Hiring your first helper is exciting, but it can also be terrifying. After keeping the wrong person on my team for far too long, I realized I had been focusing on all the wrong things. Skills on a resume are table stakes, but you cannot teach someone to care about the details the way you do.

In this episode (Part 2 of our hiring series), I am pulling back the curtain on the screening process that saved me from making that mistake again. I share the specific, behavioral questions I now ask to uncover a candidate's true values, the red flags that signal a poor fit, and the single most important step I take before making any commitment: the paid trial project. This is the guide I wish I had when I started building my team.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome Back & The Hiring Journey

00:45 The Mistake I Made With My First Hire

02:05 Looking Beyond the Resume: Skills vs. Values

03:00 Why "Culture Fit" Is Everything for a Small Creative Business

04:00 The Pre-Screening Trick for Attention to Detail

05:50 How to Ask About Past Work (The "Prioritization" Question)

07:45 Asking About Mistakes and Listening for Ownership

09:30 How Do They Handle Critical Feedback?

10:30 The Importance of a (Paid) Trial Project

11:50 The Truth Revealed in the Trial

12:20 Red Flags: Badmouthing and Vague Answers

13:00 Why the Questions They Ask Matter

13:30 The One Question I Wish I Had Asked

14:00 Final Thoughts: Aligned, Not Perfect

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This is How We Create is produced by Martine Severin. This episode was edited by Daniel Espinosa.