Persistence Pays Off: How Recruiting Can Change Your Life with Justin Bellante

Intro [00:00:00]:

Welcome to the elite recruiter podcast with your host, Benjamin Mena, 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 [00:00:19]:

This is going to be an awesome episode of the elite recruiter podcast. I have my special guest, Justin Bolante, who is the managing partner of the Titan placement group, and here's why I'm excited about having Justin on. We're gonna talk about how recruiting was his ticket out of poverty, recruiting is what helped him build his future. It is the skill set that he learned It's the opportunity that he took advantage of to get him out of poverty into You're now managing partner, ownership equity, massively growing firm, you own your own home, you have boats, like, you have all sorts of, like, awesome things that you would have never had gotten if it wasn't for the opportunity of recruitment. So Justin, welcome to the podcast.

Justin Bellante [00:01:11]:

Oh, excellent. What an introduction. Thank you, Benjamin.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:14]:

So real quick. My first question always, how did you and this is probably gonna, like, thread into your story. did you even get started in the recruiting world? Well,

Justin Bellante [00:01:26]:

it is a long story, and we'll try and make it as short as possible. was working a a job. It was that was all it was. I was a call center manager, and my wife was there as well, and she quit. and I didn't have the courage to do so, and she kept encouraging me to do it and and see what else is out there. saw a ad on, Craigslist. of all places for recruiting position and saw no degree required. figured I'd give it a shot, put my name in the hat, and got an interview. And that day, I had to do a working interview, or she gave me a script and a list and said, call these people and say this thing and book appointments for me to meet with them. So I did that. I booked 3 in the same day. She was like, you're hired if you want the job. I was like, what? Okay. Sure. And, you know, like, every every owner, you know, tells you about the the the longevity in the field, and I kinda believed it right from the get go. I see they're driving a nice car. They live in a nice house. I'm not. Those are the things that I want in life. So I'm gonna do what they tell me to do to get there. So that was kind of my start.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:41]:

And when you say you mentioned something earlier, you highlighted the fact that it was no degree required. Do you have a college degree?

Justin Bellante [00:02:49]:

I don't. I went to the school hard knocks. everything I have and everything I've achieved has been through the experiences that that I've had in my life. Nothing in my life is is born, more built, if that makes sense.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:04]:

And a I know there's many recruiting firms out there that look for that checkbox of the degree, but you've been a highly successful recruiter and Like, you skipped that whole process.

Justin Bellante [00:03:16]:

Yeah. Yeah. And, that's kinda changed my my whole thought process when it comes to being a business owner. Right? I At first, thought I would apply my recruiting skill set, defined recruiters, and I kind of had to tweak that several times in the past 9 months to now where it's like, I just wanna find a good person that's, you know, someone who honors their commitments and is willing to do what is required to be successful.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:44]:

Awesome. And real quick, before you jump into the podcast, like, The Titan placement group. Talk about that.

Justin Bellante [00:03:51]:

Yeah. So, it's always been a dream of mine. I told my wife 10 years ago, like, this could be my ticket out of poverty. Right? And it it truly worked out to be that way, and The goal has always been to own my own firm. My colleague, Gary and I, got really close at our last firm and We created what our old owners call the business within the business. We kind of we called it the corner gang. It was Gary and I in the corner. and we kicked her out of the idea of maybe one day, you know, years down the line, you know, breaking off and starting her own thing. It wasn't until my colleague, Pete, asked us if we'd be willing to jump ship, and it was, like, the push we needed, if that makes sense. We immediately were like, yes. We're like, okay. Let's put a plan together and put a plan together rapidly. Put our notice in and We had 6 months of a noncompete. So we couldn't work for 6 months, and we I consider myself a pretty honorable man, and and we honored that commitment. We did everything, you know, we could within reason during that time frame. And then a, you know, 6 months later, October 18th, Titan placement group was born.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:07]:

And you guys are are, you know, have one office bunch of recruiters. I know you guys are shopping for a second office now because you guys are, like, dealing with a problem of actively growing and too much business. Is that

Justin Bellante [00:05:18]:

That's it. That pretty much sums it up. You know, we created our own problem. We knew we were good at business development. and it's something we do and try to do every single day. So what happened is we thought it would take, you know, 6 9 months a year to get an established client base within, I don't even know, 90 days. We had, like, over a hundred rex with, like, good solid high fees in places that have a solid candidate pool. And there was, like, we're just three people. There's either we just forego all the placements or we gotta we gotta grow this thing. We gotta grow say now, and that's kind of been our problem. We've been trying to solve, and, not a bad problem to have, I'd say. And what space are you guys in? health care only. typically nurses, nurse practitioners, the dentistry field. So that's dentists and hygienists mostly. and then we work a lot with community based on profits, federally qualified health centers, and, acute care hospitals. That's pretty

Benjamin Mena [00:06:23]:

much better. Fantastic. And you mentioned that, okay, you guys are good at BD, and you guys do BD every day. I wanna talk about business development. Since it's a hot topic, right now in

Intro [00:06:33]:

2023

Benjamin Mena [00:06:33]:

because not everybody's sane success. What are you guys doing on the business development side of the house to keep winning work?

Justin Bellante [00:06:40]:

Well, I think your last, guest hit the nail on the head, Tricia, consistency. Right? I think the joke is that I'm not better at this job than anybody else. It's just that I do the same thing every day. maybe just a little bit more, right, than everybody else. And then that adds up over time, and then they're like, Justin's the best. And it's like, No. I just do it every day. And because I do it every day, the language that I use improves on a daily basis, You know, James cleared 1% better every day, and and I really, you know, try to do that on a consistent basis. So number

Intro [00:07:17]:

1,

Justin Bellante [00:07:18]:

I'd say consistency is probably the main reason of why we we've had a ton of success.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:22]:

And, yeah, and let well, let's strip into, like, some actionable insights a little later on. wanna only go back into your story. So I know poverty. I know some of the things you've also mentioned to me is the impact of health on your success too. do you wanna talk about that real quick?

Justin Bellante [00:07:39]:

Yeah. Sure. So I've grew up on the underserved population, and I also, you know, when it comes to the underserved population, there's not a lot of clarity and knowledge when it comes to health. Right? So I thought health was just eating, you know, three times a day. You know? That's necessarily what you eat. You know, we had the food pyramid and and and grades school school. And I did a lot of activities, you know, extracurriculars, you know, I was in wrestling and that. And I gained a lot of weight. I think genetics, you know, is is definitely dealt me a the card of a weight gain. I got up to about £350. right around the time I was about to graduate high school, and, I tried to join the military. My plan was to do the navy. I was in Jrtc, so I was gonna get, like, a special promotion and less extra goodies, lost a £150, from running every day. And, believe it or not, the Bureau of Medicine would let me in because I can't eat shrimp. Yeah. Bizarre. I know. And they're like, you could try again when you're 28. So I was like, okay. And, another thing when it comes to poverty, I didn't know that, college applications cost money So here I was, couple months away from graduating, didn't get into the military, Lost the way. So found a job, found recruiting, found my wife. I got what's called fat and happy. Right? Love eating, love drinking good wine. I know you can relate. My wife likes to cook. I like to eat as a match made in heaven, But you fast forward, you know, 9, 10 years and I put on another

Intro [00:09:20]:

£100.

Justin Bellante [00:09:21]:

So I've kind of had to do this journey twice now. My wife was pregnant. My son's on the way. I figured this is the time that I really have to be the example for someone other than myself. So since August of last year, I've lost about £90. And, yeah, boy, has it improved my mental focus my clarity, my energy levels, my excitability, and it somehow has freed up a lot more time for me to to listen to content and, you know, wonderful recruiting podcasts such as your own. Awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:55]:

And, you know, prior to, like, go doing a deep dive in recruiting, you also was a a twitch streamer for a bit too. Right?

Justin Bellante [00:10:03]:

Yeah. Yeah. It, it started out that I, was an avid Twitch watcher, and played games and was a moderator with a lot of friends and a lot of friends kept encouraging me to do it. And I was like, okay. I'm already playing games. I might as well. And the goal was to create a community of couch streamers, people that just, you know, sit on their couch and play video games. So, essentially, you know, created, A little community. little did I know? Like, it was kind of recruiting as well. Right? You kind of, like, The jokes I make friends for a living, so I got to make friends playing video games. And I was making friends at work, and it started to take off. At the same time, my career in recruiting was taken off. And I felt like it was, like, the Rocky story where I had to, like, make a decision to put it all in in One Avenue. And I chose recruiting. I think that it worked out though, so that's good. You know, it was fun making a couple hundred bucks playing video games, you know, but as anyone who recruits knows, you know, the the profitability on the recruiting side is to play

Benjamin Mena [00:11:14]:

a lot more. And what what probably made that decision for you to go all in on the recruiting versus, like, you know, doing some additional things?

Justin Bellante [00:11:21]:

Well, I think it was I mean, something I hear a lot on a lot of the podcasts is is everyone has the rocky story, right, where it's, you know, it's not about how hard you get hit. It's about how hard you get hit and get back up. You know? there's always a moment where I was like, a year in, maybe probably, like, 4 or 5 placements, you know, not a ton, you know, and and I just felt like I wasn't able to do the job. In that moment, it was either, like, either I could give up, you know, or just fully immerse myself into it and and find someone who's doing the job really well and trying to emulate what they do and try to, you know, learn more, encourage myself, and really just take a deep, deep dive into it. And I feel like that decision to, like, make that whole heart commitment is, like, within 3 months after that decision, like, it really started to take off if that makes

Benjamin Mena [00:12:19]:

No. That makes perfect sense. You know, it's every single guest we've had we've had on, there's been a bit of a, like, an inflection point, a decision point where their trajectory within their income, within their life, within their impact, has gone up based on a inflection point and a decision that's made. So I absolutely love So jumping back to your your recruiting story. So I I absolutely love this. Like, I never would have thought Craigslist would have hired such a great recruiter. So, like, you know, you they pretty much sat you down, put a script in front of your face, and told you to bang out phone calls and schedule a point like, how did you learn about recruiting? Like, how did you learn this stuff?

Justin Bellante [00:13:02]:

Yeah. So, I was taught by an old school headhunter from MRI. she's being HR manager at, Target, as well. So For her, it was just headhunting. And I feel like that really put a solid concrete foundation to start my career on. And I would feel like I came into recruiting at the same time, like sourcing and Boolean and resume databases and LinkedIn, was becoming very popular, but her whole thing was you gotta pick up the phone and have engaging conversations, right, like she always said that that's not real recruiting. I now know that that is not the case. Right? And if she had kept with the times, maybe, you know, The business would still be around, but I think having that foundation of literally calling every single hospital in the state of Florida, trying to find the director of quality, you know, and getting through the gatekeepers and and, you know, getting to the person who can influence you know, a referral or or the right person for the job and and it helps kinda, like, build that network, like, immediately. And I feel like it almost teaches you how to do business development at the same time, if that makes sense. because you're having those same types of calls. It's when you get that person on the phone, the call is different. Right? It's it's a recruiting screening call versus a, you know, value proposition or, you know, you gotta sell your services type of call if that makes sense. So it definitely gave me the the footwork to when I learned out of source, I was able to put 2 and 2 together and and, you know, we're off to the races.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:39]:

it's like learning how to source it became like a superpower after you learned the the skill set of sales and headhunting.

Justin Bellante [00:14:45]:

Right. Well, because the least favorite least desirable part of the job, I think. is pick up the phone and calling people you know aren't gonna wanna pick up the phone and answer. Right? Whether it's business development, whatever it's cold call recruiting, like, It's the hardest thing to do in this job for me and my team. Like, that phone could weigh £5000 on those calls. You know? But I think putting in those reps, like, makes it a little lighter, if that makes sense. So I encourage everyone to, like, have engaging conversations whether it's on the recruiting side or the business development side as much as you possibly can. Awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:24]:

And then so, you know, you you grew in your recruiting career, got those skill sets, and then what happened? Where'd you go next?

Justin Bellante [00:15:31]:

So, starting out the first company was just a head hunting firm, new in health care. they tapped me on the shoulder one day and said, we're closing shop. Today's your last day. So, again, it went back to that, you know, imposter syndrome. I don't have a degree. This was a one off. I got lucky. They let me in because I, you know, I'm good on the phones. Uh-oh. You know, something. So I interviewed for pretty much every firm Sarasota and, had, you know, a lot of offers, a lot of excitement, And I started to, like, really evaluate, like, what they're providing to me as a recruiter and and found one that was gonna teach me all of the technology side that I don't know and provide me with all the resources that I needed to be successful and wanted me to come in and teach the team how to to head hunt. So it felt like a really good match. And at the time, it it was. went over to Acuity Healthcare, and we we absolutely leveled up there. I helped them level up. They helped me level up. We had, you know, some of the best times of my entire career there. the 2 owners, split. And that kind of changed everything, if that made sense. One, you know, one of them had one mentality and the other had another. And when they were together, they could compromise and create a streamlined process for the whole team. when they're not together, it became not that way. Right? So couple months later, couple folks were were were leaving, and they were planning to start their own thing. I declined, respectfully. I was real comfortable with my clients that I had, didn't really wanna have to start all over again. Lo and behold, they lapsed. They started this business. It grew into something stellar. I became the one employee of, like, 200% turnover. So, like, I hang I hung tight and I was I was ready to ride that ship as far as it would go. And then the opportunity over there grew to just be a little better. There was a an equity opportunity as well. So I, you know, was, you know, sailing that ship down. with that, went there for a couple years. That's where I really got really close with Gary and and Pete. And then from there, I mean, the rest was history. You know, it just became it was just a decision I had to make when my son was coming, basically. it was like if I'm going to make the sleep of faith, it has to be now because I'm a huge proponent of responsibility. I think that's the reason why I've been so success so I just kinda take it all, if that makes sense. Sometimes maybe good. Sometimes maybe not. But knowing that I wouldn't knowing myself and knowing that I wouldn't wanna take that that kind of risk having the responsibility of another human being to support. I figured now's the time. took leap of faith and, the rest is history.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:26]:

That's awesome. And that's a great story of how you, like, learn the learn the recruiting skill set. And all the way to you being an owner of

Justin Bellante [00:18:36]:

a company. Oh, yeah. It's just the beginning, Benjamin.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:39]:

Well, that's that's gonna be exciting. Like, we're gonna have to bring you like, get a year from now, see where where you guys are going.

Intro [00:18:44]:

5

Benjamin Mena [00:18:45]:

offices. Yeah. Right? That'd be so cool.

Justin Bellante [00:18:47]:

The vision is 4040 recruiters. Kind of so we walk into the building. We say hi to the security guy. Hey, Jim. How you doing? I'm doing great, Mister Valencia. How you been? Excellent. walk into the elevator, up the elevator. It's way up there. It takes a while to get up there. Door opens up, right to our floor. And then the joke has been it's like like a like a professional wolf of Wall Street, where it's like, you know, cast bonuses, flight everywhere. There's, you know, everyone's there's everyone's hitting the gong, you know, every time they they make it successful higher. Lots of energy, lots of excitement, that's division, and we're gonna see it through for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:29]:

And we're gonna we're gonna come back to talking about vision and the power of actually having a vision. My one of when I go over, I, promise the listeners, we're gonna talk about sales. Let's talk about business development. Let's talk about how to bring in more money in your pocket this year. So you talked about consistency and the impact of being consistent. What are you actually being consistent?

Justin Bellante [00:19:52]:

So couple things. Number 1, Discovery. So constantly evaluating new health care organizations, There's 8000 Counties in the country. Right? Every org every county has at least one new companies that are coming in and we we add those to our list and we try to do new organizations every day and follow ups. So I think consistency is, like, making sure you're doing a little bit of new and a little bit of old on a consistent basis every day. And then follow-up too, I feel like is really where the the crux of it all is. They say the number one thing that salesperson fails to do is follow-up. Right? They said on the last episode, like, the billionth reach out. You know? It's like, it's like 8 calls, man. Come on. Like, come pick up the phone eight times, you know, and and try to have an engaging conversation or schedule that that that discovery call or intake call with them. something about calling the same person over and over and over again, you kinda have to, like, break that social norm of, like, this is inappropriate. This is, you know, not in the way it should be done, but the reality is and I say this to my team every day. do you know what it means when they don't call you back? It means nothing. If they're not interested, they'll let you know. Right? Like, if someone called me or texted me and emailed me and sent me a LinkedIn message and sent me an Indeed message every day, By the third time, I'm gonna say, hey. Leave me alone. You know, I'm not interested. There's so many times you make that 11th call. And they're like, thank you for continuing to call me. I've been very interested in this opportunity. I've been busy. I've got 7 kids, you know, a day care. I'm running on the side. I got my full time job. You know, you just happen to call me at the right time, and I think, like, that's Also, you know, the crux of it is, like, recruiting's about timing. Right? Every time I called them was the wrong time. Right? That one time I called them on the 11th time, that was the right time. Right? And I think most people give up after, what did you say? Maybe the second call? It's a testament against it. Like, I'm not better at missing anybody else. I'm really not. I just do what's required to be successful. And, like, people have been recruiting for A long time. Like, it there is a science to this business, right, and you can reverse engineer success. Like, we know it takes, you know, 8 touches, you know, on average for you to get a response. Right? How many responses do you need to get a positive response? How many positive responses do you need to have in engaging conversation? How many conversations do you have that leads to a potential submittal, a potential phone interview? 2nd interview, offer, hire, start. Do they actually start? Are they still there after 90 days? Are they still there after a 120 days? How about 365? Like, we look at everything, and you can literally if you just look at your your sheet, your placement sheet, whatever it is, that you track, and say, over this period of time, this is what I do. Now how can I how did I get there? Number 1, and then what can I do to get further? And you literally just take those steps. You know, you we've dialed it down to where We call it touches where you gotta, like, make, one touch. And so each touch, One call is a touch, a text is a touch, an email is a touch, an inmail is a touch, an indeed message is a touch, try to make sure they were doing, you know, I think for me, it came down to, like, 45 touches an hour. I think to make the amount of placements that I wanted to make. So, you know, ultimately, like, if every time I call someone, I'm texting, I'm emailing, I'm in mailing, I'm to come up looking them up on Indeed. That's 8000 an hour. and in 60 minutes, how long does it take to make 8 dials? It's like, that's what it takes to make 5 placements a month. That's it.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:00]:

So you've you've you've broken this down into, like, 45 touches an hour. If you're keeping that consistently, you're seeing the benefit of x yz amount of placements.

Justin Bellante [00:24:09]:

That's it. Yes, sir. Well, then let me take a step back.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:12]:

you know, there's a lot of recruiters out there. It it it's one of the things that you can only change what you track. How are you tracking these?

Justin Bellante [00:24:20]:

Well, it has a little rudimentary, and we're working on it, you know, tracking it through our ATS. The thing is it only works if everyone's using the ATS a 100%. As anybody knows of recruiting, nobody uses it a 100%. So we're getting there. So, yeah, I have what's called a daily activity sheet. it's a it's an old school t squared, Benjamin Franklin, on one side, you know, you got your calls, your talk time, your name clears, your submissions, Your interviews for the day, your offers for the day, your submittals for the day, your agreements sent, your agreement signed, your positive conversations, your job orders, and we track it on a daily basis. And we kind of, you know, We use them as bragging rights in our meetings. That makes sense. So, like, every morning, we sit down and say, hey. What did you do yesterday? And rather than saying, I had a good day. Like, what? What did you do? It's like, well, I had, you know, I put 4 job orders into the system. I had 3 interviews that turned into offers. I submitted 4 candidates to a new client that I got. I got 3 new name clears. I made 85 dials. I spent 4 hours of the 8 hour day on the phone. And, you know, I got an agreement signed. Everybody high fives each other, and I think it encourages you to continue to be consistent to hit that those marks, if that makes sense.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:46]:

So it also sounds like you've created a culture that just doesn't just celebrate the wins. You've created a culture of them. Actually, it sounds like does a bigger job celebrating the activity that is required to get to the wins.

Justin Bellante [00:26:02]:

Yeah. No. I mean, it's a results driven business. Right? And and especially in recruiting, there's this whole notion where you can sell people into a job. It's a lie. I don't know what people are telling themselves. Like, I hear it all the time on your podcast, like, nobody is gonna take a job they don't want. Period. Right? So we definitely take a, you know, a different approach So we just try and focus on what we can control. Right? And what can we control as the things that we do on a consistent and daily basis are habits, the amount of dials that we, you know, make the amount of conversations we have, the amount of, you know, offers that are going out, you know, these kinds of things. We things that we can actually influence is the things that we try and on and try to not focus on any of the other stuff.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:48]:

Okay. And just stay on the the beauty talk. Like, would you have any advice like, for people looking at doing business development for the first time or really, like, I don't say doing it for the first time, but jumping into it deeper.

Justin Bellante [00:27:01]:

Don't be scared. It's scary. I still get scared. Right? Still to this day. Maybe a little there's maybe a little anxiety just before we got on this podcast, but the reality is yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:12]:

Well, I and I I just threw the pause sign up for the people that aren't watching this. I was like, because I appreciate that you said that you could scare every day, or you get you're constantly getting scared because there's a lot of times when you think of, like, these big billers, like, these $1,000,000 billers that they just eat and breathe this. And They have no fear. There are everything feels perfect. I appreciate that you were honest and say, like,

Justin Bellante [00:27:34]:

this could suck. Well, I it It does. You know, it it does get easier, though. You know, I equate it to exercise. Right? I just started running a couple months ago. My friend signed me up for a half marathon, And the first day, yeah, first day I started running, I thought it was a good eye. You know? And now last Sunday, I ran three miles without stopping. and made a little Instagram video. I was elated. Right? And it it gets easier. Right? The phone gets a little lighter. So the the first thing is try not to be scared. Right? You're going to be, but you kinda have to push through it, if that makes sense. The second thing is it's just another person on the phone. the same CEO that knows everybody's name and and is making, you know, $1,700,000 is the same guy that's on the golf course at 2 PM on a Friday hanging with his buddies, right, or at a happy hour on Thursday at the chamber event. Right? Like, it's just the person. We we separate ourselves. And we we think we're down here, and they're up here. It's like we're all just people, man, like, call him. You know, I had a friend a couple months ago who who was asking you about business development. I just come out of the office. come out of the office. We're gonna demo some calls for you. And I was like, alright. This is the CEO of the company. We're gonna call him, and he's like, wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Hold on. I'll stop right there. You're gonna call him? It's like, yeah. And he's like, what? Like, yes. We just find the number of the place. You say, hey, patch me through to Benjamin MENA, and You're like, hello, it's Ben. And there you go. That's it. That's how difficult it could be sometimes. Does it does it always happen that way? No. But I think if you don't make the call, you can't have an engaging conversation, and it will definitely never happen if you don't pick up the phone.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:24]:

Absolutely about that. Is there anything else that you'd love to give advice on on the BD side of the house?

Justin Bellante [00:29:30]:

Try a little bit of everything. I feel like, you know, We I can rely a lot on, like, an MPC pitch or going after recs, but, like, being immersed in the recruiting world, like, there are many ways to get the job done. Right? I think recruiting is like an art form. Right? It's like art. Right? There's it's all aren't. Right? But there's, you know, abstract. There's, you know, contemporary modern. There's, you know, the they all get aren't done. Right? There are multiple ways to do it. You know, you find what works best for you, you know, I think finding your voice too Like, we all got scripts. Everybody's got a script, and I always encourage everybody. If you don't know what you're doing, read the script. If you start to feel like you know what you're doing, say it like you would say it. Right? That's another piece too is you gotta it has to be your voice. Right? It can't just be your boss's voice, if that makes sense. So so that's a critical part for sure. I can go on business development forever. I I I I hate it. It's like a love hate thing. It's my least desirable part of the job when I'm doing the business development. But when that person says yes, I wanna work with you, that is my favorite part of the job. So, you know, two signs of the same coin, yan and yay. if you don't pick up the phone, you're not gonna have those conversations. That's for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:54]:

Well and I know we were kinda chatting before we actually hit record, and I'm shifting gears a little bit. and with your story and how you've grown through your recruiting career. You've had people that have been in your corner and mentors, and you've done a good job absorbing information. You've done a good job finding information. What has been the impact of mentorship on your recruiting journey?

Justin Bellante [00:31:19]:

It's actually been, like, everything, really. You know? And and A lot of the people that have helped me didn't have to. Right? And I don't know what it is about recruiters, but recruiters like helping people. I do too. And I joke that it's like I say it all the time, and it's like it's not just something that I say. Like, literally anyone who's ever asked me for help, like, I'm there. Right? but having someone I've had someone, basically, my entire career. And up until just a few weeks

Benjamin Mena [00:31:46]:

ago,

Justin Bellante [00:31:50]:

I felt like I didn't have anyone, but, again, another person has come into my life that that wants to help me succeed. So Find someone that's doing the job, if it's doing the job well. And sometimes you have to, like, get your mentor to be your mentor, if that makes sense. like, you know, I had my colleague, Jason. He he's one of our one of our, top guys now. And, I worked with him at my first firm, and he kinda be under his wing. And every time I'd I'm working on one of his jobs, I'd say, hey, Jason. I finally found you a good candidate. He'd be like, alright. How soon is he looking to start a new position? He'd be like, I don't know. He'd be like, alright. Well, call him back, you know, or what is he making? I don't know. I just think he's good. It's like, okay. Well, Call him back. You know, how long has he been in his current position? I don't know. He's doing it now. Alright. Call him back. You know, to have someone to, like, spend that time with me. It was crucial. and then kinda gave you my footwork. And then, at acuity, you know, Robert took me under his wing for a long time, one of the owners, Bill as well, kind of, like, sat with me when they didn't have to. Right? They kinda went above and beyond, but I didn't like just show up. And, you know, they were like, oh, you, you know, if that makes sense. Like, I had to constantly ask questions and constantly show them that I want the knowledge, right, and then they saw that and and saw that in me and and took the time. from there, Steve Anderson ended up coming on board. He works for a huge company called TedMed now. He finally similar similar story to mine. Started from nothing. Now he's a, you know, VP of TA for this, you know, multimillion dollar health care organization. He kinda took me under his wing and showed me that, that confidence that you feel like in the imposter syndrome that you get all the time. I still get it all the time. but to show me a little bit more that, like, you kinda have to lean into yourself and believe in yourself, right, that's kind of like a big part of if anything in life, Right? It's if you're only gonna get as far as your beliefs, right, limited belief system. So I, you know, started to believe it a little bit more. Next thing you know is her make more placements, moved, you know, from there to the the next organization where they show you a lot more of the business and operational side. which really, you know, they didn't have to. They took another wing. They showed me. And then now, someone who's not even connected in the recruiting space at all, but has been a long time friend of mine, very successful business owner, has kinda taken us under his wing, and You know, every couple mornings, I get a, you know, a podcast sent to me or a a a quick quote, you know, that that that kind of helps carry me on throughout the day because I know a lot about recruiting, but I really don't know much about business. and, I'm learning as I go. So it's always it's been critical for me to have someone in my court, you know, tiering me on. throughout my entire career.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:51]:

Awesome. And it's one of the beautiful things about mentors is, like, the way technology works nowadays, I remember when I first started at AeroTech years ago, and they were gonna get rid of me. And I, you know, looked at the the biggest billers list that came out every Wednesday and started calling down that list. Yeah. This was the early days of LinkedIn, but people weren't on there, but now you have access You have virtual access to people that you can learn from on a constant basis, which is what I absolutely love. Like, I have, like, my hidden mentors with people that I just, like, kinda, like, fall all the time.

Justin Bellante [00:35:23]:

There you go. They don't even know you're that you're met you're met they're mentoring you. pretty much, but that that was actually some of

Benjamin Mena [00:35:30]:

the stuff that helped, like, us go on our own was those, like, digital hidden mentors. I was like, alright.

Justin Bellante [00:35:35]:

Well, you

Benjamin Mena [00:35:36]:

know, you did this. You did this. Let me emulate this. You've shared this. You've shared this story. And that's, like, one of the the things that I love about this podcast is is the sharing of the stories to help other people out. So, Justin, thank you for sharing all that.

Justin Bellante [00:35:48]:

No. Heck yeah. And I can relate. You know, every every one of the people who come on here is is a new mentor for me, and and and I've learned a ton and only the past 3 months that I've been listening. I've I've listened every single one since. And, man, there's some nuggets there for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:04]:

Awesome. Well, Justin, before we jump into the quick fire questions, is there anything else

Justin Bellante [00:36:07]:

that you would love to share? Yeah. I think just to reiterate kind of what we discussed, I mean, you know, Try not to live in the fear. Right? You gotta push through the fear. You gotta be as uncomfortable as you possibly can. Right? That's that's where growth comes from. Right? And I think recruiting a lot of the times, your success is up to you, which is a a different concepts than in pretty much every other job. Right? With our business, like, you don't get paid for showing up. Right? You get paid for doing the work that is required to be successful. So find out what that means to you. Right? Everyone's goals and aspirations is different. Right? You know, I might wanna make 15 placements a month, and someone might wanna make 5. And each of those are okay. Right? But taking the steps and doing the work that's required to have the success that you want is really the most important thing, and you can't do it without being consistent. So so I think those are the the main key takeaways for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:12]:

Awesome. Be great advice. Well, Justin, we're gonna jump over to the quick fire actionable insight side of the podcast. So and you're probably dealing with this since you've been actually hiring new recruiters. But what advice would you give to a a recruiter that's just starting out in the recruiting industry in 2023? Do

Justin Bellante [00:37:31]:

not try and reinvent the wheel. Everyone's always looking for an easy way out. Do exactly what they tell you to do. Follow them blindly. after a year, you could start thinking about, you know, ways to improve the process. Right? I think that's critical, though. Everybody that we've brought on has I have this idea, and I have this idea. And, like, I love I love hearing your ideas. Some of them are actually pretty good, but the reality is, like, you kinda have to learn to walk before you can run. So start the walk in, learn how to walk, give it some time, and then then we'll we'll get to the run

Benjamin Mena [00:38:10]:

I I think that's great advice. I mean, one of the things that when I first started out as a recruiter, I thought I could help everybody. I thought that was my job. Like, But then they sat me down. They're like, you only get paid if we place somebody in. I'm like, oh, okay.

Justin Bellante [00:38:29]:

Yeah. Yeah. It's important. You gotta be a little selfish. Right? I think putting goodwill out there is is important. Right? I think you wanna be helpful, but You gotta put your your mask on first. Right? When the plane's going down, you put your mask on before you put anybody else's on. Is sir, as long as you're breathing, Then you could help somebody else out.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:49]:

Oh, great advice. So same question, but for experience recruiters, you know, recruiters have been been in the industry

Intro [00:38:55]:

5, 10, 15, 25

Benjamin Mena [00:38:57]:

years. What advice would you give them to be successful?

Justin Bellante [00:39:01]:

So this would be a little counterintuitive. Think less. I have to tell myself this all the time. When I'm doing business development, I see it, a company that I've seen a thousand times, and I've called them a hundred times, and they told me they don't work with recruiters. The reality is They didn't recruit recruiters then. And I see these companies when I'm doing my business development all the time, and I think They don't wanna work with recruiters, so I don't even call them. And then we bring on brand new recruiters that don't know what they're doing at all, And they're like, hey. Just landed this, you know, 100 office organization that has a 100 recruiters. You're like, I have decided not to call them because I've been overthinking. And I think the more experience you get The more you try and make decisions based on your experience when you really should just think less.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:04]:

rid of ice. I I'm a habitual over thinker. Has there been a a favorite book that has had a huge impact on your career?

Justin Bellante [00:40:14]:

Yes. Several. I just think of one that just popped into my head, and I've implemented a lot, of of it recently has been Lou Adlers. hire with your head? believe it or not, it's my first recruiting book I've read. I figured, you know, now is the good time, you know, finally on my own company. I should start reading. But boy, has it really changed my perspective? on a ton of different things when it comes to candidate outreach, business development, you know, trying to sell everyone on that initial call, you know, performance based hiring, you name it, you know, and really thinking about what you're doing on a consistent basis rather than just, you know, trodden through the mud, if that makes sense.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:01]:

Makes perfect sense. What are your thoughts? about artificial intelligence in the future of recruiting.

Justin Bellante [00:41:09]:

I love chat GPT. I a bit of a nerd. I bill computers in my day. I've done some some programming, schooling, And I know, like, a just enough, right, to be, like, the best IT guy for our company, you know, but if you put me in a room full of IT guys, I'm, like, elementary, if that makes sense. But I have just trying to use it as somebody who knows a little bit about everything, and I don't. So just trying to, like, be as efficient as possible. but without leaning on it too much because it's still missing the human element, if that makes sense. So, like, I might have, you know, taught chat GPT how to present candidates in the same, you know, tone and language and format and you know, structure that I use, but I don't just, like, throw the presentation and write into another email send it out. You know, I I do make sure that I I spend time trying to evaluate it because, you know, it is a shiny new object. Right? And there's a lot a lot of capabilities, and I think it long term, it's gonna be critical, right, for for recruiters who wanna be a $1,000,000 biller, but I try not to have my team, like, lean on it too much, if that makes sense, because very similar to the walk to run analogy, like, Chat GPS can get you running before you can walk. But, like, if you still don't know how, you know, to run. It could be detrimental. I think, like, I've heard it, you you know, in your podcast several times, like, it'll help the good recruiters be even better and the not so good recruiters. Not you know, it'll just show, you know, that they're not so good. And feel like you just eat it's like anything in life. Like, we're always looking for an easy way out, like I mentioned earlier, but the reality is, like, the The work is still work at the end of the day, so keep that in mind for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:13]:

Awesome. What do you think has been a major contributor to your personal success?

Justin Bellante [00:43:19]:

Well, I think coming from, you know, the underserved population, you have to be resourceful. You have to. or else you just don't get things, right, or opportunities or get to go places or, you know, so, like, being resourceful, like, really trying to identify, like, where you need to look to find the right candidates, to find, the right clients to find the right recs to work on, you know, being resourceful is probably the most critical thing and then consistency again. I'll just reiterate that every day you know, to my teams, like, just doing what you know you have to do to be successful. Right? And if you don't know what to do to be successful, like, there is a way. Right? There is a science behind this business, and there is a way for everyone to reverse engineer success.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:09]:

And, Justin, this is my favorite question. With everything you know now, the experiences, the ups and downs, if you can go Sit down. Have a cup of coffee with yourself when you're just starting your recruiting career. What advice would you give yourself?

Justin Bellante [00:44:26]:

It's tricky. I thought about this for a little while now. I'd say don't give up. Luckily, I didn't, but, like, don't feel like you gotta give up, like, push through that feeling. And I I don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard that 90% of recruiters have been in the industry for less than 12 months. So, like, all you have to do is just stick it out long enough. and and eventually, you know, you'll be successful. So in the moments where you wanna give up and you might be quiet quitting, don't, Right? Stay engaged. Stay involved. Be consistent. And don't give up.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:07]:

Great advice. Well, Justin, before I let you go, is there anything else that you'd love to share with the listeners?

Justin Bellante [00:45:12]:

Well, Titan's gonna be doing some big things. So definitely, you know, like, follow our pages, you know, and ask me for help if you need it. You know, I said that, and I'll say it over and over and over and over again. anyone who needs help, if there's anything that I could do to provide value to you, let me know. You know, my cell phone number's on my LinkedIn. You can look me up. You know, you can call me, text me, email me, email me, or hit me up on LinkedIn. I will be available. I will answer. I will respond.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:42]:

And I'll have some of Justin's social links like LinkedIn profile and stuff like that in the show notes. So you easily find him. Well, listeners, I just wanna say thank you guys for, listening again to this awesome podcast. just remember, like, you are really just one placement away from sometimes changing your life. And on top of that, like, I really hope you crush the rest of 2023. So, Justin, thank you for coming on. sharing, uploading the entire community. And for the listeners, let's crush it.

Justin Bellante [00:46:08]:

Love that. Thank you so much.

Intro [00:46:09]:

Thanks for listening to this episode of the elite recruiter podcast. with Benjamin MENA. If you enjoyed, hit subscribe and leave a rating.

[00:01:26] Long story, wife quit, found new job.

[00:03:51] Dream realized: own firm born, October 18th.

[00:07:39] Grew up underserved, struggled with health. Joined military, got rejected. Got fat and happy, gained weight.

[00:10:03] Started Twitch, created couch gaming community, chose recruiting.

[00:15:31] Head hunting firm closes, new opportunities arise.

[00:19:52] Consistency, follow-up, and timing in recruiting.

[00:24:20] Tracking daily recruiting activities for accountability.

[00:27:34] Phone calls get easier, just do it

[00:31:50] Find mentors, seek guidance, believe in yourself.

[00:36:07] Push through fear, be uncomfortable, consistent work.

[00:41:09] I love chat GPT, a helpful tool.

[00:43:19] Resourcefulness essential for success in underserved populations.

- Importance of consistently evaluating healthcare organizations- Emphasizes the need for ongoing evaluation and staying informed- The role of follow-up in sales- Many salespeople fail to effectively follow-up- Multiple attempts may be necessary before someone is interested or available- The significance of timing in recruiting- Persistence is necessary for success- Tracking and analyzing data- Number of touches required for positive response, conversation, and successful placement- Aims for 45 touches per hour for placement goals- Finding mentors and seeking guidance- Mentors who excel in their field can provide valuable support- Importance of asking questions and showing a desire for knowledge- Believing in oneself and having support from others- Examples of successful individuals who started from nothing- Having someone in their corner throughout their career has been critical for success- Overcoming fears and hesitations- Starting new endeavors can be challenging, but it gets easier over time- The person on the other end of the phone is just another person- Personal career journey and decision-making- Starting in the healthcare headhunting industry- Transitioning to different firms and taking risks for better opportunities- A leap of faith made when the speaker's son was coming- Effective use of an ATS (Applicant Tracking System)- The importance of everyone using it fully for optimal results- Utilizing daily activity sheets to track various recruiting metrics- Traditional headhunting training- Solid foundation for career, emphasizing phone calls and engaging conversations- The role of chat GPT (Artificial Intelligence)- Use of AI to help with candidate presentations- Balancing reliance on technology with human evaluation and refinement- The potential impact and cautionary notes regarding chat GPT in recruiting- Background and upbringing- Lack of knowledge about health in underserved population- Weight gain and unsuccessful military application- Approaches and styles in recruiting- Finding one's own voice and not just relying on scripts or bosses- Love-hate relationship with business development- Satisfaction in securing clients despite personal challenges- Owning a firm and entrepreneurship- Dream of escaping poverty through business ownership- Partnership and successful venture within a previous firm- Starting their own firm after a push from a colleague and honoring commitments