There’s a common misconception about outsourcing: that agencies charge double what employees get.

Looks like a nice business model, doesn’t it?

Here’s what most business owners don’t see.

Before a single interview happens, a good agency has already spent hours on these five things:

1️⃣ Understanding the company, its values, its workflow, its pain points.
2️⃣ Writing and rewriting the job description so it actually reflects what’s needed, not just what sounds good.
3️⃣ Filtering hundreds of applications, spotting who’s real and who’s copy-pasted their resume with AI.
4️⃣ Vetting for skills and mindset, because the wrong attitude costs more than the wrong tool.
5️⃣ Mapping cultural fit: who will thrive with your leadership style, your pace, your expectations.

By the time a small business owner finally meets a candidate, the real work has already been done, even if they never saw it.

The value isn’t in “finding someone.”
The value is in hiring with a level of quality most small companies struggle to reach, simply because they don’t hire often enough to build these systems themselves.

Good outsourcing doesn’t cost you more. It saves you from paying for the same mistake twice.

Marlene Dandler built her company and a community from her kitchen table.

This week, I sat down with Marlene Dandler, founder of Seashore Academy, a fast-growing network of private hybrid schools that started right there — at her kitchen table.

What inspired me most wasn’t just how far she’s come, but how she leads: with clarity, care, and the conviction that great education, and great leadership, both start with human connection.

My three top takeaways:

1️⃣ Hiring for alignment, not background
Marlene explained that her toughest hires were leaders from traditional education, talented people who struggled to embrace Seashore Academy’s flexible hybrid model. What finally worked was finding a leader who shared her excitement for change and innovation.

2️⃣ Leadership energy trickles down
She compared leading her company to parenting: when she’s calm, the household, or the business, is calm. Her morning run and prayer aren’t just self-care, they’re her leadership practices.

3️⃣ Culture travels through connection
She keeps her on-site and remote teams united through short daily video huddles and by sharing photos from the classrooms, reminding everyone, even those thousands of miles away, of the joy they’re helping create.

Conversations like this remind me how much leadership is about intention — who we hire, how we show up, and how we stay connected across distance.

Grateful to Marlene for sharing her story, her heart, and her wisdom.

Full episode coming soon.