A cheat sheet for working with people under 25 in 2023:
If you don't hire them, you'll miss out on most opportunities on the social web. If you do hire them, you can get a big edge on your competitors. But you should read this first:
1. If they have great raw talent, they often have an inconsistent or limited work ethic.
If they aren’t so talented, they tend to be better with being on time, completing work on time etc.
(Yes, this might be true of all ages, but I’ve found it to be acute with younger people)
2. Thus the only way to get work out of the talented ones is to be in the room with them - remote doesn’t work as well.
You would not believe the problems I’ve had by not getting someone to complete a two-minute task before I left.
A classic example is getting the “stems” from a music producer before you leave the studio. If you don’t get that export done before you leave, GOOD LUCK ever getting them.
3. Their weak point is sales as they tend to overvalue the work they do in $ terms - this leaves many who will work for competitive rates after failing to sell anything.
Selling on the phone or in real life tends to be a weak spot for younger people. Some handle conflict well, but many don’t.
4. They tend to be better at ideas instead of implementation, so being able to execute on their ideas is a great system.
Most of the smartest young people I know I work with this way. Solving issues, social media, content, branding- they are geniuses at this stuff - Have someone else do the "execution” work ongoing once the plans are set.
5. They have a lot of big future plans for themselves that don’t really pan out, which is a good thing if they work for you as if they feel you are helping them towards those plans they will have more loyalty.
The upside of everyone being flakey in their world is you go far just by being consistent, keeping your word, and not screwing them over. You’d be shocked how rare this is.
6. Coaching creatives is VERY HARD.
If you thought the internet marketing people were lazy when you tried to get them moving, creatives have all sorts of extra psychological barriers to stop them from doing work.
Tbh this is similar to coaching in general - getting people into action is hard.
It doesn’t matter how good your information/ideas are - Do you understand how ton coax people towards taking those first steps?
7. They are known to want to be part of something “bigger” than just a “job” - Offer them this and you will have their heart as well as their mind.
8. Have fun. Life’s too short to be serious and boring and they’ll appreciate it.
9. They love travel, so having fun trips are amazing for bonding.
10. You generally want a younger co-founder in all endeavours, that fresh mind means so much.
For almost every company I’ve ran, I’ve had a younger co-founder.
Often they provided the ideas/strategy and I moreso did the execution.
In pure revenue terms working with younger co-founders beat out the things I did solo, so I am definitely NOT making this a “don’t hire young people” post.
Younger people have the vision and ideas, you focus on making the money.