Hiring A-Players: Why Mindset Matters More Than Skills For Building Your Dream Team

Petter Erik: [00:00:00] so the basic in this episode is You should always look for someone, that are an A player. There is an A player out there. You need to believe there is an A player. So I hope this short episode help you to think more about hiring and will inspire you to hire more people. please leave a comment give some feedback if you like this episode. I started my [00:01:00] first company in 2001 2002 and I have hired a lot of people and one of the things that I figured out in 2016 that I wanted to start a company that I didn’t need to have employees. So it could be just Maria and me running a company together. And I think it was a brilliant idea because we wanted to have more freedom and also move to a warmer place. Petter Erik: we started with that and it went really well. but after a while, we are still ambitious, so we come to the maximum of what we could do, just two of us. So we figured out we need to start to hire people again. and, and before we hired the first person, uh, we also had a plan. mentor that we talk with about this because I was trying to talk me out of hiring people and trying to find a way to automate thing or make it easier or whatever. And, and he said to me, Petterik, my first experience with having online business, when I [00:02:00] understand that I need to treat it like a normal business, Online business is a normal business and you need people to work for you. also another Entrepreneur that I was in a mastermind said will really hit me was that you need to hire a person Three months before you really need it and I think that was one of the thing that took me because before when I ran companies, I always hired because I was in a Kind of deep shit. I come to a place where I need the person because we was overload. We just needed it And and when you need a person you just hire the first one who comes up I talk with so many entrepreneurs and I also done it by myself the mistakes that I come to A place where I just have a friend that said oh, maybe we can work together And I didn’t use any time on the hiring process and see if it was the right person And when I did that Almost 9 out of 10 times it was a mistake to do it. Also [00:03:00] seeing that with entrepreneur, you hire a friend or you hire someone you know or someone who are around you. And first of all, maybe it’s not so good to have a friend working for you. It can work, but you still, you should still think about it like a hiring process. It’s like if you go into a relationship and are dating a man or a woman or something, you’re not, You’re just not deciding on the first date that you’re going to move together and married It takes some time. You need to check out this thing And one of my mentors said to me one time Or he has a quote that I really like higher slow fire fast. I think this is one of the most challenging thing for entrepreneur because we low people. We really I low people. So when I see someone that I start to work with, and I really like them like a person, but I forget to see is this a person that are really helping me to get more freedom, and also less stress in life, or is it someone were bringing in more stress in [00:04:00] life and give me less freedom? And this happens so many times. So you just need to be really hard with it. And I think the problem with hiring the wrong person, the person also doesn’t feel good about it. So we are doing a favor if you just fire a person when you figure it out. And also this thing with hiring slow, firing fast. It’s just to use a long time to do the hiring process, have other candidates, use time on interviewing, ask your questions. And one of the things that I have figured out for myself, I should trust the gut feeling. And because I’m many times like, Oh, the CV looks really good. The, the history of the person looks super good. Everything looks good. But I start to get the Little bit bad stomach feeling. I remember the last person we had that, uh, in Awesome, uh, it was a person that, um, looks really good, did a good job, and did everything good in the start, but I still had this small stomach feeling. [00:05:00] Bad stomach feeling and I told Maria many times I have this. I don’t know what it is Everything looks perfect in them, but I just have a gut feeling that is something wrong and it was something wrong And the thing is like you should always trust your gut feeling Even if everything looks perfect because it will cost you so much more time stress money And frustration if you hire a wrong person than if you just, wait and find the right person. And also I know that many entrepreneurs also kind of give up the hiring process because they tried so many and they never find the right one. And they’re thinking always, Oh, I’m doing this so good. So every time I try to get someone in, I need to go in and do it and this is kind of the ego thing that you take over for a person again But another thing is like you’re hiring someone and they are not the right person and you give up There is a perfect match for you out there. There is a perfect match for me out there Why also recording this episode now is because I [00:06:00] am in the middle of a hiring process now I was reading this book was called Ready set fire is his name. I don’t remember his first name before but that’s a really good entrepreneur book And he’s saying something when you hire someone if they’re not surprising you in a good way The three first week is not uh a player and if you are feeling that They don’t deliver what you’re expecting the tree first week. You should just get rid of them In entrepreneurial company that are growing, uh, you should have a turnover between 50 to 70 Because it’s so hard to find the right person and I also have this experience We can use a long time on the hiring process, but still we are doing mistakes when we hire them But it’s all about to fire fast when you figure out that someone are not working if someone doesn’t work and they’re doing kind of strange thing the first three, four weeks and even the let’s say the six first weeks that you have maybe teach them thing. If they’re not [00:07:00] delivering in that six weeks, you should stop thinking about, oh, there is something wrong with me or there’s something wrong with how I teach. Her or him this process because it’s not a match that doesn’t mean that the person is Is stupid or not capable to do stuff. It’s just not the right match for you. I have for example this thing like I like entrepreneur I can give him halfway messages and I really believe that I do Give a really good explanation of what I want to have done, but I am saying can you make this for me and someone are saying yes, a really a player for me is then we’re coming back to me and I have one of this in my team coming back to me and saying, Patrick, is this what you want? And I’m saying no, I don’t want this. I want blah, blah, blah. And others are just like getting my half message, trying to do it, coming back with a totally wrong thing and work with it for it. Two or three or four weeks. So this was not what I expected. it’s not you are Doing something wrong. It’s all about to look at what [00:08:00] kind of needs you have because you are hiring someone You’re trying to find a person that are going to match You you are not going to change You need to find a person who can change or you need to find a person that Match you that’s a player for you and especially for me I need someone who can take my messages come back to me see if this is what I mean and do and do it and and one of my mentors also said one time like you should build a business around the worst version of yourself. And for example, the worst version of me. It’s uh I am not detail oriented. So I lose a lot of thing with details mean with the worst version of myself or what he mean it was Rich Sheffrin, by the way, so say this quote if I don’t Find someone who can match me with what i’m really really bad at Then my company will never grow You And a thing that many entrepreneurs also do wrong is like they’re trying to hire someone who are like themself, because we like ourself. So if you find someone that are, Oh, this [00:09:00] is a nice person, I can explain what I need, and then person really understand it. But that’s not how you grow a company, you’re not growing a company with copying yourself, then it will be more chaotic, especially for me. If I had two or three of me in the company, it will be just a disaster. Everything will be screwed up and it will just be a mess and it will be a thousand ideas. So I need someone who are different from myself that can help me to implement all the things that I want in the company and checking in I go back to thinking about, I am in a hiring process now. And I think the most important thing for me is like I get so excited When I get back to the hiring process because I believe in people and right now i’m looking at the application I get for this position and I get so many great application and I believe that one of this is a player And a player I think I have figured out for myself if I have three or four a players in my company That’s so magic. I remember darren harley had a book called the [00:10:00] Entrepreneurial roller coaster and in that book he says like Say something about hiring an A player. It’s costing a lot of money, but it’s a good investment. It’s kind of an ROI. And I had this discussion with my finance manager, and I had a discussion with all the people that are not risk takers like me. Oh, you can’t hire someone who costs 10k per month, because you don’t have money for it. I’m not saying that 10, can, Pay someone 10k per month and that’s it. I’ll be a perfect person But if someone has the right attitude the right values all the right things and they can do the job It’s helpful for you to have someone who? Cost you 10k that really can bring in more money or release you from a lot of work So you can bring in more money than having someone you pay two or three k and it’s just like You Just a normal, average person, because you need to work or teach that. I remember my last company, uh, [00:11:00] in Norway, we have something that, uh, government support for people that are unemployed. and we think this was a genius idea, because we didn’t have so much money. Uh, so we could get people for 3, 6, or 9, or 12 months, almost for free, because we gave them a job. I was thinking like, oh, this is brilliant. We get people to do stuff for us But what I didn’t think about is like how much time I used to teach them thing how much time I used to Follow them up how much time I did that and as an entrepreneur I want people would take time away from me where I can just Release it if I can sleep really good at the night I know that I have people just taking care of it and I know it’s taken care of that makes me also You Uh more confident on selling more pushing more, growing more, because I have stuff that I believe that can do it. And that’s also why I’m looking for someone who I am, who I’m going to have in my team. And if I don’t have that, it takes a lot of stress from me. And you feel like you’re kind [00:12:00] of giving up the idea of having a company that are working without you. I’m not giving up that idea, but I need a player. I need to have the right person that are really good in what they’re doing and can release stress. And the most fun or interesting part with it is not about skills, it’s about mindset. So for example, we are running a, digital marketing company. And what we need, it’s not, it’s not an engineer, it’s not like, I don’t need an Einstein, I just need someone who really can do what I tell them to do and also are organized and have this, have this mindset things because you can’t teach people mindset, you can’t teach people values But you can teach them skills. You know, sometimes i’m seeing see a bartender or I see a restaurant someone working in a restaurant or I see someone working in a shop And I see how good they are and what they’re doing and [00:13:00] i’m always thinking like I want a person like this Because you see the attitude attitude is so much more important than skills You’re gonna always learn skills. Like I said, it’s not so You Hard for us to teach someone Facebook ads. It’s not so hard to teach. How to build a funnel. It’s not so hard to teach how to follow up a client. It’s not so hard to teach How to do project management, but you need to have the mindset to do these things So if I have a superstar that I see a CV from and I have another and the CV is perfect, a lot of things, but they don’t follow awesome values, I’ll not hire that person. But if I have someone who kind of like our values and want to work with us because they have the same values, it’s much more easy to turn that into a superstar with skills than it is to have someone. Uh would just have the skills and I also have experience of that. We had some really great marketers working for us, but they didn’t have [00:14:00] the mind the The values for maria and me and the values for the company and they didn’t want to follow the values Even if they did really good and it happened again, even if they did a really good job It kept me awake in the night, because I couldn’t communicate with the person. And I think it’s so important that you have someone you can communicate with, and you feel like you’re on the same line, that is open and honest dialogue. One of the, one of my best person, she’s telling me when she feel like I’m doing shit. If I’m doing wrong decision, she’s telling me. If I if she’s not agreeing with me, she’s telling me and you know, how beautiful that is for me That I have someone who are coming to me and give me input and what I mean It’s not that I agreeing with her all the time, but at least I have the conversation So I also can I build but get challenged from someone in my team and I love that So that is also what you should look for. so the basic in this episode is like I really want you to think [00:15:00] about Uh You should always look for someone, that are an A player. There is an A player out there. You need to believe there is an A player. And I also want to say that we use a lot of LinkedIn ads to find the person. Uh, so LinkedIn is a really good place to find, uh, people. But sometimes they are nearer than you believe. Maybe it’s just around the corner or whatever. They can be just around, but you should not only And Have one person that you consider for a job. You should have three, four or five people that you should consider I also recommend you to have someone else either if you do this online. Listen to the interviews to give you feedback on them. Someone who are different than your personality. We can see things in the interview that you are not seeing. I say that I am, Always looking for my gut feeling, but I have this rule now that four of us in the company should listen to all interviews, we should be in the interviews, we should look at the person, and if one of these four have a, uh, [00:16:00] gut feeling that this is not the right person, I decide that I don’t want to hire them, because the gut feeling is still there. So much more important than the skills and what they’re answering and all the thing. Um, and you know, sometimes you can’t explain why you have a gut feeling, but it’s always right. So I hope this short episode help you to think more about hiring and will inspire you to hire more people. Uh, and please leave a comment or, um, give some feedback if you like this episode. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. To dig deeper, visit awesome. com forward slash scaling light. That’s A W E S M dot com forward slash scaling light. You’ll find show notes, resources and links. mentioned in this episode, as well as links to our socials. If you like what you heard, please rate and review us on the podcast platform of your choice. Your feedback is so important to help more entrepreneurs to discover this show. Our goal is to provide inspiration and we hope you’ll continue [00:17:00] scaling alongside us. Thanks for your support and see you next time.