Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Coach the Coach Radio brought to you by the Business RadioX ambassador program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to brxambassador.com To learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. Today we have with us John Whitt with Business Whitt. Welcome, John.

John Whitt: [00:00:43] Thank you. Glad to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about business with how you serve in folks.

John Whitt: [00:00:50] Well, I’ve been in the small business coaching space for going on 11 years. I started my practice in 2010 and I’ve done all kinds of things from executive coaching to startups to businesses that are just trying to figure out how to scale, how to get to the how to get to the next level. And it’s just it’s an incredibly rewarding career. I spent 30 years in multibillion dollar corporate before this. And while I was able to do a lot of neat things, the amount of satisfaction, job satisfaction, employee career satisfaction just isn’t nearly the same as the coaching space.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:30] So now talk about that transition when you were in corporate to kind of being an entrepreneur yourself, was that a difficult transition for you?

John Whitt: [00:01:38] That’s a yes and no answer to my original thought was to bring sort of big business building tools to small business. And because small business doesn’t have a lot of the things that big business has, they don’t have the time or the money or the resources in many ways. And that in itself is very effective and not tremendously difficult. However, the small business mindset is a big shift from multibillion dollar corporate, multibillion dollar corporate. Everybody’s got suits, ties, degrees, MBAs. Everybody knows with benchmarking is everybody understands goals and objectives, et cetera, et cetera, and how to put plants together. Or that’s a general rule in that multibillion dollar corporate space. In the small business space, that’s not the case. They’re running around with 50 hats on. They’re trying to do thirty five things at once. And the big thing is that they don’t have the resources to make mistakes to you know, if you make a mistake in the billion dollar corporate world, it costs you some money. But there’s a lot of resources to recover in the small business world. If you make that kind of a mistake or a mistake that cost you a lot of money or time, the results could be disastrous. And so working through the the mindset issues was my biggest learning experience in transitioning to from the corporate world to the small business coaching world.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:02] Now, once you kind of made that transition in your mind and then kind of developed, I guess, a service that can serve the needs of that small business owner, the mid-sized business owner, was that you know, was that the key that unlocked kind of the doors now for success for you? Or was there something that helped you kind of propel you to the next level in your practice?

Speaker4: [00:03:27] Well, for me, that was a big success in mindset, in attracting and acquiring customers, clients, but from a personal standpoint, all of the systems and processes that I had to build and developed that allowed me to efficiently and effectively serve my clients. That was the big work ethic. That was a good one to three years. And putting those systems in place, you know, putting together my own CRM system, bringing together my own marketing strategy was the strategy. Those those things took a while to put together. That was really kind of the turning point. And then I guess the other thing that’s really valuable is that, you know, the the need the small business coaching need it. It doesn’t stay the same. When I started my practice, we were coming out of the Great Recession and finding a way to generate money. Was the that was that was well, actually, I would say first, how do we cut back and how do we save money? And everybody wanted to do that right away, but they didn’t really look at how do we generate money in this opportunity as well. And so we went through the first three or four years where really how do we generate revenue? It shifted into how do we serve our customers more effectively know once we got through that recession and then today

John Whitt: [00:04:54] You’re starting to see a big shift in, you know, where do I find employees? How do I get employees to to come work for me? And it’s a different, different model. Used to be we could find employees pretty quickly and today, because coming out of the pandemic, it’s it’s not the same it’s not the same system and it’s not the same model. So while I would say that I built a system to help me serve my clients, I got through the mindset of composition, staying current and consistent with what the economy or what the world system is putting out. It has been a key. You have to shift and change, not necessarily daily, but but frequently to find out what’s the most important thing for the market.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:36] Now, you mentioned the kind of the challenge of staffing and I guess this post pandemic world that we’re living in for a lot of folks. Can you talk about how you’re helping your clients kind of work through that?

Speaker4: [00:05:50] Yes, certainly so. So we have this pandemic where people were literally paying to stay home for over a year, still going on to some degree, but it’s going to end at some point this year. And so the mindset of the employee began to shift. I think they began to this is an opinion more than it is the fact that we do find many people that support a similar opinion.

John Whitt: [00:06:19] The values, what was important really shifted over the last year because it was such a scary time, and now that those values have shifted and they’ve managed to learn how to live on the income that they have, they’re a lot less. Concerned about revenue or making money today, that’s not the same motivator that it used to be, money used to be. Well, and in some cases it’s still obviously a very key motivator. But it’s not as. It doesn’t hold the same degree of importance today as it did a year, year and a half ago, because people have learned to operate and live differently over the last year and a half. And so what we’ve really done here is to identify what are the other strategies that are what are the what is valuable, what’s really important for employees today that would encourage them or compel them to submit for an opportunity for a job. And really, that’s we look at three different forms of composition, compensation. I mean, money obviously is very, very important. But the other two real big keys are the ability to learn and grow and the ability to make an impact. And so we’re really crafting the employment opportunity message to include the ability to learn and grow and the ability to make an impact in addition to traditional financial compensation, insurance benefits, those kinds of things, and and creating that message and making sure that that’s the message that that’s getting out to the ideal candidates that we’re looking for.

John Whitt: [00:08:06] We really have embraced the, you know, a real solid marketing plan that most people are very comfortable or familiar with, marketing their business and their services and their products, not always as knowledgeable or aware of how to market their business job opportunities, which is really what you’re doing. Your might be your marketing an opportunity, and you have to follow a lot of the same principles. I mean, you have to identify who’s the ideal person, who’s the one that you want to have, who’s the one that’s going to most willingly accept, lean in, take advantage of that. What’s the messaging that we have to use for that particular prospect, employee prospect? And then how do we distribute that message effectively? There’s a lot of systems out there that work really well. Indeed, the recruiter, there’s a whole lot of them, but there are nontraditional opportunities through, in many ways, the social media platforms and how many of those are there these days. But how do we distribute that message? How do we target our audience effectively? Those three steps really need to make make a big difference today. You have to make a big difference in how that works today. It’s not just putting an ad in the in the newspaper or an ad on indeed or one of the other job monster or whatever. There’s a lot more sophistication from a marketing standpoint that’s necessary to get your message in front of the right audience.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:41] Now, do you do you find that it’s kind of a double edged sword in some ways that when you say, OK, I’m going to be open to remote workers, then you’re like, OK, now the world is my oyster. I can get the best talent from anywhere in the world. But the the flip side of that coin is the world’s big. You know, now my job is like a needle in a haystack. In this huge haystack is the world. And, you know, how do I even identify the person that has the right values that I have, that has the right skills and I need that, you know, is going to be a good cultural fit and how am I going to manage this person from what they can be anywhere?

John Whitt: [00:10:25] Well, yeah, you’re absolutely right, when the opportunity or the the marketplace gets so big or as big as it is, it becomes a little bit it can become overwhelming. And you have to I think it’s best to go back to basics really thing. What is it that I really need? I need some people with this skill, this knowledge, attitude being the most important and most valuable commodity that’s available out there. Somebody is going to show up and do the work. You can list all of the attributes that you want from an addiction standpoint.

John Whitt: [00:11:00] And then you have to ask yourself, OK, where is this person, where are these people hanging out, so to speak, where how can I reach them? What is the right place? And so you might have, you know, any number of message boards or there’s there’s just a ton of different communication tools that you want to use. And in fact, you probably have to use many of them, you know, 10 or 12 of them to really get your message to the to the market, to the right market, to the right person, to the right prospect avatar. But you’ll find that, you know, again, with a comprehensive approach. And I think that’s what’s the key. And it depends on what you’re really looking for. Right. If you’re just looking for a sort of a minimum of minimum wage worker, I don’t think you’re looking at the world. But if you’re looking at some some bigger talent, especially if you’re looking at any of the STEM activities. You really have to have to craft your message effectively and distribute it to the right place, where is this group hanging out? I’m doing a lot of work with universities in Southern California.

John Whitt: [00:12:05] In fact, I have an intern program and. There are literally thousands of students out there, hundreds of thousands of students that might want to be an intern for BusinessWeek, and I have to market to the the my message who are really looking for what’s really important, what do they really value to persuade them or compel them to apply for my internship. But I put together a system that’s very effective. So I typically now I’m getting about two or three applications a week. And so when you when you’re getting two or three applications a week now, you can be very selective in who you really want to bring up or who’s going to make the biggest impact. But again, my process and my intern program is an education based program. And so it really has to be about, you know, in return for them doing service, servicing for me has to be about what can business would do for them. And I provide some career strategic planning and some education around marketing skills, communication skills and knowledge that trade has to be super high or they’re going to step in. They’re not going to lean into the program.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:18] So now the benefits of going kind of the intern route is that you’re kind of getting them younger and they’re you’re kind of teaching them the good habits so that maybe some of these interns that go through the program can be right. Fit employees down the road. You’re investing in them and they’re giving them there’s kind of a lower risk way of kind of vetting them to see if they really can do what they you think they can do. And plus, you’re getting to mold them before they’ve had some maybe bad habits that they have learned in other places.

John Whitt: [00:13:52] Well, absolutely right. I mean, you’re not getting in balance, right? You’re at the early stage, very moldable stage. And you can work through your system and process to see if they can do what you’re looking for. And even more importantly, will they do what you’re looking for? And in remote work, that’s that’s the key, because you’re not you know, they’re not coming into the office. You’re not looking over their shoulder to see if they’re doing the work that you that needs to be done. You can’t monitor how much time they spend at the WaterCooler or whatever else they’re doing during the day. The question will be, can they do the work

John Whitt: [00:14:27] On their own effectively? And you get a chance with this process to Tibet that, you know you know, some people, you know, over the over two or three months, you can say, hey, these guys are the right kind and move them up into some additional responsibilities. And others are going to be, well, you know, this is really marginal. And, you know, they may not be a right fit for this organization.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:52] So now when you’re going the internal strategy, is this something that they’re doing this work in exchange for kind, of course, credit, or is this something you’re paying them? And how does the financial side of this work?

John Whitt: [00:15:05] So my financial side, the rule of thumb is that you have to give more value than you get. Otherwise they will be considered to be employees. And my systems pass that that particular test. I don’t pay them in dollars, although I do support their, of course, credit. So if the college will give them credit, I will fill out whatever paperwork is necessary so that they achieve those units and that’s a cost savings to them. They didn’t have to pay for those. But at the end of the day, if I’m not delivering more value to the intern than they are delivering to me, then they’re going to be considered employees, especially in a state like California or Oregon or some of the places where I happen to work.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:50] So then you are an exchange, you’ve developed a way to onboard these people quickly because you need them to provide value for you in some level. So they have to be doing some work that’s valuable to you and your paying clients. Right.

John Whitt: [00:16:05] You know, you’re absolutely right. And you want to get them up and they want to be here. Here’s my understanding as as the these interns come aboard, they want to make contribution as quickly as possible. They don’t want to sit here and say, hey, we’re going to study for three months before I get to do anything. So in the business system, they’re up and running and through our onboarding system, there’s two phases to it. But they’re up and running and making their first dates. And within five days of joining the Internet

John Whitt: [00:16:34] And we quickly find out, can they do it? Will they do it? What can they learn? Can they grow? We don’t expect them to be experts in five days. That is not a requirement. We don’t expect the interns to be experts at all, but we do expect them to learn from their mistakes, learn from the lessons to utilize the group, the collaborative opportunities that we have so that they can get better. And that’s the rules. They have to get better every day, every week, although we don’t expect perfection.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:05] And then how long is an engagement with an intern,

John Whitt: [00:17:09] So it’s a minimum of three months, I tell them mostly that should be six months, because after three months you’ve got all of the basic systems and stuff down in play, which means you’ll have gotten what you came for in some ways. But after three months, you can move into a leadership role and leadership skills are highly valuable. And you could run one of our campaigns or you could be a mentor to new interns. There’s a whole bunch of different things that we could do for this, what I would call the second half, because I typically expect my what my interns typically stay about six months and we don’t track it to the day, but it’s about six months, which gives them the initial skill sets, the learning and the knowledge to be able to do the work that I’m looking for them to do, but then also helps them put their career strategy together and then ultimately achieve and obtain some leadership skills as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:55] So now this business with intern staffing program, is this something that is a service offering? You offer your clients that you help them kind of get this going for their businesses?

John Whitt: [00:18:08] Absolutely. So I didn’t start out that way. I started out saying, listen, I need some help and I had to put something together for me. But then I realized that this can translate this. This program translates to just about any business. You there’s a there’s a strategy that you have to build and it’s going to be a little bit different for each business and the type of work that the intern does when they came on board. And what’s that first impact that’s going to be have to be identified on a on a client basis. But just imagine that you have interns. That’s what my list, my group is right now, as many as six interns that are putting in 10 hours of 15 hours a week for you. That’s a lot of hours. That’s a lot of resources that can be literally can transform a business. And so I offer this it’s a 12 step program that goes from strategic planning into impact analysis and the marketing strategies, how to identify the ideal prospect, the ideal employee, the messaging, the distribution system, the interview process. One of the key things in my entire program that’s really valuable is the. What we call the self evaluation metrics, so the interns are responsible for evaluating new home results and coming up with strategies to improve those results. So I don’t have to do all of that work. That’s a place where a lot of managers can get hung up. They don’t be basically.

John Whitt: [00:19:38] Assume the role that they’re responsible for all of the new growth and all of the new opportunities, that’s a time consuming process. When you teach in this case, educate your team on how to do their own self-evaluation metrics and the value of doing those self-evaluation metrics and the value of putting together continuous improvement strategies, that becomes incredibly valuable. And it’s been proven from interns that have left the program and gone on to careers that those were key hiring components. And why do they get that next opportunity? Because they understood that model and they understood that process. When you bring that to a new employer, they’re like, well, this is different.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:18] Now, when you’re working with a client and implementing the intern staffing program with them is you have to get clear on what is the type of work they need done. And then you have to kind of build out the system to make the intern not only on boarded, but doing the work kind of almost like a machine. Right. It can’t be something that there is all these one offs that, hey, this is a special thing. And I got to explain, like, it’s got to kind of run pretty. Kind of streamlined, right, like this is all the work you have to do up front in order to show that it works effectively once you have that flow of interns coming in.

John Whitt: [00:21:03] You’re absolutely right. You have to build the system. You have to identify in your business operations, your business process. Where does an intern fit and how can we get them to make an impact quickly? And then we have to build the onboarding system. What do we have to teach them and train them? What do they have to learn? Day one. Day two, three. And again, we want to get them up and running. You’re making an impact, making a difference right away as soon as possible. So, yeah, that that’s what I call the intern impact analysis is a key component in it. For some clients, it’s pipeline growth and for other clients it’s the efficiency type activity. I mean, I’m not sure which one it is for each client. We’re going to identify that. And then we put the system, we built the system around it.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:50] And then once you identify that, then you have to reach out and have some sort of outreach to the universities to identify the appropriate candidate.

John Whitt: [00:22:00] Absolutely, I use a system called handshake. Well, it’s not my system, it’s a university system for offering internships and job opportunities, and it’s used by thousands of universities. And you’re able to craft your offering and and make it available to students that are looking for these students that are looking for internships. And learning how to use that system is an important component because there’s things you can or can’t do, there’s there’s some activity there, but that’s where that might be, that that is a classic. If you’re looking for interns, that is a very strong message discipline.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:41] And then is there any kind of dos and don’ts when it comes to making the offer to the intern? Like what are some dos that they want as a deliverable that is going to be like a, hey, this is perfect for me. I got a lot of out of that internship I learned. But I also got this kind of a new credential or something that I’m going to be able to leverage for a job down the road.

John Whitt: [00:23:04] Yes, so we have a couple of different things, so, yes, do’s and don’ts. It’s really all about the intern. What’s in it for them? I mean, they’re they’re. You know already that there’s something in it for you as the business owner when you’re interviewing, it’s it’s really about what’s in it for them. And you’re also interviewing them for me. I’m not asking for them to have any experience because I can teach all of that, that the skills and the knowledge that I’m looking for, what I need is the right attitude. So in that interview, I’m really looking for what that that right attitude is. In addition, once once you go through this particular program, there is a business with marketing internship certificate that you can share, it’s digital and hard copy and then as a as a process as part of our off boarding process. So there’s an onboarding process and an onboarding process, onboarding process. We actually create a video with the intern that helps them describe the value and what they learned and how effective is it was, how effective it was. And we we added that down to about a two minute video that they can then share with potential employers. And it does a lot of things that says, hey, this is what I learned. This is what I’m doing. This is what I did. But you also get to see the person on camera. What’s their personality? What’s what’s their what are their behaviors? You know, there’s there’s a lot of value in them being able to share a video about the program.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:34] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success if there’s a company out there that wants to learn more about how to implement the business with in staffing program, what is the best way to find you? You have a website?

John Whitt: [00:24:48] Yes. So the website is its business with dot com. That’s W w w and then the word business and my last name, which is Waititi dot com just to play on business. So business with dot com and there’s a place where you can book an appointment with me. You can also see obviously some of the other things that I’ve done and the types of work that I do for different clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:08] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success and thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

John Whitt: [00:25:15] Well, I appreciate being on the show. I really you know, it’s been fun and I’m glad to be able to share.

Lee Kantor: [00:25:20] All right. That was John Witt with business with Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach Radio.