Tom Hunt

I'm sitting across from a team member, she wants to work from Asia for 6 weeks.

She starts to explain why...

I explain that it's all good, we don't need to know why.


You decide how you work:

Work from the garden?
All good.

Different country each week?
Approved.

A couple of hours off for a doctor's appointment?
Yep, that's fine.

Work from Wetherspoons after dropping the kids off at school?
That's your decision.


Your life is your life.

We don't track time, we track output.

Agree?

We've hired 100+ people in the past 4 years.

And I've read 0 cover letters.

Reviewed 0 CV's.

And never hosted an interview longer than 30 minutes,

Let's end:

- CV's
- Cover letters
- Unnecessarily long interviews

Treat future employees like you would treat future customers:

- Thank people for their time
- Streamline the process
- Respond fast

It's stressful enough to be a job seeker today.

Let's not make it harder.

Someone asked me yesterday:

“Have you always been remote?”

“Like even before COVID?”

Here's what I said:

“Yes”

“As long the work gets done I don't care whether they work from Australia or the office. I hire people to do a job and trust them to do it.“

Our team:

- Save up to 3 hours per day commuting
- Walk their dogs in the morning (and afternoon)
- Get the train to Paris and work there for a few days

Happy team members = more productivity.

If you focus on presence, you get presence. 
If you focus on results, you get results.

If you can't trust your employees to work flexibly, why hire them in the first place?

Trust is key.

Remote work is the lock.

And they open the door to a healthy organization.

Agree?

We're fully remote with 70 people.

We track time to track profitability, not hours.

We don't ask people to justify why they're offline at 2pm on a Tuesday (unless they are needed).

But I've noticed something:

Team members with kids will message me: "Just picking my daughter up from nursery, back in 20." No hesitation. Everyone nods.

Team members without kids? They over-explain. They apologise for a gym class. They wait until 6pm to book a haircut they could've had at 2pm, because a haircut doesn't feel like a "real enough" reason.

It's real.

You don't need a child-shaped excuse to protect your time.
A dog needs walking.
The coffee shop needs visiting.
A body needs a mid-week workout.

None of that requires a permission slip.


So no, I don't need to know why you're offline at 2pm. I hired an adult to do a job, not a child that needs supervision.

Protect your time.

No justification required.

I recently interviewed 4 candidates and hired 1 of them.

Our hiring process:

- 30-minute interview with the line manager 
- 30-minute interview with me (the founder)

Next step:

- Make the candidate an offer
- Send a personalized email explaining why it wasn't a fit at this time

Hiring doesn't need to be complicated.

More interviews and extra steps do NOT add value.

They waste time.

You can spend all your time interviewing someone…

Or you can hire them and get to work.

“Excuse me, are you Tom?”

“Errrr, yes”

“Tom Hunt?”

“Yes”

“Ahhh I follow you on LinkedIn, this is crazy.”

England just beat Holland and we were walking out of Lisbon’s Euro 2024 fan zone when it happened.

For the first time, someone from real life…

Recognised me from LinkedIn.

“Honestly man, I love your posts and view on business. I’m bootstrapping my own company also.”


The funny thing is, as far as I know, Omar had never liked, commented, DM’d or emailed me before.

In the nicest possible way, Omar was a “lurker”.

I had no idea that he was:

- Reading my posts
- Getting some kind of value from my posts

Shout out to Omar Hasan, I appreciate you.


Moral of the story?

Keep posting.

You never know who’s reading.

And the impact that it’s having.

I hired someone 15 minutes into an interview.

On the spot.

I cancelled:

- Their future interviews
- The interviews of the 3 other candidates

It clicked.


They understood our business.
I understood their ambitions.

They were a values fit.
I knew they would fit in

They asked relevant questions.
I found myself selling.


Sometimes, you just know.

Please, if someone is right for the role, hire them.

The best workplaces don't care if you:

- Work 9-5
- Go to a co-working space
- Leave early to collect the kids

We only care about whether you get the results we pay you for.

That's all that matters.

Agree?

No team member joins a business with a plan to resign in 6 months.

They leave because:

- They're micro-managed
- You break promises
- The culture is toxic


People don't like to job hop, it's the job that makes them hop.

Your job?

Stop them hopping.

Retention is the foundation of growth.

Agree?

If you work on a laptop all day...
You don't need to be in an office.

If you spend a lot of time on Zoom...
You don't need to be in an office.

If you worked remotely before and performed.
You don't need to be in an office.

If you go to the office and speak with less than 3 people...
You don't need to be in an office.

If most of your comms with customers is through email/chat/calls...
You don't need to be in an office.


Mandating that everyone returns to the office isn't productive.

It enables:

- Extroverts
- Presenteeism
- Headcount reduction

By all means, offer in person work environments, but don't mandate them if that wasn't part of the deal.

Trust your people.
And they will repay you with productivity.

Wild idea.

Instead of sending out low-quality company hoodies and poorly designed logo mugs to new joiners, consider:

- Enabling personal growth
- Giving the option to work remotely
- Building a culture that people actually want to be part of

I’m sure they will happily buy their own clothes and crockery 🤣

90% of jobs can be taught.

Why do most employers care about:

- Education
- Experience

It doesn’t work.

Instead of college degrees, let’s look at attitude.

Instead of experience, let’s look at values alignment.

During interviews:

- Turn over the resume
- Talk about who they are


Build a growth-based culture.

Teach the role.

Ignore the CV.

17 interviews.

0 hires.

A founder friend is struggling to find the right "unicorn".


First off, the job description reads like it's three roles instead of one.

But the real problem?

It's there in the third line: "unicorn".

She's looking for the perfect candidate.


I don't say it, but I'm thinking:

- Your business probably needs someone now
- There is a cost to interview 17 people
- Unicorns don't exist


If they have some of the skills needed and are a culture fit...

HIRE THEM.

Stop searching for unicorns.
Start hiring humans.

"You can't walk down that road with a baby."

We're lost, hungry and desperately trying to find a pub for dinner.

The two people sat on their roof watching the sunset advise against our road route, we set off back up the hill.

We eventually make it to the pub, but not without laughs, crying, mini-arguments and well... life.


We're staying at Unplugged.

For those that don't know:

- No screens
- No phones
- No fun

At least that's what we thought...

When your dopamine receptors reset, simple things seem fun again:

- Learning how to use a compass
- Random interactions with real people
- Watching orange leaves fall from the trees

Our brains are fried with overstimulation and like a fish in water, we don't even notice.


Next time you go outside, I dare you to leave the phone at home.

Because sometimes you need to unplug to recharge.

(Oh, and book a stay at Unplugged, link in the first comment 👇)

5 roles in 7 years.

I had to ask...

"Is there a reason why your average tenure at your last 7 roles is just over a year?"

The reply was strong:

- Poor/no culture
- Wasn't challenged
- Salary wasn't enough

They were hired, and are still here now, 1.3 years later.


Calling all hiring managers:

Team members that have worked at many businesses:

- Are more agile
- Can be more decisive
- Have more experience solving new problems


People leave for a reason.

Companies need to step up.

Be the place people stay.

I nearly rejected a candidate for job hopping.


"But you've spent an average of 13 months in your past three roles?"

I asked tentatively...

"Yes, and I have good reasons for each of those"

She responded with confidence.

We gave her a shot.

And she stuck with us.


Calling hiring managers:

We live in a world of:

- Layoffs
- Micromanagement
- Untrained managers
- Return to office mandates


Behind every job change, there is a story.

Instead of sending the rejection email, ask for the story.

And make a fair decision.

Because perfect candidates don't exist.

It's Xmas Eve and I'm off to the gym.

I hand over the baby to Tiziana and walk out of the kitchen.

Just as I get to the door, she starts to wail.


Every parent knows this sound is excruciating, worse that scraping your fingers down a blackboard.

But this time, it's sweet (to me at least)


The child is now 10 months old, and for the first 6 she had no idea who I was. From month 6-10, she would smile.

But she wanted her mother. She wanted the person who has now carried her around for 19 months. I don't blame her.


But she's finally recognising me.

And based on that cry, now wants me.


Shout out to all my baby Dad's out there.

It's taken 10 months...

I finally feel useful.

I'm in a weekly 1-1 with a team member.

They ask a question about an issue their part of the business.

I know the answer, but thought I would try something:

"I don't know, what do you think?"


They seem shocked, normally I give the answers.

I see their brain whirring.

After a few minutes we have a couple of possible solutions to the issue, they go away to investigate and report back in a couple of hours.

They do, we agree on the solution and resolve the issue by the end of the day.


Whilst it feels good to be the boss with all the answers...

Sometimes giving them hinders the progress of your team.


Try it:

"I don't know, what do you think?"

The 7 most powerful words in management.

“We need to let them go.”

I’m in a 1-1 and a manager thinks someone in their team isn’t performing.

I'm in shock, to me they seemed enthusiastic and a culture fit.


We dug into the details:

- What weren’t they doing?
- Why weren’t they doing it?

The manager thought they either didn't understand or couldn't do the role.

Then I ask:

“How did onboarding go?”

“What do you mean by onboarding?” they reply.


And that's when we found the issue:

We skipped the onboarding process and replaced it with "a couple of calls".


If you’re recruiting right, you owe it to yourself to onboard right.

You can’t expect someone to join and start performing, you need to set them up to succeed.

Onboard right or do it twice.

Agree?

25m impressions on a single post.

24 months of obsession.

220k followers.


Today, the system behind LinkedIn’s fastest profile growth is going open-source (MIT License), the whole thing:

A feeder, a writer, a dashboard, a Chrome extension.

I haven’t been posting much recently as all 9.5 hours of my working day has been spent building all the software I’ve always wanted for Fame.

This weekend my partner went away and left me with our 15 month old who takes really long naps so I decided to distill the system into 21 files and 1,585 lines of code.

It's called Hacking LinkedIn, and it:

- Scans creators you trust every morning for inspiration
- Trains a writer on your past posts, so drafts sound like you, not ChatGPT
- A dashboard that plans three weeks whole week of content in one view
- A Chrome extension that saves any post, straight from LinkedIn
- Auto-drafts everything into Google Docs, ready for you to edit (important)
- Scans an image library and suggests the best pic (also important)


3 years ago, this was a $20-50k custom software project.

I'm giving the whole thing away.

Free. Open source. Yours to copy, break, and rebuild.


Not selling anything. Not gating it behind an email list.

Comment "SYSTEM" and I'll send you the GitHub link.

👇

“I think we should fire this client."

It's the first point in the agenda in our 1-1 and I can tell he's nervous.

He's been working to keep this customer happy for months:

- Dealing with abrupt comms
- Attending drawn out meetings
- Answering question after question


The problem is, it's 4 years ago, we're a small business and this client was paying more than average.

Losing them means that I take a pay cut.


But this time, I can tell it's different.

If this client stays, I'm essentially telling the team I value my paycheck more than their sanity.

Yes, losing the client will hit our retention number.

Yes, our P&L will suffer.

But keeping them would have hurt something much harder to repair: trust.


We let the client go.

Short term pain, for long term trust gain.

A deal every leader should get excited about.

Agree?

I'm excited to start my new role:

Software Developer at Fame.

🤯


In the past 3 days, I shipped a Chrome Extension that will save 4 of our team 1 hour per day.

Assuming $10 per hour, it's 84 hours (or $840) saved per month.

84 hours of boring, repeatable work that is now automated, enabling those team members to do more fufiling, valuable work for our clients.


10 years ago, it would have cost $20k to build.
2 years ago it would have cost $2k to build.

Assuming I cost $50 per hour, it cost us $400 to build.


Questions:

Is software still a moat?
What's the difference between SaaS and service?
Are we delivering a service or are we building a product?


The game is changing and who knows where it ends.

The only thing I do know...

Shipping software is SO much fun.

Assume the best in people.

They'll deliver on what they said.

They'll hold up their end.


Don't hedge. Don't cover yourself. Don't get a lawyer.

Leave yourself open.


It's a subtle shift, but your team will notice.

Opportunities open up.

Relationships build.


Maybe 1 in 100 will take advantage.

But it's worth it.

Being easy to work with is a skill.

It’s honed with practice.


I call it, being a Working Legend.

Here’s how you do it:

- Seek feedback
- Be collaborative
- Own your mistakes
- Respect others’ opinions
- Maintain a positive attitude
- Don’t take credit for others’ work
- Offer solutions, not just problems
- Respond quickly to simple requests
- Don’t pretend to have all the answers

What am I missing?

27 questions.


I got invited to apply for a role.

(No idea why, I'm intensely un-employable).


But I haven't been on the job market for a while so I thought why not check it out...

I opened the application.

27 questions.

And guess what the last one was?

A video introduction 🤣


Or in other words:

"You do a shedload of work just to potentially get on our radar."


This isn't how we work at Fame.

The application for our main role has 6 questions, with only one that requires thinking.

We prefer conversations over forced, unpaid labour for people we don't employ yet.

Agree?

I don't do this often.

But I had to share…

Got this email from a client this morning.

This is WHY I built Fame.


When clients tell us we're "outstanding, accommodative, patient, and brilliant at what we do"?

That's not me.

That's the team.


Repeat after me: retention is the foundation of growth.

I had a terrible boss.

And I spent more time with them than my partner.


They never raised their voice.

They smiled (kind of).

But they also started:

- Passing my ideas off as their own
- Expecting email responses at 10pm
- “Checking in” multiple times per day
 
Again, they weren’t ever aggressive or rude, they just slowly eroded my confidence each day.

I thought this was normal e.g. you get a job, you get a manager like this.


And then…

I moved roles and got a new manager, they:

- Stepped in when needed
- Never emailed after hours
- Saved most comms to our weekly 1-1


A great manager won’t get you promoted.

They will change the trajectory of your career.

Agree?

"No one does good work on a Friday afternoon anyway."

My friend was right.

It's hard to nail that client presentation when the sun is going down, the beers are cold and the kids just got home.


We're discussing the merits of an "early Friday finish" e.g. not having to be online between 4-6pm on a Friday.

Our core hours are 9-6pm, so this would be a 5% loss in people-hours.

It would cost the business £6.5k per month.


"OK let's do it.", I said.

It's an investment into our people.

And people-first businesses make investments like these.

We hired a project manager for $7 per hour in 2022.

Now he's earning $40K a year.

That's higher than 98% of earners in the Philippines.


We made him a deal:

"Where you are right now limits what we can pay you because you don't generate enough value. But the more problems you can solve for us, the more we can pay you."

E.g. we hired him for what he could become, not what he was.


He got a payrise in year 2, then in year 3, he takes on another role.

Now he's:

- Project manager
- Video editor

Maybe more in the future.


The best hires have the right attitude toward growth.

Skill gaps close with time and effort.

Character gaps rarely close.

Your CEO needs to talk less.

I used to talk more:

- Over-explaining
- Over-steering

But now I'm trying to talk less.

Trying to get out of the way.

You see, I used to think that I had all the answers, that I needed to be in every meeting and that I needed to make all the decisions.

I mean, I'm the CEO right? This is my business?

I was wrong.

The team doesn't need another idea, they need:

- A goal (What is the outcome?)
- Ownership (Who is responsible?)
- The context (why is this important?)

I need to 🤐

Let them run wild.

"Let’s face it, they shouldn’t be here."

I’m in a 1-1 with a team member and one of their team is under-performing.

It’s time to move on.


I try not to be nice.

But I strive to be kind.


There’s a big difference.

Nice:
- Avoids hard conversations
- Doesn’t tell the truth
- Hinders growth

Kind:
- Is honest
- Says it how it is
- Accelerates growth


Team members thrive in a kind environment.

They get confused by nice.

Agree?

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- An in person podcast recording
- Joining a community for an event I'm speaking at
- 1 guest blogging request
- 2 remote podcast recordings
- 3 invites to person events
- 4 internal improvement proposals
- 16 podcast guest requests
- 47 blocked calls
- 56 sales pitches


^^ everything I said no to in February.

Why?

They aren't in the plan.

And every second not spent on the plan, not only slows down the plan.

But reduces the chance that the plan will be completed.


We have to remind ourselves every month:

Keep the main thing the main thing.

Focus.