Recruiter by Trade, Connector at Heart with Charlie Saffro

Welcome to the Athletics of Business, a podcast about how the traits and behaviors of elite athletes and remarkable business leaders frequently intersect. The real stories and hard lessons to help you level up your leadership and performance. Now, your host, Ed Molitor. Welcome back to another episode of the Athletics of Business podcast. I am your host and CEO of the Molitor Group, Ed Molitor. You know what I love? I love podcast guests that raise the bar for you and I and how we do things that raise the bar for future podcast guests and the value that they bring, the way they articulate all the things they have to share, and our super cool people on top of that. Right? And today's podcast guest is that person, Charlie Saffro.

And Charlie has over 14 years of direct recruiting experience within the logistics, transportation and supply chain space. And she started CS Recruiting through the ground up over a decade ago. And that's a great story, which we jump into a little hint. She was on maternity leave with her third son and thought, you know what? I'm going to start this business. We're going to see how it goes. Well, it's going real well. Today she leads a team of over 35 and manages a multimillion dollar organization. As a president and founder of CS Recruiting, she focuses on making meaningful connections to empower others to discover their full potential. And the best way to describe Charlie is the way she describes herself. A recruiter by trade and a connector by heart.

And as you listen to this podcast, you will absolutely feel that and get that as she talks. Now, I also mentioned that Charlie is super cool. And she is. She's a dedicated yogi and encourages her clients and team to practice mindfulness in the workplace and beyond. She is also the mother of three boys and active in her community, volunteering with local organizations to support and empower females in the workforce. Some of the things we're going to jump into today, how to make your talent your competitive advantage. Okay, and then she's going to talk about three simple steps that you can use to drive loyalty. And that's a word that we don't talk enough about in business enough. And she really talks about loyalty being caring, which is a cool part of the conversation.

And then Charlie shares with us the five core values that drive every single thing that CS Recruiting does. Now, I'm going to get out of the way because this is such a great conversation. And honestly, this is one of the best podcast episodes that we have had to date. And as you listen to it, take thorough notes. There's some great links in the show notes. But here's the thing. If I can make a recommendation as you're taking notes on this podcast episode, take them as they pertain to you in your world, with your organization, with your team and with your personal life. Charlie, thank you so much for joining us today in the Athletics of Business podcast. I'm really excited to have you here.

Thanks Adam. Excited to be here today.

You know, it's funny, I filled the listener in to how we got connected and what inspired me to reach out to you. You're doing so much great work, but I'd love for you to take us through, in your words, your journey right from the start to where we are now. It really is mind blowing.

Absolutely. I appreciate that and I'll keep it high level today. I am the president of CS Recruiting, a recruiting firm that specializes in the supply chain, logistics and transportation industry. I am out of Chicago and I manage a team of 35 individuals that are all in the Chicago area. But post pandemic we actually went remote. So we're all working from home and really long story but I'll make it short how I got into this industry. When I graduated college I went into advertising and it was a lot of fun. I loved that part of my career, did it for about six years. I had my first son in 2006, went back to my advertising gig and it was not the balance I was looking for.

I really did want time with my new baby and didn't want to be traveling and burning the midnight oil. So I wanted to work and made a pivot in my career, went to work for my husband and my brother in law who had started a transportation technology company. We had talked about it a lot behind the scenes. All the plans were firm. I went in, I resigned to the CEO of my advertising company the night before I was supposed to start my husband got cold feet and he said I don't think you should come work for me. My friends are gonna make fun of me. It's so weird. And I kicked him to the couch that night. That's the one night in our marriage that he slept on the couch and I showed up the next day and made the most of it.

So started as kind of a jack of all trades, Jane of all trades, more office manager and they were about eight employees and during the time I was there we grew to about 120 and I recruited the whole through so taught myself how to find people, taught myself how to evaluate extend offers on board. Most of this was pre LinkedIn so it was pretty old school recruiting, but they sold the company in 2010. I stayed on as a project recruiter, freelancer with the new company and that's when LinkedIn really surfaced and I put myself out there as a supply chain logistics recruiter and my new business took off.

So it has been 11 years that I've been running CS Recruiting as a third party recruiting firm and it's been a great ride, but not a business that I put together a business plan, went and got a loan. It just kind of happened overnight. And before I knew it, I was, you know, representing many clients and it was time to hire and scale.

Well, I had to back you up a little bit though, because the best part of the story is the fact how you really started CS recruiting. I mean, you were on maternity leave with your third son and you just sort of, it was like, oh, by the way, I think I'll do this and see how this goes. At what point did you realize, like, and you sort of answered that already, but that you had something.

It took a while. I will be honest. Once I started getting inquiries, I'm the type of person, I'm a people pleaser to a point, but I'm also very opportunistic. So when my first client reached out and said, hey, I need a sales manager and I see you have experience in my industry, can you help me find someone? Of course. I said yes. And if it was, you know, whatever it took, I would figure it out and deliver. The first year that I was in the business, I definitely carried a lot of imposter syndrome about. Are people going to pay for this? Really? At the end of the day, I don't have a product. The only tangible thing that I am exchanging for a fee is a resume. And at the end of the day, we are brokering people and trading humans, if you will.

So I had a hard time believing that people would pay for an introduction. But once I did it once and my client was pleased and twice and it really was about gaining confidence and knowing that I had something to offer. And that's when I really put my heart and soul into it, when I knew I was onto something.

Well, in getting to know you just a little bit that I have, I'm going to. It wasn't just an introduction, it was the right introduction. Right. Because you took the time and I am going to steal. I was not going to do this. But you're a recruiter by trade and a connector by heart. Okay.

Yes.

So you're going to get to know the candidates at a deep level, just like you do potential employees for, you know, CS recruiting. But the value in that, having spent so much time in that industry, the value of that is mind blowing. Can you talk a little bit about how? I mean, like you said, it wasn't something you set out to do. It's almost. I don't want to devalue your ability to do it by saying it's natural gift, but you're really good at it.

Thank you. Thinking back, it's definitely something I've always done, and it's been my pleasure to connect to people. So if I had a friend looking for a nanny, I would ask my nanny if she knew someone and I could connect my friends. And I actually have several friends that are still using nannies that I was able to help them secure. If I have a friend in San Francisco and I knew someone moving there, I would always say, let me hook you up. I know a great person out there that you'd get along with. So it is natural for me. And I really have always appreciated the power of an introduction.

I don't think most people realize that there is a skill and a talent and a little bit of luck, but bringing two people into a room that can impact and influence and inspire each other can make a huge difference. And that's essentially what we do. I do it out of the, you know, in my professional and personal life, but professionally, that's what it's all about, is just connecting people and seeing what comes of it.

That whole connection with. With the team that you've built at CS Recruiting, how much of a competitive advantage does that give you? How you. And especially with 35 folks remote. Right. And still to have that ability to develop those relationships. And we'll talk about your organizational values and things like that, but how much of a competitive advantage is that? Your ability to connect everybody or connect with everybody, I should say.

It's everything. Your talent is your competitive advantage, and your talent is a result of your culture. And so we have done a really good job creating a culture of people that really enjoy each other's company. We make time to get to know each other, we applaud each other, we recognize each other. Ironically, I'm going to one of my employees weddings next weekend, and two other employees are bridesmaids, and they all met on the job. And then next year, yeah, next year I'll be at a wedding of two of my employees that are actually getting married that met on the job.

So it goes so far beyond just finding someone a job and yeah, and that's happened a lot with our clients and our candidates where we will place someone in a position, that person will meet their spouse at that company and live happily ever after. So it's a lot more than just a job search.

I mean, no matter how much work you did on creating the vision for CS recruiting, you could never have imagined what you just told me, right? Never. The wedding, two bridesmaids who met on the job, a couple that met on the job. I mean, that's got to be pretty cool and rewarding for you.

It is. It's really amazing. And we have a really strong retention policy, retention program that our employees are loyal and they stick around. So what's also amazing is I've seen some of my team members start with us right out of college and then they met a boyfriend and then they got engaged and now they're married and now they're having their third kid and just being able to watch how the connections in their life came together. And I know that, you know, their profession and their career at CS recruiting did have a lot to do with it indirectly. So it's amazing to witness all that.

You just used a word that I love and I think it's a word that we do not pay enough attention to right now in the business world and it's one that's not spoken that often because there's such a struggle to retain top talent, loyal. What do you see the situation that especially your industry is mind blowing recruiting and retaining. Well, what do you see are the keys you just mentioned some of yours to getting that buy in that believing it and to driving that loyalty?

There's a lot and it has changed significantly since COVID To me, loyalty is about caring and turning business environments into places where people can be their authentic selves, where humans treat other humans like humans. And you wouldn't believe how often that doesn't happen. There are so many work environments where people are numbers, big companies, small companies, and that is one thing. I truly, genuinely enjoy the company of the people that I work with and the people I surround myself with. And it really is a trickle down effect. So I think loyalty comes from trusting your team and making sure that they know you trust them and because of that they have a little more flexibility and freedom with their work.

I invest in my team, I invest my time to getting to know them and spending time with them as individuals and also investing in their personal development, in their career inside our company and also through external resources and acknowledging and appreciating I never let a day go by where I don't give at least one person a shout out or a high five. And make sure that people know. It's the little and big things that make a difference. And we are always looking for ways and opportunities to just bring that to the surface publicly and make sure everyone knows the contribution from someone else.

Let me ask you this. So you just talked about all of this great stuff inside of this environment, right? Creating this environment someone could be sitting here listening right now and saying, okay, environment, but you're all remote. What's the trick? I mean, what's the secret? How do you do this remotely? Because it's not easy, you know, it's not simple, it's not easy. It's very doable and it's very powerful once you take the time to do it. But what has been your secret to the success?

What's funny is when I think back to our first employee. We had an office in the suburbs of Chicago and I interviewed a girl, Beth, who is still with us today, 10 years later. She lived in the city. And so when I interviewed her, the only sticking point was getting her to the suburbs where we had a very small one room office at the time. And the deal I made with her was she could, once she was up and trained 30, 60 days into the job, she could work at home two days a week and we would manage that schedule. And what's amazing is that policy has held for every person who has walk through the doors of our company over the past 11 years. Everyone has earned the right to work from home part time.

So when the pandemic hit, it was certainly new for us. I was someone who went into the office every day. So we had to adjust and really learn, zoom and become very familiar and comfortable with the video calls. But it was something that we'd been doing for years, just part time. So moving to this fully remote model, obviously went home in March of 2020 with the rest of the world. In March of 21, we made decision to buy out our lease and stay virtual. And we have figured it out. I will not take full credit for it. I've got a team behind me that does the training and the onboarding, but through slack, through virtual happy hours, through team meetings, and then the one thing we're really making mandatory is quarterly team meetings.

So we had our Q3 meeting last week and every quarter the entire company comes together. We rent a spot in a hotel, we do an all day meeting, pow wow, happy hour and a little Bit of business, a lot of fun. But that's really part of, like, when we see each other now, it's so much more special and there's so much great energy that we take it with us back to our video calls and our home offices.

How do you make that connection? I mean, virtually, how do you make that? Because you and I both know, like, part of that connection is getting that emotional buy in, getting that emotional attachment. It's not, you know, for instance, my wife, you know, she hasn't seen in person, her team in 18 months. Wow. I mean, that's just. And you can only imagine what it would be like the first time. There's that physical presence. Right. How do you develop that? How do you create that?

I think it all goes back to our values. And I mean, we have rewritten our values as a company three times. Third time's a charm. I think we've got it now, and it is solidified for as long as I can see into the future. But our values are really what drives our team. And we live our values and we bring them up all the time. So anytime any employee on our team does something that ties to a value, we make sure to recognize it. We shout it from the rooftop. So one of our values is making a difference. And as you can imagine, we really do make a difference in so many lives every day, whether we take time to listen to someone, we send someone on an interview, we help someone with their resume, we get someone a job, we really promote that.

And we look to our team members to share these stories back, to share testimonials, feedback that we're getting from clients, from candidates. And I feel like that is a huge reason that our team is so connected, is we're. We're cheering each other on and we're winning together. And there's nothing better than that.

And I'm going to take you to. We've talked about connecting, right? Connect is your second bet. Let's talk about win together. I love that one.

So win together. I love it, too. And I think it has a lot of different meetings, and there's a lot of different ways that we can live that value. As you know, I was a gymnast in my youth, and I think of the way our business is structured was very similar to the way a gymnastics team works in the sense that you are an independent contributor. You will win your own award, you will earn your own commission, if you will, but you cannot do anything without the support of your team. So in gymnastics, my individual scores made a difference for Me, but I was not going to go anywhere unless my team advanced to the next level. And that was through adding up everyone's scores.

So it was all about the support, cheering each other on, teaching each other, and really being in it together. And that's how our team functions. Our recruiter role is a very independent position. You're kind of putting your head down, you're working with job seekers and constantly meeting new people, evaluating them. But once you get a great resume, you can't do anything without your team. And your team is the liaison to our clients, and that's really what makes things happen. So when we think about winning together, we really do recognize the individual wins. And there are a lot of those. But all those little individual wins add up and we promote what we're doing as a company. And then obviously within the company, we have smaller teams and we have a friendly, competitive spirit.

But it's all about adding up the individuals and knowing that the sum is greater than each individual part there.

Right. And I love that you have a friendly, competitive spirit. Now, that's internally, but externally you are in an unbelievably competitive industry. Right. And we talked about this and I'm just so blown away by your success. It's a male dominated industry where it's not. I mean, I was in the space. It's not always pretty. Like, people don't play nice in the sandbox, you know, and that's. No, that's a direct reflection of their character. That's their deal. Right. They got to deal with that. But how have you been able to produce that edge? I mean, you're an incredibly compassionate person. You've built this incredible environment, but yet you go play with the big boys. Right? Like, you go, how do you do that?

I think it's a balance of kind of like that masculine and feminine energy in business. So I know my audiences very well and I pay a lot of attention and observe who I'm dealing with in every situation. And I'm going to say 90% of my clients are males. There's no secret there. You know, the trucking industry and manufacturing and supply chain where we play is very male dominated. It's starting to make a turn, which is amazing. But it is all about knowing your audience, believing in yourself, and knowing that if I'm talking to a client about trucking, they may know more. They probably do know more about trucking than I do. But I know about talent and I know about recruiting, and that is why we're having the conversation.

So it's A very fine balance of confidence and vulnerability where I can bring my confidence and leverage my strengths and know what I know. But I also know that I don't know everything. And if I can just take a step back and ask questions and learn and not be afraid to speak up and be educated. That empathy and compassion that you mentioned, for many years, I thought that was my weakness in business. I thought, oh, my God, people are going to think they can walk all over me. And, you know, I don't want to use the word people pleaser because people are going to take that too far.

But I think in our industry, it really has made a difference where I can, you know, I've got thick skin and I can toughen up when I'm dealing with a difficult or aggressive clients, but I can also soften the conversation and hopefully teach them a lesson about empathy and again, being a human and treating others like humans along the way.

So how are you able to make that switch? Because I see that a lot. And I want to clarify, when I asked that question, as soon as it left my mouth, I'm like, that didn't sound right because I didn't mean. How do you do it from a skill set? I think back to my days of coaching college basketball. You operate with an edge. I mean, you do. That's just you just when you're in the fight, sometimes you get lost in the moment. I always talk about running to the fight, and you forget, like, you talk about compassion and empathy. That was one of the things as a coach, you think back to the best coaches you had growing up.

They were the ones that connected with you, that got to know you on a personal level, that had compassion for whatever your story was, what was going on in your world, what your circumstances were. So that's because I'm so impressed by the fact that you can operate at such a high level in such a brutally competitive industry. But I think a lot of people struggle, regardless of their space, regardless of their industry, with, hey, I have compassion, I have empathy, but I don't want that to be seen as a weakness. How were you able to finally realize that was actually a strength of yours?

I think I've been in enough difficult situations where I will be the first to admit my mentality for many years was the customer's always right. And I grew up working at Nordstrom, which is, you know, as we know, they're. They're on the pedestal for the customer always being right. And you are taught to do whatever it takes. And in the last two, maybe Three years. I've really switched my mentality and it's more about protecting my team. And if we have a difficult client, and I have many stories of clients that have not treated us well, they haven't treated our candidates well. Instead of being in it for the revenue, I'm in it for the ethics and really putting candidates in good work environments and believing in that client and wanting to do business with them.

And I'd say that's probably the biggest shift in where I'm using empathy for my team and protecting my team. And I've broken up with probably four or five clients in the last two months where it just gets to a point where we're not interested. I don't need your revenue. If it's going to affect our culture or the emotions inside my organization, it's not worth it.

And that speaks to one of your values. Do what's right. How hard was that to do the first time? Not do what's right? Being hard, but to tell a client, listen, the same for us, it ain't working.

It is hard because we are contingent based. So that means that we do not get paid until we deliver. And there's a lot of free work that we do. It's all for the good of something. And I do believe everything comes back full circle. But many, I mean, clients don't want to break up with us because they want the resumes. And until they decide to hire someone and retain that person, they don't pay us. So it gets to a point where I just had to realize my team is my competitive advantage. I am investing so much in them. I can go out and get another client. But those are very difficult conversations and ones that used to keep me up at night. I'd say I'm getting used to them because you learn and you make mistakes along the way, but still very difficult.

But the recognition and the support I get from my team is what makes it worth it. They realize it's not easy for me to do, but that I am doing it in their favor.

Let me paint a scenario for you and see what you think about this. We used to always talk about our teams. Our players are our best recruiters. Okay? So looking in your world you have a client is not just doing things the right way with your team, Right. With one of your team members. Do you ever sit down or have you ever sit down and say, listen, I see what you're going through and this is wrong, this is not right? And do they ever say, no, you know, Charlie, I've got this, it's okay. And I do appreciate you having my back, but we're going to figure this out. Has that ever happened?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it happens, I'd say all the time. And it's really, it becomes a bit of a he said, she said. And that's where things get sticky. We can find talent and we can evaluate them and represent them and get them to that finish line of getting a signed offer. But we have nothing to do with the retention and the experience of that candidate once they start with their new employer on day one. And so that's where I am really trying to walk the walk. And it's taken me so many years to build my business, to get my team in place, to become a well oiled machine and be really proud of our values and our culture.

And now, in addition to recruiting, I'm on a mission to show it off a little and to show clients in our industry it can be done. You can have an organization where people feel valued, people connect over a purpose, people enjoy their work and those are the companies we want to work with. So trying to lead by example and also going back to your scenario, putting myself in their shoes and relating, I've been there, I've had employees walk out on me and I understand your frustration, but let's work together to fix this because it's not the end of the world. So it's all about their cooperation at that point. And if they are stubborn and they push back, then it's not worth the mental stress and the toll that it will take on our team.

Now I'm going to shift gears here a little bit. I believe, and I work with my clients on this a lot, that before you know how to win, you have to know how to lose. Okay. And failure plays such a huge part of our stories and our evolution in the business world. Okay, goody. Green bag. You sold over 13,000 of those, but yet you still considered it a failure. Right? A, why did you consider it a failure? Tell us a story about that. And B, how has that helped you? I mean, through the years, the experience that you had with that?

Yeah, so that was a side hustle that I had shortly after having my first son. I.

Hey, 13,000 bags is a side hustle. That's a pretty good side hustle.

Exactly. So this was 2006, 2007, before people were super environmentally conscious. But I had a cousin who was very environmentally conscious. And I will be the first to admit at that time I didn't even have a recycling bin in my house. But she had the environmental passion. I like the fashion and retail and business side of it. So we started a company where we made reusable bags. And the whole idea of you bring your bag to the grocery store, you bring your bag to Target, you don't use their plastic or paper bags. And we got a lot of traction very quickly. I mean, you. Because were manufacturing overseas, we had to commit to some very high quantities in order to make it all work. And the cost of goods sold being something we could make money off of. I was persistent though.

We got into Target, we got into Whole Foods, went to different shows. I sent samples to everyone and anyone that I could think of. Why I say it's a failure is one because we realized that the margins weren't there and were working so hard for so little. And we're talking about making a dollar a bag, maybe even at those volumes. I also say it's a failure because I still have 7,000 bags in my basement. So that's one part my husband never lets me forget. He's like, are you ever going to get rid of these or donate them or try and sell them? So we broke even, put it that way. I guess in some eyes, I guess that's success. And mine, it was not failure, but it was a good lesson to learn.

It was a very scrappy entrepreneurial business where we figured it out and I had a full time gig on the side. This was and a new baby. So it taught me time management, it taught me how to follow something I was passionate about. Not to take no for answer. When I would call Target and they didn't want to talk to me, I'd call them again the next day. So I figured out a lot about business through that side. Hustle.

Well and then as you grow CS recruiting, what have been some of the struggles you've had, some of the adversity, some. I don't want to use the word failure. Right. I mean we grow through adversity, we grow through failure, we learn from failure. But what's been some of the adversity, even pre Covid, even through all this craziness we've been going on in the.

Last 18, 19 months because we are brokering humans. There is so much more to the story and I think that is the biggest struggle and the biggest challenge is there are so many situations where we do our job and we do it really well, but we get burned because of somebody else's performance or somebody else's lack of motivation or lack of judgment. So an Example, and this happens way too often. We had a client approach us yesterday. We found him a candidate one year ago. This person has been working for him for a year. Every time we've checked in, it's going well. Both parties are happy, he's bringing in revenue, there's success. And this candidate decided to leave to pursue another opportunity earlier this week. And so the client came back to us and said, I want my money back.

And those are the situations after a year. And it's like, how much value did they add in the year we did our job. We told you we would survey the talent pool, build a pipeline, bring you the best, and then it's your call who you want to interview. And we can consult, but we are not hiring these people. They are your employees. You are training them. They are performing in your environment on your dime. So those situations happen way more than you think. And it's mind boggling. I would never hire a plumber, have him come fix my toilet, and a year later, when it's broken, ask for my money back. Like he did the job. So it's a lot of conversations like that. And that's where sometimes our team will lose together. And that's the hardest to stomach. If the client.

And a less extreme example, the client pays us at 60 days. If the candidate leaves 70 days in and the client hasn't paid us yet, sometimes we can't collect that money, even though we should. Exactly. And that's really hard to teach the team. They did their job, we're fighting, but if we lose. And nobody wants a lawsuit. And if it's unnecessary and by the.

Way, client, that's a retainment issue, not a recruitment issue.

Thank you.

It is. What are some of the challenges you've seen with companies right now retaining besides the obvious, but on their leadership side, what are some of the things that you've seen?

It's respect. I mean, it used to be about money. And I don't want to discount that. Money is always going to be a driving force as to why people leave companies or pursue new opportunities. But I think Covid really allowed everyone to reflect. And all the time at home, they realized what's important to them. And it's not all about money. It's about some of the things I mentioned earlier. Trust and flexibility and an investment in your people. I don't know if you know much about the trucking industry and I don't want to stereotype and say every company operates the same way, but it's a rugged, down and dirty industry.

And many of these companies, it's encouraged that there's kind of fights on the floor and people are arm wrestling over the margin and who's going to get the commission and shouting profanities and doing drugs in the alley during lunch. And that is what this industry is. So it's really trying to get past that and really educate companies to treat people well. And it's so simple. It really is so simple, but for some reason, so hard to do.

Yeah.

People with power and leadership positions, you know, it often is misused and it gets to their head. And power should allow you to be empathetic and to treat people well, not to be that dictator.

Well. And it comes back to the impact you want to have. Right. I mean, legacy you want to leave. And we talk a lot with our clients about the three things that we think the workforce wants. We know the workforce wants. They want to know that the work they do is important. Right. That it has meaning. They want to know that they're valued and they want to be coached. How much does that show up in your world where candidates are making decisions on organizations and you can sell that candidate on that organization because here's what they're going to do, here's how they're going to invest in you.

That is so important. And it's a constant cycle of educating our clients because every client that comes to us thinks that they have the best opportunity and rightfully so. They either are, you know, a decision maker or an owner of their business. They've worked hard to build it. But what is really the difference between you and your number one competitor? And that's where we help companies identify their strengths and these things that they can promote to the talent pool. And often it's not there. And so it's really working with them to see, like, can you give people opportunity? Do you recognize them? Do you put good leaders over them that will inspire? Do you offer them the right tools and resources and invest in their ability to do a good job?

So a lot of it is education and forcing companies to take a good look at why does that person work there in the first place, what brought them into the company? And really playing that up for a retention tactic and constantly strengthening the culture because you can't recruit unless you retain. You can't retain unless you recruit. And it all goes back to the culture.

Well, and you said something. Recognize them. Right? And I remember back in the day when we got fired at Texas A and M and went to the mortgage business, recognition back then was about plaques. I could have cared less about a plaque. Right. It was about awards, it was about trips. Now trips are great. But today, to me, recognition, I want to see what you think because you do it with your folks is the recognition is acknowledging who they are and getting to know them as a person, getting to know what makes them tick and what their story is. How significant do you see that in the work you do with your clients?

I think that's huge. And that is something that in the people business, we take pride in our people too. And every time I introduce a client to a new point of contact in our company, it's not, this is Samantha. I want you to meet her. This is Samantha. And as you guys set up your first conversation, it will be good for you to know that she is a huge dog lover. She loves baking cupcakes, and she's engaged to the love of her life. And so really like bringing that personal human effect to light. And that is something that we do with our candidates too. It's, yes, this is your skill set. Yes, this is your background. You have, you know, you check all the boxes in terms of what the client wants.

But culturally, you're going to fit in because this is what this company believes in. These are their values. And it's clear that your values align with those. And really playing that up as well.

Right now, as we start to wind down here, I'm going to ask you a question because I think this is so significant right now. I mean, it always is. But right now you have this incredible culture, right? And you folks lean into your values so well. But it has been a struggle the last 18. It has been unbelievable. And with all of the things that are going on in your industry, regardless of all the positives we talk about, there's still going to be the reality of the situation, which is things are hard right now. How do you get your folks to do such a great job of keeping the faith and to stay dialed into the process, right? Like just, okay, trust the process, stay dialed in, keep the faith. And you already mentioned it.

We could do our job to the best of our ability, but that doesn't guarantee that it's going to be successful.

I think there's a lot of historical evidence and we reference that a lot. I mean, I go back to the days where I was a one woman show and I did everything that anyone in the company does today. Nothing was beneath me and I struggled and I rose to the surface. So reminding people that I know their struggle. And I know what it feels like. I also think the pandemic was a really good reflection. And I found a lot of silver linings in that whole experience because we didn't let go of anyone and we retained our team. And we did talk in the beginning, like, should we cut salaries? Should we move to a shorter work week? But we did it and we came through and we never cut a salary and we never cut ahead as a result of it.

So I think we proved to our team during that time that were going to stick by them. We also did a really great job pivoting and finding new ways to do consulting work and bring in revenue. If it wasn't about recruiting, now it's a totally different problem. Now the issue is the demand is so high and the supply is low. So we have a good problem that we have too much business right now. And it's really managing expectations. This company, it's not that they can't hire. It's that the entire world is looking for the same person they are. And they need to know what they're up against and if they need someone to report to the office who is vaccinated, and there's another company next door that allows their employees to work from home. There's a big difference.

And it's not all only about money anymore.

Right? And it's not really black and white. I mean, what we're going through and what you're going through, it's not. There's no simple answer. There's no know you easy answer. So you have to sort of navigate your way through it, right?

Exactly.

Are you pretty fired up, pretty excited about where you're at in terms of. Because really, is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Like, they're still trying to figure this out, you know, I mean, in your industry, they're still trying to figure this out. If there's not a light at the end of the tunnel, how do you create that for your team?

I am very opportunistic, and I definitely. I see the work that my team puts into every search, but at the end of the day, I know there is someone out there and it just might not be easy to find them. So when we come up dry on a search, it's always reminding the team, you got to think about it a different way. You got to look at it a different way. Put yourself in the shoes of the candidate you're looking for what words are on their resume, because they might not know any better. They're putting the title out There, that is what their company calls them, whereas we may have a client looking for that same person using a different title. So I'm very much about, get creative, use your resources, do whatever it takes. And I think we've proved it so many times.

When people give up and they're like, there is nobody out there for this search, there's two choices. One, there really is nobody out there, and we need to manage client expectations and work with them to reset the criteria, or two, keep looking. And I think those situations where people are totally tapped out, but then they get just a little tick of something to keep looking, and they find the perfect person, and it goes so far, not only do they get a commission, but this person is thanking them three years later for finding them the job of their dreams, and now they're running the company. So there's just a great trickle effect of gratitude when we do good work.

Well. And it's that underdog mindset. Right. That wasn't supposed to happen. You weren't supposed to get this win, but you do. And, I mean, that just gets them to keep going.

Exactly. It's like, it feels so good to win. I kind of relate it to, like, running. Nobody wants to get on the treadmill and run, but we're all addicted to that last step or the last 30 seconds when you're sweaty and you feel good. And that's what I think business is about, too. Like, sometimes it is really hard to get up and running. Sometimes it's hard to motivate yourself to dive back into a project where you may feel stuck. But when you get to the finish line, and you will, it's a feeling like none other. And that's the addictive part of it that makes you want to go back in and do it again.

Absolutely. And you're an athlete, all right, Winning. How important is winning to you?

I. It's too important. Sometimes I joke. I'm like mommy dearest sometimes with my kids. Like. Like most. Most moms play. We play a lot of pickleball. So most moms play pickleball real easy with their kids. And the kids when I am out there to win and to defeat them. Yeah.

They got to figure it out on their own.

Exactly. Exactly. So, no, I've got a competitive drive. Definitely came from sports as. As a youth, but it carries on in business. It carries. Sometimes I have to. I'm a little too competitive with myself. And that's. I think, a lot of just motivated people, they're in their own way, and there's nobody Else that I'm trying to please or nobody else, I'm impressing by getting up at four in the morning but myself. I said I was going to do something, I will do it. And so it's probably my biggest strength and my biggest weakness is my competitive spirit and always wanting to do better than I did yesterday, which there's nothing.

Wrong with, you know. And you can imagine my thoughts on Everybody gets a trophy. We don't keep score. But here's the bottom line. If you're laying on a surgery table and the heart surgeon walks into the operating room, I want him to want to win. I want him to spend his entire life addicted to winning. Okay?

Exactly.

So if I said the word victory to you, what does that word mean to you? If I were to say, can you briefly describe what the word victory means to you?

Victory to me is our value of win together. And I think that is what it's all about is it's a lot of. I wouldn't every little win of victory. But a victory of our quarter three was that not only did we surpass our goal, but we surpassed our stretch goal and hit our monster goal. And we always keep three tiers of goals every week, every month, every quarter, because we want our team to keep going for something. And there's different rewards at each goal level, but it's really the celebration behind it. And that's what we push our team for. Not to say it's never enough. We have nothing above a monster goal.

So once we hit the monster goal, of course we want to go as far as we can, but we celebrate, we acknowledge, we reward, and it feels so good that we want to do it again the next quarter.

Okay, what's the sci? Okay, totally unscripted, and I love unscripted moments. What's the science behind your goal setting? So you have the goal, what percentage do you increase it for the stretch goal, then to the monster goal or how do you go about figuring that out?

So a lot of our business is based on fall off. So if we place someone, we know that 10% of the placements we will never collect on, we will never get paid on because it's not the right fit. And that person two weeks into the job may realize it. So a big part of those levels are how can we really get the right. It's a quality measure. So we know how many people it takes to get an interview, we know how many people it takes to get the job. But when it comes to retention, it's our job to put the right person in place the first time and to keep that fallout rate as low as possible. And that's really where that stretch and monster come from, is excellence.

And combining the numbers, which we know what needs to be done to achieve what we want to with that quality component. And it goes back to that whole idea of never give up. Just when you think you have someone, there might be someone better, and if you don't look for them, you might learn the hard way.

So last question for you. As we wind down here, you have this presence about you have this calm about you. It's been nuts. I mean, your industry, your world's already nuts. You have three boys and a husband. A house full of boys. Right? God bless you. Okay. And yet you're here, you're very even. And I'm guessing that yoga has played a big. I mean, you are a yogi. Okay. How big of a role has yoga, meditation, all of that, played in your individual, your personal success. Right. Your personal growth as well as your business success?

A lot. And I do think that it's, it defines this portion of my journey. Something that is interesting is I had my third child, I discovered yoga and meditation, and I started my business within six months of each other. So I was a runner before I had my third child. I ran a marathon. Honestly, I don't think I've run a full block since I ran that marathon because it was so brutal. So I made that commitment to find something else and that turned out to be yoga. After I had my third son and I was cleared to start exercising again, I went to a yoga class. I was super intimidated, but I realized quickly that my inner gymnast could come out and I could play. And it was my time to have fun. And I had my third child. So I've only known balance.

I've only known the calm and the chaos. So before the pandemic, I was six days a week, I was in a yoga studio. Now it's probably three or four because we're still wearing masks. And that's not too pleasant. But balancing yoga, I do a lot of walking, but my meditation is a huge part of my life. And it's like no matter how crazy the day is, I get, I think of it as my self care and my selfish time. But it's selfish to be selfless. I make time even when I don't think I have it. And it is amazing what 20 minutes can do.

When you clear your mind and you give yourself permission to just not think, not panic, not consume any content, just be for 20 minutes and I always come out of it with ideas and energy and I think that's part of the calm demeanor is I'm just chill because of it.

That's awesome. I mean, that's a win right there to be able to be chill with everything that you have going on. Well, Charlie, I can't thank you enough. This was absolutely. This was awesome.

Thanks, Ed. I'm so glad we connected and I really appreciate you inviting me on to talk about all this.

Now, where can our listeners find more about CS recruiting? More. Find out more about you.

So we are on LinkedIn and we have a big presence on LinkedIn so anyone who is on LinkedIn can look up CS Recruiting. We put some really great content out there. A lot of support for our team and showing off our wins. Our website, cs-recruiting.com My contact information is out there if anyone is curious or wants to chat.

That's awesome. Well, thank you again so much. And you know what, we're going to have to when all this calms down and we see how your world is on the other side of COVID we're going to have you back on.

Let's do it. I appreciate it.

Thanks, Charlie. Thank you for listening to the athletics of business. Be sure to give us a rating and review so we know how we're doing. For more information about the show, visit theathleticsofbusiness.com now get out there. Think, act and execute at the highest level to unleash your greatness.