Hire Wize the First Time: Sid Upadhyay on The Unstoppable Profit Podcast

Summary of the podcast discussion

Sid Upadhyay joined Mike Stromsoe on The Unstoppable Profit Podcast to talk about building and nurturing amazing teams and cultures for small businesses. Small businesses are faced with a lot of competition for talent, and in this episode Sid & Mike discuss effective methods and tips for not only attracting new talent, but maintaining that talent.

Podcast Name: The Unstoppable Profit

Podcast Host: Mike Stromsoe

What the podcast is about: The Unstoppable Profit Podcast gives small business owners the tools to grow their business and live life on their terms. Mike Stromsoe has spent the past 35+ years in the insurance industry and has created a unique philosophy that provides agency entrepreneurs guidance to “explode” their business. 

How to listen: Website, Spotify, Youtube

The podcast interview: key highlights

“The war for marketplace talent is won at the interview table.” – Sid Upadhyay

The importance of the interview is highlighted almost immediately in this conversation – the first obstacle that small businesses face in hiring is attracting talent to that interview. Large corporations have teams of people, from recruiters to marketing arms, whose purpose is to attract talent. Small businesses can’t afford these things, so they have to find the best lessons from the mistakes and successes of others, and those lessons have to be fast forwarded.

Sid underscores that this is the value of the Wizehire Coach team. Both Mike & Sid believe that coaching for small business is a way to “fast forward” these lessons and help small businesses write effective job postings, identify employee value propositions, and flesh out the vision and values for the hiring companies. These are essential to have codified in order to attract the right talent and make the right hires.

“Get ahead of the exit interview and have a ‘stay’ interview.” – Sid Upadhyay

Once talent is acquired a new challenge arises for small business owners – maintaining talent. Urgency is required in the talent marketplace, being quick to respond to top candidates, but quicker to get ahead of their desire for change. The post-pandemic market has turned everyone into jobseekers, and talent is far more fluid, so building in a culture of development and feedback that starts quickly after the hire is made is a key way to not only grow a team, but make a sticky team. This starts with being open to feedback and seeking it out. Some questions you could ask in these conversations are:

• What would make you consider a new position elsewhere?
• What ways would you like to grow? How can I (or we) help?
• Where can we as a team improve, how do you think you can enable that improvement?

These are culture shaping conversations that reinforce the value that small businesses can provide their employees, and tools that owners can use to set themselves apart from larger companies.

Success strategies shared in the interview

Mike finishes the episode by asking, “What is the #1 tip you have for attracting, interviewing, and hiring top talent?”

Sid’s answer is simple – adaptability. Recognize that today the talent pool is far more fluid with people moving across industries more readily. Get ahead of the curve and seek methodologies from other businesses that may not be in your market, but are effective. Network, talk to others, and get outside your box.

Wizehire helps small business owners grow their teams in the right ways using tools and methods tested across industries. Start growing your team today.

Leighann Emo

With a rich background in content development, Leighann creates engaging, educational articles that resonate with small and growing businesses. Her role involves ensuring the accuracy and quality of content and collaborating with other board members to assess the accuracy and compliance of content.