 Hey, good afternoon everybody time Stewart here. I am with Liz Trotter our guest today is Chris Delucian and this is smart business moves And it's been a week since we were here. I'm still not used to the schedule Tom crazy week Yeah, I mean the weeks go by pretty quick now, but it has been But can you believe we used to do this daily two years ago two years ago? We were doing this daily Yeah, every day for an hour if that was COVID those were unprecedented times they were we didn't have anything else to do we weren't How in the heck are you today? I'm great No, fantastic. We just did a couple little sessions ourselves talking to everybody about I guess what we're gonna talk about today So I'm excited. What are we gonna talk about today? Actually, I'm gonna take a twist on it. And so instead of the topic of employee engagement Yeah, I'm gonna be kind of focusing more on my strength, which is applicant engagement and Appreciation kind of that you got to get applicants engaged before you can even have an employee to be engaged So I like that. It's I do too. It's a precursor. That's that is that's that's gonna be good. That's gonna be good And it's something that not a lot of people are talking about or doing so I think this is gonna be really interesting for a lot of people too Getting I'm getting I'm queuing up my remarkable getting my page ready Do you know It's funny how time flies. We've you know, I guess they're pretty much on if not passed by a few days two-year anniversary smart business This Thumbing through my Facebook feed today, and I saw that seven years ago today Liz and I had an adventure in the state of Ohio looking for graders ice cream parlor So our accounts maybe are a little bit different and memories a little bit scared me seven years is a long time Yeah Shield for hours looking for this place that part is true We did spend hours looking for graders ice cream, but I do believe that you may have like fabricated information Tom Remember we couldn't find it. I remember we kept driving around you remember why Do you remember why we were driving around Of course, I was in a different state and you had well, I mean I really couldn't hold you responsible now that I think about it I remember you did have an iPhone an iPhone. It was an iPhone That's why I couldn't really expect you to get us where we needed to go with an iPhone. That's true So you're off the hook well Okay, but Tom seriously we were talking about we haven't done this since you know two years ago with COVID, but we were talking off the call about The new thing that came out from about the idol. Yeah Yeah Hey, hey, Libby, did you come to see your hubby? Did you miss me? Been gone like a couple of minutes now All right I'm gonna blow this up a little bit if anybody has an idol loan out here, they probably got something that looked a little bit like this and I Guess the short story is you got another Six months before you have to start paying on your loan so Some of us were probably getting those loans What June July two years ago some of us Yeah, some were close. It wouldn't be do quite yet because I don't think they even I Don't know. I mean they may have Announce something. I don't know. I wasn't one of the very first people So I'm not sure when the first people got them. You remember how the application process changed a couple times They were like supposed to get the money to you in a week. Yeah, and that didn't happen No, but so, you know, some people may have gotten their their their money in April I bet they did thinking back on it But anyway, you don't have to pay start paying until six months later than what you thought you did But you did point out Tom that principle on that interest is still going to accrue. Yeah Those idol loans, I mean before it was done, you know for companies that qualify they could get up to like $2,000. I mean a lot of money And that's a lot of interest to an interest rates are going up down. This is kind of it's a 30 year amp had 3.75 and Federal reserve raised their overnight barring rate quarter point today and they say they're going to do that about six more times over the course of the year because inflation is Something that they're trying to combat inflation is higher now than it's been in 40 years. So There is a school of thought out there at a year or two from now 3.75 money of the 30 year am's gonna look really cheap compared to what your other options are out there Not to say that you want to hold on to it just for the sake of holding on to it But if you think you're gonna be barring money a couple of years from now You might be paying a whole lot more for it than what you're paying for those SP SPA funds now Yeah, I don't know that there are a lot of people up look at all these people Supporting you here Chris. We got Ruben over here, too Yeah, and Linda's here and Libby's here. You got a little spousal support. That's that's awesome But we got to need and we also have the filthy bucket I see the filthy buckets not telling us their name They're going anonymous kind of Figure out Who you are filthy bucket if you don't Tom will find you So I know Chris you said that you do have a deck that you wanted to share today, too So, yeah, do you want to start with that or do you want to check out a little bit or? Sure, I mean I can pull it up here and we can chit chat. Okay. Let me just make sure I can do this the right way Hey crystal nice to meet you nice to see you second Okay Sorry Chris. I got something here that's that's that's more important Sure, the filthy bucket All right, so who's the owner with me? I'm Creating business in 2016. They are in Atlanta. It looks like wow I was just talking to a company that's in yours, which is right by Atlanta He's got you on the map and everything else. I'm here just just south of Atlanta. So that's it Love the name. Love the name. I know I'm never gonna forget it. That's for darn sure And did you say Whitney John? Yeah, yeah, and here it is right here. Bang. Thanks for joining me Hey I like your website All right. All right, let me go ahead and see if I can share the screen here and if I get the right thing up I can do it. We can make it happen. We have to cut down I do like that. Chris. How did you get your hat? So that it's showing the right way I don't know actually it's it's a fluke. I mean I should have played it off, but it's a fluke Wow, that is just no come on your your hat is printed backwards, right? No, it's not printed backwards That's crazy How's that happening? My stuff's all backwards I think there's a setting on the camera where you can can flip it All right. Well, don't don't do anything with that. Yeah, I know because you're perfect Okay, let me see if I can make this work here I love this Ah, how many of you guys are thinking this is amazing, right? What a great what a great twist on employee appreciation I don't think we've had anyone talking about this and in this day and this time This this is really where We're going to be able to get that little extra juice Yeah, so I was excited when um, Liz kind of offered to bring me on here Because I thought it was a fantastic idea to maybe kind of get more of a back-end look on what's going on Um, so it's a little bit I guess closer to the source as you could say. Yeah So different perspectives and I'd love to hear your as a feedback too on it But I want to kind of present you guys with kind of more of a techie side Since we do run support here and I know that I think Ruben was on and he may have seen um, I talked with you before um through email and stuff, but Yeah, so applicant appreciation. I really would love to dive into What that really means and honestly how it relates to Um and a whole With your company. So let me go ahead and dive in here for those that don't know Um, you know what recruit was founded essentially from I think many people do know, uh, liby Lucy and my wife, um as well as paul fassauer um, and so it it was kind of created, you know When we we were in those tough times with cove it um, and we kind of spawned that idea and and really kind of You know drove us to figure out how to make things right. Um, and since then we've really grown and learned um, and You know really I think found some ways to make it work and build on that um And so in terms of kind of what we do on the back end Um, just to kind of give you guys a background. Um, we're really proud Of what we do here at support. Um, and I'm very proud of my support team as well with wood recruit And this is just a little snapshot from indeed. Um, it's something that I'm really, you know excited about because You know, these are just a few I couldn't fit too many on the screen But these are snapshots of different countries that we currently service And give you kind of an idea or a glimpse. Um Of this this is the indeed's top 10 So these are analytics about the top performing Companies within a given industry and in this case, I did, you know house cleaning Um, and so with any given industry, um, we are confidently pushing the top 10 Uh for a few different clients. So I'm really really proud of that and part of my support team as well Um, and so we do have here in the u.s. Canada as well as australia Um, and I want to kind of dive a little bit further here and also highlight my kind of switch screens here Oh, you know, we really do push here It's for our managed ads clients Um, and very proud that we're also kind of a part of the big three or, you know, the top three Um, in terms of rankings there as well, um state by state for who we service So what we do on the back end I'm not trying to brag here as much as I am trying to show you guys the level of commitment and passion that we have To making things right and figuring out what's the next step So I want to give you a little bit of that background. Yeah, that's actually Great. I love seeing this So we're where it says we recruit on on this particular slide. That's Actually a house cleaning service that's using your product. Yes um And it could be a variety because we do have different types of services of products either us fully managing it Or, um, you know, otherwise, um, but Yes, they are current, um current clients or customers with us Nice It really is Especially when you see who you're up against Yeah, and and so, you know, with that being said, we're contending with a lot of the people who have that massive what we call um employer brand or the franchises people who, you know, you google McDonald's or whatever, you know, the first The first point in anybody's journey When they're looking for a job, you know as a teenager or whatever they type in McDonald's jobs or, you know Burger King jobs things like that. So we're contending with people who already have that That exposure that limelight with their employer brand and really trying to Give people the edge Where it's needed most Yeah, it's very cool Very cool Yeah, so I want to kind of kind of start here with a little bit about um, kind of being real with ourselves as business owners as companies and kind of Seeing what's going on around us I mean this this actually was I was taking this from Someone else in our in our work group They had posted this about an article from it may or may not be a biased media source, but The point is The point is that Really, it's it's saying that You know of the polls that were taken They're saying that over 70% of workers regretted leaving their jobs This has to do with a lot of reasons and I really want to bring this up because I want to make sure that, you know What we're putting in place or, you know in terms of employee Appreciation engagement and stuff that this is kind of seen or shown There's a lot of catfish going on cat fishing going on With companies who are posting, you know Fantastic this and that and then you get in there And then it's not Well, it seems to be and I think that has to do with a lot with their appreciation and Just really being good on your promises So do you read that as I just quit my job and I'm sad I quit my job or I quit my job for another job and once I got to the other job I figured out that the new job sucks worse in my old life I think closer to the second part I don't think it's all about The job sucks as much as it was the emotional journey That that person went through because they came from somewhere that It was a high level of stress and it just things weren't connecting, right? They weren't being appreciated. It weren't really connecting with a job on a personal level or You know with the culture or the core values And so they were on an emotional high when they left And then where they came into It was the same thing So there's a little bit of you know, over promising under delivering But at the same time Once things kind of settled in and they got past that honeymoon phase The same thing started happening again where the the the company inside was kind of broken a little bit It just didn't feel right, you know, again Not engaging them to stay or feel good about their decision So kind of a grasses greener on the other side of the fence deal That always looks greener until you get over there and getting up a little bit closer and you can see the brown patches You can see all the problems over there too. Yep. Yeah. All right I like it So give me a second here. All right So this I wanted to put this quote up here In in terms of appreciation and it's actually um from from liby One of her key phrases here is money may bring them to your door, but how you treat them keeps them there I think this is really important because many people miss the mark in thinking that I just got to pay better I got to pay him more just get him to work Get him get him engaged. That's not the case and that's that's what we found time and time again Because what we focus on is not just getting them to your door But also kind of building around that just like you're doing liz With with everything that you have in your in your groups um It's really that's that's the important part is making sure that you know You you have a strong foundation to keep people in your door because that's where that's where you're turning the money All right, so liby, I have to tell you that what I always say is money may bring them to your door But how you treat them matters more So very similar Oh I like that. I like the rhyming part about it I'm I'm all about the alliteration and the rhyme anybody that knows me knows. I just can't get away from it Very cheesy at times, right? So we're on the same wavelength there though liby. Yeah, especially when you ask them to clean the floor Oh So And so really it's um, the focus is really just creating a culture of appreciation And driving home the point that it doesn't end with you And what I mean by you is the owner the business person the person at the top of the chain Because if it's if it's just you that's really Presenting or showing us appreciation or kind of running it Then it's it falls flat when you know, you're behind closed doors You really don't have that buy-in from everybody But the point is to really build that culture in your company So that it's self-sustaining so you have your employees actually out there parading for you And like I like I like to say I forgot who quoted it But you want to create apostles of your company people that are willing to shout to the rooftops and and kind of Share that appreciation with everybody else. Yeah agree So diving diving into it. This is really kind of the first step of the journey In terms of showing appreciation And this is where I think many people have trouble Because I know that a lot of companies and even for myself at first It's hard because you're not a wordsmith. You don't you don't have you know a degree in literature things like that, but It's it's how you present yourself and what you're showing You know at face level after money the first thing that people see is your ad And in most cases that's indeed for some it's facebook But what you see a lot of is kind of the the past decade of You need this and this and this to work with us And it's it's just not going to fly nowadays. It's it's a little bit too extreme You really want to show it at every level show that appreciation and even take it a step further into kind of selling yourself as a company telling them what they're proud of what you're doing for your for your employees And really kind of holding your employees on a pedestal and not the company Okay, but tom fess up you remember having at least one of these ads back in the day, right? I know that was Four of a buyer's market at the time if you will and I swear i'm i'm reading this and i'm thinking gosh, you could have gotten that from me that that absolutely looks like So yeah, we didn't have the speaking english thing, but other than that that could have been mine Yeah, don't even don't even waste your time applying and don't wait. Don't waste my time applying if you don't Yada yada yada. Well, by the way, this is really hard work and I mean And it worked three years honestly it worked three years ago And I know a lot of um landscaping and stuff like that, you know A lot of people still do have that and i'm trying to shift their mentality and their mindset sometimes And here are five other reasons why you don't want to work for us Yeah, absolutely. All right, so I guess you're gonna show us a much better way here chris. Um, yeah, or at least That was embarrassing So Really it's it's kind of giving you the tools or the kind of insight on what that really means with kind of the ad itself and then Taking this step further because once they look at your ad and they actually maybe they're actually considering Working with you. Maybe you did a good job here But there's still those elements um in the journey Of where they you know, where they're going to stumble upon you know that being your deep page um website and that sort of thing but um, I love to kind of get that inside scoop that inside look Into every company And kind of see what they're working with right away And see how well they are connecting with their current employees And projecting that over to the people that they're looking for. Um, their ideal Applicants so what I wanted to give you here was just a quick little tool if people don't really notice or know It's here. You have a company page. Whether you know it or not Whether you claimed it or not. It's there Um, and people are probably posting on your behalf Um, most of the time it's going to be not so great but Um, this is here so you can actually search for yourself and then I think it's the if you go on indeed.com and let's just say you're also logged in but Um indeed.com and you go to top left corner Click on that company reviews tab type your own company in And then see what pops up, you know, if you Haven't really dug in and claimed your profile and done that work There may be a couple reviews on there that you might not want on there And so it might be a good thing to take a look at and try to work on building it closer to That employee engagement that appreciation highlight your best things and what you're doing for your employees You know and why it's great to work for you Okay, that's awesome. That's a great tip there. I think you're right. A lot of people don't even know that that exists Hmm Usually when we first get started it's it's So chris would it make sense then to Get your employees to go on here and write you reviews just like you would normally You know get reviews for your for your company from customers Yes, and no Um, I say no only because um, yes, it's great to have reviews and to get reviews and we actually encourage it from time to time um, but They're starting to indeed starting to kind of clean up gentrify. I always use the word gentrifying their platform and so they're leaning more towards kind of the review style of say Yelp and that sort of thing to where they might not show your your reviews if they feel it's not trustworthy or it's You know spam So if you're kind of gaming the system it might not show up I'm from time to time Um, but if it feels organic and it looks organic then it might Timing has a thought here or point. She says false reviews happen too And she says that your indeed rep can remove a false review That's good. Yes, and and this is a very strong point too because I know we actually talked about this just yesterday um, and that you can actually get them removed especially if you have a cleaning a name your cleaning company's name Is very very similar to another well-known brand Or it's a very common name And it meshes together so you might have somebody in atlanta, but you live in california And you get a bad review and you're like wait a second That's when you reach out to indeed you can either do a submit a You know a request or a message on indeed, but honestly give them a call And um, see what they can do and then it'll escalate the you know escalate it to somebody else and Um, ideally get it taken care of. Yay. That's great. I love that. That's way better than google Like a sample because it is with google is that yeah, that's super nice. Okay. I like that So, uh, your point though is you could have bad stuff on here and not even know You just need to go look That's great great tip So let me jump over here. So, um, again Same thing like with indeed's company page You also really want to take a look at yourselves in a more objective way Look at your current website And I know this happens to all of us Are you putting stock images on there? Are you trying to make it look super professional? And if you are you might be approaching it the wrong way Because times have changed and what might be important more important now Is not making it look super professional because we see a lot of people when I say shutter stock images and that sort of thing um, because it looks very very pristine very You know generic sometimes Those aren't real people at a glance, you know that their actors and they've never cleaned a thing in their life They certainly are not working at the cleaning company that's trying to recruit. Yeah, I don't know anybody who's wearing overalls at work right now But yes, it's it's changed just like you said with the ad where you know Three years ago or 10 years ago. You may have been able to get away with it because that was the thing But now it's it's the employees market the applicants market. Um, so really get it towards them You can kill two birds with one stone because You'll find that you'll actually catch a lot more clients through a more employee centric Focus on your website too. Yeah, that makes sense Is it just me? I think those little uniforms are cute and in the summer they could have little shorts little shortals No, I think they're adorable As long as they don't have a little button flap in the back Yeah, no no button flap in the back But I do like them and they have all the hooks on them already built in for your spray bottles and stuff. I don't know Yeah, you all might have to check the website out in six months and see what's happening over there. I like that Huh, so liby says that is not sexy liby. I think they are I'm gonna put my people in shorts. They're gonna be adorable All right So yeah, this is just reaffirming that. Um, you know, make sure that it's Really just kind of taking a look at it, you know, give credit where it's due. Um, and You know, show that appreciation You don't have to, you know, bombard your website and that's what a thing if you don't want to if you don't feel comfortable but Highlighting, you know, your best employees and showing appreciation for them and that gratitude really I think really pulls things in So give us some examples. Can you Chris? Like what what do you mean by that? How How do you go about showing? showing that um, so I know that um, at least personally, you know, we have Videos on there of them actually doing the work or just happy laughing Just knowing that it's a real person. It doesn't have to be super polished or anything like that but just kind of showing showing the culture And showing that you care about your current employees. Um, and it could be, you know, company photos and things like that So do you think actually having having your graphics and videos like underdeveloped a little more raw actually makes it more useful than Something that you spend a lot of money and time Editing and making real slick and flashing As long as it looks clean and you're not pushing, you know, it looks grainy and this and that and you know, at least being a little bit Little bit clean layout. I think having more organic Photos might actually be a great thing. So it can't be terrible. Right. You don't want it to be extreme. Yeah, not sloppy, but if you have if you have the option of you know Farming it out Doing in a lot of b-roll and a lot of quick cuts of music and intros and exits and making it really flashy Is that does that help or does that almost make it can you make it too slick can make it too thin? I don't know. I think I think No, I mean, I don't think you can make it too slick But I do think that just kind of having that more personalized Feeling really just helps and you don't have to go overboard. I don't I don't feel it needs to be Your company, you know, it feels like your people You might you might hire some actors, but they need to be wearing your uniforms and using your equipment It needs to look like it's you. Yeah Well, and really if you're going to hire people I'm not at all opposed to hiring people. I liked the idea of hiring people, but they still need to look like your people Because if they don't look like your people then as soon as somebody lands on your doorstep They're going to quickly be like No, this is I don't belong here. This is yeah And I know there's a mixed crowd of people who you know are at that level to where they can afford it and some that can't so That's why I say it's not it's not The whole fully polished thing. It's just the idea is to maybe transition to a little bit more of an employee-centric view, you know in some in some areas to kind of You know highlight again because applicants are also going to look on your website. They're going to look, you know They're going to look everywhere and so as as with sales, you know, you have typically Seven touch points before somebody's ready to make that sale or ready to make that commitment So show your appreciation everywhere you can Yeah Do I mean I guess a sincere motivated applicant would be doing all of that At the same time though, sometimes you get the feeling that you know, they're Setting in front of a computer at two o'clock at night, you know Just rifling through indeed and click click click click click and applying to 50 jobs in 10 minutes and then you Reach out to them the next day and they're trying to figure out who you are Do you see that as well? Oh, yeah And that's why we we really try to focus especially with kind of the way the process that we do it with wood recruit is Just building your employer brand and getting in front of them having that iconic look So that you're It's easily recognizable And you're putting you're putting yourself in front of them as many times as possible in every way possible So that I think that really helps because it's kind of the theory of blocking To where if you have a kind of an iconic or a series of Touches or pictures that are almost exactly the same or yeah Senior name out there consistently in different places Kind of makes it stick a bit more right So you get a little bit less of that That feeling of they're not going to know who you are like every name is the same If you have some type of an iconic look Then when you call in the morning, they're like, oh, I know who this company is Like I like in my area. I know who the mattress guy is Right because I don't have to know I don't have to know anything else I don't need to know if they say, oh, I'm with the mattress guy. I'm like, oh, I know exactly who you are It's everywhere, right another example is that I think is a great example is more hands I don't know if you guys know well If you know them you know them and if you don't know them if you've never seen them Then you know that you haven't because more hands has a hand that looks like this On top. Well, it doesn't look like this. It looks It looks a lot bigger than that. Yeah a lot bigger than that right and on top of their cars Tom's going to give us a picture here. Okay. And so if somebody says Hi, I'm Liz with more hands They don't have to think so I wonder which company that is they know exactly which company that is Yeah, it's that cleaning company with the hands on top of their On top of their cars. That's a little gimmicky, but it helps it works. Yeah, absolutely Yeah, I know I love wood recruit too. Actually the reason why we Asked chris to do it is because Mindy that works in our office. She loves chris. Oh, I love her. She's amazing Well, you know, she loves you. She's always just going on about chris is the mom. He's the best Liz. You don't understand he Like you actually do With your customers chris exactly what you're now talking to us about Mindy feels like you know her personally and that you're helping her individually With our company and that you're really doing it Like in her mind, she feels like she's almost your only customer You're not rushing her through stuff and yeah, you're really good at your job And so that's that's that's a really good point. Liz. Yeah, I'm gonna have to add to that and It's really making sure that With anybody in life with anything Um, oh, there it is See you you don't miss that You're not forgetting these cars Somebody calls you and says that they're from more hands. You know exactly Who who what company that they're from? You don't have to think twice about that If those hands are like custom bay, they're all bicycle racks. They fall down flat So when they go in parking garages, they don't get knocked off Although sometimes they forget to fold it down and they do but um, there's a lot that goes into that Yeah But um, what was I saying? Um, so it's really about everything in life everybody you come in contact with When you're having conversations when you're talking to them Be fully invested in the conversation be fully invested in them for that moment Yeah, I think that's honestly the biggest The most powerful thing you can do to show that appreciation It's just fully connected fully engage with them In the time that you set with them, right? So chris on this slide you're referring to Your consumer facing website you're you're saying be careful and make sure that it's Not all client focused because that could be a turnoff to Employees potential employees can I think it's a turnoff also It's a clients because you try to sell your product and you're in this sell sell sell mode Um, as opposed to it being a little bit more organic and letting them decide for themselves because if you try to tell somebody something Um, it's different than if they come to that conclusion themselves Yeah, so you want to show you actually care about your staff that's Appealing to potential clients as well as potential employees So again two birds one stone. Yeah, but you've gotten small print unless you don't care about your staff Do you have any advice for people who don't care about their staff? Um, it's it's hard. I know It's hard, but I put that in there specifically because I know that We over estimate our abilities and we over estimate We're overly confident about ourselves and we we put ourselves in there as above average We think of ourselves as above average Um, and so it's really hard sometimes to look objectively at ourselves Um, and so that's why I wanted to put in there to kind of shake people a little bit Yeah, because maybe that's your statement chris. I mean there's poll after poll after poll that You know, I don't care if you're talking about driving skills or You know, whatever you're talking about, you know, 80% of the people think that they're better than average. Yeah So I just wanted to put that in there to remind people, um, you know, even myself sometimes, um a lot of times um, I over estimate my abilities and You know, I might not see things clearly. So sometimes it takes Takes somebody else to kind of let you know By the way, maybe we should do this differently and for you to have that open mind that You know checking your ego at the door as we call it Yeah, I like that um, and so kind of getting further in here again a little further into the process or into You know the journey I want to ask how are you presenting yourself? This is mainly for the owners And the person that's actually actively doing it depending on what size you're at You know when you have those people coming in What's going on? Are you giving them the attention? Are you dedicating your time and Or is it kind of as Libby calls it? Is it is it kind of like a mess in the chaos? I'm like, oh, wait Hold on one second. Let me I didn't know you were coming um, you know Is that really kind of present presenting yourself in the best in the best light and then You know even for those that are a bit bigger. They might have the office staff available to tend to their You know the applicants or people coming in You might have a very strong goal or very passionate about your vision your your core values And maybe your office is too, but maybe they don't know To share that or to reflect that or to really make that a part of their daily routine And so a lot of a lot of the Stop gaps I guess with companies is the office staff not being fully in line with their vision Yeah, I think that's a really important point Yeah, I really like your bottom line here too. How do they represent your culture? A lot of times What what we'll see is people are interviewing according to their personal style Or what how they want to behave or act versus How the company needs to have how the company runs and what the company sees So in your example, I kind of like the idea of In a backwards sort of a way If you walk if your company is disorganized and chaotic Then that's exactly what it should look like at the interview. So, oh, what's your name? Oh, what what type are you supposed to be here? I mean that's representative of your culture Some people are going to be able to thrive and other people aren't And the good thing about that unfortunately And fortunately is If people can thrive in that culture, they're going to stick around and they'll probably be okay Which is good for you because guess what that's what your your company is really like But if your company is not like that Don't let it appear like that on the first day. Don't let it be a bad day And and and yeah, that's first date. Are you going to show up? You know jump out of bed and rush, you know to the bowling alley the movie theaters. However, you know, if you're still in high school You know Look young, but you don't look quite that young. I I was going to say at the beginning I was going to have like a disclaimer and say I am not as young as I look So, um, but I'm still I'm still not I guess I still have a ways to go Yeah, yeah, you're not as old as we look You're not as young as you look but also not as old as we look That's good. We like right in the middle there chris. Yeah, yeah fresh ideas Um, so I want to kind of give you a little bit of an idea About what that meant when I said, you know, how are you representing yourself? How are they representing your your your company? Um, and how well is your culture represented? And what you want to be known for what you want to Want people to feel So a few key examples of kind of how I would say liby has it run Is um, you know, we did come up with a few ideas on connecting with them Um, you know for those people that do you know schedule with us through wood recruit Um, we hand write their names On a board outside and they know they see their name on there and they're like, oh my gosh, okay one They're in the right place and two they took the time to write my name out So that's that's huge Um, and then just being engaging being appreciative Um having a really nice place to relax and sit down while they wait, you know, give them water Like that, yeah And so it's it's really at that moment It's all about them. We know exactly when they're coming in You know, we have them sign in it's You know, it's just it's a great experience so And you know, some people are going to look at this welcome Sign here that you have up here and I'm sure that some people are going to be thinking. Yeah, but how is that great? I don't get it. It's just handwriting a sign wouldn't it be better if you printed out something that had their name I'm I'm going to say that no it's not because Nowadays the the younger people that are coming to our jobs That looks very normal to them everything being printed and type written and Text that's what they're used to seeing. You know what they're not used to seeing real handwriting Yeah, I still get I still get really confused when I get those pieces of mail hand written And then I open it up and it's an advertisement like they got me they got me. I was so excited for a minute there I thought I was getting a card. Yeah So handwriting does make an impact now. We just don't see it often. Yeah, so it does make an impact Awesome. Was that candy over there too? It is Um leftovers. Yeah, but we we we mix it up every once in a while. We might have um I don't know It's leftovers because that'll takes away from it, you know, it's Well, you can kind of tell when it's like June and you're still pushing the Reese's eggs Or the red and green balls All the chocolate's gone and it's just the stuff that people normally don't like Yeah, well down here in florida. We can't do chocolates. Um, or it wouldn't end nice We had somebody today who was like, oh, can I have one of these? I'm like, yeah, go for it Yeah, nice Take a handful. Those look good. Look like good candy to me You guys don't have air conditioning down there. I mean We do we just have to um get the the black covers over the windows to make it effective. I got you. Okay Uh, liby says we didn't hire someone and she left us a five star review because the interview experience was amazing Loved having her name on the board and the coffee in the water. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. And we do have a curie. I got the ready Nice, right as soon as you walk in Nice nice I like it Uh Now I just have a few here left. Um, this I kind of wanted to give you guys more of a techy side because I've kind of seen that so these are kind of general or average numbers that we've kind of seen over over the course of You know what recruit and what we've seen and what we've built out Um, and this is mainly in the connection that you make at the interview depending on specific cases So the first one again without that personal connection without something that's engaging and appreciative Um, if you have a decent job, that's not really standing out in the crowd Um, you might not get a lot of people that are really committed to you or if they are two days later They're like, oh, I'm sorry. I accepted another offer when you were expecting them to start Um, now in the same case, you know, if you're still something's not quite right in your company But you do have a great job in your area, you know, you might get about half committing um to that Um, and then taking a step further You know, if you if you don't have a competitive advantage really in your area But you do make it a point to be very, you know, very connected and that sort of thing you can overwrite that Kind of that doubt in somebody's mind on, you know, I'm not sure if it's worth it because of the You know, maybe the pay or you know, there's I don't have a health insurance or this or that Um, but if you show that you actually care to those employees or those um, those applicants Then it really kind of drives home that commitment and just make it a great process So we typically find about 50 and then again, if you got all your ducks in a row And you know, you had a great job great pay um, you got great systems and um, you really do engage and make your core values a part of your everyday routine Um, you're gonna get a lot of people sticking that went typically closer to 80 um and really just Also, this is kind of a big boost in revenue to be honest Of course so A big part of the connect I mean, I guess the connection happens in a lot of different ways the the messaging you have on your website If you're actually inviting people into your office and if they actually show up Then you know the sign of the candy and furniture and whatnot um Are there issues with people not showing up for interviews? Are there more things that companies can do to get that commitment if they haven't been able to get them to come into their office? Yeah, so usually the two biggest reasons for that is um One is pay and two is culture Those are the two biggest reasons and culture is kind of a general topic But we just covered a lot of it today With that appreciation Um, those are the two biggest factors On why somebody might not commit to you. Maybe there's something that turns them off You know with how you represent it around town things like that or there's just a lot of opportunities And you kind of blend in you haven't really stood out as an iconic choice But as we say here and this is kind of the backbone of wood recruit Um, is that hiring is a numbers game? So you really got to work it the getting the personal connection for people Filling that gap until you can get them in for for like a an interview though It just seems like if there's so many people who will Apply or throw their name in the hat, but they they ghost you after that. It's kind of hard I was wondering if there's any techniques to get the personal connection For somebody like like that So I've I've thought and thought and thought and thought about this And it's not one specific thing. I can't give you an answer. It's not one specific thing It's a combination of about 20 different variables that you really have to contribute or put in place To build up to the whole so again, this is and this is what we inside of wood recruit are doing as our 2022 goal with all of our customers is Building your employer brand Really building that foundation so that you have similar to what you would have on your website You have an organic SEO or organic growth that's happening long term So we're going to have to have you in the back. It sounds like that's another discussion It could be yeah So there's just there's so many things And right now my brain is in a million different directions thinking about them. I mean And that's not surprising because that kind of gets back to like marketing for for for customers It used to be back in the day. It was really simple. It's just a couple of things you had to do Now there's this long thin tail of you know, 20 plus things that you have to tend to in order to attract customers So it's Makes sense that the same thing would apply on the on the employee side on the recruiting side Yeah We're hearing that more and more too right that That you have to be recruiting for employees in the same way that you would be Recruiting for clients right kind of goes back and forth. I want to be doing the same thing And honestly putting the same attention into both um, whatever you think of as your honestly The time the the attention and money that you contribute to each lead that you generate is probably going to be about the same with um with applicants in most cases So don't be afraid to um kind of step out there Yeah Pay a little bit more do a little bit more put more of your time your recent all of your resources put more resources toward Hiring yeah, not a lot of option. Anyway, if if you haven't been doing that, you're going to see quickly that You need to don't know options there Um, so let's see here don't know Yeah, that's probably true Yes power of tech and the power of social media They've changed so much of what we do and how we respond and and and how we have to behave Yeah, absolutely Yeah, so I kind of wanted to round things up here just kind of reflecting back Honestly, if you don't have a reputation Again, um, kind of touching on that if you don't again with the pay and stuff if you don't have a reputation Fix it fast with kind of how How you first touch somebody in the ad and then again how it's reflected on every platform And start focusing on building that brand Over time again, but there's a lot of easy fixes The whole 80 20 rule You can get 80 percent of the work done You know now and then you can focus on the 20 percent Over time to really build a strong strong employer brand Yeah, absolutely. I like I like some of your Suggestions here too Google facebook reviews. I think we all know about that. We all think about that on a regular basis In these reviews We talked about that earlier and something new that I don't think a lot of people know about Local awards. This is a really big deal Laura Smith at all star She has always worked really hard to leverage local awards and then charities too, right? Because again, people want to know what what what are you doing? How's there some meaning in the work that they do? So Showcasing some charities can make a big difference Your employer brand on website. Yeah And gosh, this isn't it's not easy for people though to create a brand across all of these different Platforms, I know it's not easy for me. I know it's not easy And we've noticed that it's it's very difficult and and we feel it with all of our clients With wood recruit and that's why we've made it our goal Our kind of our mission for 2022 to build your employer brand and give everybody the tools that they need To not just hire fast Using wood recruit but also to kind of build that longevity and get it so that people are sticking that 80 percent are sticking and kind of fill in the gaps Yeah It's about hiring hiring good. Yeah We are Kind of pushing up against the top of the hour here um Would you wait for us to share your Website here chris if anybody wants more information about wood recruit and product and services you offer I'm assuming your web website would Be a good place to start. Oh, yeah, and we do have a demo a contact us page to schedule um, a discovery call with us To to find out more that way we can set aside time because if you facebook message me or talk to me on the phone and say I want to schedule a time to call or I want to call you right now. I'm going to forget everything So if it's not on my calendar, I won't remember Um, so Come on now All right, I'm I'm surprised you don't have pictures of you guys on here Like I see I see two people wearing overalls, but they're not cleaning Was that level? Yeah, she's got a hard hat on so All right construction But I do see our little maid over here with her cute little mop It's it's not overall. Yeah Yeah, not overalls That's a short nobody's wearing the short overalls yet. You got to bring them back Yeah, I can't uh Wait till uh, you share this idea with uh folks in your office. See where that goes You might be receiving a little gift There what I said, you might be receiving a little gift in the mail. Oh I would not be terrible. Come on now This is cute. This is a really cute little Website but this does make me think oh, it's gonna be I like that it says we make it easy It does look easy, right? Yeah, um, and that's that's our thing is we want honestly, um That tagline, you know in our emails is you know happy hiring We want you to have fun with it. We want you to enjoy it And really love the process and love Getting in front of new people because you can find out a whole lot By talking to people even if they're, you know, you might not think it but people who are You know for entry-level positions that are coming in for cleaners You find out a lot about yourself too and you know how to connect With with everybody and build a better company. So we want you to love it and make it make it easy Yeah, thank you. I do like that All right, Chris. So if you had one one piece of advice for people that they should do to Increase their so all of this basically is going back to retention, right? The whole reason why we want employee engagement and higher, better, etc. Etc. It's because we want to retain our employees. So if you had one piece of advice, what would that be? Um, I think that piece of advice Would be commit to being a better person Because that's going to reflect everywhere Interesting All right, uh, I guess helps in a much broader context and just recruiting that Because it's it's not just one thing if you if you live and breathe it. It's going to just happen organically And that does make sense right because you will actually Live and breathe that it will be true and honest. That's wise beyond your Yes, apparent age I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm going to also drop a link in chat If you want to add smart business moves to your calendar so you can kind of get reminders as to We know what's coming up in smart business moves Here's the link to do it and you just kind of click on this and you know Kind of kind of get it taken care of from there um It's like next week we have Heather Heather canning is going to be our guest uh next week on the 23rd I think it I'm going to be I'm going to be busy doing uh Made central academy alive in charleston next wednesday, so You'll uh Maybe have a surprise guest host or you and i don't know how you guys want to do it You'll just have to come back next wednesday at five o'clock to find out. Hey robin. How are you? Hey robin And then the weekend after that we're going to um Have diana hindley and uh her daughter Candace rodriguez and i'll be in mexico And i'm just going to make some popcorn and set back and watch because they'll be driving to chat themselves Those two can definitely keep keep keep the conversation flowing. We're not going to have uh lag time at all Out with those two ladies So we are at the top of the hour chris. This was awesome really good stuff. I appreciate the Unique perspective you put on uh recruiting engagement. You've got to Engage the recruits before you even have a chance of engaging employees, right? Yeah start sooner, right? Yeah Nice fresh fresh. Uh look at that at employee engagement. I love it So we're we're done for the week. We'll be back next wednesday five o'clock eastern. Thanks folks. Bye. Bye