https://youtu.be/N7jaq3KIeIE
Alec Broadfoot is the founder and CEO of VisionSpark, an executive search, hiring training, consulting, and assessment company in Ohio, serving EOS-run companies. We discuss how firms can attract A-players using proven strategies and tools.
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Attract A-Players With Alec Broadfoot
Our guest is Alec Broadfoot, who is the founder and CEO of Vision Park, which is an executive search, hiring, training and hiring assessment company in Ohio. And what's special about Alex's firm is that they focus primarily on serving companies that run on the entrepreneurial operating system or EOS. Alex graduated and got his MBA from Bowling Green State University of Ohio. So welcome to the show, Alex.
It's great to be here, Steve. Thanks for having me.
So, you've been running this company, VisionSpark, for almost 10 years now. How did you become an entrepreneur? How did you get here? What's your journey?
Yeah, it's a great question. I was in college, and my major was international business and economics, and I thought I wanted to be an international business person. And I had an opportunity to get an MBA right after college. They offered me an assistantship, which meant my tuition was paid for. I had to work a couple hours a week for the school. And so I decided to continue writing my MBA. During my MBA, they really were teaching us at the time how to be good corporate executives, a good corporate leader.
And there was an optional Saturday program where they brought in three entrepreneurs and interviewed them. And I decided to go and I was just so inspired by these entrepreneurs. And you know, getting to listen to their stories and how they can make a difference. And my dad had worked for Corporate America and I thought, well, maybe that was my journey, but not after this and so I thought you know what someday.
I'm gonna have my own business and so I was 24 years old at the time maybe and I had an offer to work for bank one Here in Columbus had interned with them a couple years and so my plan was I'll work for bank one I'll you know 15 20 years. I'll save a whole bunch of money, and I'll start a business I that's what I thought the plan was. And two years into working for Bank One, I had an opportunity along with some friends to buy a business. I took the leap, the bank said, hey, if it doesn't work out, you can come back. And I thought, well, we didn't have kids at the time and the risk was low and I decided, and that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey and that was 25 years ago.
Wow. So, before VisionSpark, you ran some other companies?
Before VisionSpark, yes. So I had there's a company was in the publishing industry. So that's the one that I bought. It was all self-published reference books. And we got a little bit into we had a CD-ROM program that we sold and a web. Now it's now it's web based. And then I had a business in the mid 2000s where we processed mail for all the big companies in Columbus like Chase Mortgage and the big hospitals and loved that business. And that's where the seeds were planted for VisionSpark.
I met some great individuals then and they planted some seeds about making sure you have the right people in the right seats and hiring the right people and good quality assessment tools. And so that was during that time, which was a super valuable time, and I sold my interest to my business partner at the time and decided to do consulting. And I really had this passion of helping entrepreneurs with being more profitable and just having a stronger business.
And what I was encountering, every consultant opportunity I had was that there were people issues. And like all these entrepreneurs, like Little Lemons, walking off a cliff, making these bad people decisions. And so in 2011 or so, there was a friend at the time and we were talking about this and we said, hey, let's start a business where we can help entrepreneurs make great people decisions, whether it's hiring or having the right people in the right seats. So that's kind of my journey to VisionSpark. And so I love helping auctioneers overcome obstacles so they can reach their goals.
So how is VisionSpark different from other companies focused on executive search and assessment and teaming?
Right, right. It's like a, you know, it's a big sandbox and there's lots of players in the sandbox. And so there are traditional executive search firms out there that are really good at what they do and they're retainer-based and they focus on culture and oftentimes they focus on much higher salaries. So the compensation for these positions would be significant. And then there are recruiters, which oftentimes there's some really good recruiters out there, but a lot of them don't have great reputations, they're just interested in pushing a resume. And there's some tactics they use that I would not use in my business.
So you have that, and then you have the assessment folks out there, and everybody that sells assessments think their assessment's the best thing ever, and there's no other assessment better. And so at VisionSpark, we are focused on the small to mid-sized business that, you know, from their leadership positions to helping them find these great people to fit with their culture, we're also focused on helping them make the right people decisions. And a lot of that stemmed out of initially we were just doing search and our clients are like, hey, can you can you help me with this salesperson? Hey, I'm, you know, I'm hiring an office manager. That assessment that you use, could I have a couple candidates take that assessment to see? And so our business has evolved to really strengthening the people component of our clients.
Okay. So for those reasons, they don't understand this jargon, the people component. What does it mean?
So it's something that EOS coins, but all businesses, they're going to have some sort of component that involves people. So your employees and your managers and making sure you have the right people in the right seats as Jim Collins coined years ago. And so to have a great business, you've got to have the right people doing the right things and being effective. And in fact, I know, Steve, this is interesting to you because of your work. But if you had two businesses, and they were identical, and they all had great financials and great structure, and they were blue ocean, and one had great leaders and great people, and the other didn't, which would be worth more, right? And so it's, it's almost impossible for companies to reach their goals without having the right people in the right seats.
Yeah. I'm rereading Beyond Entrepreneurship from Jim Collins, which is a book that's been around for I think over 35 years. And now he republished it, BE 2.0. And it's such a brilliant book. And actually, a lot of US ideas come from him. And what he talks about is that you have to first identify the right people before you even do your vision, your strategy. So this whole idea of get the right people on the bus, like get the wrong people off the bus, and get the people in the right seats is basically this idea of first you populate your company with great people, and then that's going to take care of most of the habits, and you can do the vision and the set up and stuff. So tell me a little bit about this idea of being focused on EOS run companies. How did that come about and why is it good for you? And is it even a big enough population for you to target?
That's a great question. So when we first started Visions Park, we didn't hear of EOS. We just focused on small to mid-sized companies in the United States. And in my, I was in a Vistage group, and for those that are listening that don't know what Vistage is, it's a peer group of CEOs. And so one of my friends in that group, his name is Alex Freitag, he transitioned his career to become an EOS implementer. And so we, you know, we were talking one day and he's like, you know, Alec, you need to target what you do for a company running on EOS.
So EOS, they often will recommend having an integrator, and that's someone to really run the business so the visionary, the founder, the entrepreneur, the inventor can do what they do best. And he's like, there's a huge need. And that's number one, Alec. And number two is, you shared with me some of your frustrations that your clients don't have, potential clients don't have any sense of wanting a great culture or they don't talk about core values.
And he was really speaking my language because we were firing clients before we engaged with them because they didn't value culture. They didn't have any core values. They just wanted to get a resume in the position and like, hey, I had this guy call me. It was a it was a Tuesday afternoon. He's like, hey, do you do CFO searches? I'm like, yeah, we do see fish, see if those searches. And and I said, well, tell me tell me about your company. And he started telling me, I'm like, what's you know, tell me about your culture. And he's like, I don't care about my freaking culture. I need a CFO and I need to be here by Friday.
And if you can't do it, I'm not gonna pay you and I said well, I I'm not gonna do it We're not you're not we're not your firm. This is a process and we know it wouldn't be a long-term fit and he was just irritated with me that I wasn't taking his bait and I'm like, you know I don't want to work with you or for you because One it won't be fun and number two your culture probably stinks just based on how you're talking to me and treating me on the phone. So that's what had a shift maybe about six years ago into working with companies running on EOS.
So how do you find EOS-run companies being different from other companies?
Yeah, and I'm curious to learn more about some of these other operating systems that continue to evolve. But companies running on EOS, they really operate with core values. And core values and culture are important to them.
