Spakinect Industry Interview
At Spakinect, we love connecting with people who challenge the way things are usually done, especially when they’ve got the numbers and real-life results to back it up.
We recently sat down with Michel Falcon, entrepreneur, author, and culture expert known for scaling successful hospitality brands through what he calls a “people-first culture.” His approach isn’t fluff: it’s built on high-performing teams, operational excellence, and real profitability.
Whether you run one med spa or a growing network, Michel’s perspective will leave you rethinking how you hire, lead, and grow.
Q: What does “people-first culture” really mean in practice?
Michel Falcon: “People-first culture essentially means let’s truly put the individuals within our business that are engaging with our customers, our suppliers and anybody that interacts with our brand at the core of our decision-making.
I use something I call the ‘Operator Three Ps’:
- Profit
- Peace of mind
- Pride
And yes, profit is still at the top. The difference is how you earn it. High-integrity business with high-performing teams creates the long-term success we’re after.”
Q: A lot of med spas are growing fast right now. What advice would you give leaders before opening a new location?
Michel: “Before I think of a new location, I think how have we maximized our revenue and our profits at the location that we currently have?
There’s a temptation to grow just for the sake of it, but that can create cracks in your foundation. Ask: have we squeezed all the juice from the orange here first?”
Q: Why should suppliers be treated like part of the team?
Michel: “Anybody that interacts with your brand should be delivered a very hospitable experience—whether you pay them or they pay you.
We even host a supplier dinner once a quarter. It’s a $10K night, but what we gain in loyalty, trust, and better negotiations is worth way more than that. Relationships are everything.”
Q: Team turnover is a big pain point in aesthetics right now. What’s your approach to hiring and retention?
Michel: “My competitor is Chipotle. They have 75–125% turnover. At Brassa, we had 7%.
It starts before someone even applies. We don’t use job descriptions, we use career descriptions. Ours is six pages long with 30 minutes of videos and a detailed application process. Only 15% make it through. That’s the point.
I want to repel the wrong people before they’re ever on the payroll.”
Q: What do you do when you’re not actively hiring?
Michel: “I interview every Monday and Wednesday at 4 PM — no matter what. Even if we’re fully staffed.
Why? Because the worst-case scenario is having too many great people. If I find someone amazing, I’ll make space. If someone on the team isn’t stepping up, I’m not afraid to coach them, or move on.”
Q: Can you share your famous $20 interview question?
Michel: “What is an indulgence that you cannot live without that costs less than $20?
Once someone’s hired, we give them a small gift based on their answer. It’s a way to show what exceptional service and personalization look like, because now they’ve experienced it. That $20 increases engagement, knowledge retention, and loyalty right out of the gate.”
Q: Final thoughts for med spa leaders trying to grow strong teams?
Michel: “High-performing people have more leverage than the company does. It’s a high performer’s market.”
Recruit with care. Front-load your effort. Use culture-driven language. And never stop building your talent pipeline. When the right people show up, don’t wait. Find a way to keep them close.
The Takeaway
Culture isn’t just an internal buzzword, it’s a business strategy. Michel Falcon’s people-first model proves that when you treat your employees, vendors, and partners with care and clarity, you build a business that performs better across the board.
For med spa leaders navigating growth, private equity, or just the everyday chaos of operations, the message is clear: your people strategy is your growth strategy.
Click here to read the full transcript of our conversation with Michel Falcon
0:01
hi everyone Paulina here with Spakinect today I’m thrilled to welcome a very special guest Michael Falcon
0:07
Michael is a powerhouse in the restaurant and hospitality world and he’s joining us to share his
0:12
gamechanging people first culture philosophy we’re talking about why this
0:18
approach isn’t just for hospitality but it’s a must for any business including the med spa industry so welcome Michael
0:26
thank you for having me Paulina i’m excited to uh to do this and speak to you directly to your group fantastic so
0:33
let’s talk first about people first culture this is obviously something that is a core philosophy for you shaped your
0:42
career but I’m curious how does that actually look in action how does that
0:48
how does that phrase actually tangibly transform a business yeah it’s it’s a
0:54
slogan it could be seen as a platitude uh but it it’s a growth driver i
1:00
reference uh when I speak to business owners practitioners operators there’s
1:07
three things that I as an operator of businesses and leader of people want to
1:12
achieve um referred to as the three Ps uh which is the operator three Ps and
1:18
one of them is profit the second one is peace of mind and the third one is pride
1:24
so the people first culture uh the tagline of the book
1:30
is build a lasting company by shifting your focus from profits to people
1:36
however that does not mean that I’m not a profit profit centric CEO and founder
1:42
i am but how I go about earning it it’s a way of high integrity making sure
1:50
you’re bringing people along people first culture essentially means let’s truly
1:56
put the individuals within our business that are engaging with our customers our suppliers and anybody that interacts
2:03
with our brand at the core of our decision-m and let’s build such high performing teams that we actually have
2:09
less people in our company rather than more i always find it bizarre when people are like “Wow they’re successful
2:15
they have 50,000 employees.” I’m like “That doesn’t define success right?” I think it definition of success on the
2:21
people’s side is having fewer people who are compensated really well and they stay with you for years right and uh my
2:28
industry is quite challenging for that but I’ve solved it um we want to be able
2:34
to build a workplace that’s never been seen before because we want performances
2:39
and financial results that have also never been seen before that’s the profit piece of the three piece the second
2:45
peace of mind knowing that you as the leader can go on vacation and not be
2:51
bothered via text email phone calls because the show goes on i have the
2:57
peace of mind i It’s It’s 12:06 right now as we’re lunchtime all of my
3:03
restaurants are full service right now they’re gunning all of them i’m here you
3:09
i have the peace of mind to know that the show goes on because I have people like Brian Venita Pavle everybody’s
3:16
you know performing and then lastly is uh pride looking at your business and
3:21
being like we are best in-class we are the best employer we have the best customer experience and we have the best
3:27
financial results it’s so inspiring because I think that a
3:34
lot of people would probably see that as counterintuitive right the idea that you know having less people and paying them
3:40
more can actually benefit you in the long run and the short term right much more than just um scaling and growing
3:47
kind of at all costs and and we see that in the med spot industry as well is that there there is a lot of growth happening
3:53
there’s a lot of private equity coming into the space right now and kind of buying up all of our smaller mom and pop
3:58
shops um and a lot of this is is is pushing people to grow at a pace that maybe isn’t sustainable and they realize
4:05
that halfway through right so like more people more locations more employees isn’t always the right thing you’ve got
4:12
to start with making sure that those people are aligned with the vision that you have for the company so I think
4:18
that’s an incredibly inspiring philosophy to rally people around yeah
4:24
and to that point you know PE is coming into restaurants as well fast casual restaurants also i’m all too familiar
4:29
and uh with that whenever I think new location and we will we’ll you know my
4:35
responsibility is to get us to 100 and beyond um before I think new location I
4:41
think how have we maximized our revenue and our profits at the location that we currently have um because there’s a lot
4:48
of capex and capital expenses that have to go into building another location a lot of operating expenses as well where
4:55
you know let’s not always be looking forward let’s look to the left and to the right of us like how are we
5:01
currently performing right now do we have an opportunity to squeeze out a little a little bit more juice from the orange um before looking at expansion
5:09
but right you know you can do both yeah and I just I think that the the people
5:14
first mentality is is kind of this overlooked philosophy it’s it’s a piece where
5:21
somebody told me once I think he was one of my coaches in the early years of me starting this business um and he said
5:28
“You have two types of customers you have your internal customers which are your employees and then you have your your external customers who pay the
5:34
bills right?” And I’ve always remembered that because I I mean they are the joy of of why I do what I do is the people
5:41
that I that work for us um but you have to remember that that they really are
5:46
your first customers you have to make sure they’re happy and they’re showing up for your customers so it’s something
5:53
that I think can’t be overstated there’s another group of people that often get um overlooked also in my world
6:02
and med spas as well like suppliers vendors business partners right like the
6:09
our Uber drivers and Door Dash drivers they are an extension of our company mhm
6:16
our we rely on them to deliver our products to our customers so we need to
6:21
treat them like employees but also what about the individuals who deliver your supplies uh you know your banking
6:27
representatives you know anybody that interacts with your brand should be delivered a veryospitable experience
6:34
whether you pay them or they pay you because that’s authenticity often you
6:40
know people only reserve enough fuel and time and attention for their highest
6:46
paid customers and then they say we’re people centric that’s that’s no that is only one element to it we need to create
6:52
teams that are so hospitable that literally anybody that interacts with us whether we pay them or they pay us walk
6:58
away being like “What was that?” Like “Yes like a mindbending experience.”
7:04
Like I’m never treated properly right like for me who whatever the Uber
7:10
equivalent is in med spas or the supplier or whatever I know in dentistry it’s a company called Henry Shine so um
7:16
so yeah it’s just like everybody right and and you can’t train that mhm when it
7:22
comes to recruitment and interviewing to find these individuals you know we’re
7:28
you’re hiring adults it’s not your responsibility you are not a psychotherapist to convince somebody how
7:33
to be kind and hospitable they learned that when they were seven years old so our responsibilities as companies and
7:39
leaders is to ensure that we’re attracting those individuals and repelling ones that are not
7:45
it reminds me of Will Gdara’s book Unreasonable Hospitality right which I
7:51
am a huge fan I’m sure you are as well of his um and I actually had our sales team read that book and they got so much
7:58
out of that because uh one of my favorite I came from the hospitality world before I became a nurse and before
8:03
I started this company so um that’s my background i think that people who come from that world you really do learn the
8:10
art of giving really exceptional customer service and like one of the things I loved about his book was he
8:16
talks about the um what does he call it like the dirty you helping clean each other’s dirty plates right so um kind of
8:24
just everybody being part of the team and having that shared vision of what are we doing here what is the experience
8:30
that we want people to walk away from and that’s why you’ve been so successful
8:35
his restaurants have been really successful um and that’s why I think you know we’ve been around for 13 years
8:41
because we’ve uh focused very heavily on giving the most exceptional customer
8:46
service to everybody who walks through our doors like you said whether uh they’re clients or not or whether
8:53
they’re high volume or not but what I really love that you brought up is something I don’t really hear at all
8:58
about um how you treat your suppliers and your vendors so let’s just think
9:05
about that for a second so most restaurants I don’t I think the statistic is like 80% don’t make it past
9:12
5 years right your your experience in the industry has not just survived but
9:17
you guys are thriving do you think that doing things like that right treating your suppliers your vendors your Uber
9:24
drivers your door dashers you know how do you think that that’s sort of played into your success here and set you apart
9:33
it’s the same reason why I’ve had friends since I was 12 years old i’m 39
9:39
um because I’ve invested in relationships with the right people you
9:44
know think of some of the relationships you’ve had on the vendor side that deteriorated and you offboarded them
9:51
because there wasn’t a strong relationship there mhm there’s a reason why Paulina you and I don’t have 100
9:58
best friends because there’s only so much attention for us to go to the right relationships
10:03
and that goes with suppliers also i I am putting my I along with our entire team
10:10
so whether it’s a team member or the CEO and everybody in between our finance team interacts with our insurance
10:16
brokers and so forth and although we pay them we still want to deliver that
10:22
memorable people first culture hospitality um for a number of reasons
10:27
one it’s just good business do you want to be beloved or despised as
10:33
a brand decision’s yours uh number two
10:41
don’t you think that when you go and renegotiate with them going to this is
10:46
an economic thing also it’s it’s like one B one A is this is good business
10:52
good-hearted business one B is you know you’re gonna bring that right
10:57
down like who treats you better than me
11:05
yeah why not get a little outcome from that and I it works all of the time
11:10
because and and you earned it by being genuine and respectful and they know
11:17
that you are still a profitable customer for them because of the way that you behave you’re not nickeling and dimming
11:23
them i’m not recommending that but you’re having an honest conversation and honest conversations lead to fruitful
11:29
fruitful relationships you can still be profitable for that supplier um and then you want to expand your profitability as
11:36
well by going to your suppliers and say “Hey let’s let’s play ball.” And I do this once a quarter like every supplier
11:42
once a quarter we’re coming to you is it the bank with our interest rate is it our root vegetable supplier right every
11:49
quarter they know we’re coming we actually host a supplier dinner a thank you supplier dinner oh that’s great yeah
11:56
yeah and uh you know it cost $10,000 last time it was you know a lot of people had many drinks but
12:06
where who invites them to that so it’s these experiences that we’re creating
12:11
that have never been seen before like one supplier was like I I don’t even know if I’m like allowed to attend yeah
12:19
and this is a thank you dinner to to you and they’re like I’m this has never happened gordon Food Services gordon
12:26
Food Services one of a multi- I think billion dollar food supplier um the
12:31
gentleman that had worked there for 20 years is like I’ve never in my life been in my career been
12:37
three months later did you enjoy the steak i saw you i saw you i ordered four
12:44
glasses of wine to talk about our pricing look I don’t want it to sound
12:49
malicious but it’s an outcome yeah of course and when Yeah I think it’s that’s
12:54
just such a a clever and and thoughtful thing to do and you never know who those people are talking to and who they know
13:01
and so when it comes time recruitment Exactly we always think word of mouth
13:07
marketing right but word of mouth recruitment word of mouth supply chain word of mouth you
13:14
know whatever insert thing there but yeah word of mouth it’s it’s it’s word
13:19
of mouth is built on reputation yeah whether it’s internal or external to customers or internally with suppliers
13:25
and such so yeah and you know you got it’s authenticity it’s like oh yeah I’m
13:31
a nice person but only people with brown right like I don’t know i’m just
13:36
thinking here but you know just be authentic to everybody yeah I think that’s that’s such a good little nugget
13:43
of advice that I had not thought of a supplier dinner i think that’s that’s awesome because meds have Yeah I can
13:50
imagine i mean good business yeah it’s a it’s great business so on that note so
13:56
kind of talking about recruitment finding and keeping top talent is is a
14:02
challenge in any industry and I’m and I know just a bit about what’s happening in the in the hospitality the restaurant
14:08
world right now i know that that’s a challenge um as med spa industry is
14:13
growing it’s becoming a bit more competitive people are having trouble retaining some of their top talent so if
14:20
you could kind of distill some of your your best advice there or maybe most
14:26
actionable insights what would they be yeah so there’s a lot here this is like
14:32
one hour conversation just on this topic so I’m I’m gonna rip but um feel free to
14:37
share my email uh address Paulina to anybody watching and like this isn’t work for me like I really thoroughly
14:43
enjoy this um and I’m easy to get a hold of my name is extraordinarily unique
14:48
just throw it into Google LinkedIn wherever you’ll find me um but let me contextualize this because often
14:56
some individuals will be like “Well you’re hospitality you don’t get med you don’t get dentistry sure
15:05
but I get human behavior and it just so happens that I was a management consultant for five years and
15:12
I looked at I consulted for maybe every industry i don’t know if there’s one that I haven’t touched so and and the
15:19
commonality is that human behavior human expectations so our human our employees
15:25
are humans that have expectations of their workplace high performing people
15:31
have more leverage than the company does it’s not it’s not a buy it’s not a
15:37
company market right now it’s a high performer market they have more leverage there’s a lot of A+ people also working
15:43
for C++ companies you’ve got to rip them out of there and create a compelling offer that they’re
15:49
going to come to you with magnets repellents are in place for individuals that shouldn’t be within your company
15:55
now I’ve uh started coaching people i I have this program called Teams by
16:02
Michael Falcon and essentially it’s like I’ll help you build your highest performing teams in 9 weeks or less and
16:08
it’s not related just to um uh restaurants or hospitality so we’ve got
16:14
a supply chain person there so a 3PL third party logistics we’ve got a dentist in there and and so forth so the
16:21
reason I preface this is to show that it does not matter what industry at all okay so the a few statistical things
16:30
from restaurants uh my competitor is a little company called Chipotle
16:37
got 3,500 locations just a mammoth company and I admire them so much i
16:42
truly admire them um they have 75 to
16:48
125% year-over-year turnover so essentially their entire team changes
16:53
every year think of that cost and the effort to replace them every
16:58
year that team okay oh but here’s another thing that goes unlooked
17:04
the customer no more friendly faces remembering their orders it impacts the
17:10
customer experience uh Brassa Approving Kitchen my fast casual restaurant that uh has locations
17:18
near Chipotle and we go head-to-head uh respectfully um we had 7% turnover it
17:26
wasn’t even double digits okay because of this methodology
17:31
i want you to think when did I write my last job description
17:38
okay who taught me how to write the job description i bet any people listening
17:45
did something like this job description med spa
17:51
found somebody’s online downloaded it but but I’m not faulting you for doing that when have we ever been taught how
17:57
to write a job description right especially first time business owners oh for sure for sure right and do you if
18:05
you go to Indeed and I type in med spa I bet you all of your job descriptions sound the exact same and you know I’m
18:12
not here to criticize it’s just the fact of the matter restaurant tours do this also the job description
18:18
is like a wedding invitation are you going to put it on blank loose
18:24
leaf paper or are you going to make it look like a great invitation great event
18:30
or gathering of people okay um the job description I actually call it career
18:36
description now because job by definition is compensation for ordinary
18:42
work like what a awful word yeah i was like “Oh my god how uninspiring is
18:48
that?” So we call it career description because company culture language matters when it comes to building a company
18:53
culture so our career description is actually six pages long and includes 30
19:00
minutes of videos for the candidate to watch wow then you have to click a link at the bottom and then apply to a 20
19:07
question interview now you every single person listening like get out of here
19:13
people actually in restaurants will go through that the right people will right
19:19
right so I’m adhering I’m addressing turnover before they even hired me i
19:27
want you to not apply right there’s so many people we get 1,600 applicants a month on average
19:35
only 15% make it to the end of the application that’s That’s perfect i’m
19:41
turning them over even before they’re showing me they don’t have the work ethic they don’t care enough right they
19:47
can’t be bothered but the right people are like “Who is this company asking me to read six pages watch videos?” Oh I
19:54
watched the video i like the founder so any leaders you don’t have to be phenomenal on camera right but get in
20:02
like share the story because right now if your career description is one page it’s uninspiring right why should
20:09
anybody really want to come work with you if you’re not you know painting a
20:15
beautiful picture of what it’s like to work with us um and you know some of the questions in the inter in the
20:21
application uh which we use type form it’s like Google forms yeah um we ask did you
20:28
watch the four videos if they say no they’re immediately out right so these are little trip wires in the whole
20:33
process um has anybody called you kind before oh I like that question yeah uh what’s
20:41
something that you’ve taught yourself in the last 36 months and so forth so I have a preset uh
20:48
questions um and happy to share them but um so then when they get to the interview
20:55
it’s almost like they’re hired it’s a formality if they show up 99% of the
21:01
time they’ve sh they’ve hired um they’re going to get hired because I’ve been interviewing them the whole time and
21:07
they didn’t even know it now when they show up to the interview I say
21:13
“What was that process like for you?” And people like “I’ve never been through that before.” Really enjoyed it and
21:21
you’ll see you’ll see people I’ll I’ll Oh and I’ll give them the interview then they come to a virtual interview so I
21:28
can weed people out even more because if they don’t show up on time they’re out uh they don’t if I don’t feel like
21:34
they’re going to fit culturally they’re out as well um but you I’ll ask them a question like “Talk to me about the
21:40
videos you watch.” So I brought it up again to make sure that they didn’t didn’t click yes I watch them and I know when I’m being lied to by the way but
21:47
majority of the time these people are looking at their notes one person Leto one of the individual we hired in
21:54
Toronto was looking at his notes he said “In the first video at about 3 minutes and 37 seconds you said this.” I was
22:00
like “Hired.” Like I didn’t even need I didn’t even need to go any further yeah i was like “Hired retired done good
22:08
so to answer your question more directly building high performing teams you have
22:13
to frontload the effort you have to stop like you have to be like a security
22:19
outside a nightclub like you have to build your teams like
22:25
you’re hosting a dinner party at your home you wouldn’t just invite anybody right you you bring the right people who
22:33
are going to get along have great conversations you even sit people next to each other who might have something
22:38
in common and that’s how you build teams um and I recommend interviewing every
22:44
single week even if you’re at capacity how many times like I interview I still
22:51
host the interviews to this day and like I’m going to go for as long as I can until the numbers beat me but we
22:56
interview every Monday and Wednesday at four o’clock Eastern okay and it’s
23:01
habitual i don’t cancel it the only time I cancel is because I missed my flight and that was on Wednesday of this week
23:08
but other than that I’ve never canled it in years okay um
23:14
so how many times are you like “Yay I have a team yeah we’re all great.” And then somebody resigns and you’re like
23:20
“Then you have to start up the recruitment engine oh we got to place the ads and No no you always keep it
23:27
running even if you’re at capacity because the worst problem that you’re gonna have is I have too many good people wouldn’t you rather have that
23:33
than not have enough people or underperforming people right if you are like I I don’t need this person but like
23:39
I figure it out figure out go to your current roster and be like who’s average right now
23:47
like you have a responsibility to perform okay and and those individuals
23:52
on your team have a responsibility to perform as well and we
23:58
um at Brassa we measure performance weekly we don’t do yearly or quarterly reviews it’s weekly and there’s a method
24:04
I use called the traffic light model you can have it done in one minute per uh team member um because I believe that if
24:11
our team members expect to be paid every single day I expect performance every day mhm if I you know one thing that I
24:18
tell our team is like hey arriving on time matters to me for your shift to see
24:23
your patient to your guest your customer your client whatever that matters to me right and we don’t tolerate late just
24:32
like you wouldn’t tolerate ICE paying you a day late true that like I recommend everybody say
24:39
that because it contextualizes from them because they would be up in arms right we pay them one day late right even an
24:46
hour late right but you think you can show up late to work or to the meeting or to this or to that how is this fair
24:53
and most companies aren’t great right every company is is villainized
24:59
especially not every company’s villainized but many companies are villainized especially for-profit companies um because a lot of like you
25:06
you can’t consciously make a great profit right with a good heart with the right intentions and that’s essentially
25:12
what the people first culture is is like hey we’re going to make money but we’re people first and we’re going to do it
25:17
the right way my industry is known for hiring minimum wage employees we pay 21%
25:23
higher than comparable restaurants 21% higher we have fewer people because
25:28
they’re so talented and we make more money so the team member is thrilled
25:33
they stay longer with us we only had 7% turnover so they’re winning right um the
25:42
customer wins because we remember their orders their names their children’s names their
25:48
dogs names and then I win the entrepreneur and my investors because we have more profit than restaurants and
25:54
we’re still alive after right three and a half years so I can see some people
26:01
who might be watching and think you know okay uh I should be recruiting or all
26:06
the time right keeping that sort of pipeline open um how do you do you tell
26:12
people when they’re going through the recruitment process if you don’t have a job opening right now you know how do
26:18
people respond to that because I can see people wondering well what do I do when I find someone great but I don’t have a spot for them yeah so good great
26:25
question um I don’t tell them we’re not hiring because we’re always hiring quite literally if I find somebody absolutely
26:33
phenomenal I’m going to make the room for them somehow someway now there are
26:41
and and that’s the traffic light model so if anybody’s in yellow which is kind of probationary per period or in red I’m
26:48
going to push that forward a little bit okay if somebody’s in yellow hey I’m not
26:53
going to sacrifice the the way that we run this business in a high performance way because somebody does not want to
27:00
step up i’ve given you coaching you got to go you got to go and and quite frankly to be super frank I’m not going
27:06
to apologize about that because I know that I’ve done my part i’ve given you coaching and coaching and you’ve decided
27:12
that you don’t want to take me up on this you don’t fit here anymore i gave you the opportunity i’ve given you
27:18
warning i’ve given you coaching i’m not going to lose out on somebody great just because you don’t want to step up and be
27:24
like the others it’s meritocracy mhm like we’re all gonna earn it and we’re
27:30
gonna love it because we’re so treated so well and you’re surrounded by a players like I’m not going to lose
27:36
somebody i’m gonna find a way for them worst case scenario has happened where I’m like I literally can’t or my labor
27:43
percentages are going to go through the roof i reach out to them and say “Listen we really like you can you let’s keep in
27:50
touch can we be in touch uh over the next couple weeks this is my situation.”
27:57
And you don’t have to get to the inner details of like I’m coaching Lisa and if Lisa it doesn’t work out you’re good right you don’t have to go there like I
28:04
want to make room for you but I need a couple weeks can we keep in touch right and then we do and then I connect with
28:09
them on LinkedIn and they’ll see that I’m posting this stuff on LinkedIn about
28:14
first and this and that and they become even more attractive right yeah you’ve got them on the hook for sure well
28:22
you’ve shared such valuable nuggets already I do you have time for one more question yeah certainly let’s do it okay
28:28
uh I did stalk you a little bit before this and uh I went through your content
28:33
on Instagram and uh one thing that I found really memorable and and probably
28:39
most insightful was your $20 interview question oh yeah and I was wondering if
28:45
you could share that with everyone yeah it might be the best thing I’ve ever
28:51
done once and I am stealing it yeah please do please do um okay it goes so please here
28:59
is the thing I needed to solve it was 2016 and I wanted to find a way to hinge
29:08
the recruitment interview and onboarding process so that new team members knew
29:14
what experiences meant so I’m racking my brain racking my brain
29:20
and Paulina you’re going to have to role play with me uh so pretend like you are about to apply with my restaurant now
29:26
this is for marketers finance people uh operations team members everybody is get
29:31
asked this question on our payroll so what is an indulgence that you cannot live without that costs
29:38
less than $20 right now it’s a London fog with cashew
29:45
milk oh nice okay yes is there a particular cafe you like to order this
29:52
from um right now it’s my kitchen but um say you’re out and about
29:59
um yeah so Starbucks makes a pretty decent one but you have to ask them for
30:04
only one tea bag not two okay is there another uh cafe other than Starbucks or
30:10
is Starbucks gonna be your go probably we might go because I I live in the country now and there’s really no
30:16
fair fair so great I asked you the next question the next question next question you’ve now forgotten that I asked this
30:23
question or maybe you’re like “That’s a weird question i wonder why.” Anyways on we go and then Paulina we get back to
30:28
you and we say “Hey you’re hired thank you can’t wait to for you to come uh and join us your first day is February
30:34
25th.” Okay be there at 11 okay so Paulina shows up how many times have we
30:40
invited new team members and we forgot that they were coming or nobody knew i
30:45
didn’t tell anybody that they were coming and then they’re like “Hey I’m here for my first day.” And they’re like “Oh uh I didn’t know you uh let you
30:52
know.” Yeah terrible on boarding experience okay um but here’s what happens at Brassa
30:58
you’re going to come into the training room and we’re going to have a a little bag with you a little bag in front of
31:05
you and a card and the card is uh and the language matters the card is going to say “Paulina thank you for choosing
31:12
us.” Remember high performers choose the company the company doesn’t choose high performers
31:19
i bet you had a hundred companies asking to come uh make any offers we’re so thankful you chose us can’t wait to get
31:26
started and in that uh uh bag is a $20
31:32
gift card to Starbucks but also in the card we’re like “We bought you a little uh little something so that you could
31:37
get your London fog with cashew milk.” Great now you may be thinking “Oh that’s
31:43
so sweet.” Right that’s so nice it is but here’s here are the three operational reasons and why we’re doing
31:49
this number one Paulina I’m going to say this to you Paulina i wanted to create a
31:57
memorable employee onboarding experience for you so you know what that feels like
32:02
go do it for our customers right shame on us as leaders if we ask
32:09
somebody to do something we don’t do for them number two um
32:17
personalization what if notice how like you you did tell
32:22
me what that drink that beverage was what I was trying to do was figure out where you want it from
32:29
so if somebody says coffee that’s not enough i will say “Do you like dark roast medium roast light roast what
32:35
region of the world do you like it from?” Or chocolate do you like dark chocolate white chocolate and they’re probably like “What in the heck?” Yeah
32:40
what is this right i mean this is strange right um and and so forth so how
32:46
many times do we tell our employees personalize the customer experience well contextualize that
32:52
so and make it specific to the individual okay when somebody says candy what type of candy right jelly bellies
33:00
this flavor whatever but here’s the third reason why with $20 I’m going to
33:06
get you to perform better faster why because I just created an experience that you’ve never seen before i
33:13
motivated you i maybe drew drew on some emotion your engagement is high right
33:19
now you’re about to learn which means that your knowledge retention will be
33:24
higher because your engagement is high you are ready to learn and retain the knowledge and you are going to perform
33:31
faster you’re going to sell better you’re going to service better in a shorter period of time and you know it
33:38
also ladders up to higher employee retention company culture alignment and so forth so that is the $20 question i
33:46
don’t like to repeat things year over year but this question has worked so
33:51
well for me i’ve been asking it for nearly 10 years and
33:56
uh to my last count 900 sorry 973 companies now ask it around
34:04
the world because they read my book or listened to a keynote or webinar like this um and that’s just the companies
34:10
that have told me right so I at this point I think thousands of companies I’m ask all because I was sitting I know
34:16
exactly where I was i was in Toronto when I developed the question and I was like hm let’s see if this works and it
34:22
works so so well for 20 bucks to get you so you’re telling me I can increase engagement for $20 yes you can
34:29
and also it’s worth noting too uh I come from a very humble South American family
34:35
we didn’t like spending money uh and I don’t as as a family uh because we’re you know kind of paycheck to paycheck
34:41
family uh growing up so it’s kind of in my DNA to be thrifty um so as an entrepreneur that DNA has brought me uh
34:49
in how brought me to a point where I’m like if there’s a problem that needs to be solved I want to solve it in the most cost-effective way possible because I
34:56
love profit right but I love experiences that generate a profit even more and
35:01
that’s yeah that’s brilliant I can’t wait i was going to say if it’s 973
35:07
after this it’s definitely going to be over at that we’ll have I’m going to start using it i’m sure we’ll have our
35:12
clients start using it so I appreciate it thank you thank you so much for being here where can people follow you and
35:20
find more of your content yeah I’m kind of everywhere more active like to be honest I’m most active on LinkedIn and
35:27
uh Instagram because the algorithms are a little more uh uh serve me a little bit better there um but I’m also an
35:34
email behind human like you uh or a human behind email uh like everybody here so uh message me uh my email feel
35:42
free to share Paulina if you like um hit me up anywhere perfect thank you so much
35:47
for if anyone uses the $20 interview question please uh tag Michael let us
35:53
know let me know all right
Ready to empower your med spa with compliance and support?
Spakinect’s telehealth solutions keep you connected and protected, every step of the way. Schedule a free consultation with our compliance experts today.
