Before passing the Archery Business editor torch to Darren Choate, I penned a Bottom Line column dubbed “Poser Alert.” Yikes! I had no idea that article would strike a chord with so many. I’m glad it did, and after spending some time on the phone with Darren recently, we decided it best to expand on the topic and give you all a little more. Here we go.

The archery crowd consists of some of the finest human beings on planet Earth. That’s a fact. It’s also a fact that bad apples exist, those whose purpose is not to see the future of archery move forward by being selfless and helping others, but whose sole purpose is to promote themselves. Most of these chest-beaters cook up social media sites and lifestyles that are totally false. Once they develop their image, they move forward with their plan.

Many of these look-at-me types are wanting to do nothing more than fast-track it to the top of the archery industry. They aren’t interested in hard work or starting at the bottom and moving their way up. They want what they want, and they want it right now.

This is a smooth-talking crowd, and you have to be careful not to let them in the door — not to let them use your built-from-the-ground-up grass-roots pro shop for their Lamborghini ride into the industry. Take a look at these potential warning signs and be sure to keep them in mind when looking to hire a prospective new employee.

Warning Signs

Showing you their personal Instagram following. Sure, they may have 11K followers and have some catchy outdoor name, but do they know their way around a set of cams? Most often, posers will use flashy, inflated Instagram numbers to derail you from asking them about their true archery knowledge.

Showing you image after image of their big deer harvests. It’s great that they’ve downed some deer with archery tackle and spend time in the bushes. However, if all they want to do is talk about their 4-year quest to kill a buck named the “Tall G-3,” then you may have a problem. This is especially true if they keep bringing it up during the interview process. Again, these types, when engaged with customers, will make the conversation all about them, and try to get the customer to follow them and not your shop.

Letting you know all about the sponsors they’ve picked up over the past few years. Have there been lots of solid shop technicians that shoot for various brands? Yes. My good buddy shot for Hoyt for a number of years. He was also the lead bow technician at a local shop. The difference was, he never mentioned that sponsorship to anyone. He was humble. He wasn’t chasing Instagram fantasies or television hopes. He wanted to help people — and when it came tournament time, do his best to climb the podium and represent his sponsors and his pro shop. You had to beat his successes out of him.

Snapping selfies and posting them to social media while at your shop for the interview. Yes, it really happens. My shop-owning Minnesota amigo recently interviewed a pair of eager, young, fire-pissers. He noted that they seemed knowledgeable, but counted nine different occasions during the interview/shop tour that they stopped to snap selfies and post them to their own social media pages. “That told me all I needed to know about their motives,” he told me later.

They start asking about next year’s ATA Show, and want to make sure they will be making the trip. “This is a huge red flag,” said my Sooner State buddy. “We have a small shop, but we do lots and lots of bow set ups, repairs and the like. Side of my wife and me, we have two other full-time employees that work for us. Both have been with us more than 5 years, and this past January was the first time I took them to the Show. They earned it, and I honestly needed them to go around and find out what the latest and greatest products were while I wrote my orders. Not once did they ask to attend the Show. If I had a prospective hire ask me about the Show during the interview process and specifically ask me if they could attend, that would be the end of the interview. You also want to watch out for those who ask you to provide contacts of the manufacturers you work most closely with. We have a friend that has shop in California, and his recently-let-go employee was using shop industry contacts to solicit his own sponsorships.”

The Screening Process

My good buddy, Phil Mendoza, owns and operates Denver’s largest, most successful pro shop. No Limits Archery is a growing enterprise, and though this was Phil’s vision from the start, it took a lot of hard work and time to get the shop to where it is today. Phil didn’t take shortcuts. He’s a believer in discipline and hard work.

“There is no faking it in this industry,” said Phil. “If you’re in it for the wrong reasons, you get spotted quickly. This industry is small, and if you’re just looking to fast-track it to the top, your true motives will eventually be discovered. My shop is a reflection of my beliefs. It represents my family, my trusted customers and the industry I love so much. When I look to hire someone, I have a process that usually plucks the weeds from the flowers.”

Phil’s Interview Tips

1. “I always have them fill out an application, and then I check them out on social media,” Phil Mendoza said.
2. “I want to see what their social profile says about them,” he continued. “Plus, if they have thousands of followers, I want to look at those followers and see how many are legit outdoorsmen and women. It takes time, but it’s worth it.”
3. “If I bring someone in for an interview, I have a set of questions ready. This keeps the interview on track and alleviates the chance for a smooth-talker to get me off topic.”
4. “In addition to the interview, I have them set up a bow from start to finish. I have them attach all the accessories, tie in the peep, drop-away cord or limb-driven rest cord, the D-loop and tune the bow through paper. I want to watch them work. With that noted, you also want to be on the outlook for those who don’t know their way around a bow but are willing to learn. My last three hires have been guys that didn’t know much about the technical side of things but were willing to learn. They had the right attitudes. They have proven to be great employees. We must remember that as archers and bow technicians, we learn something new every day, and we should never expect a new hire to be perfect in the technical area. 
5. “Side of the interview and bow set up, I just like to get a general feel for the person. When it’s their turn to talk, I listen to them. A lot of times, a person will reveal his or her true motives without actually coming out and saying, ‘Hey, by the way, my true motives are …’ Get a feel for the person. The feel you get for them is likely going to be the same feel your customers get.”

Inflation on the Rise

Because I’ve been in this industry for many years as a writer and editor, when I see a person on Instagram with 20K followers and a growing YouTube Channel, I check them out. Of course, some are legit. What I’ve found, though, is that most inflate their following in a massive way. How? They pay for followers.

In researching this article, I spent a week digging into the underground world of Instagram. I even contacted a few Instagram growers such as Pimp My Gram, Kicksta and Social Upgrade. To be clear, these powerful Instagram influencers aren’t doing anything wrong. They are providing a service. Most offer free trial memberships, have customer reviews posted on their site and the list goes on.

I found the sites work much like a fitness or cell plan provider. You log on, sign up, pick a pricing plan (after your free trail) and voila, you’re on your way to growing your following. Pricing is based on how involved you want your chosen Instagram grower to be. I know, scary, right?

I dug a little deeper. I reached out to a college friend who has about 30K Instagram followers. He’s in the fitness world, runs a successful gym and competes in lots of CrossFit events.

“I have a site manage my Instagram account now,” he said. “That didn’t happen, though, until I got over 25K followers. I can still follow who I want and post my own content, but someone helps me manage it. The sad thing is it’s easy for someone to inflate their fitness following. I flat out ask youngsters wanting to come into my gym and work or train people what Instagram grower they use. I don’t hold it against them if they are using one, but I want to know. A lot of these fitness posers have a following that isn’t real. They are paying for numbers, but their audience aren’t real fitness freaks. That doesn’t do me any good. It’s just like a magazine. Paying a company to get your magazine in doctor’s and dentist’s offices and the like isn’t like having a real paid subscriber.

“I always take a minute and scroll through a person’s Instagram followers when I see what I feel like is an inflated number. Typically, this will be a person with thousands and thousands of followers, but is only following a limited number of people. It doesn’t take long for me to scroll through their list of followers and see that most aren’t fitness people. When I go down a so-called fitness-guru’s list and it takes me a while to find 25 hardcore fitness goers, there’s a problem.”

Why Your Shop?

Posers know that Instagram will only get them so far. They need a doorway to walk through — a place they can get right into the industry — a place where they can push their own agenda and work with industry manufacturers. Sad, I know, but that’s their goal.

Stay Old School

Don’t get this final headline wrong. I think your archery shop should have an Instagram account, Facebook page, YouTube channel and the like. Social media is a big influencer. What the heading means is to keep it “old school” when it comes to someone who will eventually wear an employee shirt. Don’t be influenced by someone else’s social media following or sweet-talking nature. Have them fill out an application, bring them in for an interview, have them set up a bow or two and take it from there.