Our Aim: Hire happy, healthy, high-energy conversationalists who are have an attractive social presentation and are available to work when we need them.

The Big Idea

Who we hire, more than literally anything else, is the single most important factor of whether we will be a great company or an average one…AND it’s the hardest thing we managers do because it’s so subjective and easy to miss red flags.

Listen, if we hire average people from the American workforce, then we’ll be an average company. The same goes for any sports team, marriage, church, civic club or any other project where teams work together.

The best coaches in the world can’t win the championship - no matter how amazing their plays and coaching program are - if they don’t stack the bench with champions from the the get-go.  We call these champions “A-Players” or “Unicorns.”

A Players not only can do the job they are hired hired for exceptionally well, but could probably do their supervisor’s job too. That is, they are capable of so much more and would be easily promotable.

Not every single hire needs to be an easily promotable A-Player, but the majority of them need to be, or else you accidentally end up with a team that is easily replaceable and doesn't deliver on the WOW factor for our clients or our team.    

Because we are growing so fast, we need as many of these unicorn A-Players as we can find so that we can grow and promote from within (if at all possible).

The difference between an A-Player Unicorn and a B-Player is the degree to which they qualify for the job we are hiring them for.  Both of them qualify based on the criteria below, but unicorns are are OVER-qualified and are just just incredible people and would succeed wildly anywhere they land, in any situation, in any economy, in any period of history - due to their intelligence, energy and life posture.

Our Recruiting Standards

We hope that everyone who applies with us for a job finds their place in the marketplace, but we ONLY hire intelligent, high-energy, un-busy conversationalists who have a socially- attractive presentation, who tended to be high-achievers in the past and who are available to work when we need them, have a socially-attractive vehicle, meet the income needs for the position, can start when we need them to, can work the hours we need them to during training.

Just as Value #1 states: Wow is our standard. We are looking for people who amaze us.

Why Is Finding A Players So Hard?

Just think back to when you were doing looking for a job.  It’s hard and vulnerable and confusing, isn’t it?  You don’t know what you want to do.  You don’t know who’s hiring or paying well.  You don’t know who you can trust or who you’ll like after the first month or three after the newness wears down.  

Adding to that, you have bills to pay and feel all that immediate pressure to get some money coming in soon, but you can’t stand the thought of another disappointing, dead-end job....PLUS your heart longs to do work you love and to make a difference in the world - but who on earth is offering jobs like that!? That offer pay good?  In the area you are passionate about!?  (And let’s face it: who on earth even knows what they are passionate about, or what they want to be when they grow up!?)

The whole job search is laced with fear, insecurity and uncertainty…and that’s not even to mention that both parties tend to hide the “full” truth from each other like a couple on a first date, putting their best feet forward!  The entire ordeal is crazy and laced with risk.

So what do most people do?  They give up hoping to find meaningful work that pays well in a healthy culture of people that they actually like…and instead, just look for any old JOB that will pay the bills - hopefully one they can tolerate that will also pay the bills.

It sounds cynical, but it’s unfortunately true for too many of us.  This is what we are dealing with when people fill out a form to work with us.  And it’s our job as recruiters to diplomatically sort through the wreckage to find those few "unicorns" who are happy, healthy and smart with great social and communication skills.  

They ARE out there and we CAN find them (we found YOU, didn’t we?), but ONLY IF we are patient and we learn how to see what is underneath all they are saying to us.

Helping you see like this is the aim this recruiting certification training.

So What Is Our Recruiting Funnel Look Like?

Just like our sales teams have a sales funnel from website traffic to leads to evals to new clients, likewise, there is a recruiting funnel from website traffic to candidates to ride days to new hires.

Here are the steps in our funnel and their function:

1) Ads.  We write our ads looking for dog lovers because we want people who ALREADY share our love for dogs and thus are more likely to want to help us with our mission (which is entirely different than someone who is looking for a job to pay their bills).

2) Landing Pages.  We have hidden pages on our website that talk about who we are, what we do and what the position entails with details on pay, hours, what we are looking for, etc.   Do not be confused.  This is a marketing and sales page.  Before they have to sell themselves to us, we have to sell ourselves to them…but at the same time, we are also trying to weed people out so that they don’t even apply - so we write the copy in such a way that they self-opt-out.

3) Screening Forms.  We go through the "screening forms" and start cutting people off the list based on the minimum requirements of income needed, time available, social media profile, past jobs, etc - asking ourselves if they seem like they are A or B or C Players?  If they pass the tests, then we text them to see if they are available for a call.  Some aren’t, so they also drop off the list.  We end up only talking to a few, but keep records of them all for legal documentation.

4) Call Screening.  We are asking them questions to just get them to talk, about anything really, because we are trying to see if they are a high-energy conversationalists and intelligent, or if there is anything else that would get them cut.  

Again, we are ONLY looking for happy, healthy people who would fit in with us and would be socially liked and respected immediately by most people.  So, if we like them, then we’ll spend a few more minutes with them on the phone selling the larger vision of the company, what makes us different, how we are trying to change the entire industry, how we are looking not for mere “employees” who just want “any old job”, but for people who want to help us change the world and who want to get behind this mission and push with us.  

As we pitch our vision, we are looking for an “Oh wow!” response to see if they get it and want in, as well as to see if they respond with their own thoughts about the mission and vision CONVERSATIONALLY.  

If they are loving it and seem to want in, then we will do a ride day.  If they are yawning or not giving us feedback, then they get cut. 

Our aim is to only do 3-4 ride days per hire. Not more, and not less than 3 ever.

On one hand, we don’t want to tie up the staff.

We want to do as few ride days as possible so we are actually LOOKING for reasons to cut people, but at the same time realizing how expensive it is to us for ads running daily and in lost productivity, so there's a tension of looking for reasons to cut people AND giving some a chance.

5) Ride Day Screening.  We have them go on a half-ride day with one of our trainers so that we can see them in person, see how they dress, their vibe, see how they are with dogs and people…and so that THEY can see what being being a Dog Pro or Eval Pro is really like, that is, to burst their bubble that we get to “play with dogs all day” and so that they are buying into the actual work we do instead of what they think it is (because if they find out too late and realize that they hate this work, then we have already spent $5000 on ads, time, labor and training and now we’ll have to hire someone new to replace them so we BETTER GET THIS RIGHT right here and now on the ride day!)

6) Second Interview.  We do one final interview and the job is theirs to lose at this point.  Sometimes, the ride day didn’t go as well as we liked so we might follow up with a second round of questions, and talk about the pay plan and job requirements some more, as well as to ask about any concerns that the Ride-Day Evaluator brought up and asking them if they feel like they want to EMOTIONALLY take on this mission.  Again, we are looking for a “Oh my goodness YES!  I want to do something meaningful!"

7) New Hire.  If they are still a green light, then we start their internal paperwork to get them on-boarded.

Your Critical Decision: The Most Important Job

It sounds crazy, but if you are reading this, hiring the right people is actually the SINGLE most important part of your job.  Seriously.  

No matter what else you do for the team, helping us bring on A & B Players, or better said, keeping the wrong players from messing up our team, culture and brand - is THE singular most mission-critical part of your job.

Read: We are paying you to be a snob, helping us find only the A Players...(and occasionally when we can't find one in time, to help us find B Players who qualify, but maybe isn't a unicorn.)

Again, if a coach is the best in the world, but he recruits all the wrong players, then he won’t win that championship, no matter how well he trains them or coaches them.  

The Cost of a Bad Decision

It’s natural to want to hurry up, hire fast and get back to your “real job” of training dogs, or doing evals, or managing the team, but heads up!

- If you make a bad hire, not only you waste $10,000+ of the company’s hard-earned money, but you’ll spend more time and energy than you can imagine right now in constantly RE-training, RE-motivating and OVER-managing that person….so be careful!

- If you make an ok hire, then you’ll be frustrated that your team is not progressing faster as other teams who waited to find the superstars which are moving ahead of you in their critical metrics.

- But....If you make a “holy crap, I can’t believe I found such an awesome person” type of hire over and over again, then you will be motivated, happy, energized and mostly gliding on Easy Street as you watch your smart, capable team hum along like a fine performance car.

So, choose wisely…because you will have to live with this choice for a good, long while (unless you want to hire someone away from their current job, start to depend on the income we provide and then have to fire them in 4 weeks or 8 weeks or whenever you realize how bad of a mistake this was!).  Ouch.

The Temptation of Hiring Fast

I know you want to.  And it seems easy.  You have other things to do.  The team is slammed for weeks out, and now we’re losing deals because we can’t train the next dog for 6 more weeks!!! And running job ads are expensive, and doing all of these screening calls and ride days is emotionally draining!  We get it, but still - don’t compromise our standards, even though we have ALL been tempted to do so!

It’s infinitely better to wait until you have a All-Star on your hands whom you are just crazy about, no matter how much pressure you are getting from the team.  Most hiring managers think in 2 categories of recruits: weirdos who they DON’T want to work with vs average people who could probably do the job with some training and coaching.  However, we don’t want either.  We either need an A-Player who is a freak of nature, or someone who is above-average in their intelligence, energy and social skills who will also for in here. Again, the difference is an issue of degree of magnitude.

It’s a rookie mistake to hire fast.  This is why most hiring decisions are made in the first 90 seconds of the interview.  The hiring manager just asks: Do I like this person?  Are they like me?  But this isn’t enough.  You have to push in more, ask the hard questions (which we will show you) and make double sure that THIS is actually the right person for the team.

Remember, everyone wants this job because it’s one of the coolest jobs in the city.  So we act as gatekeepers and PROTECTORS of our company and brand and culture.  Who wouldn’t want a job where they get paid well to change the world for dogs?  

Our work in recruiting is to say NO to the many, even the good ones, so that we can say YES to the very, very few who really stand out.

Their Social Presentation Matters…If It's A Distraction

Judging Books By Covers

The fact is that people DO judge each other by their looks, and smells, and sounds, and posture and vibe - whether we like it or not - and it's not going to change any time soon, so we are just playing the game as it is laid out before us. That is, beauty matters, cleanliness matter, hygiene and energy-level matters - and many people don't like that, but it is what it is.

Why does this matter to us? Well, just imagine if we send someone out to a million-dollar home in a nice part of town, and that person is all that they will ever know about Wonder Dog (because they never come to the Games or never met anyone else), then that is all they have to go off of. 

Now imagine that the Dog Pro or Eval Pro who we sent out to that fancy home has a great personality, but stinks of body odor…or who might be an amazing dog trainer but who has purple/red/black hair…or who is sloppy in their appearance…or who has nose rings (which might be stylish in the club, but not as business attire)…or who is just generally unattractive for 1000 different reasons…or who has a social media page that is littered with unbecoming posts (because our clients absolutely look up their trainers!).

Or imagine sending out an Eval Pro or a Dog Pro out who feels too militant or too soft or even sensually, or who doesn’t take good care of themselves in any noticeable way.

You see, any of the above-named people are surely good people, are capable, and have rights in this nation to look however they want…and many of us on this team would go to war for them to keep that right…but if their looks (or smells or sounds general social presentation) cause any disrespect from the client due to their own preferences OR any reasonable distractions to the dog training program because the client doesn't take us as seriously now, then it affects the entire mission at-hand: which is helping families train their dogs.

Our PRESENTATION Standard

We are looking for people who are instantly likable for their look/feel/vibe/social presentation AT FIRST SIGHT AND who are not a distraction in any way (which includes being gorgeous).  

One might call this a "clean and wholesome" look or feel or way about themselves. Just look at the generic images above and look at how many different and various vibes can be socially acceptable to most people in any given culture. We are aiming for that!

Our front-line workers will either be liked, trusted and respected and so will our company - or they won’t be liked, trusted or respected and so goes our company.  

Front-line workers are a major component to any company’s reputation - which is one reason why companies spend so much money on their uniforms and colors and fonts and logos - so they can present an attractive united brand to generate respect, trust and affection from their prospects and clients.

This might sound mean or judgmental or exclusive to the folks who are dog-lovers, or greatly skilled as sales reps or dog trainers, or even the ones who really, really want to work with us - BUT maybe aren’t so socially acceptable in their presentation.

The issue is simply this: if a person’s presentation is a distraction of any kind to the tasks of dog evaluation or dog training, then they are cut from the recruiting list.

Freedom Vs Mission

We believe in the right of self-expression for everyone, but...

- If we had a young, smart, good looking guy who has tattoos all over his face, he might be accepted by some, but would you send him to a million dollar house to be instantly liked?

- If had Super Dog Trainer of the Decade want to work for us, but they stink like they were just smoking in the car before they walked in, it's a no.

- If you have a gal who’s gorgeous, smart and eager to work here, but her personal energy is low and mellow and boring, then we don’t want to hire her no matter how pretty she is or how badly she wants to work here or how badly she needs this job.

Instead, we are just trying to hire people who, when they go into the safe, personal space of someone’s home, they will not stand out in any way - not too beautiful or too homely, not sporting weird make-up colors, funky hair styles, odd colored hair or jewelry that you’d wear to the club, not cowboy boots or army boots, not gold teeth or baseball hats….among many other things.   

This is why we ONLY hire wholesome, socially-attractive people who are well-mannered and have excellent social skills and would be liked by the vast majority of citizens.

We might be beating a dead horse here, but it really is THAT important to the entire enterprise.

1A = 3B. 1B = 3C.

Wrap your mind around this math…

One A player is equivalent to 3 B players.

Literally 1 amazing employee is equivalent to or better than 3 other good employees.

The same thing applies for B to C players…

1 B player is better than 3 C players.

A’s are GREAT.

B’s are good.

C’s are just okay.

We’ll take good. We’re not saying we’ll never have B players on the team…but if we can get an A who can grow up through the ranks, that is better than having 3 B players.