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Talent Trade Tidbit - The Key to Finding Mentorship

Published on: 29th May, 2025

Sometimes you just can’t do it alone.  So do you have someone trusted in your corner that you can turn to in tough times?  Here’s why it might be a good idea to get that person lined up early…

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Transcript
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Hi, this is Stephanie Maas.

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Today I wanna talk to you about an idea of mentorship and menteeship.

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I've thought a lot about what happened during the last recession.

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I've been in the search business for 20 years.

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I've seen a couple of different recessions.

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Candidly, the first couple ones were kind of blips on the radar, if I'm being honest.

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The oh 8, 0 9 recession, it was a financial services led recession.

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I'm a financial services recruiter.

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It was a real kick in the shins to say the very least.

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What helped me get through that?

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What were the practices that I put into play that allowed me to get to the other side?

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Who were the folks that were the influencers?

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Who did I turn to?

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Who did I listen to?

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For all kinds of guidance?

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Guidance, financial guidance, how to run my business.

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I was in an industry.

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There were massive layoffs.

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I'm calling bankers, asking if they wanna pay a fee to hire somebody.

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It felt really weird, so I had to figure out, how do I do that?

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I still need to do my job, and I'm incredibly thankful for some of my professional and personal mentors that I had during that time.

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They were able to give me insight into things that had worked in the past.

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They had more experience than I do, more than anything, be way beyond the technical.

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They gave me the faith and the hope that if we stayed the course made some adjustments, we would get to the other side.

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I'm still going back to some of my mentors and saying, Hey, remind me again.

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What did we do last time?

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But I'm also having the opportunity.

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To talk with and share with younger folks in our business and younger folks that I know that hey, we have seen tough times, really tough times, and we will get through to the other side.

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So let me encourage you, if you are in the position to share wisdom, to bring hope, to bring some faith to some younger folks in your world right now.

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Please.

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Take advantage of that, be the hope they need.

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If you find yourself in that younger category and you're really struggling with how do I make sense of everything that's happening because it's a lot, I encourage you to reach out and find a mentor, someone that you trust, you respect, that can really help guide you on how to adjust your sales, whether it be personally, professionally, whatever, and how to really get to the calmer seas.

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About the Podcast

The Talent Trade
Presented by ThinkingAhead Executive Search
The Talent Trade is all about finding the right person, for the right opportunity, at the right time. But how exactly do you do that the "right" way? Executive Search Partner and Top Biller Stephanie Maas shares more than 25 years of experience about what it takes to be a top recruiter in today's "talent trade" market, using ThinkingAhead’s four-prong system focused on recruiting, business development, planning, and managing your mindset. It’s real, honest information about how to build your desk, perfect your niche, and stand out among the crowd in your search career.



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