How A Billionaire Identifies & Hires Rockstars, Scales His Companies, And "Stays In His Lane"

What's up, good morning or good afternoon to everyone listening to another episode of the action Academy podcast. This is your host is always Brian lube, and happy Monday or whatever day you're listening to. Today's episode, today's show, is a highlight reel episode from the interview I did with mr Jeff Hoffman, the billionaire founder of Priceline calm, booking calm and many other travel websites. This guy's essentially the father of online traveling. Today, ladies and gentlemen, i'm putting a billionaire in the car with you front seat sitting, shotgun, as your passenger for your ride to work, from work Or wherever you're listening. This show is going to cover Jeff's hiring process in depth. It talks about how he was able to scale outside of just him when he was starting his company, from literally zero to billions and billions of dollars of annual recurring revenue, how to Delegate, how to hire, how to identify and train and retain rock stars Advice that we all need at every single stage of our entrepreneurship journeys. So, since I am giving you a billionaire for free, guys, come on. Come on, pay the fee, share this show with at least one person, at least one person that you think would get value from it, and tell them to subscribe to the show. This is how we grow it organically. We don't do any paid advertising. It's all word of mouth and, through you guys, also enclosing. If today's the day that you decide it is time to take action And leave your W2 job through real estate and business acquisition, go in the show description, click the link to apply for our action Academy community will hop on the phone for 15 minutes And if it's a fit, we'll get to work on changing your life, and if it's not, we'll just coach you for free and send you on your way. I'll also include the link to Jeff's full interview in the show description as well, and without any further ado. Mr Jeff Hoffman, let's talk about one of the struggles of CEOs, especially early on. You have a quote Where it says that CEOs need to stay in their lane and, to your example, before you were marketing, you needed to surrender the rest of the business and all the software and IT to all the other people. One person Is not the best at seven things. You need to find your lane. Can you talk a little bit about that, because I struggle with that and I know Thousands other people struggle yeah, you know that, brian.

What's interesting is one of the worst thing that happens to leaders is success. You start a company and at the beginning it's only you and maybe a co-founder. So you're wearing seven hats, you do marketing, product development, hr, you're doing finance, paying the bills, and it's going well. So you're like I'm pretty good at this stuff and that's the big myth. The question I'm usually answering is because we were blessed enough to have companies that went from little to global, and so people say how did you build, how did you guys scale these businesses? And the answer I always have to tell them is real success happened when you let go, when you realize that you were never as smart as you think you are and in fact you're actually only as. Because people tell me actually I wear all those hats, i do all those things. Today My business is going great. But the best honor, the leap from and that's great, congratulations, you have a great business. But that's not the question you're asking me. You're asking me is how do you get to that next level? Right, the big jump. And that's where the what got you here won't get you there, the style of thinking. That's what people miss. They're like man, i'm crushing it and but I still not really at that big level. And that doesn't happen until you can't scale, until you can Let go. And you can't let go until you surround yourself with people smarter than you and you can't surround yourself with people smarter to you until you admit that every one of us is really only good at one thing, right, brian? I had never hired an engineer to write code Who said, by the way, i'll do all the company's taxes, balance the books and write all our marketing copy while I'm engineering. It doesn't happen. When I started doing marketing, that's when I realized I'm actually really good at this And so if it's a marketing meeting, i'm running it. But if it's operations, customer service, finance, i got people smarter than me. And if you were to ask me what's going on in there, i'd say I don't know, go ask Angela. And they'd be like dude, you own the company. And I would say yes, and I'm smart enough to know that Angela is way better at this than me. That's why I hired her. If you have a question, ask her, not me. And I had people a lot of CEOs will be able to relate to this. I had people that said, jeff, you're the CEO, you own the company. You should know everything that's going on in that company, because a lot of people think that. In fact, brian, once somebody convinced me that early on because I was looking at these cash flow statements that my CFO and he said you understand all that. I said just the basics, not really He's. That's horrible. It's your company, you own it. You better understand everything everyone does. So I went to the bookstore and I bought a book called Finance and Accounting for Non-Finance People for Dunn, and I was like all excited and I went home and I was going to read this book and teach myself finance as a marketing guy, whatever.

And.

I opened it to page one And I remember thinking this is the stupidest ideas I've ever had. I actually joked and I told one of my friends I'm going to buy a book called Home Dentistry and I'm just going to start pulling my own teeth And he's like well, i was like hell, no, i'm going to go to a dentist. Why would I think I'm suddenly going to be a finance guy when there's people who do it for a living? I'll just get one of them. And so that realization there's. surround yourself with people smarter than you. Figure out the one thing you're good at. go do that and let the other people let go of the other pieces We grew when I let go, when I said you guys are smarter than me, you don't need to ask me anything. In fact, if you don't think I'm going to understand, you don't have to explain it all. So when I told people no, as a matter of fact, i do not understand everything that goes on in finance. I'm not a finance major, but I do own the company. I am the CEO and that's okay. but I don't understand. I still go to a dentist and I don't know exactly how they do what they do, because people would tell me. you have to know that you don't. You have to be smart enough to hire people smarter than you and let them do their job, and if you can't trust them, then spend more time finding them. You got to find rock stars. that takes work.

So a question I have is when you're talking about hiring rock stars, do you look for a fully developed rock star that is technically proficient in whatever field you're specifically trying to fill, And then it's just pay the money to hire that person? or do you find the person that has the intangible trustworthiness and the soft stuff and then develop that person into the rock star?

Okay, that is an absolutely wonderful question. Two parts to that answer. First of all, we never hire a resume. We hire the culture, which means values. We have a. So, for everybody listening, if your culture is not written on the wall where you work, even if you are a solopreneur, it's. I'm redoing the board behind me, but that was filled with my values and the things I believe in the whiteboard in my office behind me, even though not now because we're redoing it, Your values should be written where you see them every day, and everybody that works at your company should be reminded every time they glance over at the wall of what we stand for here and what we believe in. Culture is way more important than resume. So we hire people that are our tribe, people that we believe in and people that match our culture. The reason why is I can teach you skills, but I can't change your DNA. You could go to school and learn marketing or coding or customer service, but you really can't go to school and learn how to be a decent human being. You aren't. I'm not saying you can't improve, but your fundamental DNA and your value system. That's a way harder to change and it is to teach you new skills. So we hire to our culture, which is our strongly held values. Now to your point finding talent, finding rock stars, is work, right? I always give this talk and I think I mentioned it at the last co-buddance thing in my energy that I would schedule days to leave my office and I'm gonna go out in the world and hunt for talent. I'm gonna go out and meet people and look for them. Talent finding rock stars takes work. So the second part of my answer to your question is the best case is when you fly in both Somebody. The story I usually tell about is about this woman, angela, who was a rock star HR person but totally our value set. But she happened to be already very accomplished in HR And she ran HR for four companies for me. She stayed with me for a long time. She was already good at it. So the best thing to do is put a lot of time into higher hard and manage easy. Put a lot of time into hoping that you can find a rock star that's already domain proficient but matches your values. But if you can't and I have to choose between the two things you said I would not hire the amazingly proficient domain expert that doesn't match my values, i would hire the rookie that is totally aligned with our values. That isn't yet the rock star that are gonna be someday, if I have to choose. But in reality what I really did was just look harder and longer until I could find those people. So I was lucky enough to find people with some of the people that really already had those rock star skills and matched our values.

To that point. It makes me think when you're thinking of, like your particular activating system, right, you buy a new car. You see the new car everywhere People talk a lot about oh, i want rock stars, i want rock stars, i want rock stars for my business, but I feel like they don't have a specifically designed definition of what a rock star is, and so I think that you, saying that in the way that you just said it, where you were, your rock star was a person that has the culture. You're also looking for the cultural aspects for your rock star, so maybe that made it a little easier. Is that one of the ways that people fall off kilter? Like one of the reasons that people aren't able to get the rock stars is they think that they're searching for this person but they've got the definition. Just ask backwards.

Yeah, I think you're right. Just to expand on what you said, one of the most important skills you can ever develop as a leader, as a human being, is learning how to ask the right questions in life. So it's kind of yeah, it's kind of literally what you just said there, because you're going to find what you were looking for. So your point about your reticular system you're going to find what you're looking for. So knowing how to ask the right questions and how to look is a huge thing, right? So I actually have examples of little things that I look for that already start to give me clues. Like one of our core values is treating all human beings with the same level of dignity and respect. There's no way around that. I fired a guy that was my best salesman. So he was three times his sales were three times more than anybody else in the company Best salesman I ever had. A guy named Paul, and I fired him anyway, and he said I outsell everyone in this company by a factor of three to one. No way are you really firing me. I said you do outsell everybody here by a factor of three to one, but you also out-asshole them 10 to one. So you're gone. I said you're an unbelievable salesman, but you're an even more unbelievable asshole. And the reason why was I overheard him yelling at our receptionist. I told you I want coffee. I was like wait, i was standing behind him and you didn't know that. So when I gave him that example, he said who the receptionist? I repeated her name and he was silent. I said you didn't even know her name. He said Jeff, i'm the vice president, she's the receptionist. I was like you're already done at this company. Wow, you said that. So here's the equivalent. Let's say I'm doing an interview and I'm meeting somebody for lunch. You already know something by the way they react when the waitress comes to the table. Yes, if they see the waitress as part of the restaurant and not a human being, i'm hard. I've already. I'm already less interested or more. I'd rather go the positive than the negative. If the waitress comes up and they say what's your name, how long have you worked here, and they're asking questions and treating that person like they're an actual important human being that might have kids of their own In a life of their own, just exist for this moment to serve you in the restaurant, i'm already learned something about you as a human being. So the things you are watching for you were right on, brian, the things that you are watching for, the things you're gonna find Right. Just like the same way employees React to the things they know, you're actually measuring. If they think you're measuring one thing, that's the one that working on. So yeah, you're dead on about that. I've learned over a lot of gray hair, even though it's all my dear now the rest of it left. What kinds of indicative things to pay attention to that Enable me to spot rock stars? when before, early on, i was asking questions, it was just the wrong questions and that's why people are frustrated. I can't find the right people because you were looking at the wrong thing.

Is that a process that's developed? Obviously, it's a process that's developed over time, trial and error, just like you trying to be a software developer, and then you're like, oh hell, this isn't me. Is there any advice that you can give there? Obviously, we can never find shortcuts, but we can find efficiencies. Is there any kind of resource or any kind of Advice you can give to people that are in that fledgling position in their company and they're trying really hard to define What a rock star is or be like what to measure in their company? So is there any advice that you can give to somebody that can help them accelerate that journey? Or is that just something that you have to learn through the school of hard knocks in business?

No, it's both. Clearly, you get better at it over time. But, yeah, the one of the things that I did learn and it's funny because Paul, the guy that I told you about, was created sales He just wasn't a great guy, but the way he did sales. So my answer to you is Coning your best people. If you do know a rock star in the world, what you got to figure out is what makes them. Why are they so successful? what makes them a rock star? and you're trying to clone or literally model that. So I actually went with Paul on some sales trips Because I wanted to see what are the things he does that make him a rock star, because he was a rock star salesman and I wrote that down. And so what you're trying to do is clone The things about the rock stars that make them a rock stars. But you can't do that until you dig deep into observing them, spending a day in the light. So, even if that person, even so, my first question to you is if you already own a business, do you have any rock stars? because if you have Any rock stars or MVPs on your team, go, spend a day with them, go. I don't care that you own the company and you're the CEO. I want you to job shadow them and see what is it they do different than everyone else that is making them so good at what they do making a rock star And then you're sharing that, you're literally modeling that, and you're sharing that with the other people in that department. This is what a rock star at sales looks like. This is what a rock star at HR looks like. Each of these things if you don't have rock stars already in your company, find one in the world. You know what I did once. We actually and we actually called a woman that she didn't work for our company. She worked for a customer. It was one of their customers And I asked but she was the kind of rock star she was in finance that I wish we had. And so I called her and I said can we job shadow you? And she's okay. What? That's a little weird. And I said you're a rock star at your company. We don't have something like you at our company. Can we just spend a day in your life? We won't even speak, we'll just follow you around with a notepad, and I sent somebody to just shadow you for a day because we're trying to figure out what it is you do that makes you so damn good, so that we know what to look for And she's, i guess, so and that wound up being so valuable. Sitting down and interviewing her is different, because you're only gonna ask her the questions on your list that you think are relevant. But we're back to the same thing She's only gonna answer the ones you asked. But it turns out you didn't ask the right questions or you would have learned way more. So by shadowing her for a day without asking any questions, just following around, we're like, oh my God, we had no idea. You did all these things because they never would have come up in conversation, because we never would have asked that, because we didn't know. But when we job shadowed her, we came back all excited. So call the rock star by spending a day in their life shadow, one for the day, and you'll start to see. These are the traits I need to find to hire somebody like her myself.

Another quote that you said be a serial entrepreneur, not a parallel entrepreneur. Talk about that.

You obviously did your homework, Brian. thank you, I appreciate that.

You expect me to come on this and just be like God. Casual job.

It's. I use this analogy where I tell people to go win a gold medal at one thing, Because a lot of times entrepreneurs come to me and, there's, I've got these four businesses and I always sell four ideas and I always say, great, kill three of them, pick the one in your heart that you can crush and focus all your energy on that. And I tell them the example that earlier on, at the beginning of the internet, I used to talk to Bezos somewhat frequently when the internet started And people forget that for all those years he only sold books. And I remember him saying to me one day, I just want to be the best damn bookseller on the planet, then I'll figure out where to go next. And Tony Shade telling me one day at Zappos, I just want to be the best damn shoe seller on the planet. So I noticed that the companies that hit massive success did so by becoming the best damn something on the planet before they try to do 15 other things. And so there are people that have four multiple sources. I've heard that over and over again multiple sources of income And those people had a nice life, and that's good. A nice life is worth it. That's not the question we're answering. They're saying the people that turned million dollar companies into billion dollar companies. What did they do differently? And guess what? Not one of them had multiple sources of income. Bezos have built books, sold books and created Amazon. Tony Shade did that. Our own company, thepreysigncom, bookingcom sold hotel rooms, not cruises, not travel insurance, not luggage. One product hotel rooms. So that's your gold metal product, the thing that you can category, crush and do really well at. And the more companies I observed, the more I noticed that the people that focused on put all, instead of dividing your every dollar into four quarters, that you're putting on four different businesses. You're putting your team divided into four teams to run four businesses or four products. Right, your personal headspace is divided four ways. What if you took all of that and you placed, put your entire team and your entire budget on books, because you knew you could crush it? That is what Bezos did. For seven years, you could not buy anything but a book. As he said, i'm gonna win a gold medal at books first before I sell anything else. That's the part people missed, that being that. Sticking to one thing, and I used to tell people that because people said, man, you lost the music company and later a film company and you did the travel company. I always tell them, not at the same time When we were doing travel. Brian, if you called me and said, hey, jack, i have an idea, i would have said, brian, if you wanna talk to me about how to get more butts in beds and hotel rooms, great. If it's anything else, call me next year. Then later we were doing music tours And if you called me I would have said, dude, unless you're gonna help me sell out Friday night's concert, call me next year. Staying focused, by the way, brian, there is a really nice side benefit to that. I have failed multiple times, but I fail really fast when I fail And the reason you fail really fast is because you're all in on your idea And so you're gonna find out way quicker that it's not working than you are if you're only putting a fourth of your time every week into that thing because you've got three other businesses. So when you fail you fail fast, but when you succeeded, a much faster rate as well. So that, by the way, i learned a little bit of that one day talking to Richard Branson, because all the Virgin companies and Richard said whoa time out. He said when I launched the Virgin Records, he said that's all I did. And then he said each time he would sell the company or bring in a new CEO and say don't call me, i don't work here anymore. When he launched Virgin Mobile, the phone company, that's all he did. And then he left and he actually hired one of our price sign guys to run Virgin Mobile. They sold it to Sprint and then he launched Virgin Galactic. He said I built a lot of companies that I only ever ran one at a time. And so what I'm saying is everybody I studied that achieved big success, did so by being serial and not parallel, and I'm not saying you might not be able to do it. But I'm saying I think your odds are significantly greater if you pick the thing you're best at and go all in at that. I use the gold medal analogy because you've never heard of an Olympic athlete win a gold medal in swimming, then a gold medal in track and field and then a gold medal on the basketball team. It'll never happen, because if so damn hard to win a gold medal at anything. But if you're a swimmer, you're a swimmer, and so that's why I use that analogy. If you want to win a gold medal at swimming, you ain't doing anything but swimming for a lot of years. That's how people achieve big success. Once you're done, once you hit that gold medal level, then you can start to add new products, new services, you can grow. But the question you and I are answering is how do I get to that level? And you get to that level by intense focus.

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