company.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_04: So until you tap into the human side, nothing else matters.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_04: If you, if, if your potential uh client, uh candidate for being your employee, being your assistant, if they don't push through the five elements we just talked about, it doesn't matter how fast they can type, it doesn't matter what they understand through uh social media, it doesn't matter if they understand email systems or uh or you know, if you use things like HubSpot or whatever, MailChimp, none of that matters because they don't align and connect with what you're desiring.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so we have to flip the script and get the humanity part right before any of the other stuff even should come into play.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's why recruiting, personally recruiting, is the single most powerful way to hire people.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_04: I have a thing I tell um, kind of a statement I tell businesses 80% of your employees should have been hired by you or your leadership.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_04: They should have been recruited and hired.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_04: The other 20% can be gravy on the biscuits from third-party apps.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_04: If that ratio is split, you're constantly gonna have high turnover and employee dissatisfaction.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_04: And people say, well, what if I'm a large company?
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_04: Great.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_04: You teach your leadership team how to recruit and how to hire.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_04: That's the easy solution.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_04: You teach your star employees how to recruit and how to hire.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_04: Because your best employees should always be bringing people to the table.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_06: I love it.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_04: So there you go.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_04: We did it.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_06: Wow, this is fantastic.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_06: Mitch, I am immensely grateful.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_06: You have walked us through this.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_06: This is really, really helpful.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_04: Love it.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_06: So um, I will have links to all your stuff in the show notes.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_06: Um, anything else that you want to share with people in terms of uh obviously you have your book.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_06: Anything else that you want to share in terms of offerings, um, where people can find you, any of that cool stuff?
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_04: Sure, sure.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I'm always taking clients.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_04: Right now, I'm really trying to kind of up.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_04: You you mentioned really development and growth, and I'm the same.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so if you're a soul opener, uh, then I'm I'm willing to work with you.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_04: If you have a small business uh or know someone who does, I am taking clients and I would love to connect.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_04: Um we'll put I won't mention all my connections because we'll put those in the show notes, but my website is MitchCray Media.com.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_04: And so we are shaping that a little differently over the next few months.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_04: So you'll see that um kind of shape up.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I do have a podcast myself, the Mitch Gray Show.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um that's G R A Y.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_04: So you can listen to the show.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_04: We do a lot of stuff like this on the show, and uh pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts, go subscribe.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_06: Awesome.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_06: This has been immensely helpful.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_06: So thanks for being on the show and for adding so much value to our listeners, but also to me today.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_06: I've learned a ton.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_06: This has been awesome.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_04: I love it.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks, Kent.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_06: Hey, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Mitch.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_06: I would say my main takeaway from this conversation was the importance of asking the right questions in the interview process.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_06: And I'll confess that this is the first time I've ever hired anybody for anything.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm very green with all this hiring stuff and interviewing and all that.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_06: And Mitch's suggestions for questions in the hiring process were actually really, really helpful to me.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_06: And I also want to highlight the importance of investing in yourself and your business by hiring someone.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_06: So if you're making money with your business, could you be even more productive if you outsource the things that you don't want to do or aren't good at?
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_06: And how much further could you go in your business if you did?
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_06: Those are just some things to think about.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I want to give a huge thanks to Mitch Gray for taking the time to be a guest on this episode.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_06: You can connect with him at mitchgraymedia.com, and his other social media links will be in the show notes.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_06: I also want to encourage you to be on the lookout for his brand new book, How to Hire and Keep Great People, which will be coming out very soon.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_06: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_06: I want to take a moment to let you know about our daily writer membership community.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_06: You know, one of the very best ways to develop better habits and impact more people's lives with your writing is to spend time around other successful writers.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_06: So if you're tired of feeling isolated and tasting success on your own, then I know you're gonna love the Daily Writer community.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_06: For years, I searched for the kind of writing community that I would want to join, but I could never find what I wanted, so I created my own.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_06: Some of the features include weekly writing sprints, monthly community calls, book discussions, calls with guest experts, and much more.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_06: For more info, you can visit dailywriterlife.comslash community.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_06: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.