Updated With Audio - Grabbing the Brass Ring: The Unexpected Secret to Hiring Success in Business

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It’s pretty amazing how the smallest moments in someone's career profoundly and meaningfully affect you in many ways and for many years to come.  

I was fortunate to have success early in my career, getting a break to live in Seattle and working for a station called “Young Country,” KYCW-FM 96.5. I was 23 and had a few years of programming experience at KEBC in Oklahoma City. I was shocked when I got this job. (As many people were in the country music industry.) 

“Young Country” in the early 90s was a format idea that a programmer named Rick Torcasso cracked. Rick was based in Dallas, Texas, and had a vision of taking advantage of the popularity of country music at the time and leveraging this into a unique format that was taking the country's radio industry by storm.  Garth Brooks was selling stadiums, Kenny Chesney was selling stadiums, and Country music was everywhere. This new format was the most feared radio, meaning if you were an established country station, “Young Country” would eat your lunch. It was exciting, and I wanted to be a part of it.  

The format was tailored toward the younger demographics of the format and introduced the notion of personalities throughout the day rather than only the morning shows.  It was innovative on every level: Talent, Music Choices, Promotion, and Marketing.  

I met Rick at a Country Radio Seminar in the early 90s.  These seminars would be in Nashville, TN, at a hotel with thousands of radio programmers from around the country.  Record labels would showcase artists and play new music in hopes we’d go back home and expose them to our markets.  However, I was there that year with one goal: to find and meet Rick Torcasso. 

When I finally walked up to him, I introduced myself and told him I wanted to work for him. He looked at me as a young kid and said, “Cool, " then walked away.  

That didn’t phase me.

I relentlessly sent letters to his office in Dallas, and one day he called. He said he wanted to interview me for this job in Seattle, WA.  Of course, I jumped at it, but I felt there was zero chance in this, given I’m only 23, very young, and have had only one station experience as a programmer.  I was, in my mind, lucky to just get the opportunity to interview and spend some quality time with him.

Months later, I got the job; we launched the station, beat the #2 country station in 90 days, and tied the #1 country station in Seattle.  It was a massive success.  It was crazy how fast this format worked, no matter where it was launched.

A few years later, living in Seattle, I asked Rick a question at dinner. At the risk of blowing my job, may I add. But I wanted to know why he chose me over many people who wanted that job. So many people wanted to work at Young Country, but why me? As I asked him the question at the table, the instant I did, I got a very side-eyed look from him. My stomach fell. Ugh, this was the dumbest thing ever.

Instead, he gave me a lesson that I lived by and passed on to many young executives.  

Rick told me that, given this format's popularity, many people in the country applied for the job.  I knew this, and all of them had so much more experience.  People with deep knowledge of Seattle Radio and Country music undoubtedly had the inside track.

His story opened with me trying to imagine a merry-go-round you would see at a county fair.  Yes, a merry-go-round, with horses going up and down in a circle.  At this moment, I’m starting to wonder where this is going and if I just blew my big break?!  He then told me to picture an upside-down L-shaped pole with a string on the top, holding a brass ring.  The Merry-go-round had all the candidates going around trying to grab the ring.  Conventional wisdom, or I thought, was that whoever grabbed that ring got the job; boy, was I wrong.

As it went around and around (the interview process), Rick told me that so many people got the ring every time, but one person never got it.  He held his index finger and thumb about an inch apart and said, “This candidate missed the ring this much every time.”  Clueless about where this was going, I said who was that? 

He said that was you. Meaning ME!

Dumbfounded by the answer, I said the dumbest thing ever: "Okay, I don’t get it.” This was the moment I’d never forget.  He told me that you never want to hire anyone who grabs the ring because they feel entitled to the job, feel like they are owed it, and always give it to the person who misses it.  He continued, “What I knew about you is that you will work 200% harder than anyone else to close that gap, and that’s what you want, always, someone who will work harder and wants the opportunity to grab that ring.”

I have always remembered that moment and that analogy.  Rick became a great friend and one of the biggest influences in my professional career.  

Since then, I have had the privilege to live in so many cities and have so many chances to share this story and pay it forward, but one of the ones I’m the most proud of is the story of Tina Perry.  

I met Tina Perry when I was the co-president of OWN in the summer of 2011. Tina and I quickly hit it off as her hometown and high school were in the same town where I grew up, Oklahoma City. Tina was a Jr. atty working for OWN’s General Counsel and was a superstar. People internally loved her spirit, work ethic, work product, and love for the brand.  

At this time, OWN wasn’t in a great place; we were amidst one of the hardest turnarounds I have been a part of. The General Counsel left, and we had to replace him.  I knew this was a moment for Tina.  However, the Board of Directors, Owners, and many others had doubts.  Her lack of senior leadership, management, and many other factors kept coming up.  However, I remained undeterred because I returned to the Brass Ring story.  Everyone who was coming in for that job grabbed the ring.  Tina never did.  That’s why I knew she was the one. 

The board allowed us to put Tina in a position to be our GC. She was stellar, helping us turn the network around in record time. I was beyond proud of her.  

In late 2018, I resigned to take another job, and I told the board that there was only one person who should have the position of president: Tina.  Tina has been the President since 2019, taking the OWN network to new levels. 

It's one of the most rewarding things when you have a moment to pay it forward.  Tina has yet to learn that Rick Torcasso ingrained this thinking into countless other executives or me I have promoted or hired, who never got that ring.  

As you are growing your company or hiring people, ask yourself, are you hiring someone who grabs that ring or someone who misses it every time? 

Decades later, from this lesson, I have seen that the person who misses the ring will work ten times harder to get it than anyone else.   I’ll always bet and hire someone who misses the ring, and it’s served me well.   

Thank you, Rick; you have no idea how you have impacted so many people.