001: How To Find & Retain Top-Level Talent In Your Company w/ Scott Dikkers

37m · People-Centric Business · 18 Feb 09:00

How do you build a business team from scratch while making sure you get the best talent on board? That’s a major concern for most companies. But how can you do this while also putting people, both your employees and customers, first? I’m incredibly excited to have a guest who has been answering these questions for decades.

If you don’t know who Scott Dikkers is, you probably know of one of his businesses. He’s the co-founder and former Editor In Chief of The Onion, perhaps the best known satirical publication anywhere. He’s also written a whole bunch of wonderfully entertaining books and runs courses to help other aspiring comedy writers. What is truly impressive about Scott is that he approaches his pursuits with his heart and mind focused on the service his work provides for others.

Having built more than a few highly successful brands, Scott shares how he got them going all while putting people first in the process. Scott goes on to tell the unlikely story of how he got The Onion up and running with almost no capital. He also shares some insightful parallels between comedy and marketing that any business can learn from.

Has your business found a way to put people above profits? What are your challenges and rewards for doing so? Let me know in the comments!

In this episode:

Scott’s story of founding The Onion and how he built this powerful brand with nearly no budget
How to find top talent for your team by attracting like-minded people and cultivating their skills
How comedy and marketing are trying to achieve the same thing
The band of “misfits” who came together to build The Onion and how some of them went on to become top-level Hollywood writers
How to ensure that your employees care about your customers as much as you do

Quotes:

“To me, I like when the brand itself tells the story so you don’t have to. I don’t ever like to sell anything. I want the product to be the salesman. Period.” [6:41]

“How do you find these A players? This is a big business concern in a lot of companies. How do you find the top performers in your industry? I don’t believe you find them; I believe you cultivate them. I believe that anybody has potential.” [11:53]

“When you’re doing comedy, you’re trying to get people to love you; you're trying to get people to pay attention to you, and you’re trying to make up for the traumatic childhood that you had. So you’re using a lot of powerful strategies that you developed over a lifetime to do those things… That’s marketing. That’s what marketers are trying to do.” [14:18]

“If I’m going to build a real long lasting relationship with a fan it has to be based not only on trust… I want them to love me. I want them to fall in love with my product so they become slavishly loyal.” [22:04]

“What are some things we can do to live out the most outrageous version of our brand, to really stand out, to really serve our people in a way that will make them love us that’s not necessarily going to pay off this quarter? It may be something that’s going to pay off years from now.” [32:44]

Links:

Struggling to tell your brand story? Pick up our quick start guide here!

Find Scott Dikkers online

Follow Scott on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

The Onion

The How to Write Funny podcast

Jim’s Journal

Fu*k Everything, We’re Doing-Five Blades from The Onion

Our Dumb Century by Scott Dikkers and Mike Loew

Our Dumb World by The Onion

Outrageous Marketing by Scott Dikkers

Second City - Writing with The Onion

How to Write Funny by Scott Dikkers

Blaffo

Welcome to the Future Which Is Mine by Scott Dikkers (Not Elon Musk)

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The episode 001: How To Find & Retain Top-Level Talent In Your Company w/ Scott Dikkers from the podcast People-Centric Business has a duration of 37:48. It was first published 18 Feb 09:00. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

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