Unlocking Success: The Blueprint to Becoming a Big Biller and Leaving a Lasting Legacy with Michael Pietrack

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 [00:00:18]:

I'm excited about this episode of the elite recruiter podcast. I have my special guest, Michael Petriek, with me. And Michael Petric is a, what I call, a big biller. When we talk about bill big billers, not just a, you know, hey. I had a great year, and then after that, consistently, year after year, he is, like, hit or close to the $1,000,000 mark. His personal Biller are at $14,000,000, And to top that off, he's also a best selling author. So I'm excited to have him on the podcast's share, some of the tips, some of the knowledge, and also talk about being a being an author. So welcome to the podcast, Mike. Benjamin, thank you so much. I'm very excited about this. So before we get started, the first question I ask every gas is, did they even get started in the recruiting space?

Michael Pietrack [00:01:05]:

Oh, well, it's it's I don't know how interesting a story it is, but it's my story. So I was a baseball player in college. And when I was done playing, I really didn't know what to do with my life. Ever since I was a tea baller, my dream was to be a major leader, you know, so Now that that dream wasn't gonna happen, I had to think of something else. So I just got into coaching. And eventually, I worked my way up to the recruiting coordinator at New Mexico state. And at the height of my career, I made $10,000, was living in the dorms and when I thought about, you know, what kind of prospect that is for a husband, I said, you know, I gotta get a real job. And so with no work experience, I moved back to Colorado where I live now, and I saw an advertisement for a recruiter at a search firm. I was like, hey. Well, I can do that. So I applied, and I almost didn't take the job. But I'm really glad that I did. And, yeah, the rest is history.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:05]:

I I love that you are actually a recruiter without realizing what the recruiting world is. But it's totally different in baseball. So in baseball,

Michael Pietrack [00:02:13]:

you're trying to project what a player would do. And so when early on in my recruiting career, I thought that's what it was. Oh, well, this guy has all these transferable skills. You know, it's more about what have they done, what is the exact function they've done, and how can you get them Surgically remove them and put them into a new role. So I took some lumps early on. I think all of us do. It's you know, when you think of being a recruiter when you're starting off, you're like, oh, I can help this person. can do that.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:41]:

But at the end of the day, like, I get got hammered into me when I think they almost fired me. They're like, hey. Your job is to fill positions. And I'm like, oh, so I can't help everybody.

Michael Pietrack [00:02:51]:

Exactly. Right. So before we start jumping at recruiting stuff, you You're also a bestselling author. Can you talk about that? Yeah. So in January, I launched a book. January 2023, I launched a book. I had no intention to be an author. It really just happened. About 10 years ago, I wrote a poem for my dad that retold this story that he would tell me and my brothers to get us to go to sleep. and then he requested that I kind of keep it going, like what was the backstory, and then what happened after. And so for years years, I would just send him little bits onto this story, and it just grew and grew and grew. But it is a poem. So, you know, it's not for everybody. but it's about overcoming fear. And I think it really relates to the recruiting business because there's all different shapes and sizes of fear. There's fear of failure. Some people have fear of success. Some people fear the unknown. Some people get locked up in their comfort zone and have fear breaking out of that. And so the book is actually a fable. And the reason it was a bestseller, it's the only epic poem that's also a fable. They're calling it an epic Biller. But it's all about overcoming fear, which I think really relates to the recruiting business. A lot of recruiters have bought it, read it, loved it. The audio book is also a bestseller. So,

Benjamin Mena [00:04:14]:

again, it's nothing I intended, but it has a lot of recruiting in it because When you're a recruiter, that's, you know, that's a big part of who you are. I love that because I'd say fear is one of the things that every recruiter deals with day in and day out. That's right. And it keeps a lot of recruiters from

Michael Pietrack [00:04:30]:

being the best recruiter that they could possibly be. Picking fear of picking up the phone, fear of rejection, fear of all these things to this. It's gonna sound stupid. Sure everyone who's listening, but but the main character is a little b. And the reason I chose that was because that was the main character of my dad's story. But at times, we feel like a little bee in this big, great, big forest. And so if you've ever felt, you know, like, like, you're a bit lost, this bee has to go through all this adventure overcoming his fear And so and that really is the recruiting world.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:05]:

I love that. And I I I also love that you're doing something also outside of recruiting. Like, you're chasing a passion, and that's one thing that we talk about on this podcast a lot is just, like, you know, being the best recruiter you could be helping others and also, like, building dreams of passions outside of recruiting too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So look look in gears. Yeah. Over $14,000,000 in personal billings, and you said, what, 14 years of being a recruiter? 15, like, 15 and a half years. 15 and a half. So almost a $1,000,000 a year, which is absolutely incredible. Thank you. Now I know you're you Two things that you've talked about before is what we call the the BD machine and how you got there, and also the importance of being a niche. Let's start on the BD side of the house. Yeah. Talk about that on how that has helped you become an incredible biller.

Michael Pietrack [00:05:53]:

Thanks a lot. I would say If anybody is a former athlete that's listening to this, there is this drill in high school basketball called the 3 manweave. Can you picture that, really? You pass and you follow yeah. So the b d machine is really a 3 man weave that I do every week. So one part of the weave is job postings. Okay. We are all looking at job postings, kinda like ambulance chasing. Then there's news news leads and then there is a touch plan. So I'll just talk about those individually. So, obviously, I'm looking at job postings, but so is every recruiter on the earth. And some and I always go to the hiring manager with a MPC or most placeable candidate or impact player to try to get that job order. But then I'm also following the news leads to see if any of that is triggering hiring. And sometimes it is, sometimes I'm early, but at least I'm making that contact. And then a touch plan is once I get a hiring manager or a list of hiring managers that are in my niche, I keep them on a list and I just periodically touch them in some way. whether a call, email, text, or a newsletter, something. And so every week, I'm Following the job postings, I'm working my touch plan, and I'm also following the news leads every week, so I never stop BD, and never stop marketing. And you we all know that Glenn Gary, Glen Ross always be closing? You know? So my whole thing, my mantra is always be marketing. And that segues into the niche part if you unless you have questions about that. Good. Jump right in. Well, one of the beautiful things about working in a niche is, well, how I got the idea to really niche my business was sitting in a in an out burger I'm waiting in this epically long line. And if you look at their menu, it's really simple. You got a Biller, a double burger, Maybe like animal style if if you order off the menu. And I was sitting there in this line, and I'm thinking, what would I do if I went up there and started ordering, like, a chicken sandwich. And I'm like, what is the guy gonna do? Is he is he gonna he gonna stop the line, go get some chicken patties to fulfill this one order? And as I was thinking about that, I was like, dang. That's what I do on my desk. I have this burger making machine, and then my client says, hey, can you show this chicken sandwich? And I stopped the whole thing to go chase that chicken sandwich and all the patties that are left over, all the inventory of candidates, I can never reuse them again. So I said, you know what? No more chicken sandwiches, and I'm gonna super niche my business. I'm gonna have one position that's a burger. Maybe that's an individual contributor. Then I have the double burger, which will go into the b d machine, and then we have the VP or the the head of the business.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:52]:

The thing is -- Before go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was gonna say, be before that, like, were you chasing everything on God Greensert?

Michael Pietrack [00:09:00]:

Everything, man. I mean, if and and the feeling that I had was I went from hero to 0. So, like, I would fill a position with a client, And then they'd say, hey. Can you do this chicken sandwich? And I was like, yeah, of course. You know, I'm an expert in search. And so I would chase it and I would fill it and I went from a 0. I went from a hero to a 0 with that client. And so Now I say no to those.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:27]:

Trump. Yeah. I I mean, I filled positions that I didn't even know what they were. Hence, I never I hated that feeling. And then, like, the the current niche that you're in now, like, well, first of all, what is it? And then how did you get to that niche? So within a pharmaceutical

Michael Pietrack [00:09:40]:

company, there are many divisions, many departments. There's this one little tight niche between clinical development in sales called medical affairs. So really right when the drug is about to launch, these people are in the field. They're not salespeople. They're kinda like expert sales support. So like a pharmaceutical sales rep could be a batch have a bachelor's degree in business. But the medical science liaison or the leadership of those people, they're like farmbs, MDs, or PhDs. So they talk sort of a peer to peer level with the physician. So it's it's been a great niche for me. I feel like we dominate that space. The company that I work for also does contract staffing and medical affairs, so we both do direct and contract staffing in that niche. So it's been a good home for us. That's awesome. Is your background medical, or did you just, like, end up in the medical side of things? No, man. It was so, like, I remember my first day of training So I almost work exclusively in oncology. But I remember when the guy who hired me said, okay. Sometimes we work in cardiovascular disease, sometimes we work in oncology, and I I was like, hold up. What's oncology? And he's like, what? don't even know what like, he's like, I hired the wrong guy. I didn't even know I didn't know anything about it. The fact so I have a master's in English. And the reason I chose English was because it didn't have any math or science. And now all I'm doing is science, so I have no background in it.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:12]:

Yeah. because I know, like, you know, most of us kinda stumble into referring, and then most of us, like, somehow stumbled into our niche too. So it's always fun to find out, like, how a a big biller like yourself Ended up in that space. Yeah. It was you know, that was the space they wanted to go in, and that's why they hung that advertisement for the recruiter. So I it was really luck. Really luck. Now, like, going back to the BD side of the house, because I know BD is a hot topic. You know, there's a lot of industries that are I'd say hurting this year. and there's other industries that aren't. What are some of the secrets? What are some of the things that you're doing on the BD side of the house to really, 1, get new clients and really stand out About the competition? Yeah. Good question. Really relevant question, and our industry is hurting too. I would say the total positions that we normally fill were at about 40% of those carrying those over,

Michael Pietrack [00:11:58]:

so our our BD machine is struggling to produce. But what I found to be true over the years. There's this book called The Go Biller. And the principles in that book, I really follow a lot in my practice. and it talks about your income is a direct reflection of the value that you bring to a market. So if you want to increase your income, increase the value that you bring to the market. So what I've been doing for the last 10 years is doing a lot of videos about interviewing that has really been instrumental in the industry So I think if if you go to the market as a go giver instead of a go getter and a go taker, I think that'll that'll lead to a lot of success. So that's part of what I do is I try to give you can't outgive what the market will give you. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:54]:

I I love that, and it's it's one of the interesting things that I've been seeing with guests is the guests that are doing well have their own businesses are super successful. They're doing something outside of just The cold email, the cold call. They've built, like, a, I would say, like, a farming system. that rips the rewards years down the road. It's true. You you got it. Like,

Michael Pietrack [00:13:19]:

no matter what brand like, let's say you're just a recruiter that works at a firm, The Affirm has a brand. But you as a person have to also create a brand, you know, and that comes through People seeing your face, people seeing your content, people seeing your impact. So one of the other things that we do is every time we make a placement, We post a picture about it. Hey, just helped another person get hired. Just helped another person get hired. So everybody's like man, That's where to go if I wanna get a new job. The other thing that I did that I think is something someone else can duplicate, but it does take time to build. is I created a separate group within LinkedIn like a discussion group, and the rules of the group is no one else besides me can post in it. So it basically becomes like this secret job board that people are anonymously in, and I'm posting my content and also the new jobs. And every time I get a job, I post a little video about it, a little one minute snippet. So they're always seeing me, and they're seeing all these job orders over and over and over and over, which is just a branding machine. So wait.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:30]:

this is under, like, a LinkedIn group then. Right? Are you creative? Yeah. Yep. And and are you only allowing people, like, in your niche in that group? Is that kinda how it works out? How are you inviting people?

Michael Pietrack [00:14:42]:

So on the videos that I put, I always invite people, hey. If you want, you know, please join our private LinkedIn group, A lot of it was word-of-mouth early on. Okay. And when I connect with someone new on LinkedIn, I always tell them about it. I'm also gonna send you an invite here, and I think we have I don't even know how many people we have in it, but it's gotta be 5000 or so. So but if it took time to grow. That is, like, a super weapon that, like, nobody has actually talked about yet. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's been good. The other little niche thing that that has been helpful is I grabbed a domain, like a pointer domain that talks about my niche. So I have the medical affairs recruiter and the m s l recruiter dot com. Now I'm not gonna name my company this. But when I'm on link you know, like, when I'm on a discussion with an HR person, like, okay. Well, tell me about your niche. I say, well, go to the MSL recruiter and then my bio shows up. Or if I'm trying to get in touch with a really hard to connect with candidate, and I'm telling him, hey, I'm an in I'm the MSL recruiter, not just one of a bunch. In fact, go to the MSO recruiter. You could read more about my background. It it helps so solidify what I do like in an out burger would. I love that. You know what I mean? You're getting it in an out burger. Right? Yeah. I I but it's one of my favorite places. I can't wait for it to come to these guys. Hey. Hang on a minute. I don't see a minute out burger. Every time I'm in California, I I have to stop there. Well, and the line's always long. Right?

Benjamin Mena [00:16:13]:

Oh, it's insane.

Michael Pietrack [00:16:14]:

Well, some people well, some people are worried about niching. Well, you can't be more niche than having just a burger. but they don't even have anything else. You can't even get a salad there or anything, and their line is out the door. So it's a lot better to do one thing at an extremely excellent level. and try to have, like, a McDonald's menu where you're trying to appease everybody. So that's worked for me.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:38]:

That is great. Now is there any other lessons that you'd love to share of how you got to $14,000,000 in billings? in the last 15 years. I would say speed

Michael Pietrack [00:16:49]:

and accuracy. Okay. When you're when you're in a niche, when you're working in a niche, those You know, the double Biller? Every one of those calls, if you're recruiting on that, it's a 2 for one call. So you're manufacturing time there. You're doing 2 calls in 1. When you're routinely shilling the same searches, The time in searching becomes diminished because you've already done that search. Maybe you've done that search 5 times already this year. and you're just calling the same people you pojoed last time or presented last time. You know, that that helps. The other thing I've done is organize my database. To be super fast, so one of the things that ate up a lot of time was grooming roll up list to send out a bulk email. Can you guys picture that? So what I did is I said screw that. I'm gonna have master roll up list. that I can either just sort by state or by title I have the special titling structure that tells me exactly who the candidate is, And so when I send out a bulk email, the sourcing's done. Now it's just a matter of making the phone calls so I can get through let's say it's a 40 person 40 potential candidates, I just get that done in one day. Whereas the people I'm competing with are grooming the roll up list and going on to LinkedIn and trying to source all these people, but I'm done. So I can get through more searches quicker. So

Benjamin Mena [00:18:20]:

that's how you increase your billings. So real quick. Just pause right there. Hold that thought. you your database, you've spent a lot of time perfecting it, sounds like.

Michael Pietrack [00:18:31]:

Yes. That is I I it's I I need to have if that's not tight, I can't bill what I wanna bill.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:39]:

any advice to recruiters out there when they're looking at, hey. You know, I I feel like a lot of people, like, their databases are okay or a mess. Yeah. What advice would you get? What would you give to recruiters out there to really get that cleaned up?

Michael Pietrack [00:18:55]:

This is there's a a bit of a few bits of advice. The first thing is find out the week or 2 weeks or 3 weeks in your industry that are completely slow. For me, it's 4th July week, Thanksgiving week, and the end of the year just, you know, Christmas to New Year's. Okay? Those weeks spend to your database. Just put your phone on hold. Don't use your phone. Just clean up your database. It'll serve you well. Very well. That's number 1. What I found is that most people that I've coached, there's there's an industry That separates maybe 2 candidates from another. There's a functional level. Obviously, there's a function, but then there's a level Maybe, you know, this is a double burger. Okay. This is a single burger. Different list. k? And then there's some sort of technology or product. So okay. This is this industry, this is this functioning level, but they're an expert in this technology. So so the way you set it up is either separated all by technology or you separated all by function, or you separated by industry, however you do it, or maybe a multiple list. But you categorize it so that it's like if you think about, like, a shoe store. and someone comes in says, hey, I want a pair of white size 13 nikes, high tops. They can go to the back and pull it out quickly versus just having a mess of a back with shoe boxes, and you're looking at each shoe box. So I wanna be the guy that can bring those shoes out the exact pair of shoes they're looking for quickly. and that is all organizing your database.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:36]:

I that's great advice, and I'm actually going to spend my week in working on my database. Yes. Yeah.

Michael Pietrack [00:20:43]:

It'll it'll it'll pay itself in spades.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:45]:

So I wanna kinda also don't jump into this question with you. Now you're Working at a larger firm. Right?

Michael Pietrack [00:20:52]:

Yes. Yep. I would say the medical affairs company is around a 30 to $40,000,000 search firm.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:59]:

But you structure everything like it's your own business. Like it like, you own the shop. which I love that. I you have to do that for success. How did you flip into that kind of gear to look at this as your own business even though you're a part of a larger group? Yeah. It is really

Michael Pietrack [00:21:16]:

so the way our company is is set up is we have 4 service lines. Direct hire, which I head up as 1. It started off as a subsidiary of this big company. And then our big company got bought, so I actually went from owner to employee, which is a is a harder paradigm shift. But it is hard to keep that owner entrepreneurial mindset when it's not completely yours anymore. k. As a team sports guy, one of the things I love is, you know, it's my at bat, but we still are trying to accomplish something bigger as a team. You know, so if I if I have all these good stats but our team is losing, that doesn't that's not good. And so What I really try to do is is keep my eyes peeled for opportunities for other people on other business units so that we can be the yes to really everybody in our department. But I think ownership is is a mindset that every recruiter should have. You know, whether whether they have a sales territory or a a roll up list that they're calling, treat it like it's their own business, and you'll have a lot of success. Awesome. Now before I jump into some of the quick fire questions, Sure. For the podcast, is there anything else that you'd love to share about, whether the beady machine,

Benjamin Mena [00:22:30]:

fishing, or how you've hit your some of your success?

Michael Pietrack [00:22:34]:

No, man. I'm ready for these quick fire ones. I'm I'm excited about these. Just just go ahead.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:39]:

Alright. I might I might add a few more with you. So just Watch out. Advice to a brand new recruiter that's starting off in 2023. Like, brand new to the industry. What advice would you give to them to become successful?

Michael Pietrack [00:22:50]:

2 bits of advice. The best advice I ever got was someone said burn your boats. So what that means is there to make a long story short, there's like this someone came to America on all these ships. And the first thing they did was burn the boats, so they had to make it work there. There was no plan b to come back. And the moral of the story is if you have a plan b, there will be a time that you'll use it. Because invariably, it is gonna be hard in the 1st year, of course, is the hardest. And in 2023 and during this procession or whatever we're in, it's extra extra hard. So if you have a boat back to something else, You're gonna use it so you gotta burn your boats and say this has to work. The people that have made it work had no other option. That's that would be advice number 1. And advice number 2 is you will be so happy that you started now in a recessionary type time because you have to build all the good habits. You're actually gonna know how to fish because the people that started in 2021, They think the fish just jump in the boat, and it's not true. So so I think right now is the perfect time to start and just burn your boats and just know it's gonna be tough. Same question, but for experience recruiters.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:11]:

What are some of the pieces of advice that you would give to them to to hit success and see success?

Michael Pietrack [00:24:16]:

Never start stop marketing. Realize that you're in a comfort zone. Everybody listening is in a comfort zone. But if you realize you're in a comfort zone and and legacy, the book that I wrote, it talks about it. There's this character that tries to get able to stay in the comfort zone, and it's this soothing loving voice that says, oh, you don't have to keep going. You stay right here. You gotta break through that. You gotta say no to voice and continually move forward. And the way to move forward is action. Try something new. Try a new technology. Try using video. Try using these different things and just break out of that comfort zone would be my advice to experience people.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:57]:

Awesome. Now BD wise, how much time wise do you set aside for BD on a daily and weekly basis?

Michael Pietrack [00:25:04]:

It kind of varies but I what I try to do is have as many searches that would also be a marketing call. And so that I'm always marketing because I'm I'm searching on this regional director position or this VP search. And when I'm on the phone with a single burger, you know, an individual contributor, I try to find out, you know, I I ask this question a lot just so I better understand, like, what you like, what you don't like. Like, what are some of the companies you interviewed with recently that you didn't like. What are some of the ones you did like? And I just start writing down these companies so then I can market to them. So even if I'm on a recruiting call on an individual level, I'm always in the marketing mindset. My default setting is marketing. A lot of people in this business, their default setting is recruiting and they have to like switch the default setting to get into marketing. For me, I I'm always marketing. And even if I'm recruiting, I love that. Is there a book that has had a huge impact on your career? The very, very biggest one is the Biller. I read the bible every morning. I'm not a bible thumper, you know, if that's not your thing that's fine. But for me, it's been the most important book I've read. Secondarily, the Go Biller is a great book

Benjamin Mena [00:26:22]:

Legacy the saga begins is another one you should check out. No. And there's another one. Yeah. Gosh. I was I was gonna say I'll have the link for that book in in the show notes if you wanna check Michael's book.

Michael Pietrack [00:26:33]:

Oh, thanks a lot. Well, the the other one that is it's gonna sound like a bad book, but it's actually awesome. It's called Getting Naked. There's no pictures in it, so no. Getting naked is just about going in being a consultant and just going in with like, no walls up. You're going in there totally exposed, totally vulnerable. That's what that's about. Those two books, the Biller, and legacy The saga begins are the ones I would recommend. So with you being year after year consistent big Biller, and you're seeing this influx of new technology, AI,

Benjamin Mena [00:27:06]:

How do you think it's gonna impact the future of recruiting? I think AI is

Michael Pietrack [00:27:10]:

is gonna be a huge impact. I hate to say it because I don't like it. I think it's just like anything though. I think it's like, you know, when they used to use no cards and then they had a database. and then there is the Internet, and then there is monster.com, and then there's linkedin. And then, you know, these things you just you have to get better you have to use it better than the talent acquisition group that's out there. So for me, I wanna learn about AI, I don't wanna pretend it doesn't exist. I wanna get better at it faster because talent acquisition's gonna wanna use it like they use LinkedIn. but I do have a fear about AI is that if every recruiter started feeding their resumes to this AI machine, so they can spit out write ups about the candidate. Well, then a then what would stop in 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, whatever the time period is? asking the machine, I need somebody with this, this, and this. Who do you got? They could spit out the candidates because we it could only it only knows what we feed it. So I just would hesitate to to do that, I guess. That's great. Yeah. So is there something

Benjamin Mena [00:28:23]:

that has been a major part of you being successful?

Michael Pietrack [00:28:26]:

Again, I would say applying Biller principles. It sounds cheesy, but When when you do onto others as you would want have done to you, it's so differentiating. When you look at this business not as a transaction, but relationship building. And when you look at yourself, not as a person trying to make a transaction but a true fiduciary. that is gonna do what's in the other person's best interest, and your clients know that you're gonna do what's in their best interest, and your candidates know you're gonna do what's in their best interest. they're always gonna come back to you, and they're gonna refer you. And it's so differentiating because the people that are attracted to this business are the ones interested in a quick buck. that are transactional that aren't in it for the long haul. So and that's all the more reason to niche. Because when you don't niche and you're talking to people on the phone and they're not a fit for your job, you wanna get off the phone as quickly as possible. But even if in my world, even if someone is not interested in that job or not interested right now, building that relationship is inventory for later. You know? So it allows me to recruit in such a way where the relationship is the very first first important thing. So I would say if you do that, you will you will have long term success, but it does take a while to build up that. So There's a a a role or a study or something of that nature where

Benjamin Mena [00:29:51]:

you are the person that you're 5 closest friends with in the books that you read. Yeah. Now I know you are around a very successful group of other recruiters. Has that had an impact on your success?

Michael Pietrack [00:30:05]:

Absolutely. Absolutely. What I find is that they're saying things that I say. I'm saying things that that they say we kind of parrot each other a lot. You know, our our PDA, our per desk average in 2021 was like 721, so each person was just killing it. You know? And so yeah. When when you're around high performers, but I'm also part of the Pinnacle society. That's what I was getting deal. Yeah. The elite group of you know, when I whenever I go there and rub elbows and hear what they're doing and hear ideas being shared and hear the numbers they're putting up. It's sort of like playing up when you're like a twelve year old and you get to play with the fourteen year olds. It's a big gap, big difference. But if you get to play up, you become better than all the other twelve year olds. You know, even though you could take your lumps with the fourteen year old. So being are surrounding myself with great people and then also being in the pinnacle society. has has really leveled up my game for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:10]:

Awesome. And this is actually one of my favorite questions, Michael. k. everything that you've experienced, everything that you've gone through, everything that you've learned. If you can go back and talk to yourself at the very start of your recruiting career, your 1st week getting started.

Michael Pietrack [00:31:25]:

What advice would you give yourself? I would say go all in. I I would I would say push all the chips in the middle. So what I did initially, before I got the burn the boats thing, I was very work life balance oriented, and you need to have some balance in your life. I'm not saying that. But I was single. I was you know, my social life was very important to me, and I was working for a paycheck. in and I that was in 27, 28,021,009.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:59]:

In 2010,

Michael Pietrack [00:32:01]:

I pushed all the chips to the middle and I said you know what, I'm gonna push as hard as I can for the next six quarters. I average 445 on the phone. I ate all three meals at my desk and I never Started a day without being fully fully prepared. So that means if I got a job order at 5:30 on a Tuesday, I worked until I was ready to hit the ground running on Wednesday. And so I would just tell myself in 2007, man, quit worrying about your social life. Pull put all your chips in right now,

Benjamin Mena [00:32:38]:

and that's the way to go. Well, let me let me ask this question. Like, that The difference when you decide to put all your chips in. Was there a moment that kind of pushed that?

Michael Pietrack [00:32:49]:

Yeah. So I went from being single to engaged. and my my my my my now wife, she was we had a long distance relationship. So I was like alright, not having a social life is actually a protection. You know, so, you know, I'll just work my butt off during the week, and when I see her on the weekends, I'll be free and clear. So for me, that's what it was, was that I had less of a distraction. But I wish I would've said cut out that as just distraction earlier.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:25]:

It's always interesting. like people's inflection point of when they made that decision.

Michael Pietrack [00:33:31]:

I had 2. 1 was the engagement. and 2 is when we were expecting our first child. 2 big bounce up points for me because There was just and that's also part of the book. There's this part of this part of the book in Legacy is called Beyond the Finish Line. When what is beyond your Finish Line is bigger than yourself, you can't fail. The fear of failure gets diminished or the voice of fear you quiet it because what's beyond the finish line is so important that you can fail failing's not an option. You can't fail. Right? So so those two things that happened to me there was something beyond the finish line that was just bigger and more important than my social life or or work life balance or all these things. It was And so those 2 inflection points were huge because I had something beyond the finish line. Amazing. Well,

Benjamin Mena [00:34:26]:

Give me a second after that because I you know, real life, you know, really pushes you forward. Sure. Well, Michael, before I let you go, is there anything else that you would love to share with the listeners?

Michael Pietrack [00:34:39]:

I would just say there's another character in the book that I wrote into the book because this person always keeps existing in my life. Sometimes it's me in my own head. Other times it's it's an individual and it's the cynic. He's called cynical sova. And sova parades himself is really wise, but he's condescending rude and cynical. And we have to guard against being that cynical person to someone else, and this is what it looks like. Oh, don't call that company they don't use recruiters. Or Don't call that candidate. He they're not they never called me back, so they're never gonna and and we're telling that to a rookie, and we're imposing our cynicism onto them. But also when you're working a roll up list and you start talking yourself out of calling someone, well, they're probably not that interested and, you know, don't be the cynic in your own head. Fight through those things and and you'll have more success. So When you're reading legacy, just know that every character is a character you're gonna meet along your recruiting journey. and whatever entrepreneurial journey if you have a side hustle or whether you're entering a new phase of life, whether it be empty nesting or you know, dealing with the health issue. Though all those things can be a dark wilderness, but you can navigate it by by really just moving forward in face of fear. One last thing, the motto, the main theme of of legacy is this phrase my dad used to tell us when we had leave the house. It's b Biller. So no matter how much a person bills, no matter what niche you choose, no matter what you do, If you do this business with Biller, if you're being noble, success will always follow you. I love that. Well, Michael, I this has been a phenomenal

Benjamin Mena [00:36:31]:

interview. I'm excited that you came on. first of all, one, I'm actually gonna go buy the book. So -- Nice. Like, secondly, you know, I one of the one of the biggest things learned from a lot of, like, the big doors and other, you know, strong people in this industry, they constantly give back to the entire community. Like, they they want to help level up the entire community, and I absolutely love that about the recruiting space and the recruiting community. So thank you, Michael, for coming on.

Intro [00:36:59]:

My great pleasure. Thanks for the invite. And for the listeners until next time, guys. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast. with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, hit subscribe and leave a rating.