My daughter, Katy, and I would like to wish everyone a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving holiday.
I am so grateful for all of my clients, friends and family for supporting A-list Interviews, as we continue to grow and thrive. A giant thank you to my team for a great year as well.
I hope your holiday is full of peace, love, joy and pie!
Yours in success,
Beth Smith
When I bought my restaurant, the former owner signed a non-compete agreement for a 5-mile radius around the area. One day I was talking to some of my restaurant neighbors, and one of them casually mentioned that the former owner was opening a new restaurant down the street. I felt SICK. I immediately started to panic! I was crying hysterically, because I was so afraid that the new restaurant would steal from me…that we wouldn’t make money due to the competition.
So, I picked up the phone and I called my primary investor. I told him all about what was going on, and then I asked him for advice.
He said, “Let me ask you a question: Is everything perfect within the four walls of your restaurant?”
I said, “Well, no! Of course not! Why?”
“Until everything between the four walls of your restaurant is perfect, then under no circumstances do you pay attention to what is going on outside those four walls. What other people do is none of your business. Quit worrying about what others do. Just worry about yourself and your business.”
That piece of advice changed my life, and it changed my business. I started really organizing my people, my product, my policies. We had less problems, and we had more consistent staff, customers, and I felt more confident in my abilities. But in addition, I have taken that advice into my personal life: quit looking at what others are doing and focus on making everything within my four walls operate at the highest level.
On another note, the owner did open another restaurant, and it was out of business in six months. A testament to focusing within my four walls.
POWER THOUGHT: Once you put your walls up, focus solely on what happens between them BEFORE you focus on what happens on the other side.
A few years ago, I went on a blind date. He texted me first, then he called me. We had a great conversation, and we had so much in common. We both have children and a huge love for animals. As a matter of fact, he had a pet rabbit named Bugs.
I said, “You have a pet Rabbit named Bugs?”
He said, “It was either that or Peter.”
We laughed. A lot. He sent me a photo of himself, and I sent him some of mine. Then, we met in person.
He did not look like his photo. Nice guy, but definitely no second date. I had been catfished.
Welcome to hiring.
Catfishing is the act of deceiving someone else online, and it happens in hiring as well.
When you read a resume, you are reading a document that the candidate most likely didn’t write. In addition, according to Inc magazine, 85% of applicants report lying on their resumes. Read study here: https://www.inc.com/jt-odonnell/staggering-85-of-job-applicants-lying-on-resumes-.html
Which is why I recommend that you don’t read resumes.
You read that right. Don’t read resumes. You make assumptions about someone when you read a person’s resume, and when you interview them, you will err to those assumptions. It is just human nature. We all want to present our best foot forward when we are looking for a new job or mate, so we have the tendency to embellish. It doesn’t make that person bad. It’s just that their qualifications are a bit, well, fishy.
So here is my advice: Instead of spending time pouring over a resume, schedule a 15 minute interview. You get more accurate information, and it is easier to find that amazing candidate that you fall for hook, line and sinker.
POWER THOUGHT: Feel you have been catfished? Throw resumes back in the lake and have a quick 15 minute interview. You will end up with a better catch.
Anyone who knows me knows that I hate snakes. I mean I HATE them! So why did I read a story about snakes on Facebook? Not sure, but I did.
I read a story on Facebook about a girl who had a snake. She took the snake to the vet, and the vet said, “This snake is very small for its age, and it should definitely be much larger. What size tank do you have it in?” The girl told the vet the size of the tank and was informed that the tank was WAY too small for this type of snake. The snake can’t grow in such small surroundings. She immediately purchased a larger tank, and the snake grew rapidly. The snake stretched out and grew.
My third book, Power Hire, is now available on Amazon. You would think that by the time I wrote my third book that I would be comfortable putting it out into the world; however, you would be wrong. While I love writing books, I really hate the actual putting it out into the Universe. It is so uncomfortable!
Every time I write a blog, I stretch myself. Every time I write a book, I put myself out there. Every time I present a new idea, I am leading with a bit of vulnerability. Staying in a small tank doesn’t do anyone any good, but the discomfort… wow. It can be hard to manage, even for a seasoned writer and professional.
It would be so much easier if we could stretch ourselves first, THEN change environments, but that isn’t how things work. You have to change your tank first; make it larger, and then you can stretch yourself into new places that allow for growth.
Like the snake, once this book is out in the world, I will feel better and grow faster.
But for today, I am feeling a bit like hissing,
Anyone felt this way before?
POWER THOUGHT: Change your tank, and growth will happen. And that discomfort you feel? Completely normal.
While I was fostering Stella, my plott hound mix, we worked heavily on walking on a leash. I’m quite sure she had rarely been on a leash, and the job of a foster is to get your animal as fully prepared to go into a home as you possibly can in a short amount of time.
We were walking one day, and she was at the end of the retractable leash, when suddenly, she got spooked. At 50 lbs and all legs, she yanked me along behind her. By the time I got my bearings, she had pulled me under a pine tree, and I ran headlong into a huge spider web.
I screamed like a banshee. My arms flailed trying frantically to get the web off my face, my arms, my legs, and I was completely freaking out on the location of the damn spider. (If you have seen my hair, you know a spider could hide in it for a year, and I wouldn’t know it. Spooky!)
All the while, Stella wanted to go home, so she wrapped the leash around my legs trying to convince me to get her out of this situation. It was a disaster! Finally, I got my act together, and we sauntered home, completely exhausted.
Mistakes happen, and they cling to you like a spider web to your clothes. My mistake was letting her go too far on the leash before I knew her better. If I had known that she got spooked so easily, then I would have managed the situation more effectively. Oops!
Here are 3 steps on how to manage your mistakes, so that you learn from them.
I never did find that spider, but I did find a chunk of web on my shorts later that day. It served as a reminder to read my foster a bit better before letting them walk out too far on their leash. Lesson learned.
POWER THOUGHT: Mistakes don’t have to be scary or spooky!