Hey everybody, it’s Richard Milligan your host for recruiting conversations recording is podcasts in between Christmas and New Year’s and what a cool time of year it is, and I mean cool as in cold because where I’m at I’m in my studio. I am I’m not wearing shorts and t-shirt I’m in the Midwest and so it’s like a you know 20 mile an hour north wind and it’s like 30 degrees and so. I don’t know what it feels like but it feels cold, how’s that. Excited to come to you today to share a recent conversation that I have with the recruiting leader and if this is your first time up on this podcast, let me define recruiting leader for you. Recruiting leader is someone that actually manages a team but it’s also responsible for recruiting to that team it is a unique position if you’re in a Salesman manager role a market leader role if you’re in a position where you are recruiting experienced sales people, could be real estate agents loan officers, could be insurance agents, those typically are the three industries that this podcast falls in. Its inside the mortgage real estate and insurance communities and so if you are responsible at any level of recruiting this podcast was for you but specifically if you’re responsible for wearing the 12 to 15 hats that a leader wears in managing a team and then has to throw that extra hat on for recruiting, then this is bullseye for you.
The title of this podcast is recruiting conversations for a reason and it’s that I share recent conversations that I have with recruiting leaders that I’m coaching and so I want to share well I think it’s a very apropo to the time of year that it is it’s you know this time where everyone’s evaluating kind of where we’ve been we’re looking forward it’s that one window of time where everyone says did I accomplish what I really wanted to accomplish in the last 12 months, and what do I want to accomplish as I look into the future. I know that there’s probably more people looking at this now because it’s the beginning of a new decade, and so we’re leaving 2019 going into 2020 and so more people now are saying look at the last decade and what I want to accomplish in the next decade. I love that perspective by the way. I love that framework. I think that leaders that are casting vision or let’s just start with this leaders who lead should cast vision, okay? I find that most leaders don’t so if you’re a leader you really should be looking into the future and deciding where you want to go, where do you want to lead your team. Inside my house one of the principles that we have that we talk about all the time with our kids is we call it the lead dog principle, and the lead dog principle is this is that when you understand how dog sled racing takes place. There’s only one dog it’s at the lead of that pack and that pack never goes any faster than the lead dog goes, and so one of the things that I’m aware of is that if you’re in a leadership role, the people that follow you are never going to go any faster than what you lead them. They’re never gonna go any further than the vision that you cast and so I would dare say a lot of my seasons of being under leadership that I wasn’t being inspired, I wasn’t being challenged, there wasn’t a big vision being cast for me for the people around me in the direction that we were going. It’s our jobs as leaders to cast that clear that clear vision. So, just established that lays a great time to look at the next decade like our company has a ten-year vision and every single year we sit down and we look at where we are in relationship to that ten-year vision, and we set a one-year vision, a one-year plan of how we’re going to further the vision and what are we going to accomplish in that year, and so we just went to this process we have a new vision for 2020. That’s completely aligned with the ten-year vision that we cast in 2017, when we started this company. So, the ten-year vision for this organization was in year 10 we wanted to impact in that one year 10,000 recruiting leaders.
Now that vision has been propellant for a lot of things that we’ve done. It’s been a propellant for this podcast it’s been it’ll be a propellant for a second podcast that we’re launching in 2020, it’s a propellant for a book that’s been written, it’s a propellant for a number of things, it’s repellant for a digital recorder to recorded coaching class that we’re working on right now. There’s all kinds of things that are looking into the future to say how do we actually get this message of we believe that recruiting is simple. How do we get that message to 10,000 recruiting leaders in one year. We would never be doing those things if we didn’t have a large vision, that’s the power of vision the power of being able to look in the future and see where you want to go and then making plans for today that actually take action on where you want to be in 10 years, it forces you way outside your comfort zone, it forces you to do things that you wouldn’t normally do. So, vision should be a big part of what you’re thinking about and what you’re planning around for the upcoming decade and specifically the upcoming year.
But the recent conversation I had was around time management. So, and in time this is one thing that most recruiting leaders struggle with so if you struggle with this welcome to the club because I struggled with this for most of my career until about 2013 when I started doing some things differently, and so it’s a conversation that I start a lot of my coaching with when I’m beginning with someone as a new coaching client and we look at their idea around how they’re managing their time. So, in the conversation I was having with them always having this laying kind of the framework that they’re gonna have to manage their time differently, and I came to the hint that coaching session by making this statement. I said “you need to go Rick berry on your time management” now because I do all of my coaching live I could see the look on their face and the look on their face was you know it’s a the look on my six-year-olds face whenever I use a big word and they have no clue what it means. It was I have no clue what you’re talking about. So, let me give you some context around that statement I need you to go Rick berry what why I make that statement is because for those of you that aren’t familiar with who Rick berry is, Rick berry was an NBA player and in 1978 Rick berry actually set a record for the percentage of free throws that he actually hit. Now most people don’t remember Rick berry for setting that record which was like almost 85% of his free-throws that he hit in 1978 to 1979, they don’t remember him for that record what they actually remember Rick Barry for and where most people go oh I get it is because Rick Barry shot his free-throws underhanded, and in the history of the NBA he’s like the only person that has regularly there been a few people that have tried it, no one has stuck with it. So, most people will reflect back on that underhanded free-throw shooter and go yeah I know you’re talking about, right? What’s interesting is that look I’ve done a bunch of research on Rick Barry and one of the things I know is that Rick Barry is actually coach, he’s actually tutored other bad free-throw shooters after leaving the NBA. Now, in an interview one of the things that they asked Rick Barry was around that like people had kind of known in NBA circles that he’s taken a handful of bat really bad free-throw shooters, and he’s tutored them. When they’ve interviewed him about this he wouldn’t actually say who it was that he worked with because they never actually had the guts the people that he coached never had the guts to go back to their team and to go back into regular season and actually shoot underhanded free-throws. Now, why is that, well the reason why it is, is because it’s kind of weird, like if you’ve ever seen that it looks a little odd, like however you want to describe it, I kind of laugh because in a newspaper article someone was asking about this and his son Canyon Barry who was shooting 85 – 86 % of hitting 85 to 86 percent of free throw shots which is actually extremely well the NBA average is somewhere around 75 to 76 percent year-over-year, in a moment where his son who was at Florida shooting underhand free throws, Rick Barry happened to be sitting behind a fan, and after Rick’s son Kenya actually hit the free-throw the fan made this statement, that’s embarrassing, and Rick Barry said to the person why is that embarrassing, isn’t the in that basketball going through the hoop and the fan goes yeah and bears what’s so embarrassing about making free throws, right? It’s like, it doesn’t make sense so what I know and why I say why I use Rick Barry’s an example my coaching is this is that, to a large degree if you’re gonna be successful you’re going to have to be counterculture, you’re going to have to go against the grain, of what is normal, okay? If you want normal results then go do normal, but I personally and if you’re listening this podcast list and you are already in the 1% right you’re furthering yourself, you’re growing, yourself you’re educating yourself you’re looking for insight in ways that you can change your recruiting if you’re listening and listening this podcast you’re in the 1% you’re one of those people that’s gonna go most likely go against the grain. So, you’ve got to go over it as I look at 2020, I want you to really challenge anything that you’ve done the status quo I’m gonna give you some stats around a handful of things here that are extremely status quo when it comes to American culture and just culture in general, okay? Let’s just start with a stat here, the average American spends 3 hours and 58 minutes on TV every day, okay? So, let’s just it’s two minutes shy of four hours okay they just make that statement because it actually hurts my brain to think about this the average American spends almost four hours on TV every day, okay? Here’s and here’s another statistical data point that’s actually gonna jump out at you, the average time that we spend on social media is an hour and 35 minutes, okay? So, let’s just we’re gonna start combining this now right we’re at four hours on TV where it will just run it down to an hour and a half on social media we’re a five and a half hours per day, between TV and social media how about this the average person spends a hundred and two minutes per day on radio, okay? Like is that, that’s just kind of begin another huge data set this is leaping out at me. We’re spending 135 minutes on social, we’re spending three hours and 50 I have 58 minutes on TV, 102 minutes a day on radio. I took the time just kind of multiply those things out, what does that look like over the course of a year, get this, okay? On TV we’re spending a 1400 and 60 hours okay or let’s just let’s just quantify that differently if you are working a 40-hour work week you’re spending 36 and a half work weeks on TV if you’re averaging an hour and a half on social media that’s five hundred forty seven hours a year or thirteen point six eight work weeks. if you’re investing 102 minutes a day into radio which by the way ninety-seven percent of Americans say they listen to the radio on their commute, okay? And a lot of that data point just comes in the commute because the average commute is 45 minutes one way in the United States. So, that information makes complete sense to me, but that’s six hundred and twenty and a half hours per year or 15 and a half work weeks, okay? So, you if we compiled all of that we’re actually investing more time in radio social media and TV then we actually are investing in the things that we do in our careers. It’s actually six to over 65 extra work weeks that we could get back if we eliminated those. Now, that’s an overstatement okay and I’m trying to make a really big point here. So, the overstatement I get the fact that you know no one’s gonna reduce our TV time to zero or it would be almost no one because they might watch, you know a show per week, with a friend or they might have a show that they love one show they love on Netflix that they watch, you know an hour here or there I get that. Social media, look I believe in having a strong leadership brand on social media. So, I’ve got to be intentional at that time but I am NOT gonna spend an hour in 35 minutes a day, in fact I limit my time on social to 30 minutes a day. On radio, I eliminate that completely. There’s no time on radio that I that I would spend on radio. I want to give you some ideas around this to just say what if 2020 is a year where you become Rick Barry, in Rick Barry ish in a couple of places you become a little bit weird. If you get really intentional with your time in this, let’s just talk about some ways that you can that you can utilize a time.
First of all it’s you don’t have to listen to music in the car I love what Brian Tracy said back in the 80s it called radio bubblegum for the years. You, look with audio with audiobooks today, you use audible or whatever Kindle or whatever app you use if you’re if you’re taking a podcast right the average book that I read is some I listen to I say read that’s a that’s not actually actually true I listen to about probably 95 to 98% of all the books that I take in the day. But if there’s 620 hours that I can capture it by not listening to the radio, my average book is somewhere around 6 hours long, I could digest a hundred books in a year now. I don’t digest 100 books in here but I digest north of 50 a lot of people’s that don’t understand how you do it well it’s because I’m being more intentional with my time. I’m saying no to things that don’t matter to say yes to things that actually do matter. The things that actually allow me to grow and to become more. So, what the bottom line is this I think everything is in play I want to be counterculture in the space as I go into 2020, one of the one of the things that I have looked at as I’m evaluating where I want to go in this next year is, I’ve asked myself this question, where can I double down in terms of my own efforts, where can I double down in terms of my own efforts, that will actually allow me to exponentially grow. So, I evaluate in 2019 what are the some of the things that I that I’ve done well, one of the things that I did well in 2019 was LinkedIn but I’m looking at LinkedIn, and what I’m what I’m thinking about is what has the power of my leadership brand been there, and it’s been the result of them phenomenal, I’m just telling you I’m probably somewhere between 10 and 15 appointments a week, simply from what I’m doing on LinkedIn, which is delivering daily content, about every 10 days delivering an article, delivering consistent ideas and thoughts and videos and memes and these things to the platform, but I’m gonna double down on that in 2020. I got an email today from someone that was inviting me to be their speaker at their sales rally, I’ve never met the person, and I’m being invited to do that simply because I have a strong leadership brand, they know what I believe and they believe that I understand recruiting and recruiting is the topic that they won’t discuss at their sales rally so I will be the person to talk around that, but that was all tied directly to the things that I’m doing on LinkedIn. I will double down there, I will take some of this time that just laid out in front of you and I will go to that place, I’ll deliver more articles, I will do more videos, I will get creative and some of the things I’m that I will be delivering there, there’s a handful of creative ideas where I’ll be actually changing and shifting and actually improving some of the deliverables of what I’m bringing to the platform, by saying no to things that don’t matter, I’m able to say group say yes to things that do matter, and I’m able to go from being good or average to being becoming great, and I’m not there, but I do want to get there, okay?
How many people could I influence with that time. I just laid it out for you, it’s more time than investing if I’m working 40 hours a week. How many people can I influence at that time, that’s a question you got to ask yourself, how many ideas could you implement around your recruiting efforts, if you were to do something weird with that time. how many more people could you make contact with, if you were to go counterculture in some of this.
I’ll share this with you just to kind of grab you and to create some tension, okay? and I’m actually shaking you right now you can’t see me if you’re on the podcast but if not go check out my youtube video. I’m shaking you right now with my hands, I’m trying to create some tension here for you, and the reason why I want to create some tension here for you is this, is that, we have I’m 46 years old this year I am more aware now than ever that time flies by. I have no clue how I got to having a 17-year-old with one year left in high school, right? I’m more aware that time flies, I’m also aware that each of not me, not just you, everybody this listen this podcast has been created for something specific that’s been created with the purpose with the plan that’s been created for greatness. I love what Ed Millette says, he says he’s convinced that when he gets to heaven but they’ll he’ll get to meet the version of himself that he could have been, and that’s some perspectives, him perspective that allows him to stretch himself. I want to stretch myself in 2020, and I’m going to go grab some of this time, some of the space, that I’m giving away and letting disappear I’m going to execute in on some of the areas where I believe that if I double down in my efforts, I’ll get more results. We have one life to live, I want to make the most of it and my prayer for you is that you will make the most of it as we head into 2020. So, with that said I hope everyone has a new year this will come out on New Year’s Eve, everyone has a new an awesome new year, look forward to coming back here in the next podcast I’m gonna share six questions this will come to the next podcast we’ll come to you right after the new year. I’m gonna share six questions I asked myself going into 2020 that really challenged my thinking, it really stretched me in terms of what I want to accomplish and how am I going to accomplish it, and what’s important to me in the new year, and so I’ll share that with you and a conversation I have with someone else around those six topics in. So, until the next time I do me a favor would you write a review, if in 2019 this podcast brought some value to you I would be honored if you wrote a review this podcast, gets several thousand listens it’s got a handful of reviews it’s got less than 20 reviews on it. If this podcast has brought some value to you would you please do me a favor and go out of your way to actually do a review, on whether it’s Google Play or whether it’s iTunes, wherever you listen to this it would be the biggest gift that you could give me going into the new year. We’re going up we planned on cutting 52 of these in 2019 we cut 44 of these, we might get to 45th before the end of the year, but we’ve got 44 of these so we nine shy of what we said we were going to do, and so as we go onto the end of the next year our objective with this podcast is to a break a hundred total in in number, which means that we’re gonna have to live somewhere around 55 – 56 podcast I’m going into 2020. That’ll be our objective is to continue to bring you value here and help you understand best how to grow yourself how to become the best recruiting leader that you can be so happy new years everybody I look forward to seeing you again on the next episode here at recruiting conversations have a great new year.
