Adam Robinson's Blog, page 18

The Best Team Wins Podcast Episode 26: Josh York

Josh York is the Founder and CEO of GYMGUYZ, one of the top 100 fastest growing franchises according to Entrepreneur magazine. 

Listen to this episode on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.

 

Show notes:

1:08 – Highlights at GYMGUYZ in the last year

2:10 – Josh starts the podcast off on the right foot

4:00 – What is GYMGUYZ?

6:16 – How Josh got his start and his philosophy on stories

8:13 – Where did you learn how to hire?

8:47 – The importance of culture

9:22 – How Josh knows if someone is the right fit for the company and the GYMGUYZ core values

10:33 – Favorite interview question

12:20 – The greatest challenge the leadership team at GYMGUYZ has faced

13:11 – The most important quality for a leader to have: attitude

14:48 – How do you screen for attitude?

16:18 – Where did your core values come from?

18:45 – What happens when you hire for skill over attitude

20:17 – The GYMGUYZ philosophy around rewards and recognition

21:07 – Josh and Adam on trusting your employees

23:02 – What could you improve on the people side of your business?

24:32 –  Josh and Adam discuss the best book they’ve ever read

26:29 – Greatest challenge Josh is facing in the next year

 

 

 

 

Josh York, CEO and Founder of GYMGUYZ

Josh York is featured on the podcast tomorrow, learn more about Josh and his franchise, GYMGUYZ, below!

 

What’s your name?

Josh York


What’s your title?

Founder and CEO 


What is the name of your company?

GYMGUYZ


In 100 words or less, describe what your company does.

GYMGUYZ is # 1 in Home Personal Training. We are a fitness franchise company whose main focus is individualized one-on-one fitness, group sessions, and corporate fitness. GYMGUYZ supplies the tools and techniques to get you in shape in the comfort of your own home, office, or setting of your choice. We welcome all individuals of all levels regardless of experience, age, or ability. We follow each client’s progress by assessing their fitness goals, calorie intake and measurements. GYMGUYZ teaches lifelong habits that will keep one looking and feeling their best.


Where is the company based?

Plainview, NY


When was the company founded?

2008


How many employees do you have?

300 employees system wide


How can we find you and your company on social media?

Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn 


Is your company bootstrapped, or have you raised equity financing (VCs, angels, etc)?

Bootstrapped


What company accomplishment or milestone in the past 12 months are you most proud of?  GYMGUYZ being ranked on Entrepreneur’s list for top 100 fastest growing franchises and franchising in CA and Hawaii
What’s the #1 company issue or area of focus for you right now?

No issues


Press:

Entrepreneur’s 2017 list of Fastest Growing Franchises

 

What do you look for when interviewing job candidates?

Click here to download the Job Profile Toolkit.

The Best Team Wins Episode 25: Govindh Jayaraman

Govindh is the creator of the podcast Paper Napkin Wisdom and co-author of the book Paper Napkin Wisdom, as part of these endeavors he has spoken to hundreds of entrepreneurs about their failures and what they’ve learned over the years. Govindh has 7 companies in his entrepreneurial portfolio and is the current head of startup IMBA Medical based in Canada.

Listen to this episode on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Episode notes:

1:11- Govindh’s breakthrough at his startup

2:09- What makes good people leave?

4:08- About Govindh and his companies, including his current startup IMBA Medical

6:38- The story behind Paper Napkin Wisdom

9:31- The one consistent theme from the 400+ entrepreneurs Govindh has spoken with on Paper Napkin Wisdom

11:30- Pretending is always hurting

13:16 – How does Govindh create a culture of trust on his leadership team?

19:32- What are people’s reactions to a culture of openness?

21:20- The best advice Govindh ever received as it relates to the people side of business

25:53 – Govindh’s #1 goal for the next year

Job Profile vs. Job Description

What is the difference between a job description and a job profile? Here’s a quick video to help answer this question:

Click here to download the Job Profile Tool.

The Best Team Wins Podcast Episode 24: Ken Voelker

Ken Voelker has been CEO and President of Mighty Auto Parts for almost 25 years and has seen the company through two transactions. His greatest challenge in the next year is planning for succession and preparing Mighty for the next set of great leaders. I’m excited to share with you this episode of The Best Team Wins podcast.

Listen to this episode on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Show notes:

2:15 – Learn more about Mighty Auto Parts

4:34 – The biggest changes around people and culture over last few decades at Mighty

6:56 – The first employee Ken hired and what he believes are the most useful recruiting strategies

8:19 – Ken discusses how much of his time is dedicated to hiring and recruiting

9:45 – Philosophy on organizational change and how Mighty leadership has changed over the last quarter century

11:07 – The most important qualities for a leader

12:29 – Ken answers: How do you hire for integrity?

14:14 – “A’s hire A’s and B’s hire C’s” philosophy explanation

15:31 -Adam and Ken discuss hiring managers and the best questions to ask in an interview

17:37 -Rewards and recognition at Mighty, some things are more important than base comp

19:50 – Celebrating success with compensation

21:14 – What is the employee/employer feedback loop at Mighty?

24:08 – One thing that Ken thinks Mighty can improve on the people side of their business

24:58 – The greatest lesson Ken has learned as a manager and a leader

26:39 – Ken recommends The Fix 

27:46 – The biggest challenge Ken is facing over the next year

 

 

 

Guest Profile: Ken Voelker, President and CEO of Mighty Auto Parts

I’m excited to share Ken Voelker’s experience with you tomorrow on The Best Team Wins podcast. Until then, learn more about Ken and Mighty Auto Parts below.

What is your name?

Ken Voelker


What’s your title?

President and CEO


What is the name of your company?

Mighty Auto Parts


In 100 words or less, describe what your company does.

Mighty is a franchisor whose franchisees sell replacement automotive parts, lubricants, supplies and equipment. The franchisees function as Specialty Wholesale Distributors to professional automotive service providers (tire stores, car dealerships, quick service facilities, fleets, etc.) The Mighty network is comprised of 108 domestic franchisees and 4 international Master Distributors.


Where is the company based?

Atlanta, GA.


When was the company founded?

Mighty was founded in 1963 and began franchising as a growth strategy in 1970.


How many employees do you have?

125 employees.


How can we find you and your company on social media?

Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Blog


Is your company bootstrapped, or have you raised equity financing (VCs, angels, etc)?

Mighty was acquired from management by a strategic buyer based in Monterrey, Mexico, in December 2009.


What company accomplishment or milestone in the past 12 months are you most proud of?  Record sales year in 2016 (Mighty’s 4th in a row) and the successful launch of the Mighty Engine Guard Lubricants Program.


What’s the #1 company issue or area of focus for you right now?

Two areas of focus: success (growth and profitability) for our existing franchise base and expansion into new domestic and select international markets.


Press Releases from Mighty Auto

Unstructured Job Interviews Are Hurting Your Business

Research in the field of hiring and human capital strategy shows that a structured hiring process that includes scripted, job-specific interviews can vastly improve hiring results.  Interestingly enough, the inverse is true: companies that conduct random, unstructured interviews actually harm their hiring results.

In a fascinating 2013 study on interview effectiveness, researchers Jason Dana, Robyn Dawes, and Nathanial Peterson proved that running unstructured interviews can actually harm the hiring manager’s ability to make a sound decision.  Their specific findings merit a deeper look.

In three separate experiments, this team investigated the propensity for sensemaking – the ability for interviewers to make sense of anything the interviewee says, regardless of the content, and dilution – the tendency for available but non-diagnostic information to weaken the predictive value of quality information.

Participants were asked to predict two fellow students’ current semester GPAs by using actual, valid background information like prior GPA.  One of the students, however, was asked to use unstructured interviewing to make their prediction.  The interviewee was coached ahead of time to give completely random responses to the interview questions.  In short, the answers had nothing to do with the outcomes being predicted.

What the researchers found was that participants formed impressions of the student being evaluated just as confidently after getting random responses as they did after real responses. Said differently, the act of asking questions is what boosted the interviewer’s confidence in their decision, not the content of the student’s answer. Furthermore, the unstructured interviews actually led participants to make worse predictions about future GPA.   Even more amazingly, the students who conducted random interviews rated the degree to which they “got to know” the interviewee higher on average than those who conducted honest interviews.

These researchers also showed that participants believed unstructured interviews improved accuracy, so much so that they would rather have random interviews than no interview, despite knowing that random interviews produce a worse result.

Running unstructured interviews is a bad business decision.  Managers lean on them like a crutch, assuming that any interview is better than no interview.  The opposite is true: unstructured interviews produce a worse outcome than no interview at all.  Data gathered by Hireology, the talent technology company that I co-founded, show that less than ten percent of companies follow any kind of structured hiring process.  

There’s simply no easier way to create sustainable competitive advantage for your business than to run a structured hiring process.  Doing so immediately propels you into the top ten percent of all companies from a candidate selection standpoint. 

Need help getting started? Free tools for creating a structured hiring process can be found here.

“We’re only going to grow if we have awesome people.” – Joel Goldstein, President of Goldstein Group Communications

Listen to this episode on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher.

Adam Robinson:
Welcome to The Best Team Wins Podcast where we feature entrepreneurs whose exceptional approach to the people side of their business has led to incredible results. My name is Adam Robinson and for the next 25 minutes, I’ll be your host as we explore how to build your business through better hiring. Joel Goldstein on the program today is the president of Goldstein Group Communications based in Ohio. His company which he founded in 1992 has 21 employees and he has been on an adventure ever since. We’re excited to learn from him today. Joel, thanks for being on the program.


Joel Goldstein:
Thank you, Adam. I’m really excited to be here.


Adam Robinson:
We have a tradition here on the podcast. We always start off on the right foot which is the best news business or personal that’s happened to us in the last seven days. You can take it any way you want, sir. What is your right foot for the last week?


Joel Goldstein:
I have to say it’s sitting where I’m sitting right now, sitting in a new condo that we bought in Scottsdale, Arizona. I’m spending a lot of time working from here. It’s a great place to come and be refreshed. You can work remotely anywhere these days, but I’m enjoying our new location out here.


Adam Robinson:
Congratulations. I’m in Chicago today, so I know what Cleveland probably looks like. I see sunshine over your shoulder.


Joel Goldstein:
That’s right.


Adam Robinson:
I was wondering what’s going on. That doesn’t look like what we’re from.


Joel Goldstein:
That’s Arizona sun.


Adam Robinson:
Congratulations. That’s great.


Joel Goldstein:
Thank you.


Adam Robinson:
Very cool. On our side, I’ll focus on a business best last week. We have as we say in here recording this right before, the end of the quarter, I’m happy to report that we are on track. We had another best ever by far. We’re pretty excited to be reporting growth. I guess we have some things that are working right now. It’s good. All the result of others who more smarter and capable than me.


Joel Goldstein:
I think a lot of companies are in that situation right now. We’re seeing the same type of thing, a lot of growth in our business. As I’ve thought about this podcast, that really has been a lot attributable to a lot of the people that we’ve got in place. It really has made a big difference with who we’re hiring.


Adam Robinson:
Let’s focus on that today. We’re here to talk about the people side of your business Joel, but before we dive in, let’s set the stage. Give us 30 seconds on Goldstein Group.


Joel Goldstein:

 
We’re a 25 year old agency as you said earlier. We work with business to business companies almost exclusively. We help them find and keep customers. We do that through a variety of digital marketing programs, particularly. Companies come to us when they have trouble writing technical content. We specialize working with a lot of engineering firms. We’re very good technical writers. We work with companies when they’re just not sure what works in marketing anymore, when they’re having trouble finding ROI, when they’re looking for better leads, more leads, higher quality close rates, that type of thing.

We spend a lot of our time doing digital marketing for companies that have some type of technical or engineer to engineer message.






Adam Robinson:
Excellent. If listeners want to learn more, what’s the best way to find out more?

 


Joel Goldstein:
Our website is ggcomm.com. That’s G-G-C-O-M-M.com.

 


Adam Robinson:
Joel and I have had the pleasure and privilege of knowing one another for 10 years or so now. It’s been fun to have the chance we’ve had over the years. I want to go all the way back for you to 1992 when you started the company. You’re hiring your first employee, presumably you know fewer things about how to do that then than you do now. Take us back there hiring your first few folks. What was the process? What were you doing? Where was your mind at as you were hiring that early team?


Joel Goldstein:
It was a mess. I had a lot of … I had experience hiring people before I started my own agency, but the first person that I hired, I was scared, I was nervous, I’m off on my own. This is the employee number two. You want to make sure that you do it right. I did it wrong. That person only lasted a few months. What a surprise to hear that.



As I’ve gone through the years, I’ve tried to learn more about hiring processes. I actually have kind of a detailed hiring process, far more detailed today than I did then. I hired the wrong person who didn’t have the skills that I needed. I was far more successful with the second person I hired because he stayed with me for 15 years until he retired. That was a big win for us.



I’ve learned along the way with each person that I hire, it’s a little bit like hiring a baseball manager. You always try to hire a better person, a different person that builds on the mistakes you made before. I don’t get it right all the time when I’m hiring, but it’s a better process today than that first person I hired.


Adam Robinson:

 
Very well. Glad to hear it. Where did you learn how to do this then, “this” being hiring. Where did you learn it? What informs your decision making process these days with the benefit of so much experience?


Joel Goldstein:
I did do a variety of seminars and speakers. You and I are both part of Entrepreneur’s Organization in our chapter here in Cleveland. They have brought in a fair number of speakers who are experts on hiring decisions. I’ve gone to those. They’ve been pretty good. That’s helped me, but the members of my EO forum, which is a group of eight of us who gather together and serve as advisory board members if you will once a month, I’ve learned a lot from them and the hiring process that they use.



One of them told me years ago that there’s a line. People get hired for what they know and fired for who they are.


Adam Robinson:
I like that. So true.


Joel Goldstein:
It is true. It’s that behavioral aspect that’s the big problem for the hiring mistakes that we all make. I have really tried to develop that hiring insight into who they are, not just looking at their resume for what they know.


Adam Robinson:
Very good. I like that. As part of this process, it sounds like you’ve documented it fairly extensively. What’s your go to interview question? When you are hiring somebody, critical hire for the organization, what are one or two things tool-wise that you use to make sure you get it right?


Joel Goldstein:

 
Let me tell you about the process, and I’ll try to answer that go to question. We do have a set of core values. We could talk about that. I do try to link in the hiring decisions and questions that we ask to those core values. The hiring process that we use actually has four separate steps. The first step is a 30 minute Skype interview that I do with people. The reason that I do a Skype interview is that we’re a technology agency. If somebody isn’t really able to handle the technical complexities of a Skype call, then they’re not really going to be a good fit for us. I only do a 30 minute because a lot of times you just know right away that that person is a fit or is not a fit. It’s an efficient use of time.



If we do well on the 30 minute, then I bring them back for a one hour skills interview with other people on my staff. One of the things that I always do is I have my wife as one of the people who participates in the interview process. She’s actually, like many people and unlike me, very insightful into people’s personality and how they do their work. I have those people talk to them about their skills, get a better sense of whether they can do the job.


 

 

 
I have them do a writing test just to make sure. Then they come back for a last is a behavioral one hour interview. That’s where I’m trying to ask them a lot of questions about I know what they can do, I’ve seen their writing test, I see the quality of their work. Now I want to get to know who they are and I try to identify whether that person is going to be a fit.


 

 

 
I’ll do one last point in that whole hiring process. I often ask people. I’m doing a variety of interviews. Call me back on the 22nd. It is amazing how many people do not call me back to find out where I am in the hiring process.


Adam Robinson:
Do you mean ever or on the date?


Joel Goldstein:
Ever.


Adam Robinson:
Ever?


Joel Goldstein:
Ever. Maybe that says, “Wow, they’ve really decided that they don’t want to work for me.” Or maybe it says that they’re just not organized enough to write that down.


Adam Robinson:
That’s interesting. That’s a new approach. Put it on them. Have them call you back to check in. Have you had a lot of experience where the person you really, really like doesn’t call you back? Does that happen often?


 

Joel Goldstein:
Yeah, absolutely right. Absolutely. There was this one person. I was just really impressed with her. I really wanted to hire her. She didn’t call me back. A few weeks later she contacted me. She says, “I sent you that email. Did you ever not get it?” I don’t know what that was all about, but if really are in a hiring mode you don’t hear back from me, I would expect that somebody is going to pick up the phone and call.


Adam Robinson:
 

Yeah, as would I. I like that. You taught me something, this is new. I’m going to run with that.


Joel Goldstein:
There you go. I didn’t say anything note worthy for the first 15 minutes. It took me that long to get to something note worthy.

 


Adam Robinson:
Hardly. What is your favorite interview question then?

 


Joel Goldstein:

 
I ask people what their core values are. I can see what their skills are. I really don’t have a problem identifying skill level, but lately at least, I’m just so focused on who they are. I want to know about those core values and what’s their purpose. If they don’t really know what their purpose is and they’re kind of drifting along, that’s not really going to be a big fit for us. We have values about a sense of urgency and always learning and changing your job every couple of years because our jobs change quite a bit. If they’re purpose and drive isn’t tied to those things, then we’re going to have a short term relationship.


Adam Robinson:
Sure. You’ve mentioned core values a few times. Talk about those. Let’s spend some time on that. At what point in your existence did you define them? Was that right out of the gate? Did that come later? Talk about the catalyst for knowing it was time.


Joel Goldstein:
That was something else that happened during some of my Entrepreneur’s Organization events. I went to a variety of speakers. You might remember, did you ever hear Simon Sinek? He always talks about a sense of purpose. A lot of people have talked about core values over the years. I did create them. That was maybe about just three or four years ago. I went for a long time without having them.



Our four core values are Deliver Awesome, Marketing Velocity, Measurably Better, and Be Happy. Those are the four that we talk about a lot. That helps define our sense of purpose.

 


Adam Robinson:
For our listeners that are operating a business that know they need to do this and have either not done it by putting it off deliberately or life and business gets busy, they just haven’t had the time, what was your process? How did you do this 15 plus years into the business? How did you decide to make this happen? How did you do it?


Joel Goldstein:

 
We pulled people together for a variety of meetings. I know some people have done the core values and saying, “That really comes from the business owner. The business owner has to define it.” I really didn’t want to do that. I wanted people to participate and create them rather than me just write it out in an email and hand it down and say these are our values. We have a variety of meetings where we asked people to bring their values, bring their ideas of what our core values ought to be. We talked about it as a group. Then at the end of that, I did pull that thinking together and settle on the final four core values. I will tell you that they were different from what I had myself at the beginning.



I was glad that people participated because I think that people will pay more attention to it than just another missive from me that they sometimes pay attention to and often don’t.


Adam Robinson:
How do you make those real on a daily basis?


Joel Goldstein:
We talk about them during the interview process. We have them printed up and we give them to employees during their onboarding. We talk about them during their initial 90 day review and their annual review. Then sometimes when something goes wrong, we try to talk about that misstep in the context of the four core values. The more we are talking about it, the more other people start to think about it as well and imbed it into what their thinking.


 

 
It’s one of those things that I think goes on for several years. It’s not something where you create your core values, you print it up on a poster and put it up in the conference room and boom it’s done. It really takes a long time to become embedded in culture.



We actually appointed somebody a year ago to me our Minister of Culture. She creates a lot of activities that are tied to reinforcing our core values every once a month. We have at our staff meetings a story about somebody who did something or a project that reinforces our core values. We take a minute to congratulate that person. We’re still always looking for ways to inject in what we do and how we talk to each other.


Adam Robinson:
That’s great. Minister of Culture, I like that. Was that your idea or her idea?


Joel Goldstein:
We redefined her role a little bit. I knew that she liked that. I don’t remember whether that was my idea or her idea. She is the perfect kind of a person for it. That’s one of the reasons why I think it works so well.


Adam Robinson:
That’s great. All right, let’s talk about the role of leadership beyond you in the organization. As you’ve grown the company, as it’s matured, I’m sure the number of seats around the table has grown and changed and you’ve had some different approaches to leadership. What is the role of leadership now in terms of managing the people side of the business? What do you want your managers doing as far as team management and development? How has that changed over the years?


Joel Goldstein:
There’s a book that I read a couple of years ago. It’s actually become pretty popular called Traction. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it. It has a system called the entrepreneurial operating system, EOS.


Adam Robinson:
Yup, we know it well. As a matter of fact, we had Dan Heuertz on the program. We are, at Hireology, a Traction company. We swear by it.


Joel Goldstein:
I’ll tell you, that was a game changer for us. It was a game changer for me personally. One of the things as a business owner you’re always frustrated with is everything seems to be on me. Everybody’s busy, everybody’s doing their jobs, but in terms of moving the company forward, I wish more people would be involved and would help with that. The EOS process pulled three other people along with me into the management of the company. We’ve never had that before. It was refreshing and liberating to me personally. We have gotten a lot done in the year and a half since we instituted the EOS system.



I’ll also tell you, we became dramatically more profitable after we started EOS. One of the concepts in that book is everybody has a number, some number that they work toward. That was a powerful insight for us that changed the way people behave and act and produce and perform. It made us much more profitable.


Adam Robinson:
That’s great. We evangelize a lot of those concepts. Just a big fan of Gino Wickman and his work there at EOS. Let’s talk then. Let’s stick on philosophy then. I want to touch on philosophy for rewards and recognition. That might be compensation, that might be pats on the back in company rituals. Then what happens when it’s time to give constructive feedback and call accountability to task at your company? Talk about how you manage the rewards side and the feedback side of your business.


Joel Goldstein:
The rewards side, I recognize that the financial rewards are not the only thing, and for many people not even the main thing, but we do try to have a good competitive salary structure. We pay annual bonuses, but we also pay monthly bonuses. We’re a professional services firm as a marketing company. We bill a certain number of hours. People have a target. If they exceed that target, they get a bonus that month. They get a portion of every hour that they bill above their target. We actually found that that was quite effective.



In terms of providing feedback, as I mentioned, we do have the annual performance reviews. That’s probably not enough. One of the things that I recognize that I’m not really all that great at is coaching people to achieve better performance. That’s just not a skill set that I have. We do have several people on the staff, on the management team who are better at that mentoring and at that coaching. I encourage people to go to them and seek that out. That has been more effective than relying on me to do something that I’m not really wired to do very well.


Adam Robinson:
That’s powerful self-awareness certainly.


Joel Goldstein:
I have many people around me all the time that can tell me all the things that I’m bad at. That was one that I realized on my own.


Adam Robinson:
The second half of that is listening to the feedback. I applaud you for that. That’s great. If you’re going to bring this up to the highest level and think philosophically about your approach to the people side of your business, what is your philosophy around governing teams?


Joel Goldstein:
As as agency, in our business, we’re a service business. I kind of realize actually recently with the people that we hire that we only will grow if the people we hire are so good and have such strong relationship building capabilities, we’ll only grow if we have those people in place and clients give us more business. Clients will only give us more business if they really enjoyed working with people that we have and if they’re better than them and smarter than them.


 

 

 
Actually for example, other agencies, they’ll have a title of a person called an account manager. We call those same people marketing managers. The reason that we do that is that our people have to be on a peer with our clients. They have to know more than our clients do in almost every situation. That’s really important for us to have people on staff with that deep, deep level of expertise that they know more than their clients do and that they have such strong interpersonal skills that they’ll build relationships that we have to have for clients to give us more business. It never happens if they don’t like us.


Adam Robinson:
Greatest lesson learned so far in managing people?


Joel Goldstein:
Recently I had somebody who was only with us a short time, just two years. Recently she left us to go get a great job. She actually has since hired us as her agency. That’s always nice to see, but it hurt our business when she left because she was the prototype of the person that I just described, somebody who was very skilled, strong interpersonal skills. Clients loved her and they gave us more business. The insight that I had was that the quality of the people we have is not some abstract concept. It really is more important than any strategy that I would have or any program that we would deliver. We’re only going to grow if we have awesome great people. When we lose them, that really hurts us.


Adam Robinson:
All right. Final couple of questions here. What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it to the audience?


 

Joel Goldstein:

 
Right now I’m … I’m trying to remember the name of the book. I read a lot of presidential history. It’s a book about Eisenhower’s last few days in office and how he was very concerned about the future peace in the world and how he tried to prepare Jack Kennedy for his presidency. I can’t quite remember the name of the book. It’s really an interesting book. If you like history and presidential politics, it really is an interesting look back at a time when people had a higher sense of purpose for the good of the country than perhaps politicians do today.


Adam Robinson:
Well said, very good. If you’re to come back on the show a year from now and tell us whether or not you were able to successfully tackle the biggest issue people related or otherwise, or opportunity that you have in front of you in your business today, what would you be telling us?


Joel Goldstein:
I’ve got five or six brand new people that I’ve hired in the last six or eight months. I’m really anxious to see how well we onboard them and how well we bring them into our culture and make them successful. I hope we do a good job with that because they’re on the front lines dealing with our clients. A year from now, I hope all of them are still with me and that their clients love them.


Adam Robinson:
That’s the final word. You’ve been learning from Joel Goldstein, president of Goldstein Group Communications. Joel, thank you for being with us on the program today.


Joel Goldstein:
Thanks so much Adam.


Adam Robinson:
All right, that’s a wrap for this episode of the best team wins podcast where we’re featuring entrepreneurs and business leaders whose exceptional approach to the people side of their business has lead to incredible results. I’m Adam Robinson, author of the book The Best Team Wins which you can find online at www.thebestteamwins.com and at Amazon. We will see you next week. Thanks for listening.

 

 

Guest Profile: Joel Goldstein, President of Goldstein Group Communications

Joel joins The Best Team Wins Podcast tomorrow and we’re excited to share his experience with you. Read more below about Joel and his company in advance of the episode.

What is your name?

Joel Goldstein


What’s your title?

President


What is the name of your company?

Goldstein Group Communications


In 100 words or less, describe what your company does:

Goldstein Group Communications (GGC) creates high impact branding and lead generation programs for b-to-b companies that are seeking more powerful ways to find and keep customers.  The company specializes in Marketing to Engineers and has a long track record in writing engineer-to-engineer technical copy that other agencies struggle to produce. GGC was founded in 1992 as a public relations agency and today represents both entrepreneurial and billion-dollar multi-national firms throughout the country, with 50% of revenues coming from clients outside Ohio. GGC combines both left-brain analytics with right-brain creativity to provide a powerful marketing approach that leads to “Measurably Better Marketing.”


Where is the company based?

Solon, Ohio


When was the company founded?

1992


How many employees do you have?

21


How can we find you and your company on social media?

Twitter | Facebook / Joel on LinkedIn and Twitter


Is your company bootstrapped, or have you raised equity financing (VCs, angels, etc)?

No debt other than the building mortgage.


What company accomplishment or milestone in the past 12 months are you most proud of?Achieving Platinum Status as a VAR for HubSpot.


What’s the #1 company issue or area of focus for you right now?

Generating sales-ready opportunities for technical and engineering-oriented companies to pursue.


Where can we learn more?

Our blog.