Bryan Sampson

Q4 Hiring Momentum is Strong Across Utah & Nationwide! 🚀 Teams are ramping up hiring—especially in warehouse and production. 📊 Labor Market Snapshot (Q4 2025) 👉 U.S. hiring outlook: +28% (one of the strongest globally) 👉 Utah unemployment: 3.3% (well below national ~4.2%) 👉 Utah job growth: +40,300 jobs YoY (+2.3%) 👉 Job openings: 77,000 in June, up from 68,000 in May 👉 39% of employers hiring are expanding teams 👉 Top demand areas: Manufacturing, Transportation, Logistics 🏭 On the Ground Insights ✅ High demand for Pickers, Forklift Operators, Loaders, and Shipping/Receiving Clerks ✅ Assemblers, Leads, Machine Operators, Supervisors remain highly sought-after ✅ Skilled Trades—Maintenance Techs, Welders, Electricians—are still scarce ✅ Reshoring & automation are creating new opportunities ✅ On-the-job training helps close skill gaps ✅ Safety, compliance, and shift coverage are prompting faster hiring decisions 💡 If your team is looking to source talent now, I can share what’s working for other teams—worth a couple of quick messages to compare notes! DM here or Drop me a note: ADiamond@SmartResources.com

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Lindsay Rios tagged me in this post. Let's take a peek shall we? And Matt Firestone has already done a nice job of comically pointing out some of the shortcomings of Mike Gallardo's advice. Now don't get me wrong, Mike's objection handling here is solid, it's a good tip and in his original post he points out lots of ways that "That's exactly why I called" can be useful. However, like all other sales advice, this isn't as black and white as that. This is a great way to handle an objection and should absolutely be in your tool belt, however just like a solid tradesperson, your tool belt should be filled with a variety of tools and your job is to know when best to use them. Not every problem requires a hammer.

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Stats don’t lie: - Companies that use a PEO grow 7–9% faster - PEO clients have 10–14% lower turnover - They're also 50% less likely to go out of business (Source: NAPEO) And now, for Utah employers: - New Utah tax cut (4.50%) = more $$ in your team’s pockets - HB 279 wage access law adds new compliance burdens - Health, dental & vision benefits for 2+ employees - Local service — no national call centers You're Welcome!

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🧑‍💼 Hiring always comes with risk. A resume and interview can only tell you so much, and a bad hire can cost your business in morale, productivity, and revenue. That’s why background checks are such an important part of the process in Utah. They help employers verify qualifications, uncover red flags, and stay compliant with state and federal law. In our latest guide, we cover: ✅ What shows up on a Utah background check ✅ How far back employers can look ✅ How long the process takes ✅ The key laws you need to know If you are hiring in Utah, this resource will help you protect your workplace while staying compliant. https://hubs.la/Q03GHBNZ0 #Hiring #BackgroundChecks #HRCompliance #Recruiting

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Most salespeople ruin the first meeting in the first 5 minutes. They start pitching. The best meetings I’ve ever had? We barely talked about real estate. If you can spend 75%+ of your first meeting just hanging out with the prospect - and 25% or less talking about business - you already won. The goal of the first meeting isn’t the deal. It’s the relationship. With every prospect, I try to understand the person first: ~ How did you get started? ~ Where are you from? ~ Do you have a family? ~ What do you do for fun? ~ What does your portfolio look like today? ~ Where do you want to be in 5 years? When people feel like you care about them, not just the deal... The business almost always follows. Relationships first. Deals second.

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If you’re a founder or early-stage CEO in Northern Colorado, this is for you. We’re launching our first Colorado Sales Accelerator Cohort at Kiln Fort Collins, built specifically for leaders who are still carrying the sales number themselves. This is not theory. This is not a pitch deck exercise. This is a working session focused on helping you: • Clarify your sales message • Build a simple, repeatable sales motion • Create real pipeline momentum • Turn conversations into revenue We’re keeping the first cohort small and making it free for founding participants. If you’re serious about getting better at sales and building a revenue engine that actually works, I’d encourage you to apply or share with someone in your network who should be in the room. Link to apply is in the comments. #NorthernColoradoStartups #FortCollinsBusiness #ColoradoStartups #StartupSales #FounderLedSales #SalesLeadership #RevenueGrowth #SalesStrategy #Entrepreneurship #BuildInPublic

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When recruiting for a role in LA or New York, you’ve already got a head start. Big market, big brand, big draw. But what about Green Bay? Oklahoma City? Salt Lake City? Markets that don’t sell themselves… and where the badge doesn’t speak louder than the story behind it? That’s when recruiting shifts from selection to persuasion. In challenging markets, you’re not just selling a job. You’re selling a lifestyle, a vision, and the role that candidate will play in building something that isn’t fully built yet. Here’s what it takes: ✅ Telling the story of the club – not just listing the responsibilities ✅ Understanding what matters to the candidate outside the job: family, pace of life, career runway ✅ Showing the opportunity to be part of a real legacy – not just a cog in a high-profile machine At Forsyth Barnes, we work closely with teams to craft, communicate & ultimately bring that story to life – positioning both the role and the market in a way that resonates with the right talent. It’s not just about selection, it’s about persuasion, and it needs to be done from day one of the search process. #Sports #SportsBiz #Recruitment

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How a hiring crisis into a game, changing opportunity, and why your startup should pay attention Back when he was building a sales team for a Texas-based SaaS, their VP of sales hit a wall: hiring sales reps in Austin was draining the budget. Salaries kept rising, competition for talent was brutal, and the “cost advantage” everyone talked about was disappearing fast. So he took a gamble, he hired a small sales team in Colombia. The goal was simple: save money. But what happened next surprised everyone. That Colombian team didn’t just save costs, they outperformed their U.S. counterparts in quota attainment. More than just a cost play, it was a strategic shift. Today, Austin is losing its edge, getting closer to Bay area salaries. Latin America isn’t just an alternative, it’s the new front line for startup hiring. If you’re still betting on U.S. hubs to scale your sales or engineering teams, you’re missing out on the biggest talent shift happening right now.

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One of the most common things I hear from founders, B2B coaches, and high-ticket consultants is: "I don’t like sales. I don’t like selling but I know I have to so my business can thrive." Here’s the truth: You don’t have to like selling to be very successful in it. Sales isn’t about pressure or gimmicks. It’s about serving. ✅ Solving problems. ✅ Listening to people’s real challenges. ✅ Helping them reach their desired outcomes. When you focus on serving, the sales follow — and that’s what keeps your business moving forward. 🎥 In this 70-second clip, I share how to reframe sales so it feels more natural and still drives revenue.

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