It's funny how your ideas of what will grow your business shift over time.

In the early days, you spend tons of time finding the right strategies.

But as you grow, you realize that finding the right people accelerates growth like nothing else.

Your product and how you sell it never stop being important, but hiring great people impacts those things in ways you can't accomplish alone.

The problem?

Hiring is toughhhhh.

Ask anyone who's gone through it and they'll have at least one horror story to share.

It's a lot harder to say, "Welp, this isn't working!" and just move on when you're talking about a person instead of a marketing strategy.

That's part of the reason SO many business owners put off hiring longer than they should. Making a mistake is scary! (And expensive.)

Over the years, I've tried to document as much of our hiring process as possible. In fact, hit this link and I'll email you our entire Hiring SOP doc.

But instead of getting allllllll the way into the weeds today, I want to share one simple hiring tip  that's made the entire process 10x easier for me.

You can apply this at ANY level of hire, whether it's a contractor doing virtual assistant type work or a Director of Marketing:

Find 1 applicant that makes everyone else seem unqualified.

This is the kind of applicant who resets your expectations for the role. You immediately get excited and want to fast track them to an interview.

The key is trying to uncover this applicant as early in the process as you can. Whether you hire them or not is beside the point. The value comes from the instant clarity it'll bring to your search.

You thought you knew what you were looking for—but now you know for sure. Don't be surprised if you feel like rewriting the job description after finding this applicant.

"OK, cool...but how do I actually find them?"

One of the most effective ways I've found to uncover these benchmark applicants is asking the following question on the application: "Why are you the perfect fit for this role?"

For example, my wife and I used this question when we were hiring a house manager last year. Here's a quick sample of what the average response looked like:

  • Normal Answer #1: "I babysit other friends' kids and enjoy every minute. I cook and clean their homes while training the kids basic fundamental learning! :)"
     
  • Normal Answer #2: "I am friendly and outgoing and love children (I'm partial to boys too!) I live alone and have a lot of flexibility!!"
     
  • Normal Answer #3: "I have a ton of experience with children and working in private homes as well as experience in the church (office setting). I work well with others and find it an honor to get to mold little minds to become everything God created them…"

Now imagine 200 more responses like those.

None of them are bad. But none of them stand out. They're just a big bowl of "meh."

But eventually, we came across the benchmark candidate who changed everything. Her response made both of us tear up as we read it:

I don't care how well you think you know what you want out of a particular role…

There's always some element of "not knowing it until you see it" involved.

The sooner you can find the person who makes you say, "THAT is exactly what we need and I didn't even know it," the sooner your search will get easier.

Want more hiring help? Two things:

  1. Hit this link and I'll send you our Hiring SOP doc that I mentioned earlier. While every company approaches the process a little differently, there's at least one idea in there you can likely apply.
  2. Get the book Who by Geoff Smart. Here are my personal notes on it.

Whether you're actively hiring right now or not, the day will likely come if you keep growing. Start preparing now.

- Bryan

P.S. 7 more non-obvious traits to look for when hiring:

  1. Crafts emails well
  2. Upward career trajectory
  3. Has something to prove
  4. Infatuated with the role
  5. Can show their work
  6. Responds quickly
  7. Follows up after interview

Experience is important, but these rank equal.