The Day One List
The Day One List is the podcast about the people you call first.
Every successful career, business, and life is built on relationships. Behind every opportunity is someone who believed in you, challenged you, opened a door, or showed up when it mattered most.
Hosted by Hunter Schwenke with co-host Andru Morgan, each episode features honest conversations with business leaders, entrepreneurs, and community builders as they share the people, decisions, and moments that shaped their journey.
Through recurring segments like The Day One Decision, Hired or Fired, Who’s On Your Day One List?, and The Day One Challenge, every episode delivers practical leadership insights and relationship lessons listeners can apply immediately.
Because a Day One List isn’t built when you need people it’s built long before you do.
Who’s on your Day One List?
The Day One List
Jeff Miller on Recruiting, Relationships, and What It Takes to Win
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Jeff Miller went from playing wide receiver at Lewis and Clark College to launching a recruiting firm from his basement and building it into one of Portland's leading specialized staffing organizations. In this episode, Jeff shares the Day One decision that set everything in motion, the cold call that became a 15-year partnership, why he turned down management to master his craft first, and how AI is transforming the recruiting industry.
The Day One List is proudly brought to you by Express Employment Professionals, Specialized Recruiting Group, and Express Healthcare Staffing.
The people you call first.
Everything is always getting bigger and bigger. And if you're not getting bigger like at a faster rate than inflation is, then you're actually declining in life, right?
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the day one list, the podcast about who you call first and how you earn that position. This show is for anyone who wants to become that person people trust enough to call first. This is the day one list.
SPEAKER_05Welcome to the day one list, the podcast about who can call first and how you earn that position. I'm your host, Hunter Schwenke. As always, co-host Andrew. How's it going?
SPEAKER_02All right. How are you doing today, man?
SPEAKER_05Good. Did you have a good weekend?
SPEAKER_02I did. It was absolutely uh eventful. This was uh one of my my anniversary this past weekend. So got a chance to do some fun things. It was a good weekend. I always love this time of the year for that. Awesome.
SPEAKER_05Well, let's uh get our special guest here, Jeff Miller.
SPEAKER_03Jeff, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. How was your weekend? Good. It was Father's Day. So I got to my wife was out of town, so I got to take my I have a second grader, soon to be third grader, and we just kind of toured the town and had a good time in Portland. Awesome. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Well, let me read a little bit of this info because I know I got a lot of information from you. Um you're a vice president of specialized recruiting group where you lead strategy sales, recruiting, and operations across multiple markets. Throughout Jeff's career, he built recruiting organizations, launched and scaled his own staffing company, contributed to the growth of major recruiting platforms, and developed high-performing teams centered on trust, relationships, and long-term success. From athletics and entrepreneurship to executive leadership, Jeff's journey has been guided by a fundamental belief people matter. Jeff, welcome to the day one list. Thank you. Appreciate it. Before we get into our first segment, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you you set that up pretty well. Um, but uh definitely uh Oregon, Oregon born, uh spent most of my life growing up in in a small town in eastern Oregon, and then grew to Portland when I got into high school. Um as you mentioned, sports. Uh sports has always been a pretty big part of my life, you know, going playing just from a small kid all the way up through high school and college, and um, that's always been something that's been very important to me. And then graduate from college, and then what are you gonna do with that, right? So somehow I stumbled my way across into the staffing and recruiting industry and haven't looked back. What college did you play at? Uh I went to Lewis and Clark College here locally in Portland. What position did you play? I played wide receiver. Okay. Yeah. Nice.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Well, yeah, what what does leading a recruiting organization look like day to day then?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So today, the way it looks like is uh, you know, we're we're building something, you know, very special here with a specialized recruiting group, uh part of Express. And so we're um really just putting in my goal is to develop uh just a world-class recruiting organization. So we're building a team. Uh, we've been in business the since I've been with the company here for about a year and a half, um and just really focused on finding top quality people to build the team. None of this works unless you have great people on your team. So it's really all about that and uh developing relationships with businesses throughout the community and sharing our story about why we're great and uh taking it from there. Awesome.
SPEAKER_05What what separates specialized recruiting group from traditional staffing firms?
SPEAKER_03Well, we're uh as as the name kind of alludes, specialized, right? So we're uh we really have the tendency to focus on more of that white-collar professional level businesses. So some of the niches are IT, uh finance and accounting, and um any other kind of management level type positions. And what differentiates us is really just that white glove service, like high touch, high feel, just like really truly understanding like what the needs of the business are.
SPEAKER_04Right.
SPEAKER_03And you know, you can't that's not something you can just kind of fake your way through. You know, it's something you have to really like, okay. I'm gonna really lean in on this and and focus and try to clearly understand the business. Yeah. Um, not just the business, their products, like what people are creating or building, what their mission is, but also the internals of an organization, the people. So that takes a lot of deep dive work. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Outside of work, what are you kind of most passionate about then?
SPEAKER_03Let's see. Well, um, as I mentioned, I do have a a young son. He's he just turned nine. So he spent he loves playing sports himself and married here in Portland. Um, so my wife and I spend a lot of time just, you know, he plays soccer and flag football and basketball, so he keeps us very active. Um, pretty active myself still. Still like to get out and do a run and and uh play hoops and whatever. So I stay active that way. Pickleball, even you know, pickleball, okay. That's kind of the new one picking that one up. So we'll see how it goes. All right. Yeah. What's the work-life balance for you with it? I don't believe in work-life balance though. No, I do. It's it's good. I mean, um, you know, we I think it's important to have, you know, my family's obviously my driving force. Like that's what motivates me, gets me out of bed every day and building something special. But um, yeah, I just I'm a big believer of just kind of living life hard, you know, go for it. You know, I that's that's how I go. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Well, as we go into our next segment, I know you built businesses, scaled teams, and helped grow organizations throughout your career. On this show, uh, we believe success often starts with one pivotal choice. So let's go back in time to your day one decision. What would you consider your day one decision?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so I would think like for me, kind of going back to just like, you know, after I graduated from college and like, you know, having that, just like your your DNA is different, like when you have, and I didn't realize it at the time, but like, you know, just being in sports over my whole life, like I'm very competitive, um, very success driven. I always want to, whatever I do in life, I've always had the mantra like I want to be the best at it. And so I didn't know what it was gonna be though. I didn't know what I was gonna do. You don't go to college and think to yourself, hey, I'm gonna get into recruiting. Right. They don't have that. So um I uh and I think I may have mentioned this to you, Hunter, at one point, but they're uh I read a couple books that were important to me, and this kind of really stood out to me as one of it was um how to win friends and influence people, and the other one was Think and Grow Rich. They're old, old books, right? But really what brought me together on that I kind of brought it all circle on my kind of day one would be um you know making friends, you know, influencing people, like getting getting to know people really, really well. That's a game changer thing. And then the other part of like the think and grow rich part of it is the whole premise of that book is really become an expert in something and the riches will follow. You know, you can be like you can be a janitor, you can be a waiter. If you're like if you make a mind your mind set up, I'm gonna be the best at this no matter what, people will search you out, they'll find you because they want the best. Right. And so I didn't know what mine was gonna be, but I did make a decision that whatever I decided to do, that I'm just I'm gonna focus in on it and I'm gonna be and so a friend of mine reached out to me and said, I guess that was his day one, but he he had interviewed for a recruiting position. Oh he didn't he wasn't interested, and then he called me up and said, Hey, you should you should call these guys, you know? And I said, Well, what is it? Like in headhunting or something like that. I didn't really know what it was. And I got into that and I said, you know what? I'm gonna give this a try. And I was about six months in, and I just remembered having this kind of like aha light bulb moment that was like this was it because I didn't want to go out and sell. I knew I'd probably sell because I like people, I love people, like interacting with people, but I didn't feel like selling like a gadget or a widget or whatever you want to call it. Staffing and sales to me is like you're selling a livelihood, you're selling people. Like when people take a job, that's one of the biggest decisions they ever make in their life, right? Like how they're gonna provide for their family, buying a house, having kids, those kind of things. So it's like that was a big thing. And it would never go away. Like people always need to find jobs. And so I'm like, okay, this is it. I'm I'm all in. Um so I just studied the craft, did everything I could do just to be the best at it, and and that's what I've kind of and then I went from there in terms of just starting my own and launching from there.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Yeah. Is that kind of what the confidence kind of gave you when you started your own kind of recruiting company then?
SPEAKER_03Or yeah. So going back into um playing football at Luce and Clark, my I played wide receiver and my quarterback at the time. He and I saw eye to eye with things, we're both business majors, and we he had made a comment like, Hey, you know what? Someday we should start a business together. And you know, you're just kind of like, oh, sure, yeah, whatever. Right. Um, I don't know. But little did I did I know, we didn't know what it was gonna be. But fast forward 10 years later, we ended up launching our staffing company together in my basement. But uh, so that kind of planted a seed in my brain, like, hey, maybe we could start a business, but I didn't really know what it was gonna be. And but we found, you know, he he he grew attached to staffing and so did I. And then we just figured, hey, this is it. Let's do it, let's launch it.
SPEAKER_05What what was like the and like the um the jobs that you did?
SPEAKER_03Was it like live industrial or like office services or it was a hundred percent IT? Oh, okay. So we worked with a lot of the fast growth tech companies in town that were um, you know, maybe they had a bunch of money or an idea or a product and like, hey, we want to build this out. Right. So we would go in and help them understand like what it was gonna help find great people and then partner up with them and then go out and get them for them.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Yeah. Was there ever a moment when you kind of questioned whether it would work?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I think you know, any entrepreneur always there's always a point in time where you kind of figure out like, uh-oh. Right. We had a few uh uh-oh moments, but you know, what do you do? It's just like you part of just how you're wired, you know, there's always gonna be adversity in life, right? Like you're gonna go out and something's not gonna be right that day, and you just have to like, okay, this is a problem. How do we fix it? And what are we gonna do to power through? And and you know, sometimes you have to have a little bit of luck on your side, but I think at the end of the day, is just having that positive mental attitude about anything, and you can figure out a way and you surround yourself with great people, you know, you can't surround yourself with people that are gonna be doubters and haters, right? Right? You got to be around people that really believe we can do this together. And and we had several of those moments, but um, we kept powering through and and it worked out pretty well.
SPEAKER_05Andrew, you got anything else?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, I want to come back to something you had you had mentioned, you know, you stayed back and kind of didn't accept management positions because you wanted to continue to learn and and be good at what you were doing. Uh what what is humility kind of play? What kind of humility do you have to have to to do that?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. No, that's that's funny you say that. My mom was always big on, you know, be humble, be humble, you know. And so um, you know, I I think just for me though, I I didn't need to climb the corporate ladder and as fast as I could. I was like, you know, just hold yourself back, learn, you know, be become an try to become an expert in this business. And then your time will come if you want to get into management and do that. You want to start your own business, then do that. Give you options down the road. But um, for me, it was just more about you know, there's plenty of you know, being a top salesperson in a in a company, there's a lot of accolades and rewards that come with that. So that definitely feels good.
SPEAKER_02But you're working with IT people, right? And so humility with IT people, because there's a common misperception on IT people, and maybe some of it's warranted, that they're not the most humble individuals. So when you're working and you're recruiting individuals, you're you're implementing some of these things into you know, like teaching them culture, I'm assuming. So so you're recruit um, so I guess I don't really have a question as much as just saying, I like that you're mentioning that humility plays a part because now I feel a little bit more comfortable knowing that you know that that's playing a role.
SPEAKER_03Sure. Yeah, no, it's good. I mean, it's IT people have a tendency, um, you know, they're a lot of them are nerd computer nerds, right? So they maybe don't have the best social skills, so they can come across as being, you know, when people don't really know where you're coming from or what you're you know, it can be kind of come across as like being arrogant, maybe. Yeah. So, but no, we would work with people um to help them, you know, position themselves in a better light um and how to be, you know, received better. It's important.
SPEAKER_05Well, let's go into our next segment. It's one of my favorites, the hired or fired. I'm gonna give you a couple questions and you just determine if you would hire this person or maybe fire this person. Okay. Uh first one is using AI to screen candidates, hired or fired.
SPEAKER_03Oh, definitely hire. Why is that? I mean, you if you're not using AI tools right now to help locate the best people as a tool, I mean you're just you're just you know wasting too much time.
SPEAKER_05Okay. What about technical assessments during the interview process? Hired? Hired? Yep. Yep. Candidates using AI during interviews.
SPEAKER_03Um, I would say probably fired. I don't know if you how you would use AI during during an actual interview. An actual interview. Maybe they you can use it to do help them do screening tests before. Right. Um uh I don't know. I'd probably I'd probably, you know, you you gotta set up your tool your interview in a way where you don't you can't allow AI tools. That's what I was thinking too.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Just trying to be more personable and leads you better. Um what about offshore development teams?
SPEAKER_03In terms of what? Like would do I believe should I would I hire offshore? Oh yeah, okay. Um for the right situation, I I would say hire out for me. That's a fire, but there are definitely situations where that can be very beneficial.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Okay. What so the bonus question here, what's one hiring trend you would fire immediately?
SPEAKER_03I would say um if you're not using an AI tool right now, then I I don't want to talk to you. Right. I I just don't. You're you're I mean that you have to be using an AI tool because it it just speeds up everything so much faster.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Do you have any hired or fired ones that you want to? No, no, no.
SPEAKER_02That's good. I like it.
SPEAKER_05All right. Well, I wanted to make sense here. So one area where you've had tremendous success is helping companies find technology talent. Um, that's a space that's changed dramatically over the last decade. I know AI has gone from a niche technology to something used by nearly everyone. While many communities are pushing back on data centers development, how do you see the realities intersecting in the future?
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's a good question. I would say that I think, and I don't know if this is answering your question or not, but you know, with everything that's happening in AI, you know, there's there's beginning to see there's a lot of push and pull out there right now between the human element. Like, where is that going? Where how does that contribute to this thing? I mean, are we are we just gonna eliminate humans and just have it be all about agents and robots talking to one another? Yep. But what we're finding already is that people need that human interaction, they need to have the connection of humans and AI together. Right. So uh this is I don't know if this is a funny analogy. I just went and part of the my Father's Day festivities this last weekend was to go to the new Toy Toy Story 5. Oh, yeah, okay. So the whole kind of premise around the show is that electronics are taking like kids don't play with real toys anymore, they only are all connected to devices, right? Right. And so then, but then there's still a group of pe kids out there that really do want to play with dolls and toys and stuff like that. And so in the end, not to steal the story, but electronics and toys, they need each other to to we they both sides actually are important, right? Right. And so I do feel like that's the same thing in our world with AI and humans and the staffing. It's like you need to have both to move society forward. It's just kind of my thought. So I think fast forward, I think it can be a very I think it's gonna end up resulting in massive growth, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I like that. Um, I know, I mean, everyone's talking about AI, how it is actually changing hiring with the technology sector.
SPEAKER_03Mm-hmm. Uh just some things that we've talked about, but really it's just more about using the tools to become faster, better, stronger, you know, like using the tools to look, you know, source people, um, assess. Yeah. You know, so we'll use AI tools to um interview our our candidates. And then we can use that information to figure out if they're a good match for something or go back and help screen deeper. But our customers, they want to know that their candidates have been screened really well. And we're not engineers. We don't, I'm not an engineer by trade. Right. So I need the help of a tool that can assess that for me. And it's helping our um our quality get better. Okay. But um what's happening out there from a challenge standpoint is that a lot of companies out there are receiving so many resumes, and then when and what they're finding is that these resumes that are coming in, they're all AI generated. Right. And they're not real, it's not a real representation of what that candidate brings to the table. And so they'll go through all these interviews on their own, not using us sometimes, and they're finding that it's becoming a huge waste of their time because they're they're talking, they'll interview somebody and they're like, wait a minute, this says this on your resume, but you've never done it before. Yeah. And they find out it's just because the AI created their resume and it wasn't real. They just don't double check it because there's a lot of fluff in there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, what would what technology rules are becoming more viable because of AI rather than being replaced by it?
SPEAKER_03There's a lot of companies right now that are doing uh digital transformations, like they're trying to implement AI into their organization. Maybe they don't have an AI. Um I've seen that along like websites and companies that are doing that. Yeah, maybe they don't have an AI play, but they need to. Right. If you're gonna be successful in the next 10 years, you've got to have some kind of an AI play into your company. So uh people that have experience with that transformation from kind of the old school to the new school of AI, there's a lot of needs there right now.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Yeah. Um, what should business leaders understand about the future of technology talent? Can you ask that one more time? So what should businesses what what should business leaders understand about the future of technology talent?
SPEAKER_03Um I would just say that uh, you know, it's here to stay. Um and it's just really important. What I'm finding what what we're seeing is that the future of technology talent, you have to you have to create a a your organization to work with the new technologies. And there's kind of a push and pull still of like, well, this is how we used to do it, right? But this is how where we need to go. And a lot of companies are still trying to figure out what that is. And so just being open-minded about the evolution of AI. Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And you got anything else? You know, one of the things that uh and I appreciate all the conversation around AI. Um one of the things I would like, and it's basic level for you to help me make it make sense uh to myself and the audience is um what is what exactly would we come to you for if I'm like what type of organization would need to come to you? Is it everyone? Is it, you know, if I just start up a company, should I be in conversation with you? Uh what groups of people should come to you?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a good question. I think it's people that come to I I I would encourage anybody to come to us that's growing a a business because finding talent is so important, right? Like if you don't have the best talent. If you have an idea, like, hey, I want to launch this. I have an idea, but now I need to find build a team out. And a lot of a lot of the businesses that are out there, they don't really know how to strategically find great people. That's what we do. This is our career. This is what we do day in and day out. So I think just having, and it's not necessarily to maybe we'll help find people for you, but maybe it's just more of like a consultative approach of like, hey, what ideas should we be thinking about? How much do these people want to make? What do they look for? What's the biggest challenges? You know, we can have those conversations with them. Um, and then navigating AI is a whole other aspect too.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05Well, let's go into our next segment. Who's on your day one list? I know you kind of talked about that already, but I know just um the decisions you've made and the lessons you've learned. But now about the people who've been kind of part of that journey, um, who would you say that's on your day one list?
SPEAKER_03I mean, there's so many stories I could think of just like people that I would call. I I I think the day one list for me is you know, whether it's a personal thing that I need, if it's something that I need to solve a problem for my personal life, you know, it's like I got a guy type of thing. Um but you know, from the on the business side, I don't know. There's so many stories. I I can think about one particular story. There is a a business in town. I was just getting started in the business. I think I was maybe like a year in with your just recruiting from recruiting, just in business, like in general. Yeah. And um, I made a cold call into this business and I and it was about a 70 70 person company, and they passed me off to the CEO. And I'm like, okay, so I started talking to him and I asked for a meeting to come in there. And he he said, Okay, well, before you come in, I'm gonna give you an opening to work and see if you can find some good people. So we ended up, I ended up getting like three or four resumes together of people, and I brought them on my meeting. Then I went out there and great guy. He gave me a tour of his business, and I went around and I talked to everybody and I shook a lot of hands, and and then um, you know, then we went walked back into his office and he's like, So hey, what do you what'd you think of my people here or like the company or you know, what'd you think of everybody? And I said, Oh, they're great. He's like, Okay, so now you you brought a few candidates with you, your these resumes. You know, how would you say they would match up to the people here in my company? I said, Oh, just they'd be amazing. And he looked me, he looked me dead in the eye and he slammed his fist on the table and he goes, Don't you bullshit me? And I said, I'm not bullshitting you. And I just fired it back. And I, you know, I grew up in a pretty intense, my dad was loud and aggressive like that, so I was very comfortable with that. Um, we ended up having this major connection and like he we had trust, you know, and and he liked how I kind of went back at him like that. You know, we went on about a 12 or 15 year run of just like placing, you know, his company went from 70 to like 250. Wow. And we probably placed a hundred of those people.
SPEAKER_05Wow.
SPEAKER_03And um, it was just a great, you know, the but the one thing that really stood out to me that influenced me is that his passion for creating a culture of people inside of his organization, that really resonated with me. So when I started my company, I always thought about how important and how impassionate that that he was that that's what I want to have. So, you know, bringing in people, it's you can't just phone that in. That's a major, major thing you gotta have.
SPEAKER_05So who has had the greatest impact in your career? Who's had the greatest impact in your career?
SPEAKER_03Throwing you on the spot here. Um I don't know.
SPEAKER_05What do you think about that one? Okay, let's think about it. Um, I know in your kind of just reach out to us, you talked about Ralph Lockhart. Mm-hmm. That's who that was this what the story was. Oh, was it?
SPEAKER_03Okay, good to know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um we got a couple other ones if you want one.
SPEAKER_05Well, that's okay. Uh, what does someone have to do to earn a place on your day one list?
SPEAKER_03Uh for me to to be on my day one list, someone that is just very genuine and real, you know, and I and I think that kind of it's that can become a little cliche and a little bit um, oh yeah, isn't everybody like that? Right. But it's not. You know, I think you know, when you go out throughout the world and you meet people, whether it's in a restaurant, a business, your friend group, I think the people that really matter to me are the ones that genuinely want to be in the conversation. You've had you've had conversations with people and you know, maybe they're looking at their phone or they're looking around the room, or what time is it, or there any distraction that can get them out of that conversation. Like to me, that those are people that don't really want to be there. And if and if I get the sense you don't want to be in the conversation, why would I want to be in the conversation? Right. So it's the ones that really, really they they look you in the eye and they have confidence about themselves. Like they you can tell they want to learn, they genuinely want to understand what you're talking about. Those are the people that at least as I've experienced in life, that really seem to um go far and they seem to like I want to be around people that really, really want to care and and that are genuine about it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So you got anything else, Andrew? You know, um I want to talk a little, uh ask you a question about like the heart of what you're the last statement you made. Like where does that where does that come from for you? Like to you talked a little bit about your mother being big on being humble, but and your your background with sports, how does all that play into you developing this this the eye to be able to say, okay, are you in this conversation? Are you in here? Are you in the room with me?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's a that I like that. I mean, it's um part of it is just being um confident, you know, and like I I I guess it's maybe just been a pet peeve of mine to I like to surround myself with people that really want to be there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And and that can be in anything, right? Like it could be a friend, it could be a relationship that you've been in, it can be business. Like if I just have really found it to be important to be around people that really want to be part of it. And um if you and I guess I've maybe had pain points where people don't want to be in it, and it just seems really fake, you know, and I don't want to be around fake people. I want to be around people that really genuinely see value in what we're doing. And so um, I've searched that out throughout my life, you know, and I and I feel very passionate about that. Um I really want to I want to r search out people that care.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's the best way to get get the best results.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. And it can go, I mean, that's even in sports, right?
SPEAKER_02Like if you have people that are yeah, don't want to be on the team and they're out like, you know, pulling grass from the, you know, or that's the quickest way to get someone injured, you know, is to put someone out there that doesn't care, that isn't fully committed. Yeah, it's like that's the best way of protecting yourself and protecting the investment. Everyone has to be all in. And that's a that's an important factor. So it's it's always good and refreshing to hear people still speak that way and still know because we talked a little bit about AI earlier, and sometimes people use AI to check out and maybe not even double check their resume, just to, you know, and those type of things. And so it's always good to know someone's paying attention to the meticulous details.
SPEAKER_03Well, that's a good point. You know, I think that's some of the downsides of AI. You're right, you can phone it in, you can be like, it's doing all the work for me. Yeah. So I think that'll be interesting over time to see how what impact that has on our world, you know, like are people becoming lazy because I don't need to learn that stuff now because it does it for me.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03Um, so I think the people that know how to use it but still kind of learn and grow. I mean, at the end of the day, is this all about learning and growing? We have to learn, we gotta grow, we gotta get better. And if you're using that as a crutch, then you're gonna have problems.
SPEAKER_05Awesome. Well, I want to go over some kind of just some leadership moments with you. Um, I know you spent years building teams and leading people, given that experience. Why do you think so many leaders struggle with communication?
SPEAKER_03I think leaders struggle with communication because they're afraid to fail. Um, I think that if you embrace failure, like I I I feel like some of the biggest things I've learned in life is when I just had massive blow up, horrible, like bombing moments where I just like that sucked so bad. But what do you do with that, right? Like you step back and you say, Okay, that was not good. That was horrible. But what but what am I gonna do next time? How do I avoid that next time? Or what can I do to use that to make me even more powerful the next time that moment comes around? Um, I think it's hard. Communication is so important because and we sometimes we take it for granted, like, oh, I assume he or she knows what I'm thinking. Right. They don't know. Yeah, how would they read your brain? Did you discover some superpower or you can let people read your brain? No. But it does take an extra effort. You can't be lazy and you have to absolutely lean in on, like, I want to make sure, even if you're overcommunicating, and I'll tell that to my team. Like, look, I probably said this to you multiple times, and I just want to make sure we're clear here. I don't want there to be any mistakes. And so I'm gonna say this again. And are we on the same page? Like, going back and reaching for clarity is important.
SPEAKER_05Um, what's the biggest hiring mistake leaders make today?
SPEAKER_03Successfully onboarding someone once you do make a good hire, because you go through a pretty big interview process typically. What I found, you interview people thoroughly. Oh, this person's great. Let's get them in. You made a great offer. They accept it. Cool, start. And then what if you don't have a very solid onboarding program, um, training, just like um making sure people integrate successfully with your team, then uh the failure rate really skyrockets, I found. So, you know, we've had great people on our teams, but if you have someone that maybe doesn't really know how to integrate successfully with your teammates, your team is everything, right? You gotta have a successful team. And if you have one person who maybe wants to do it their way and not lean on what the what other people are doing and learning from them, that can be a challenge. So I think you have to it all starts from the interview. You've got to make sure you're screening on those things up front early and making sure that people understand that I have to be open to I new ideas and it's okay to say I need help. You know, those are important.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05Anything else? No, that's good. Awesome. Well, let's go into our lack last segments. It's the day one challenge. Uh, we've covered a lot of ground today, but but before we close, let's leave our listeners with a challenge they can maybe have with them this week. Uh, what's one challenge you'd give someone who wants to become a better leader?
SPEAKER_03I would say if you're a leader or just anyone in general who wants to get better at communicating and building better connections with other people in life, like any conversation that you have, ask yourself when you're in that conversation, am I making a positive impact on this conversation? And if even if you don't have something to offer, like maybe if it's something where like, well, I don't have anything for this person, or I don't know what they're trying to explain to me. Like, yeah, if you can walk away from that conversation and have them feel like, you know what, that got that guy, he didn't have anything for me. But guess what? I I know he cared. And I know that he or maybe you can maybe you can open a door for them in some way or another, right? Like you can if it's a if it's uh someone that you're talking to that needs something from you but you don't have it, maybe you can find someone that can offer that to them and make that positive impact so it wasn't a waste of your time.
SPEAKER_05Nice. Uh what's one thing someone can do this week to strengthen an important relationship?
SPEAKER_03I would say reaching out to that person and just um keeping a consistent consistent is the important thing, but making a consistent effort to learn about them. You know, I think a lot of times what I find is that people might have one great conversation or maybe two great conversations, and then months and months and months go by and like you feel like, oh, I still have a great relationship with that person. Do you? What did you do in the last six months? Where have you been? Uh-huh. So just reaching out and talking to people and learning, um, learning more about them, what's new in their world? I think that's relationships are not about having one or two great conversations. They're about having an ongoing, long and like, I'm not going anywhere. I'm here. This is what I do. So, like, tell me more, what's going on in your world? Tell me about your challenges. What are you facing today? Just learning, showing that you care.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Uh what's a habit uh that most people successfully consistently have in common?
SPEAKER_03Um, always looking to grow, always looking to get better in life. Um, some people like I believe firmly like nothing ever stays the same. Like if you're not growing, you're dying. That's my biggest mantra, right? If you're not growing, you're dying. Nothing stays the same. Even like status quo, you're actually declining, right? There's inflation. There's whatever. Everything is always getting bigger and bigger. And if you're not getting bigger like at a faster rate than inflation is, then you're actually declining in life, right? So I think um having that mindset of always looking to grow. I don't care if you've been doing something for five days or 25 years, you have to always look to evolve and get better and grow.
SPEAKER_05Well, before we close, Andrew, do you have anything else?
SPEAKER_02I do, I have one one one last question for you. Uh why express?
SPEAKER_03Um, you know, I had a a really great conversation with uh Jenny McCollum and Um Bill Stoller before he passed away. And what I found for me is I was able to bring in the the areas that Express was struggling in with specialized recruiting group was an area that I've spent my entire career doing. And so I've never been into a situation where I've got to go in and be kind of a turnaround guy. I've either started something from scratch or already went into a super successful proven group. So this is more of a turnaround situation, and I got to bring everything that I've built over my entire career into this opportunity and grow it. And so it's already going well. About a year in. So it's fun. Awesome.
SPEAKER_05Well, Jeff, thank you for joining us and sharing your experience, perspective, and story. Um, from launching business in your basement to leading teams across multiple markets, your journey is a powerful reminder that long-term success is built on relationships, trust, consistency, and service to others. Before we go, where can people connect with you and learn more about specialized recruiting group?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Jeff.miller at expresspros.com is probably the best way to reach me on email. Okay. Yeah. You have like a LinkedIn or anything too that people can connect. Yes, I do. Um I don't know where to do it.
SPEAKER_05Jeff Miller. Yeah. Jeff Miller. Awesome. Okay. Well, as we wrap up, I always have a day one challenge for you guys. Um, this week, follow up with someone that maybe told you let's stay in touch. Most people never do. I'm an example of that. I do pretty bad job of that. Um, relationships aren't built during just introductions. They're built in the follow-up and just always just checking in with them.
SPEAKER_02All right, and thank you for listening to the day one list. If this conversation uh made you think about who's in your corner or challenged you to be that person for someone else, share this episode with a friend, a colleague, or even a mentor. Uh, we'll see you next time and remember who's on your day one list.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for listening to the day one list. It's all about the people you can count on and the people who can count on you. Until next time, who's on your day one list? And more importantly, whose day one list are you on? The day one list is proudly brought to you by Express Employment Professionals, Express Healthcare staffing, and the specialized recruiting group, the people you call first.