Nik Sharma built Sharma Brands into one of the best-known growth agencies in direct-to-consumer, working with brands like Feastables, Jolie and Parachute Home. He ran it for six years and sold it to Lunar Solar Group, where he is now Chief Growth Officer.

When the deal closed, he asked to keep two people out of it: Rameez and Minul, the two team members who run his day with him.

"Anybody who knows me personally knows Rameez and Minul."

It didn't start that way. His first offshore hires went through a couple of different services and didn't work.

"I was kind of sold this dream at the beginning, and then the actual execution of how that person played out just didn't live up to where I thought it should've been."

So the next time, he changed how he hired. No job description. A list of what the person had to deliver every Friday, with every hard caveat written in, from Friday nights to weekends on call.

"Honestly, I wrote it thinking there's no shot you guys are gonna find somebody."

Two weeks later he met Rameez. Then he spent three to six months handing over everything in his head.

"It's the best investment I made."

In this episode, Nik and Ian Myers, Founder & CEO of Oceans Talent, get into how Nik went from DJ-ing parties and cold-messaging celebrities to running growth for some of the biggest brands in DTC, why his first offshore hires failed, how he onboards, and the one mindset shift he tells every founder who is hiring.

"You have to pretend like you're hiring somebody for a quarter million dollars in New York City."