Getting Smart People to Work For You With Vishen Lakhiani

Episode Summary

In this Episode, you’ll Discover How to Get Smart People to Work For You, Finding Talent, and Creating a Winning Culture, with Genius Network member Vishen Lahkiani.

Vishen Lahkiani is an Entrepreneur, education technology innovator, speaker, investor and philanthropist. He is the founder and CEO of Mindvalley, an education company specializing in innovation by introducing mindfulness and personal development into global education and perpetual learning. Recorded Live from the Genius Network Annual Event.

Recorded Live from the Genius Network Annual Event

If you would like access to the full feature video presentation, the special resources, and show notes for this episode, please visit GeniusNetwork.com/19  – that’s GeniusNetwork.com/19

Here’s a glance at what you’ll learn from Vishen in this episode:

  • Innovative solutions for solving one of the biggest challenges facing entrepreneurs.
  • 3 principles to find and attract the best talent worldwide
  • How hiring good talent helped him double his business and more
  • Spend more time focused on your vision and let your employees grow the business
  • Expand your business internationally easily and efficiently
  • Capitalize on employee-driven growth and training

WHAT'S IN IT FOR THEM?

Get the first chapter for FREE and a limited-time viewing of "Connected: The Joe Polish Story"

ORDER NOW

Show Notes

  • “I realized that one of your biggest challenges is finding smart people, getting them to work for you and allowing them to grow your business.” 01:46
  • His company, Mindvalley is the biggest seller of meditation products worldwide. Currently employs 100 people across 5 different countries. 02:24
  • Vishen “Talent is key in growing your business.” 04:02
    • “It’s all about finding and hiring people smarter than you, getting them to join your business and giving them good work. Then getting out of the way and trusting them. You have to get out of the way so you can focus on the bigger vision.” 03:06 Richard Branson
    • “Never think of human beings as a cost. Human beings are an asset.” 03:46 Dan Sullivan
    • “Talent is key.” 03:56 Peter Diamandis
  • Vishen recently made a decision to expand his company, Mindvalley, 2.5 times. In two months time they went from 41 people to over 100 people at a cost of only 15-20% of revenue. 04:14
  • “Right now I’ve basically outsourced every single last step of my life. I don’t do anything now except just think about the vision.” 04:33
  • “I wake up in the morning and someone has planned my entire day. I’m still involved in growing the company, from a vision point of view, but everything else has been outsourced.” 04:42
  • The goal is to take all the lower, revenue generating activities and find smart people to do them – the question is how? 04:49
  • “Imagine if you had 100 people whose full-time job was to support your vision. That’s a pretty powerful impact.” 05:03
  • It’s all about attracting, growing and monetizing great talent – and the first idea is how to hire. 05:15
  • The US only has 5% of the world population. But there are millions of smart people outside of America who want to come here and work for American companies. You can hire global talent, but most people don’t know the secret. 05:18
  • AISEC, non-profit  – they are one of the only organizations outside the US government that can issue work visas. They work with 800 top universities around the world, finding amazing talent, and then finding these talent jobs in foreign countries. They are 50 years old. AISEC was basically how Vishen got into the US. 05:36
  • I was one of those raw talents that AISEC helped bring in. When I started my company, I used them to help find talent. Gets you young people from around the world who put learning first, not money, but learning. 06:07
  • The key paradigm shift here is it’s not about money anymore. The current generation – they care more about opportunities to learn. 06:42
  • 9 out of the 18 people on Vishen’s management team were hired from AISEC. That’s how powerful that group is. 07:02
  • Using this model, Vishen’s company is in 7 countries, because of the international talent available through licensing. Takes about one hour a month on the phone with licensee’s coaching and advising, they run everything else.
  • Now about 20% of revenue comes from this team of international talent, and the business is global. 08:12
  • Consider attending “Awesomeness Fest.” Vishen’s mastermind that always happens in a paradise location. Brings in entrepreneurs, as well as smart talent that want to find jobs with them. 08:26
  • Second Idea is Growth: Mindvalley insists that our talent work 45 hours a week, but 5 of those hours they have to spend learning and growing themselves. That’s a key ingredient. “I grow people like crazy because we insist on growth.” 08:42
  • Using Google Wiki’s and Google Apps everything the company does is documented. We have a 3,000 page Wiki.  If they buy and use a training product, they must summarize the training in the Wiki, so everybody can use it. 08:57
  • We then ask them to create training, a 20 minute summary, explaining the product to the entire team. 09:26
  • You can go to mindvalleyinsights.com and basically have access to all the knowledge from the company for free. 09:42
  • “There’s a psychological thing that happens when you ask someone to teach; they become better at what they do.”  09:51
  • Third Idea is Space: he found an empty office, turned it into a community, and gave it away free to use as a resource. Told programmers to start a meetup group. Provide free food, rent, get to know each other and do TED talks. Grew to 150 programmers every month.
  • We did the same thing with IOS development, database, social media, copywriting, motion graphics, web apps, user interfaces, public speaking, video editing – these are all key talent areas that people are looking for. 10:35
  • Created a system where the smartest people in the city come to him every month, and he hires the best of them. “Anyone can do this! All you need is space.”10:57

Tell Us What You Think, Leave a Comment Below

sign up for the 3-a-week newsletter
[/gravityform id=17 title=false ajax=true/]

This two-hour training event will teach you how to disrupt the networking norm by becoming a super connector and create rapid rapport with givers (not takers).