How To Become A Millionaire Recruiter with Brianna Rooney

Benjamin Mena [00:00:01]:
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. A few quick announcements before we jump in. First of all, book of the month for the month of May 177, mental toughness secrets of the world class by Steve Siebold. Secondly, the recruiting growth summit is coming back later on this year right before Q four starts. Finish the year strong. It is going to be epic. We're going to make sure that you are set up to make sure that you win the rest of the year.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:46]:
And third, I just want to say thank you to the Titan Placement Group, healthcare focused recruiting firm based in Sarasota, Florida, for sponsoring this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast. Thank you, guys. I'm excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast. We're going to talk about how you can become a millionaire as a recruiter. Recruiting is one of the best opportunities out there when it comes to advancing your own career, financially, your net worth. But today we're going to focus on how do you become that millionaire. So I have my special guest, Brianna Rooney, who is with us, who's actually done it before. She has exited her company.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:28]:
She's become a millionaire. And now she's also, on top of that, training other people to do it. On top of that, unlike most trainers, she's still recruiting. So I am so excited to have her on the podcast. So definitely welcome to the show.

Brianna Rooney [00:01:40]:
Thanks so much, Ben. Happy to be here.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:42]:
So we always get started. How did you end up in this wonderful world of recruiting?

Brianna Rooney [00:01:48]:
I don't think it's going to shock anyone that I fell into it. I think everyone falls into it. But super long story short, I went to fashion school. I wanted to start my own boutique and got out. I was like, I don't know, 19 years old, and I'm like, oh, my God, I need money to open up a store. What? Which is super ridiculous. And so I just started, like, actually bartending. I'm like, okay, how do I get cash fast? Like, that was my thought process.

Brianna Rooney [00:02:15]:
I'm gonna start bartending. That turned into, like, way too much fun. I was like, I can't do this my whole life. This is not a good idea. And my friend was doing financial recruiting, and I had no idea what recruiting was. It was not even, like, on my radar whatsoever. I just wanted a sales job. And she's like, look, this is seriously, like, what you do.

Brianna Rooney [00:02:33]:
Cocktailing, bartending. It's like, so similar. We're just talking to people. We're just getting them excited, you know? I'm like, all right, cool. So I put my. My resume on monster. I got hit up by a tech recruiting agency and interviewed seriously, like, the next day, like, with the talking to her, it was like a 24, 48 hours period. It was, like, so weird.

Brianna Rooney [00:02:49]:
Like the universe was like, hello, recruiting. I went in and being just money hungry, keeping my stepdad and my dad both owned their own business. So to me, that was just supernatural. Like, of course I'm going to own my own business. Like, you know, I want to have my own store. So went in, and he was like, all right, how much do you want to make? And me being 21 years old and super, you know, super ballsy on that one, I was like, 300,000. And he looked at me and he was like, you're hired. Like, cool.

Brianna Rooney [00:03:20]:
So I recite, I called my parents. I'm like, I just got this tech recruiting job. They're like, what's that? And I'm like, I don't know, but I'm going to make 300,000. And they're like, okay. Adorable.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:30]:
Well, I got to ask, was anybody at that agency, like, making 300k or no? Okay.

Brianna Rooney [00:03:36]:
But he promised me all these riches. He lived in this extremely wealthy community in Westlake area. I mean, Britney Spears lives in it. So I'm like, well, he obviously does really well, and I want to sit right next to him.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:50]:
Perfect. And how long were you there before you made the jump to your own business?

Brianna Rooney [00:03:55]:
A little over a year.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:57]:
Oh, wow. That quick?

Brianna Rooney [00:03:58]:
Yeah, quick.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:01]:
Okay, so, like, you're there. You see, you see his house. Like, what spurred you to make that jump for your own company?

Brianna Rooney [00:04:07]:
Well, so I hit over 100k my first year. So, I mean, that was like, thank you. It was super exciting. I mean, I was so young. It was like, you know, my friends all were still going to college and stuff like that, or had just, you know, completed it, had all this debt, and I'm like, bye. You know, and so my, something happened. So I think, you know, you've been in the recruiting world enough where it's like, we're just, I mean, at that time, we're. We're just on job boards.

Brianna Rooney [00:04:31]:
There wasn't really LinkedIn going on. There definitely wasn't recruiter. And we're just spamming out resumes at 637 o'clock in the morning just from job boards. And then we would call the candidates and be like, hey, great news. I have this really great company that already wanted to talk to them, right. You know, the whole bait and switch thing. So we were kind of playing that game, and it just, like, something happened where my manager did or asked me to do, and I'm like, no, like, this has to stop. This is not a.

Brianna Rooney [00:04:58]:
This is not cool. This doesn't feel ethical to me. We're finding people jobs. Like, you know, so there was this big thing, and her and I just butt heads like nobody's business. So I went to my. Went to my boss, and I'm like, this is not okay. And it was just, like, the clash of the titans. Like, there was just all.

Brianna Rooney [00:05:15]:
It was super confrontational. She was yelling at me, yelling at me. I mean, I've never been in that situation before. And I was like, I'm out. I'm gone. And I was definitely the top producer in because he had, like, three different companies. Top producer there. And so I just make.

Brianna Rooney [00:05:30]:
Wanted to make a statement, and I just walked out that door, and I'm telling you, it shook everybody. And I was, you know, you're really good friends with everybody. So I'm like, we're going to the bar tonight. And everyone, like, toasted to me that night you quit your job. That's amazing. What are you going to do? I'm like, I have no idea. I met up crying. She's like, go back.

Brianna Rooney [00:05:50]:
What are you doing? What are you doing? You're ruining your future. Yeah, yeah. I just didn't care. You know, I was too young to care. I had zero responsibilities. I had a ton of cash in the bank account. I'm still partying pretty hard. It just.

Brianna Rooney [00:06:06]:
It just didn't bother me. I was just kind of on top of the world. I didn't care.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:10]:
And, like, when did you start your company? After you said, fuck you guys?

Brianna Rooney [00:06:14]:
So, yeah, okay. I didn't know if we could cuss on this one. Okay. Mine's unfiltered, but I didn't know. Okay, cool. I like it. So I had that talk with him. He called me.

Brianna Rooney [00:06:23]:
So my boss and I got. Got along really well, right? And so he's like, look, how can I make this right? So I told him what I needed, right? I needed to be on a new team, and I needed these things to happen. And he goes, okay, so it's Friday. So he goes, okay, I will call you by Tuesday. I'm gonna make a rant. I go, cool. So then again, so I celebrated even more because he's begging me back already. Cause he's like, do you have any plans? He thought I was going somewhere else.

Brianna Rooney [00:06:46]:
I'm like, I don't have any plans. I'm like, I'm done. But I love recruiting, so we'll see what happens. And so I'm at a Laker game on Sunday with my stepdad, and he goes, so what are you gonna do? I'm like, what do you mean? I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna go back like that. Like, that's silly. I'll probably be back in that door on Wednesday. He's like, let me ask you a question.

Brianna Rooney [00:07:06]:
What does he do for you that you cannot do for yourself? Chills, right? I was like, nothing. He's like, well, maybe you start your own day. So that was, like, that seed planted. Sunday, okay. Tuesday comes and goes. He does not call me. Yeah. So Wednesday morning, I open up my LLC.

Brianna Rooney [00:07:29]:
Wednesday at noon, he calls me. Okay? So keep in mind, Wednesday morning, I'm an early bird. Wednesday morning, LLC is opened, dices purchased. I get my database. Like, I. Like, all of these things happen. I'm putting it on my Macy's credit card, and he calls me at noon. I said, sorry, it's too late.

Brianna Rooney [00:07:47]:
I started my own industry. I made my own company, and I was. Yeah, I love that.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:53]:
So fast forward, was that the company that you ended up exiting and selling?

Brianna Rooney [00:07:57]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:58]:
How did you grow, get to that point? How'd you grow that organization to the point where you can actually exit?

Brianna Rooney [00:08:04]:
Yeah. Trial and error, first of all. But I would say what was really important is that I treated every single person like I had wanted to be treated. So I gave away more, like, more commissions than I was given. And I, instead of doing group commissions, which is what we were doing, we did, like, team commissions. I did individual commissions, because I felt like you should get rewarded by what you do, you know, not by what your team does. We can operate as a team. I didn't want any sharkiness, so I showed them the benefit of a team, and I definitely gave a lot of rewards for operating as a team.

Brianna Rooney [00:08:44]:
So there was lots of little cool things, even, like, I would call it a tally game. So I would. I don't know if it was 500 or a thousand, honestly probably went up as I grew, but essentially every month, I would give someone $500 in cash for a tally. So you would get a tally for the phone. Let's see a phone screen. You would get, like, two tallies for, like, a new client, like, whoever gets the first interview with a new client, because, as you know, like, that's big time. Right. Like, you gotta, like, hit the ground running there.

Brianna Rooney [00:09:13]:
They would get a tally for on sites, and then you would get a tally for offers. Nothing for closing, because I wanted to reward activity, which they could then see. Obviously, you get money when you close the deal. Right. So I wanted to reward. I had a giant reward system, so definitely people like to work for me for sure. And I wanted to make sure that I trained them really well. So I was, like, hyper focused on training, and it was more of, like, you know, um, like a, like, bullpen type training.

Brianna Rooney [00:09:44]:
You know, you have everyone in there, and you're, like, literally, like, standing right behind there. Like, I'm talking to them and writing scripts down when they're on the phone. Like. Like, they would have to get on the phone, like, pretty immediately, you know, like, we're calling them. And actually, we had a little bit of a hazing period. I could have. I would have my manager at the time call, like, call it to the newbie's phone and be tried. Like they were a candidate, and, like, they'd be like.

Brianna Rooney [00:10:08]:
And that she put them through the ringer. Okay, that.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:11]:
That doesn't count as hazing. That counts as, like, that is definitely. I played college athletics. I know what hazing is.

Brianna Rooney [00:10:18]:
Remember I didn't go to college. Yeah. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:22]:
That is a. We'll call that new employee proper training.

Brianna Rooney [00:10:26]:
I like them, but you should see. You should have seen the look on their faces, though. I mean, that was priceless.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:30]:
Okay, so I want to take a step back. This tally system. So I remember, like, my first agency job, and, you know, I love that you talked about the no sharkiness, because I kind of said, fuck it after they rewrote my territory and took away my biggest accounts. Yeah, I'm still.

Brianna Rooney [00:10:46]:
And I stuff that up. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:47]:
Oh, yeah.

Brianna Rooney [00:10:48]:
I had.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:48]:
I had to train the recruiter to take it over, and she ended up hitting, like, president's club because of that.

Brianna Rooney [00:10:53]:
One account that took your cash cow. Who does that? That's crazy.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:59]:
But, okay, so you built out a reward system based on all the activity measures, because one of the things that people do, whatever you talk about, whatever you reward, they run after the most. And that really is one of the biggest game changers that you had for your organization was outside of training, this tally reward system.

Brianna Rooney [00:11:18]:
Yes. They loved it. They absolutely loved it. Yeah. And then we also had. I gave a rewards or, like, trophies and plaques and stuff like that. So I definitely gave, you know, plaques to my million dollar billers. They, once they hit five years, they got an all expense paid trip.

Brianna Rooney [00:11:34]:
But then additionally, every single year, there was top, closer, top biller. Cause I feel like those are different. Like, who can close the most candidate kind of a thing. Top Biller is just straight up money. Clients and candidates. Who's the best with clients? Who's the best with candidates? You know, just stuff like that. Who's the most well rounded? You know, we. We were really heavy into stats.

Brianna Rooney [00:11:53]:
We had full transparency. At any given time. We would always have a whiteboard up with. And you would go and put your deals up on the board. We had a gong. It was very much a celebratory vibe, for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:06]:
How did you track all these data points and all these KPI's for everybody? Because I know somebody's listening to that. Like, oh, yeah, awesome. But how do we actually track all.

Brianna Rooney [00:12:14]:
This in an Excel spreadsheet? Keeping it super high tech over here?

Benjamin Mena [00:12:19]:
Hey, if it works, it works. Cause I. I guarantee you somebody would. Is gonna hit me up, was gonna hit me up and be like, all right, what program are they using?

Brianna Rooney [00:12:26]:
Yes. Honest, honestly. So, like, yeah, like, we had a database that was capable of doing that stuff, but I just had excel sheets. Everybody had access to it. I'm not a giant fan, and this is, I don't know, this controversial. Not a giant fan of KPI's. I feel KPI's. And again, if done the right way, is good, right? But I feel like KPI's are there for underachievers.

Brianna Rooney [00:12:48]:
It's there to catch people before they fall. So if everything's transparent and we have everyone's tallies, so therefore, we know how many interviews have gone through, we would know how many resumes, you know, their conversion rate. All of that is on one spreadsheet that everybody has access to and everyone needs to fill out. So essentially, that's kind of like KPI's. It's just. It has, you know, a cash reward at the end. So it's a little. I think it feels a little bit different.

Brianna Rooney [00:13:12]:
As opposed to now. Now, how many. What did you do?

Benjamin Mena [00:13:17]:
You can't leave. You only made 74 calls today. You have to stay until that last person connects with you.

Brianna Rooney [00:13:23]:
Oh, God. So, okay, another controversial don't. I haven't. I have never cold called or. I'm sorry. I have not put any. Anything towards cold calling. I haven't cold called in.

Brianna Rooney [00:13:32]:
Probably like, okay, so I've done this for 16 years. I only really cold called at my agency. I didn't believe in cold call. I'm sorry. My first agency I didn't believe it at my own, so I never made, never made people cold call.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:45]:
Then what worked? How'd you get the new business?

Brianna Rooney [00:13:47]:
It was always email and connections on LinkedIn and stuff like that. So now I still believe in the same thing, but I do a lot of video. So, like, my video or the text messages or even, like, the voice to text on LinkedIn, I think, works just as well. But I don't know if it's because I have software engineers, you know? But I just never found cold calling to be super effective. I mean, trust me, when I first started, I was dialing yahoo like nobody's business, and I'd have my colleague be like, hey, call to make to get the receptionist. So it goes straight to the dial by name, you know? Yeah, we used to do all of that stuff, but I would say we probably cold called more candidates than we did clients.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:27]:
Okay, that's fair. That's definitely fair. And it's, it's. I love that you're talking about video. I think video and community are the two biggest things that I think recruiters should jump on this year if they're not already doing it.

Brianna Rooney [00:14:40]:
Mm hmm. And I will tell you, I talked to a lot of high, high billers recently, and they're so scared of video, which is so interesting to me. Cause it's like, man, but you can cold call, like, 100 people a day? Like, that's gnarly.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:52]:
This is just once, I was actually just talking with a, like, a high producer, ibuilr. And she's, like, really leaned into, like, the video recently. I'm like, I almost wanna just, like, grab a few of her friends and be like, I want you guys to do a cold call. You guys doing video? And let me just get track the metrics for you guys.

Brianna Rooney [00:15:10]:
Yes. Okay. So you know what I ask? I don't know why, but you're giving me the money. So I asked the whole room because, like, I had a. I was speaking right after someone just talked about the power of cold calling, and I was having to come up and tell them how to talk to the next generation. And. And literally a deck in this thing says, why cold calling is, is door to door sales is like, you know, it's like, like, nobody wants it. So I was like, oh, my God, I have to go up to this.

Brianna Rooney [00:15:34]:
So my question to the group was, raise your hand if you all pick up cold calls. Raise your hand. Who picks up cold calls? Nobody. Nobody knows. If it says spam likely on your phone, you're not picking that up. Or if you hear the, hey, how are you? I'm.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:53]:
It's gone 40. That little, like, click robot. Yes. I'm like, she picked it up.

Brianna Rooney [00:16:01]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously there's tactics, right, on how you can, like, get through to somebody, you know? But, like, at the end of the day, like, not many people are picking it up. You know, we don't have time for that. It's like, cold eat, cold text them, or, you know, then it's like, think about how long it has to take to ring to get to the voicemails. And again, how many people are listening to their voicemails. I mean, how many you have, you haven't had to listen to.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:26]:
Where am I going to go? There.

Brianna Rooney [00:16:27]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:28]:
All right. Jumping back to the millionaire track.

Brianna Rooney [00:16:31]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:32]:
So was it like, was your secret to becoming a millionaire? Was it building and scaling a company? Or did you become a millionaire also sitting, like, working a desk? Because I think there's a few multiple ways that a recruiter can take their career.

Brianna Rooney [00:16:46]:
Yes, multiple. And I think what I would love to talk about is the fact that do not just bring in people because you think you're going to make more money. That does not happen at all, actually. I'll never forget. So I think I brought in, it was my first year, so I had my first year. I think I made maybe like 400,000 my first year. It's like, oh, wow, that's frickin cool, right? You know, I went from 100 to 400. Now I'm by myself, and now I have tons of time, actually, because I, you know, it's, it's, it's just different, right.

Brianna Rooney [00:17:14]:
You don't have to, um, no one's like, getting there at 630 to show the boss that they did a great job. And, you know, so it was just. Wasn't like that. So it was cool. I get to do what I want to do. Definitely celebrated my highs. So then I was like, okay, great. You kind of get bored, and it's silly to say, oh, I got bored.

Brianna Rooney [00:17:30]:
Really? Within a year of making 400. Like, I need, I need a challenge. So I'm like, hey, I'm going to bring in, like, two employees, right? Because I believe in hiring in twos, because naturally all one's going to work out and one's not. So if I'm going to train, train, I'm going to train two in hopes that I get one or one really good one. So anyways, I told my CPA, I'm like, all right, here we go. I got to plan this out, I need to figure, you know, and the CPA was like, don't hire. Get out of my office, basically. Okay.

Brianna Rooney [00:17:57]:
Yeah. So I want to hire. He's like, I'm against it. I'm like, whatever. So, of course, I always do the opposite of what someone tells me. So I said, okay, great, I'm going to hire. And it's challenging. It's really hard.

Brianna Rooney [00:18:09]:
You do not make more money. You make less money. You have to basically know that for 90 days, if you are not dedicated to them and getting them up and running, and then also you're paying them. So I was paying them a draw, right. So you gotta assume I'm paying nine k no matter what, if they work out or not. It's. It's heavy. It's really heavy.

Brianna Rooney [00:18:28]:
And so I would say that I definitely made my own money before I hired and made plenty of it. I did hit a million dollar billing yet until I was more of a well oiled machine. So I definitely had a bigger team. However, I didn't give myself enough time to do that. I hired quickly. So if I were to go back in time, I would have rolled by myself for at least two to three years, and I would have given myself time to build that. Because I will tell you, like, and I know it sounds crazy, making that 400K was super simple, which is insane, but I was. I felt like I was really good at what I did, and I did not waste any time.

Brianna Rooney [00:19:05]:
So, like, I was never going to be on the phone with someone I didn't actually think I could play, and I was really good at very quickly firing clients that I didn't work, want to work with, or didn't think I could place them. So I would like, like. So those are the two things that I would say made me really good at my job. Um, and then also I taught myself at. At the agency because I kept getting kicked off of the job boards because I was the newbie. I was a newbie, so they didn't have a seat for me, so they would just kind of toss me and, you know, wherever. And so I ended up teaching myself how to use LinkedIn before anyone kind of started recruiting on LinkedIn. So that was, I think, like, also, like, my honey hole now, you know, again, that would not happen today, right? Everybody's so goddamn crowded on LinkedIn.

Brianna Rooney [00:19:50]:
So. So, yeah, so I think for the listeners, it's like, look, like, if you think that hiring is what gets you to your goals faster, like, that's not true, in my opinion. I think what's true is. Yeah, go ahead.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:02]:
So I want to ask you this. Cause you decided to give the people a draw and a commission, did they end up having, like, a base salary at your organization?

Brianna Rooney [00:20:09]:
No base. Um, now, I have played around with that. I've done lots of different things. Um, I. I did do base salaries for a couple of people, and I said, hey, you can have this base salary. I think the highest I ever really went was maybe 42,000. Like, I don't go high on baseball. I don't believe in it.

Brianna Rooney [00:20:24]:
Cause I don't think you're hungry enough if you wanna base my own opinion. So I say, hey, you can have this, and your commission's gonna be 10%. Or you can go all in. Your commission will be 25%. And if you work on the client side, it can get up to 40. So very quickly, I had a lot of the people who did well switch to commission, because when I did on their commission sheet is I put what they currently made and what they would have made, and that killed them. Okay. Like, it was like, are you joking? I'm like, yeah, if you want to risk it, this is how much you can make.

Brianna Rooney [00:20:59]:
If you want to keep it safe, well, this is how much you made.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:01]:
Sorry, but I just want to, like, for the listeners, I feel like the world is full of recruiters or solo billers looking for a 1099 recruiter split a recruiter that they want to add to their team. That's 100% commission. But the thing that you did is you had a draw that they started out with and you had training. So there's like, you're already giving it more than. I feel like 80% of the recruiters out there looking to hire a recruiter.

Brianna Rooney [00:21:25]:
Yeah, that. I mean, that's true. So. So I have actually an agency that I coach, and I have been really, really talking to her about this because she has that same 1099 thing. Like, hey, you know what? I give them seats, but they're still 1099. I'm like, yeah, but there's no loyalty there. So she's like, they're not hitting their KPI's. They go, it's because they're a 1099.

Brianna Rooney [00:21:44]:
Like, that's why. Like, they don't care about your business like you do. You treat people like they're actually a part of the team. And I think that's when they show up for you. Because if it's like, if you're betting on them, then they'll bet on you. And, like, there's like, that, you know, that synergy. But if you 1099 someone, I think you'll be lucky to get a couple of resumes, you know, a week, in my opinion. You know, it's because, like, there's no focus there.

Brianna Rooney [00:22:10]:
Like, and you can't control their focus. You don't own them at all. You don't think. They don't owe you anything. Like, there's. There's nothing there. So even to give. Honestly, even to give a LinkedIn recruiter seat to a 1099 person, I think is really nice.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:21]:
Okay, cool. I always see those. I'm looking for a 1099 recruiter.

Brianna Rooney [00:22:26]:
Right?

Benjamin Mena [00:22:26]:
I'm like, you gotta give a little.

Brianna Rooney [00:22:28]:
More than that, I think. So. I mean, think about. Think about all those platforms that exist. Paraform, reflect, recruitify, bounty jobs. It's like, why would they, like. There's so much stuff. And also, I think recruiters, by nature, they don't focus.

Brianna Rooney [00:22:44]:
Right? Shiny penny. Shiny penny. Shiny penny.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:48]:
Squirrel.

Brianna Rooney [00:22:49]:
Yeah. Clap her squirrel. You know? So it's like, if you want them to focus, you gotta pay attention a little bit, right? Gotta give them one. I agree.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:58]:
So, like, now, with everything that you've learned about all this, like, you've. You've now coached other organizations. You built, scaled, hired, fired. You've had million dollar producers on your team. If you were starting today, what would.

Brianna Rooney [00:23:15]:
You do from scratch? I would definitely like, who I would grab, like, who I would hire or how far are we going down?

Benjamin Mena [00:23:23]:
Let's see. Even back before you hire, if you were starting from scratch today with everything that you've learned, would you start on the agency? Would you build a podcast? Having YouTube? Where were you? Where would you go? Like, how would you even get started?

Brianna Rooney [00:23:36]:
Yeah, I would go the hustle route completely by myself, and I would go to my, what I call my 30 day challenge, and I would hit up 20 clients a day, 100 candidates a day, and I would do that for 30 days. That's exactly how I started. That's exactly how I would do it today and exactly how I teach today because I. And I probably wouldn't have any tools. So I think what's interesting. I know, I know. So when people come to the program, they're like, great, how much do I need for tools? Every single month I go, we're not doing tools right now. You got to learn how to do it first.

Brianna Rooney [00:24:08]:
If you don't know how to do it first, then what are these tools going to do? Like, the tools are only as good as you are. So if you're really good. And those tools are going to be, like, badass, right? So I probably wouldn't even grab any tools. I'd probably keep it just with, like, LinkedIn recruiter. I mean, I do love sequencing tools. So it's like I'd either get, like, you know, recruit CRM or recruiter flow, one of those that have the capabilities, you know, of the eval sequences, and they're. It's a really lean. Those are both lean ats's.

Brianna Rooney [00:24:36]:
So I think that's what's really important to me. So, like, for example, you'll never see me get a bullhorn. Bullhorn has too many bells and whistles, in my opinion. Or your bowhorn. You're super sorry.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:45]:
No, no, no. I looked at it once and I'm like, that's like, maybe if I had, like, 100 people working in agency, it's perfect. But if, when you're a small business, like, it's just me and my wife, that's way too much.

Brianna Rooney [00:24:58]:
Yeah, I think it's way too much. Um, honestly, I am probably my most efficient, and this is, I know, crazy. I have a candidate tracker in addition to an ATS, because that, to me, it keeps it honest with my pipeline based on my clients. And I. And then what. And what happens is nothing falls through the cracks. So I know you, you know, there's tons of different ways you can put projects on LinkedIn or you can hook it up with your ats. There's so many things you could do, right? However, think about how many times someone gets back to you that didn't send you their resume and you're like, who was that person? Who was that person that didn't send me their resume? You know? So it's like, I think everyone has to just kind of find their own flow.

Brianna Rooney [00:25:37]:
And so for me, that's like, I put. I have a tracker for everyone that's supposed that, like, I got interested, but maybe hasn't quite converted, and I just copy and paste their LinkedIn URL and just very quickly say something about them. Are they staff level? Are they a vp? Are they a junior? Are they super well educated? Like, something that will, like, spark my interest? Where do they work, you know? And I kind of just jam that way. So, yeah, so if I were to start, I would start insanely lean. I would not buy all of these things. I would not sign contracts. I would just jam on it. Yeah.

Brianna Rooney [00:26:10]:
Heads down.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:11]:
Go back to this 30 day challenge, like, one more time. What is this 30 day challenge that your son are talking about?

Brianna Rooney [00:26:17]:
So it's literally just you putting your head down and hitting numbers. So it's 20. So you have to reach out to 20 clients a day. But keep in mind, every two days, you reach out to them again. And in my opinion, you have to reach out to them seven times. Okay, so. So then it snowballs, right? So you got to think like, all right, 20 people today. Here's another 20 on Tuesday, Wednesday.

Brianna Rooney [00:26:39]:
Technically, it's 40 people, right? Cause there's the 20 follow up, and then there's 20 more. So it gets super, super, super heavy, but it can be done. And the reason why I still do 100 candidates, even without clients, is because I'm kind of putting it out in the universe that these clients are going to get back to me, and I'm already going to have candidates for them. So it's like this catch 22 that I'm playing where it's like, I don't really have jobs for these candidates, and I don't really have candidates for these clients, but it's going to happen, and I can't, like, not operate in that manner. Right. Because if I do all of this biz dev, then what? Am I going to go scramble and go get candidates? You know, there's like, that fine line, because I always get asked what comes first. I said, in my opinion, they come at the same time. You do them at the same time.

Brianna Rooney [00:27:26]:
And, yes, it feels like, I will tell you, like, the first couple of weeks kind of feels, like, anxiety filled because you got all these candidates getting back to you and you don't really have anything for them. Okay, how do we do this? But if you're doing biz Dev and Canada outreach for the same exact niche. So, for example, I do engineers, right? So let's just say I'm trying to get, I don't know, python engineers staff level. All of my biz dev is for Python staff. All of my Canada outreach is for Python staff. Right. So it just kind of comes together, and then maybe. Yeah, and then maybe, like, the next week, I'm tired of python staff, right? So the next week, I'm like, all right, I'm going to do data scientists for week number two, you know? So here's all my data scientist stuff, you know, so.

Brianna Rooney [00:28:13]:
And then I pick the companies that, like, I'm super jazzed about, because actually, when you're doing biz Dev, it's like, you have companies that you're like, ooh, I could get into this company. Like, I love this company, you know? So I'll kind of pick three companies a week that I'm super jazzed about, come up with quick mini pitches, and that's what I'm sending to the candidates because I feel pretty confident I'm going to get into those three companies.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:36]:
I love that it's one. It's there. You're making sure that everybody's working on the candidate side and the BD side. And I think those are, like, really solid numbers to get yourself off the ground, because there's so many times I've talked to recruiters or recruiters have reached out to me. They're like, well, I just got my business started. I'm like, what'd you do this week? Well, I've worked on the website, worked on my copy. I've worked. And I'm like, all right, how many years have you been in recruiting? You worked at an agency? Like, what did you do at the agency? Were you working on the website there? No, I was calling and doing BD, and I'm like, make that the most important thing.

Brianna Rooney [00:29:10]:
Yeah, you are giving me the money shows yet again. Because, again, I can't even tell you how many people in my program are like, hey, can you look at my website? Hey, what do you think about this logo? Do you think I should tweak something on the logo? I'm like, do you have paying customers yet? You do not. This does not matter. Like, I keep telling them, I said, do you know how hard it is to drive traffic to your website? I'm. I've been trying. I'm trying to sell courses in my sleep, right? So it's like, I'm trying to drive traffic to there. It's hard. Like, so nobody goes to your site? Sorry.

Brianna Rooney [00:29:43]:
You know? Like, the only thing maybe I would care about is, like, a one pager to have, like, your services, like, if someone wants to look. But honestly, again, it's like, it just takes you getting out there drives me crazy.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:54]:
I think you just said it perfectly, because there's quite a few. Like, when you get started, you're like, oh, man, everybody's gonna be looking at my website. And I know we're running down a rabbit hole with this, but. And think about this. Like. Like, with it. With this podcast. I'm like, 140 something episodes in, and people are just now finding it.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:10]:
That's three years of creating content.

Brianna Rooney [00:30:15]:
It's hard, right? I mean, yeah, I think you had two.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:19]:
Two conversations today. They're like, I just found your podcast. It's awesome. Like, three years of work. So think about that when you're building your recruiting business, it could be four to five years before somebody's like, hey, I found your website.

Brianna Rooney [00:30:29]:
Great. I'm glad it worked. Now, with that said, buy your URL. Like, don't be. Don't be silly about that. You think of your name. You see that it's not taken. There's no trademarks.

Brianna Rooney [00:30:39]:
It's not on LinkedIn. Yeah, buy your URL. Don't be silly.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:42]:
Yeah, that takes five minutes.

Brianna Rooney [00:30:44]:
Yeah, exactly. And, like, $10.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:46]:
Okay, so we've talked about the work that it takes to get started. So 30 day challenge. Like, put a challenge for yourself. Put in the work.

Brianna Rooney [00:30:54]:
Go.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:54]:
Go crush the work. Now, the next part is, I believe, is mindset.

Brianna Rooney [00:31:00]:
Yes, 100%.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:02]:
What kind of mindset does it take to get. Become that million millionaire recruiter?

Brianna Rooney [00:31:09]:
Wow. How much time we have? Okay, so this one, I am, like, a mega fan, so I have lots of challenges. I also have, like, the smile challenge. So, for example, like, there's. I have what's called learning rainbows. So once a month, and sometimes we would even do it more, but once. Once. Once a month on a Friday, I would have one of my employees stand up for 20 or so minutes and do a presentation on, honestly, whatever they want, whatever they wanted to either learn about and then teach us.

Brianna Rooney [00:31:37]:
Or maybe they just loved it and wanted to teach us, like, whatever it was they were going to teach us something. I felt like that was super empowering, and so I actually chose the power of smiling. So. And this was many years ago, and so there's tons of statistics that show that smiling is the trigger to your brain, which then, in fact, brings really great things, you know? So I even make sure that when I'm doing an offer or talking to a client, I'm standing, I'm smiling. You know, I teach that for sure. And so anyways, what? I'm like, well, this is like a rabbit hole here, but, um, where was I coined with this? But she's asking me, Jesus, our mindset.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:14]:
To be a millionaire critter.

Brianna Rooney [00:32:15]:
I was like, see my mindset buy shiny penny fucking square. Okay. Yeah. So. So I would do a smile challenge. So, like, anyone's in a rut. Anyone's, you know, whatever. I'll be like, great.

Brianna Rooney [00:32:24]:
You're on a 30 day smile challenge. I'm like, what the hell is that? So I'm like, the moment you get in here, I don't care if, like, you are absolutely do not want to come sit down at your desk. It doesn't matter. But once you sit down at your desk. I need this on. I need this smile on. I need you to, like, smile all through biz, Dev. Smile every single time you're doing an outreach.

Brianna Rooney [00:32:44]:
And if you want to just, like, not smile, like, when you're not doing outreach, good. You want to go in the bathroom and go curse me, you know, fine. But every single time you're doing anything, any kind of email, it has to have a smile on your face. 30 days. That's it. And I will tell you, one of my employees, like, was. You're nuts. Like, he was full blown.

Brianna Rooney [00:33:01]:
Like, this is nuts. This is not going to work. You're crazy. Fair. Go. Do it. Just. I said, just do it.

Brianna Rooney [00:33:09]:
Came back within, like, two to two and a half weeks, and he slams my door, sits in the chair, and goes, all right, it worked. I don't know what the hell happened. I don't know. It doesn't make any sense to me, but it worked. And he had literally the best next three months of his entire career. And it was insane. So, anyways, the mindset is so insanely important that you are. You're.

Brianna Rooney [00:33:32]:
I mean, there's been times, I don't know about you, but I've cried in the corner. Like, I've been like, this sucks. Like, this sucks. Nothing's going right. I've been on XYZ where my employees are pissing me off, or I had the f word, the fallout, you know? Like, whatever happened, it sucks. It's really, really hard, and I think it's really lonely. And I think people think, like, oh, my God. They, like, romanticize being an entrepreneur, and no one really knows what it takes.

Brianna Rooney [00:33:59]:
There's no safety net. I get. I don't have a paycheck. No one's paying for my insurance. No one. You know, I had two kids. No one helped me out with that. There's no maternity leave.

Brianna Rooney [00:34:10]:
And then also, guess what? No one's giving me a pat on the back when I close a deal. Right? But yet you're patting everybody else's back. So it's definitely. You have to be a self starter. You have to have affirmations, and I think you need a journal, and you need to understand what success actually means to you. And I think you. That definition changes, honestly, on maybe even a quarterly basis. So it's like, you have to get to know yourself really, really, really well.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:41]:
And for most people, you don't get a chance to know yourself very well if you're not sitting down and thinking about yourself, which is why you probably mentioned journaling.

Brianna Rooney [00:34:51]:
Yes. And I think it should be on your schedule. And I think as especially someone that just starts their business, we just talked about, you got to hit numbers. You're thinking, like, I don't have time for that. Like, I do not have time for myself. But you're trying to tell me you don't have ten to 15 minutes for yourself every day? Like, that's. You're literally lying. Like, are you in front of your phone? Are you in front of the tv? What are you doing? Like, there's, I mean, you can sleep 8 hours, right? You don't need any more than 8 hours.

Brianna Rooney [00:35:15]:
And let's be honest, entrepreneurs probably sleep about six, but 8 hours, it's like, that's it. What are you doing for the rest of the time? Like, seriously?

Benjamin Mena [00:35:23]:
So fast forward, we've started the agency. We now have talked about mindset, and I think, you know, journaling, like journal, journal, reset your goals. Like, exactly what you said. Do that. Do that for one week and then come let me know, or let. But you've done some other things. Like, you've started podcasts, you've started a YouTube channel. You've like, done, like, all these additional things.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:46]:
Like, would you do those again? Would you recommend first people to do those?

Brianna Rooney [00:35:50]:
I wouldn't do the YouTube again, I love the YouTube, but in this crowded market, I don't know if I would do it unless I actually had a monetization plan. So I started it because one of my employees was like, there's no training out there. We should start a course, your training. Like, literally all you'd have to do is just film it. Like, you have everything here, let's just do it. And so he hassled me, hassle me, hassle me. I finally did it. And that's why it was born.

Brianna Rooney [00:36:19]:
Literally, it was not, you know, like, yeah, I love to teach people, but it was done to do this course. Now, it was all organic. We didn't put any money. I mean, we didn't work. I didn't really believe in it. There was no one out there that was doing it as far as recruiting goes, right? And I was like, ah, no one's even gonna. No one's gonna come see this. This is crazy, right? So back then, I wish I would have known how powerful it was and I would have monetized the crap out of it.

Brianna Rooney [00:36:44]:
I would have probably put, had someone come and edit. And still to this day, like, I don't, I don't actually have a firm that does this stuff for me. So I think that I would have taken advantage of that back then, but right now, it just feels really, really crowded. And I think recruiting so niche and it's getting beat up that I don't know if I would start that today. I think I would just focus, put my head down, and just, you know, put the pedal to the metal. I think. I think that. I don't see, like, a figure out.

Brianna Rooney [00:37:12]:
I cannot get money from it, right? Like, now I coach and do courses, and so people find me that way. So that's kind of set up, which is nice, but I wouldn't do that today. Podcast again, it's like, if it depends on why you're starting the podcast, is it your escape? Because what's great is, like, sometimes I get on the podcast. I don't know about you, but I'm like, cool this. I like jam. I get pumped up. I get talked to guests, I talked to Taylor. It's kind of like the fun part of my job.

Brianna Rooney [00:37:38]:
But again, at the end of the day, I'm not getting paid for it, and it's a lot of work. So I'm not really sure, again, if I would. If I would start. If I would start that again today. I think, again, there's a lot of people who do a really great job and don't have any of these things, so I would. I probably wouldn't. Yeah, to answer your question, I wouldn't. I would focus really, really highly on my LinkedIn.

Brianna Rooney [00:37:59]:
I would probably start doing, like, all, like, the top voices, like the. The collaborative articles and stuff like that. I would still do, but again, I wouldn't be hyper focused on it.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:09]:
Not those top voices banners. Do they even do anything?

Brianna Rooney [00:38:13]:
You get to put it in your bio. I mean, I don't know really what it does, to be honest. Yeah, I've had a few of them. So it's like, I don't know. And they don't even let you put multiple ones on there. So I'm like, why am I even answering these things?

Benjamin Mena [00:38:26]:
Because I haven't even touched one of those things. I get the invite weekly. Like, come be part of this. I'm like, no.

Brianna Rooney [00:38:33]:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, the only thing that would interest me, like, LinkedIn wise, is, like, I would actually be interested in being a LinkedIn instructor just because it's something I've never done. But as far as, like, an agent, if I could start an agency, like, I want no part of this stuff, you know? Like, yeah, you're.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:49]:
You're saying all these, like, these things that are cool, like, a podcast and a YouTube and all that stuff. Like, you probably shouldn't even, like, touch them until you, you become a big biller. Like four or five.

Brianna Rooney [00:38:58]:
Hundred k. One hundred percent. Hundred percent. I would never touch it. Never. It's distracting and there's no, there's literally no focus. And what are you doing it for? Is it ego? Like what? Like, what is it for? Like, I think that's like the big giant question. What is, what exactly is it for?

Benjamin Mena [00:39:15]:
What if they're doing it for an industry focused podcast, which is really.

Brianna Rooney [00:39:19]:
Yeah. So what I think does really well is if you're inviting who you want to be, your clients on your podcast, you know, so biz dev purposes podcast. Yeah, for sure. But I think there's plenty of podcasts on there that are so surface level that it's like, what are, who's listening to this? Why are we listening to this?

Benjamin Mena [00:39:37]:
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of, like, the industry podcasts. Because of this podcast, I had to shut down my industry podcasts. But this is, I call this like my happy hour.

Brianna Rooney [00:39:45]:
Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. It makes you happy. I get it.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:49]:
This is, this is my happy hour. You know, this does help us win work, but it not as much as a industry focused podcast would. So I just, you know, people, like, also just started out their company. They're like, I need to start a podcast, too. So that's why I want to ask that. I was like, you know, there's so many things that you can easily, like, start doing that just does not have the immediate ROi, the intermediate ROi, or the long term Roi that you need for your recruiting business to become a billion dollar biller.

Brianna Rooney [00:40:19]:
Yes. Now, something that I would do again, and I still do today, is I would make sure you're getting featured in articles. So there's, I think it's actually called, there's featured and there's Haro, which is Haro. And essentially you just say, like, what you, what you like to talk about, and you'll get a daily email of all these different subjects and it will tell you who the publication is. So this is how you get featured on Forbes, for example, or Business Insider or whatever you want built in, whatever you want to get featured on. And you answer a question, you answer a question, you send in your bio, and then what's really cool is the reporter will publish your industry expert words in these great articles. So now all of a sudden, your clients and candidates are like, oh, this person actually knows what they're talking about. So I find that to be super powerful, and it kind of gives you that voice without having to try too hard, you know? And actually, you get to answer some questions that people actually want, want answers to.

Brianna Rooney [00:41:13]:
Mm.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:14]:
That's great. I haven't heard somebody talk about that in forever, so thank you for bringing that back up.

Brianna Rooney [00:41:19]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:19]:
So, and here's kind of a question I have, like, as you were growing your company, did you have a coach in your corner?

Brianna Rooney [00:41:25]:
Yes. Okay, so not as I was growing. Sorry. I love this. Not as I was growing. I wish, wish, wish, wish I grabbed a coach pretty much the moment I started. I wish, like, I could go back or maybe like a year in, right, because the year. And you're really, really grinding, right? Hopefully.

Brianna Rooney [00:41:42]:
But I wish I would have maybe that first year and so on, but I probably was five or six years into my agency, and I grabbed a coach, and the coach, actually, it's funny. I've grown out of this coach. I have another one. But this coach really helped me with emotional intelligence and really kind of setting, like, what I wanted to do. They. This coach got me out of the day today and into the actual seat of a CEO. Uh, what? And now the interesting part about that was, I didn't enjoy it. I am definitely a doer.

Brianna Rooney [00:42:16]:
I like to recruit. I like to be in the bullpen. So when he incur. And he actually is like, well, you know what? Maybe you should get a CEO for your own company. And I was so insulted. I was like, how dare you say that I can't run my own company. I ran it successful for five to six years. You know, it was that ego moment.

Brianna Rooney [00:42:31]:
And so I was like, I'll show you. I'm going to get into this CEO seat. So I took myself out of the bullpen, into my office, and I cried every single day for a week because I hated it. Yep. Yeah. And I ended up getting my who I called my number two. Like, she was like, you know, just really, like, she was leading, managing, helping me with all these things. I ended up getting her coaching as well.

Brianna Rooney [00:42:54]:
So we would coach. We would have a coaching session together. And then I was like, I need emotional intelligence training. I saw how much of an impact it had on my personal and professional life. So then I got my whole team emotional intelligence training every Friday for eight weeks, for, like, 4 hours each time. Like, it was heavy. There were so many tears, I can't even tell you. Like, there, like, and there were so many people came in my office and was like, I can't believe you did this to us.

Brianna Rooney [00:43:18]:
Like, because they opened up swoons, right. Emotional intelligence training opens up a lot. Like, it's. It's. It's very emotional. Um, and so they. I have all these people who started getting, like, therapists and stuff like that. Flash forward to a year.

Brianna Rooney [00:43:30]:
They all thanked me. Okay. So, like, we definitely were a better team for it, but it's. It's heavy work. Gets worse before it gets better. Uh, but anyway, so then I had that coach. I did really well. I saw a lot of great things and then realized, not that I was bored in those sessions, but I just felt like I had reached a growth plateau, and I think you're supposed to.

Brianna Rooney [00:43:49]:
So I grabbed another coach, which, again, talk to coaches, right? Talk to these people. See if they're on the same page. See what they've done, I think is really important. And, like, why are they coaching? Because I think there's a lot of coaches, there's a lot of trainers out there who haven't really walked the walk. You know, they could talk to talk without walking the walk. And so it's like, for me, that was really important. So now I have this really great badass woman coach, and so she's taking me really far. She's helped me through the sale and all of those things.

Brianna Rooney [00:44:17]:
She's talked to some of my employees throughout different moments. I've had her look at, hey, what do you think of this? What do you think? It's great. I believe in coaching to the fullest.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:26]:
Except it's one of the things I see with a lot of high performers and even the businesses I grow is there's a mentor or a coach in your corner.

Brianna Rooney [00:44:35]:
You have to. Yeah, because, like I said, it's lonely. It's lonely, and it's like, who are you going to talk to now? It's crazy because you and your wife are in this together, so I can only imagine the dinner. The dinner table compost. You, like, need a meteor, maybe. But, uh, yeah, I mean, like, it's even being. My significant other before was not a business owner, and so it was, like, kind of challenging to even talk to him about it. Now.

Brianna Rooney [00:45:01]:
The one I'm with today is a business owner, so it's like, we get to jam out on, have, like, those vent conversations or, like, you know, hey, I need affirmation right now. Give me something good. I need to go get picked up when I go to get work, you know? So. But, you know, even that, like, you don't want to rely on your significant others to pick you up. You gotta, you know, I, so I coach. I used to coach, um, go to my coach once a week. I now am at the point where I can go every other week or maybe once a month. It kind of depends on what I'm going through, um, at any given moment, but it's great.

Brianna Rooney [00:45:31]:
And I think that people should know. You can get a tactical coach or you can get a mindset coach or you can get a coach that does both. So. And I've done all of those. So that's great.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:43]:
That's awesome. Well, before we go to the quick fire questions, is there anything else that you want to share?

Brianna Rooney [00:45:49]:
God, that's, I would say focus on the fundamentals. Like, there's all these shiny little items. You know, an AI is great, by the way. You have to, you have to get that under control. You have to learn to embrace that, but still focus on the fundamentals, because the fundamentals, I think, is what will sustain your career. You know, like, maybe you could get something in play that can put it on a high real quick. But those highs and recruiting, I mean, I then, like, you know, like, those don't last too terribly well.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:17]:
No, they don't. Well, awesome. Awesome. Jumping over to the quick fire questions, what advice would you give to a recruiter that's actually just getting started in this industry this year?

Brianna Rooney [00:46:28]:
Fun. Well, niche, of course you have to have a niche, like, and sometimes your niche finds you. And I think the way that it finds you is through your business development. So kind of what I was talking about with the 30 day challenge is like, hey, just, just you, you pick the first niche, right? And then kind of go down and see who gets back to you. I think that first and foremost, um, but you really have to leverage your LinkedIn. So I definitely think not everybody pays attention to this and actually have on the keywords that if a, what would a CEO look for? So, like, for example, if I'm the CEO of, I don't know, a SaaS startup and I need a recruiter, what keywords am I going to put in LinkedIn to go find my SAS startup recruiter? Well, I'm going to put SAS. I'm going to put startup ready. Like, I mean, immediately.

Brianna Rooney [00:47:12]:
Uh, and there's, and there's other things, right. But, like, make sure that you have that stuff on your profile. Like, you're very easily found. There is organic business and you don't have to be so, so wordy, you know, just get straight to it. So I think you need to find your voice, find your. Why, why do you do this. And not just, oh, I want to help people. I'm a matchmaker.

Brianna Rooney [00:47:30]:
I want to change people's lives. Like, we all say that, right? And that's all true. But what really, like, let's really dig, like, what are you different? Why are you different? I think that's super important.

Benjamin Mena [00:47:41]:
The, uh, sorry for. You could see this on video, but you can't see that on the audio if you're listening this. But I started laughing because when I first got into recruiting, my first two, three months, I was like, we're here to help people. And I almost got fired because of it. They're like, you suck at recruiting. Like, you absolutely suck. I got pulled into a room and said, nobody wants you on their tape.

Brianna Rooney [00:48:03]:
Oh, my God, that's a story.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:07]:
So I love that you're talking about finding your voice, but also highlighting the fundamentals, too. Thank you for that. Yeah, but same question, but for somebody that's been around the block, like 510 15 2025 years, I mean, I'm almost two decades in this space now, what advice would you give for somebody that's been recruiting to be or get successful and maybe even hit that millionaire recruiter mark?

Brianna Rooney [00:48:33]:
Ooh, I love that. Okay, now technology. So now I'm going to, am going to go to the chat GPTs of the world and all that AI stuff. So I believe that there's a lot of stale agencies that have it aren't future focused. So, you know, now we're going to have to talk to the next generation, right? So how do we talk to the next generation? Like we've been really successful, maybe talking to 40 to 50 to 60 year olds. Well, guess what? Pretty soon it's not happening. Now we're going to have to start placing twenties to thirties. And now they're also our hiring managers.

Brianna Rooney [00:49:08]:
Right? So you have to have different tactics and techniques. And I think that recruiters that have been in the business for a long time are perhaps used to talking at people, you know, or being long winded or, or holding back the jobs and the companies, you know, in that first message. Whereas the next generation, they want things now. Like they want video, they want something quick. Like they, they want missions, you know, driven stuff. So it's like, how are we going to talk to them? How are we going to relate and our clients and jobs to that? And so I think future focus is super important and it doesn't matter. Like, I think about, you know, my old boss. Like he, he would always say, well, in my day, I had a Rolodex I didn't have the beauty of LinkedIn.

Brianna Rooney [00:49:49]:
You know, it's like, great, you know, I could say the same thing, right? You know, oh, my day, I had dice and LinkedIn, and I didn't have LinkedIn recruiter, you know, so it's like, well, that's not stopping me, right? Like, I now would never have a job board. I would now never cold call. I use LinkedIn recruiter and other sequencing tools, right? So it's like you have to keep moving and morphing and changing. And I think that you get like, really stale. And, you know, as we saw with a lot of companies, we took the pedal off biz dev because we were so busy. So it's like, let's rethink that. Like, that will come back, right? So are we going to take our foot off or what are we going to do? Are we going to maybe have more contractors or are we going to grow a bigger team? Are we going to unite with other agencies? Are we going to, you know? So I think we have to start thinking about the busy times. Even though it doesn't, it feels like, well, what do you mean? Like, it's still not insanely busy like it was, but it will be.

Brianna Rooney [00:50:42]:
So you have to be ready.

Benjamin Mena [00:50:43]:
The ebbs and flows, absolutely constant roller coaster. Okay, so what's your current tech stack?

Brianna Rooney [00:50:50]:
Okay, I got all sorts of stuff. So I'm like, I'm looking at my screen, I'm like I'm going to forget something. So, uh, obviously I've got the chat. GPT is the Grammarly, is the calendar loom. Cause I do a lot of videos. Cause then what's great is I get I it. There's a lot of AI there too. And I get to know when they look at it.

Brianna Rooney [00:51:06]:
Um, I do VEED IO, which is, um, super easy editing tool. So, um, I do wizard for any kind of shorts, you know, however you want to do that on the platform. Um, I do read AI, you know, like when you're in, um, it, it does your notes for you, you know, canva, of course, is my most, it's honestly like, like, it makes you feel like, oh, man, I'm nailing this. My brand is strong. It's easy. Vizzard is also something I use, and most of the stuff's free, by the way, Vizzard, I use. And that takes your videos and cuts it into like, just really cool shorts again for LinkedIn, YouTube, whatever you want to do. And my new favorite tool is pager, and they're from the UK.

Brianna Rooney [00:51:48]:
Have you heard of it.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:49]:
I have an interview with them coming up.

Brianna Rooney [00:51:52]:
Oh, really? Oh, that's it. Wait, do you use it that I had?

Benjamin Mena [00:51:55]:
Not yet, but I got a podcast interview with him. He was like, hit me up. I was like, I'd love to chat with you about AI tools and recruiting. So that's. Look forward to that.

Brianna Rooney [00:52:02]:
Oh, man. It is a very cool platform. It's. I mean, depending on. I guess that depending on what you need. Like, is it. Is it sourcing? Is it biz dev? Is it content? Is it, like, what is it? But it's essentially like your own AI personal assistant. So, like, the thing that, like, really was, well, this is cool is I can put in all of the different websites or all of the different clients I work with, stuff like that.

Brianna Rooney [00:52:24]:
I save it all. Of course, I already have my personality and tone. I've already trained my bot, right. And every day it will tell me, hey, this happened in the news with whatever website I saved. This happened in the news. Look at this. Do you want to share this? So I'll click on it. Click ghostwriter.

Brianna Rooney [00:52:41]:
And it comes as to what it would share on LinkedIn or whatever social you want, right. And it keeps you consistent, and it's very cool. So that I love. And then also on the biz dev aspect of things, let's just say, okay, my dream client is Pinterest, right? So Pinterest, I want to. I want to talk to the CTO, which, you know, probably not, right? So maybe like an engineering manager. So I'm going to put engineering manager at Pinterest, and these people are going to come up. I'm going to choose the person, and then now this thing will come up with every single thing they've been on, either as a podcast, they've had an article, they were featured somewhere, whatever it is. So now my biz dev message is, hey, I was just listening to the podcast about XYZ.

Brianna Rooney [00:53:22]:
I'm super intrigued now. I would love to hire for you, you know, so it's just kind of like, it keeps you smarter and in the know, super fast.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:30]:
And like, that's also like a way better personalized message than the, hey, I have my NPC or this or that.

Brianna Rooney [00:53:36]:
Yeah, exactly.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:38]:
He gave me a tour. I don't know if you heard of a.

Brianna Rooney [00:53:40]:
No.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:40]:
Of program called Taplio at all.

Brianna Rooney [00:53:42]:
Tablio. No.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:44]:
But it's like, I was just like, this is like taplio on drugs, and Tapolio is like a LinkedIn, like get yourself out there kind of thing. It's when I, for years I hated LinkedIn. And finally, about a year ago, I was like, might as well just do it. I have to. I'm back. Even though I've been on the platform for almost two decades, I'm like, ah, I was one of those, like, older cursors. Like, it's changed. It's not cool anymore.

Brianna Rooney [00:54:04]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:04]:
Freaking influencers. But you gotta play the game.

Brianna Rooney [00:54:06]:
I hear you. I hear on all those sides. Yep.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:10]:
That's cool. Yeah. So, interview. Interview coming shortly with per page or so. Stay tuned for that.

Brianna Rooney [00:54:16]:
Very cool. Yeah, I like it.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:18]:
What has been a book that's had a huge impact on your career?

Brianna Rooney [00:54:21]:
Oh, a hundred times. Leader. Why? Because it was essentially the emotional intelligence behind leading. So it was like, be a leader worth following. And I found I've actually read this book maybe two or almost three times at this point. I ended up stopping, but it helped me professionally and personally. So I happen to love books that can do both sides of things. So it helps with, like, triggers, and it helps to watch from the balcony.

Brianna Rooney [00:54:49]:
So it's like you're not in it. You're not emotional. You're not making those, like, you know, crazy decisions really fast. Although I still do that. It's more of like, I'm gonna. I'm sitting from the balcony with my cocktail, watching what's going on, and now I'm gonna make a decision because now I see things clearly. So it was a game changer for me.

Benjamin Mena [00:55:05]:
That is awesome. You know, you've quit your first job. You pretty much said, fuck off.

Brianna Rooney [00:55:11]:
Yep.

Benjamin Mena [00:55:11]:
You grew your own business. You've had a, you know, it's the recruiting. So I know you've had a lot of ups, ups and downs, totally. Lots of lessons learned. What do you think has been a huge driver for your own personal success?

Brianna Rooney [00:55:25]:
That's interesting. So it has changed. So initially, it was just like, I'm going to make as much fucking money as I possibly can, and I'm going to show everybody, you don't have to go to college to do it. So it was kind of like almost a chip, you know? And then it became, you know what? I love things. I love vacations. I love cars. I love houses and investing and all of these things. And I want to retire when I'm 30.

Brianna Rooney [00:55:52]:
Keep mine. I'm 39. I'm not retired. So I'm like, I retire when I'm 30. So I just worked really hard to retire. But then, you know, naturally what happens, you make more, you spend more. Silly. Okay.

Brianna Rooney [00:56:02]:
And then I had kids, and there is no better driver than having kids. Then I got divorced. So I'm like, all right, single mom in it, right? Single mom. So much pressure. I got to make sure that my nothing changes, right? They don't feel a change. We still have the same life. So then it changed to time. I want time.

Brianna Rooney [00:56:21]:
Time you cannot get back, right? But what gives you time? Money. So, like, I would always relate my money goals to what I wanted. And it would be, you know, like, I want to live out of the country, for example, like, I want to tour. Honestly, I'm super scared of my kid going to middle school. I'm just going to throw him out there. He's ten. And, like, so my goal, honestly is like, okay, how can I make it that we can travel? He skips middle school, I grab a teacher and we go travel and have the best education in the whole entire universe, right? And then how do I convince also my ex to come with me and probably pay for, you know, so it's like all those things. So that kind of motivates me on a different level.

Brianna Rooney [00:56:58]:
And then now what's interesting, and I will tell you that I'm personally struggling with, is aligning my money goals to me getting excited about coaching and training. Because I will tell you, like, you know, like, I closed, close the director of engineering a couple of weeks ago, right? Big position. Sounds really great. Did it really fast. I felt good. But it's a different high now to when I'm coaching an agency and they get their first deal. Or, hey, I changed the process internally and now they just get it. Or, you know, stuff like that.

Brianna Rooney [00:57:28]:
So. Or I had a speaking event a couple weeks ago, you know, so those kind of highs are starting to be a little bit different for me. But naturally, coaching and training doesn't get you the same money recruiting does, right? So now I'm trying to be like, all right, how am I going to balance and still feel satisfied in every aspect of my professional? Um, so I have to keep going back to again, like, spending time with my kids. What am I actually, what do I feel super excited about? And that is taking me a long time with my coach and with journaling and with, whenever something happens, like any, like, little win, any personal professionally, I now I write it down in my growth and success journal and I try to, like, really grasp what feels the best and really look at how much money do I need to not just survive, but to thrive still. And so I kind of, I just work backwards. I work backwards on how am I going to get it and where is it coming from percentage wise and stuff like that? So it's kind of an interesting time, maybe because I'm about to turn 40. I'm like, ah, midlife crisis. We're going to get a Corvette.

Brianna Rooney [00:58:33]:
I don't know. Yeah, but. But it is really hard. I mean, I don't know. You've been in the game for a long time. Like, you know, like, what keeps you keep going?

Benjamin Mena [00:58:44]:
I mean, don't laugh at this podcast. I mean, there are times where we're just like. I'm just like, hey, I'm done with recruiting, but, you know, recruiting is great money, but now it's the sharing the stories while also making the placements and also the, maybe I just need to move overseas, too.

Brianna Rooney [00:59:02]:
I've lived in Southern California my entire life, and I am like, I feel like a caged animal. Like, like, that's the best. Again, everybody loves Southern California. Everyone wants to move here, whatever. It's, you know, so I'm just being a baby, but, uh, yeah, it just, it's. I need change.

Benjamin Mena [00:59:18]:
We probably spend about, on average, about two months in Europe per year.

Brianna Rooney [00:59:22]:
Amazing. So good. That's so good. Yeah, I get stagnant really fast.

Benjamin Mena [00:59:29]:
So that kind of also goes into, like, a question, like, when you were first, like, getting started, like, how are you holding yourself accountable those early days?

Brianna Rooney [00:59:37]:
So I wanted to make sure that I closed one to three deals a month. Like, that was. That would be my consistency, right? Like one to three, consistent. I'm still doing really well. My bills were really low. I was really great with that. So it. Honestly, I would never go back to how many messages I sent out.

Brianna Rooney [00:59:55]:
I would never go back to what my response rate is. It was just how many onsite interviews do I have a week? Because I would know that that 50% closing more than likely, right? You know, lock on wood if I had the right clients. So I think that's the way I did it, is I would pick how much money I wanted for the year. So let's just say, like, I'm like, you know, I'm going to hit 600,000 this year. I have 600,000. I knew exactly how much I needed to close per month, and I knew exactly how much my average deal was because I always kept track of that. I kept track of everybody's every deal I had. I didn't just say, this is how much I got.

Brianna Rooney [01:00:28]:
I had their salary, so I always knew salary wise, what was the average this year? So what was my average placement? How many do I have to do to get 600,000. And my commission sheet worked backwards. So, like, let's just say I had a really shitty first quarter. I'm like, I can't leave this next quarter without making up for it. Otherwise I'm in trouble. Right. So it would always be the dollar. Always.

Benjamin Mena [01:00:52]:
Okay. And then this is. This is my favorite question. I'm gonna ask it two ways.

Brianna Rooney [01:00:57]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [01:00:57]:
The first. The first question is gonna be, like, think of yourself like, your first week recruiting at that. At that agency, everything that you know. Now, if you got a chance to have a cup of coffee with yourself or a glass of wine with yourself, with you within your first week in recruiting, what would you. What advice would you give yourself?

Brianna Rooney [01:01:18]:
Well, I was always that annoying, like, super question. I asked so many questions. So, like, what I did right. I think questions for sure. I would be more vocal as to why I can't have what I want. You know? Like, I was very much like, put my head down. Like. Like, he'd be like, nope, you can't have that.

Brianna Rooney [01:01:35]:
You can't have a seat. You can't do this. Instead of me going to his office and saying, like, you hired me to do a job, you're giving everyone else these resources. Why don't I have these resources? You know? But in return, though, I was able to top teach myself everything. So, like, you know, it's kind of like a. It's hard because it worked out for me, but I would say if I were really, really, really to learn something, I would make sure I got more recommendations quicker. So, for me, as a contingency recruiter, my only definition of success is when you place somebody. So I could have done a really great job.

Brianna Rooney [01:02:12]:
I could have taken them all the way to offer. I. They could have had an offer, and they just declined it and everything. But because they didn't accept, I didn't think I earned a recommendation on either side, and that is something that I wish I figured out a lot sooner. So, like, so understanding what it actually takes. So I would say, understand what it takes to be a good recruiter and work that way, and then know if you did these things that it takes to be a good recruiter, you deserve your recommendations, and you deserve to sing to the rooftops the great job you did.

Benjamin Mena [01:02:47]:
Same question. But fast forward into your business. Well, maybe give yourself at that first year mark. If you got a chance to have a cup of coffee with yourself, with everything that you know about your business around your first year mark, what would you be telling yourself?

Brianna Rooney [01:03:03]:
Never get tired of making money. Never get bored. Yes, I got bored. I got really bored.

Benjamin Mena [01:03:11]:
How and why?

Brianna Rooney [01:03:12]:
Yeah, so that's actually probably why I ended up. I ended up saying yes to the sale because I had said no a lot. And then I also, you know, made Emily my. My CEO, and I started a new company because I was bored. It got so easy. There was no challenge. Like, there was no. I honestly, I almost opened up a trampoline park.

Brianna Rooney [01:03:32]:
Like, I. Like, I think the good and bad things with entrepreneurs, because I feel like I'm like, textbook entrepreneur, is you like to build, and once you build, you see the success. You kind of want to move on. You're like, all right, now let me go build something else. And I was kept yearning to build something else. I tried to go bigger. I tried to build the company really, really, really big. And that had tons of different challenges.

Brianna Rooney [01:03:59]:
And I realized, no, no, no, it's not. I don't want more employees. Like, that's. That's a headache. So I'm like, okay, I need a different. So I went to contingency, and I built an RPO company. So I'm like, no, you know, I just need a different business model. Like, I just.

Brianna Rooney [01:04:12]:
I kept chasing a high, and I didn't know why or what it was or what I needed, but it was like, you know, you kind of get to. Not that. Not that I. No one. Like, too much money is too much. Right? Like. Cause there's tons of things you can do to it. So, like, as I reflect today, I'm like, man, I wish I didn't get bored, because what I would have done instead is I would have started charities.

Brianna Rooney [01:04:34]:
I have tons of different charities that I want to do. I want to do a future entrepreneurs group with my son. Like, you know, ten years old. I want to start those kind of groups. I want to do it for women. I want to, you know, so, like, there's lots of things I want to do that I could have used the money for and not have been bored from making it. Like, how silly is that? Like, honestly, as I say it out loud, I feel like a complete idiot. But I have to tell you, like, that's exactly what I would tell myself, is there is nothing boring about making money.

Brianna Rooney [01:05:01]:
There's all sorts of cool things you can do with it and all sorts of ways you can excite yourself. And it does not have to be an actual company. It could be with your time.

Benjamin Mena [01:05:12]:
And many times that time requires money, right?

Brianna Rooney [01:05:16]:
Yeah. Like, a thousand percent. A thousand percent. And I also think that I mean, something that's near and dear to me, and I don't even know what I'm going to do with this thought. I randomly buy URL's okay. And it's called founders. It's called founders break. So God knows if I do anything with it, but it's called founders break because I definitely think there comes a time where you should allow yourself to take a break.

Brianna Rooney [01:05:40]:
And, like, for some reason, I fear being lazy, which is crazy, because I've never been lazy in my entire life. So I don't know why I fear it so much, but, like, I would never, I'd never thought that that was okay. I never thought, like, it's okay to go, like, sit down and have a lemonade outside, you know, like, that's just not me, so. But it should be because I just kind of ran myself into the ground, you know, and then I got bored, and then, you know, and I did all these really awful, dumb, silly mistakes after I sold. So founders break is something that I think that Noah talks about what happens after the sale, mentally or anything. Give yourself a break.

Benjamin Mena [01:06:20]:
Breaks are definitely needed. Go to France for a month.

Brianna Rooney [01:06:24]:
I'm into that.

Benjamin Mena [01:06:27]:
I guess the recommendations. We love Bordeaux. So before I let you go, how can the listeners follow you?

Brianna Rooney [01:06:35]:
Yeah, of course, LinkedIn brand already. But I've got the millionaire recruiter YouTube channel, and then thriversity IO is where all, like, my courses live. And I have the coaching through themillionaire recruiter.com as well. So I'm definitely focusing a lot on training and courses and kind of, I would say building the next generation of recruiters and recruiting agency owners is something that's important to me because my legacy, and I don't know how you feel about this, but, like, I feel like my legacy is trying to make the world, you know, understand why recruiting so great, right. Change the world. The way the world views recruiting is essentially the tagline, right? So it's, then it's a heavy lift. And, you know, I think about when holly am and how long I want to work. And to me, retiring means you don't have to work, you choose to work.

Brianna Rooney [01:07:21]:
So that's kind of a different thing. So in my opinion, I'm like, look, I got, like, five really, really great years that I'm going to still put my head down and hustle and do all these things. And I want to leave the recruiting world at a really good place. And that's, that's the mission on, on both sides, so.

Benjamin Mena [01:07:36]:
Well, make sure to hit that follow button. Now, before I let you go, is there anything else you want to share with the listeners telling me, we talked.

Brianna Rooney [01:07:43]:
About so much, but now I'm feeling like, you know, whenever you go into an interview, it's like, you better have that. Better have five questions asked because if you run out, you're in trouble. No, I would just say, like, something to leave with. And this is not of a negative thing, but it's like, look, the recruiting world is hard, right? And sometimes it feels like it's a thankless job. Keep doing it because it makes you feel good. Keep doing it because, yes, it's the fastest way that you can make money and make a living for yourself. So I would just say put a smile on your face, take a break when you need, and just focus on. Focus on getting the job done because you should never let anyone affect your ability to do your job.

Benjamin Mena [01:08:22]:
Love it. Well, I just want to say thank you so much. I think one of the things that is missing from the recruiting world is, one, talking about money, but two also, like, I really believe, like, the, you know, people in your circle, the people in my circle, we're going to have easy, like, thousands of recruiters that are financial millionaires, are able to take care of their family, choose to do the recruiting and choose to do, like, impact with their time and money, the things that they want to impact. But you have to crush it in the recruiting field to make those things happen. So thank you so much for sharing. Thank you so much for coming on and for the listeners. Make 2024 your best year yet.

Brianna Rooney [01:08:59]:
Love it. Money chills.

Benjamin Mena [01:09:00]:
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, hit subscribe and leave a rating.