Episode 26
Roomba Recruiting
Stephanie is joined by Elise Gay, Executive Search Partner specializing in the Legal and Life Sciences division of ThinkingAhead, explaining her "Roomba" process for search, sharing a unique way to exercise, and talking about avoiding the "post and pray" approach to recruiting, why (and how) to always recycle in your work, and the importance of self care and a positive mentality outside of the office.
Transcript
Hello, welcome to The Talent Trade. I am super
Stephanie Maas:excited to be here. I'm Stephanie Maas, partner with
Stephanie Maas:ThinkingAhead Executive Search, and today, my excitement level
Stephanie Maas:is through the roof because of the guest that we have today.
Stephanie Maas:She has been an all star with our firm since the minute she
Stephanie Maas:joined, although what I love about her story is it took her
Stephanie Maas:quite a few minutes to find her way with us. However, she showed
Stephanie Maas:tons of promise and potential and was just so dogged and
Stephanie Maas:professional and did so many things right, we knew that once
Stephanie Maas:she learned her niche, that it was going to be a okay. She has
Stephanie Maas:consistently been a top producer for us. I am super excited to
Stephanie Maas:have with us Elise Gay, part of our legal practice. Elise Gay.
Stephanie Maas:Welcome.
Elise Gay:Thank you so much. Stephanie, very glad to be here
Elise Gay:and like they say, if we have to live up to what our dog thinks
Elise Gay:we are, I'll have to live up to what you think I am every day.
Elise Gay:So good challenge.
Stephanie Maas:And I feel like somehow I just got called a dog.
Stephanie Maas:But anyway, moving right along. Okay, so one of the things I'm
Stephanie Maas:super excited about with you, Elise, is you have kind of
Stephanie Maas:coined a process with our firm, which is part of your immense
Stephanie Maas:impact since you've joined us, and I really want you to share
Stephanie Maas:that in detail, where it came from, how you execute it. You
Stephanie Maas:really implemented something kind of new to us, and I think
Stephanie Maas:this has really catapulted some of your success over the last
Stephanie Maas:couple of years. So share with us the how, what, where and when
Stephanie Maas:and why behind your process of the Roomba?
Elise Gay:Yes, so I'll explain kind of where the Roomba term
Elise Gay:came from. But I would also like to point out my background. I
Elise Gay:came to executive search. I did have a sales background, but I
Elise Gay:also had an internal HR background, and and so I
Elise Gay:remember learning and training on this side of the house and so
Elise Gay:many recruiters will say, you know, I don't post jobs, or I
Elise Gay:don't post on LinkedIn, I don't share what I'm working on,
Elise Gay:because I'm supposed to only be calling or I'm supposed to only
Elise Gay:be going after passive candidates. And I really think
Elise Gay:of the Roomba number one as working smarter, but number two
Elise Gay:is like, almost like a business just turning on their open sign,
Elise Gay:right? You pull the string on that neon sign. That doesn't
Elise Gay:guarantee that you're going to be successful, or that you're
Elise Gay:going to get customers in the door, or that you're going to
Elise Gay:keep your business afloat, but it's a signal to the world that
Elise Gay:you're open for business. And I think a lot of the Roomba idea
Elise Gay:is really just in support of that. And so the idea of really
Elise Gay:talking about the Roomba, at thinking ahead and in business,
Elise Gay:literally came from when I first started here, a little over six
Elise Gay:years ago. My kids were much younger, and I don't know about
Elise Gay:you, but on Saturday morning, I'm like, I want to get my
Elise Gay:chores done because I want to be outside. I want to exercise. I
Elise Gay:want to go do fun things with my kid. I want to kick my feet back
Elise Gay:and enjoy time with family and friends. So it's like, how can I
Elise Gay:multitask in doing my household chores, right? To get done
Elise Gay:quicker and get to my fun stuff, right? And I think again, we're
Elise Gay:going to take this back to business. But I really started
Elise Gay:this because I used to have these little one pound hand and
Elise Gay:ankle weights that you would like Velcro on, and I would put
Elise Gay:those on, and I would fold my laundry so that I felt like I
Elise Gay:was getting exercise while I was folding laundry. And I would
Elise Gay:crank up some 80s music, or I would turn on a podcast for work
Elise Gay:that I'd been meaning to listen to, and I would listen to that
Elise Gay:while I'm folding my laundry with my weights on, and at the
Elise Gay:same time I was running my dishwasher, I'd be running my
Elise Gay:clothes washer and my dryer, and I would literally have my Roomba
Elise Gay:going on around my house. So I was like, All right, I'm getting
Elise Gay:these chores done. We're going to have some fun this weekend.
Elise Gay:And that's kind of the idea behind it. And work is deploy
Elise Gay:all of your resources so that you can have confidence in the
Elise Gay:hard work that you have to do to get stuff done for your clients
Elise Gay:and your candidates. So that's the background. The same
Elise Gay:mentality absolutely applies in executive search. You always
Elise Gay:have to work hard at this job, but you can still work hard and
Elise Gay:work smart. And again, when you serve other people's needs in
Elise Gay:this job, you always serve your own. So how can you serve people
Elise Gay:faster but also better and more thoroughly, and how can you
Elise Gay:serve more people? That's really the name of the game and being
Elise Gay:successful in executive search. So I think a big part of my
Elise Gay:mindset in this job is that you have to be confident and humble,
Elise Gay:you have to be patient and urgent. You just have to be
Elise Gay:organized. Period. There's really no and I think you. Have
Elise Gay:to be tunnel focused and adaptable, and I think you have
Elise Gay:to be both proud and polite and humble at the same time. So
Elise Gay:there's a lot of ands in this job. One thing that I've always
Elise Gay:thought about in this role is that you have to be a bit
Elise Gay:selfish with your time. Well, selfish on that surface level,
Elise Gay:sounds negative and sounds self serving. It's actually not,
Elise Gay:because I think when you come to this job, when you come to your
Elise Gay:desk every day, you really have to think about that efficiency
Elise Gay:and spending your time on tasks that are going to move the ball
Elise Gay:forward for your clients and candidates. And how can you take
Elise Gay:the same hours in the day that everybody else have and kind of
Elise Gay:get that job done. So we've talked about deploying
Elise Gay:resources. I think that we can think about those resources in a
Elise Gay:couple different buckets. When you're in executive search, we
Elise Gay:all have job postings. We can all post on LinkedIn. I call
Elise Gay:those things kind of the extras, or the icing on the cake, if you
Elise Gay:will. Again, that's that Roomba kind of working in the
Elise Gay:background. And what I want to challenge people to think about
Elise Gay:is that that's not a post and pray, if you will, kind of a
Elise Gay:situation. It's not always the and it's rarely, by the way, a
Elise Gay:one to one relationship. I'm going to post a job, the perfect
Elise Gay:candidates going to apply, and they're going to be the one that
Elise Gay:gets the job. But I would like to challenge people to think
Elise Gay:about posting or talking about what they're working on on
Elise Gay:LinkedIn or just kind of on some platform, whether it's a mass
Elise Gay:email, a newsletter, any tool that you're using to get your
Elise Gay:work out there really just does a lot for you. In the
Elise Gay:background, again, it's that Roomba running while you're
Elise Gay:making the calls, while you're prepping the candidates. You're
Elise Gay:really building presence and familiarity with candidates and
Elise Gay:clients. You're establishing yourself as that market master.
Elise Gay:I also try to think about, if I'm posting a job or I'm posting
Elise Gay:on LinkedIn. What's my goal for the week? And let me make my
Elise Gay:post about that. Let me make it intentional. What I'm posting
Elise Gay:and putting out there should almost be like a hey, this is my
Elise Gay:goal this week. I'm working on this particular search, and
Elise Gay:that's going to be very closely tied to goals and metrics that
Elise Gay:I'm measuring myself by. I also think publishing and posting and
Elise Gay:talking about on some kind of a platform what you're working on,
Elise Gay:it can get you referrals. It can get people talking in the
Elise Gay:marketplace. It can also get you candidates and connections that
Elise Gay:maybe aren't even on LinkedIn or social media, but they have a
Elise Gay:friend who is and the friend shares things along. So I think
Elise Gay:that there's just huge power in posting and sharing, whether it
Elise Gay:be videos, whether it be a blog that you do, but just having
Elise Gay:that presence can really be huge for your personal career, and
Elise Gay:again, for serving your clients and candidates. Well, I also
Elise Gay:think another bucket to think about when we think about that
Elise Gay:Roomba. Again, kind of vacuuming while you're folding your
Elise Gay:laundry is, you know, leveraging support of what some people call
Elise Gay:a project team. You know, if you have a team that sources for
Elise Gay:you, if you have a marketing team that helps you build job
Elise Gay:announcements, deploy those resources. Don't be afraid to
Elise Gay:delegate and to use that Roomba, but again, make sure that what
Elise Gay:you're delegating is directly helping you to meet your
Elise Gay:immediate and urgent goals. These, you know, research team
Elise Gay:sourcing teams, they're also great for just helping you to
Elise Gay:find candidates, but not only that, to find new clients, to
Elise Gay:find dream clients that you want to work with to help you connect
Elise Gay:more deeply with hiring managers in your space, or certainly with
Elise Gay:candidates in your space. Video is a huge platform. I have done
Elise Gay:a little bit of video. I have other colleagues I think that
Elise Gay:have really embraced video and gotten huge results again, just
Elise Gay:positioning themselves as a market master and positioning
Elise Gay:themselves as an expert in their space, and just building that
Elise Gay:network for today and for down the road.
Stephanie Maas:Walk us through newsletter and email campaigns.
Elise Gay:Mmm hmm, making sure that you are either delegating,
Elise Gay:running newsletters in the backgrounds or running email
Elise Gay:campaigns in the backgrounds of your phone call, of that muscle
Elise Gay:on the phone, can get you some big results. I'm also a huge fan
Elise Gay:of marketing in the same space that I'm recruiting in. Some
Elise Gay:people call that show my work. But again, I think that gets you
Elise Gay:confidence. It gives you credibility. It can often get
Elise Gay:referrals. It can help you gain that market Intel. You're really
Elise Gay:also potentially finding new clients to take that same body
Elise Gay:of work that you're working on, if it's not exclusive, and kind
Elise Gay:of recycle it immediately and place more candidates and make
Elise Gay:more impact.
Stephanie Maas:That's another thing you touch on there. I want
Stephanie Maas:to expand on this recyclability. Any top producer I've ever heard
Stephanie Maas:has been a top producer, consistently over time, is
Stephanie Maas:highly specialized in their niche to allow for this idea of
Stephanie Maas:recyclability. So can you expand on that a little bit for us?
Elise Gay:Absolutely. So I think such a key to being
Elise Gay:successful in this business is pattern recognition. Is being
Elise Gay:able to look at the market and go, Okay, this is a consistent
Elise Gay:need in my market. Now, how can I be someone to help fill that
Elise Gay:need over and over again, whether it be for one client
Elise Gay:multiple clients, building a candidate base that is
Elise Gay:recyclable is so important. And again, I think on the surface,
Elise Gay:that might sound a little negative or maybe a little
Elise Gay:callous, but it really helps you to serve more people when you
Elise Gay:can build relationships in a space very like a very tunnel
Elise Gay:focused approach, almost you're building relationships in a very
Elise Gay:specific geography with a very specific job duty. And you can
Elise Gay:go and get more searches, more candidates, and it's almost like
Elise Gay:you're able to take people from one search, maybe that were the
Elise Gay:runner up and place them quickly with a different client that has
Elise Gay:a need in that space.
Stephanie Maas:So I just want to clarify. Recyclability is not
Stephanie Maas:placing the same candidate over and over again every two years.
Stephanie Maas:It is taking the work that you do for any one search and taking
Stephanie Maas:those candidates who didn't get the job and continuing to serve
Stephanie Maas:them and other clients by working the same position with
Stephanie Maas:other clients. So we serve many at the same time.
Elise Gay:Absolutely, absolutely.
Stephanie Maas:Super exciting. So the other thing I want to
Stephanie Maas:talk about you specifically is you operate at such a high level
Stephanie Maas:of production, I know you have tremendously high standards for
Stephanie Maas:yourself, and yet, I also think one of the things you do really,
Stephanie Maas:really well, is combine this Roomba for work so you can be
Stephanie Maas:more efficient, serve more better, faster, etc, but then
Stephanie Maas:you also take it off the field, or you use the word, you have to
Stephanie Maas:be kind of selfish. But if it's the right kind of selfish, it's
Stephanie Maas:self care, especially someone that is so high producing,
Stephanie Maas:oftentimes and high functioning, there's this misconception that
Stephanie Maas:they've abandoned all else, and this is all that they do. And I
Stephanie Maas:think you're truly one of the most well rounded folks that
Stephanie Maas:perform at your level that we've ever seen. So can you talk me
Stephanie Maas:through that a little bit?
Elise Gay:Absolutely, I do think the idea of Roomba is
Elise Gay:absolutely self care, and it is not selfish, and it's something
Elise Gay:I'm a huge believer in. I am a mom of two. I have a husband who
Elise Gay:travels pretty extensively for work, so we have two careers,
Elise Gay:and we are a dual income household, but as much as he is
Elise Gay:amazing and jumps in and helps when he's home, a lot of times,
Elise Gay:I am a little bit of a single parent, and I have a
Elise Gay:Labradoodle. But yes, I think you have to take care of
Elise Gay:yourself in this job. Is anyone's life perfectly
Elise Gay:balanced? Of course not, but I am just a staunch believer that
Elise Gay:if you don't take care of yourself outside of work, this
Elise Gay:job must become infinitely harder, and it's just harder to
Elise Gay:lift yourself off the ground, because the positive mentality
Elise Gay:is so huge in what we do, being able to sit down and talk to
Elise Gay:people and smile even through the hard days, is super
Elise Gay:important and what we do so I do believe that your personal
Elise Gay:habits truly fuel your professional success. And what I
Elise Gay:mean by that, you know, we all have different things that fill
Elise Gay:us up, but for me, I think exercise has just become so
Elise Gay:important, and it really has nothing to do with physical
Elise Gay:appearance, but it is purely mental stress relief, anxiety
Elise Gay:relief for me. I mean, exercise is just paramount for me. Sleep,
Elise Gay:although sometimes I don't get enough, I find I have to be
Elise Gay:pretty disciplined about my sleep habits, eating and just
Elise Gay:calendar management in general. How am I? You know, I try to
Elise Gay:look at my calendar as Okay, in this week, this is what I must
Elise Gay:accomplish professionally, and this is what I must accomplish
Elise Gay:personally. Are there things that I need to say no to in
Elise Gay:order to be laser focused on what I've got to get done for
Elise Gay:the week? Are there things I can turn down. I'm also the older or
Elise Gay:the more seasoned I've gotten, I'm just a big believer in
Elise Gay:having space for a little bit of silence and a little bit of
Elise Gay:stillness, and that really breeding creativity, I think, on
Elise Gay:and off the field in work and in life. Life. And sometimes that
Elise Gay:can be sitting with a cup of coffee and thinking about
Elise Gay:something like this on a Saturday morning, or sometimes
Elise Gay:it can be, let me just block off 30 minutes at the end of my day,
Elise Gay:and instead of making 10 more phone calls, there's something
Elise Gay:with work that I need to just let those creative juices flow a
Elise Gay:little bit. Let me turn myself on Do Not Disturb and let me
Elise Gay:just kind of think in a little bit of white space about what I
Elise Gay:need to get done. I feel that most of us in executive
Elise Gay:recruitment, we are urgent, we are fast, we are furious, but
Elise Gay:you can't always live in that fight or flight mode. I think
Elise Gay:you have to change over to arrest and recovery time. I've
Elise Gay:just realized, the longer I've done this, the importance of
Elise Gay:that for me, I am a big mind, body, connect person, and I
Elise Gay:think that having work habits that are working smarter, not
Elise Gay:harder, and giving myself this space is so important, and I
Elise Gay:couldn't do this job without it.
Stephanie Maas:So cool. Okay, just for a minute or two, just
Stephanie Maas:touch on again somebody at your level, dogged in their work
Stephanie Maas:efforts. Take care of yourself on and off the field. Talk about
Stephanie Maas:how you maintain your motivation and mindset of being Uber
Stephanie Maas:productive. Talk me through what works for you.
Elise Gay:I think that a big part of this job is just picking
Elise Gay:up the phone and making like the first 10 or 15 calls. We can all
Elise Gay:get that call reluctance, or literally sit at our desk and
Elise Gay:go, I do not feel like it today. Maybe something you know has
Elise Gay:gone on at work that's discouraged us, or we've brought
Elise Gay:something in from our personal life that's making us feel down
Elise Gay:and giving us maybe some of that call reluctance that we can all
Elise Gay:get. I think that if you can just force yourself to get on
Elise Gay:the phone and start talking and have that mindset of being open
Elise Gay:to the possibility of what you're going to come up with
Elise Gay:that day that that gets me through a lot.
Stephanie Maas:Yeah it's kind of like that eat the frog
Stephanie Maas:mentality.
Elise Gay:Absolutely, absolutely.
Stephanie Maas:Danny Cahill, what he talks about is, and you
Stephanie Maas:know you talk about this too, is, if you rely on willpower and
Stephanie Maas:discipline, that's only going to get you so far. But instead, I
Stephanie Maas:loved his analogy about brushing your teeth. You know, brushing
Stephanie Maas:your teeth is not an emotional act. You don't have to get
Stephanie Maas:yourself hyped up for it. You don't have to convince yourself,
Stephanie Maas:he said, but somewhere in your conscious or subconscious, you
Stephanie Maas:make a decision that you want healthy teeth, so therefore you
Stephanie Maas:brush your teeth, hopefully twice a day, but most days, at
Stephanie Maas:least once a day. Do you even think about any kind of an
Stephanie Maas:emotional response to brushing your teeth. No, it's just part
Stephanie Maas:of what you do. You know, if you weigh a certain length of time
Stephanie Maas:before you get on the phone, it's going to become emotional,
Stephanie Maas:because you're letting all these other parts of your psyche come
Stephanie Maas:in. So what I've observed with you is you just have a standard
Stephanie Maas:for performance. And for you, it's just, hey, I produce at
Stephanie Maas:this level. I do this kind of work. This is just what I do.
Stephanie Maas:And as a part of doing that, you don't go in every morning and
Stephanie Maas:go, gosh, do I want to get on the phone? Do I not? You're
Stephanie Maas:like, Nope, okay, I want to make my 10, 15 calls. We'll see what
Stephanie Maas:happens after that kind of thing. And I get for people who
Stephanie Maas:are highly emotional, that's a hard perspective. And I think
Stephanie Maas:with somebody like yourself, where you've got this incredible
Stephanie Maas:emotional intuition, and yet you've really figured out how to
Stephanie Maas:take the emotional out of just doing the job. Kudos to you.
Elise Gay:Thanks. Yeah. And I think if you, if you're trying
Elise Gay:to build abs, the more crunches you if you, you know, set a
Elise Gay:small goal, you do 10 a day, then you find yourself wanting
Elise Gay:more. You know, you're like, 10 was easy. I bet I could do 20.
Elise Gay:And then you look a year down the road and you're doing 100 or
Elise Gay:whatever it is, but you have to build that muscle, and you do
Elise Gay:have to push yourself. But I do think taking the emotional piece
Elise Gay:out of it is huge. And it's just, this is what we're going
Elise Gay:to do today. It's you have to talk to yourself like you talk
Elise Gay:to your kids sometimes, like, Hey, this is the plan.
Stephanie Maas:Yeah, I'm the grown up here. I set the agenda.
Stephanie Maas:It's just happening
Elise Gay:Exactly.
Stephanie Maas:I think I had that conversation this morning.
Stephanie Maas:Super delightful having you here. You're such an
Stephanie Maas:inspiration, both because of what you have accomplished, but
Stephanie Maas:also who you are.
Elise Gay:Thank you so much, Stephanie.
