Luke Tobin has had three exits in three different industries, the largest of which was Digital Ethos, a performance marketing agency he sold in late 2022.
Now, Luke runs a holding company investing in creative and marketing businesses, lives in Portugal, and has built a following of more than 800,000 on social media.
He and I sat down on the Podcast and got into a whole lot, but one thing stuck with me more than the rest:
His approach to hiring senior people.
He actually pays them to take a week off from their current job and spend five days inside his business. Full pay. Non-negotiable for anyone mid-tier or above.
And about a third of candidates say no. They can’t take the time, don’t want to use their holiday, don’t know what to tell their employer.
And that tells him everything he needs to know. They’re not serious enough.
We also talked about:
- Why failure is a better business school than an MBA
- Why most agencies never scale past the founder
- Why minority investment beats full acquisition (and why most private equity gets this wrong)
- Why self-doubt is actually a sign of (it’s not weakness)
- The difference between managing and leading, and why promoting loyal people into leadership roles almost always backfires