Introducing Hire Power
Struggling to Get Enough Qualified Applicants — Or Get Your Offers Accepted?
You’re in the right place.
Hire Power teaches you Rikka Brandon’s proven recruiting and hiring methods — plus the tools, worksheets, templates, examples, and scripts so you or anyone on your team can recruit and hire with confidence. Use it as a complete step-by-step system, or as a grab-and-go reference the moment you need an answer.
✓ Do-the-Work Guarantee — do the work, and if you are not more confident, full refund within 60 days
- 600+ placements
- <1% replacement rate
- Featured in Fast Company, CBS & Amex OPEN Forum
What actually changes
More qualified, interested candidates to choose from.
Stop posting and hoping. Write ads that pull the people you actually want, and reach the experienced ones who never look at a job board.
More of your offers accepted.
Stop losing your first choice at the finish line. Surface deal breakers early, sell the role while you screen it, and make offers people say yes to.
That is the whole job of this course. Everything below is how.
If you’re experiencing…
- Feeling stuck after posting a job and getting crickets
- Settling for the “best” that applied because you need to fill the position
- Too much reliance on a few key team members
- Surprising resignations from top employees
- Consistently dealing with under-performing employees
- Potential candidates turning down your job offers
- Dread over the hiring process because of the lack of good applicants
- Not having enough time to figure out a solution for your hiring challenges
Hire Power will change the way you feel about hiring.
Competition for talent has never been more intense.
of LBM dealers report that recruiting, hiring, and retaining talent is a “major challenge” — up from last year. Outside sales is named among the hardest roles to fill, year after year.
Source: 2026 LBM 100, LBM Journal
of LBM dealers are actively evaluating their recruiting strategy, and just 6% have added HR staff. Most are raising pay (70%) and adding flexible schedules (56%) without fixing what is actually broken.
Source: Webb Analytics 2024 People Report
of small business owners actively hiring report finding few or no qualified applicants — a number that has held steady for over a year.
Source: NFIB, January 2025
of first-year salary is the minimum cost of a bad hire. For management or leadership hires, that jumps to 200–400% of annual salary.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor; multiple studies
Run your own number
What one hire that doesn’t work out actually costs you.
Every figure below is the conservative floor from published research — not a worst case. Change the role and the pay to see yours.
Minimum cost of getting this one wrong
$25,500
30% of first-year pay — the U.S. Department of Labor’s floor for a bad hire.
- Money$25,500Recruiting, onboarding, training and severance already spent, then spent again.
- Time39 daysThe national average to fill a non-executive role — before you have started over.
- EnergyUncountedThe manager hours spent supervising someone who isn’t working out, the good people quietly covering, and the quarter you all agree to give it one more of.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor, 30% of first-year earnings as the minimum cost of a bad hire. For management and leadership hires, widely published estimates run 200–400% of annual salary; this calculator uses the bottom of that range. Time-to-fill: SHRM, 39 days for non-executive roles — other trackers put the 2026 national average at 63–68 days, and 60–74 days for the hardest skilled roles.
Hire Power is $997. Look at your number again.
Don’t fall victim to the 3S Cycle
Lack of good applicants
You’ve tried everything you can think of, but there just aren’t good applicants OR applicants who accept your job offer.
Hiring the “best that applied”
You believe this is just the “best” that is out there, and you’re forced to hire them — or avoid hiring altogether.
Bad hires and turnover
Underperforming employees cause internal problems and prevent your company from achieving your goals.
Everyone who has hired enough times has settled for a less-than-ideal candidate. And they know that the reality is that when you settle — either by hiring the wrong person OR by not hiring at all — you waste time, energy, and money.
Let’s end the 3S Cycle. With the right training, tools, and processes you can change your recruiting and hiring results — quickly.
Just wanted to give you an update to let you know just how helpful Hire Power has been for me. I have been a recruiting fool lately, and my efforts have not gone unrewarded. By implementing a lot of the strategies that you have taught us (along with some good old fashioned dogged determination and stick-to-itiveness), we have managed to hire 16 new employees in the last two weeks. That is insane for us and it literally could not come at a better time. So I just wanted to say thank you for all that you do, and to let you know that the President and I regularly sing your praises.
Jen Mahaffy — Talent Acquisition, Medallion Industries
There are two ways to use Hire Power
As a step-by-step guide
When you’re ready to build strong recruiting and hiring practices for your business.
Build a recruiting and hiring process you can use on repeat for every job, from customer service to the warehouse to branch managers. You or your team copy the exact framework to build an effective hiring system.
As a grab-and-go toolbox
When you need a quick answer and have to execute right now.
Have an interview scheduled this afternoon? Log in, check what Rikka has to say about conducting interviews, and get on with it.
Course Overview
The 8 modules of Hire Power
- 8Modules
- 36Lessons
- 6Bonus resources
- 24/7AI support
- ∞Lifetime access
Video trainings, written guides, worksheets and templates — on any device. Click any module to see every lesson inside it.
01 Clarity & Reality How great hires start (and how much you’ll need to pay) 4 lessons
Start With Clarity
Increase your hiring success rate and find people who are looking for a career and not a job by using The Clarity Code Framework to get clear on what you need and why.
What’s The Reality
Use The Team Assessment to decide if you can fill this role internally. Use The Hiring Options Assessment to decide what type of support you should hire to do the job. Bonus: The Hiring Options Ebook. Take The Finance Assessment to decide if you can afford this role plus what you can do if you can’t afford them right now. Learn how to use Compensation Benchmarking to find out exactly what your competitors are paying.
Assemble The Job Description
Use your answers from the Clarity Code Process to clearly define what people need to do to succeed in this role. Use the Job Description Template to easily and quickly assemble the job description — even if you’ve never written one before.
Compensation vs. Expectations — How Much Is Enough?
Learn how to do compensation research (for free) and the best way to understand what it’s going to cost to get the level of experience you want. You’ll learn how to think beyond money to sweeten your offers.
02 Attraction How to get more qualified and interested job applicants 6 lessons
Your Ideal Hire Profile
Use The Ideal Hire Worksheet to create your ideal hire profile so you know exactly how and where to show up to attract your ideal hire.
Identify Deal Breakers
Complete The Deal Breakers Exercise to learn how simple it can be to save time by eliminating candidates you don’t want to hire and that won’t accept your offer early in the process.
Figure Out Your Keywords
Use The Keyword Brainstorming Process to learn how keywords increase how high your job shows up in results and how many different searches it appears in.
Write Your Job Ad
Follow The Six Step Job Ad Framework to get clear on how to use strategy and psychology to attract your ideal hires. Use The Job Ad Template to create a proven job ad that has led to 10x increases in qualified and interested candidates.
Post Your Job Ad
Follow our system to brainstorm where to post your Job Ad. Use the Job Ad Posting Tips Checklist to get the most out of each posting.
Recruiting Hacks That Save Time
Save time by streamlining your candidate review process and automating your recruiting process.
03 Sourcing How to find people that have the experience you want, that aren’t applying to your job postings 5 lessons
Introduction To Sourcing
Learn how to go beyond “posting and praying” someone good applies and take charge of the quality and quantity of your candidates.
Your Sourcing Keywords
Learn how The 3 W’s Framework makes it easy to find the people you want and need.
How To Source
Use Rikka’s proven process to identify at least 20–50 people with the experience you want to reach out to about your position.
Walkthrough of Indeed.com
Get Rikka’s top tips honed over thousands of searches.
Walkthrough of Finding People On LinkedIn — for Free
Get Rikka’s top secrets to maximizing sourcing on LinkedIn for free.
04 Outreach Reaching out and engaging with qualified people that haven’t applied to your job posting 3 lessons
First Things First
Learn the subtle mindset shift you need to make before reaching out to passive candidates.
Reaching Out To Candidates
Learn the best way to reach out over calls, voicemail, and email, with Rikka’s proven templates and scripts.
Industry Referrals & Successful + Sensitive Outreach
Learn how to connect with industry veterans to get referrals, and how to recruit the rockstars in your market without it being awkward.
05 Interviewing How you sell and screen at the same time, so you can get to YES with the people you want to hire 6 lessons
Review Deal Breakers
Understand how and why to review deal breakers with your candidate before your first interview.
The Interview Process
Learn how many interviews to run and in what order, and why the phone interview is the best place to start.
The Interview Process Part 2
Learn about contrary evidence — the single best approach to “stop getting fooled” in the interview — and what questions to ask at each stage.
The S.E.L.L. Interview Method
Advanced interview training that stops candidates from ghosting you or declining offers.
The Candidate Ranking Sheet
Keep everyone focused on what matters when multiple people are involved in the hiring decision.
Rejection Templates and Examples
Templates for the many different ways a rejection conversation can go.
06 Selection What you can do if you’re not getting enough information to make a decision from your interview process 4 lessons
Using Pre-Employment Assessments
How to choose the right pre-assessment, plus a primer of the top 3 we recommend.
Using Skill Tests
Use the Skill Testing Matrix to decide which skills to test for and why.
Leveraging Pre-Hire Projects
Guidelines for designing an effective pre-hire project.
Crafting On-The-Job Experiences
Choose from 3 types of On-The-Job Experiences, with a worksheet to design your own.
07 Extending The Offer How to get to YES with the candidates you want to hire 4 lessons
Talking about Money
The Money Conversation Script, so this doesn’t have to be awkward.
Creating The Offer Letter
The Offer Letter Template, built for your best shot at a YES.
Making The Verbal Offer
Why you should make a verbal offer before the formal letter.
Closing The Deal & Getting To Yes
The 8 scenarios that come up after you extend an offer, and how to negotiate a win-win.
08 Cover Your Ass(ets) How you can protect your business before and after you hire someone 4 lessons
Should You Ask For References
What to do instead that’s more effective and accurate.
Conducting Background Checks
The process, why it matters, and our preferred provider.
Conducting Drug Screening
The process, why it matters, and our preferred provider.
Protect Your Business
Non-competes, confidentiality, and non-solicitation agreements — which ones to consider.
Peek inside
Not theory. Worksheets you fill in and templates you copy.
Every module comes with the printable pages Rikka uses with clients. Here are three of them.
Plus job descriptions, outreach scripts, interview guides, ranking sheets, offer letters and rejection templates — across all 8 modules.
Plus bonus resources like
6 bonus resources we love
The Ideal Hire Worksheet
Define your ideal candidate before you write a single word of the job ad.
Team Assessment
Decide whether this role can be filled from within your existing team.
Skill Testing Matrix
Know exactly which skills to test for, and why.
Money Conversation Scripts
Talk about pay without the awkwardness — before you make the offer.
Hiring Options eBook
Compare your options for filling the role, so you invest in the right kind of support.
Ask Hire Power AI
24/7 support trained on every module, so you’re never stuck without an answer.
This program really helped me understand today’s technology better and how to use it to the company’s advantage — trigger words, pre-interview phone calls, rating sheet.
HR Payroll Manager — Lumberyard
Everything you need to change how you feel about recruiting and hiring.
I wanted to thank you for your wonderful training and helping me to think of recruiting in a little different way. I have to admit, I’m a 25 yr + HR veteran and recruiting has not been my favorite part of the job. I envy your enthusiasm for that task!
Cindy — Barton Steel
What Students Say
Meet Rikka Brandon
Rikka Brandon started recruiting in the building products industry in 2001. Since then she’s made over 600 placements with a less than 1% replacement rate. She’s the Founder and Chief Executive Recruiter of Building Gurus, an executive search and recruitment consulting firm that works exclusively in the Building Products Industry.
She’s advised hundreds of building product companies ranging from mom and pops to the Fortune 100. However, her personal favorite has always been the privately held and often family owned business.
Rikka’s the go-to girl for growth-minded Building Products Owners and Executives who want to hire the right people to take their manufacturing, distribution, or retail business to the next level.
- A frequent speaker at Building Products, LBM and Kitchen and Bath Industry conferences and events on topics related to recruiting and retention.
- Recruiting and Retention expert for NKBA, providing articles for both NKBA.com and Kitchen and Bath Business magazine, webinars, and presentations.
- A Recruiting and Retention expert for LBM Journal, Northwestern Lumber Dealers Association, West Coast Lumber Association, Northeast Retail Lumber Association, and the Lumber Bluebook.
- Service Provider of the Year for Luxury Products Group.
- A best-selling and award-winning author.
- Past Chair of the National Kitchen and Bath Association’s National Leadership Recruitment Committee.
- Frequent contributor to trade publications and associations. Host of the LBM Journal’s Recruit + Retain Podcast.
Rikka is focused on results, she talks fast, cracks jokes, and really believes growing your building products business should be fun. It’s this energy and enthusiasm that has made the industry as well as national media take notice.
Rikka has been featured numerous times on Fast Company, American Express’s OPEN Forum, the NFIB, and CBS.
Straight answers
Let’s deal with what you’re actually thinking.
Four objections come up every single time. None of them are unreasonable. All four have an answer.
I don’t have time to take a course.
Then don’t take one. Hire Power is indexed, not linear — you look up the thing you are doing today and do it better. Interview at two o’clock? Open Module Five, watch nine minutes, print the interview guide, go. Most people never sit down and “do the course.” They use it the next time they hire, and the hire goes better.
There still won’t be qualified people out there.
This one is testable, and the data says otherwise. LBM dealers scored hiring difficulty at 6.7 out of 10 in 2023. In 2026 they scored it 6.1 — it got easier. Over the same period the share calling recruiting a major challenge went up, to 55%. Conditions improved and the pain got worse. That gap is the whole argument: this is a systems problem, not a market problem.
Source: 2026 LBM 100 & Construction Supply 150, LBM Journal / Webb Analytics
We’ve already tried everything.
You have tried tactics — a different job board, a bigger sign-on bonus, a recruiter. What almost nobody in this industry has is a system. When talent got tight, 70% of dealers raised pay and just 7% looked at how they actually recruit. In kitchen and bath, only 8% think their own hiring practices are part of the shortage. The fixable half of this problem is the half nobody is looking at.
Source: Webb Analytics People Report; NKBA Skilled Labor Workforce Study
It’s a lot of money for training.
It is. So is one bad hire. At the U.S. Department of Labor’s 30%-of-salary floor, an $18-an-hour warehouse employee who doesn’t work out costs you more than $11,000. A branch manager who doesn’t work out costs 200–400% of salary. This isn’t priced against your training budget. It’s priced against one mistake you are currently making on instinct.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor; multiple bad-hire cost studies
Your business can only thrive with the right people.
Your business’s success is completely tied to what you can deliver, your ability to provide great customer service, and being able to get the right products to the right place at the right time.
Studies show that high performers are an average of 400% more productive than average performers. And in more complex positions — like management — high performers can be up to 800% more productive than average.
That means that a $1 million sales territory can turn into a $5 million territory.
That means you could produce and deliver products 5x more efficiently — by replacing just one average employee with a profit center who can start adding to your bottom line immediately.
That’s the difference between finding, attracting, and hiring high performers vs. settling for the best mediocre application.
Source: O’Boyle & Aguinis, “The Best and the Rest: Revisiting the Norm of Normality in Individual Performance,” Personnel Psychology, Vol. 65 (2012) — cited in McKinsey & Company, “Attracting and Retaining the Right Talent.”
It was 2021 and we were having a difficult time hiring people — we were having no success with just posting job ads. We found Rikka through a class she was doing to help people with hiring new employees. She helped us spice up our job ads so we weren’t just posting and praying, and we started direct recruiting, which is something we learned from Rikka. It really helped transform our business.
Kevin Mahaffy — President, Medallion Industries
The Do-the-Work Guarantee
Complete the Clarity Code Worksheet, post one job ad using the Six Step Job Ad Framework, and run at least one interview using the S.E.L.L. Method. If you’ve done that and don’t feel more confident in your hiring process, email us within 60 days for a full refund.
— Rikka Brandon
Included with the course
Ask Hire Power AI
Trained on every module, worksheet and script in the course.
Stuck at 9pm writing a job ad? Interview in an hour and you cannot remember the S.E.L.L. sequence? Ask it. It answers from Rikka’s material — not the general internet — and points you at the exact lesson.
- Available 24/7, no waiting on a reply
- Answers grounded in the course, not generic advice
- Links you straight to the relevant lesson or template
What you get
The training, processes, and tools you need to improve your recruiting and hiring results quickly.
- 8 modules with clearly defined resources to answer every question you have
- Quick access guides, templates, scripts, and resources
- Easy to follow video trainings and written guides
- 6 Bonus Resources We Love
Hire Power — full course
$2,500$997
One good hire, made with the right process, pays for this many times over.
Start building your hire powerInstant access · On-demand · Yours for good
What you’re getting, itemised
| 8 core modules — 36 video and written lessons | $1,400 |
|---|---|
| The full template library — job ads, descriptions, outreach scripts, interview guides, scorecards, offer and rejection letters | $600 |
| 6 bonus resources, including Hire Power: The LBM Edition | $300 |
| Ask Hire Power AI — 24/7, trained on the course | $200 |
| Lifetime access and every future update | Included |
| Total value | $2,500 |
| Your price today | $997 |
Plus the Do-the-Work Guarantee — 60 days, full refund.
Questions & answers
Will this work for me if I don’t have an HR team?
YES. The Hire Power course was designed after working with hundreds of building product company owners, so we’ve included video material, written material, printable resources, and ready-to-use templates. It is also designed with a Recruiting Index/Audit, so you can quickly look up your current problems and immediately access the resources and education you need to address them. In fact, we recommend that owners of building product businesses use this course even if they already have an HR lead.
How is the Hire Power Course delivered?
The course is fully on-demand, and you’ll receive instant access to the full library of course modules, videos, and printed resources.
I’m already pretty good at hiring. Is Hire Power just for beginners?
If your business is fully staffed, you get plenty of quality applicants for your job openings, and all of your employees are high performers, then Hire Power is not for you. But if you have dreams of adding locations, new product lines, and growing your business to new heights, this course will take you there. This is the place to build best-in-class recruiting and hiring practices, turn your business into a talent magnet, and find the people you need to achieve the growth you desire.
What does Hire Power cost?
$2,500 $997 — and includes all of the modules, tools, and bonuses listed above. Even for an $18-per-hour employee, the overall cost of a single bad hire is at least $11,272 (U.S. Department of Labor) — and for a management or leadership hire, that cost jumps to 200–400% of annual salary. High performers are up to 400–800% more productive than average ones. One good hire, made with the right process, pays for this course many times over — and if you complete the work and it doesn’t, the Do-the-Work Guarantee has you covered.
I’m so busy, can I delegate all of this to someone else?
Hire Power was designed with the owner, hiring managers, HR professionals, and for any person inside your organization that is interested in learning about recruiting, interviewing, and hiring. Hiring is most effective when it’s a blend of strategy from the owner/leader and tactical execution handled by a hiring manager or support person. Should you wish to purchase more than one seat, reach out to Hello@RikkaBrandon.com to see if any discounts may be available. However, we strongly recommend that Leaders access the course themselves, even if they have other team members in charge of the hiring process. The tactics of hiring a team can be outsourced, but learning how to attract, hire, and keep good employees is key to your success. You can’t outsource learning.
Hire Power will equip you to build a team that increases profits, gives you freedom, and builds your legacy. Even if…
You don’t have time
Hire Power is like a come-and-go pocket guide to building product hiring success. Need to write a job ad right now? Just check the job ad section. Want to reach out to a potential candidate? Check the outreach section and keep moving forward.
You don’t have any interest in hiring
It’s okay, you can admit it. You never have to love recruiting, and with the right team, you can outsource the tactical pieces of hiring. But if you are the owner or manager responsible for the company’s success, you can’t outsource learning how to build a great team.
You don’t have an HR person
This system is built for companies with anywhere from 5–100 employees, with limited to no HR experience, and is designed to get your results quickly. Now, if you’re lucky enough to have an HR person, they can use this to build a wildly effective recruiting and hiring process for your business.
Your team is doing okay right now
A functioning team isn’t the same as a growing company. How much more money could you make if your sales team was actually able to get out and talk to contractors and builders? Implementing the Hire Power strategies will end the need for settling and help you assemble a team of profit centers that propel your business forward.
You’ve screwed up hiring before
Mistakes are part of every hiring journey! With this tailor-made hiring guide for the building products industry, you’ll be able to pinpoint your past mistakes (and your current ones) with more clarity than ever.
You struggle with technology
Not sure how to find candidates online? The Hire Power modules include specific tutorials on how to create and manage the necessary technology to attract your ideal candidate.
You live in a rural area
Small population? No problem. The course is built with specific education and resources for rural business owners to attract the most high-quality candidates — in any location.
Not only is the depth and breadth of knowledge that Rikka brings — the way that she communicates it is so easily absorbable, it’s relatable. It’s like, here’s a couple of things you could do right off the bat that’s going to bring you a positive return.
Dena Cordova-Jack — former VP of Organizational Development, Kodiak Building Partners
Overcome the scarcity cycle, stop settling, & hire with confidence.
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