Ep.89: How to Get the Best Out of Your Employees

Sean:

Do you hire your own people in the team? Do you hire them and do you instill your company values in them, your values in them?

Carlos:

I stopped interviewing people about a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, because in the agency life, the attrition of people can be too much. In advertising, people hop from agency to agency. So I started to get emotional, like, I thought we were friends. That’s why I stopped interviewing people.

I train them though, when they work under me like for example, I handled a Dunkin donuts account. So with the Dunkin team, everyone has to work at my pace. I’m not intense. I only get intense if it gets irritating. I'm allergic to excuses that I know are lies.  

But in terms of handling people, I'm pretty chill unless you make a mistake on purpose. I’m okay with making mistakes, as long as you know that you made a mistake and that you're willing to correct it. But if you do it on purpose, then you get yelled at, or I just quietly remove you from the brand. I'll move you to a less exciting brand like tissue paper or something from. 

Sean:

What if they did not make a mistake on purpose, but it was a mistake that could have been easily avoided if they took the time. How do you see those things? Do those things irritate you?

Carlos:

That's a good question. If they took the time, it could have been avoided. They didn't do it on purpose, but if they took the time, it could have been avoided. That means effort. It comes down to effort.

That’s still irritating for me because if you're on the clock, do your job. Perfectly 100%. If you're on the clock because you're being paid, you're being paid to work. If it's easy, then it's going to be called play. That's why it's called work. Francis Kong said that. That's why it's called work because it's work.

For us musicians, our work is fun. We record. I guarantee you no matter hard parts like right now, my friend can’t think of a chorus and it's driving her crazy, but it's worked for us, me producing music. It's worked for him. So I've put in the time, if I'm going to produce you, it's going to be a hundred percent, you know, I'm going to be picky with what you sing with the words that you choose with the instruments that we use.

Sean:

I wonder when the time comes that you need to fire people. How do you do it? Because like you can't keep slapping them on to the unexciting clients.

Carlos:

I’ve only fired one person in my entire life. What I do is I remove you from the account that you like until you resign. I don't like firing people. I've only done it once. To answer your question differently. I'm very jolly, but when I get mad--especially if you lost the company money or an account, if you're doing it on purpose, or the worst possible thing that you can do, if you're doing it to hurt someone else. That's when I get mad.

I get mad and I know how to get mad. I'm very measured in my anger, but if I get really angry, the best thing for me to do is walk out of the room before I say something like something personality or something weird.

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