Don’t Hire The Resume: Use The Three C’s To Build A Real Team

Eric Elliott • 04 Apr 2025

When you’re running a business or law firm, hiring the right people isn’t just a priority—it’s a competitive advantage. One great hire can elevate your entire operation. One wrong one? It can drag down morale, culture, and even your bottom line.

Yet, time after time, I see business owners fall into the same trap: they hire the resume.

Here’s the truth: most resumes are fictionalized sales sheets—not accurate reflections of skill or attitude. I’ve seen candidates who couldn’t back up a word on their resume, and others with humble documents who turned out to be all-stars.

Hiring based on a resume alone is like judging someone by the credit report they wrote themselves.

At VIP Marketing, we take a different approach. We use a simple but powerful hiring lens I call the Three C’s:

Coachable
Capable
Culture Fit

Let’s break them down—and why they matter more than any bullet point on a CV.

1. Coachable: Are They Willing to Grow?

You can’t train attitude. A coachable person doesn’t just take direction—they crave feedback. They want to grow, improve, and rise to the occasion. They don’t just ask what to do—they ask how to do it better.

A coachable candidate doesn’t get defensive when corrected. They lean in. They take initiative. They come back having implemented the feedback and ready for more.

During interviews, I look for signs: Do they ask questions? Are they curious about how we do things and why? Do they show self-awareness or just talk about how great they are?

Coachable people are the ones who turn into leaders. They evolve, adapt, and elevate your standards.

2. Capable: Can They Actually Do the Work?

This seems obvious—but many overlook it. Capability isn’t about buzzwords or job titles on LinkedIn. It’s about performance and understanding of the role.

We ask:

Can they do the job—not just on paper, but under pressure?
Do they understand what’s expected, and can they meet that expectation consistently?
Do they ask the right questions that show they know how the role contributes to the bigger picture?

We’ve had candidates with shiny resumes who, once hired, couldn’t manage their own calendars. Capability is about execution. It’s about judgment, time management, and clarity.

When someone is capable, it shows quickly. When they’re not—it shows even faster.

3. Culture: Do They Fit and Elevate the Team?

Here’s the part too many business owners ignore: you’re not just hiring an employee—you’re adding a person to your ecosystem. That person needs to align with your values, your pace, your communication style, and your energy.

Ask yourself:

Could I spend five hours in a room with this person without being drained?
Will they make my team better—or just create friction?
Do they believe in the mission and vision of what we’re building?

Culture fit isn’t about hiring clones. It’s about shared values, emotional intelligence, and mutual respect. Someone who doesn’t fit the culture—no matter how smart they are—can damage morale and momentum.

In one of my conversations with entrepreneur and creative coach Chris Do on the Going Forward podcast, he put it like this:

“I don’t really know a person until I’ve seen the sun come up with them. That moment where you’ve worked through something hard together… That’s when you find out who they really are.”

That stuck with me. Because it’s not just about how someone shows up—it’s about how they stick around. Will they still be all in when the project gets tough? When the team is under pressure? When the hours stretch long?

We look for people who aren’t just aligned—but invested. People who want to help grow the company and help our client partners win.