A Morning Running My Overseas Recruitment Firm
Zack AllenMay 2, 20262:56
A morning running my overseas recruitment firm, and why I care about my team's results instead of tracking the hours they're online.
It's refreshing to have a solid team.
My team is based in the Philippines, and last week we had to let someone go. I was anxious about telling everyone. When I did, their response was, "We know you give people a chance, so it must have been time. I'll take on some of the work, and I'll figure out what I can automate too."
That was a great moment. That's what it's like to have people who are aligned with you and want the same thing you do.
An employee vs. a team
You can hire someone and have an employee. Having a team is a different thing entirely. For me, the difference comes from leadership and empowerment, and I've worked hard to build both.
Results, not hours
Some people are fixated on tracking when their team works and what hours they're online. I tried to care about that in the beginning, and it felt like a waste of my time. What I care about is results.
I have the freedom to work when I want, and I want my team to have that same freedom, because I know how fulfilling it is. They get to decide when their work is best done.
I understand why people track hours. Early on, when you don't know what results should look like, hours are an easy way to judge whether someone is providing value. But I think tracking hours is usually a stand-in for not knowing how to hold someone accountable to the metrics you care about, or not having those metrics defined at all.
So that's something I've built into my team: focus on results and outcomes, not hours.
What's happening at the firm
Things are going well. We have a media buyer role in progress and we're looking for a second one. We just launched an executive assistant search for a marketing agency, and there are more calls today that I hope pan out.
The first thing on my calendar is a 1-on-1 with my team to start the week.
Solving the marketing bottleneck
Right now, the bottleneck in the business is marketing. This week, my plan is to add a lower-priced entry offer.
A lot of our calls are with potential clients who don't know what role they need yet. So I'm putting together an audit for cold traffic. Speaking from experience, when I land on a website and the only option is booking a call with someone I've never met, I'm a lot more hesitant to do it. The audit gives people a way into our world first, and eventually some of them become full placements.
I'm planning it out in my notebook, using Claude Code to build the back end and writing the copy myself. That's how I'm spending my morning.
Transcript
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If I can't figure out how to turn $1 into two in the next 5 years, I've done something terribly wrong.
It's so refreshing to have like a solid team. So, my team is all based in the Philippines and we had to let a team member go last week. I was obviously anxious about it and I spoke to my team, let them know and they were like, I know you give people a chance and so I'm sure it was it was time. I'll take on some stuff and I'll figure out what I can automate too.
And I was like, wow, this is this is great. Like this is what it's like to have people that are aligned with you and they want the same thing that you do. The benefits of of building a team and leadership. You can hire someone, you can have an employee, but having a team is an entirely different thing. And to me, it comes from leadership and empowerment, which I've been able to carefully craft.
Some people will be so focused on tracking when their team works and like what hours they're online. And I cared about I tried to care about that in the beginning and I was like this is just such a waste of my time cuz in reality I care about results and like I have the freedom of being able to work when I want. I want to afford my team that same freedom because I know the fulfillment it gives and you can choose when like you decide when the work is best done.
Now, I get it why people track the hours because in the beginning when you don't really understand what the results look like, it's an easy thing to be like, "Oh, you're providing me value or you're not is like if you're are you working x amount of hours or not?" But I think it's really just a proxy for not knowing how to hold them accountable to the metrics that you actually care about or you don't even have the metrics defined that you care about, which like what are they doing there?
So, yeah, that's that's a big thing that I've cultivated with my team is being focused on the results and the outcomes, not the hours you work. Things are going pretty well at Talented. We have that media buyer role. We're looking for a second one as well. We just launched an executive assistant campaign for a marketing agency and have some more calls today that we hope will pan out. Going to hop on with my team, do a quick 101 to start the week.
So right now the bottleneck in the business is on the marketing side and so my solution for that this week is to integrate our low ticket ascension offer. So basically we have a lot of calls with potential clients that don't really know the role it is that they're hiring for. So I'm putting together basically a cold traffic audit. And speaking from personal experience, when I land on a website and I have to book a call, I'm a lot less hesitant to do it if if I've never met the person before.
I don't know anything about them. And so I'm basically creating a way for them to come into our ecosystem and eventually convert into the full placement. So I have my notebook here that I'm writing in. And then I'm using Claude Code to build out the full backend and writing the copy myself. And that's how I'm spending my
