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Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

How Big Of a Tradeoff is Hiring Top Talent During Scaling?

Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

Eric Siu and Neil Patel

Careers, Business, Marketing

4.6 β€’ 1.3K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe On this episode of Marketing School, Neil and Eric break down how to hire A players while scaling, why downturns are the best time to weed out poor performers, and how founder mindset drives culture, acquisitions, and growth. They share real stories from NP Digital, top-grading their team, fixing broken agency cultures, and personally jumping into big sales deals to set the standard for hustle. Hosted by Neil and Eric, this one is all about talent, leadership, and what it really takes to grow a company that actually performs. Chapters: (00:00) Scaling, turnover, and growth milestones (00:37) Hard times reveal true performers (01:02) Vinod Khosla’s hardest-work question (01:30) Why Neil turned down CMO role (03:56) Entrepreneur vs hired gun mindset (05:45) Keeping or exiting founders after acquisitions (07:59) Fixing misaligned agency cultures (11:00) Hiring standards and A-player focus (14:53) Top grading and raising the talent bar (17:39) How Neil allocates founder time (19:34) Founder-led enterprise and franchise sales (23:45) Leading by example and final thoughts 𝗔𝗕𝗒𝗨𝗧 π—§π—›π—˜ π—–π—›π—”π—‘π—‘π—˜π—Ÿ Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. πŸŽ™οΈ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel πŸ“© Free Resources Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ βœ… Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Transcript

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0:00.0

Here's something most small business owners don't want to think about. What happens when something goes wrong? A customer slips, a shipment gets lost, a tool breaks, or someone gets hurt. You can lose thousands overnight. And most people only realize they need insurance after it's too late. That's why I like what Next Insurance is doing. They make getting business insurance as easy as ordering lunch online. You answer a few quick questions and next figures

0:21.7

out what you need. And just like that, you're covered. No phone calls, no headaches. Just fast,

0:26.2

affordable coverage that actually protects you when things go sideways. Don't wait for a problem

0:30.7

to remind you you're uncovered. Policy start as low as $29 a month. Get protected in minutes at

0:35.9

nextinsurance.com slash MS. That at nextinsurance.com slash MS.

0:37.8

That's next insurance.com slash MS. Typically, every time you double the size of a company, some people will be a good fit. You'll have some turnover as well because they're not necessarily the right people for the next stage of growth. And it's not to say double. It's just saying that people have in business. but you usually notice big milestones from like a million to 10, 10 to 100,

0:56.2

100, call it to half a billion. saying that people have in business, but you usually notice big miles from like a million to 10,

0:55.1

10 to 100,

0:56.2

100, call it to half a billion or a billion.

0:59.8

I also believe there's a time to weed out the bad people

1:05.5

when things are flat,

1:07.8

growing slowly, or declining.

1:10.2

And what you'll find is some people just aren't able to cut it during bad times.

1:16.7

And the ones that are tend to do really good during good times as well.

1:20.9

But you can really see people's true colors during hard times.

1:26.2

And you'll quickly know who's in it and we'll just do whatever it takes to succeed. We're not, of course, telling people to break laws or do anything unethical, but still, like, just who's in it, willing to grind it out and fight it out, and who's not. And there's a lot of people who aren't. You know who I stole this question from? Vinod Coastless. So I'll let you finish in a sec. But his question, one of his favorite interview questions, like, tell me about a time where you worked your absolute hardest. Like, what were you working on? Why was it important to you? But more importantly, how many hours were you working per week? I still talk to people sometimes. Like, oh my God, it was so hard. Like working so hard. You're working like 40 hours a week? oh yeah 40 hours a week. I'm like, okay, so you don't know how to be punched in a face, but that's another great question. Go ahead.

2:03.7

Dude, I had someone ask me that question. Ask you that question? Uh-huh. Why ask you? They wanted me to be the CMO, their company. Uh-huh. And this is a publicly traded company. and they wanted me to move to New York.

2:20.2

I don't want to actually do it.

2:22.7

And they were just like, I want you to come join our company.

2:27.0

And I said, dude, I already have a company.

2:28.6

I'm not going to end up joining the company.

2:31.0

And then I already know what the CEO gets paid because it's publicly traded.

...

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