A first candidate reached interview and was declined. Instead of sending a second CV,
we went back to the spec and asked what it had got wrong.
The right broker interviewed eight days later.
Lagos Financial needed a broker who could carry the client relationships of a founder who could not put them down.
Is this the person going to champion the brand moving forward?
Ryan Toppin, on the first candidate
He wasn't the right fit for that assignment.
The first candidate reached interview and was declined. Rather than send a second, we went back to the brief and asked what it had got wrong.
The answer was not a property strategist. It was someone who had seen enough five and ten property tangles that the complexity had stopped being frightening.
The goal: a broker who answers the same day the founder would have, and is technical enough to prove out the platform.
The founder is the bottleneck.
A recalibration call instead of a second CV. The client rebuilds the spec in the room.
Eight days after the rewrite.
The offer landed first time.
The client said not the right fit. The recording showed curiosity reading as scepticism.
The candidate was not the problem. The brief was.
Three days later, a recalibration call instead of a second CV.
The client rebuilt the spec in the room.
Not a property strategist after all.
Someone with heavy exposure to tangled portfolios, which is a different search entirely.
The long-term upside was mapped with the client on the record, before any broker could ask.
The offer landed first time.
If I have emails that aren't written back to for a few days, I have angst.
Victor Lagos, Founder, Lagos Financial
I don't feel right.
The rewritten brief produced a candidate eight days later, and the letter of offer went out four weeks after that.
The broker took a seat defined by exposure to tangled portfolios rather than a strategy title.
He came into broking through a law firm's settlements desk, and had twice been the one who built the credit process and the CRM behind it.
He watched the founder's platform video before they met and turned up with questions. The client's read afterwards was that this was someone who could one day take over.
Whether you are building a team or looking for the brokerage that finally fits, this is how it starts.
With a straight conversation.