One of the newest things to me is having a team. We have a walk in love. team and a Brooke Courtney team. I am going to focus on the walk in love. team and how we ended up with these eight awesome people. When we decided to open the store we weren't really worried about whether people had computer skills, could work the register or knew how to fold a shirt correctly. Those are all things that we could teach. We wanted passion, energy and excitement! We wanted people who loved the brand and wanted to see it grow. Here is how we got those people.
We needed around 8 people to staff the store.
First we asked 3 of the people who worked at the kiosk the year before - Mike (my brother), Matt (the first walk in love. intern) and Maddie (who I've known since she was 6 years old).
Then my best friend, Jeff, asked if he could have one of the jobs. He was tired of working at his other job and was ready for a change. So we said, Yes!
Then we posted an application online for the 5 positions we had left and were greeted with over 100 applications.
So Mike, Brooke and I looked through them and narrowed it down to about 30 based off whether they fit our brand. We were looking for excited, young and happy people to join our team.
Then we thought about sitting down with 30 different people and having them all regurgitate the same answers on why they were perfect for the job and blah blah blah. Not my idea of an exciting Saturday.
So instead Brooke and I decided to have a party at our house and invite the current team of 4, some other friends and all 30 potential team members. We wanted to see how they interacted with each other and with other people.
I won't go into the details of the party, but after it was over the team came to almost unanimous decisions on who would be a good fit and who wouldn't. We were all in on 3 people so I offered them all a job and they accepted. Two of them - Drew and Gina still work at the store.
Then there was one other person at the party that I was on the fence about. I heard peoples opinions on her but it came down to me to make the decision and I had to trust my gut so I asked our last team member Kristen to be on the team and I couldn't be happier with that desicion.
I love our team. I love their energy and passion. I love that I can trust them and I love that I didn't just look for people who gave me the right answers. Yes, sometimes I am so frustrated with our team members, but in the end I know that each one of them is passionate about walk in love. I know that they will do their very best to represent the brand and to live out our message in public.
I think whenever you are hiring or building a team look for passion first and skill second. When we asked Maddie to be the intern for the Brooke Courtney team she didn't know much about photography but we knew she had a passion for it. Skills and technique will come with coaching and practice, but passion will not.