Do the Job Before You Hire for It

Full breakdown on the 90-day probation framework, culture fit, and firing fast. Full episode [here].

Most founders hire for roles they’ve never actually done.

They need marketing help, so they hire a marketer. They need sales help, so they hire a salesperson. They write a job description based on what they think the role requires, post it, and hope for the best.

Then they get frustrated when results don’t match expectations.

That’s not a people problem. It’s a clarity problem.

The Prerequisite

Before you hire for any role, do it yourself first.

Not to mastery. But enough to understand what the job actually requires. Enough to know what good looks like. Enough to write a job description with real KPIs—not vague responsibilities.

When you’ve done the work yourself, you can hold people accountable. You can spot when someone’s struggling versus when they’re just not a fit. You stop blaming hires for problems that started with your own lack of clarity.

The Unlock

Here’s what changes once you’ve done the job yourself: you stop needing experts.

When I didn’t understand a role, I had to hire specialists. People who’d done it before. I was paying for their playbook because I didn’t have one.

But once I understood the role and built real systems around it, I could teach the tactical skills to almost anyone. Running ads. Managing a pipeline. Following SOPs. That stuff is learnable.

What I couldn’t teach was grit. Work ethic. Perseverance. Disposition.

So I flipped my filter. Instead of “have they done this before?” I started asking “will they outwork everyone and figure it out?”

My best hires—the ones who became superstars—weren’t the credentialed experts. They were hungry people who learned fast.

The Shift

Early on, you hire skills because you don’t know enough to train anyone.

Later, you hire character because you’ve built the systems to teach the skills yourself.

But you only earn that shift by doing the job first.

— Leo

Full breakdown on the 90-day probation framework, culture fit, and firing fast. Full episode [here].