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Episode Summary
You’re sitting in the same chair I sat in for years, doing the math in your head. A real CEO costs $200K. You’re trying to clear $200K yourself. The numbers don’t work, so you stay in the seat and tell yourself nobody is as good as you anyway. That’s the trap I kicked off this miniseries to break. Dr. Sabrina Starling has spent 17 years figuring out how small business owners actually hire A-players, and her data is wild: A-players are 900-1,200% more productive than the warm bodies most teams are filled with. We got into why only 10% of the population are A-players, why they’re never scrolling Indeed, and the networking move that gets you in front of them before you’re desperate. We dug into why niching down to your sweet spot is what actually creates the margin to afford the hire. And we talked about the trap of bringing on a high-priced executive before the revenue is there. Real story from her practice: three years to recover from one premature hire. This episode is about getting your head around the possibility before you ever pick up the phone to a recruiter.
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## Top 10 Takeaways- Two narratives keep you stuck: “I can’t afford them” and “nobody is as good as me.” Both are wrong.
- A-players are 900-1,200% more productive than warm bodies. Same payroll line, completely different output.
- Only 10% of the population are A-players. They are already employed and they are not on Indeed.
- Job ads do not reach A-players. They aren’t looking. Your network is the actual channel.
- Ask “who do you know who is this kind of person?” Never “who do you know looking for work?”
- Become the employer of choice before you need to hire. Ask your current A-players what they love.
- The margin to afford the A-player comes from niching down and firing your PETA clients.
- Hiring desperate gives the candidate leverage. Start hiring when sales are steady, not when you’re underwater.
- Don’t start with the integrator. Build your hiring skill on smaller seats first.
- A-players need clear results, career paths, and room to overachieve. Cap them and they leave.
Sound Bites
“An A-player will be 900 to 1200% more productive than a warm body team member.” (@TBD) — Dr. Sabrina Starling
“If you have A-players taking care of your worst clients and customers, they are not going to stay around. They’re going to be frustrated because it’s a crappy job at that point.” (@TBD) — Dr. Sabrina Starling
“The best time to start hiring is when you don’t need to hire. The point where you start to make steady, consistent sales is when you really want to look at building your hire-the-best system into your business.” (@TBD) — Dr. Sabrina Starling
“When someone calls and says ‘I want out,’ no one says ‘out of the dividends that I’m getting without working.‘” (@TBD) — Ryan Tansom
About This Episode
Dr. Sabrina Starling is a business psychologist, founder of Tap the Potential, and host of the Profit by Design podcast. She is the author of How to Hire the Best (originally written for rural business owners and now applied across small businesses nationally) and The Four Week Vacation. Her thesis is simple: most owners can’t take their lives back from their businesses until they solve the people problem first. This episode kicks off Ryan’s three-part miniseries on finding, hiring, and paying rockstar executives. Craig Rutledge of VisionLink follows on executive compensation, and Mike Firmelt of Keystone Search closes the series on the professional recruiting process.
Resources Mentioned
- How to Hire the Best — Dr. Sabrina’s book on attracting A-players, originally written for rural business owners. — Available on Amazon
- The Four Week Vacation — Dr. Sabrina’s book on taking your life back from your business. — Available on Amazon
- Tap the Potential — Dr. Sabrina’s coaching firm. — tapthepotential.com
- Better Business, Better Life Assessment — The assessment that looks at owner wellbeing alongside business health, with a five-video educational walkthrough. — tapthepotential.com/assessment
- $10,000/Hour Activities Chart — Where to focus for the greatest impact. — tapthepotential.com/10k
- Profit by Design Podcast — Dr. Sabrina’s show
- Profit First by Mike Michalowicz — The cash management methodology Tap the Potential builds on
- Drive by Daniel Pink — Referenced for intrinsic motivation and headspace
- The Zconomy by Jason Dorsey — Referenced for advertising to the employees you want
- The Goal — Referenced for the domino effect of the right second hire
- Rob Dubay — The mutual connection who introduced Ryan and Dr. Sabrina
Connections
Phase + Module:
- Module 7 — Leadership Team — The seat-by-seat build of the team that runs the business without you
- Module 8 — Executive Compensation — Where the affordability math gets formalized in the next miniseries episode
Milestones:
- Milestone 19 — Functional Leaders — The functional leader hires this episode is preparing you to make
- Milestone 20 — Leadership Roadmap — The roadmap for which seat to fill, in what order
- Milestone 16 — Target Gross Margins — The margin floor that has to exist before the hire is affordable
Concepts referenced:
- The Owner-Operator Trap™ — The narrative that nobody is as good as you, and the math that traps you in the seat
- Visionary-Integrator Framework — Why you don’t start the build with the integrator hire
- The One Thing — The one result the seat exists to deliver, tied to the sweet spot
Related episodes (miniseries):
- Ep. 336 — Craig Rutledge - How to Pay the Best Executives — W-2, profit sharing, long-term incentives, lined up to your equity goal
- Ep. 337 — Mike Firmelt - The Professional Recruiting Process — How a real search firm actually finds the CEO/CFO/COO