REsimpli Mastermind Recap

Talent Optimization & Hiring with Austin McCurdy — Sharper Business Solutions

Date: (24 Feb, 2026)

Today’s REsimpli Mastermind featured Austin McCurdy from Sharper Business Solutions walking through how small- and mid-sized real estate companies should design roles and hire the right people using Predictive Index (PI) behavioral and cognitive assessments. Below is a concise recap of the major topics, practical takeaways, and resources Austin promised to share.

Topic: Why talent optimization matters for small businesses

Challenge: Small teams feel the impact of the wrong hire much more acutely — one mis-hire on a two-person acquisitions team can be 50% of that function wrong.

Advice:

• Treat hiring as strategic design: set strategy → design roles (success profile, KPIs, SOPs) → hire to the profile → manage/inspire based on how the person is wired → analyze and iterate every 90 days.
• Use success profiles and process ownership charts before recruiting so hires are placed in the right seat, not shoehorned into roles.

Key Insight:

Hiring to the role (not just hiring “good people”) makes scaling and consistency possible.

Topic: The measurement stack — what predicts job performance

Challenge: Relying on resumes + interviews misses most of what determines long-term performance.

Advice & data:

• Resume = ~12% predictor of long-term job performance.
• Cognitive ability = ~42% predictor (how fast someone solves complex problems).
• Behavioral assessment = ~28% predictor (drives that motivate consistent behavior).

Key Insight:

Combine cognitive and behavioral assessments with resume/experience to dramatically improve hiring accuracy.

Topic: A simple framework — Heart / Head / Hands / Feet

• Heart = Desire (do they want the job? is the work energizing?)
• Head = Cognitive ability (how fast can they solve complex problems?)
• Hands = Skills / Experience (knowledge, training, can be developed)
• Feet = Mobility / potential (willingness to learn, take on new challenges)

Advice:

Evaluate people across all four to determine performance, fit, and growth potential.

Topic: Behavioral drives (PI) — the A/B/C/D that matter in the workplace

PI measures four workplace drives that predict needs/behaviors:

• A — Dominance: drive to influence people/events (low = collaborative; high = competitive, likes control).
• B — Extroversion (social): drive for social interaction (low = private, processes internally; high = outgoing, processes out loud).
• C — Patience: drive for consistency/stability (low = fast-paced, thrives on change; high = steady, prefers one task at a time).
• D — Formality: drive to conform to rules/structure (low = comfortable with ambiguity, delegates details; high = detailed, follows rules, seeks freedom from risk of error).

Practical reading tips:

• Look at how far each drive is from center (“volume” of the behavior).
• Review three graphs: natural (who they are), self-concept (how they feel they must be now — last ~90 days), and observed (how others see them).
• E (bottom) indicates decision style: objective (data-driven) vs subjective (feels-based).

Topic: Have-to vs want-to employees

Challenge: People who do the job because they “have to” will meet minimums but stay disengaged; those who do it because they “want to” are energised, persistent, and scale with you.

Advice:

Use behavioral assessment to align work with what people actually enjoy doing. Reassign good people (wrong seat) rather than immediately replace them if fit is the issue.

Topic: Common hiring mistakes and how to avoid them

• Wrong seat: hiring someone who’s a great person but not a fit for the role’s drives and pace.
• Wrong manager (most people quit managers, not companies): managers must manage to the person’s drives.
• Wrong team: teammates must take action, make decisions, and communicate in compatible ways.
• Culture mismatch: build culture deliberately; people who don’t fit “the way we do things around here” will disengage.

Topic: How this maps to real estate roles (practical targets)

• Acquisitions / Outside sales: often need higher Dominance, higher Extroversion, lower Patience (fast-paced), and lower Formality (resilient to ambiguity). Big on social/competition and persistence (“no doesn’t mean no”).
• Dispositions / Buyer-facing sales: may be more collaborative depending on model (farming vs transactional).
• Operations / Back-office: collaborative, lower social, higher Patience, higher Formality — process-driven, repeatable, detail-oriented.
• Transaction Coordinator (TC): serious, diligent, reserved, rule-oriented, highly precise — clarity of tasks, accuracy, freedom from error important.
• Project Manager: comfortable with some conflict, moderately driving, but also able to follow structure and timelines (mix of execution speed + rule-following).

Advice:

Identify the A/B/C/D you need for each role before hiring, then recruit to that target.

Topic: ROI and business impact

• Hiring people who fit the right role/drive profile produces about 34% higher employee performance (not counting recruiting/onboarding costs).
• Predictive assessments accelerate self-awareness and leader effectiveness — crucial given research showing self-awareness is the top skill for leaders (Fortune 500 CEOs) and that most people overestimate their self-awareness (Harvard: 95% think they are self-aware, only 15% actually are).

Practical tools & tactics mentioned:

• Predictive Index behavioral assessment (QR code shared in the session) — short, ~6-minute assessment; automatic report emailed to taker.
• Cognitive assessments to measure problem-solving speed.
• Success profile templates and target profiles for common real-estate roles (Austin will share a folder of role targets).
• Process ownership charts, SOPs, KPIs and structured onboarding to develop skills (hands).
• Quarterly/90-day review cadence to redesign roles and reassess fit.
• Shareable role-target documents to put into your Skool community for team access.

Best advice from the session

• Design the company first (roles, SOPs, KPIs), then hire to that design.
• Hire for the drives and cognitive needs of the role, not just experience on paper.
• Manage people according to how they’re wired (their PI), and re-seat great people into positions where they can contribute the way they naturally will.
• Regularly assess and iterate (uncommon commitment to self-assessment).
• Use PI and cognitive assessments to increase hiring accuracy, improve manager effectiveness, and unlock predictable, scalable operations.

Recording & Next Steps

• Austin will email role-target folder and share it in the Skool community.
• If you want to work with Sharper Business Solutions: sharperprocess.com or austin@sharperprocess.com
• Recording: will be posted on the Mastermind recording page in the next few days.

If you missed the live demo, scan the PI QR Austin shared (or reach out to Austin for the link) and review your report with the hiring targets he offered. Align role design to A/B/C/D + cognitive needs before you hire — it will save time, money, and scaling headaches.