Fail Faster

fashioned way. He's incredibly well planned. He's very process oriented. He's a phone guy, which is, I think, a little bit of a novelty in his niche. He's diligent and consistent in his work effort. It's no wonder he's been our top producer for several years. The second thing I think you should know is Brian is uniquely humble in his success and how he does what he does. However, he has an alter ego named Brian that is not so

humble. So often we have to call on Brian to brag on Brian. Not sure who we're going to get today, Brian, super excited to have you here, and not sure which Brian we're getting, but whoever is here, we're happy to have you.

making a change until we get late in the process. And so one of the things I've I've done is really changed how I ask questions to candidates and learning to ask indirect questions to them. Probably most recruiters do a good job of during debrief calls or even prep calls, of asking

candidates. So tell me who you turn to when you make these kinds of big decisions, whether it's a significant other, whether it's a parent a friend, what I've learned to do over the years is ask, instead of directly asking them what they think of these things, it's asking them. So tell me that important person in your life that helps you make these decisions. What do they think of this opportunity? What are the things that they're saying? So Stephanie, I'm going to I'm

going to ask you a question. If I were to ask you, tell me how I was going to actually ask, How would I describe you? But I don't want to do that to you. I think that would be kind of rough. But if I were to ask your children, how would they describe you as a mother, what do you think they would say?

individual? But actually asking, what is that important person in your life? What would they say about this opportunity? What would they say about these things? Another thing I thought was interesting I started, and I this is obviously something that I've heard over the years from other people. Is a good question to give to candidates if they're going through the interview process, is saying to them, if you're talking to your future

boss or your future mentor, ask them this tough question. If I were to ask other people that have worked for you, how would they describe you as a mentor, as a boss, and you will get immediate, Frank answers to that question, because people don't want to put words in everybody else's mouth.

during the process? Any Did they say anything, or did anything kind of strike you as odd or off, if I coached you properly, did you ask a clarifying question when something was off and then finally, did you guys discuss next steps in the process. Where do we go from there? Now, at this point, when I'm starting to wrap up the call, this is usually when I go, Hey, by the way, did you have a chance? I know you and I talked about that important person to your life, your your good

friend, whatever. Tell me, you know, did you have a chance to discuss the interview with them? And what was their feedback? You'll notice, I never asked them, What do you think? I don't want them to tell me what they think. I want them to tell me what that important person of their life is, is providing information. Because typically, what we do is we turn to those in our lives that think the same way we do have the same goals

and are good advisors for us. So a lot of times, the real meat and concerns will come forward during that discussion.

Let me tell you, I loved it. It was great. This and this and this, and my brother's feedback is going to be, well, hey, this sounds like a great opportunity for you. I'm really excited. And then, therefore, he will give me his support because of what I shared with him. He may ask some Hey, make sure you find about this. Make sure you find out about that. But wow, this sounds really great for you. So the key here, and I love this, is when you ask, Hey, what does your spouse think? What does your

support person think? What is, you know, whatever, what you're really asking is, what did you tell them? What therefore, is their response? But then also, it sheds light on, if there is hesitation or concern, it'll be reflected back by that person, and then, you know, hey, this other person that's a major influencer, and they're at big decision making is not on board.

If our major influencers in our life are not on board with the decision we're going to make, we're rarely going to make that decision.

them, right? Because a lot of times, if you don't get these concerns out in the open, they fester, then they pop up later when an offer comes out, and suddenly you find out, well, I don't really want to accept this because of there's this lingering concern that I wasn't aware of. The only other thing I was going to bring up was the CEO of Nvidia was talking about, he was asked the question, you know, how do you coach people to become more successful? And he said something I thought was

very profound. And he said, you know, he goes, what we find is everybody's going to make mistakes, everybody's going to fail. People are going to, you know, have to go through this process of learning, and failure is part of that problem. But what he said to people is, they've learned. We coach them to fail faster, the faster we can teach them to fail over and over again, the quicker they will suddenly realize, hey, I figured this out. Now I can get to the point of being

successful. So if I could coach people that are new to this industry, I would just tell you, hey, faster you fail at this, the more mistakes you make. Don't look at it as a bad thing, look at it as a good thing. So you can learn to be successful.

cut it for me. My first year, I'm going to be committed to working, you know, Sunday afternoons to get all my sourcing and administrative work done. And it's not about being a workaholic or being so dogged that you don't have a life outside the job, but it's this exact idea I want to hurry up and learn this business is absolutely fast as I can, which means you're going to make mistakes along the way. But this, the sooner you get those hurdles and speed bumps out of

the way, the sooner the road opens up. Sounds super novel at the same time, because he set that example. He also trained the top first year that three years ago, we had a 25 year first year production record. She came in and broke that record. It stood for 25 years, but it was again on this mentality of, hey, do more sooner. Do more faster. So it's not just a Hey. It's a great thing to think mentality. But I'm a huge believer in you don't listen to what people say. You

watch what they do. And Brian at the time, you weren't saying, Hey, I'm going to fail faster, but you did, and I think there's a lot to be said for that, so kudos for you for setting that example for us.

believe in. And I think I don't know if I have the perfect method all the time, but I think what I do definitely works, and proof has been in the pudding on those around me on my team.