Brad Smith of Rescue One Financial has built one of the fastest growing companies nationwide in the Consumer Financial Services space.
He has done this by flawless execution and outstanding leadership, quality, innovation, best practice, integrity and honesty.
To what degree do you keep your finger on the pulse of hiring for your ventures?
It is so key to know each and every employee in this building. We spend so much time here that we sometimes feel like family so I am typically the last stop for the interview process. I like to know about. people’s backgrounds and about their family. Liking each applicant helps us keep our corporate culture the way it is.
How important is it to keep personally connected to the process of adding new talent/personnel to your team?
We are a sales consultancy firm and our clients are trusting us with all of their financial data and looking for options that are going to help them out the best, so it is very important to stay close to the sales team.
Do you have any hard-fast rules that are followed in your own selection of team members or those who will be working close with you?
We have two things that we feel are pretty good barometers in hiring financial consultants, the first is that anyone that applies online or via email gets denied.
About 40% will call back in to discuss why and those are the people we are looking for. The 2nd thing we do is look for people that “have to” make a lot of money. This is not an easy job, but if done well can pay six figures with no real outside training.
Do you have an anecdote or philosophy to share that comes to mind that would sum up your thoughts about hiring?
We view hiring as a full contact sport, we go after the best and only want the best under our roof. If someone thinks they can treat them better or give them more of an opportunity, bring it on! We also don’t focus too much on the resume or past relevant experience as we have the best training in the industry. We want to make an investment in them.
Best interview question you have used?
Why are you here? We want to see who is really passionate about helping people and who is just looking for a paycheck.
Any hilarious (or horrifying) interview stories?
One of the other owners here was the final interview and 10 minutes in to the interview he discovered that he was interviewing his fiancé’s ex-boyfriend. The boyfriend never really got over the relationship and would send flowers and call sometimes late at night. We took a gamble on him and 6 months later he is a team lead and one of our top producers.
What has driven you in building such success?
We really get a kick out of people having their greatest successes at Rescue 1. It is not just about making good money, but about helping people and knowing that deep down, they can look themselves in the mirror and know that they are helping someone at a very dark time.