Trizle

Scenario: "Dude, I could only afford middle-school dropouts. !@^^%-!@^^%^. Ahh!" How do most small companies hire their full-timers?

1. Interview Sammy.
2. Scrutinize Sammy's resume.
3. If Sammy seems good, hire Sammy -- giving him salary/full-benefits.
4. Spend 42810498018421 resources training Sammy.

But like half of all employees hired, what if Sammy sucks?

You've just wasted 9809841084210890428140927492180 tons of time, money, resources, yadda. By then, you'll have two options:

• a) "If we fire Sammy, we'll take a major hit to our bottom line!"
• b) "If we keep Sammy, we'll conserve major resources -- but his wacky attitude can ultimately affect our entire culture."

Pretty shady options. Instead, reduce your risks by hiring interns first. (If they're good, you've found yourself solid full-time candidates.) Yay!

Who Uses Interns

Remember those high-flying companies recruiting interns on your college campus way-back-in-the-day? Oh yeah, lots of 'em -- some including:

• Goldman Sachs
• McKinsey
• Yahoo
• Wachtell
• Apple
• Cravath
• Sullcrom
• Credit Suisse
• GE
• P&G
• Intel
• Starbucks
• Toyota
• Southwest
• Fedex
• Google
• J&J

(Yeah, that list could go on for another million.) Almost all high-flying companies -- no matter how awesome, hire interns. Ironically, those who could use them most -- small businesses and startups -- don't. And, that's why they're destroying their potential. If you're running a small business, hiring interns could be the most cost-effective way to empower your business's bottom line.

Why Use Interns

Interns are freakishly affordable for any business. If we had the choice between choosing an employee or an intern at the same costs, we'd choose the intern almost every-frickin'-time.

Why?

1. They're likelier to bring outside-the-box methods.
2. They bring the youthful enthusiasm needed in most companies.
3. They're ready to put their marks on the world.
4. They're excited and open to new ideas.
5. They consume much less resources.

And, as a sweet bonus: most come drama-free. Most importantly, internships act as "try-outs" for full-time positions at your company. That: (1) conserve massive costs, and (2) ensures you're getting only those who rock.

"So, how do I hire interns?"

Ambitious interns -- i.e. good ones -- would rather invest in their futures than choose quick money. As their mindset goes: "Hey, I'll make 99.99% of my money in the future. So, I'll need to invest in that future. Yay!" They're not worrying about:

1. Mortgages.
2. Kids & tuitions.
3. Electric bills.
4. Family vacation trips.
5. Yadda, yadda.

So, Kick-Ass Intern Johnny would rather work minimum-wage growing lines of businesses for your company than serve hamburgers at $20/hour. Here's our checklist that always works well when finding those solid interns:

• a) Do you know their passions?
• b) Do you know their goals?
• c) Can your company fulfill (a) and (b)?

If you can offer opportunities that ignites Janie's passions -- and tie into her future goals, you'll have an awesome shot at landing an amazing intern.

Interns = Yay.

Scenario: "Dude, archive everything! Yay!" A cluttered office/life/business drains your brain's power without you consciously realizing it. That is, the more clutter you see, touch, feel, smell, or hear -- the more you dissipate your brain's energy reserves. Your goal then:

Make your life as simple as possible.

The more noise you remove, the more efficient you'll work. Throw X things out; then throw out some more (then more). (Or at the least: tuck away things; then tuck away some more.) The less your brain deals with unnecessary junk, the more you conserve its sexy power for more important things -- like creatively kicking ass for your business.

Live the simple life.

Scenario: "Yo! We'll build a multi-million dollar business that will go IPO! Yay!" You read the magazines, you read the newspapers, and you scour the web: $10 million company here, $25 million there, and another one going IPO. Then you ask yourself: "Hey! How did they make it so easy?! I'm struggling here..." But when you really study those companies, what do you find? Building established multi-million dollar profitable companies takes years/decades of achieving successive-small-financial-wins. Unlike what those magazines imply, you can't climb Everest tomorrow.

Where Most Entrepreneurs Fail

Like most people going into business for themselves, Entrepreneur Billy goes into business thinking it's a sure-fire way to make big cash -- quickly.

• "You can't be rich working for someone else!" he tells himself.
• "Robert Kiyosaki said you have to be in the Business-Owner Quadrant! Yay!" he screams.
• "I will make tons of dough living in my mansion, driving my Range Rover!" he yells.

Then the Entrepreneur Billy starts dabbling in his business. Reality check two months later:

• "This is harder than I thought."
• "At this pace, I will never make enough money to buy Range Rovers."
• "I quit. The rich exploit people, so that's why they're rich. I have ethics. Yay for me!"

Lame. Talk to any self-made "rich" entrepreneur, and you'll find a common occurance:

1. They grew their sales/cash/income successively over time.
2. Instead of worrying about Range Rovers, they worried about earning record sales every month.
3. They focused on continuous improvement: "If you continually improve your financials over time, you'll make it."

The Mindset to Growth

Start embracing the fabulous "How-can-I-improve-this-month" mindset:

• This Month: "I made X dollars this month. How can I make more than X dollars this month?"
• Next Month: Restart cycle.

For instance:

• Cycle 1: "I grossed $50 in March. How can I gross more than $50 this April?"
• Cycle 2: "I grossed $150 in April. How can I gross more than $150 this May?"

When you continually rotate that mutha-!@^^%^ cycle, you'll see something pretty dope happening: Your revenues start growing, then growing some more, them more, then SHAZZAM! You're running a multi-million dollar company.

It takes steps, baby.

Scenario: "Yo! I have to read business books. Yay! High-five!" What's the problem with most leaders?

1. They clone each other.
2. They read too many management books.
3. They lack passion.

As a result, those un-passionate leaders produce sucky-blah-boring-run-of-the-mill companies. A leadership book can only teach you so much; at the end of the day, it takes much more to really kick ass. It takes evolving your life story to lead your company like the passionate mutha-!@^^% you were meant to be.

What Makes Leaders Rock

The best business books in the world on leadership won't prime you to rock. Cloning other ridiculously awesome leaders will destroy your own passion. Instead, according to Harvard's Bill George in study -- "Authentic Leadership" -- on fabulous leaders, it takes adapting your life story to leading your sexy company:

Nah-Uh

We were very surprised by what they were telling us, because we thought that going in they were going to tell us the traits, characteristics and leadership styles that made them successful.

What it Takes

And, instead what they told us was that their passions came from their life stories. It took a little while for this to sink in. At first it seemed like mush. But the more we got into it, it was so consistent that people wanted to talk about how they captured their passions from a crucible life experience, a transforming experience or just a "growing up" experience.

How Passionate Leaders Rocked

Four instances:

• Starbucks' Howard Schultz experienced the cruelty of his dad's employer, and built a company that provided world-class coverage to its people.
• Doctors gave Kimberly-Clark's Darwin Smith less than a year to live, so he built the biggest-baddest consumer paper-products company in the world while he still could -- for the next 25 years.
• Martin Luther King Jr. experienced racism while playing baseball with a white friend, and led one of the world's biggest reform movements.
• Gandhi experienced South African bigotry, and led the world's most powerful resistance against tyranny.

Remember:

No Life Story = No Passion = Lame Results

Some spoiled dude in Greenwich Village who never experienced the trials and tribulations of South African bigotry would lead a pretty sucky movement against tyranny. Likewise, a Hollywood actor campaigning to tackle global warming -- while flying on private jets -- would lead a disastrous campaign. Instead:

Leading passionately takes listening to your own life story.

• What made you tick?
• What shaped your views?
• What destroyed your soul?
• What made you stronger?

Then, lead accordingly.

Lead through your story.

Scenario: "Dude, only your drive and persistence count! No short-cuts. High-five!" People take years to learn these, so we'll ask:

• If you want to get into $20+ MM companies, how'd you do it?
• If you need elite Stanford engineering interns, what'd you do?
• If you need custom software, how'd you go about it?
• If your restaurant needs branded furnishings, what'd you do?

The options:

• a) Do as much research as you can, then decide!
• b) Just test and experiment, and see what works!
• c) Talk to someone who's been there before you.

(a) could be right, but you probably won't get relevant information for your particular situation. (b) could be right -- but it'll take you years to figure out what works. By then, you'd probably run out of cash. (c) is right, because it gains you a ridiculous amount of knowledge/experience -- ridiculously quickly. You can do your research and experiments -- but without a solid foundation of knowledge/experience, you'll severely decelerate your success potential. Instead, seek experience in whatever you're trying to do -- someone who's been there before you; you'll gain years of knowledge within minimal time.

The Power of Seeking Experience

Imagine a juiced-up ostrich on 'roids running like he just stole something. That's how fast you'll boost your success: Instead of beginning right at the starting line, you start 9048138591341290 meters ahead of the line. To demonstrate that phenomenon:

• Johnny's 10 years of software sales = 10 days to learn.
• Leslie's 10 years of interning college kids = 10 days to learn.
• Tomas's 10 years of marketing experience = 10 days to learn.
• Nicole's 10 years of accounting experience = 10 days to learn.
• Wamutombo's 10 years of ecommerce exp. = 10 days to learn.

In other words, you'll gain 50 years of knowledge within 50 days. (And of course, the more you surround yourself with experienced people, the more knowledge/experience you'll gain.)

"Wait! How is that possible?!"

We're not quite saying you can grasp everything Wamutombo learned in the past ten years. Here's what we're saying: By leveraging Wamutombo's experience, you'll learn totally-sufficient-just-enough knowledge that's useful to your situation -- within freakishly minimal time. (Besides, why learn ____________ if you're not apply it to your business situation?)

The Awesomeness of Experience

Consider the business -- or something else -- you're running right now.

If your business suddenly shut down because the county deemed your face too f-u-g-l-y, and you had to give it up to a loved one -- could you do it...within a month?

"Of course I can!" you excitedly tell yourself. You've learned kabillions of stuff to run your successful business, and you'll transfer that knowledge easily to your loved one.

• You'll show them where to source products.
• You'll show them the power of urgency in sales.
• You'll provide them manuals to build your widgets.
• You'll provide instructions to hiring required personnel.

You didn't learn all that overnight -- oh-no-you-didn't! You learned it through decades of hard work, persistence, dedication, and mutha-!@^^%^ perseverance. But, you can pass it on -- easily, knowing your business will run efficiently without your face there.

That's the power of experience.

Once you tap that experience, you'll tap years of goodness, supremely hard work, and dedication from Johnny, Leslie, Tomas, Nicole, Wamutombo, and the millions of other astronomically experienced folks. You'll start freakishly accelerating your success.

Mo Experience = Mo Better

At Trizzy, one of our biggest mistakes was trapping ourselves from those who had been there before us -- those who could throw us the ropes. What would've happened? We could've:

• Gained years of knowledge/experience in minimal time.
• Built on top of the years of knowledge we just gained.
• Moved 9048138591341290 meters faster.

We learned the hard way; it took us years. It'll take you seconds. If you if you want to: ____________________, first:

Seek experienced peeps.

Scenario: "Dude, just make sure they can do the job. Yay!" You have two choices when you're hiring your next employee:

• a) Hire her to do a job.
• b) Hire her to kick major ass, take names, and rock the world like a crazy !@^^%^ for your company.

Most companies hire for the former; rock-star organizations like GE's Leadership Center, McKinsey, Google, Goldman Sachs, and Patagonia focus on the latter. There's an amateur way to hiring; then, there's the sexy way.

How to Hire Like a Badass

Based on a decade of studies by Researcher Jim Collins, ask yourselves these checkpoint questions:

1) "Has Darlene ridiculously blown us away?"

After checking for references, pinpointing weaknesses, doing the interviews, and all the yadda shizzle that goes into hiring for your company, ask yourself: 'Did Darlene super excite me?' If you're in doubt, don't hire; keep looking. Filling your company with mediocrity will rub off on your team.

2) "Will we need to hand-hold Darlene?"

A chunk of people need hand-holding; others just need some basic guidance, who will then blow you away with their initiative. You want the latter; otherwise, you'll consume masses of resources/time ensuring the person doesn't mess up at every freakish thing that the person freakishly does every freakish hour. A question to check for initiative: Ask her: "If the company you're working with has horrible marketing materials that's preventing you from doing your job, what do you do?"

• The wrong answer (lacks initiative): "I would tell them to redo their marketing materials."
• The right answer (shows super-initiative): "I would work with them to provide the most effective marketing material."

3) "Can Darlene excel like the biggest-baddest-mofo in her intended position?"

In other words, paraphrasing Collins: In the seat that she'll hold, could she potentially be one of the best in that particular seat? Some clues to ask yourself:

1. On a scale of 1-10, how passionate is she with the position?
2. On another scale of 1-10: How good is she now? How good can she potentially become?

If you ultimately tell yourself she's destined for greatness, you're potentially looking at a great hire.

4) "Does she display a pattern of concrete results in positions she's held in the past?"

Results might include: increased sales by 10% quarterly, made company 50% more efficient, increased referral rates by 2x, etc.

• If she's humble about those results = good. (i.e. She's doing stuff to benefit the company, not her.)
• If the results continue after she takes on a new responsibility = good. (i.e. Again: she's doing stuff to benefit the company, not her.)

5) "Does Darlene share our core values?"

A company meshed with altering values loses its identity; instead of seeking greatness, it becomes another boring-blah organization trying to make everyone happy -- but passionately exciting no one. So, seek people who share your core values (e.g. innovation, fun, rebellious, customer-obsessed, etc.) Do this test: If you were imprisoned for the rest of your life in a 10x10 cell, would you choose your potential hire as your cellmate for the rest of your life? Tip: Don't wait to get this part absolutely right, as people can be a little tricky if you've never worked with them -- and you'll spend the rest of your life wondering if the person could've been a great asset to your company. Instead, build your company in a way such that those who fit your values succeed -- and those who don't will quit, quickly.

• For instance, Google can ensure their contract-to-hire engineers fit their core value of 'technical contribution' by incorporating a policy that engineers must create X innovations in Y months -- before they're hired as long-term employees.

"Will that checklist help me hire, perfectly?"

It'll astronomically boost your chances of hiring correctly for your company, but it's not the be-all-end-all to hiring your next superstars. According to the study, the visionary companies rarely hired correctly. Yet, they experienced a double-hump to their hiring:

1. Those who suck get blown out the door -- viciously quickly.
2. Those who rock, the companies ensured they stayed at the company for a long time.

In other words, it's not how you hire -- but what happens after you hire.

1. Do the wrong people run for the exits quickly?
2. Do the right people stay on for a long time?

If you get two positives, rock on.

Hire the sexy way.

Scenario: "Dude, I'm grateful when you shut the !@^^ up. Yay!"

Sammy Sam lives the cup-half-empty life:

• "I need more money."
• "I need more vacations."
• "I need more friends."
• "I need more shoes."

Becky Bobby lives the cup-half-full life:

• "I'm thankful for my functioning laptop."
• "I'm thankful for my morning exercise."
• "I'm thankful for my family's health."
• "I'm thankful for my momma."

Yeah, we'd think living the grateful life makes us healthier. But to really follow advice, you'd want hard evidence.

How does being grateful rock?

Oh-let-us-count-the-ways:

1. You become healthier.

   According to researchers:

   "Grateful people -- those who perceive gratitude as a permanent trait rather than a temporary state of mind -- have an edge on the not-so-grateful when it comes to health. 'Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations.'"

2. You boost your immune system.

   You boost your immune system because:

   "Grateful people tend to be more optimistic. Optimism also has a positive health impact on people with compromised health. In separate studies, patients confronting AIDS, as well as those preparing to undergo surgery, had better health outcomes when they maintained attitudes of optimism."

3. You destroy stress easier.

   The reports:

   "It's no secret that stress can make us sick, particularly when we can't cope with it. It's linked to several leading causes of death, including heart disease and cancer, and claims responsibility for up to 90% of all doctor visits. Gratitude, it turns out, can help us better manage stress. 'Gratitude research is beginning to suggest that feelings of thankfulness have tremendous positive value in helping people cope with daily problems, especially stress.'"

Rule of thumb: The more "thank-you's" you say in a day to your people, your office supplies, your yadda, the more fabulous you'll live your life.

"I thank you, playa."

Scenario: "Yo, we just have to pile on the features! More features! High-five!" We're big believers in the fab-concept: You cannot improve what you cannot measure.

• A basketball point guard can't improve his impact without measuring his assist count.
• A defense lawyer can't improve his quality without measuring his win percentage.
• A advertising agency can't improve its impact without measuring its clients' ROI.

Likewise, a business can't improve its products' quality without measuring what?

• a) ^ news reports on product
• b) ^ features in product
• c) ^ of defects from product

Did-ya answer (c)? Yup, yup.

"The Number of Defects?! WTF?"

Number of defects could include:

• Bugs in a software application.
• Returns on a coffee pot.
• Delayed check-in times in a hotel stay.
• Price negotiations of Johnny Buffet mugs.

That is, whatever minimal sucka the customer finds -- even slightly -- irritable in your product: it's a defect. And, that's costing you $ka-ching$.

How Defects Hurt Financially

Products associated with defects drain the shizzle out of your bottom line with:

• Drained credibility.
• Decreased referral rates.
• Destroyed company confidence.
• Depleted resources.

You'll struggle growing your business's $bling$ if you're pouring resources fixing your customers' problems, instead of using those resources to increase sales.

How to Improve Product Quality

Improving quality starts with knowing how much your product sucks right now; then, it progresses with making it less suckier over time.

Say Ana's gift shop sells Sanjaya Malakar t-shirts.

To improve the quality of her offerings:

1. Ana measures the ^ of t-shirt returns for February.
2. She seeks to decrease that ^ like a mofo in March.
3. In April, she'll seek to decrease it even further.

Keep in mind: All products -- no matter how badass people might think they are -- will still suck in some way. (For instance, the Apple iPods -- "Ooooooooohhh great product! Yay!" -- had sucky batteries.) If companies tell themselves they've achieved 100% non-defects with their products, they're lazy sons-of-b@!$&*.

Take the example of Ana's t-shirts above, and let's just say she achieves zero ^ of Sanjaya Malakar t-shirt returns for April.

So has she reached optimum quality with her offerings? No way, San Jose! She could still improve the quality of her offerings by improving:

• The shirts' referral rates.
• The shirts' turnover rates.
• The shirts' daily sales.

To improve product quality, live by the sexy rule:

No defects.

Scenario: "Dude, just say that you'll try to be the best entrepreneur you can. You'll do awesome! High-five!" Consider telling your momma:

• "I'll try to close 5 sales this month."
• "I'll try to recruit an executive this week."
• "I'll try to rent a bigger office this quarter."
• "I'll try to increase sales by 50% this year."

Would you likely accomplish whatever you "try to" do?

• a) "Yes! When I put my heart into it and try my best, I'll do it. Yay!"
• b) "No! I'm not committed to it, so I likely won't do it."

If you answered (b), Ding! Ding! Ding! You = right, playa. When you lack total commitment to something, you set yourself up for failure. "I have nothing to lose if I don't meet my goals!" you say. "So, if I don't meet them, that's okay!" Just imagine, right now, however many goals you've set in this year using the "I try to's"; likely, you've nailed zippo. Instead -- to accomplish your goals, seek total-freakish-sexy-good commitment.

How to Seek Total Commitment

Seeking total commitment begins with switching the "I'll try to..." to the "I will..." Simple, eh? Not that simple; there's more -- oh, so much more. The magic pill that makes everything happen: Publicize your "I will" statements. "Oh-mutha-!@&^^%. You serious?!" You-betcha-booty. Here's why.

How Publicizing Your I-Will's Make You Rock

Aside from our sexy loved ones, our most prized possessions: Our reputation.

• We'd rather get in a car crash than get a well-publicized DUI.
• We'd rather struggle in the minors than destroy our team's World Series.
• We'd rather sacrifice our homes than appear on NBC's To Catch a Predator, Part III.
• We'd rather lose with pride than win with shame.

When you're acting like a major badass declaring your intentions, you're putting your super-cherished reputation on the line.

1. If you don't accomplish your goals, your reputation takes a major hit.
2. So, you'll start doing whatever that's freakishly humanly possible of you to keep your rep in tack.

Our main man, Psychologist Robert Cialdini terms that psychological phenomenon as "Commitment & Consistency" -- that is, we will do everything in our power to be consistent with our commitments. "I certainly don't want to look foolish!" you subconsciously think. So, when you tell the world:

• "I will close 5 sales this month."
• "I will recruit an executive this week."
• "I will rent a bigger office this quarter."
• "I will increase sales by 50% this year."

Likely: You'll freakishly chase down those goals, and beat them into mutha-!@^^%^ submission -- like a G that you are. "I have to keep my street cred!" you tell yourself. (And even if you don't meet those stars, you've still landed on the moon.) So remember:

To Accomplish Your Fabulous Goals...

1. State what you will do.
2. Publicize the sucka to at-least-somebody.

Then, watch yourself work your magic like it ain't no thang but a chicken wing on a string. Say it loud; say it proud:

"I will accomplish: ____________________."

Scenario: "Dude, we'll just incorporate anything that looks good. Then, we'll win. Yay!"

• How do the Dallas Mavericks, the Oakland A's, and the Manchester United decide their starting lineups?
• Similarly, how do 3M, McKinsey, and Starbucks promote its people?

Instead of deciding on what "sounds good" -- like the many shoddy organizations, they look to objective data for their decisions (e.g. batting %, free-throw %, ^ sales/quarter, ^ innovations/month, etc.) That is, before 3M promotes Johnny B. Boy over Timmy T. Toy, the company understands precisely how much Johnny increased more sales for the company. Likewise, before you disrupt your organization with a new idea: Know for certain the new idea will make your company more profitable than the old idea.

Where Most Organizations Go Wrong

Consider Sally J's Coffee Shop. Sally J. is selling one deliciously awesome cup of coffee for $1.25.

• She has a loyal following with the cup of coffee among the community.
• Her repeat-purchase rate stands at a solid 50%.
• Her sales of the cup have consistently rocked since the 70s.

And then, she encounters business magazines that herald: "Gourmet coffee is going to be the next super-billion-dollar industry!"

1. So she tells herself: "Instead of selling my regular cups of coffee, I will now sell gourmet coffee!"
2. She thinks: "I can't miss this great opportunity! Let's stop selling the regular -- and start selling gourmet!"
3. She assumes: "This is the next big thing! We're going to fatten our sales 10x! Yay!"

What soon happens?

• Gourmet hardly appeals to her customer segment.
• Her repeat-purchase rate falls dramatically.
• Her net-profit diminishes by 25%.

Net result: Super-negative. Instead of relying on objective data to make her decisions, she uses the "what sounds good" philosophy -- destroying her profits.

What should Sally J. should have done?

The options:

• a) Sell both at the same time.
• b) Don't listen to fads. Keep selling what made you successful: the regular cups.
• c) Continue selling regular cups of coffee. Run small experiments to test how well gourmet coffee sells -- compared to the regular cups. Decide, accordingly.

What'd your booty answer? If you went with (c), great job for your badass.

Why (a) Sucks

When you try to sell both, you stretch your resources/$$$/energy significantly. If gourmet coffee sales suck, you'll put your company into a major hole.

Why (b) Sucks

Sure, "sticking to knitting" makes good business sense. At the same time, however, you'll leave major money on the table if you're not looking for more profitable opportunities.

Why (c) Rocks

You get the best of both worlds: (1) selling what already makes you super sexy, and (2) running small experiments -- that doesn't break your bank -- to look for potentially more lucrative opportunities. Doing so gives you a control group (i.e. regular cups of coffee), then lets you see how well your new idea (i.e. gourmet coffee) stacks up to what you're already doing.

• If gourmet profits suckier: You continue selling the regular.
• If gourmet profits better: You'll adopt the new idea.

And that, folks, is how you adopt new ideas into your fabulous organization.

When an Idea Sounds "Sucky"

If your funds allow you, test it anyway. People thought the personal computer was one of the suckiest of the suckiest sucky ideas in the world -- but real-world market testing proved otherwise. An idea that seems sucky could very well destroy one that seems "totally awesome! Yay!" The only way to figure out: Testing your ideas in the real world, and seeing what rocks more.

The 3 Steps to Incorporating New Ideas

1. Define your control group (e.g. what you want replaced.)
2. Experiment with a new idea (i.e. what you want incorporated.)
3. Measure what's more profitable; then, decide accordingly.

So when you're looking to incorporate a new idea, ask yourself:

"Where's the data, playa?!"