Every time, the story started the same way. A role opened up. Someone wrote a job post fast, because they needed to fill it fast. They posted it, got a flood of applications, reviewed the ones that looked promising, and ran a handful of interviews on gut instinct and whatever questions came to mind. Then they made an offer. Six months later, they were starting over.
The people running those processes were not bad at reading people. They were not careless. They were running a process built on the wrong evidence, and the process failed them every time. The 20-Minute Hire is what I built so they would stop.
Max built The 20-Minute Hire after years of helping owners and leadership teams clarify roles, improve hiring decisions, and build stronger teams. It packages part of that experience into a focused hiring playbook people can use on the role in front of them, without needing a full consulting engagement.
You do not need more generic hiring advice. You need a better playbook for the next real hire.
Bad hires are not a judgment problem. They're a process problem.
Resumes show you what someone wants you to see. Interviews show you what they have practiced. The gut call at the end rewards whoever reminded you of someone who once worked out. None of that predicts performance.
The hiring teams I worked with were not lacking intuition. They were lacking the right inputs. A process that starts on the wrong foot produces the wrong decision, predictably, every time. The 20-Minute Hire gives you a sharper starting point so weaker-fit candidates filter themselves out earlier, interviews stop running on gut feel, and new hires start with clearer expectations from day one.
What this is built on.
Process over instinct.
Gut instinct is expensive. Not because owners are bad at reading people, but because the evidence they are reading is unreliable.
Speed and quality are not a trade-off.
The job post is a filter. Most are set to let everything through. Set it correctly and you get fewer applicants and better ones at the same time.
The hiring team's reality, not the HR playbook.
Whether hiring sits with the owner, a manager, a recruiter, or a people team, you deserve the same structured process enterprise companies take for granted, built for how you actually work.
Who this is for.
The 20-Minute Hire is for owners, operators, managers, recruiters, and hiring teams who are tired of weak applicant flow, gut-call interviews, no-shows, mismatched candidates, and hires who looked good during the process but failed in the seat.
It is especially useful when the role matters, the timeline matters, and the cost of another wrong hire is too high. If your current hiring process is already producing ideal team players quickly and consistently, you may not need this. If it is not, upgrade the playbook.
WHAT DIFFERENT INPUTS PRODUCE
Six months of failed hires. Two weeks to fill. Still there five years on.
A husband-and-wife services business had tried to fill an operations role for six months. Three hires, three departures. The role was not unfillable. They had simply never agreed on what it required. One session surfaced the misalignment in the first ten minutes. They aligned, finished the session, and filled the role two weeks later.
“This process helped us understand why we hadn't hired someone after six months of trying. My husband and I were looking for different people, and we couldn't agree on anyone. The process made it crystal clear who we needed, and we found our long-term team member in less than two weeks.”
“The right people just seem to gravitate to us now. We've been hiring great people, and we have the best team we've ever had.”
“We had been hiring for the wrong position and had very high turnover. The process helped us understand who we really needed and how to get them. Hiring the right people was a huge step in earning The Best Place to Work award, no doubt.”
Built from real work, not theory.
The 20-Minute Hire comes from Max Kozlovsky's work helping owners and leadership teams make better decisions, build stronger teams, and grow with more clarity.
Max built The 20-Minute Hire after years of working directly with owners, operators, and leadership teams who were trying to grow, delegate, hire, and build stronger companies without guessing their way through every people decision.
Again and again, the same pattern showed up: the bad hire did not usually start in the interview. It started earlier, when the role was unclear, the hiring message was generic, the decision criteria were fuzzy, and onboarding was treated as something to figure out after the offer.
The 20-Minute Hire packages part of that advisory experience into a focused hiring playbook you can use on the role in front of you. It is not a replacement for judgment. It is a better way to bring structure, clarity, and confidence to the decision.
- Built from years of advisory work with owners and leadership teams.
- Connected to Max's broader work through Quest Advising and Practical Leadership.
- Designed for real hiring pressure, not theory, templates, or generic HR advice.
Quest Advising
Max's advisory and consulting work with owners, leadership teams, and growth-minded companies. See the broader work, client stories, and business growth proof behind the thinking.
Visit Quest Advising →Practical Leadership
A public look at Max's thinking, conversations, and practical leadership philosophy through interviews and tools for leaders who want to produce better outcomes with their teams.
Watch Practical Leadership →