Hey everybody! it’s Richard Milligan, your host of recruiting conversations, welcome back to another episode. It is episode 33 and it’s pretty crazy to think just a few months ago, I say a few months ago, but just I don’t know what nine months ago we started this, and now here we are at episode 33 and it’s a growing audience. So, thank you! To every one of you that’s actually shared this with someone, because you know I’m passionate about it, and if you listen to this you know then I’m passionate about it! Sometimes I get a little too wound up in my podcast talking to myself and that’s a little bit odd, if you’ve ever gotten wound up talking to yourself, I think there’s medication for that, I’m just not on any of it. I am really excited about recruiting, and I’m really passionate about this idea of sharing ideas with people that are in the recruiting leader space, and of course that recruiting leaders someone who actually manages a team, but then it’s also responsible for building recruiting to that team, and so I’m extremely passionate about that audience and helping that audience win and the reason why is because I spent well over 15 years in that space, in two different industries, and know that there’s very little training in this area that would actually help the individuals that are trying their dandiest to build something to go win, and so because of that, we give away a ton of free resources, we’re going to give away this podcast as one of those resources, and as part of this there’s actually going to be we’re goes from time to time we share an extra value add which is additional link that you can go to, to get more information that will bring value to you.
So we’re gonna share another one of those pieces with you today, and I’m gonna jump right into this. I this last week, this week, now last week, we last couple of days actually did an interview for an article that’s being written, got asked a really good question and my eye, as I was answering the question one of the things that realizes that man I think everyone needs to hear my response of this if their recruiting leader because I think there’s value here. I think there’s some aha moments to be had in what’s being said, and so I’m blessed in that I get to simply think about recruiting, and I get to talk about recruiting all day long, and if you’re a recruiting leader, you may spend 30 – 45 minutes a day in this particular space, that may be it now you may spend more but I’ve found that about fifteen to thirty minutes a day especially in a busy season is about all that a recruiting leader can carve out. Now, if you’re a recruiter or straight-up recruiter that it is your life and you and it’s what you do, but if you’re leading a team this is one of the maybe 15 hats that you wear in a day. So, you met if you’ll carve out thirty minutes that seems like you’re maxing out, and so I get that and because of that we get really excited about sharing some things with you that allow you to actually get better in that thirty minutes a day that you actually spend recruiting. It’s so, we’re gonna talk about that and some of the ideas that I shared in an article a couple days ago, so here’s the question that I got asked, “why do you think people settle?” and the other question the follow-up question that is “how can recruiting leaders know if they’re settling?” now I know that when I got asked this question why do you think it is that people settle, there was something that rose up in me because I don’t the people that I deal with I don’t think that they do believe they’re settling. When you look at their energy when you look at the amount of effort that they’re putting into this the amount of passion that they’re putting into what they do, I would be offended, if I was that individual and someone said look you’re settling, you’re just settling, right? I mean what when I think of settling and I don’t know you can’t see this unless you’re watching the video person at this, and if you want to check that out I do have a YouTube channel, Vimeo channel you can check those out but I’m laughing right now, and that my I’m smiling ear-to-ear, and the reason why I’m smiling ear-to-ear as I say this is that when I think of someone that link I think of a middle-aged man with a beer in his hand as feet up in a lazy boy waiting for his welfare check to show up eyes watching daytime television, okay? So, there’s a visual for you, and that, I thought, when I think of settling, I think of that. I, look of over the last twenty-three months, or however long I’ve been doing this, what I know is that the four hundred plus people that I have actually met with one-on-one of coach, have I’ve never had anyone come in that wasn’t all in. That wasn’t putting forth their best effort, now was it something misdirected absolutely was there a lack of really knowledge, you know, an education that led them to a place where they could apply, the things that actually would actually help them win, absolutely. So, in context, I want to establish just at a foundational level, when we say, why do you think it is that people settle, I believe that most don’t believe they’re settling because of the amount of effort they put into something, but in truth, there’s more available, which means that they are settling. If there’s more available to them, where they’re putting effort, the same amount of energy, the same amount of effort to get something in terms of a different result, then it’s a knowledge issue, it’s you don’t know what you don’t know, until you know it, okay? Now, there’s a really intelligent, go tweet that one, okay? You don’t know what you don’t know, until you know it. Now, here’s what I’m hopeful, is that you know it before it’s too late, okay? Like, this is the reason why we do this podcast because we really want to help people know what they don’t know and we really want to help people have these “aha” moments, before it is too late, and I’ve worked with leaders that have shown up, and have said I got 90 days to build on his team, right? I lost three people last month, the last half of my team is, so now I gotta go recruit and recruit quickly, or I’m in trouble. So, I’ve seen that, and that can happen with people, so let’s talk about this thing of how do we know if someone’s settling, ok?
Clarity is the first thing I’m going to actually talk about here, like a do you have clarity, and why you’re doing what you’re doing, okay? Not having clarity around your calling, not having clarity of like your vision of what you actually want to build in the market or markets that you’re in, actually leads to settling. And the reason why is that everyone ends up somewhere, but few people end up somewhere on purpose. And that’s very true, like we all end up in a place, but few of us are really intentional about that place that we end up, and so we just end up somewhere, and look if you’re a decent leader, you should actually see some organic growth in your market. But is that actually maximizing the opportunity that you have, or is it some degree settling, and what I would say is that where people are really clear and why they’re doing what they’re doing, and then also clear and what they want to actually achieve what they want to build, by having a vision, then those people don’t settle. One of the things that happened to me is 2007, I was actually in the mortgage industry, and I was actually beginning of 2007 in significant growth mode in my business, and I really to make that statement, I didn’t know, what I didn’t know, until it was too late, we had if you if you were in the mortgage industry in 2007, you are shaking your head right now, you’re like yeah, like I know with that you know third, fourth quarter and going into a 08 or 09, what that looked like, you know, in that season, I actually came to some clarity as to my calling, some clarity around what was most important to me. And one of the things that happened to me was like I failed miserably in 2007, because I didn’t know what was going to happen, and I wasn’t prepared for what took place, and so you know I get into like q3, q4 2007 and I’m failing miserably and I really don’t, I know I’m gonna have to recreate myself, I really have no idea how I’m going to recreate myself, and so you know, I was gonna went up personally and professionally where I just struggled. Hey I mean, I went of the place where like getting out of bed in the mornings was a feat, like it just waking up every single day and now I’m gonna have to have hard conversations, that I’m going to deal with a lot of conflict, in the middle of recreating myself, and have no idea how to recreate myself, I mean, I woke up every single day just saying I’m not sure this is worth it, I’m not sure I want to actually go into the office and deal with my people, and make the hard decision that I was going to have to make. In that season, I’d go back now, I’ve got four kids, and if you listen to this, I may have brought that up a couple of times, but my oldest today is 17, but when I map that back to 2007, Ethan was five years old, and my Gavin’s my 12 year old today, and Gavin was a newborn in 2007, and Lea and I have been married for eight years at the time, and man, I if you know my full story, you know that I actually grew up extremely poor, I mean some part of my story is that you know, we, I remember duct taped in my tennis shoes, I remember actually eating saltine crackers and milk for breakfast. You know, I remember being evicted from homes, that you know that was that’s part of my story, and so because of that when 2007 rolled around I began to struggle and have this enormous loss, you know, it took me back to time in a place where I said, I’m never going to live like this. And so I remember waking up every single day and seeing the faces of my wife, and my two young sons, and saying you may have promised yourself that if you had a family they wouldn’t live like this, and so in those moments one of the things that became very clear to me is that one of my biggest motivators was them, was I was putting my feet on the floor every single morning for Ethan and Gavin and Leah, it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t for more money, or a better title or for you know building a new home, or creating financial freedom, I literally woke up every single day, and what got me out of bed, and what got me moving forward was it was clarity around who I was doing this for, and why I was doing it for them, and so I know in that season I actually did in about a six month Linda recreate myself and get back to a place where I was having a lot of success in the mortgage industry, simply because I had that clarity. So, I think that people settle in terms of not even knowing they’re settling because they just simply lacked clarity around why they’re doing, what they’re doing, and they’re unclear what vision with their vision is for their market, and what the vision is for their life.
The second thing that came up as part of this question as I answered it was this, I think people settle from a lack of accountability. Look, here’s one of the things I know about me, this is just about me. So, for those of you that don’t need accountability in your life that you’re just like you wake up every single morning, and you’re at a hundred and ten percent of your own capacity, and you don’t struggle with things like wanting to move towards the path of least resistance, right? and if that’s you, then this doesn’t, this doesn’t represent you, for the other ninety-nine point nine percent of you, you need accountability, right? We all have limitations around what we can do on our own, and what I found is that by creating accountability, we increase our capacity to do things. So, I’ll give you an example in my own life, because I I do think that it’s relative to you sharing your own story, so that people can connect and kind of have some ideas around this, but every Tuesday, I meet with three people that I’m aligned with in terms of my beliefs my values, that are where I’m at, or ahead of me, and they might say look I’m where you’re at not ahead of you, but I look at them and these are these are these are three men that I aspire to be like that are great husband’s, great fathers, that are entrepreneurs, that have built successful businesses, that are also growing those businesses today significantly, and I look at them and I say I need that accountability because it actually stretches me, right? Iron sharpens iron, and so by having a Tuesday morning meeting, there’s a level of accountability that comes from that and by meeting every single Tuesday with those three guys, Clay, Shane, and Jay, what happens is that I actually stretch my capacity to be more, I stretched my capacity to do more, because of the accountability that this small group creates for me. Now, outside of that I actually have a lot other a lot of other areas where there’s accountability, and I encourage people to create accountability because what that means is that man we won’t settle the things that we know we shouldn’t be settling for. So, as an example one of my core values is that my family comes first, my family comes before my business, my family becomes comes before my personal interest, and so I need accountability in that. So, my wife Leah becomes the accountability in that I have given her permission to say things like working 80 hours a week is too much Richard, and I need the tension that she creates in that, and I’ve given her permission to speak to that. So that I can actually increase my capacity to be a better father, to be a better husband. So, I’ve created accountability there. Now, outside of that one of the things I know is that when I have specific things I need to accomplish I’ve got to go create accountability, around those let me give you a very simple a couple of simple examples this podcast only takes place because I’ve created accountability, if I don’t deliver the podcast a specific time, then I write a check anyway so the individual that’s helped me get this podcast on all the platforms and get it getting it prepared with an intro and an outro I’m getting it promoted, right? I write that check whether I deliver the podcast or not, there’s accountability there, okay? I go back to the beginning of 2017, at the beginning of 2017, one of the things that I realize is that my leadership brand needs to be strengthened. So, I made a promise to myself as for in 2017, I’m gonna post on LinkedIn Monday through Friday every week for the entire year. What I realized knowing me is that just making that statement or writing it down on paper or sending would hold myself accountable to it wasn’t enough, that I needed more accountability and by creating more accountability it was going to increase my capacity and I would do it. So inside that, I asked somebody to hold me accountable and I actually said look if you’ll hold me accountable to doing this, if I don’t post just even one day and you catch me not posting one day within a 24 hour window then I will write you a $2,500 check if you can catch me not posting one day on a Monday through Friday, and I knew that by just even making that statement, or at least I hoped, by making that statement there would be enough tension there, that I would be held accountable to it. I intentionally created additional accountability by actually involving somebody else in that space, and guess what, I did it, I actually wrote every single day Monday through Friday for all of 2017, and since then, when I look back at 2017-18 and now here in 19, I had less than a handful of days I would say three or four days max where I haven’t posted you know in protecting my leadership brand and delivering content in that window of time. Now, of course my wife thought I was nuts, she’s like you’re doing what, I’m I don’t understand, like, this is pretty making sure that this is going to take place, it’s not gonna happen, but here’s part of that story, it was like Friday night, okay? Now, I use I have a habit journal, and if you’re on the video you’ll see that’ll habit journal I’m holding it up, but I have a little habit journal that I used and the things I say I’m gonna do I write in the habit journal every single day, as I’m going to bed I put a checkmark in the category did I accomplish that, so whatever it is, I’m it’s in my habit journal if I want to do it consistently, and then I actually put up a checkmark it’s actually an X and I put in that count column did I do it for the day. So, in 2017 I’m going to bed Friday night it’s like and I mean it’s like 11:55, so, we’re going to bed I reach over for my habit journal I open it up and I’m like oh darn, I have not posted on LinkedIn today, and you know what I did, I picked up my phone, okay? I created some content, and I dropped it on the platform and I barely beat the midnight cutoff to make that happen, otherwise I would have written that 2,500 dollars check, the only reason why it took place is because I created accountability. Now, here’s the other part of that I hadn’t thought about this, when you post at 11:55 ,or whatever time it was on Friday night, bumping up against midnight, no one else post on LinkedIn over the weekend, or most people don’t deliver content on the weekend, and so I was blown away about how much engagement I had on that content peace, simply because there was no other content for people to engage with, and you think you fast forward even Monday morning, not many people deliver content on LinkedIn early Monday morning. So I created like a thirty hours wind of time where if you jumped on the platform I was the content that showed up in your newsfeed, and so inadvertently, I packed a little bit of a system there, a little bit of a strategy there, simply because of that that idea that I had accountability around that.
So, the second part of this is, like when you look at those first two answers, do I have clarity, if you answer I don’t have clarity in my vision, I don’t have cleared it why I’m doing what I’m doing then you’re settling. The second part of that is if you look around you and you say I don’t have accountability, guess what then you’re settling. The third part of this is, as I answer this question for the article, was people settle unknowingly because they do not have the system. The system is another component that stretches you, right? The system is a component that allows you in a same wind of time to accomplish more. I actually mapped out, a couple weeks ago I mapped out 32 minutes of recruiting efforts in the system that I teach, what when I mapped this out, like literally mapped it out minute by minute, I mapped out two days almost a 32 minute day, and the other was a 28-minute day, because someone said you can’t really accomplish anything in 30 minutes of recruiting and I says because you don’t have a system. Let me prove that to you, and I mapped this out there are two documents, minute by minute what could I accomplish because I understand the system that I teach in 32 minutes or 28 minutes and I accomplished more in 32 minutes than most people do in two days, and the reason why is because I have a system. Look there’s a way that the universe is wired to work, there’s a reason why we know that the sun’s gonna come up every single morning and it’s gonna set every single night, right? We know that’s you know that spring summer fall and winter they come, unless you’re in Florida then you just have summer, right? But there’s a way the universe works, and the way the universe works, we should we have to pay attention to it, because the universe works very systematically, right? We know when the moon’s going to be out, when there’s going to be a full moon, when there’s going to be a harvest moon, right? We know when that’s going to happen, there’s a way the universe works it’s all systematic. One of the things that we also know is that successful people always have a system. Now, most people that I’ve come across, and I would say 99 plus 99 plus percent of people that I’ve come across that I’ve coached have very little system in their recruiting efforts. So, this statement holds true, extreme systems or extreme structure equals extreme success. So how do you know if you’re settling, do you have a system, do you have an extreme system, do you have extreme structure around the recruiting efforts, and if you don’t have that, then the answer to the question is you are settling.
Now go through these three things, give yourself a 1 to 10, right? How much clarity do I have around why I’m doing what I’m doing, how much clarity do I have with my vision for my team on my market, what’s it what is it, a 1 to 10. Do I have accountability, have I created accountability, so that I can increase my capacity to do things to stretch myself, 1 out of 10, do I have a system, do I have an extreme system, rate yourself 1 to 10, and what you will find is that in several of these areas, there are areas that you need to go focus on, how do you get clarity, how do you create accountability, how do you improve your system, identify an area that you’re gonna focus on area that you’re gonna work on, and work on that area and move forward, and by doing that what you’re what you will be saying to yourself is that I realize that I am settling and that I’m going to stretch myself and refuse to settle.
So, I hope those answers that I gave in the article bring value to use today. You have to understand that by answering these three questions in itself, you’re creating tension, that’s it. I answer these three, these three questions you’re creating tension, and I’m here a lot of times just to insert some tension and by inserting tension, what I know is that your eyes will open up a little bit more, your energy will go up a little bit more, and you’ll move towards something that will be one change that might change everything for you, okay? And that’s really what we’re about is we’re about that one change. So, we started out the podcast talking about changing one thing per you know per week, for 52 weeks, what does that look like, here we are, what is the one change that your move towards, and I know that if you’ll focus on these three areas what you’ll realize is that if over a windows time you change in the clarity accountability and system arena, you’ll look back, and you’ll realize I was settling, and that and we don’t want to do that, like we’ve all been created to do something great, and I believe that you’ve been created for a purpose, just like I’ve been created for a purpose and when we’re clear on that and we’re clear on our calling you and I have the ability to change things dramatically. I think great leaders this is one of the things I know, great leaders more than just a single transaction, they changed more than just a single person on their team, right? Great leaders impact people beyond the office, they’re impacting husbands and wives, they’re impacting fathers and mothers, they’re impacting grandfathers and grandmothers, right? We’re impacting the communities that were in, there’s a you know I could tell you stories about individual people in my life today, that impacted me in such a way that I still remember it, and it still are things that I applied in my life, and I apply to my business that were with me for a very short window of time, and what they left with me carries on, what they left with me as part of their legacy and I passed it on to someone else, and so this one change that you make could actually impact someone at a level it actually impacts a generation, and when you understand that, it should drive you to want to reach for more, it should have you wanting to stretch and increase your capacity for the things that you’re doing, because you have as a leader more impact in one pinkie then you actually realize, and so I hope this inspires you to make some changes today.
If this is have brought value to you, I’d love it if you would share it, this is actually on a website recruitingconversations.com. I’m gonna share a link here, and I should have talked about this earlier, but i’m a share a link there’s an extra value add for you as part of this, and I want you to go to recruitingconversations.com/leadershipbranding, there’s an extra nugget there for you, that you can actually download as part of this podcast, and I would share that, recruitingconversations.com/leadershipbranding for its leadership branding there’s a nugget there that you can share with the people that you are aligned with other leaders in your organization, and until we actually meet again on the next podcast, here at recruiting conversations, have a blessed week everybody and we will talk to you then.
