hi I’m Evan Carmichael
I believe that hungry entrepreneurs
deserve help and today I want to talk
about how I hire using a website called
oDesk I know hiring is one of the
hardest things that entrepreneurs face
but if you want to grow your business at
some point you have to build up beyond
yourself you cannot do everything
yourself and you have to be able to
trust people if you will take over some
of the tasks for you one of my favorite
tools that I use is oDesk and it’s I
think it stands for
outsource desks I’m not entirely sure
but basically it’s a resource that
connects people who have jobs to offer
with people who are looking for jobs and
it’s all managed online so I’m gonna
flip to my screen so you can see what
it’s all about and you can follow along
with me on a recent hire that I’m going
through right now
so this is my screen here and what’s
happening here is I need to find
somebody to help me with my videos I’ve
been doing a lot of videos I love
working on videos I find it’s an awesome
way to connect with the people who are
watching my fans will have questions and
various entrepreneurs instead of just
answering everything by email my regular
video guy has gone AWOL I haven’t heard
from him I don’t know what’s going on
with him and so I needed to find
somebody else quickly who could help me
edit all my videos I am usually filming
the videos myself but then I shouldn’t
be the one doing all the editing because
it’s a big waste of time for me and I’m
not that good at it so I posted this job
and I want to break down how I did it
and hopefully you can learn from it as
well so the first thing I do is I post a
job title so I call it reliable Video
Editor I called it this way because my
last guy wasn’t so reliable so I wanted
a reliable person this time around and
I’ll show you how I did on my post will
click on the view post and this is the
actual job description that I posted on
oDesk you can take a look you could see
here I call it reliable video editor
estimated time more than six months so
whenever you have a job that is ongoing
you want to make sure you mention that
because a lot of the oDesk workers
they’re contractors and they’re looking
to get work and they are struggling to
get a lot of the different jobs that are
coming in and they don’t want to do all
the work of applying for jobs and then
have it only be for a month or a couple
weeks
there are ideal situations when they can
work with a few regular clients
an ongoing basis now this isn’t a
full-time job that I’m offering here but
it is regular work ongoing and so that
makes it more attractive so if you can
do something an ongoing basis you
definitely want to put it in there
because you’ll attract better candidates
this is a job description I always like
to post one big ugly paragraph now this
is actually small compared to what I
usually post but I post a big paragraph
because usually for me it’s important to
hire people who are detail-oriented I am
not always the most detail-oriented
person I try to be and I usually have to
send myself emails to remind myself of
things so I like to surround myself with
people who are detail-oriented in case I
miss something if you’re not very
detail-oriented and you’re working for
me then it’s gonna be really hard for us
to get together on projects and make
them a success so I don’t make it easy
for people right one big ugly paragraph
makes sure that the people who are
detail-oriented too and who actually
read and who follow instructions are
gonna be able to pick out the important
parts of the post so back to the post I
say exactly what I’m looking for I
explain what happened in the past I say
that I use services like Dropbox people
to communicate with my employees so I
need them to be on that and this is a
trick that I always use in here I write
prove to me that you’ve read this and
tell me how many subscribers my youtube
channel has and I’ve listed the link to
my youtube channel here so this is
important in every oDesk application
that I put out and this is applicable
and oDesk
or anything else that you’re doing for
job applications I always put something
in there to make them prove to me that
they’ve actually read my post because
too many people will apply they’ll send
their cover letter they’ll send their
the resume in and that takes up my time
if you want me to read your application
that takes time away from my day and I
want to make sure they’ve actually spent
time reading my job posts because a lot
of people will just apply for any job
that has their keywords so let’s see
video editor and they’ll just apply
without reading it at all and then
whoever writes back then then they’ll
spend a little bit of time on it I don’t
want those people I want the people who
actually read my post are excited about
the opportunity and want to work with me
so what I did was I always put in this
kind of paragraph this kind of question
in the middle of my paragraph to see
if they’ve actually read it so here tell
me how many subscribers my youtube
channel has when they’re applying and
I’m checking through each application if
they haven’t told me that then I’m not
gonna even shortlist them I’m not gonna
even write back to them you haven’t
taken the time to read my job posting so
I’m not gonna even take the time to read
your listing and write back to you so
that’s important I get a little upset
about it because it takes a lot of time
right as an employer as an entrepreneur
you’re bringing on these people to help
save you time you know we’re busting at
the seams we’re trying to do everything
ourselves and we need help and we don’t
need people wasting our time so this is
a quick way around it just to show as an
example I had 86 people here if you look
at the decided I’ve 86 people who
applied to this job and I only message
36 back that means 50 of the people who
messaged me didn’t even read the job
posting that would have been a huge
waste of my time to go through all those
applications now 36 is still a lot and
it’s great to have tons of talented
people who are interested in this job
but at least I’m spending my time and
the people who cared enough to read
about what I was posting so back to the
posting the other thing that’s really
important so we’ve talked about putting
the duration saying that it’s long term
saying on its ongoing ideally if you can
put in some you know question in the
middle of this big ugly paragraph so
that you make sure people are reading it
and are applying correctly and then the
other thing that’s really important is
you want to have good feedback about
yourself as well so this works kind of
like eBay where there’s buyers and
sellers and there’s feedback for
everybody after each job finishes you’re
asked to leave a review of the person
you hired and they are also asked to
leave a review of you and how you are as
an employer and that’s something that
people look at so as a new employer
could be hard to get started people
still apply but it’s better to have as
full of profile as you can so online you
can see I’ve been remember since April
2010 you can verify your payment so
that’s another big thing so people who
are coming who are applying for your
jobs if they see that you haven’t
verified payment that means just
entering your Visa card that goes to
Odessa not to the employee if you do
that then it shows that you actually are
registered with with oDesk and your Visa
card so that
the employee doesn’t have to worry about
getting stiffed and not getting paid you
can see that our spent over twenty
thousand dollars using oDesk I build
fifty five hundred hours and I have five
out of five positive feedback out of
thirty nine reviews so that’s a lot of
great feedback it makes me an attractive
employer and people want to do business
with me so that’s why I have so many
people who are applying to this job so
you know you might be just starting out
and that’s fine as soon as you can you
can at least verify your payment and
then from there keep going on try to
build good relationships with your
employees try to get them to lease
positive feedback and treat them like
you would a normal human being right
just because they’re not working from
your office doesn’t mean they’re not a
person they don’t have feelings they
don’t have ambitions they don’t have a
drive they don’t want to grow so you got
to treat them as a person and if you do
that then communication will be easier
and you’ll both be able to get positive
feedback once and if the job finishes so
this will all help you design in a
perfect job description and get
qualified people coming to your
application one other thing I want to
show you here my process is repeatable
it’s easy to do anybody can follow it
and will help make sure you get the best
qualified people for your job what I’ll
always do I’ll post two jobs
the first is public so this one here
reliable Video Editor this one is public
this is the one that almost 90 people
apply to and I only wrote back to 36 of
them the 36 people who wrote in where
once again you had a who filled in the
application and made sure that they said
how many YouTube subscribers that I had
they answered my question from there
I’ll invite them to do a trial job with
me this is a paid job and it’s a small
job so what I’m looking for is people
someone who can do my videos edit them
and help me put them on YouTube every
week and I make between seven and
fourteen videos now a week so it’s a lot
of work it’s not a full-time job but it
is ongoing what I do with my trial job
is I give them a small job for them to
work on and this is usually time limited
so it’s up to five hours in this case
and they give them one video to work on
I send in the video I give them detailed
instructions and I see who can follow
the instructions
who gives me what I want who’s gone
above and beyond
who’s asking me questions and
communicating with me very well and who
delivers a product that I can actually
go and post I also see how many hours
they worked on it so I give them a
maximum of five hours to do it or ten
hours or whatever you want what did we
think is reasonable I try to give them a
little bit more time than I think it
should take them to do it and then you
see who’s milking you because they’re
tracked their time has tracked as they
go through it so you’ll see who is
actually taking you for the full five
hours and who is trying to do it and is
being honest and is being a fast hard
worker and gets it done in fewer hours
that’s the kind of person you want to
hire right you don’t want the person
who’s always maxing out the amount that
you give them and will constantly take
you for as much money as you’ll give
them you want someone who’s gonna work
hard be efficient and if there’s extra
time left over then it’s extra time left
over that’s good what’s interesting here
on this screen is I invited 36 people to
come but only 21 people actually did
come so out of my 86 candidates only 36
actually responded with my question that
I asked and then from there I asked them
all to come to a trial job five hours
paid work and only twenty one of them
came hey if you’re looking for a job if
you’re trying to land deals like this
this is ongoing work with a quality
employer you got to show up you got at
least say yes you got to do the trial
you got to see how it goes I’m paying
you full rates on a trial basis for five
hours to help you build your profile and
also see if you’re gonna be a good fit
for me it’s unbelievable to me that out
of 36 people who I asked only 21 showed
up and right away again I’m losing 15
people who I wouldn’t want to have as
employees right they couldn’t even take
the next step they couldn’t even come on
board for a trial job so I’m not gonna
waste my time with them so now I’ve gone
from 86 people all the way down to 21
and I’ve done almost nothing right they
have weeded themselves out from the 21
I’ll see who actually finishes the job
you’ll find that people say yes to it
and then they don’t actually ever finish
it you’ll find that some people you have
communication problems with some people
don’t understand the project some people
may not have the tools
technology to get you through it and you
get to do all this on a trial basis so
I’m only Cinemax of five hours with each
of these people and we’ll see what they
can deliver what I usually get is a
couple people stand out from the crowd
a couple people rise way above and I’ll
usually often hire two to three people
from every job that comes out reason
being you’ll still have some people who
drop off and I’ll split whatever tasks I
have between those two or three people
and then see who I can work best with
long term and give them the ongoing
opportunity now with this job there has
been one person who’s been amazing and
who stood out so I’m probably gonna give
her all of the work and have a few
people as backups if I ever need to go
back if the doesn’t work out with this
person for whatever reason but I usually
do like to hire two to three I’m kind of
breaking the rule cuz one person has
gone way above and beyond what everybody
else is doing so this is my usual
process and the goal here is to get
quality people who want to work with me
and quickly weed through all of the crap
all of the people who aren’t paying
attention who don’t read your profile
who don’t put in even a little bit of
hard work to prove themselves those
people you don’t want if they’re not
gonna jump in and do a little bit of
work for you then you got to move on and
find other people and so this process
helps make sure that you get the right
people in so again quickly to recap one
I’m creating the job description that is
a big ugly paragraph and I’m asking them
to answer a question in the middle
I don’t read the profiles of the people
who do not respond I try to make sure
that it’s ongoing and I’ll say here more
than six months so it’s ideally ongoing
work that makes it more attractive
people who are coming in and I try to
make my profile look as good as possible
verify your payment methods try to get
good feedback as it comes in from your
employees and again just treat them like
human beings from there people who
message me in and who filled out the
right question get hired on a trial job
and from there I see how I work with
them and then I hire two to three people
typically to become my new employees and
I’ll see how it goes from there and you
know probably with one or two people
longer term so that’s my process
hopefully it helps it’s a little bit
complex I guess but it is something that
once you get into it is pretty easy and
help save you a ton of time weeding
through different candidates you can
apply it to Odessa like I do or we can
apply to any job application if you’re
if you’re going out and trying to hire
employees for your business I hope you
guys enjoyed it’s my first video going
through my Odessa process so I welcome
your thoughts if you liked the video
please give it a thumbs up below what
makes you want to do more for you and if
you have any questions about this
process how I applied to oDesk or how
you might be able to apply it to your
business or any other questions about
your business feel free to leave it in
the comments below I always read those I
really love seeing them come in even
with just saying thanks to the video it
always makes my day when I’m eating my
breakfast and kind of checking in on
what’s going on on YouTube so thank you
please leave a comment and I’ll see you
on the next video
I believe that hungry entrepreneurs
deserve help and today I want to talk
about how I hire using a website called
oDesk I know hiring is one of the
hardest things that entrepreneurs face
but if you want to grow your business at
some point you have to build up beyond
yourself you cannot do everything
yourself and you have to be able to
trust people if you will take over some
of the tasks for you one of my favorite
tools that I use is oDesk and it’s I
think it stands for
outsource desks I’m not entirely sure
but basically it’s a resource that
connects people who have jobs to offer
with people who are looking for jobs and
it’s all managed online so I’m gonna
flip to my screen so you can see what
it’s all about and you can follow along
with me on a recent hire that I’m going
through right now
so this is my screen here and what’s
happening here is I need to find
somebody to help me with my videos I’ve
been doing a lot of videos I love
working on videos I find it’s an awesome
way to connect with the people who are
watching my fans will have questions and
various entrepreneurs instead of just
answering everything by email my regular
video guy has gone AWOL I haven’t heard
from him I don’t know what’s going on
with him and so I needed to find
somebody else quickly who could help me
edit all my videos I am usually filming
the videos myself but then I shouldn’t
be the one doing all the editing because
it’s a big waste of time for me and I’m
not that good at it so I posted this job
and I want to break down how I did it
and hopefully you can learn from it as
well so the first thing I do is I post a
job title so I call it reliable Video
Editor I called it this way because my
last guy wasn’t so reliable so I wanted
a reliable person this time around and
I’ll show you how I did on my post will
click on the view post and this is the
actual job description that I posted on
oDesk you can take a look you could see
here I call it reliable video editor
estimated time more than six months so
whenever you have a job that is ongoing
you want to make sure you mention that
because a lot of the oDesk workers
they’re contractors and they’re looking
to get work and they are struggling to
get a lot of the different jobs that are
coming in and they don’t want to do all
the work of applying for jobs and then
have it only be for a month or a couple
weeks
there are ideal situations when they can
work with a few regular clients
an ongoing basis now this isn’t a
full-time job that I’m offering here but
it is regular work ongoing and so that
makes it more attractive so if you can
do something an ongoing basis you
definitely want to put it in there
because you’ll attract better candidates
this is a job description I always like
to post one big ugly paragraph now this
is actually small compared to what I
usually post but I post a big paragraph
because usually for me it’s important to
hire people who are detail-oriented I am
not always the most detail-oriented
person I try to be and I usually have to
send myself emails to remind myself of
things so I like to surround myself with
people who are detail-oriented in case I
miss something if you’re not very
detail-oriented and you’re working for
me then it’s gonna be really hard for us
to get together on projects and make
them a success so I don’t make it easy
for people right one big ugly paragraph
makes sure that the people who are
detail-oriented too and who actually
read and who follow instructions are
gonna be able to pick out the important
parts of the post so back to the post I
say exactly what I’m looking for I
explain what happened in the past I say
that I use services like Dropbox people
to communicate with my employees so I
need them to be on that and this is a
trick that I always use in here I write
prove to me that you’ve read this and
tell me how many subscribers my youtube
channel has and I’ve listed the link to
my youtube channel here so this is
important in every oDesk application
that I put out and this is applicable
and oDesk
or anything else that you’re doing for
job applications I always put something
in there to make them prove to me that
they’ve actually read my post because
too many people will apply they’ll send
their cover letter they’ll send their
the resume in and that takes up my time
if you want me to read your application
that takes time away from my day and I
want to make sure they’ve actually spent
time reading my job posts because a lot
of people will just apply for any job
that has their keywords so let’s see
video editor and they’ll just apply
without reading it at all and then
whoever writes back then then they’ll
spend a little bit of time on it I don’t
want those people I want the people who
actually read my post are excited about
the opportunity and want to work with me
so what I did was I always put in this
kind of paragraph this kind of question
in the middle of my paragraph to see
if they’ve actually read it so here tell
me how many subscribers my youtube
channel has when they’re applying and
I’m checking through each application if
they haven’t told me that then I’m not
gonna even shortlist them I’m not gonna
even write back to them you haven’t
taken the time to read my job posting so
I’m not gonna even take the time to read
your listing and write back to you so
that’s important I get a little upset
about it because it takes a lot of time
right as an employer as an entrepreneur
you’re bringing on these people to help
save you time you know we’re busting at
the seams we’re trying to do everything
ourselves and we need help and we don’t
need people wasting our time so this is
a quick way around it just to show as an
example I had 86 people here if you look
at the decided I’ve 86 people who
applied to this job and I only message
36 back that means 50 of the people who
messaged me didn’t even read the job
posting that would have been a huge
waste of my time to go through all those
applications now 36 is still a lot and
it’s great to have tons of talented
people who are interested in this job
but at least I’m spending my time and
the people who cared enough to read
about what I was posting so back to the
posting the other thing that’s really
important so we’ve talked about putting
the duration saying that it’s long term
saying on its ongoing ideally if you can
put in some you know question in the
middle of this big ugly paragraph so
that you make sure people are reading it
and are applying correctly and then the
other thing that’s really important is
you want to have good feedback about
yourself as well so this works kind of
like eBay where there’s buyers and
sellers and there’s feedback for
everybody after each job finishes you’re
asked to leave a review of the person
you hired and they are also asked to
leave a review of you and how you are as
an employer and that’s something that
people look at so as a new employer
could be hard to get started people
still apply but it’s better to have as
full of profile as you can so online you
can see I’ve been remember since April
2010 you can verify your payment so
that’s another big thing so people who
are coming who are applying for your
jobs if they see that you haven’t
verified payment that means just
entering your Visa card that goes to
Odessa not to the employee if you do
that then it shows that you actually are
registered with with oDesk and your Visa
card so that
the employee doesn’t have to worry about
getting stiffed and not getting paid you
can see that our spent over twenty
thousand dollars using oDesk I build
fifty five hundred hours and I have five
out of five positive feedback out of
thirty nine reviews so that’s a lot of
great feedback it makes me an attractive
employer and people want to do business
with me so that’s why I have so many
people who are applying to this job so
you know you might be just starting out
and that’s fine as soon as you can you
can at least verify your payment and
then from there keep going on try to
build good relationships with your
employees try to get them to lease
positive feedback and treat them like
you would a normal human being right
just because they’re not working from
your office doesn’t mean they’re not a
person they don’t have feelings they
don’t have ambitions they don’t have a
drive they don’t want to grow so you got
to treat them as a person and if you do
that then communication will be easier
and you’ll both be able to get positive
feedback once and if the job finishes so
this will all help you design in a
perfect job description and get
qualified people coming to your
application one other thing I want to
show you here my process is repeatable
it’s easy to do anybody can follow it
and will help make sure you get the best
qualified people for your job what I’ll
always do I’ll post two jobs
the first is public so this one here
reliable Video Editor this one is public
this is the one that almost 90 people
apply to and I only wrote back to 36 of
them the 36 people who wrote in where
once again you had a who filled in the
application and made sure that they said
how many YouTube subscribers that I had
they answered my question from there
I’ll invite them to do a trial job with
me this is a paid job and it’s a small
job so what I’m looking for is people
someone who can do my videos edit them
and help me put them on YouTube every
week and I make between seven and
fourteen videos now a week so it’s a lot
of work it’s not a full-time job but it
is ongoing what I do with my trial job
is I give them a small job for them to
work on and this is usually time limited
so it’s up to five hours in this case
and they give them one video to work on
I send in the video I give them detailed
instructions and I see who can follow
the instructions
who gives me what I want who’s gone
above and beyond
who’s asking me questions and
communicating with me very well and who
delivers a product that I can actually
go and post I also see how many hours
they worked on it so I give them a
maximum of five hours to do it or ten
hours or whatever you want what did we
think is reasonable I try to give them a
little bit more time than I think it
should take them to do it and then you
see who’s milking you because they’re
tracked their time has tracked as they
go through it so you’ll see who is
actually taking you for the full five
hours and who is trying to do it and is
being honest and is being a fast hard
worker and gets it done in fewer hours
that’s the kind of person you want to
hire right you don’t want the person
who’s always maxing out the amount that
you give them and will constantly take
you for as much money as you’ll give
them you want someone who’s gonna work
hard be efficient and if there’s extra
time left over then it’s extra time left
over that’s good what’s interesting here
on this screen is I invited 36 people to
come but only 21 people actually did
come so out of my 86 candidates only 36
actually responded with my question that
I asked and then from there I asked them
all to come to a trial job five hours
paid work and only twenty one of them
came hey if you’re looking for a job if
you’re trying to land deals like this
this is ongoing work with a quality
employer you got to show up you got at
least say yes you got to do the trial
you got to see how it goes I’m paying
you full rates on a trial basis for five
hours to help you build your profile and
also see if you’re gonna be a good fit
for me it’s unbelievable to me that out
of 36 people who I asked only 21 showed
up and right away again I’m losing 15
people who I wouldn’t want to have as
employees right they couldn’t even take
the next step they couldn’t even come on
board for a trial job so I’m not gonna
waste my time with them so now I’ve gone
from 86 people all the way down to 21
and I’ve done almost nothing right they
have weeded themselves out from the 21
I’ll see who actually finishes the job
you’ll find that people say yes to it
and then they don’t actually ever finish
it you’ll find that some people you have
communication problems with some people
don’t understand the project some people
may not have the tools
technology to get you through it and you
get to do all this on a trial basis so
I’m only Cinemax of five hours with each
of these people and we’ll see what they
can deliver what I usually get is a
couple people stand out from the crowd
a couple people rise way above and I’ll
usually often hire two to three people
from every job that comes out reason
being you’ll still have some people who
drop off and I’ll split whatever tasks I
have between those two or three people
and then see who I can work best with
long term and give them the ongoing
opportunity now with this job there has
been one person who’s been amazing and
who stood out so I’m probably gonna give
her all of the work and have a few
people as backups if I ever need to go
back if the doesn’t work out with this
person for whatever reason but I usually
do like to hire two to three I’m kind of
breaking the rule cuz one person has
gone way above and beyond what everybody
else is doing so this is my usual
process and the goal here is to get
quality people who want to work with me
and quickly weed through all of the crap
all of the people who aren’t paying
attention who don’t read your profile
who don’t put in even a little bit of
hard work to prove themselves those
people you don’t want if they’re not
gonna jump in and do a little bit of
work for you then you got to move on and
find other people and so this process
helps make sure that you get the right
people in so again quickly to recap one
I’m creating the job description that is
a big ugly paragraph and I’m asking them
to answer a question in the middle
I don’t read the profiles of the people
who do not respond I try to make sure
that it’s ongoing and I’ll say here more
than six months so it’s ideally ongoing
work that makes it more attractive
people who are coming in and I try to
make my profile look as good as possible
verify your payment methods try to get
good feedback as it comes in from your
employees and again just treat them like
human beings from there people who
message me in and who filled out the
right question get hired on a trial job
and from there I see how I work with
them and then I hire two to three people
typically to become my new employees and
I’ll see how it goes from there and you
know probably with one or two people
longer term so that’s my process
hopefully it helps it’s a little bit
complex I guess but it is something that
once you get into it is pretty easy and
help save you a ton of time weeding
through different candidates you can
apply it to Odessa like I do or we can
apply to any job application if you’re
if you’re going out and trying to hire
employees for your business I hope you
guys enjoyed it’s my first video going
through my Odessa process so I welcome
your thoughts if you liked the video
please give it a thumbs up below what
makes you want to do more for you and if
you have any questions about this
process how I applied to oDesk or how
you might be able to apply it to your
business or any other questions about
your business feel free to leave it in
the comments below I always read those I
really love seeing them come in even
with just saying thanks to the video it
always makes my day when I’m eating my
breakfast and kind of checking in on
what’s going on on YouTube so thank you
please leave a comment and I’ll see you
on the next video
Please follow and like us: