Anything But Typical

“I get a real sense of purpose out of providing for others.” – Marc Hutto

Expensive, frustrating, and typical—these are the words most employers and job seekers use to describe their experiences with recruiters. Sure, the position is eventually filled, but it costs a fortune, and there’s no guarantee the new employee will stick around.

That’s why Marc turned traditional recruiting on its ear.

Forget aggressive recruiters desperate to earn their placement fees. Forget overinflated profiles of unemployed job seekers desperate to find “anyplace” to land. Forget it all.

It doesn’t work.

Uncovering people’s purpose, values, and individual “career drivers” and then introducing them to the employers who share them does.

Marc has made it his life’s mission to help businesses & employees find their perfect long-term match & do it in the most cost-effective way possible. Talk about a noble purpose.

To learn more:

Find him at RevealGlobal.com & connect on LinkedIn.

Tom Rath said, “Make work a purpose, not just a place.”

In such a typically cut-throat industry, seeing someone take that idea to heart is refreshing.

“I want someone when they look at what I’m doing, to say, ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’” – Chris J. Loucy

For many years, Chris’ entrepreneurial journey was the stuff of dreams. Following a successful stint in sales, he rolled the dice on his own flooring company & won…big time. He blew his competition out of the water & experienced almost unreal growth.

Until one day, when the dream became a nightmare. An unfair lawsuit filed against his company eventually became too big to fight. Chris was forced to close his doors.

Which is where the story would end if he was a “typical” entrepreneur. Of course, he’s anything but!

Today, you’ll find Chris helping small business owners mitigate their financial risk in their own companies by establishing business credit & the company’s financial foundation.

His mission? To prevent others from experiencing the kind of heartache & ruin he personally experienced.

Service & purpose. Well done, indeed.

To learn more:

Check out how Chris is impacting others at JGalt.io

Serving others instead of wallowing in self-pity... It’s like Rick Warren said, “Don’t waste your pain; use it to help others.”

"We think that we are providing benefits to somebody and incentives. Actually, we're creating little fires and warring factions." - Kevin D. Monaghan

Most organizations incentivize key employees with creative pay & perks like equity splits. Better pay + better benefits = obviously happy employees who stick around, work hard, & grow the company.

t's easy and great math, except for the fact that it doesn't work. As Kevin can speak to personally, equity splits often produce arguments, jealousy, and resentment. Key employees are left at risk.

It's a tough pill he was forced to swallow, sleeping on the floor of a 9'x9' apartment, rebuilding his life after losing everything to a work "family" who promised him the moon & then burned him badly.

So, what's the alternative to splitting equity & keeping good people? Kevin knows now, & he's on a mission to tell the world.

Check out IntuitiveCompensation.com for more info & download his FREE book at BucketsBook.com.

“I hated it, hated it with a passion.” — George Ramsay

When George looks back on music lessons of his youth, he remembers only misery. Stuffy piano teachers, monotonous scales, and the dread of upcoming recitals made faking sickness a weekly occurrence. Music lessons were the enemy, and he’d do anything to miss them.

But watching a high school friend learn from a teacher who taught improvisation & the rock music he loved changed his perspective. Music instruction could bring students alive, not just “make them better.” It could be FUN!

He picked up the guitar with that teacher in mind and fell in love. Then he knew, “I just had to do something in music.”

Together with his business partner, George has turned in-home music instruction on its ear. Equally as important, his business model provides a level of financial security for gig workers (his instructors) unheard of in the industry.

People, passion, perspective. It’s all here!

To learn more:

👉Find him on LinkedIn & at BoldMusicLessons.com

Robert Ballard said, “Follow your own passion—not your parents’, not your teachers’—yours.”

George did.

“It’s important to us to help people see that they matter.” – Christina Bartolotta

Christina & her husband, Titus, are no strangers to business success. From car sales to consulting, this dynamic duo seemingly does it all & very well. Today, you’ll find them in the kitchen of their newest endeavor & one of Lake Norman, NC’s newest & deeply loved restaurants, Rise Cafe.

Serial entrepreneurs with a passion for growing their bank accounts?

Not even close.

Behind every business the Bartolottas own & operate, a deep passion & love for people resonates. They simply have a heart for building businesses that richly improve lives & communities.

It’s a noble cause, one made even more exceptional once you hear Christina’s journey. With no exaggeration, she has endured & found purpose in one of the most traumatic childhood journeys we’ve ever heard.

Both Christina & Titus embody a favorite quote by Simon Sinek: “Profit isn’t a purpose; it’s a result. To have purpose means the things we do have real value to others.”

This one will leave you speechless.

To learn more:

👉Find her & Titus at Rise Cafe & Collaborative Solutions Group.

“I love our business model. It’s one where we can be truly honest with our clients.” Broc Buxton

When cousins Jeffrey Wanner & Broc Buxton were growing up together, neither of them imagined that Broc would eventually join Jeff in building a company that would revolutionize the way other small businesses select professional employer organizations (PEOs).

But as they matured, they recognized important qualities in each other that would fuel that endeavor: diligence, integrity, & a mutual love for solving problems that plague business owners.

(If PEOs are unfamiliar to you, take heart. This episode will show you how you can outsource important HR functions, drive down costs, & how Jeff & Broc do it so differently.)

Jeff & Broc turned their love for people & business into their passion for simplifying clients’ lives. Their one-of-a-kind, free (yes, free!) service helps business owners just like you sift through the marketing noise & select the best option for their workforce.

Family, friendship, passion. How often do those collide?

Check out Pair PEO and try out their calculator.

“I want people to recognize my passion for things – my passion for living, my passion for ensuring other people’s success.” — Reece M. Arlin, MBA

When this car-loving, fitness-focused, self-proclaimed “terrible employee” graduated from college, he was certain buying & operating a gym was the path before him.

But like most entrepreneurs, his first big plan never materialized. When a good friend suggested they start a marketing company focused on fitness sales, Reece took the chance & said yes. Together, they’ve built something extraordinary.

Marketing geniuses? Not necessarily (though they certainly have the chops!). Passion for finding their niche, hiring the right people, staying true to their voice, pivoting in the face of adversity, & seemingly effortlessly growing a company with a totally remote workforce?

Absolutely.

Reece wasn’t born with all the answers. He was gifted with the passion to find them. And that has made all the difference.

Check out Business Marketing Solutions Group.

“I just want to be known as a good guy.” – Palash Desai

Most Ivy League business school graduates turned Silicon Valley execs aren’t known for their big hearts. Big profits, yes, but compassion & love for others take a distant back seat.

Not so with Palash. In the middle of a very lucrative engineering career, he dropped it all to buy a two-person cleaning company in Charlotte, NC.

Did he love cleaning? No. Was Charlotte home? No again. But that tiny cleaning company offered Palash a unique opportunity: to build a highly profitable & sustainable business that could address income inequality in a city known for lacking social mobility.

Purpose-driven capitalism. That’s the heart of The Organic Maids, which now employs over 30 cleaning professionals making more than the average new college graduate -- bringing people out of poverty & changing their families’ & communities’ futures.

That’s the work of a very good guy.

Palash must have been listening when Leonardo DaVinci said, “Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose.”

Connect with Palash on LinkedIn and check out The Organic Maids.

“So much of what I gain is from helping people in bad situations. Our clients, 95% of them are going through the worst time in their life.” – Jan Barefoot

It isn’t unusual to hear firefighters or police officers talk about serving others on their worst days. Still, Jan Barefoot doesn’t wear a uniform or jump into action following a 911 call. She isn’t a first responder at all.

But she just might be the brains behind figuring out who’s to blame for the chaos.

This former legal secretary with a passion for detective work & justice is the woman behind one of the Carolina’s most established & rapidly growing private investigation firms. Suspected adultery, fraud, missing persons, extortion, you name it, Jan’s team tackles it all & has earned the respect & admiration of clients & top law firms alike.

What’s her secret? Serving clients with humility & never allowing ethics to take a back seat to financial success. That’s a lesson for any entrepreneur. 

Check out Barefoot PI and connect with Jan on LinkedIn.

“I love life. I love to make people smile.” – Wilton Rogers III

Growing up on a farm, Wilton got his very first taste of entrepreneurship: selling eggs to his mother’s friends at church.

But it wasn’t the money that made his heart soar ($2 was his weekly profit!). It was the happiness he felt providing something people needed. That joy became his greatest form of payment.

Multiple business opportunities would come & go throughout his life, but getting to know people, identifying their pain, & providing real solutions to better their lives was the common thread to them all. It still is.

But what makes this story unexpected is that Wilton applied the same passion for people & service that inspired him as a kid to one of the coldest, most robotic industries on the planet: artificial intelligence.

If stories of infusing purpose into unexpected places make your heart soar:

Find him on LinkedIn, on his web site at Simply Automate, or listen to his podcast, Automation Nation.