April 20, 2025

631: Bert Bean & Sam Kaufman - Obsession, Grit, Growth-Mindset, Winning in a Tough Market, Hiring for Potential, Running Ultra-Marathons, and Caring For Your People

1 hour 13 minutes

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk

Go to www.LearningLeader.com for full show notes

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www.InsightGlobal.com/LearningLeader

Bert Bean is the CEO of Insight Global. Insight Global is a 4.3-billion-dollar, industry-leading talent and technical services firm based in Atlanta, GA. Bert started with Insight Global in 2005 as a Recruiter and has since worked his way up within the company, exemplifying Insight Global’s “promote from within” culture. Sam Kaufman is the Chief Revenue Officer of Insight Global. Sam began his career as an entry-level recruiter in 2004, and he has earned many promotions throughout his career. I initially started working with Sam as his executive coach in March 2020, and then mid-2021, we formalized a bigger partnership with Insight Global, becoming the presenting sponsor of The Learning Leader Show, and we broadened my role working with leaders throughout the company. It’s been so much fun.

Notes

Insight Global is a $4.3B business. Insight Global grew 9.2% last year, while the industry declined 9%.
- How is Insight Global winning while all other staffing firms are losing?
  - A lot of companies will succumb to the idea that it's just gonna be a bad year, but our people are like, no, we'll just figure it out. We'll pivot. We'll move industries. We'll change accounts, we'll change our focus. We'll sell different services. And that's really what we've done.
  - “Many in our industry are losing hope. That’s not us. This is where we thrive.”
  - "Our people's ability to show up, keep going, um, do new things, evolve, is really, I think it's second to none. And that's been a huge part of our story."
The whole world is soft. We love leaders like Laura Downey. She’s so driven, so hardcore. A beast. She’s in Canada. She just reaches right out to me like we’re old friends. If I could get a bunch of Laura Downey’s, it’s game over.
Obsession: A through-point for the entire conversation was obsession. Being obsessed with caring for people. Being obsessed with doing hard things like running 20 miles to work. Being obsessed with how prepared you are for a big meeting. Being obsessed with your standards. Holding yourself accountable to them and others. The leaders who sustain excellence over time are obsessed with their craft.
Potential over experience - “If you want to build a culture of commitment and care, you have to choose potential over experience.”
Things to look for when promoting a leader:
- Hard decision making
- Strategic bets
- Simplifying complex problems
“The most important skill as a CEO is getting to the truth. It's really hard because it's really scary. Normal humans find every excuse not to deal with harsh truths.” -- Ben Horowitz
The baseball on Bert's desk from the Atlanta Braves is an example of what not to do.
The overall brand of Sam Kaufman = CARE
Hiring in India - One of our folks that's doing the interviews asks this individual if, if they want a bottle of water, gives 'em a bottle of water, and this person says, wow, of all the places I've been to interview, nobody's offered me a single drink of water or treated me like a human being.
Bert: I grew up in a small town in Alabama and was a very average kind of kid. But my mom was always like, you can do anything you want. Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't. You can be you, you can be the fastest runner in the world if you want.
Sam: I get in here at 5:30 every day because I have a couple thousand people that started where I started, and I am obsessed with the idea that they should have the best career ever.
Bert: I think a lot of people don't ever get a chance to suffer on their own terms. Yeah. You know, like to, to enter the pain cave on their own terms. And that's a really cool thing to, to step into that and to figure out, all right, do you have the stuff or do you not? You know? And I think all of us deep down are afraid to answer that question.
- I just gotta know if I can do it. I have to know that. I like that challenge. I put in the work, I put in the training. And then when you do it, you're like, I knew I had that in me, and it just is so reassuring to me.
Bert: I love a sense of accomplishment. I love a sense of accomplishment. Uh, I love that I can do something hard. I've always, you know, I lived in Yellowstone National Park for a summer in college, so I fell in love with the American West and I loved seeing mountains and being like, why can't I just stand on that?
Sam: The last couple years, I've spent a few hours kind of every morning working what I need to be talking about and what does my voice sound like? And through the course of a couple years of working on it now, I gotta run a call with a couple thousand people this afternoon, and it's like, oh, I'll just go do that next because I'm, I'm ready for that.
Sam: I'm a person they can count on when they need them. And that's what sales really is. And that's what sales will teach you. And so for, you know, for my organization, if I want my people to see that, I want them to learn that.
Bert's Tattoo – Be The Light

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