The Power of Oxygen 1st
When my son was little, I was a single mom who was doing it all alone. I was putting everyone else first and my own needs last. To everyone around me, I was successful but little did they know that my success was tied to pushing, stressing, sleepless nights and early morning workouts pushing my body and my limits to the extreme. Until one day I was flying alone and nearly crashed an airplane and I realized that I needed to take care of my own needs first before anyone else. You see, when you’re a pilot, if you have any issues in the plane, you put on your oxygen mask 1st, not your passengers. They need you to land the plane.
This podcast is all about this journey to healing, to getting clear on the desires of your heart… and stepping into them with courage while leaning into, asking for and receiving support. I hope you feel inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live: a life filled to the brim with epic ADVENTURE.
The Power of Oxygen 1st
EP 64: I Refuse to Carry Shame for Hiring Mistakes
Shame might be the most silent killer of entrepreneurial confidence, especially when it comes to hiring mistakes. As a hiring consultant who has guided countless business owners through team building, I've witnessed the crushing weight that bad hires place on otherwise capable leaders. The truth? Every single entrepreneur has made hiring mistakes—yes, even me.
Hiring parallels dating in uncanny ways. We ignore red flags, convince ourselves things will improve, and sometimes hold onto people far longer than we should. The mistake isn't making a bad hire; it's carrying that experience as proof of your inadequacy as a leader. This episode unpacks why clarity stands as the foundation of successful hiring, and how every misstep actually sharpens your intuition for future decisions.
What transforms average business owners into exceptional leaders isn't a perfect hiring record—it's their ability to learn, adapt, and refuse to carry shame for past decisions. When we ignore our gut feelings during the hiring process or bend over backward to justify keeping the wrong person, we betray ourselves and our vision. Your business and your peace are worthy of protection, which sometimes means making difficult decisions about who belongs on your team. Download the free Hiring ROI Calculator at dotrockconsulting.com and discover how proper support can transform not just your business operations, but your relationship with receiving help. Connect with me on Instagram @dot_rock_ to share which insights from this episode resonated most deeply with you.
Want that FREE Hiring Return On Investment Calculator?!
Subscribe to the Power of Oxygen First podcast on your favorite podcast platform and never miss an episode!
- Book a Coffee & Connection Call
- Free Gift: Learn How to Hire a VA
- Connecting the Dots - 1 Hour Strategy Session with Dot Rock
Connect with Dot
Instagram - www.instagram.com/dot_rock_
Hey guys, this is the Power of Oxygen First podcast and I'm your host, dot Rock. I am an entrepreneur, a mom, a stepmom and a scaling consultant who is obsessed with the art of hiring, support and that dirty word we call delegation. I'm a recovering perfectionist who pushed my body and my limits to the extreme until one fateful day I learned that, just like pilots, I needed to take care of myself first. This podcast is all about the journey to healing, to getting clear on the desires of your heart, stepping into them with courage and leaning into and asking for support. I hope you feel inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live. Hi, my friends, welcome back to the Power of Oxygen First.
Speaker 1:Today we are going to talk about a very similar theme to the episode on Tuesday, which is about my personal life, and this episode is often about business and the mistakes or challenges we face as entrepreneurs. So today's episode is about carrying shame for our hiring mistakes. I'm Dot Rock and I'm here to just chit chat with you a little bit about the reality that every entrepreneur faces and no one really wants to admit out loud, and that's hiring mistakes. Trust me, I'm the hiring whisperer. This is what I do for a living. I'm a hiring consultant. Technically, I'm an HR consultant and CFO, and I help small businesses scale and I help them see how to move their people their biggest valuable asset around and put them in places that they should be, and help tweak things in the hiring process, specifically because the reality is a lot of pain and agony can be avoided with good hiring practices and good firing practices, quite frankly, but if you've been in business long enough, you've definitely made a hiring mistake. Maybe you hired too fast, maybe you ignored the red flags, maybe you convinced yourself that it would get better. Isn't it funny, though, when you pause and I say this out loud now that I'm back the dating world Hiring is so much like dating.
Speaker 1:Maybe you dated too fast, maybe you ignored the red flags and convinced yourself that it'll get better, but with hiring, we often convince ourselves and in dating that someone that we should no longer have, that we should just keep giving it another chance and then another, and then eventually it doesn't work out, and then that's when shame hits. I've, of course, been there. I've been there with a lot of my clients. I've even made hiring mistakes on my own team, made hiring mistakes on my own team and for a long time I carried them like they were this proof, this weight that I was feeling as a leader, that I didn't even actually know how to teach others how to hire and delegate with ease. But here's what I refuse to do. I am refusing to carry shame for hiring mistakes or for dating mistakes.
Speaker 1:Hiring really is not an exact science. We are all human, desiring deep connection, and leadership is not about just making mistakes, it's about how we respond to those mistakes. So I used to think that hiring meant hiring mistakes first meant that I wasn't actually cut out for this work, that I should have seen them coming and that I should have known better. And sure, there are signs, but there are also lessons in our hiring oopses and mistakes. Those lessons are clarity.
Speaker 1:Clarity is the number one thing you need to make a good hire. You need to let yourself be really, really, really clear about what your business needs and what you desire. That way, you can find the person that fits that. These lessons, these hiring mistakes, are about boundaries. They're about trusting your gut and trusting that your needs have a place. And most of all, these lessons in hiring mistakes are again about self-trust, because the reality for me in my business, and what I've seen in clients, is that every time we ignore intuition in the hiring process, every time we bend over backwards to justify the wrong person, we're betraying ourselves, we're betraying our business. The biggest lesson here is to never it just is never our job to convince someone that we're the right fit for them or for them to really convince us that they're the right fit for us. It's our job to trust in ourselves, have the clarity and go from there.
Speaker 1:So please, just don't let these hiring mistakes you've had in the past define you. Don't let these hiring mistakes you've had in the past define you. Let them redefine you. Let them refine you. Let them teach you what you're looking for next time. Let them sharpen your instincts. Let them help you build better systems with clearer expectations and stronger boundaries. They are here. These hiring mistakes are here to remind you that your business and your peace are really worthy of protecting.
Speaker 1:So if you've been beating yourself up over a bad hire, please stop. We've all made them. If you keep replaying in your head, wondering why you didn't see it sooner, let it go. You don't need to carry the shame of a hiring mistake like it's some kind of proof that you aren't a great leader. That is what makes you not a great leader is carrying it. So release it, because great leaders, great business owners, they also don't get it right every time, but what they do differently is that they learn every time and they let themselves infuse those lessons into the clarity of the future hiring.
Speaker 1:So if you happen to need any help with your hiring practices, refining your team or just tweaking things a little bit, I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to start a conversation. You can reach out to me at dot underscore rock underscore on Instagram or dot at dot rock consultingcom. It would be amazing to hear from you. I hope that you are all releasing some hiring shame, getting some clarity and stepping into the future of not doing it all yourself, putting on your oxygen mask first by hiring in alignment and letting your team serve you and letting yourself receive what others have to give. You don't have to do it yourself, sending you light and love and oxygen first on this beautiful day, but please refuse to carry shame for your hiring mistakes.
Speaker 1:Hi, my podcast friends. Hey, have you heard about this new hiring return on investment freebie on my webpage, dotrockconsultingcom. If you download it, you'll get some valuable insights that are simple and fast, that can help you shift into understanding why hiring, or just plain asking for support, can help you save precious resources and increase your time, your energy and your freedom, and they can help you delegate in your business and personally. And it's backed up by data. So head on over to dotrockconsultingcom to access the very first Oxygen First Hiring Return on Investment Calculator. You'll be able to finally hire with confidence, make some data-driven decisions, but also really shift into the mindset of receiving this support and how it's going to add to the bottom line of fulfillment and joy in your life.
Speaker 1:I hope you enjoy it. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to another episode of the Power of Oxygen First podcast. I hope you walk away feeling inspired to do less, to follow your passions and infuse them into your daily life and truly claim the life you were meant to live, and I hope that you start leaning into the art of receiving support. I'm here to support you on that journey. Find me at dotrockconsultingcom or dot underscore, rock underscore on Instagram. I'd love it if you'd go, follow me and shoot me a quick DM and let me know what takeaway from this episode hit you the hardest, sending you love and adventures on this beautiful day.
