Global Talent Providers: Top 10 Problems

***We already have 64 folks in our Sagan Passport Community.

Small business owners, investors, searchers, resellers, private equity, franchisors. Check it out. 

It’s “Costco for Global Talent”.

Problem 1

Too much Philippines

I love the Philippines.

I have hired, and will continue to hire from this incredible country, filled with incredible people.

But… if you think that the best global talent hire to answer your phones… for your commercial landscaping company… based in Texas … is Filipino… you are nuts!

Dude - LATIN AMERICA.

But this isn’t just a pro-latin America post… it is a pro “hire from around the world” post.

Love me some South Africa.

Love me some Mexico.

Love me some Belize.

Love me some Argentina

Love me some Kenya.

Love me some Serbia

Love me some Pakistan.

Here are some folks from Jamaica, Poland, Belize, and Honduras - that applied just today, for one of our members needs in Customer Service:

Hiring from one country (or even one region!) is like only listening to trumpet music.

I love trumpet music, but there are a LOT of other instruments out there.

Because of various economic, cultural, and business factors - different countries have different strengths.

You should take advantage of that in your global talent hiring!

Problem 2

No High Quality Part Timers or Project based work

Other than maybe Upwork or Fiverr - the current business models have no ability to support project or hourly based global talent work.

For example, and speaking personally, I want to hire someone to build me a great website on Framer.

If I post on Upwork, I get swamped with dubious quality applicants, that I know have to wade through.

I don’t need a full time framer guy.

I don’t want to pay 3K a month (for someone they pay less than 1/3rd) of that for a barely valuable managed service.

I hire tons of global talent, but I just need a dang website built by someone good, that someone I know has used before!

This need isn’t supported by any of the major business models.

Problem 3

Problem 3: Stop Outsourcing, Start Using Global Talent

"Move your accounting to India"!

"Have a call center in Philippines"!

"Build a collection center in Mexico"!

I had to look up what "outsourcing" meant - and that research led me to, among others things, changing the name of this newsletter!

Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring a party outside a company to perform services that traditionally were performed in-house by the company's own employees and staff.

That isn't what I do at all!

Would you say I "outsourced" my Chief of Staff role to @BinsiDevadasan?

Of course you wouldn't... she is just a member of my team... who happens to live in a different country.

This isn't "Outsourcing" its hiring people from other countries... who work for you... and it is awesome...

See the difference?

Not enough people are talking about this, figuring out best practices, and changing their companies to drive better outcomes.

When I work with you to hire and use a full-time bookkeeper from Argentina... you aren't "Outsourcing"... you are just hiring a bookkeeper who happens to live in Argentina...

Other than maybe the way you pay them (and perhaps some contract stuff)... it is the exact same as hiring a remote employee from Dallas, who works for you full time. 

Don't think about "outsourcing", think about "building a great company with a global workforce"!

Problem 4

No autonomy

Taking global talent from "Yes (and then mess up or require tons of supervision)" to "Doing Stuff (Better than I ever Could)" requires experience, best practices, and support.

It is entirely doable but you need to know what the hell you are doing.

Imagine a day when you global team can kick ass, be independent, and do high quality work for you and your customers… with you setting vision only.

It is entirely achievable (with some support and best practices).

Watch my convo with Binsi, and you can one of the ways we think about this.

Problem 5

Too slow

I love FLOODING companies with global talent. 

I'm like Oprah... YOU get global talent... YOU get global talent.. YOU get global talent! 

Hard to "flood" under the current ways of doing business.

I was onto something with my "Text for Talent" idea a few months back, and I've further refined it.

Making global talent fast, affordable, & easy to hire, means people will use it more!

Jan owns a local marketing company, and he hired 6 people in like 45 days (He’d hired from Philippines before, but these are all from Argentina) :

Problem 6:

No best practices for Owners, Managers, or Global Talent

Global talent will transform white collar work over the next decade - and there is a lot that goes into that transformation beyond just "staffing". 

Staffing is important - but there are all sorts of other things to make work - what I like to call the "Overseas Operating System" (already bought that URL, nice try).

It is staff + technology + system + best practices to make it all work.

Where are you, your team, and your global talent supposed to learn about this?

As an example, I get a question all the time:

 "Jon, I'm bought in - how can I know what is even possible with global talent in my company? All I've ever used is a "Virtual Assistant". 

I learn fascinating uses all the time for global talent (from other business owners), our managers learn best practices, and our global talent help each other out tremendously. 

There is no place for these best practices to be captured and distilled.

The below video is a small clip from a convo between THREE people from THREE different countries (Binsi, Rose and Kyle) helping each other, because Rose (who is at the end of the video) was asked to cold call businesses, and she had no idea how to do it. Instead of bugging her busy boss, she got support from our community.

Problem 7

No strategy

Global Talent for a lot of companies right now is a "tactic". 

- Save money!

- Replace your X!

- Get an assistant!

It all feels so small ball to me. 

How do we design and build great companies while STRATEGICALLY using global talent?

- Where do I use it?

- Where should I start?

- What risks do I introduce?

- Am I being compliant?

- How are people in other industries using this, what can I steal for my company?

Sure - the role by role stuff is nice, but how does it all fit together?

Have a look at a short clip from a recent "Global Talent Blueprint" session I did with Jacob (just bought a couple mn business late last year, experienced entrepreneur) about how to THINK about using global talent & automation strategically. 

Tactics should fuel strategy!

Problem 8 

Lots of people should be selling global talent, but aren’t

In a massively exploding category (global talent for sub - 50mn American companies), distribution is king.

We are in the first at bat of the first inning. 

Here are some random people that should be selling global talent (and making sweet high margins), but aren’t:

- People who know an industry really well. I talked to a former Solar PE dude this week… he should create a niched global talent offer for solar.

People + Processes + Tech = Niched offer that can meaningfully penetrate an industry. 

- People who know a role really well. Burned out email agency owner, who wants to get out of agency work - can use global talent and embed them with some processes & best practices into companies

People + Processes + Tech = Niched offer that can meaningfully penetrate a job role.

- 20 or 30 something hustlers who aren’t afraid to play the ground game (BNI, Chamber of Commerce, whatever), don’t want to sign a PGd lease, aren’t afraid to hustle. 

I know a lot of business owners who would buy from a “Global Talent” person, but only if they meet them in person at a cigar night or whatever. The margins make it worth it.

- Low margin B2B service providers like bookkeepers - who already have relationships, and want to add stickier, better revenue to their offer

- Anyone with a half decent social media following or email list, with business owners in it. Stop selling a $49 excel course, start selling high margin global talent.

There are 10,000 global talent companies (all with different specializations, and pricing models) that should and could be built.

Problem 9

We aren’t taking care of our global talent.

Did you know that of the $3,000 Athena charges you (Philippines based executive assistants), roughly $800 per month actually goes to the person working for you… full time?

I think they are doing like tens of millions of revenue.

I’m not bashing on them - I’ve done “managed service”, and will keep doing it - but ONLY if I am providing WAY more than just the staffing.

Here’s a thought exercise:

I have a team of Philippines based recruiters (this is true).

Let’s - post a job ad that says:

“Trained by XYZ company? (Insert barely value add staffing company name here)….Get a 20% raise, and work directly with an American company.”

- You save $2,000 a month.

- They get a big raise.

- The only loser is the middleman, adding zero value.

If they aren’t truly adding value after the initial training, this is a threat to their business.

If they are, they can sufficiently ignore it.

Consider this a shot across the bow of non-value adding BPOs and Staffing companies, I’m coming for you!

YARRRRRR.

Beyond that - there are so many ways we should be taking care of our global talent, that we aren’t.

- Administering or supplementing health insurance? Hard if you only have a few hires in the country.

- Providing a community and a sense of belonging? Hard if you only have a few hires in the country.

- Giving a career progression and developing their skills? Hard if you haven’t done this before.

- Training your management team to work globally, instead of just hand grenading global talent into the business? Hard if you don’t have support.

Problem 10

Too Dang Expensive

A particularly high profile influencer tweeted out, on the day of our Sagan Passport launch, something about how we are trying to “Ruin a Great Business and charge 85% less”.

Well, my definition of a great business is one that serves its owners, employees, and customers with the highest quality product, at the lowest possible price.

This is the essence of capitalism, yes?

Current models haven’t be competed with - and are relying on marketing (FB ads! Twitter ads! Influencers!) which is great as the market is immature - but I sure hope for their sake, that their customers don’t hear about us.

Marketing more, and relying on customers not knowing about Sagan Passport, is the right competitive strategy...for now.

We build Sagan Passport to solve these problems (and many more).

Playing to Win - a Note About Business Competition

Between my previous government career (which had real stakes) and many years playing sports & serious rugby, I developed a particular approach towards business competition.

You compete, you battle, attack, defend - and then get a beer at the end of the game.

The guy on the other team is trying to (legally) break you in half, and you are trying to do the same.

If anyone wants to come compete with Sagan, game on!

Perhaps we can push each other to train harder, lift more weights, and chug more beer together.

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

Passage of the Week (couldn’t find the author)

When you are doing what you know you are meant to do, there's no need to struggle.

Instead of difficult or challenging or frustrating, there is simply doing.

When you are merely interested, or when you're following someone else's dream, anything can distract you.

Yet when you're pursuing your very own passion, nothing has the power to stop you.

There is a reason why some things feel right and other things don't.

Pay attention to those feelings, for they tell you who you truly are.