Growth Models

Join Matt and Rhiannon Poore, Founder and CEO of Forge Search, for a fun, unfiltered conversation recorded live at Growth Summit 2024 in South Carolina! 

From navigating the tricky five-year business milestone to hiring a team that truly aligns with your mission, they dive into the highs, lows, and hilarious moments of entrepreneurship—like carrying water jugs down Main Street in heels and surviving cramped offices with camp chairs. 

Packed with relatable stories, practical tips, and plenty of laughs, this episode is a must-watch for founders, leaders, and anyone chasing success in the business world. 

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In this episode of Culture and Compliance, Matt welcomes entrepreneur Dane Palarino, founder of Dad Bod Sculptors and Pallorino Partners. 

Dane’s powerful fitness journey—transforming from 30% to 6% body fat—fuels his mission to help professionals balance personal wellness with career success. Together, Matt and Dane explore how leaders can inspire their teams through fitness, build lasting habits, and create a culture that thrives on health, discipline, and productivity.

Every HR document you need to be compliant - FREE 42 HR Templates! 📝

Feeling like life’s a bit too hectic? Matt is here with some fun, science-backed mindset hacks to help you slow down, focus, and feel more productive. Whether you're balancing work, family, or just trying to stay sane, Matt shares simple strategies that keep him smiling—and they can work for you too!

Key Points:

• "What's Important Now" mindset

• The power of response in shaping outcomes

• Breathing techniques for stress management

• Visualization and affirmations for success

Three Takeaways:

1. Your responses shape your outcomes—take control and own your choices.

2. Positive affirmations build confidence and reinforce your mindset for growth.

3. Developing a mindset of accountability stops excuses and empowers you to shape your results.

Choosing the right commission plan can make or break your sales team's performance. In this episode of Culture and Compliance, Matt Vaadi draws on over 20 years of sales leadership experience to explore different compensation strategies. 

Whether you're launching a new sales team or revising your compensation approach, Matt provides a deep dive into models that boost motivation, drive results, and promote long-term success for your organization. 

Key Points:

• How different commission plans impact motivation

• Balancing compensation complexity with company size and resources

• Factors to consider when designing an effective commission plan

Three Takeaways:

1. Choosing the right commission plan is crucial for motivation.

2. Salespeople are primarily motivated by money.

3. Effective commission plans should align sales goals with company objectives.

In this episode of Culture and Compliance, Matt dives deep into performance management, challenging the outdated annual review method.

He offers a comprehensive breakdown of modern performance review methods, guiding you through five distinct types and helping you determine which one best fits your organization's needs.

Whether you're looking to implement continuous feedback or refine your current review process, Matt shares actionable insights on what works best for your team. 

Learn how to give meaningful feedback and choose the right evaluation method to keep your team motivated and on track.

Key Points:

• Why annual reviews no longer work

• Exploring five performance review methods

• Tips for giving constructive feedback

• How to create a performance review process that works

Three Takeaways:

1. Modern performance evaluation methods boost engagement and growth.

2. The best review processes are consistent and feedback-driven.

3. Tailor your performance evaluation to fit your team’s needs.

In this Culture and Compliance episode, Matt dives deep into the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), a groundbreaking law effective as of June 18th, 2024, that reshapes the responsibilities of employers with more than 15 employees. **Employment laws are ever-changing – when was the last time you updated your employee handbook? Let us take care of it for you: https://www.guhroo.co/employee-handbook-service Matt explains how this legislation enhances protections for pregnant workers, ensuring they receive reasonable accommodations without the burden of proving a disability. This episode is essential listening for business owners and HR professionals striving to maintain compliance while fostering a supportive work environment. Key Points: • Overview of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) • Differences between PWFA and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) • Required reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers • Compliance strategies for employers under PWFA Three Takeaways: 1. The PWFA mandates reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers, even if their condition isn't classified as a disability. 2. Employers must update policies and train HR teams to ensure compliance with the new law. 3. The law introduces broad coverage, including accommodations related to abortion, emphasizing comprehensive protections for all pregnancy-related conditions.

Join Matt in this episode of "Culture and Compliance" as he unveils three dynamic team-building activities designed to bring your team closer together. 

In celebration of guHRoo’s 10-year anniversary, Matt shares how these engaging experiences can boost team morale and create lasting bonds. 

Whether you’re looking to energize your workforce or simply add some fun to your work environment, these ideas are sure to make an impact.

Key Points

• The significance of team-building in creating a positive company culture

• Reflections on guHRoo’'s 10-year journey and team growth

• The benefits of fostering strong team connections

• How to maintain a motivated and engaged workforce

Three Key Takeaways

1. Unique and engaging team-building activities can strengthen workplace connections.

2. Fun and creativity are essential for fostering a positive team culture.

3. Investing in team morale leads to higher engagement and better performance.

In this episode of Culture and Compliance, Matt breaks down the essential frameworks every business owner needs to know to avoid the costly mistake of a bad hire.

A poor hiring decision can ripple through your organization, leading to wasted time, lost revenue, and damage to your company’s reputation. 

Matt shares practical frameworks and step-by-step guidance on how to identify the right candidate who not only meets the job requirements but also aligns with your company culture and values. 

If you're aiming to improve your hiring process and retain top talent, this episode is packed with valuable insights you won’t want to miss.

• The true cost of a bad hire

• Creating a targeted employee persona

• The difference between job postings and job descriptions

• The benefits of active recruiting

  Designing an effective onboarding program

In this episode of Culture & Compliance, Matt Vaadi addresses a critical issue facing many businesses: the gap between leadership and management. Learn why having a great culture isn't enough to meet goals and avoid setbacks.

Matt discusses the importance of both leadership and management, offering real-life examples and practical solutions for small businesses.

Key Points:

• Differences between management and leadership
• Strategies for small businesses to manage and lead effectively
• Balancing autonomy with accountability
• Consequences of neglecting management

Key Takeaways:

1. Achieving business goals requires strong management alongside leadership.
2. Clear communication and accountability are essential for team performance.
3. Balancing leadership and management creates a sustainable and effective workplace.

Join Matt in this newest Culture & Compliance episode, as he tackles the second installment of our Employee Onboarding Series. In this episode, Matt Vaadi provides essential insights on conducting weekly check-in meetings to ensure your onboarding plan stays on track. 

Discover how these meetings can help you effectively engage, retain, and grow your new team members. Learn practical strategies, gain actionable tips, and understand the crucial role these meetings play in fostering a supportive.

Key Points:

• Crafting an effective onboarding plan

• The structure and agenda of weekly check-in meetings

• The supervisor’s role in new hire success

• Overcoming common onboarding challenges

  
  

Key Takeaways:

1. Consistent weekly check-ins are vital for tracking progress and addressing issues early.

2. Supervisors play a critical role in the onboarding process and should be actively involved.

3. A well-structured agenda ensures meetings are productive and focused on key outcomes.

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In this episode, Matt Vaadi shares a powerful five-step formula to create the perfect employee onboarding program. Inspired by James Clear's "Atomic Habits," Matt emphasizes the importance of structured systems to achieve outstanding results. 

Learn how to set clear, measurable goals and optimize your onboarding process to boost retention, engagement, and productivity. Stay tuned for a secret tip to supercharge your program!

Key Points:

• The significance of setting clear, measurable outcomes for new hires.

• Breaking down goals into 12-month, 6-month, 90-day, and 30-day milestones.

• Utilizing Tim Ferriss's 10X rule to achieve goals faster.

• Accessing a 12-month dream outcomes template to track progress.

Key Takeaways:

1. Establish clear, measurable outcomes to evaluate new hire success.

2. Break down goals into manageable milestones to ensure progress.

3. Apply intense focus and alignment of resources to achieve faster results.

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In this episode, Matt tackles one of the most common questions he receives from small business owners: 'Should we have an employee handbook?' He breaks down whether or not you should have a handbook and what should be included in it. Join him to discover why it's a must-have for your company, covering everything from establishing clear expectations to providing legal protection. He discusses the following topics and more: • The Importance of Employee Handbooks • Do You Need an Employee Handbook? • Getting Started - The Basics • Acknowledgment and Implementation • Keeping Employees Engaged Three Key Takeaways: 1. Employee handbooks are a fundamental necessity for businesses, serving as a blueprint for success, regardless of their size or industry. 2. Handbooks play critical roles in setting clear expectations for employees, providing legal protection in disputes, and defining a company's culture. 3. It's important to make handbooks engaging through visuals and infographics while maintaining clarity in policies, as these documents reflect a company's brand and professionalism. Checkout guHRoo's Handbook building service here: https://www.guhroo.co/employee-handbook/

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In this episode, Matt shared the use of offer letters during the hiring process and how it can help in ensuring a smooth and legally sound hiring process. Join Matt as he explores why offer letters are indispensable and how they can benefit both employers and potential hires. He also talks about the following and more: • Introduction to Offer Letters • Diverse Role of Offer Letters • Crucial Components • Emphasis on Practicality **Three Takeaways** 1. Offer letters serve as written records that define terms of employment, safeguarding employers and employees in case of disagreements or disputes. 2. Utilizing offer letters not only ensures clarity on job expectations and compensation but also helps small business owners comply with legal requirements and obligations. 3. Offer letters exhibit professionalism and commitment, making potential employees more likely to accept offers So should you use an offer letter? Find out the importance of an offer letter. You can get a FREE Offer Letter Template here: https://go.guhroo.co/25-free-hr-templates

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In today's episode, Matt will go through some excellent ideas for team-building activities that will enhance culture, engagement, and retention.

The advantages of team building include enhanced collaboration, planning abilities, employee engagement, and communication. Employees can connect in a different environment by engaging in enjoyable activities that allow them to perceive each other in a new way.

Teams that function well together can solve problems more efficiently than if each team member worked alone when time and effort are invested in building such teams. In other words, the sum is worth more than the parts.

A lot of people are interested in leveraging offshore talent to move their business forward. While this is not a new thing, there are still a lot of limiting beliefs about what you can get help with from offshore teammates.

People are worried about the level of skill, getting screwed over, worried about the quality of the work, don’t trust the systems, and don’t know how to get started.

We are going to help you navigate this. We have completed over 100 contracts with offshore assistants and specialists ranging from general virtual assistants to highly skilled professionals.

We have spent well into the six figures with offshore talent over the last few years and it provides a nice supplement to our local team.

Our mindset is that we can create far more “onshore” jobs by leveraging contract talent to help us grow. In this episode we covered the following and more:

• The types of tasks and projects you can offshore
• Where to find remote talent
• How to set your offshore teammates (and yourself) up for success
• Lessons learned from our experience and how to apply it yourself

In this episode, Matt shares how to find remote teammates. Hiring remote employees can lead to a lot more work, can create some unique issues when determining who is a good fit, and you can make bad hires just as easy. We cover how to define what you are looking for, where to find people, how to actively recruit, and how to be efficient with your time.

I am taking the perspective of the small business owner here, so I will do my best to let you know what can (and should be delegated) and what you should do yourself.

We are going to discuss everything leading up to the interviews. This is the sourcing phase. How do we find the talent to fill the funnel?

In today’s episode, Matt gets into some of the pros and cons of hiring remote teammates along with his own personal experience leading a hybrid team.

Growing a remote workforce is a trend that was accelerated by Covid-19 but it can be scary if you are used to the old way of doing things.

How do you hire, retain, and engage top talent while maintaining compliance across state lines? This can be a big challenge for small businesses.

We are going to be going through a series on remote work where we will address all areas including recruiting, hiring, performance management, and even terminations. Today we are going to kick it off with should you hire remote workers.

In this episode, Matt talks with Bryan Murdaugh at Fivable about going to a 4 day work week. Fivable adopted a rotating 4-day work week as an experiment back in May 2020.

In February 2020, Fivable was 100% co-located in their Irmo, SC office. After the 4 day work week implementation, in August 2020 Fivable was located in 4 states, 3 time zones, and just one or two members of their team will find their way into the office during the day.

Fivable’s 4 day work week experiment worked well enough that they are still on that same schedule today. Fivable saw productivity increase, employees needing less PTO, and an overall happier environment.

Listen as Matt and Bryan discuss what the 4 day work week looks like and how Fivable implemented the change while balancing the needs of their clients.

• The initial results seen in productivity when Fiveable made the 4 day work week switch.
• How The Fiveable 4 day work week was structured in order to still meet client needs.
• Tools to make remote work successful
• What would Bryan change about the process of going to a 4 day work week?
• What Are Some Simple Automations To Fix Dull Mundane Tasks

About the Guest Bryan Murdaugh

In this episode, Matt and Karen talk about leading a remote team. They discuss how ERG handles their remote team as well as some opportunities for improvement. 

They covered everything from hiring to performance management, to keeping people engaged, and much more.

COVID-19 has accelerated a trend that was already reshaping our economy: remote work is here to stay.

In this episode, Matt talks to best-selling author Bob Burg about servant leadership. Bob is the author of the Go-Giver which has sold more than 975,000 copies worldwide. Matt and Bob covered the below topics, and much more:

• The Five Laws of Success - What are they and how do you apply them to your business?
  
• How do you become more valuable to your team?
  
• Putting others first is how you create real influence
  
• Why authenticity matters for leaders and how to execute
  
• Giving more is the key to getting more from your team
  
• Lift others up and make them the hero
  
• How do we use the Five Laws as leaders of organizations?
  

The question they answered without saying it is; what is servant leadership? The answer, as Bob put it is; you take the focus off of yourself and put it on others.

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In today’s episode, Matt chats with Amanda Volz, They are talking about how to conduct a fun and engaging virtual holiday party. During this insightful episode, Matt and Amanda cover the following topics:

• Fun ideas for your holiday party
• How to make a virtual holiday party engaging
• Why is it important to have employee get togethers at the holiday season

In today's episode, Matt shares some of the ways you can simplify the termination process. He discusses the trouble with the "it's a right to work state" argument and talks through ways to prevent terminations. 

If you are forced to part ways with an employee, Matt shares how you can protect your company and treat the teammate with dignity in the process.