How I Hire
Case of a Video Production Agency
I believe you can tell a lot about the owner of a business based on how they hire. You can either take this lightly or make a science out of it.
My hiring process, however, is deeply intertwined with the emotional intelligence I’ve developed over the years — intuition, if you will.
I know — I just referred to it as a “science” earlier, but as Albert Einstein wisely said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Thus, while my approach may seem like a science, it’s actually an art that’s uniquely my own. I’ll gladly share the steps I take, but the true magic lies in the intuition and experience that shape it.
First of all, I only work with people with dignity. Those people who lie to me about lack of skills, come short in admitting they don’t have certain experiences or pretend to be someone else are not my people. As a leader, I acknowledge that I am not perfect, I can apologize for unjust words, the way I give feedback or else. Henceforth, when I ask to tell the truth, even if it’s an unpopular one — I do mean it.
I’d much better prefer a medium performer who I can trust than a highly skilled performer who I can’t trust.
It’s the rule I learned from Simon’s Sinek lessons on the US Marine Court and it’s never let me down.
Secondly, I adore people that know how to get things done. In totality, I really don’t care how the project is completed as long as its final product is satisfactory. I’m religiously lazy, and delegating tasks to people who are smarter than I am is just natural for me. There are lots of freak controls who engage in micromanagement because of tarnished self-esteem, but as Fred DeLuca once said: “The role of the leader is to find people’s obstacles and help them overcome them.” — and I can’t agree more. Let people shine and bring new colors to the spectacle, inspire and praise them — and your business will shine as well. Desire to take responsibility is a big part of “shining” and whenever I see that the person doesn’t want to think him/herself — that’s one of the red flags for me.
- *BTW: accepting constructive criticism is huge for me as well. When I see that the person doesn’t argue or become passive-aggressive after a CONSTRUCTIVE feedback — that’s a sign of a mature human being who I’d love to have on the team.
Thirdly, I love people who are not afraid of sending me messages and asking if we can cooperate. Taking a proactive approach in life signifies their leadership abilities, not to mention that engaging with my content already builds stylistic and cultural similarities with our agency’s brand. I told this story on Tim Melanson’s podcast — my best hires were the result of community building. My top video editor sent me a message on IG while a PM-lady who is just crushing it now applied through my Telegram channel.
Some other great picks were made by surveying a ton of applications on job boards, which is an uneasy assignment in and out of itself. Things that help me filter strong candidates are:
a) Always check if they have read the job listing thoroughly (I might hide the questions like “what is your favorite podcast editing job and why”?)
b) See if they write a cover letter and understand if they have used the AI (Although I like the adoption of AI services among my team, I’d prefer to see the cover letter text written by an applicant himself, which testifies to their authenticity)
c) Realize if their desire to land a job isn’t only transactional (I like to create a family atmosphere inside the team and thus I hate when fellows only want relationships based on monetary stimulus)
I live in Ukraine, in Kyiv, and my country is being hit by russians almost every night. People die but neverminding the hysteria around, we — contemporary Ukrainians — continue living and developing our businesses. My obvious contribution to mitigating economic issues arising from war is the creation of workplaces. And setting aside any patriotic aspirations, at the present moment Ukrainians have become a workforce that every company in the world will benefit from explosively. I just happen to be someone who bridges the gap between our supremely professional and creative people with American customers in need of top-shelf service.
Now, what I have just outlined works fine when you have a sufficient inflow of applicants, however, we cannot turn a blind eye to the process of presenting your business, which is pretty much inevitable in a two-way-street sales process: you sell to candidates, they sell to you.
On this note, I can’t help but mention the content put out by Chris Do, who has become my go-to mentor while I’m building my agency. He once said that “In business we sell money — what’s left is to figure out what is money for your customer”. When I hire, I need to figure out what money means to each candidate — whether it’s security, growth, purpose, or simply a stepping stone to something greater. Because hiring isn’t just about finding the right person for the job — it’s about aligning values, ambitions, and the desire to build something meaningful together.
And if you hire with that in mind, you don’t just build a business. You build a legacy.
