The Culture Podcast

As the CEO of The Hire Talent, a talent assessment software company, and Wimbush & Associates, Inc., a talent search firm, Fletcher Wimbush has interviewed over 8,000 job applicants.

In addition to talent assessment and executive search work, Fletcher created the Power Interview Guide, the most effective 30-minute interview ever of all time, and co-authored a book with his late father, Hiring Talent Team Players: a guide to getting it right. He and his team have published numerous articles across various media channels including ERE.net, Recruiter.com, Monster.com, and other thought leadership sites. Hundreds of more articles have been published on their assessment testing website found at www.PreEmploymentAssessments.com/blog.

Fletcher's lifelong passion and study of best practices in hiring has led him to coach business leaders, CEOs, and hiring managers on the best-recruiting practices using self-established resources such as the Power Interview Guide, eBook, and hundreds of hiring topic articles.

After opening over 25 small businesses right out of college, Fletcher moved into a more traditional corporate environment in the hospitality and cleaning products industry. In a multi-business unit leadership role, he developed specific expertise in turning around underperforming business units, reporting top revenue and profit numbers during the 2007-2012 recession years, and in his own businesses has seen 10X growth within a span of 5 years.

Fletcher has spoken and presented at several business events, conferences, and online platforms, including Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), local small business groups, Chambers of Commerce, Bright Talk, SHRM Conferences, and CollegeRecruiter.com.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• Why Fletcher feels passionate about talent acquisition and the importance of getting the right people onto the team.
• Why a behavior-based assessment is a powerful tool that any organization can benefit from using during the hiring process.
• Why Fletcher recommends you begin with a skill-based test to measure a single skill or skillset.
• Why a skill assessment is an important step to determine how truly skilled a candidate is, regardless of what their resume may say.
• Why integrity/attitude testing can be helpful when hiring to screen out problematic candidates.
• Why personality assessments like Myers-Briggs help assess strengths and weaknesses, and why test results don't really change over time.
• Why team assessments can help create and reinforce a "common language" between team members.
• Why Fletcher recommends 360 assessments as a powerful communication tool, especially for performance evaluations.
• What steps leaders can take to create a culture that allows their teams to feel safe to answer self-assessment questions honestly.

Resources:  

• Website: www.thehiretalent.com 
• Telephone: 1-833-332-TEST (8378)

Additional Resources:

Successful Culture International website: www.successfulculture.com 

Eric Hansen is RedPeg's Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and all-around community advocate. With over 25 years of experience, he's led operations and financial planning for a number of finance and media firms, including Wells Fargo Bank, Henninger Media Services, Inc. and Congent Finance & Operations, LLC to name a few.

His reputation precedes him, specifically for his ability to successfully turnaround financial infrastructures. As a former COO for Henninger Media Services, he led the company to a successful turnaround and its best financial performance within its 30-year history, all within a three-year stint. He has negotiated million-dollar contracts, customized operational company procedures, and developed successful business teams.

Most recently, Eric has played an influential part in RedPeg's workplace culture initiatives, including Women of RedPeg and RedPegsters of Color. He launched a companywide Cost Savings Contest that the staff has actively enjoyed participating in, resulting in more than $2 million in savings over the last three years.  In support of professional development, he helped to support the education give back program, a reimbursement initiative that helps pay for employees' continued education. Eric is also responsible for the agency's charitable matching program, providing employees with a matched monetary contribution to donate toward their charity of choice, or timespend for community service.

While he is well-versed with numbers, Eric shines in his passion for service. He has co-founded an adoption ministry that advocates for children and facilitates the adoption process. He also has served on the board for the For His Children (FHC) organization, Arlington Little League, and regularly volunteers with RedPeg Gives Back, a RedPeg agency community service initiative.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• How Eric, as COO and CFO of RedPeg, also became the company's primary culture evangelist, and why he feels passionate about RedPeg's culture
• How Eric turned a cost-saving initiative into a popular and fun program and culture-strengthening exercise that has saved the company $2 million over three years
• How the cost-saving initiative's success has made a lasting impact on the organization and a permanent culture change within the team
• What kind of success RedPeg has seen from their relatively new committees for women and people of color
• Why solid, anonymous feedback has been a pillar of RedPeg's cultural success, and why having fun together is one of the company's core values
• How the RedPeg recruiting process is designed to ensure that new hires don't just have the right skills and experience but are also good culture fits for the company
• What Eric looks for in interviewees to determine if they truly are a culture fit and are excited about the culture at RedPeg
• Why RedPeg has Employee Experience personnel rather than Human Resources, and how those employees help create an experience that team members can thrive in

Resources:  

• Website: https://redpeg.com/ 
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/erichansen28/ 

Additional Resources:

• Successful Culture International website: www.successfulculture.com

Julie Lowe has a knack for building strong partnerships with both internal and external clients and strategically recruiting for difficult-to-fill positions. Not only can she design and deliver an impeccable customer service program–she's made it a daily practice.

Julie began her 20+ year career working in the hospitality industry. It was there that Julie found her passion for working with people to build their careers and grow the organization. This passion led her to work with a wide range of employers and clients, including Oakwood Apartments, Sheraton Hotels, The Cheesecake Factory, Transportation Security Administration (TSA)/Lockheed Martin, U.S. Army, and Aegis Defense Services, and for the past 7 years Julie has been a Vice President and most recently the Chief Culture Officer for TorchLight Hire, a leading staffing and recruiting agency in D.C. specializing in marketing and creative placements.

Julie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations/Journalism, with a minor in Psychology, from California State University, Long Beach. In her personal time, Julie is passionate about her family and local causes she supports such as affordable and inclusive housing for individuals with disabilities where she serves as a Director on the board of City Center NOVA, a non-profit organization in Virginia.  In addition, Julie is a facilitator for a support group for parents and youth for PFLAG in Alexandria.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• How Julie defines her role as Chief Culture Officer for TorchLight Hire, and how Julie's job has developed since she was hired as the company's second employee.
• How the company naturally evolved to be woman-owned and operated, and how the company manages a strong culture while being 100% remote.
• How culture is an important component of the hiring process at TorchLight Hire, and why the small company created a Chief Culture Officer position.
• Why TorchLight's intentional approach to culture is a powerful recruitment and retention tool to help Julie attract and keep talented employees.
• Why strong communication, cross-training, and a focus on service are assets that help TorchLight navigate the complexities of their highly competitive industry.
• What challenges, roadblocks, and obstacles Julie has faced during her company's growth, and how she overcame them.
• What best practices Julie uses to strengthen the culture at her company, and why having an approachable leadership team is necessary.
• How Julie has kept up with changes within her rapidly-evolving industry, and how these changes have created new specialist roles.
• Why each social media platform has a unique audience, and why TorchLight partners with their clients to better define what they are looking for in their recruiting.

Resources:  

• Website: https://torchlighthire.com/ 
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/julie-lowe-1892117/ 

Additional Resources:

• Successful Culture International website: www.successfulculture.com

During his tenure, Ron Alvesteffer has helped Service Express define its market and create a unique performance-driven culture for employees. Service Express's Core Value to work with our employees to help them achieve their personal, professional and financial goals creates opportunities for employee achievement and has led to outstanding individual and team performances resulting in individual and company success.

As a result, Service Express has been named one of the Best & Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation 5 years in a row. Service Express has also been named to the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Private Companies in America 10 of the past 11 years, as well as one of the Top 25 Best Small Companies by Forbes Magazine.

Under Ron's leadership, Service Express has averaged double-digit revenue growth year over year and has expanded the geographic footprint nationally. Ron implemented Service Express Performance Measurement System (SR5) which tracks monthly and quarterly goals and results. A company-wide focus on delivering exceptional customer service is the basis for Service Express's industry-leading Net Promoter Score of 84. Ron authored the eBook The Service Express Way. In it, Ron shares the beliefs and philosophies along with real-life stories from the field that have driven these remarkable results.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• Why Ron makes a point of involving himself in the onboarding of every employee, despite leading a 500-strong workforce
• Why Service Express's core value is to help their people achieve their personal, professional, and financial goals, and why this core value is so central to their success
• What Ron considers to be the four key pillars of Service Express's extraordinary culture, and why always providing feedback to employees is instrumental to their success
• How the process of hiring and onboarding new employees to join the team at Service Express differs from other workplaces
• Why the hiring process was developed in response to Ron's difficulties making sound hiring decisions early in his career
• How Ron tracks and measures the success of Service Express's culture, and how employee feedback helps them make positive changes
• Why it is important as a leader to develop your people rather than trying to drive your numbers
• How the company uses "vision talks" between leaders and employees to discuss employees' personal, professional and financial goals and help them achieve those goals
• Why every employee within the company has an ROI (Responsibilities, Objectives, and Indicators) scorecard that helps them measure and achieve goals

Additional resources:  

• Website: www.serviceexpress.com 
• Website: www.ronalvesteffer.com 
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/weareserviceexpress/ 
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/serviceexpress/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ServiceExpress

Dr. Richard Shuster is a clinical psychologist, keynote speaker, CEO of MARS Industries, renowned media expert, and the host of The Daily Helping with Dr. Richard Shuster: Food for the Brain, Knowledge from the Experts, Tools to Win at Life which is regularly downloaded in over 100 countries. His mission is to help people become the best versions of themselves and as a result, make the world a better place. A sought after media expert, Dr. Shusters clinical expertise and podcast have been featured in such publications as The Huffington Post, NBCNews.com, Glassdoor.com, Men's Health, Cosmopolitan, and others.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• Why Dr. Richard Shuster began focusing on corporate-level substance abuse work after recognizing that there was a lack of digital instruments to help employees maintain sobriety
• Why today's workplace can be a cause of increased responsibility and stress on employees, aggravating the problem of substance abuse
• How substance abuse is costing our country $740 billion annually, and how 21 million Americans are currently struggling with substance abuse issues with only 10% in treatment
• How Dr. Richard Shuster's digital tools can be used by employers to help employees identify risk factors for substance abuse and mental health issues
• How these tools can be integrated into companies' Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) as a confidential but powerful resource
• How current research suggests that corporations are losing between $80-100 billion dollars to substance abuse impact, including productivity loss and absenteeism
• Why certain occupations see a higher impact from substance abuse, and why unhealthy company culture and workplace alienation can contribute to the problem
• How organizations have an important role to play in their employees' sobriety and mental health, and why de-stigmatization of substance abuse is key
• How comprehensive EAP systems are cost-effective and provide many benefits to businesses, and what first steps organizations can take to enact positive change
• How employee handbooks present an opportunity for employers to indicate a culture of support for employees struggling with addiction and substance abuse issues

Additional resources:  

• Website: marsassessment.com 
• Website: www.thedailyhelping.com 
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Thedailyhelping/ 
• Twitter: @thedailyhelping
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dr-richard-shuster~-transforming-lives-with-superior-assessments-288a65171/

As a CEO for two decades, Ian Altman started, sold, and grew his business-services and technology companies from zero to over one billion dollars in value. Ian has since spent years researching how customers make decisions. His modern approach to sales and marketing is known for helping organizations around the world achieve explosive growth.

A leading authority on accelerating business growth, Ian is currently recognized as one of the 30 Global Gurus on Sales. He's a co-author of the bestselling book Same Side Selling, and hosts the weekly Same Side Selling podcast. Hundreds of his articles can be found on Forbes and Inc.

Ian lives in the Washington DC area with his two adult-ish children, a dog, and a wonderful wife he doesn't deserve.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• Why integrity is the cornerstone of a successful sales strategy, and why common stereotypes about what "sales" means are harmful.
• Why the way sales methodology has been taught in the past is focused on persuading and manipulating the client, and why getting to the truth as quickly as possible is far more effective.
• Why businesses of every kind and size base their buying decisions on the same three questions. What problem does it solve? Why do I need it? And what is the likely outcome or result?
• Why answering those three questions is the key to improving the sales process and better aligning your business to the needs of your client.
• What important topics Ian's book Same Side Selling addresses in helping organizations improve their sales processes.
• Why service-based businesses need to address the sales process differently than transactional businesses.
• Ian offers examples of real-world businesses that were able to adopt his sales philosophy and the dramatic growth that resulted.
• Why Ian's "Same Side Selling" methods can powerfully integrate into a company's business culture, and why even people who don't like "sales" often succeed using his methods.

Additional resources:  

• Website: www.samesideselling.com 
• Same Side Selling podcast: www.ianaltman.com/same-side-selling-podcast/  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianaltman/  
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrowMyRevenue 

Kira is an accomplished entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience, having built 7 businesses of her own, 2 of them reaching multi-million-dollar sales. Her business training includes graduating from AGI as a Jonah (Theory of Constraints) & Entrepreneurial Masters Program, held jointly by MIT/EO, which teaches world-class entrepreneurs how to successfully scale their businesses. Kira has had 3 nominations for RBC Canadian Female Entrepreneur of the Year for New Start-Ups.

Kira is a decorated athlete with multiple Canadian records in swimming, membership in McMaster Sports Hall of Fame and world rankings as a master swimmer. Kira used her mental skills from sports for her success in business, and she teaches them the same mindset skills that were fundamental to her own success.

Kira is trained in Yoga, Mindfulness, Pranayama (breathing techniques), Intuition Development and Healing, with 12,000 hours combined of all disciplines. Meditation was a foundation for all of Kira's business success. Kira currently teaches meditation to improve business performance as well as to release karma that is holding people back from their fullest potential.

Kira is passionate about educating business leaders on high performance through personal development, which leads to healthy business success at the same time as working less time to get outstanding business results.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• How Kira has successfully built and grown seven different companies, and why mindfulness and meditation practices have become a cornerstone of her success
• What Kira's Eagle Institute is, and how it works to train business leaders key stress management skills drawn from mindfulness and meditation.
• Kira shares the story of a client who used mindful listening skills to salvage a difficult situation with a business partner.
• Why a meditation app is no substitute for a teacher who can give you feedback and help you progress.
• How Kira helps leadership teams encourage their teams to change practices and adopt mindfulness without feeling forced.
• How compassion practice or kindness practice works to help overcome our minds' natural tendency towards negativity, and what benefits you can receive from compassion practice.
• How business leaders can unlearn their own negative learned behaviors and better help their teams do the same.
• Why mindfulness and stress management can be powerful tools to help you operate more efficiently and solve problems.
• Why stress triggers the fight-or-flight response and erodes at our mastery of skills, and why it also destroys productivity.
• Why repetition and consistency are the keys to benefiting from meditation and mindfulness practices.

Additional resources:  

• Website: www.theeagleinstitute.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kira-leskew-34419118/
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-eagle-institute-ltd./
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheEagleInstitute/
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCTAPWR6OTe4FTKU6heGvgdA

Kerry Guard worked in New York where the marketing agency culture was churn-and-burn. She worked twelve-hour days, owned a $50MM account as an assistant, and was treated as replaceable. After moving to Seattle to be with her now-husband, Kerry set out to build an agency, MKG Marketing, that was the opposite; where people work no more than eight hours a day... whatever eight hours work for them. MKG Marketing is an agency where team members never feel like an island and where they know they are valued.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• How MKG Marketing's culture came to be developed over the course of the last eight years, and how the virtual company has developed a strong culture
• Why Kerry and her partner decided to take the company virtual and offer staff the freedom and flexibility to work from wherever they want
• How MKG Marketing's hiring process works to find self-starters who prefer to work remotely
• What tools and strategies MKG Marketing uses to coordinate their remote team members and ensure that everyone is working on the same page
• How Kerry has set up the company's onboarding process to ensure that new hires feel engaged and supported
• What benefits MKG Marketing offers its benefits that directly align with the company's core values, and why flexibility is a powerful offering
• How Kerry and her partner developed their values statements, and why Kerry recognized the importance of defining clear values
• Why surrounding yourself with people who believe in your culture and share your passion are key steps to creating a strong culture
• Why MKG Marketing has a three-month trial period for new hires, allowing both the company and the employee to evaluate each other

Additional resources:  

• Website: https://mkgmarketinginc.com/ 
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/mkgmarketinginc/ 
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kerryguard/ 
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/mkg-marketing/ 
• Twitter: @MKGMarketingInc
• Twitter: @kerryguard

Todd Palmer knows that growth happens only when we lean into the uncomfortable -- and he knows from personal experience: Todd went from being a struggling entrepreneur with $600,000 in debt to making the INC 5000 (a record total of 6 times!) as one of America's fastest-growing companies.

Today, as a collaborative business advisor and CEO of Extraordinary Advisors, Todd helps his clients ditch their comfort zone, dive into their "failures," and re-frame their mindset to be more authentic, transparent, and vulnerable to affect real change along the path to success. He knows that business success begins and ends with people, and he isn't happy until his clients trust themselves (the leaders) AND their decisions. His job is only finished when teams trust the leaders AND each other -- when CEO's and their leadership teams take action towards high-level achievement, resulting in clients that trust the company. (Read: more sales, more profits, more partnerships.)

Todd is also the author of the popular book The Job Search Process: Find & Land a Great Job in 6 Weeks or Less.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• Why culture plays such a key role in recruiting top talent, and how Todd discovered his passion for culture
• How, in 2006, Todd recognized the need to make changes when his company was reeling after a series of losses, and why he fired his entire company and started over
• How Todd learned to "lead from the front" and to begin hiring the right people to fit the company's culture and goals
• How Todd pivoted his leadership and his company's direction, and why transforming his company culture took time and work
• How the cultural evolution touched every aspect of the business, from hiring and firing to the business model itself
• How a critical payroll mistake taught Todd's entire team the value of failing forward and living to their core values
• Why an organization's leader has to be authentic, transparent, and vulnerable to the team they lead
• Why Todd considers addressing culture issues within his business to be the key to how he took the company out of debt as quickly as he did

Additional resources:  

• Website: https://extraordinaryadvisors.com 
• The Job Search Process by Todd Palmer: https://amzn.to/34jTZEn 
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/toddpalmer1/ 
• Twitter: @toddpalmer
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ToddPalmer13 

A 27-year entrepreneur, speaker, & globally recognized growth strategist, Marissa Levin's lifetime legacy mission is to educate, equip, & empower 100 million entrepreneurs & leaders with the skillsets and mindsets they need to reach their greatest potential.

In 2012, Marissa launched Successful Culture, a leadership consulting organization that helps CEOs master the 3 most critical aspects of business growth: leadership development, strategy formulation & execution, and organizational culture assessment & improvement.

Marissa is the author of the #1 best-selling book "Built to SCALE: How Top Companies Create Breakthrough Growth Through Exceptional Advisory Boards." Using Marissa's patented SCALE Model, SCI helps CEOs select and implement highly effective advisory boards which is an essential strategy for any business looking to grow exponentially.

Jennifer "Jen" Brown's love of organizational development and human resources started when she interned during her sophomore year in college with the Association for Training and Development. Having led major corporate functions and advised executives during steady and turbulent times, Jen has extensive first-hand experience in driving organizational change at a strategic level and facilitating rapid personal improvement in individuals.

Jen is continuing her love of change management, HR, and organizational development with the launch of Successful Culture International (SCI). She and her long-time friend and colleague, Marissa Levin, have brought their talents and services together to establish a global corporate culture consultancy that leads organizations undergoing significant transformation through a proven model to define, stabilize, and strengthen organizational cultures. SCI also works with emerging companies to help define their corporate cultures so that they can attract, hire, and retain the best talent.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

• How Marissa and Jennifer help companies with organizational development and with the disconnect between how the leadership team and employee base view the culture
• How 360-degree assessments can be a valuable tool for leaders to better understand how their teams view the company culture
• Why culture surveys can help you determine if your values are being lived out, where communication gaps exist, and if there are training and development needs
• What tools are available to survey your employees and get their feedback, and anonymity is a critical component to surveys
• How assessments and surveys can be used to get feedback, help retain top talent, and allow your employees to feel engaged
• Why "stay interviews" can be helpful for identifying the things in your culture that are working well and are encouraging your employees to stay with the organization
• Hear an example of a division of a company that was struggling with low engagement and morale, and the successful turnaround of the division
• Why communication strategies and regular, clear communication with your employees is a necessary foundation for organizational development
• How soliciting feedback from your employees anonymously and on a one-on-one basis can improve morale and improve engagement by ensuring your employees' voices are heard

Additional resources:  

• Website: www.successfulculture.com