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Hire Like a Boss with Talmar Anderson

Hire Like a Boss with Talmar Anderson

Today’s guest is Talmar Anderson from Boss Actions. Talmar and I talk about the challenges many businesses face in hiring employees and in switching their mindset from business owner to “boss.”

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Adam Lowe: So my guest this week is Talmar Anderson of Boss Actions. Talmar, how are you?

 
Talmar Anderson: Fantastic! How are you?

 
Adam Lowe: Fantastic! Happy Monday.

 
Talmar Anderson: Same to you. It’s a good day. It’s going to be a good day.

 
Adam Lowe: It is. So just before the call, I was calling you Big Boss Lady.

 
Talmar Anderson: It’s true. Or Crazy Lady or Crazy Boss Lady or Oh, yeah, that Talmar, I get. Or hey, you!

 
Adam Lowe: That person.

 
Talmar Anderson: It’s when they can say “Hey, you”.

 
Adam Lowe: So I understand Talmar is not your first name and there’s a little bit of a story there.

 
Talmar Anderson: Oh, that’s right, yeah, so Talmar is not my first name and I think the story is that I don’t have a good story for the name Talmar. It’s my middle name. Parent-given on my birth certificate and I actually didn’t use it for years. I always was shy as a kid which people find surprising and so at the beginning of the year when the teacher first calls everybody by their roll, they would say, “Denise” and I always wanted to correct them and use my middle name. Say “Call me Talmar”, but I just didn’t have the voice yet to say “Call me Talmar” until I went to college and I was in this little freshman introduction class and out of fifteen people I was a third Denise, so I thought, “This is my chance” and that’s when I started really stepping into my middle name, Talmar and haven’t looked back.

 
Most people don’t even know my last name because they don’t have to worry about the tall or short one. It’s just Talmar.

 
Adam Lowe: Well, you’re the only Talmar I’ve ever met.

 
Talmar Anderson: So far.

 
Adam Lowe: It’s distinctive.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yes. Yes.

 
Adam Lowe: So anyway, we have you on today to talk a little bit about hiring, so can you just give me some background on where you came from, who you are, how you help people?

 
Talmar Anderson: Wow! Okay, so I am a hiring and management best practices expert and what that means is I work with entrepreneurs and small business owners to help them understand how best to attract and manage and grow the best kick ass team you could have so you can 1) be hugely successful and profitable, but 2) to actually like the people you work with and have fun and there’s a way to take a lot of the stress, not all of the stress, out of managing people. So I try to create resources and tools and write articles and books and all kinds of stuff to try to make sure that people can find those answers quickly and that’s my gig.

 
Adam Lowe: That’s your gig.

 
Talmar Anderson: That’s my gig.

 
Adam Lowe: So what do you think most people struggle with when it comes to hiring and managing people?

 
Talmar Anderson: Oh, well those are two different things, right? So the first thing is there’s a myth that you can’t find good people and I would challenge that. It’s probably better to try to attract the right people. There’s a difference between hunting and looking forward throughout all this craziness world and there’s really knowing what you want to have for a team or for a specific position and finding the right words and job descriptions, employment ads and creating a reputation in your company that attracts the kind of people that you want to work with.

 
Adam Lowe: Earlier we were talking about Craigslist and I was telling you how a friend of mine has been having a really hard time attracting good talent. She’s in the construction field and I was saying, “Nothing but garbage there.” And you said, “Oh, no, no, no. I’m going to challenge you on that.”

 
Talmar Anderson: I will, I will. I think Craigslist gets a back rap. I mean there is a whole problem about hookers and people being killed, that’s bad. Don’t look for that on Craigslist, but for sure, Craigslist is still a place that people go when they’re looking for jobs and I would tell you that it’s not just the working positions or the service positions or even entry-level positions. I think that it’s still a thing that gets searched, a platform that gets searched on a regular basis when somebody is starting to look for a job or looking actively. Especially if it’s an immediate need. If they’re being driven out of a company either through a bad boss situation or the company’s just letting them go, they’re going to look everywhere. So I think Craigslist is still a good enough platform, especially for the price, that it’s ridiculous to skip over.

 
But I would say that the reason I think that people have a hard time with Craigslist is they’re not taking the time to really be thoughtful and considerate of what they need in their company and the kind of person that would be successful there. Instead, they’re going copying and pasting somebody else’s employment ad so when they hire that person, it’s a mismatch because it’s for a different company.

 
Adam Lowe: So assuming that’s going to be true for no matter where you place a job ad?

 
Talmar Anderson: Yes.

 
Adam Lowe: Whether it’s going to be Craigslist or …

 
Talmar Anderson: Indeed or …

 
Adam Lowe: Any of those places.

 
Talmar Anderson: Associations, right? Any kind of industry association you’re with, you should be posting your ads. Post them on your website, for Pete’s sake, people! Take a whole internet page of your website and say “We’re Hiring!” Use it on your social media. There’s a million places to put it out there, but it’s got to be the right content or you’re going to get the wrong people.

 
Adam Lowe: Really, let’s go ahead and unpack that topic of understanding what your company needs so that you can write that good job description. Just take it all the way from the beginning. Let’s say that …

 
Talmar Anderson: Okay, everybody get your pen and paper. You’re going to need about 12 hours. Okay.

 
Adam Lowe: I’ve never hired anybody before … well, I have, but let’s say I’ve never hired anybody before. I’ve got a company of one or maybe I’m taking over in a managerial role and I really need to hire somebody.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yes.

 
Adam Lowe: What do I need to think about?

 
Talmar Anderson: Okay, in my mind it’s a five-step process. There’s thinking about why you’re hiring. Now that sounds like I just need help, but that’s too general. Are you hiring to give yourself space and time on your (the boss’) calendar? Are you hiring because your clients are demanding a kind of expertise that you currently don’t offer? Are you hiring for … there’s a lot of reasons, right? So you have to first identify the why. If you can identify why you’re hiring, then that will help you in the overwhelm of resumes. When you’ve got two or three great candidates, if you keep coming back to that why, if one is better with people, but one is really the expert, if expertise is what you are hiring for, now you have your decision. So taking the time to understand why you’re hiring is a big piece of it.

 
And then understanding what you’re hiring for. What do I need? So if there’s an expertise and say it was a construction company, I need a site supervisor. That’s somebody that goes on site and stays there to coordinate the comings and goings and the clean up of it. Just generally is an on-site type person. So they need a site supervisor. What do they need to do? What do they need to be able to do and how do we need to be able to … let’s just write the tasks out. Everything they need to do. Clean the site, meet with vendors …. write the whole task list out of everything that you wish that they could do and then I challenge you to go back and say, “Okay, but realistically I’m probably not going to find a site supervisor that can also play violin to relax the guys while they’re on site.” If you made a big list of too much stuff, you’ve got to start pulling some of that out, so that’s another step. Get really isolated in what you’re going to realistically be able to find in a person.

 
And so you’ve identified the why. You’ve identified the what specifically are they going to do. Now we go and we say “What skills do they need to bring to be able to do those tasks?” And we need to ask them also “What kind of person do we want to be successful in our business?”

 
So if we are a never say no company, we’re looking for people that are very solution-oriented, that are going to see the possibilities in things. That’s a different kind of culture.

 
If we are a never be late person, then punctuality is really important to us, so it doesn’t matter that the job got done, it didn’t get started on time and that can be as important for certain industries.

 
So you have to isolate the personality and the behavior traits that are going to bring success to somebody in your company. Does that make sense?

 
Adam Lowe: It does. It does. It’s almost like creating a buyer persona as a marketer.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah. It is.

 
Adam Lowe: You’ve got to really dig down there and figure out who that person is and what their traits are, so that you can … you’ve got a buyer persona for bringing in leads. I suppose you’ve got the same thing for bringing in talent.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, absolutely. And so then the last piece is you’re going to take the why, the tasks, the skillset and the culture and you’re going to put it into an employment ad or a job description. If you’re writing the employment ad, it really needs to start with something that’s attracting people to your company. Why? You’re not just a construction company. You’re the Number One bathroom remodeler in the Eastern Seaboard and we love working alongside our dogs. There’s something in there that’s going to attract the kind of people. You write just a few sentences and start by getting the people you want to look at your ad and it can’t be buried in paragraphs and paragraphs of stuffs. We do want to be specific and we do want to put the right information in there, but it’s about attracting the people we enjoy working with and that can do the job. Two different things, but both have to be a part of it.

 
Adam Lowe: So you’ve really got to sell yourself to them just as much as they need to sell themselves to you.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, I get the sales reference, but I think it’s less about that. I think it’s more of lead generation. Seriously, because sales is closing. That’s the …

 
Adam Lowe: That’s true.

 
Talmar Anderson: So lead generation is I go out and I look at stores and I’m “Oh, yeah, I’m probably not going to wear camo, so I’m not going to that store, but I am going to wear stripes, so I’ll go to that store. And I’m not going to wear checkers, so I’m not going to that …” I can self-identify and it should be the same thing with your employment ads. You should be able to say, “I am in a culture where I want to be on the Number One team and that I’m driven and heck yeah, I’d love to work alongside dogs.” Or “Oh, smelly dogs, hell no. Not my thing.” So let’s get somethings out there that tell them about really what’s important to us and what it’s like to work with us, so that they can self-identify right away and we can lessen that load of getting the wrong people.

 
Adam Lowe: Well, if they don’t want to work with dogs, then they’re just wrong.

 
Talmar Anderson: Well …. there are cat people in the universe.

 
Adam Lowe: It’s okay.

 
Talmar Anderson: I am not one of them, but I know them. I know those people.

 
Adam Lowe: They really do exist.

 
Talmar Anderson: Mm-hmm (affirmative) I have some really good friends that are cat people.

 
Adam Lowe: I do, too. I just happen to be the crazy dog person.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah.

 
Adam Lowe: You’ve identified what you need. You’ve identified some of the characteristics of who you want to hire. What’s the next thing? What’s the next step?

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, I’m telling you that there’s actually five parts there. It’s the why are you hiring? That’s the really important part. There’s the what. What are they going to do? There’s the skillset that they need to do it. Sorry, I’m writing myself notes because I didn’t bring my list and then there’s also the culture. The cult of culture or the personality traits that are going to be important for you to enjoy working with and for them to have an idea of what’s successful for them in a company. And then that fifth piece is just writing the employment ad.

 
So I know that seems little, but taking the time to do those exercises, put you in such an understanding of the right people that it’s much easier to go through the resumes that come through because now you’ve got your list of requirements and skillsets and personality traits. You know how to write your interview questions because you’ve got the specifics of what’s going to be successful and so you can start looking for ways to get closer and closer to that answer. It really starts with understanding what you’re hiring for and I don’t think people are … they’re being a little too reactive and that oftentimes gives them the chaos of hiring the wrong people.

 
Adam Lowe: Mm-hmm (affirmative) It seems like you might have jumped a step there.

 
Talmar Anderson: Oh, I’m sorry.

 
Adam Lowe: We talked about getting all of those pieces together, really the understanding.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yes.

 
Adam Lowe: And the interviewing. How do we get those resumes in? How do we [crosstalk 00:12:46] that we’re getting quality resumes in?

 
Talmar Anderson: Again, the quality resumes is 100%, okay 90% about writing that employment ad very specifically. I know that I’m harping on that, but I think that that’s the biggest mistake that people make. But secondarily, it is getting the ad out there in as big a way as you can and that doesn’t have to be overly expensive. Again, we started talking about it earlier. It should be on your own website. You should be regularly posting it through your social media. You should,  actually I suggest for my clients that they keep a, if they’ve got some deliverable position to do specifically with how they serve their clients or their customers, that they keep those employment ads on their website all the time. Always be accepting resumes because if you can stay current and accessible and you have a nice little bin of people that you can go to, it can expedite because you’ve already weeded those out. If they’re in that bin, there’s the applied but not really qualified, but applied, maybe for this position or that position. Always be recruiting. Always be attracting people.

 
If you’ve placed the employment ad, you want to place it on different kinds of platforms. Do look at the platforms and understand if the kind of people that you want to hire are looking at this platform. So what I mean is if you are hiring in Puerto Rico and you are looking for somebody that is very specifically maybe a legal professional, you may or may not want to use one of their local sites that is predominantly for entry-level positions, say service industry, hospitality. You need to understand placing your ad is not the same thing as placing it in the right area. You need to look at the platforms and see if they’re looking for other legal professionals there, then you’re probably in the right space. You could even call the platforms and ask them if they keep track of the success rates of the jobs that are being posted there.

 
Adam Lowe: So thoughts on using those one-line platforms versus going through trying to get a recruiter or headhunter or a placement agency to help.

 
Talmar Anderson: Okay, so that’s a time management thing. Placement agencies are going to take a big chunk, but it can be 100% worth it if you are just not able to do the time. You want to hire somebody. I just need them to find me a great COO or I need them to find me the best project manager. Placement agencies and staffing companies can be amazing, if you have the cash flow because it’s just 100% hands off. You’ve got to meet with them, just like you would to create the employment ad to tell them exactly what’s going to be successful in your company, but then it’s hands off and they have to find that person for you and they narrow it down. They get it set up so you just go in and you do the interviews. It’s great, but for small business, it’s a big junk usually. It can be anywhere from 3% to 20% of what they’re going to pay for that position on an annual basis.

 
Adam Lowe: That’s a lot.

 
Talmar Anderson: It can be. It depends on the position. But it can also be worth it. Let’s imagine that you have some kind of a company that just got awarded a huge contract and you have a huge cash infusion. You have to be 100 places at once. It is definitely worth it in that case. Or you just got some investor and you’re in a scaling position. The money was specifically for that, then this is a good time to be using recruiters and staffing agencies because again, the cash flow is available and your time is required somewhere else. You still need to be involved and you still need to make sure that they’re getting the right people because you don’t want them hiring what they want to work with, you want them hiring what you want to work with.

 
Adam Lowe: It’s just like anything else it’s a time versus money question.

 
Talmar Anderson: That’s the assessment of life, right? What’s it worth to you? But that’s a big part of scaling your company. So they talk about valuing your time. They say if you’re going to value your time, you need to hire. You don’t need to be filing and you don’t need to be doing the bookkeeping and I 100% agree with that. I think that what gets confused is it’s your company needs you as the boss and as the CEO or the founder, whatever your title is, as the boss. The company needs you to understand your role is shifting. I have a whole thing called The Shift just for it, so that you can understand. You have to move from business owner to boss. A successful company, a growing, successful, earning more income, getting more profitable company is constantly hiring and that’s a good thing. Hiring doesn’t have to be scary and gross. We need to get everybody comfortable with 1) a hiring process 100% which is going to be difficult for us to go through a whole process today, but 100% of process but also just to understanding that your role shifts. You have to start to manage people and you have to enjoy it and there’s a way that you can approach it and there’s a confidence that can be built into it and there’s experiences that can be shared to help you get there faster.

 
It’s really important to make sure that you understand your role is shifting when you start hiring and the sooner you get into that role and you start understanding what you can do to be successful, the easier it is to get the right people and hire and manage and scale and get that profitability that we are all looking for.

 
Adam Lowe: How do people typically handle that adjustment from business owner to being a boss? What are some good tactics or strategies for people?

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, the first one is going to be a plug. I would say sign up for Boss Actions Community, but I would tell you the real problem is there literally has been nobody out there talking about this shift. Up until now, as far as I’m aware, I’m not exaggerating, there has been no resource for entrepreneurs and small business owners on how do I change my mindset? How do I become a better manager?

 
There are certainly higher education degrees that you can go for, but most business owners and entrepreneurs are already in it and they need to know quickly. So you have to find peers that you know that are bosses themselves so you can share experiences, so that when your Number Two person comes up to you and says, “Oh by the way, I need to completely, drastically change my schedule. I’m only going to be available to work half days now.” And you’re a morning person and you’ve been relying on them to be working with you in that time. These are bombshells and you’re “What do I do? I’m never going to survive without my Number Two. My business is going to tank. It’s going to be too hard.” You go through all this stress and overwhelm and if you don’t have somebody that’s been there and done that, that’s a boss, that can relate to it, it can be really challenging. So surrounding yourself with mentors and peers and communities that allow you to share what you’re going through and offer solutions or experiences that may work for them is a huge benefit.

 
I think of Masterminds may offer that in some capacity if you’re being careful to get into a Mastermind that has people that have staff.

 
Adam Lowe: Go ahead. Plug yourself.

 
Talmar Anderson: Alright.

 
Adam Lowe: That’s why we’re here, right?

 
Talmar Anderson: No. No.

 
Adam Lowe: [crosstalk 00:20:10]have this community. I know that you’re building this community or you have this community right now that you’re working on.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yes.

 
Adam Lowe: And I loved to really hear about it because like you said, taking that shift whether you’re a business owner or you’re a first-time manager or anybody in a leadership role that suddenly has to manage people, that’s a really, really tough change, so how do you help them?

 
Talmar Anderson: The main thing is … it’s called Boss Actions Community. I’m taking boss back. Boss is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing. And I’m going to give you the answer right now. The answer is you have to shift from understanding that they are not there to do things for you, you’re there to do things for them. And the sooner you can get to that ideology, the sooner you’re going to be successful. There’s tons more information to getting there. There’s understanding how to do it and when to do it and why to do it, but really truthfully, it’s moving from understanding that a business owner is running around trying to get things done. A boss has people to do the things and is helping those people be more successful. I mean that’s the easy summary of it.

 
But Boss Actions Community. I have a Boss Actions membership that’s available online. It’s an annual membership and we have 12-step fundamental where you shift from business owner to boss. It’s really getting you through some ideas, concepts and steps and insights that will get you moving towards looking at your business as its own entity and moving towards building that kick ass team that you really want to have around you so you’re excited about going to work and being the manager. It’s not a bad thing to be a boss.

 
We offer all kinds of resources from expert interviews having to do with payroll and salary negotiations and independent contractor contracts. Because Boss Actions is also, it’s not just about employees, it’s about your team. That might be employees. It might be independent contractors. And it could include the vendors that you have on a regular basis that might be helping you with your marketing or your bookkeeping. Those people still need to be managed and going down the same course that you have for your company.

 
It’s about how to have the challenging conversations. We have a whole area that’s called Let Me Write That Down. It’s named after what clients literally would say to me, where we do a role play on how to start challenging conversations and then there’s commentary over that. We talk about everything from dressed inappropriately to terminating immediately to terminating with time. There is a bunch of different things where they can go in and see how the conversation could start and the things they can be thinking about during this time to both protect the relationship between them and the employee, protect the rest of the team, protect the company. There’s lots of different things going in there, but so that they can be more confident going into these roles and these experiences that they may not have had before. But if they’re going to be successful, it’s going to happen.

 
The bombdillio of it, the whole thing, though is that they get to connect with other bosses, so everybody in there is a boss and we have a forum where when you have “Oh!” Moment where somebody comes and really like the floor drops out from underneath you, you have a community of people that you can go “Oh my God! This just happened. Has anybody had this happen?” And I promise you, it’s happened to somebody or worse and they’re going to tell you all about it and give you suggestions on how you can take control of the situation and keep your company moving forward.

 
Adam Lowe: I imagine being in the position that you’re in that you have some pretty great stories to share.

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, actually my blog, that’s evil and excited. Shockingly the same thing. I have blog that’s just about that, in fact. It’s a free resource and it’s called The Good Enough, the Bad and the Ugly Behavior where every week we look at a scenario of contact I’ve spoke with and they give me a story where you’re “Can you believe they said this?” It really is shocking the kind of scenarios and situations from bad bosses to bad employees and we share it once a week. That’s something they could go to [email protected] and they can sign up for that mailing list. It might be on BossActions.com too.

 
Adam Lowe: That’s T-a-l-m-a-r?

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, I-t-u-p. Yep. Talmar@itup.

 
Adam Lowe: So you can’t just leave me hanging there. I need to hear your favorite.

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, let’s see. I don’t want to share everybody’s story, so I’ll share one of mine. I was managing a law firm many moons ago because I came out of running law firms before I went out on my own and I was still fairly inexperienced at being a manager and I’d had a receptionist at the office that was very flighty, we’ll say and one morning wasn’t there on time. The phones needed to be turned on, so I was walking up there to cover until my file room staff came in and I found, this is how old it was, but I found a film canister. A little black film canister and so I didn’t think anything of it. I’m “Film? Who uses film anymore?”

 
Druggies use film canisters. That’s it! So I open it up and now I’m less experienced than I might let on. I was “I don’t know what kind of drug this is, but I know it’s a drug or I think it is.” So I take it to the managing partner at the time and both of us are trying to figure out what to do. It was kind of a Keystone Cops moment where we were “What if it’s something not illegal?” Because we were inexperienced enough to not know, but we just had to call the police and let them take care of it. It was. I kind of downplayed it, but it was hilarious because we both were “Is it? Or is it not?” We didn’t know. We just called the police and said, “We found this here.” Shockingly, that employee was not welcome back after that.

 
Adam Lowe: No kidding!

 
Talmar Anderson: No kidding! And it was a very easy phone call to make everybody. Didn’t feel bad for a second. I was “Hey, just so you know” [inaudible 00:26:21]

 
Adam Lowe: Not all of your situations are going to involve the police.

 
Talmar Anderson: No, but that is what some people want to talk about. They get nervous about … we talk about hostile work environments. We talk about inappropriate speech, somebody’s offended. Right now, everybody’s so nervous about offending, that’s it’s a pretty hot topic actually.

 
Adam Lowe: Yeah. I remember hearing a friend of mine that runs another company had to have a very challenging conversation with somebody about body odor which, at the time, I thought was just completely ridiculous and I understand now that it’s a common thing.

 
Talmar Anderson: Not just culturally, there are differences in what’s acceptable for body odor, but you have allergy issues. There’s just like all kinds of things that you have to worry about. And it can be a not fun conversation, but at the end of the day, you have to cultivate a place that is safe and respectful for you and your clients and so sometimes, the truth of the matter is, it could just be a young person that didn’t come from a great family model. That didn’t have anybody that said, “Do you know that you need to … there’s a grooming process that would enhance your success? Let’s talk about what some of those things can be because while you don’t smell yourself, it really is difficult for people to sit in a room with you. If I can’t have my client sit in a room with you, it’s going to be really hard for business to keep going forward. Let’s talk about some of the things that we can do to make that more comfortable for everybody.”

 
Adam Lowe: You probably don’t want the office to smell like a middle school locker room.

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, yeah, again I think that people who work with entry-level positions, they have to do more of this than they expect. They’re “What kid doesn’t know to brush their teeth before they come to work?” Somebody didn’t tell that guy to brush his teeth and he’s got horrible breath or green stuff in his teeth. It happens.

 
Adam Lowe: Says the woman who drinks coffee and bourbon before noon.

 
Talmar Anderson: I know. Yeah, guess what I have? Tic tacs, baby!

 
Adam Lowe: Excellent.

 
Any other nuggets of wisdom that you want to share with people?

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, if I can, the thing I would say, I think that what happens, what will bring somebody to being a successful boss and getting their kick ass team faster is if they can come up with the concept of just giving people the space to not know. Don’t assume people know anything. You have to ask them, “Do you understand what this means?” Or ask them “And what does that mean to you?” If I say to please come professionally groomed every day, what does that mean to you? They’re “Well, I used a comb.” And you’re “Good start.” People have different experiences and they come from very different backgrounds. And your neighbor might not even shower once a week. We don’t know. People live very different lives and especially with entry-level people, but it’s true of older people, too. It’s all the experience that they’ve had.

 
Either the people before tolerated it, didn’t notice it, or it wasn’t relevant to what they were doing, so now this new situation with this new employee or this new team person, it’s just a new situation and you have to allow for the fact that they haven’t had the same experiences and understanding of what’s professional or what’s correct and you have to tell them at least once before you can hold them accountable to it.

 
Adam Lowe: Alright, so we talked a little bit about the Boss Actions Community. What kind of other things do you have going on right now that’s new and exciting?

 
Talmar Anderson: Oh my gosh! It’s very crazy right now. It’s very exciting, so the Boss Actions online membership just launched in April 2018 and that is my joy and happiness because it’s a way for me to help so many more people so much more quickly and get them connected on the same conversation. But I still take one-on-one clients. I have a hiring accelerator where I work with them one-on-one for four months. We specifically work together to structure their organizational structure for their company. We create forecasting which I call hiring triggers so they know when to hire what next and then we go through one real world hire together so we can consult the whole step of the way. Everything from writing the ads, to interviewing, to doesn’t matter, to onboarding, to the first management practices.

 
But I also have a book coming out in October. I know. I know. Not enough going on. I’m sorry, that’s October 2018 and I’m part of a TV show. I’m not even kidding. Reality TV. I know.

 
Adam Lowe: Tell me more.

 
Talmar Anderson: It’s called Fix My Brand with Aly Craigs and so when you look at my beautiful sites and my beautiful pictures and my beautiful logos, that is all this television show. So right when I was rebranding talmaritup to be specifically for hiring and management best practices, I met this woman who was doing this internet show and so she’s “We’re taking applications.” And I thought “This is silly, but I get a lot of great marketing if I go down this way.” And so it’s an actual, we do camera work and we were down in Orlando and did a real world style a house for a week and it is … I can’t even believe we’re doing it. So that comes out also in the Fall of 2018.

 
Adam Lowe: Oh, that’s so cool. Yeah, I was just on the website earlier today and I noticed that it looked so different from when I saw it last week, I think.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah.

 
Adam Lowe: Oh, this looks really great! That’s a great portrait. I love this.

 
Talmar Anderson: Aw, thanks! Shout out to Aly Craig and her team. Thank you very much!

 
Adam Lowe: Also plug Aly.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, yeah, it needed it.

 
Adam Lowe: I think we all run into that problem where it’s like you could get so deep down into the weeds of your business that you realize that the face of your business, your website or any of those materials out there just get stagnant. Even for somebody that’s in marketing like me, it’s the whole cobbler’s children have no shoes kind of thing.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah and I would tell you that marketing is … I’m prolific. I write like I talk, so I can write out the doda, but I can’t make it look nice and I can’t make it pretty and so I knew to get out of my own way and I knew that I needed this marketing help and the idea that I could get on a platform that would let everybody see, look I’m considered an expert, but this is what it looked like and this is what it really should look like. So people being able to see the before and after of how it all comes together is going to be very fun, I think.

 
Adam Lowe: Just like hiring a business coach. You pay them lots of money to tell you the same things that you already know yourself or that you’re wife or significant other has already told you.

 
Talmar Anderson: Absolutely.

 
Adam Lowe: But you’re paying them money. Yep.

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, and there’s truth to that, right? What you get for free you don’t always value and so, thank God for that because I’m in business.

 
Adam Lowe: Awesome. Alright. So let’s do some quick lightning round questions and I can let you go.

 
Talmar Anderson: I’ve even got my books.

 
Adam Lowe: Get back on your day.

 
Talmar Anderson: I brought my book.

 
Adam Lowe: Oh, you’re not allowed to plug your own book …

 
Talmar Anderson: No, it’s not my book. It’s my recommended.

 
Adam Lowe: Okay. Number One, if you could give one book to everyone you meet, what would it be?

 
Talmar Anderson: Alright, it would be Wallace Nichols’ Blue Mind.

 
Adam Lowe: Oh, good book.

 
Talmar Anderson: Have you read this book?

 
Adam Lowe: I have. Excellent choice.

 
Talmar Anderson: I totally fascinated. I am so fascinated by both the ocean and water and brain science. I just love it. I recommend it to everybody. Happy Factor!

 
Adam Lowe: Tell me a little bit more about the book and why you recommend it. I’ve read it, but …

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, yeah, yeah. To be fair, I’m not 100% done with it, but I love it. It is about getting us closer to understanding the things that can relieve our stress and our overwhelm and I’ve always personally had that connection with the ocean, so I knew it wasn’t like me being crazy. I literally am a better, happier, healthier person when I’m near the water and so I just wanted to learn more about it and the book just 100% supports that. It’s so fascinating.

 
Adam Lowe: That’s so cool.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, yeah. It’s really interesting.

 
Adam Lowe: Number Two, and I love this one. What’s the biggest mistake you see business leaders make?

 
Talmar Anderson: I think it’s the assumption that they’ve had the same experience as them. We are not coming from the same point. You and I literally can’t probably even agree on the same color green if we just put a flash in our head right now because our experiences are different and people aren’t allowing that people can have a different opinion and different experience enough.

 
Adam Lowe: That’s a good point.

 
And what’s one tool or process or piece of technology or gadget or something that you couldn’t live without? Everyone else has said their phones, so that’s taken.

 
Talmar Anderson: No, I’m not going to say phone. Evernote. I love Evernote because Evernote is an app and software platform that let’s you document your notes and clip and gather things, so it’s literally the chaos in my brain all in one place. If I get an idea, I can just dictate it into there or if I have something I copy and paste, I know I need to fill it out later, and it’s just so searchable and it’s just such a great database and I just love my Evernote.

 
Adam Lowe: I’m the same way. I’ve been using that thing for as long as I can remember and my whole life is in there. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, yeah, it’s just so searchable. That’s the thing. I mean, God bless them, I love searching.

 
Adam Lowe: My receipts are all in there, everything.

 
Talmar Anderson: Love it!

 
Adam Lowe: Yeah, I might be walking the dog and come up with an idea and I just jot it down there in Evernote. It’s wonderful. I’m totally with you.

 
Talmar Anderson: Oh, good.

 
Adam Lowe: I tried moving over to OneNote one time.

 
Talmar Anderson: So far so good, alright.

 
Adam Lowe: I know. I love it!

 
Alright, Number Four if you could have lunch with anybody, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

 
Talmar Anderson: This is such a hard one for me because I just would want a really gigantic group of people because I like to be with a lot of people. I think I’m going to go with Richard Branson. Is that bad?

 
Adam Lowe: No, I love it.

 
Talmar Anderson: Okay, yeah. I really want, I would love to know more about how he takes his inspiration and what he thinks the Number One thing he does to implement. What’s the one step he does from inspiration to implementation that he thinks makes that most successful in his implementation? That’s what I would ask.

 
Adam Lowe: He is such a fascinating person.

 
Talmar Anderson: Richard, call me.

 
Adam Lowe: I love listening to interviews with him because you always get something.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah.

 
Adam Lowe: Some bit of wisdom or philosophy.

 
Talmar Anderson: I like his … I like it.

 
Adam Lowe: Yeah, very cool and he’s got such a cool backstory too, how he grew his empire.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah. And he’s like a guy. He’s like a person. I don’t feel … I connect to his backstory, yes.

 
Adam Lowe: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Alright then, Number Five, tell me a fun fact about yourself that people may not know. We talked about your name, but there’s got to be something else.

 
Talmar Anderson: That’s not that fun. I think, although it seems to be less surprising than it was, a fun fact about me is I was a car salesman.

 
Adam Lowe: What?

 
Talmar Anderson: In southern Virginia.

 
Adam Lowe: Wow.

 
Talmar Anderson: Fact.

 
Adam Lowe: Car salesman? Boss at a law firm.

 
Talmar Anderson: Oh, yeah. Boss at a law firm I did for 20 plus years. The car sales, I only did that for six or seven months.

 
Adam Lowe: You realize that you never really leave legal once you’re in, right?

 
Talmar Anderson: I know.

 
Adam Lowe: They keep roping you back in.

 
Talmar Anderson: I know and I do, I always have at least one attorney client that just seems to be in the mix somewhere, just always. But I was a used car salesman, predominantly. I did some new sales, but predominantly a used car salesman. Somehow I find that amusing.

 
Adam Lowe: That’s … was it as slimy as one would think?

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, so this is where I think I really found my watching and learning about how people behave with each other. I was 20 something, tall, long hair, thin, there was a time and so then I was selling cars in the south of Virginia which was still very southern and still very male dominated. And so watching the different male personalities that I worked with and how they responded to me was so fascinating! People are just so interesting. But here’s the thing that I learned, a guy would come in and I would start talking to him about the engine size and how he could … because guys care about the size of their engines, let’s not pretend and so we’re talking about all this stuff and where it’s made and then he’s “Well, that’s fine, darling, but will you go get me a real salesman?” And I do. I’m going to go get him a guy because I’m not going to sell that guy, so it’s not worth my time and energy.

 
Could I have been offended? I was “Gosh, you’re kind of …” I called him a naughty word in my head, but I passed him off to somebody there because we want the sale. I don’t care if I don’t get it. Somebody’s got to sell this guy and I’m never going to do it. I don’t need to prove a point to anybody. But it was really fascinating that I could answer all his questions and tell him everything he wanted and there was no chance in hell that that guy was going to buy a car from me.

 
Adam Lowe: Oh, that’s so frustrating.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah. But living and learning.

 
Adam Lowe: Alright, so tell me, where do you expect your business to be in the next 12 months?

 
Talmar Anderson: World domination.

 
Adam Lowe: You’ve talked about some really awesome things that are coming down the pipeline. So you’ve got your book coming out. What’s the name of the book?

 
Talmar Anderson: To be determined. I cannot divulge that at this time.

 
Adam Lowe: Okay. Everyone’s going to amazon.com checking out To Be Determined. In October, right?

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, in October, yes. Maybe that’ll be a subheading now.

 
Okay. Twelve months from now I will have at least 1,000 members in my Boss Actions membership site. I’m really excited about supporting a lot of the different businesses out there that are helping entrepreneurs and small business owners grow. I’ve seen some amazing other entrepreneurs out there and so I just want to get out there and make sure that hiring piece is being answered because that’s where the real growth comes to let them be that next step profitable and just have fun in their business. Even if they’re only going to be  a $100,000 business, which I say “only” likes it’s nothing, but if you get to $100,000, you want to have help. That’s a lot of work for a one person and so even if your team is just one person, I want you to enjoy that and so I just want to get that out there. 1,000 members at least and then I’ll be … I’m already global, so I ….yeah, that.

 
And hopefully not too obnoxious of a TV show thing. I want it to be successful, but I’m a little nervous about how big they might be trying to make it.

 
Adam Lowe: I’m kind of excited about that now.

 
Talmar Anderson: No, eh.

 
Adam Lowe: How can people reach out to you if they want to either join your community or work with you?

 
Talmar Anderson: Oh, Adam, you’re so nice. Okay, Talmar Anderson again. T-a-l-m-a-r. I’m on all social media as The Boss Actions, so you can follow my shenanigans there and there are shenanigans, people. I have Bossactions.com where you can find out more about the online membership or working with me to help you structure your own organizational structure and get your hiring processes really sound so you can grow successfully and then I also am available, I do speaking engagements. You can catch me at talmaritup.com and both to let me know if you need me or if you want to find out where I’m speaking next.

 
Adam Lowe: And is there anybody that you would like for me to interview and why?

 
Talmar Anderson: Well, let’s see, who would I want you to interview and why?

 
Adam Lowe: Realistically. I can’t get Richard Branson, I’m sorry.

 
Talmar Anderson: I’m trying to think, so there’s a guy that I follow. I don’t know what his podcast schedule is like, but his name is Stu McLaren and he has a company called The Tribe and he does membership sites. It’s very interesting. It’s very fascinating. It’s great stuff and so I think that he would be really helpful for your audience if anybody is thinking about creating any kind of a online or membership site. I had already created mine before I started working on his stuff, but I’m totally learning oodles more and he’s a really personable guy. I think that your audience would enjoy listening to him.

 
Adam Lowe: Awesome. Yeah, I’ll check that out.

 
Talmar Anderson: Yeah, yeah.

 
Adam Lowe: Alright, well, thanks so much for your time today.

 
Talmar Anderson: I hope I was helpful. Let me know if I can help you or any of your audience in any way.

 
Adam Lowe: Yes, absolutely and we’ll be in touch soon. Take care.

 
Talmar Anderson: Thanks, Adam. Have a great day!

 
Adam Lowe: You, too. Bye bye.

 
Talmar Anderson: Bye.

 

 

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