The Unique Problem That Non-Traditional CEOs Face When Hiring

Entrepreneurs who run businesses like pole dance studios or own tattoo shops face unique challenges that other, more traditional CEOs don’t have to deal with. One of those challenges--hiring people--can cost you time and money in many ways if you’re not more careful and deliberate.

In this episode, I talk about how you can hire the right folks that’ll help your non-traditional business thrive.

2:17 - What happens when people come to work for us

8:00 - Step one to addressing this problem

9:20 - The story you want to paint when you interview someone for a job

11:20 - What to put in the job description so you can attract the potential employee(s) you want

12:40 - The questions you need to ask job seekers in your interviews

Find me on Instagram or LinkedIn or email me at hello@lesliedlyons.com.

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Transcript for The Unique Problem That Non-Traditional CEOs Face When Hiring

Hey boss, I am Leslie Lyons, your embodied leadership and sales coach, and this is Pleasurable Profits. This podcast is ideal for owners and leaders of tattoo shops, permanent makeup studios, cannabis businesses, movement studios, sex toy shops, and other industries that are too often left out of the leadership conversation. If you’re looking for a woo meets strategy approach to defining your strengths and values, designing a business that supports you, and creating a soul-driven, and of course, pleasurable plan for profitability, then let’s get started.

Hey, party people. It's Leslie, your embodied sales and leadership coach. It's muggy here in Chicago, y'all. I don't know where you at, but I hope you’re staying cooler than what I am at this moment. I started recording my podcast at night, y'all, because during the day, it's just too much action, too much background noise. But now that I'm recording this podcast, I'm like, “Oh, I hear crickets and frogs.” I'm wondering if y’all are going to hear it too. Let me know if y'all hear it, but how are y'all doing? Other than me being hot I'm doing well. Thank you for asking.

Well, now that we have a new name for the podcast, Pleasurable Profits, I don't know, do y'all like the name? Here's what's funny, I work with Stacey over at Uncommonly More. She's a podcast-producing agency. When we were coming up with the name, we both laughed and was like, “Pleasurable Profits sounds like a sexy Profit First consultant.” Lord knows, I am not the one to be talking about accounting with nobody. I got bookkeepers, financial consultants, and I still need help.

But really, the sentiment behind it is that I really want us to be able to feel like we can make money in a way that feels good, in a way that's pleasurable. Let me know what your thoughts are. Well, why don't we jump into today's episode and talk a little bit about hiring?

If you follow me on IG, you know that I get into my rant sometimes, child, and I spoke last week about this new thing going around called quiet quitting. I talk a little bit about what it's like to have receptionists or front-desk people who want to make $60,000 a year and that sort of thing in that narrative, and anti-capitalism, all that stuff comes up on my page from time to time.

I was like, “Well, this is a perfect time being under the new banner that's all about sales and leadership for you, the non-traditional CEO,” because we run into stuff, y'all, that other folks just don't run into. Can we just talk about it? That's why I always feel like the work that we do deserves a separate conversation.

Now that doesn't mean that we're some unique snowflake in terms of leadership problems where everybody's having issues hiring right now, the great resignation and all of those things. That's impacting all businesses all over the place.

However, I think it impacts us in a unique way. What's unique about us as non-traditional CEOs, so I'm talking to those of us who own pole dance studios, who own tattoo shops, that own med spa places, what's unique about us is that a lot of times when people come to work for us, they don't think there's going to be a real job. Hello, somebody, light, amen. They don't think that what we do is a real business the way that they would think about if they went to work for, let's say, a bookkeeping firm. They don't see this as real. They see this as fun.

I think we need to establish that and just call that out from the onset that that makes it challenging for us. Because people are like, “Oh, I'm just going to be working for a tattoo shop.” Look, I love some Black Ink Crew. If you've never watched Black Ink, I don't know what you're doing with your life. It's reality TV, I know that, but it is still wild.

It reminded me of when I owned my pole dance studio, and some of the conversations that I used to have in the early stages of me hiring people. It's really just this like, “I'm an artist.” That's what it was always like at tattoo shops. It's about the art. It's about the ink, man. That's what we're doing.

Yes, that's true, but it's also about keeping these lights on so you can plug up your needle. It's also about keeping the heat on so that we ain't touching ice cold poles. The business side of this has to happen so that your art can have a place to flourish. I was met with some resistance early on in my hiring career. It was like, “I just thought this would be a great way for me to continue doing what I love and get a paycheck for it.” Well, yeah and no.

I think that's the first thing that we have to address when we're hiring people, is to let them know that this is a real business. How do we do that so that we don't waste our time getting employees in the door who thought they were going to get paid to do something they love without having to recognize all the business implications that go into things?

Now you got a frustrated employee. You're frustrated as a leader. The only people who suffer are our customers, not the only people, I shouldn't say, but it has the greatest impact on our customers, which has an impact on us because it's impacting our revenue.

How do we not get ourselves into this situation so we are trying to manage people who have unrealistic expectations? My solution is number one, you lead with your values. You lead with your mission, you lead with your purpose statement.

Let's say you are a tattoo shop, and you're like, “Our goal is to provide the most-realistic portrait tattoos that there are, and we want to be the best on the south side of Chicago. Our goal is to tattoo at least 10,000 women this year. Leading with that because we realize that when someone brings a portrait to us that they want put in their body, that this is a remembrance of someone dear to them, someone who played an amazing role in their life. This is a monument of sorts on their bodies. We take that very seriously. Because we take that very seriously, we believe this, this, this, and this.”

That's a mission statement. That's a value statement. That's a purpose statement. It's very clear who you are, it's very clear about why you do what you do. But it's also clear how many people you plan to impact. I think that gets left out of the whole mission statement, purpose statement conversation, is how many people are you trying to impact? When we quantify that for people, and then we start talking to them about their role and helping us meet that 10,000 people being tattooed this year or 100 people in pole classes, whatever it is, it makes it real for people. It gives some teeth to that mission statement.

Because now it leads me to the next thing that when I manage you, I'm managing you to those values. I'm managing you to those principles. I'm managing you to that mission statement. This is bigger than Nino Brown, like this is a bigger picture. If you've never seen New Jack City, that Nino brown reference probably went over your head. You need to look it up, just Google Nino Brown, matter of fact, I'll put it in the show notes. When Wesley Snipes is running a drug empire in New York, I believe it is, and he goes to jail and he's in court, you'll see it, it'll make sense.

But basically this is beyond him is what he was saying, this is more than just him. That's what we want our people to be thinking when they're working with us. This is not just about you and I, this is about the 100 women that we're going to impact this year. When we don't do what we're supposed to do, we not only let down each other in our community inside of our business, but we let down the people who we've built this business to serve.

Don't you want to be a part of something bigger? That's the story that you need to paint when you're interviewing someone. That's the story that you need to paint in your job description. I'm a huge fan when I'm writing a job description to put in there a section about who this job is not for.

Step one, if we're going to attract better people, we need to get very clear about who it is that we're trying to attract. That mission statement, value statement, purpose statement with quantifiable benchmarks in there that we're going after, that must be in the job description: who you want but who you're not for.

We just need to address the pink elephant in the room. In your job description, basically say, “Hey, I'm sure you are an amazing artist,” or “I'm sure that you love pole, I'm sure that you're excited about this. That's awesome because we want people who are excited about what we do.

However, this is a business. In order for us to meet the mission that you laid out in your job description, we're going to need these things to be done and you will be held to those standards. If you're just looking for a place where if you thought that this was going to be a free way for you to get paid to pole dance or for you to get free tattoos, no, it's not that, this is a real business,” and you state that upfront to these folks.

The second thing is in the interview, you reiterate the values and the mission. You ask questions around it. One of my favorite questions is—and this is for my pole studio owners—when I'm getting someone who is coming from our student base, is to ask them the question flat out, “How are you going to feel about having to give up your personal pole practice? How are you going to feel about going from being able to be in the studio three times a week to practicing just a couple of hours a week on your own time? Are you going to miss having that individual time? Have you thought that through?”

Because what I had found in the past is that people hadn't thought that through; the sacrifice that was being required of them now that they were going to be an instructor for me. It's our job as leaders to ask the questions and to start the conversation that they may not even be thinking about. See, you know the job, you know your expectations, they don't. Don't leave it up to their imagination just because you need to hire someone. Because you hire wrong, it's going to cost you time and money in so many ways. It's worth just having an honest conversation upfront.

Then once we get agreement that this is what's going to happen, it makes it so much easier later on when things arise and you need to remind them of the mission and the values. You can say, “Hey, we talked about this from the start. Here it is coming to pass. Let's work through this.” This is what comes up on their performance reviews. This is what makes us strong. How have you helped us meet this mission this year of the 10,000 people, the 100 people that we wanted to impact? It all weaves in together to make managing people and taking the work that we do very seriously.

Yeah, we might be in the business of pleasure. Yeah, we're in the business of making people's lives better. Yeah, we're in very cool industries, but it's still a business. If you don't get them to take that seriously from the jump, you aren't going to be able to scale the way you want to. I'm going to talk about that in the next episode. Because oftentimes, we aren't the leaders that we need to be to attract the types of employees that we need to have to scale our business the way we want to.

This podcast is real talk about sales and leadership. I'm always going to be calling you higher. But this is an example of being a good leader, for you to put out there what people don't think about, for you not to be afraid to have a tough conversation, for you to be ultra clear about your expectations, and then have the courage to manage those expectations.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Have you ever felt like it's difficult to get employees because they don't take what we do seriously? If so, what have you done to try and change it? Or what are you going to do differently based off of this conversation? You know where you can find me, hello@lesliedlyons.com. On IG, I'm always on IG, you can DM me @lesliedlyons. Look me up. Follow me. Hit me up. Let's continue the conversation. Until next time, y'all. Be great. Grace and peace.