The Exchanges

Q thing I want to highlight is in the end, he shares his biggest life lesson, and you're definitely going to want to hear it because it's deep. So I hope you enjoy this episode with Carrie Sparrow and look forward to our episode next week. Where I talk with Ken Cox about privacy. Thank you and enjoy. What has been the hardest thing you've had to endure running this company?

A Oh, Without a doubt, at the beginning, it was an entire shift in, in my, my mental framework. Um, you know, I came from a career that I was in the military, then I was in, you know, I was, uh, in consulting, I was a consulting leader, and then I was a corporate leader. And in those roles, you, you get paid to be right. You get paid to, you know, um, find risk and manage it out of whatever system you're, uh, you know, you're working with. And as a small business founder, uh, I wake up every morning knowing that almost everything that I do and almost everything I know about the business is wrong in some way. And so, you know, the biggest risk that I have is not doing things fast enough. Uh, it's not about knowing the right answer. It's about figuring out what's going to get in the way and then addressing that as fast as possible. And that's a totally different change of mindset. I mean, I think people that, that come in to be, uh, you know, a startup founder after a corporate career, it's a really big and difficult change in perspective where. You know, you know, you're wrong all the time. Whereas in the corporate world, you get paid to be right all the time or find the people who are right all the time. And, and we just don't do that. You know, we just, We just have to go. You know, speed, speed is the only thing we survive on. And, uh, you know, being, you know, being right is …

AI assessment note: “Without a doubt, at the beginning, it was an entire shift in, in my, my mental framework.”

Q So, At this point in the life cycle of your business, what do you think is the most important thing you guys need to get better at?

A So, we're at the point where we have, we have a set of products, we have a brand, And we've got, you know, we've got revenue, so we've got sales traction. Uh, we have to really turn that into a machine. We have to turn it into a machine that is replicable. It's repeatable. It's, uh, predictable, um, so that we can really, you know, exercise, I think, better control over the business itself. Uh, you know, leading up to now, every sale was unique. Um, every client is unique. Product configurations evolved. Um, and we're really working really hard as a team, uh, in order to kind of get the machine running as smooth as, as it needs to be.

AI assessment note: “We have to really turn that into a machine that is replicable.”

Q Is that something you have to cultivate or is that something you have to hire for?

A A little bit of both, I would say, um, absolutely hire people that have, uh, you know, towering curiosity, um, and kind of high resilience and a high, you know, capacity to learn. Uh, so, you know, there's, there's some of that, which is, you know, we hire for. There's a big part of it, though, which is about how we show up every day, and that's how I show up every day, which is, you know, being willing to say, you know what, we're wrong in this area, or here's what we heard, and that's different. In some cases, we were right, but the situation changes. Like, you know, an example, you know, the other day, we had a whole segment of potential clients that a year ago we thought were not going to be commercially viable. We thought we wouldn't be able to make any money from them. We thought our products We're not going to be, you know, as attractive and the markets changed. And, you know, in talking with folks, I got really compelling feedback just over the last couple of weeks that that group of clients actually is now ready for what we do. So we, you know, we evolved very quickly. One of the benefits of being in a small business is we can make decisions really fast. And, you know, as we heard that we said, okay, everything we learned about, you know, marketing campaigns and product configuration, everything else. Now let's apply that To this group because they weren't ready a year…

AI assessment note: “A little bit of both, I would say, um, absolutely hire people that have”

Q Okay. So then what are you worried about?

A Truth. I'm worried about truth, actually. So we're in the business of truth, but the reality is if, if you can access information, you don't really care who's telling you the answer and you don't really care where, you know, where that answer is coming from, which means that there's lots of different versions of the truth. And we're seeing this play out every single day, uh, you know, in the political realm, especially, I would say. But there's lots of different versions of truth and to the point where there are, you know, emerging realities in our society that are wildly different depending on where you're sitting and where you're getting your information from. And there's, you know, and, and by reality, I mean everything that supports that too. It's not just that, you know, one outlet or one source of information is saying one thing and another is saying another. It's that entire way that society is thinking about things. Is fracturing. Uh, and so, you know, in our case, Our market intelligence will answer very specific questions with very, very credible answers. You want to know what's going on with pay in a certain market, with a certain kind of job, with certain skills. We know the answer to that, and we, we know it in a highly, you know, credible, defensible way. But when you introduce an ability for somebody to ask that kind of question in a way that is natural to them, …

AI assessment note: “Truth. I'm worried about truth, actually.”

Q So if somebody fails to show up at the interview in that regard, mentally, would you say, I'm not going to give you a chance to continue, but here's why, or you just let them go and let them figure it out for themselves?

A So generally, Every, every hiring interview is a brand opportunity for us. That's the way that I look at it. So how I show up is equally important, maybe even more important. So, um, I work to kind of draw out their best strengths, give them an opportunity to really, um, kind of showcase what they can do. Um, and also take the opportunity to, you know, if they don't know that much about us, let them know what we do and what's special about, about what we do. Um, so I don't, uh, You know, I'm not the kind of guy that will just cut off an interview, and the, uh, the, you know, the unstated, um, uh, feedback is you're wasting my time. I don't, I don't do that. Uh, although, The depth and the quality of the discussion won't be nearly as, as good as, you know, somebody who has done their homework, who is really interested in us and has come prepared.

AI assessment note: “I'm not the kind of guy that will just cut off an interview”

Q That's something we talked a lot about in our intro call and where things are going and some of the data you guys are working with and the different sources. And it's really interesting to me how AI is rapidly changing human resources and operations in general. How do you see it happening across your network, especially with the data you have access to that you're providing to your clients?

A Well, by way of context, um, my view on the form of AI that's available now is that it's even more transformative than what smartphones were when they were introduced. Um, even when smartphones were introduced, people didn't really Understand how they would change society and change lives as dramatically as, as they have. Um, and I would say this, the same is true with, with AI. It's pervasive. Uh, the amount of disruption that we're in the middle of and that will, you know, land upon us, uh, within the coming, you know, just year or so, um, is astounding. And that brings with it, you know, risks, but also tremendous opportunities. In, in the business of, you know, our business is labor market intelligence. One of the ways that, uh, AI is, um, is Is rapidly, you know, changing how we even think about the businesses. It's offering a, uh, an interface with anyone who needs to know, to know what's happening, you know, in the market for jobs and skill in the market for pay and so forth. Uh, so that it's very naturally accessible. Um, you know, right now, if you want to understand kind of what's happening in a specific part of the economy, like what we deal with, Uh, it helps significantly if you have a little bit of an economic background and if you have a background in analytics. Um, that's not true going forward. I mean, we're, we're several, you know, just a couple months away f…

AI assessment note: “releasing a, uh, an interface that's a natural language interface for us”