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What happens when you stop waiting for the perfect timing and start building a team of A-players? Discover how hiring the right people, no matter the size of your business, can skyrocket your success and transform your company from the inside out.
In this episode, Sharran dives deep into how to attract and build a team of A-players, and why this is the key to taking your business to the next level. He breaks down the myth that A-players are hard to find and shares actionable insights on how to build a pipeline for top talent, even if you’re a small business.
Whether you’re a solopreneur or running a large organization, this episode will show you why investing in great people is the best business model you can have.
Are you ready to transform your team? Tune in to learn what A-players can do for your business and why they’re your biggest hidden advantage!
“A-players often cost 10 to 30% more, but they can have ten times the impact.”
– Sharran Srivatsaa
Timestamps:
03:05 – The power of A-players: How they impact your business
04:22 – Treat recruitment like sales: Reach out to candidates regularly
05:51 – Talent over timing: Why the best candidates aren’t ready when you need them
08:05 – Reinvesting in talent: Building an A-player business model
10:10 – A-players are everywhere: Finding top talent in unexpected places
12:20 – Build for A-players: How to attract the best talent
15:04 – Recap: A-Player Business Model
Resources:
– The Next Billion by Sharran Srivatsaa
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– Join the 10K Wisdom Private Partner Podcast, now available to you for free
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– ARC Multifamily Real Estate Investing
– Sharran’s Partnership Program
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Hey, this is Sharran Srivatsaa. 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.
[00:00:15] 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 gonna break down for you exactly how to attract A-players, why the timing never works in your favor, and the simple things that you can do to make the top a-player talent say, Hey, why not me?
[00:00:30] 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.
[00:00:50] 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 the exact how to. How to grow your business, how to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth.
[00:01:13] That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharran Srivatsaa and Welcome to Business School.
[00:01:26] 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, I, I have probably seen drive the success in.
[00:01:46] 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.
[00:02:03] And driven and a a and a little bit different, a little bit odd. Because a players are smart, different and, and odd in a lot of ways, then that’s when crazy things happen. In fact, if you, 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.
[00:02:21] So I’m gonna 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, it it, your, a player can be a, a player, virtual assistant.
[00:02:38] 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 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.
[00:02:58] 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 wanna explain to you the power of A players and you, you gotta like realize this. So here’s the power 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.
[00:03:20] So imagine this, I I, I, I will never forget this story. I know it’s very trite and 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.
[00:03:35] 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.
[00:03:52] 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 people on your team and say, if I was leaving to start a new company tomorrow, would I rehire this person that is the power of light players?
[00:04:18] 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.
[00:04:34] They, they call it sourcing. They look at candidates in 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.
[00:04:49] 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 a crazy thing, A players hire A players and B players hire C players. You know that because of the safety thing, so.
[00:05:04] 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 Trumps timing. What you wanna do is you literally wanna go every week and reach out to one person who you’d love to work with.
[00:05:20] Even if they seem kind of out reach, you’re like, Hey, you just reach out to someone on LinkedIn saying, Hey, I love 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.
[00:05:32] That way you’re keeping the bench warm. You are 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. Alright, so big idea number two is you gotta treat recruiting like sales because on the drop of a hat a players timing does not work out for you.
[00:05:48] Alright, here’s big idea, kind of number three I, 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.
[00:06:06] 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, 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 gonna sell it to you.
[00:06:25] But the, the, the easiest way to buy a home is when you have a sign in the yard. Now a players are ready when they are ready, not when you are ready. So think about that. You can’t control their timeline. You can only control whether you are staying close enough, whether you’re staying in touch, and whether they do feel ready and you are the first call that they make.
[00:06:42] 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 cap they need to fill and they will deliver on it.
[00:06:59] 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 are always building the relationships, you will never, ever get caught in a tight spot or flatfooted. If you know that there is a role that you may potentially need to hire for A CFO or a COO or a president or a director of sales sometime in the future, you need to start building the pipeline now because that is the job of A CEO.
[00:07:22] What is the job of CEO Vision people and cash vision? Where are you going? People who are gonna help you get there cash, the resources that need you to get there, that’s what it’s, 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.
[00:07:36] I’m a lone ranger. That’s great. Someone else is gonna hire the people and beat you. That’s the problem. So the, 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 gotta be mining the talent all the time.
[00:07:52] And the the cool part is ta, when you’re mining a player talent, when they have the the next opportunity, they’ll call you first. Otherwise, they’re just gonna go take that opportunity, right? Talent over timing. It’s Sharran original, by the way. Alright. Here’s big idea number four is you gotta reinvest in the talent.
[00:08:07] Like here’s a, here’s what I mean. A players create. 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.
[00:08:28] Every time you make more money, you gotta do more. Like what is the, a player business model? Like I, I’ll, 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’ll leave.
[00:08:47] If it’s not lucrative, they’ll 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.
[00:09:00] 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. How, why do you think the Goldman Sachs of the world, of the Gs of the world are in, are fighting for great talent?
[00:09:16] Because they’ve created this brand that it’s the greatest place to go work. That’s why they just get an outsize, asymmetric number of a players, and that is why they win. So here’s a 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?
[00:09:34] 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 dumb ass thing and they’re gonna 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.
[00:09:58] Because when you could hire or keep a players, things get really, really fun. Alright, so that’s in section number four, big idea number four, which is like to reinvest in talent. Alright, 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.
[00:10:22] I will tell you this, talent is universal, but opportunity is not right. Talent is universal. Opportunities on 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.
[00:10:42] I hired a CI partnered with people running a hundred million dollar 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 la, 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.
[00:10:58] Lemme tell you this, she’s so good. I haven’t needed to talk to her even once this year. 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.
[00:11:16] All you’re looking for is like, hey, are they showing ownership? Have they been at a role for a while? Have they, are they showing ownership? Have they been at a role for a while? Like, what are you seeing like big. Pops of greatness. I always like, my favorite thing is I, I’m always looking for big pops of greatness.
[00:11:30] And that may just be they, they, 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.
[00:11:46] A players have courage and droves. Courage will beat intelligence all day of the week. You, 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, it. May this be hiring a, a virtual assistant or a part-time bookkeeper, or a, or, or, or chef, or a CFO.
[00:12:08] 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. Alright, so that’s big idea number five. Alright, here’s the last big idea. Big idea number six. And I, I, I think that there’s a reputational issue.
[00:12:24] 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 wanna punch ’em in the face. Uh, I, I, I is is the, like most founders think a players will just show up if they post a job a. Yeah, maybe if you’re at Goldman Sachs or maybe if you’re at Google, or maybe for Nvidia, maybe, right, but in, 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.
[00:12:57] I will tell you that 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, this is what you do. You don’t call them and offer them a rule, right?
[00:13:11] 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.
[00:13:30] The, the, 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, you post your ideas on LinkedIn, the reason why you have a great podcast that you’re listening to, like, can you imagine.
[00:13:42] If somebody wanted to come work with us@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, you’re putting your thoughts out there, you’re putting your feelings out there.
[00:13:54] 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 a huge amount of value on the, on the, on the bench. Now people are being like, eh, do I really wanna work for this company or this person?
[00:14:12] ’cause 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 built for A players. They go to the best colleges and universities in the world and they tell them, I want your best talent.
[00:14:27] 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 a. The easiest script is you, you, you wanna pick up the phone, get an 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.
[00:14:49] 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.
[00:15:03] 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 gotta 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.
[00:15:23] Big idea number four is you gotta 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.
[00:15:40] And so know that and be got. Number six, you gotta build for the A players. Just posting an ad and job ad and on Indeed is not really, they’re gonna, they’re not looking. I’ve never looked at a job board ever in my life. I didn’t even know where to go. Right? And that’s the big idea. So, uh, figure out if you can build a pipeline for them.
[00:15:56] 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 gonna crush it. You know the time when you hired that one person and the life was significantly better by the way. They don’t care where you went to school or what city you are in.
[00:16:11] They care whether your, your company, your firm, your team is worth joining. What 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.
[00:16:26] It is very, very hard for timing to line up perfectly. Rarely does it happen probably 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, here’s, here’s my suggestion for you. How can you create a pipeline of A players for yourself?
[00:16:43] 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 or the NBA or the NFL. They’ll go to un watch high school soccer. They’ll go watch junior year soccer and they start like talking to these candidates to start to be their why?
[00:17:04] Because they’re building the bench for the future. If you’re gonna be around in business for the next three to five years, you just gotta 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.
[00:17:20] Alright, so the A players have a business model, lemme 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 lucrative, you invest back into hiring A players.
[00:17:34] Because highly, highly competent people make it look easy, but it actually never is. Hey, I, I don’t know if this is 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.
[00:17:49] 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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