Building a Tech-Forward Recruiting Platform: HiredHippo with Adam Gellert

00:00 Fell into recruiting, started own agencies later.
03:11 Creating memorable company name with good SEO.
06:24 Disrupting hiring process to save time.
12:25 Pushing to use technology as an enabler.
16:11 Recruiting industry is changing, needs community support.
19:29 Recruitment and work tech: challenges and popularity.
20:30 Solving intangible human problems is very difficult.
26:33 Book recommendation: "Black Box Thinking" challenges opinions.
29:42 Focus on supportive people, avoid negative influences.
31:50 Recruiting is about trust, passion, and resiliency.
33:58 Collaborate to solve problems, with empathy.

Intro [00:00:00]:
Welcome to the elite recruiter podcast with your host, Benjamin Menna, where we focus on what it takes to win in the recruiting game. We cover it all from sales, marketing, mindset, money, leadership, and placements.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:18]:
Wanna wanna give you guys a few quick updates. I hope you guys enjoyed reading December's books. I hope you guys dug into those, Highlighted, read them. The book of the month for January is gonna be Atomic Habits, and I will put together a A Zoom meeting for those that wanna just chat about it at the end of the month was something I was planning on doing it in December, but just things were pure chaos. But on top of that, the recruiting growth summit, I am so excited excited about. Like I said, we moved it to March 4th through March 8th. So starting next week, you'll start seeing a lot more updates from me on that. Excited about all the speakers and really excited about helping The entire community make 2024 the best year yet.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:03]:
So let's go guys. I'm excited about this episode Of the elite recruiter podcast, I have a special guest, Adam Gellert. And I'm excited about having him on the podcast because we're gonna talk about how you can use technology as a superpower and a differentiator when it comes to your your recruiting business. And he has this awesome company called Hired Hippo, where they literally are used technology to have to work with the candidates and work With the small businesses up in Canada, it's really just like a a superpower way, a way to differentiate yourself, and really just, like, Leverage technology to grow a recruiting agency. So, Adam, welcome to the podcast.

Adam Gellert [00:01:43]:
Thank you very much, Ben. I appreciate you having me. I was excited about this.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:47]:
And I Adam, I know you're one of the well known LinkedIn recruiter players on in the recruitment space in Canada, so excited to have you on the show.

Adam Gellert [00:01:56]:
Well, that is pretty flattering. I appreciate it. You know, hope I can live up to the expectations that you've created for our audience here today.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:03]:
Well, The first question we always like to jump into is how did you even get started in this recruiting space?

Adam Gellert [00:02:08]:
Yeah. I mean, I think, like, 99% of us kinda just fell into it. Someone that I'd worked with previously in, you know, in another job, which was, you know, completely another industry just in a record store, actually. And, They had been impressed with the way that I just, like, interacted and just, like, cared about, the people that I work with, people that I surround myself with. I That's what I'm, you know, best known for. And, they said they were opening up a recruiting agency. I jumped on. I just Canada fell in love with, the way the industry works, but I, you know, also felt like There were parts of it that weren't me, and so that's why I went off on my own and created, my own, agency, which is called Linkus Group, and then, later on, Started a company called Hired Hippo.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:58]:
And so real quick for the guests, Hired Hippo. First of all, your mascot is a hippo. Like, 1 that stands out and 2, just, like, how'd you even get to a hippo as your moss mascot?

Adam Gellert [00:03:11]:
Yeah. It's great. I I think, you know, naming companies is always super, super tough. I thought about a lot of ideas, but what I really wanted to do is, you know, create a very, Like happy, sort of, you know, something that you could relate to, where people are gonna see it in the streets, you know, or, you know, at a toy store or something and just take a picture and say, hey. I thought of you. Right? Something that's, like, memorable, really good SEO. And so, the first concept was, hypo, which is high potential, and that's what we're really striving for, which is, like, how do Candidates get the most high potential companies and how the companies get the most high potential candidates. There's a number of ways that we go about doing that, but that's where Hippo came From where we wanted to create that.

Adam Gellert [00:03:59]:
I also just, you know, looking into hippos as animals, their land and sea. They can be, you know, very aggressive when they need 2 and, you know, just trying to getting away from a very noisy space. I felt like it fit really, really well. And it's something that people say that, hey, I'd never Gellert the name.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:18]:
That is awesome. And and I did see, like, it was one of the companies on LinkedIn that you've Worked with before, and they literally called out every other recruiter out there. Just like, please leave me alone. Like, I work with Hired Hippo. I'm happy there. I don't wanna deal with anybody else. I just saw that. I was like, okay.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:35]:
That's that's a lot of brand loyalty when it comes to, like, a client. So and Real quick, what does Hired Hippo do, and how are you guys different?

Adam Gellert [00:04:44]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Good question. So Hired Hippo came out of a side hustle of me Working within the agency and as we created the space for our, clients to kind of, You know, be able to recruit on their own. What we found is they were like, there's no good tools out there. We're using LinkedIn. It's very noisy and messy. We're using all these other tools, to be able to recruit on our own, there isn't anything.

Adam Gellert [00:05:08]:
So what Hire Hippo essentially does is curates that experience for companies. We are a marketplace of high potential pre vetted talent that companies can go and and access, to quickly interview them in a click. So the concept is is very simple. Most people understand it as a dating app. We figure out whether the candidate is passive or active, Who are the top 20% of people within their given fields, and what are they looking for in order to make their next Career move, what would be sort of, like, attract them to that brand? And then we take, companies, ask them those same questions, and use our matching algorithm To make really solid connections. So, typically, what you would get is instead of 250 applications, you'd get 10 solid occasions that you're likely gonna interview all of them, and that that's how our product works.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:03]:
That's phenomenal. And, like, I always joke that there's so many ways And that you could do things in the recruiting space, and you're coming at it with a, like, a technology angle, almost like a a tech company. So it doesn't even feel like a recruiting company. Why did you guys, like, take that angle compared to, like, other ways you could have built your recruiting business?

Adam Gellert [00:06:24]:
Yeah. Very interesting. For me, I've always been sort of, like, not wanting to go The the the path that's like, you know, less traveled, like, the easier the easier way. Right? So I want to, You know, disrupt people's thinking. I wanna change the way that they, are currently doing things. And What we found is that, you know, company like, hiring is risky. Right? So you can't be a never a 100% correct, But what companies and recruiters are doing is they're just wasting a lot of time on, you know, unfit interviews and, you know, Things like that, which really puts them behind, other recruiters in terms of getting the right person in the door, and it, You know, also hurts that the candidate and the candidate experience. So what I wanted to say is like, hey.

Adam Gellert [00:07:16]:
Like, instead of going after this volume play that most recruiters do and most, recruiting platforms do, we wanna go after the select few, And that's kinda how we came up with it.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:29]:
Nice. And when it when it comes to, like, a technology angle, like, did you guys have to, like, come in and raise, Like, 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of dollars to build a platform? Or did

Adam Gellert [00:07:38]:
Yeah. Good question. We actually, like, haven't really taken Funding, and we're bootstrapped. And the reason is that, you know, our service business allows us to do that, but we're not looking to go fast. We're looking to go slow and smart. You know, for us, this is, a very noisy, messy space, and we wanna do it right. We wanna do it with a lot of care and we wanna do it with a select few people that, both on the candidate and company side Canada better Future of work.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:10]:
Okay. And when there's a lot of platforms out there that are talking about no code building and then code building, and I'm sure you have like a dev team. Right?

Adam Gellert [00:08:17]:
Yeah. We do have a dev team. We've gone through a number of iterations, you know, in terms of even the tech stack that we we used. Originally, the product was started, you know, really as an AI chatbot, where you'd go on Facebook Canada you would say, you know, I'm looking for this particular job. Send me some options. And, you know, what we just found is, like, there are so many mediums out there. Those mediums change so rapidly. We don't wanna rely on 1 particular medium to do that, To be held within, that in case something goes, you know, south.

Adam Gellert [00:08:51]:
And the other part of it is that, You know, candidates are less likely to pay for something because there's so many options for free. And What you really need to do is create a service that's just 10 x better than what else is out there. And so that's what we did, And that's what we do for for companies, but we get paid from the company side.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:13]:
That's awesome. And for anybody that's thought about coming at at the space or whatever niche that they're in, more of like a tech technological angle, kinda like a tech company like you guys are doing. What advice would you give them on Building a platform or building a marketplace or building something as a a differentiator.

Adam Gellert [00:09:32]:
Yeah. It's a good question. I mean, I would say that, you know, technology is really, really hard to build. You can't think of it as it's gonna be a quick Sort of fixed. Right? It's gotta be you have to have very long term solution solutions, and you also have to really test assumptions. So I I I would say that, like, what I typically tell people is, like, just stop listening to people's opinions and start executing. There's gonna be so many opinions that you get in terms of how to build, what to build, you know, how to do it. And I think that's, like, Really slows down a lot of companies because you have to be able to choose the right opinions, and usually, most of the opinions are incorrect.

Adam Gellert [00:10:15]:
So so that sort of like, you know, what I would really focus on is, be super passionate about the problem that you're looking to solve, Know that problem inside and out and just listen to customers. Then try to do as much as you can without building any tech whatsoever and then slowly build tech because Raising money as you mentioned before, it's like it's it's a different avenue. It's it's not necessarily easy either. Right? So

Benjamin Mena [00:10:41]:
Yeah. That's awesome. And, like, I I will say this, I Canada played in, like, some marketplace software for the space I was in. And after about a year, like, we realized, like, how hard it is. So huge credits for you recruiting that together and, like, you know, really just kind of attacking the Canadian Small business space that you guys are doing. So it it really, like, comes out a as a completely different a differentiator, which is what I love.

Adam Gellert [00:11:07]:
Yeah. You got it.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:08]:
Yeah. We were we were definitely self funding, and so, like, I totally get that. But when it comes to, like, everything that you you see out there in the recruiting space, Because, you know, you're you're everywhere in the Canadian market. You're actively inter involved in so many different things. I feel like we're coming at a place where recruiters need to start evolving. What do you think recruiters need to do to start, like, be getting prepared to evolve for the future?

Adam Gellert [00:11:31]:
Yeah. It's a really good question. I think AI and technology has polarized a lot of people. A lot of people are ready for it, and, you know, other people are sort of like, I don't want change. Definitely, our best customers are people that we are excited by, You know, changing their previous thought process in terms of, you know, how many candidates they had to meet with, you know, how how do you screen For candidates, where do you find them? That kind of thing. So those typically are our best customers. I think that, You know, it's recruiting is a very human focused industry. It's a harder industry than any to disrupt with, You know, technology and AI, I think there's a lot of players out there that are very surface level in terms of how they're disrupting it, But people are people.

Adam Gellert [00:12:25]:
Right? So we're always gonna change. So in terms of, like, I I, you know, really and and Canada of bullish on pushing people to use it as a enabler to be better, faster, and less expensive. That's really what recruiting is. Right? Like, how do we get the best person for the job in the shortest amount of time possible for the least cost? Right? But when it comes to making decisions and finding quality, not really using that because I feel like That's not a long term play. It might be short term, but the best angle to think about it and I know we both think this, right, from recruiters as it Comes down to quality. Right? So how long does that person stay in the job? To how fulfilled did they feel for however long they were in that job? Right? So those are Some of the things you kinda need to balance between building technology or using technology within your day to day.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:24]:
Awesome. And I

Adam Gellert [00:13:25]:
don't know if that's the answer you're expecting, but

Benjamin Mena [00:13:27]:
Definitely a good one. And, it kinda goes into my next question I have for you is, like, You're so passionate about this space. And, you know, I I think it's like what we're many recruiters go through is, like, we all just kinda like Or many of us just Canada, like, end up in the recruiting world. It wasn't our 1st choice. Maybe it wasn't our 2nd choice. We just kinda, like, we're here and we started building our career. But I see this like divergence of people that hate hate this job, but they stay in it. And there's people that just become That I I don't wanna say, like, learn how to be passionate, but they become passionate about the industry.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:02]:
How Where is there, like, a place where you turned a corner or that you became super passionate about the whole recruiting space?

Adam Gellert [00:14:10]:
Yeah. It's a good question. I mean, they like, Yeah. I truly believe in in, you know, passion as a starter. It's attitude over skill. For me, I just found out, like, it's just about being self aware. Right? Like, I just really found out that, You know, I tend to quit things if I'm not the best at it, and I found that I could actually be the best in the world at Recruiting and helping solve this problem. And so I put everything that I do 247 into this industry and solving it and trying to help other people, and just be, you know, help, like, Create this network of people that we can work all together to solve a problem, is, you know, where that passion continues to, you know, flame and and, you know, be front and center.

Adam Gellert [00:15:00]:
And as you mentioned earlier, right, like, There there's a few people that mention us as, like, the only in a post of the only recruiters that they would use. Right? And that means a lot to us, but it also shows us that, you know, caring more than anyone else and just, like, really showing up and maybe, You know, when you're wrong, admitting that you're wrong and testing different assumptions is, has, like, you know, just had everlasting effects.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:28]:
That's awesome. And, You know, I see you out there, like, actually helping other recruiters, and I don't see that happen all the time. Like, why do why do you go out of your way to help other recruiters that are Technically, might be your competition.

Adam Gellert [00:15:41]:
Yeah. I'm actually friends with a lot of people who are technically my competition. I just I find, like, you know, I don't have all the answers. I wanna learn. I wanna be better. I wanna help other people be better. So for me, It's much more important to build together than it is alone. And so, just kind of, You know, just been someone who is you know, I'm gonna put everything that I have on the table, be really nice, be open, you know, give trust until that's taken away.

Adam Gellert [00:16:11]:
Right? So So, yeah, so I just you know, I think it's important for the industry because I I think the industry is like, it's changed so much over the last, You know, few decades. Right? It changes very, very rapidly, and I think recruiters get a lot of bad rep in terms of, you know, it's too much of a sales recruitment. They don't care. So I think we need to work together as a community To really change the perception of of recruiting in the industry as a whole. And I think that if I win, other people will win If we're doing the right thing, that's why I love to kind of, you know, connect with with people within my community like yourself. So It's great. I appreciate you having me on. Friend is a friend is a friend.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:59]:
Awesome. And, jumping back over to the tech side of the house, if a recruiter or a recruiting agency is looking at Starting a tech angle, what should your 1st, like, hires look like to build out, like, a tech stack?

Adam Gellert [00:17:12]:
Yeah. So you mean if, A recruiting agency wants to build their own technology?

Benjamin Mena [00:17:17]:
What Like, build their we have build their own different tech differentiator. Yeah. Whether it's, like, you know, I wanna say, like, some of the thing that you're doing or an intro to, like, tech stack or, internal solution that they can, like, use for recruiting.

Adam Gellert [00:17:30]:
Yeah. So, I mean, I would say the first thing is customer discovery, you know, sort of like a not really a sales role, but a customer discovery role, which is like, You know, is what we are gonna be building useful and it makes sense? Okay. Then I would say the second thing is someone who is product focused. So, you know, How do we design what's what, you know, we're gonna build? How is it gonna interact? You know, what are the Competitors, doing, you know, doesn't make sense, right, for us to be going down this road. And I, you know, I caution with that because Technology is, like, 1,000 x more expensive than anyone expects. It's like building a house. Right? Like, gonna Take longer and more expensive than you ever thought. And so, you know, I just I I think that, you know, before putting any Code down like that.

Adam Gellert [00:18:23]:
Those are the most important things. They say it in a lot of books. A lot of people don't listen. It's really hard to see if the product actually works if, You know, you don't have something built, but there's a lot that you can do. So, especially if you understand the industry well and you are, You know, recruiter, like you said, building technology, and then, you know, have somebody who is gonna be the the brains and the mind behind The the tech and how it's built then from there. And so, I would say that's that's kinda like the starting point.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:54]:
I think that's a perfect starting point. I think, what I'd love to talking about your the early starting point about actually, like, gauging the industry and having conversations. I've been around multiple tech companies, startups, and it's amazing how many years and how much money is spent Without even, like, asking potential customers if this is a solution. Yeah. If you're thinking about, like, doing, like, a tech solution, how many people would you say that you should probably get in touch with to ask these questions if the solution would be right for them?

Adam Gellert [00:19:29]:
Yeah. I would say it's never enough. I mean, the amount of people is probably, like, you know, 10 x the amount of people you think. I mean, at least a1000. It's it's, because, you know, a lot of people will just say that, hey, they like something or they're interested in something And not actually put money down or, again, in our industry, it just changes so rapidly. Right? And there's so many new competitors that Come out that you really have to actually be successful with a group of people before moving down that road, which I think, you know, it just makes it really, really hard even though there's a lot of tools that are available right now. The interesting thing actually with recruitment and recruitment tech And and work tech in general is that it is one of the most Popular topics to tackle because hiring, as we know, touches everybody. You either get hired or know somebody that gets hired, so everyone feels a connection to it, Whether they've been a recruiter or not or been hired or not.

Adam Gellert [00:20:30]:
And so it's the most popular thing to tackle, but it's the most difficult thing to solve. And it's the most difficult thing to solve because you're not creating anything that's tangible because the people you're creating it for aren't tangible. They're they're they're humans and they're people, and they change, and the economy Changes in all these things, factors change. Right? And the other thing is that who you're selling it to typically, has no buying power and has no budget. So I typically tell people that, like, look, I would love to tell you about all the great things about solving this problem, but it is so very, very hard, And I definitely wouldn't be here without crazy determination and just, you know, liking pain and a lot of hard work. And I I think you could see from a lot of these companies that have, you know, exited or have, you know, stumble or have trouble, that that's been the issue.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:23]:
And I always, always, always love when I see a, like, a rec tech company that was actually started by a recruiter.

Adam Gellert [00:21:31]:
Mhmm.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:33]:
It is so often you go to some of these, like, pitch competitions or, you know, pitch things and you like, it sounds good, But then, like, you start digging into it Canada doesn't really solve a problem where it like, it's like you said, it doesn't solve a problem of a person that's actually gonna pay for it.

Adam Gellert [00:21:48]:
Yeah. And and there's so many ways that you could solve this problem. Right? Yeah. There's, you know, there there's so many different parts of the Hiring process, right, that you could solve. Right? So figuring out how you solve that problem, when the problem's solved, what you start with is very, complex, But you got it, for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:07]:
Well, is there anything else you'd love to share about, like, building a tech platform or your tech platform before we move on to the the rest of the podcast?

Adam Gellert [00:22:14]:
Yeah. I mean, I would just say that, like, you know, anyone, obviously, like, you mentioned, like, I'm happy to help people so, some anyone can reach out to me. I get a lot of calls with, like, hey. What do you think This idea, this is what we're building. What have you seen? So I'm happy to keep doing that because, though, you know, maybe it would be recruitment. Maybe it would be something where I'd happy happy to get involved or just help somebody, you know, along the way. But, yeah, you know, there there's this one thing that, you know, happens a lot and is, like, Focusing on one thing and getting better at that one thing over time is the best way that you could put your time and money. Right? So it's not necessarily like, you know, I don't want people to assume that Tech is the best way to solve this problem.

Adam Gellert [00:23:01]:
There could be other ways to solve this problem outside of, you know, technology. It's, an ability to allow those ideas to scale, obviously, but there are some amazing companies out there that, you know, We don't necessarily utilize technology on the forefront of what they're doing, and still doing a really great thing than adding to the ecosystem and, You know, striving for it. So, I just wouldn't I would say that it's not like the, you know, the ultimate must must do. Right? So

Benjamin Mena [00:23:35]:
Awesome. Well, we're gonna flip over to the quick fire questions, and, you know, you've you've been in the space for a while. You've Talk to a lot of recruiters. You talk to new recruiters. What advice would you give to a recruiter that's actually just getting started off off, you know, as they're brand new in their career? Yeah.

Adam Gellert [00:23:51]:
I'd say the most important thing to do is just to care really deeply about how people make career decisions, and How companies solve business problems and who the best people are for the business problems because you don't Canada get into recruiting because you like networking and you like people. It's a lot more complex than that, that it won't get you really that far. Right? And it's never one-sided. It's about the perfect balance and the perfect match Long term. So I feel like, you know, what I typically tell people is, like, you just need to know More about the industry, I find a lot of people start recruiting, and then they're like, hey. This isn't for me very quickly. So you need to know these things upfront, ask a lot of prep questions, Get some really good mentors. Be kind, humble, and resilient, I think is super important.

Adam Gellert [00:24:40]:
And so, yeah, those would be, some things, and then I would say welcome aboard. Like, let's do this together. Right? So

Benjamin Mena [00:24:48]:
That's awesome. I think I think it's like Once people get past that 1st year or 2, like and then they see, like, the benefits, the conversations, the lives changed. But, man, I remember my personally, my 1st year when they Canada Gave me that call list of, like, 75 calls per day and just, like, fill it out, make the calls. I was like, well, this sucks.

Adam Gellert [00:25:07]:
Yeah. Yeah. But you gotta go you gotta go get through those to to really listen and hear those conversations. Right? So

Benjamin Mena [00:25:16]:
Yep. So same question, but for the recruiters that have been around the block 5, 10, 15, 20 years, what advice would you give them based on everything that you've seen in the conversations you had For them to either see success or keep on see being successful.

Adam Gellert [00:25:30]:
Yeah. I think it comes back to a lot of things we're talking about. Like, just really be open to change. Right? Like That there are things that are available out there that can enable change and, you know, improve sort of, like, the system that you're currently, maybe you were used to previously. I would say that give back, you know, learn a lot, and just, Like, you know, be a good part of the community, be a good actor within the community, I think, is really important because, you know, now more than ever, People have the knowledge and the ability to know who they're working with. Right? Like, they can make their own Choices. It's it's harder to to sell people on something when they they get referrals and they know people. Right? So I think As an experienced recruiter, we just really need to focus on, you know, how how we show up and the referrals we get and stuff like that, is is, in my opinion, super important.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:29]:
Awesome. And has there been a book that has had a huge impact in your career?

Adam Gellert [00:26:33]:
Yeah. I would say, I don't know if a lot of people have read or heard of this book before, but it's called Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. And really why, like, it is because a lot of things we talked about, which is challenge your opinions and, You know, figuring out your errors and creating sort of a system that enables organizations to learn from mistakes. I you know, the first thing I was taught when, I was recruiting and I was scared like you had to, like, make all those calls and, you know, I had like a cue card that I, you know, had no idea who this person was and never talked to them Or it was like, it's okay if you make a mistake. You know, don't be an ass or anything, but, you know, don't make a miss it's it's okay if you make a mistake. We Canada You can fix it. Right? So just being able to have that type of learning, I think, was important, and I think you could do it at any stage. I really like that book.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:29]:
I'll definitely check that out. That's 1 I 1 I personally haven't heard of. I normally like to ask, like, what's a favorite rec tech tool, but I feel like Hired Hippo is yours?

Adam Gellert [00:27:37]:
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely, Hired Hippo. I mean, shameless plug, I I would say. And and the reason is because, You know, I really believe that, you know, less is more. People are just so obsessed with, oh, like, you know, Bigger the pool. I have this many candidates. You know? I really think that, for the best use of people's times, having a solution that curates kind of your experience.

Adam Gellert [00:28:02]:
It helps the Canada, helps the company is the best way to go. So that, I really like Calendly. Obviously, that's been a huge game changer for me And, use my health app a lot on and and and Slack's, like, I don't know, you know, one of those products that they did a lot of customer research and used it themselves. And, you know, I think it does, like, solves a huge problem for for company communication.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:26]:
Awesome. And looking at your own, like, personal success, like, I you know, you've done multiple things in the recruiting space, like, lots of wins. What do you think has been a huge driver for your own personal success?

Adam Gellert [00:28:39]:
I think it's hard work And being a really good recruiter to build a team to help me execute on that hard work. That's just plain and simple. I, you know, would have never got here if I wasn't interested in hard work. I mean, I used to have 3 jobs growing up at a time, going from 1 to the next, And I just don't know how to turn it off, which could be good or a bad thing. But, for for me, it's like that's where Luck meets opportunity, and I think the other thing that has really worked for me is just continuing to maintain, You know, strong relationships and just caring deeply about the solutions is has, you know, Mixed with the hard work has has really worked and paid off.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:31]:
Awesome. And, like, everything that you know now about the recruiting space, Like, when you first got your recruiting job, if you can, like, grab a cup of coffee with yourself, what advice would you give yourself?

Adam Gellert [00:29:42]:
I'd say keep working with the people who want you To succeed and forget about everyone else. I was so you know, I wanted to take kind of every job and every, you know, thing. And I I think they it wasn't you know, I don't fully regret it because I I learned a lot about how to recruit for veterinarians and do very obscure things I never do anymore. But, you know, what I really realized is, you know, how people show up, and connect with you and speak to you. Those are either good conversations or bad conversations, that can really change the trajectory of, like, how your whole day goes or what you do. Like, they always say it's, like the top 5 people you hang around with, but we never do that for our customers. And so we're taking all these, like, customers that that, like, you know, Canada potentially drain us or Carry us into the wrong direction, and I feel like, because I Canada probably care too much, I was taking on, people that Didn't care about my success as much as I cared about theirs, so I would say that's something that I learned very much.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:47]:
Oh, I like that a lot. And you you mentioned a few minutes ago about, like, Putting on your recruiting hat and recruiting the best people for your team. I I I've seen this, like, over my almost 2 decades in in recruiting. Like, we're so good at recruiting our, like, our niche, but we suck at recruiting for our team. How do we get better at Or how do you get better at recruiting the people for your own team?

Adam Gellert [00:31:11]:
Yeah. You bring up something awesome there, Ben. It's like nobody heaps their own advice. It's like you get you can you can coach and train 2 people, but then you're like you're like, oh, well, I might as well, You know, be okay with this person because they've got because they said this, like, it's fine. It'll work out. I need them that badly, but we never Like, you know so yeah. I mean, you know, I I think, like, it, you know, definitely comes down to values, like as cheesy as that sounds. Right? It's like, what's the value of the company and are the people that you're bringing into the company, like holding those values, the same kind of advice again that we give to, you know, our customers.

Adam Gellert [00:31:50]:
For me, you know, the the really big ones are trust, passion, and attitude, and then then resiliency because recruiting is Super, super hard. Every day it could change. It could be, you know, much harder than the next. Right? So, just looking out for those things, asking the right questions, I think, you know, to me is important, but that that's me. It could be different for, you know, everyone else. And then, you know, just remind ourselves that 90% of the recruitment processes is onboarding and, you know, how we treat people when they come into the company. Right? So as a leader, it's like always thinking about, okay, you know, if it doesn't work out, this is my fault. Where else could people go? And really taking that care and time.

Adam Gellert [00:32:33]:
And Look, I, you know, I I was not nearly as good at recruiting internally as I am now. You know, we've definitely got the best team that we've ever had by Far and it's because of these nuances that I learned over time of, you know, who was the, Who's gonna be successful? Who hated recruiting so much at their current company, and they wanted to change it so badly that they wanted to get out of recruiting? I love hiring those people.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:05]:
So That's awesome.

Adam Gellert [00:33:07]:
Yeah. That that that that's just my 2¢.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:10]:
That's awesome. It's but like you said, it's like we give so much great advice, and how often do we turn around, spend the even 5 minutes at Implementing

Adam Gellert [00:33:18]:
it. Absolutely. Hey.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:20]:
Well, well, Adam, how how can people get ahold of you, Adam, or or follow you?

Adam Gellert [00:33:25]:
Yeah. So I've got a website, recruiteradam.com. That's the best way to access all my info as well as just as much as LinkedIn, obviously, Adam Gellert, and I've got a little Hippo logo for for good measure enough to find who I am. So those 2 things are the best way and, yeah, click follow. I mean, I, you know, try to pump out all a bunch of content of things that I see in the industry or care about, and and that would be that would that'd be it.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:53]:
Awesome. Well, Adam, before I let you go, is there anything else that you'd love to share with the listeners?

Adam Gellert [00:33:58]:
Yeah. I would just say that, like, you know, as as a group of great minds and and and recruiters out there, like, let's work together to Solve these really big problems that touch people every day, maybe rethink the way that we've currently been doing things and continue to do things in a In a more unique way, with more empathy. That's what I would say.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:21]:
And fabulous, Adam. And I like I said, I love that you guys have built, like, a tab tech platform. We me and a friend hired a developer, started going through everything, realized it's a ton of work. So but I love that What I've been watching with you on LinkedIn and how you guys have used technology to scale to impact more more people.

Adam Gellert [00:34:40]:
Yeah. It is a lot of work. I think, you know, with our product, it was like figuring out, okay, there's a 1,000,000 ways that we could solve this problem. How do we wanna solve it? So

Benjamin Mena [00:34:51]:
Awesome. Well, Adam, thank you so much for coming on, and for the listeners, keep crushing it, guys.

Adam Gellert [00:34:57]:
Thanks. Thanks for having me, Ben.

Intro [00:34:59]:
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Adam Gellert [00:35:09]:
a rating.