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[InSights] Marketing Ideas for Q4 to Drive Sales in 2025

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Welcome to InSights, the staffing podcast with over 150 episodes from Haley Marketing, built to help you with your recruitment marketing and digital marketing. Whether we’re talking about digital marketing trends or what’s working right now for staffing and recruiting firms across North America, we’re here to share our InSights on how you can stand out, stay top-of-mind, and sell more. 

 

Takeaways from Episode 153

  • Investing time in networking leads to success.
  • Consistent visibility is crucial for recruiters.
  • If budget allowed for ONE marketing tactic…what would it be?
  • Search Engine Optimization is a long-term investment for visibility.
  • Former clients are a valuable resource for new business.
  • Dunbar’s Number limits our connections to 150.
  • Unique content creation is essential in marketing.
  • Marketing should benefit both clients and candidates.
  • Building a Personal Brand for Recruiters equires ongoing effort and strategy.
  • Personal experiences can inform unique content.
  • Trust is built through consistent and valuable content.

 

Hosts

Brad Bialy is the host of Take the Stage and InSights, the staffing industry’s leading podcasts with close to 175,000 downloads. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic marketing concepts. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 150 industry-specific conferences and webinars. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after speaker and expert.

Exclusive Offer for our Listeners: 30-minutes of Strategic Marketing Consultation with Brad Bialy (Schedule Now)

A recruiting industry veteran with over 15 years of experience, Steve Gipson is the Director of Sales and Operations at Recruiters Websites. After spending seven years as a recruiter with a boutique search firm, he joined Recruiters Websites, a digital marketing agency specializing in the recruitment industry. For the past decade, Recruiters Websites has helped over 800 firms of all sizes and specialties enhance their digital presence and make more placements through their expertise in digital marketing, website development, and SEO services. 

 

Transcript

Brad Bialy (00:00.386)
What’s up and welcome back to another episode of Insights, the podcast built to help you with your recruitment in digital marketing. Joined by Steve Gipson this week. Steve, how are we feeling this,

Steve Gipson (00:13.833)
Good man, how are you?

Brad Bialy (00:15.362)
I’m doing well. We alluded to it on the last episode. We thought Baby Bialy would be on the way or here at time of recording. We’re a team of four now, man. So we are officially a team of four over here.

Steve Gipson (00:28.191)
I expected you to have bigger bags underneath your eyes and a thicker mustache. Because with each child you should have you should be able to improve that mustache. Okay.

Brad Bialy (00:31.606)
doing good. Yeah, so

Yeah, the stash does not grow. If you know me, the facial hair does not come in. It’s it’s a blessing and a curse. As far as the bags under the eyes are doing pretty good. We’re sleeping. We’re doing well over here. I will say we brought her home and my wife tested positive for covid in the hospital while she was while we were going through that. I had all signs of it, too, but they don’t they don’t. It’s interesting once you go through the labor and delivery process, the man in the room.

Steve Gipson (00:43.464)
Yeah

Steve Gipson (00:53.759)
Brad Bialy (01:04.394)
the husband in the room, the significant other, it’s rare that they even talk to you once, let alone test you for COVID. You’re just kind of sitting in the corner. You are an absolute waste of space during the process, which is fine. But yeah, Rachel had COVID, I had COVID. We think my son brought it home from daycare, which is great. Love that, that he shares with us. But we’re on the other side of that, doing really, really good over here now.

Steve Gipson (01:21.073)
Right. yeah. Yeah.

Steve Gipson (01:27.359)
Yeah, it’s funny. So when I was in the hospital with, I think it was with our second kid, the doctor came in that morning and I don’t remember, I was sleepy and my wife was up of course. When she saw, sometimes when I’m sleepy and like kind in that halfway dream state and halfway awake, I don’t get belligerent, but I get aggressive. And the doctor came in and to check on us like a doctor should at like 7 a the next day.

Brad Bialy (01:44.557)
Mm -hmm.

Brad Bialy (01:48.206)
Sure.

Steve Gipson (01:55.153)
And suppose I just got upset with her and I said, what are you doing? Be quiet. And I just kind of went off on the doctor and I went back to sleep and I woke up and my wife was like, Steve, what are you doing? That was Dr. Cugini. You just railed her for coming in. She’s supposed to check on me. So I’m like, okay. So maybe that’s why, because the sleepy dad that’s kind of a bear on the couch.

Brad Bialy (01:58.69)
Mm

Yeah, yeah.

Brad Bialy (02:07.042)
Yeah. Yeah. hey.

Yeah, listen, Sleepy Steve is not responsible for Awake Steve, and Awake Steve cannot be held accountable for Sleepy Steve. That cannot be true.

Steve Gipson (02:24.031)
100 % I’m gonna I’m gonna make my wife listen to this episode for that because there’s been so many times where I’ve gotten in trouble because of of what sleepy Steve did so

Brad Bialy (02:33.074)
No, sleepy Steve is on his own. Hey, man, you are just getting back from the top echelon fall conference. And I wanted to get your biggest takeaways from that event. Bring it to our listeners so that we can share some of the insights that you learned with them.

Steve Gipson (02:49.213)
Yeah, so I don’t know how many people know about top Eshwan. It’s, you know, it’s been around a long time. They’re a great split network and ATS software within the industry. And they put together some really great conferences. They’re small groups, but they’re but they’re a tight knit group, which is really cool. And a couple things that I noticed. Number one, just from some of the things that top Eshwan was talking about the guys that put it on and their emphasis, and just even the statistics on

The people that show up to those conferences that they twice a year are always in the top 20 % of their network, always. And the significance of investing in your time to network and be around other recruiters, not making yourself an island, I think was such a huge emphasis and always is a huge emphasis on what they see.

Brad Bialy (03:39.926)
It is always interesting to me when I go to a conference, the number of people that are there and who is there repeatedly. So thinking about events that I go to in Colorado or California staffing, and you see these familiar faces. These are massive States though. And there are so many staffing firms or recruiters who are missing out on that continued education by not going to these events. And it’s always interesting to me that some do. And those that do are the ones who are not experiencing the shortcomings that some of the other ones are.

It’s really no secret. You continue to learn, continue to develop and good things happen as a result of

Steve Gipson (04:15.443)
Yeah, it’s always the same people, right? I mean, we go to Naps and you see it’s always the same people. You go to, I go to Top Echelon Network, it’s always the same. Pinnacle Society, it’s always the same people. it definitely, I think, is very true that those that invest in their time in those conferences and networking really kind of see the success from that. Other things to take away, so Tom Erb was there. Tom obviously is great. We know him well. He always does a good job.

and has such a good pulse of the industry. One of the things I really liked that he did is that all, he said that all recruiters have to be three things, right? They have to be sociable, they have to be credible and they have to be coachable. And I thought that was great because it kind of alludes into some of the things that we’re talking about from the networking with sociability, being coachable, the willingness to learn and some of the things that we talked about last time as well.

with those individuals that are willing to be able to listen to some of the career coaches or some of the recruiting coaches and be a part of some of those small groups. And then just the need to build that brand and be established in the industry. I thought those were really great points. And to back that up, he said, you wanna make the next call your last cold call, which I liked.

And he doesn’t mean it in the sense of you’re not going to be picking up the phone and calling your prospective clients and marketing your services. But in the sense of if you’re doing enough to make that a warm call versus a cold call, you’ve done enough on social, you’ve done enough of email, you’re being consistent in all the right areas, then it’s no longer a cold call, even though it may be the first time you spoke into them, but it’s something that’s more of a warm lead. And I liked that perspective.

Brad Bialy (06:01.068)
I do too. And I’ve seen Tom speak a lot. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard him with that take, but that’s a really good point to make. And it screams why we need marketing, why we need branding, why we need visibility. And at Haley Marketing and even at Recruiters websites, I know we’re so passionate about driving conversions and getting people to take action, but there is also value in just, my brand getting in front of more people? Are we having a true…

impact and getting in front of the right people so that when I do pick up the phone, they know who I am. Friends, if you think about your own purchasing decisions, there’s a reason you stick with a company like Nike or a company like Under Armour. You have loyalty. You have some brand affinity to whatever that product might be, right? Even if it’s Target, whatever it might be, there’s a loyalty between Target versus Walmart. There’s a reason you shop there. And

when we think about what Tom’s getting at, I love the thought of the last, the next call should be the last cold call you make. What can we do to warm up all of those leads so that you don’t have to make cold calls? No one wants to make a cold call. I mean, if you’re listening and you genuinely enjoy that, maybe get yourself checked out. There’s things that we could do to make these calls a lot easier though, a lot easier.

Steve Gipson (07:12.595)
Yeah, those are the same people that are going to like nightclubs where there’s like SMS stuff.

Brad Bialy (07:16.366)
Yeah, we just, need to make this easier for all of us. And there is marketing that we can deploy to do that. Steve, anything else from the conference? If not, that’s probably a really good segue into the next segment here.

Steve Gipson (07:28.563)
Yeah, let’s just jump into it.

Brad Bialy (07:30.786)
Steve, you had a great question that we were slacking about and friends for full disclosure, we did not share our answers to the next question, but Steve had reached out to me and said, I think I got a good topic for the show. So we brought it here. Steve’s question, what one piece of the marketing puzzle would you start with if you had to start some?

Steve, do you wanna go first or second? Or do you wanna tee that up better?

Steve Gipson (07:52.541)
No, No, okay. So I, I, no, it’s great. I think it’s perfect. I feel like we’re playing the newlywed game here. And so what I’ve done, I’ve written it down. Okay. Well, my answer, I’ve written it down and if you’ve got a piece of paper, you can do it at the same time. We can flip it or you can say it and I’ll flip it at the same time. So mine’s already written.

Brad Bialy (08:18.534)
boy, sorry, I muted on accident. I am going to type it on my phone. And so the question is what one piece of the marketing puzzle would you start with if you had to start somewhere for sake of conversation? Are we talking about driving clients? Are we talking about driving candidates?

Steve Gipson (08:22.728)
Okay.

Steve Gipson (08:35.583)
So I’m always kind of more sales minded, but I think everything, okay. And I think everything that we do should kind of benefit both audiences, right? In some way, shape or form. So let’s think though more sales, more business. Okay, you got it? Okay. Okay. All right, you ready? One, two, three.

Brad Bialy (08:38.038)
I’ll stay sales. Okay.

Brad Bialy (08:46.284)
Okay. Close your eyes. I want to see if I put this to the screen. If people see it. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. You count.

Brad Bialy (09:00.812)
I said database, former customers.

Steve Gipson (09:03.215)
that’s good. said SEO. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I do.

Brad Bialy (09:05.396)
S really? Okay. That is that’s going to make for a great clip. Okay, so what one piece of the marketing puzzle would you start with if you had to start somewhere? You said SEO why?

Steve Gipson (09:18.075)
So from my thought on this question was what is one thing that I can do that impacts my business or gets the most impact in my business, whether it’s now or longterm. And I think building a digital presence and visibility around your website is something that if you start it today, that you reap benefits year after year after year after year.

And there’s not much from a marketing perspective in my mind that you can invest in that has the longevity of SEO, right? So you look at a paid campaign or you look at an email blast or you look at even a, you know, an effort to be able to reach out to your existing client base, which I think is great, by the way, and I’m to love to hear your thoughts on that. everything I’m doing with that, it’s all temporary. It’s all I’m putting in that effort. And then once that effort stops, it all kind of dissipates. With SEO, if I’m putting in that effort in,

Brad Bialy (10:08.936)
Sure.

Steve Gipson (10:11.293)
and I’m building that visibility, it always continues to mature. Sure, there’s going to be tweaking and there’s going be things that need to be adjusted, but everything I do today benefits me tomorrow. And even if I stop it, those pages still exist, that content’s still there, and I’m still ranking, if I’ve done it properly, on the search engines and ideally even in things like your AI language models. So that’s why I think SEO is…

Brad Bialy (10:36.481)
Yeah.

Steve Gipson (10:38.983)
If I’m going to invest in anything to put my dollars anywhere, really feel like SEO is probably where I’m going to put.

Brad Bialy (10:46.274)
I have never thought of ongoing SEO and SEO work as a savings account or a retirement plan, but it really is, right? It’s that compound interest. It’s the work you do today is the call you might receive from a prospect next year. And I think why it’s such a hard sell for me, and Steve, I’m gonna push you on this one. I talk to a lot of clients, a lot of clients every single day. The last couple of weeks, not so much because my hours are very, very different with a new baby.

Steve Gipson (10:52.543)
That’s great.

Steve Gipson (11:14.323)
Right.

Brad Bialy (11:14.434)
but I usually talk to a lot of clients and we’re gonna get back to that. How do you convince me? I’m a recruiter right now. You’re telling me I need SEO, but I need orders today. I need orders yesterday. Why is that still the first play?

Steve Gipson (11:26.601)
Sure.

Steve Gipson (11:30.463)
Well, I mean, I can’t, if you need orders today, right? It’s not the right method for there, but is it something that should be neglected just because you need orders today? Are you going to need orders tomorrow? Okay, so one, we need to be doing things that allow us, so if you would have done this 12 months ago, then you’d be in a position, right, exactly, 100%, right? So that still stands true. And so, you know,

Brad Bialy (11:42.721)
Absolutely.

Brad Bialy (11:50.988)
best time to plant a tree is a year ago or today. Right, Steve? Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Gipson (11:58.879)
I can’t help it that we didn’t invest in what we needed to do 12 months ago, but don’t let that stop you from investing in what you need to do today to be successful 12 months from now. And what I like about SEO, what I like about some of these efforts is you talked about whether it’s client or candidate, these things can really benefit both audiences. And so you’re not necessarily having to put together just a very strict marketing campaign to A or to B.

but you’re putting together terms and keywords and content that’s going to resonate with both that allows you to be visible there. So, I mean, you know, it’s not a great answer in the sense of, if you need sales today, yeah, I think there’s other things that we should be doing to be a little bit more aggressive. And I think you’re going to have to, you’re going to have to be aggressive through some things like maybe, you know, direct email campaigns, maybe some IDM campaigns, maybe getting out there with some PPC campaigns as well.

and being, having high ad spend, all those things. And so that can be a short term fix for sure. But in the midst of that, if you’re not doing some form of content creation or SEO, you’re gonna miss out on what you should be establishing for tomorrow and you’re always gonna be chasing your tail, I feel like.

Brad Bialy (13:08.846)
I that thought. I like the thought of I can’t fix what you didn’t do a year ago. I can’t fix that your diet has been trash for 15 years, right? But I can change where it’s gonna be in a month or where it’s gonna be in a year. And I like that logic. And that’s why I wanted to push you on it because I have that conversation every day. And it’s Brad, need candidates now or I need orders now because we have sort of that pendulum swinging based on who you’re talking to. And I love the thought and I understand it, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on, well, if I need orders yesterday, why is this still the right?

Now for me, I went specifically and what did I type in? So I articulated the right way. I said, if what the question again was what one piece of the marketing puzzle would I start with if I had to start somewhere to drive sales and orders? And I said, I would go back to my database specifically former customers. And the reason for that is because throughout the calls that I’m a part of throughout the conversations that I’m a part of, we’re constantly chasing the next order and the new lead. We

fail to think about the lead that we had in the client that we had a year ago, five years ago. Why are we not working with that person anymore? What went wrong? Do they know what we’re doing now? Do they think we’re client A who services only welders in Buffalo, New York, and they don’t know that we also help with other areas of that plant, that facility? Why aren’t they a current customer? And what I’ve been stressing a lot on the calls that I’m a part of and the consulting that I’m a part of is,

You have three buckets of customers. have your former customers, you have your current customers, and then people have no idea who you are. If we need marketing messaging, we need to be very deliberate with each of those buckets. And right now I see an absolute ton of opportunity and missed opportunity with former customers. So if I had to get an order right now, my life depended on it, my salary depended on it, in some ways your life does depend on it, right? If you’re commission -based,

Steve Gipson (15:01.192)
Yeah, yeah.

Brad Bialy (15:02.19)
your livelihood does depend on it. I would go back to former customers and even if they don’t have an order with me right now or want to place an order with me right now, I want to find out why. What’s going on? Tell me about your business. What are you feeling? What are you experiencing? Why not us? And be so crystal clear into understanding their business and that individual that you know exactly what it takes to get their business when they are ready.

Steve Gipson (15:26.271)
Yeah, I like that. mean, to me, you you look at a recruiter’s desk and they’re probably working, you know, can’t project exactly, but probably 25 to 50 clients in the given time, right? That they probably communicate with or contact with on within a year. But throughout the 10 year, 20 year, 30 year career that they’ve had, they probably have in their, in the proverbial drawer, maybe some of them probably still have it in their drawer, signed agreements from hundreds of organizations.

Brad Bialy (15:53.484)
Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Gipson (15:55.289)
And rather than go back to those that they have already connected with, already have signed agreements from on paper, that kind of warm in, they try to chase new business and individuals they’ve never spoken to. And so, yes, there is a much easier path to kind of reinvigorating that specific type of past client. So I think that’s great. Same thing with candidates though, too.

I think a lot of people forget the database, right? We’re always, every search that recruiters start on now, it becomes, and again, broad sweeping statements, right? But becomes a new search, because we all go to LinkedIn, or we all go look on Indeed, or whatever job board source we’re looking for, versus actually going to our database, where we’ve had conversations with people that are already, we know are great candidates, just weren’t the right fit at that time. So.

Brad Bialy (16:23.758)
Of course, 100%. Yeah.

Brad Bialy (16:35.544)
Yup. Yup. Yup.

Brad Bialy (16:48.952)
Yeah. So I think there’s a couple of reasons why the database probably stinks. We probably don’t have people tagged the right way. We can’t use our database. And at that point, it’s just a huge cluster of names. I also wonder if there’s psychology there and I don’t know offhand, but I wonder if there’s a feeling of being wronged or this person left me. So I need to go find the new relationship. I got to go find the new girlfriend, right? And I don’t know that. I’d probably like to look into that. I’d also love if anybody’s listening, if they know that, but I wonder if there’s psychology baked into

Steve Gipson (16:58.13)
Right.

Brad Bialy (17:18.934)
I lost a client at some point. So psychologically, I’m not instinctively going to go back there. I’m going to look for something new. And I wonder if that’s why we go down that route. Doesn’t make it right, but.

Steve Gipson (17:29.139)
Yeah. And you know, a lot of it is, well, so it’s the guy that, that, so, you know, I handle all the sales for recruiters websites, right? And so as a guy that, that does that all the time, I get in modes where I’m chasing new prospects all the time versus there’s somebody I spoke to six months ago. That is probably someone that I should call, but maybe I didn’t put it in my calendar. Maybe I just didn’t put a reminder in, cause I got busy and I’m missing out on ton of opportunities of people that I’ve already had a conversation with.

It goes back to Tom’s statement, you know, make it your last cold call. They should remember you. If you made an impact in that initial outreach, if you made some sort of differentiation of who you were, when you call them again, they’re not going to forget that they had that initial conversation. And so if you can do that, and knowingly, if you did that six months ago when you spoke to that client or when you worked with that client five years ago and they remember,

how well you did for them or the communication. Maybe you didn’t make a placement with them, but there was just something there that resonated with them. If you pick up that phone and you call them, the pathway to getting them to give you a new job order is much quicker than somebody you have to completely sell new and make that first impression with.

Brad Bialy (18:47.214)
Listen, friends, if you need to drive orders, you need to close new business. You want to go to former customers, look for new customers. We’re here to help. You can reach out to Steve. You reach out to I on LinkedIn. I love talking strategy. I love talking ideas and consulting with individuals throughout the industry. I know Steve does as well. If you’re not getting the business that you want to right now and you know there’s something that you could be doing differently, reach out to us on LinkedIn. We’d be happy to chat. We’d be happy to offer some time. know I will specifically, and Steve, I’ll speak for you as well, offer some time to work through maybe your business, biggest business challenges.

and how we might be able to assist in Q4. Steve, let’s talk about Dunbar’s number. Again, another segment that you brought to the show. According to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, the magic number is 150. And when we think about 150, Dunbar’s theory holds that we can really only maintain about 150 connections at once. 150 connections at once, again, Dunbar’s number. Steve, what does this mean to you?

Steve Gipson (19:47.199)
So I mean, despite, you know, maybe having 12 ,000 LinkedIn connections or, 10 ,000 Facebook friends, you know, you think about the people that you actually know, you think about the people that actually you recall and remember, and it’s not very many. And the thought came to me on this because I have a lot of recruiting firms that I speak with, a lot of recruiters, tell me, Steve, everyone in my industry already knows me. And every time they tell me that, something inside of me dies.

Brad Bialy (19:52.876)
Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Gipson (20:17.085)
and I get angry and I want to scream at them. I don’t because it’s such a one, it’s a narcissistic point of view, right? It just is. And two, I think it’s lazy. And three, think it’s not true. It’s a false perspective because human beings, according to Dunbar, can only remember.

150 names, right? And some will say, some have challenged us and pushed it to out to like the 250 ish or so. So even if that’s true, let’s say 250. Do you think that for everyone in your industry, every hiring manager, every candidate that you’re one of those 250? No, no, we’re not. And so what does that mean for us? So that means we have to be in front of them. We have to be creating visibility. We have to be constantly marketing our services, making sure that our name is in front of

Brad Bialy (21:00.3)
Right. Right.

Steve Gipson (21:11.111)
So that way when they are thinking of using a service like a recruiting firm or they’re looking to move their career and they want to move forward and they were looking for that next opportunity, that it’s not necessarily that they remember you, but that just your name is at hand. And the importance of that and thinking from that perspective versus that everyone knows me allows you to be more, more consistent and more, more, what’s the word for more direct or more, intentional is what I want more intentional.

about your marketing efforts versus just kind of copying out and saying, well, everyone knows me.

Brad Bialy (21:41.591)
Yeah.

Brad Bialy (21:45.39)
I think we are one post away from being completely forgotten about. I firmly believe in, actually I was just listening to a podcast about this. Holy smokes, this is crazy. Modern Wisdom, as I’ve referenced a few times, Chris Williamson had Oliver Berkman on who was talking, he’s the author of 4 ,000 Weeks, but he has a new book out, and they were talking basically about how we are absolutely

inundated with content across the internet and how it’s always been that way. When the internet launched, we initially already thought, holy smokes, there’s too much here for us. Now it’s even worse. If you are not posting on, let’s say social media, if you are not actively posting on social media, you’re forgotten about in an hour. mean, PR 101 right now, you don’t need any sort of crisis control. You just need to wait until somebody does something more dumb.

and the internet forgets about you. It’s like 24 hours and then all of a sudden it’s forgotten about whether that’s politics or that’s anything. And when we think about Dunbar’s number and we think about, people can retain up to 150 connections. You might come in and out of their lives, right? You see me speak at a conference, okay? Let’s say you’re listening now. You’ve seen me speak at a conference. All of sudden now I’ve replaced somebody in that 150.

You go back to your day to day, you see a long lost friend. Okay. Now Brad is no longer in that one 50 somebody else is we need to do everything we can to stay in front of people, to maintain that one 50 and stay in their world. I completely agree.

Steve Gipson (23:19.517)
Yeah, and that’s the key, right? So even when I and you may be a go to recruiter for them, if you’re constantly working with them, I was thinking about this a little bit this morning. I have to get my air conditioner service before the end of the year. And I know exactly who I’m going to call, right? Because the same guy that I’ve been using, same person I’ve been using for for five years. Right. So I’m going to do that. But if you ask me to name another HVAC person in my town, I have no clue. It’s not it’s not going to happen.

Brad Bialy (23:45.015)
Yeah.

So I can go off about this. My barber, my barber, I booked a haircut this week, late late Monday night, I get a cancellation on my phone. So I text him, I go, Tony, what’s going on, man? Are you just not available at? I was 10 a yesterday. Took an early lunch, got my haircut. He texts me back, he says, hey, I’m at a new location. I’ll give you the details shortly. Right. I went and saw Tony yesterday. He was floored that I went to a new barber shop to get my haircut. I said, Tony.

Steve Gipson (23:49.864)
Okay.

Brad Bialy (24:15.534)
I’m not loyal to the barbershop. I’m loyal to you. You’ve been cutting my hair for four years. And that is exactly it. It’s exactly what we’re saying here. If we have loyalty with people, they stick with us, right? Regardless of where they go or what they do. Just like your AC guy. Hope all goes well. dude, I spent like 10 grand on a new furnace and an AC unit like a couple of years ago. So hopefully, hopefully we just need a tune up here.

Steve Gipson (24:18.495)
Yeah, 100 % right.

Steve Gipson (24:24.253)
Right.

Steve Gipson (24:28.457)
Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, I –

Steve Gipson (24:42.271)
I dread that day, so my house is like 65, 70 years old. And so at some point it’s gonna happen as well. I’m just hoping it doesn’t happen at the same time the roof goes down. Because otherwise, I’m just gonna have to, I’m just gonna move or sell my kid, I don’t know which one yet, but one of them. exactly, I’ll make them compete, yeah. I think the three year old would beat the seven year old though, so. Right.

Brad Bialy (24:53.357)
Move.

Brad Bialy (24:57.023)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Survivor style. Exactly right.

Maybe at some things, yeah for sure. Who’s better at Mario Kart?

Steve Gipson (25:09.994)
they actually got a Wii and let them play the three year old by far. Yeah.

Brad Bialy (25:13.742)
Of course, well, that could be how we kick somebody out of the family, get better at Mario Kart. But back to Dunbar’s number, when we think about 150, friends, it is…

Steve Gipson (25:19.86)
Yeah.

Brad Bialy (25:24.888)
Poor logic to think that everybody in your area, everybody in your network, everyone that you’ve ever done business with just remembers you. We need to be top of mind. We need marketing to stay top of mind. We need things like email marketing, pay -per -click advertising, phone calls, drop -ins, hey, how you doings? We need social media. We need this consistency because there’s loyalty that comes with consistency.

And if you’ve dropped off and you haven’t helped somebody in a few years, there is no shot that they’re immediately going to think to call you. They’re going to think about who is top of mind for them. So we need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to stay in that 150.

Steve Gipson (26:01.63)
Right.

Steve Gipson (26:05.087)
One thing I want to say too here is that, you know, people listening may be like, well, of course you guys are going to say that you’re marketers, right? You, this is what you do. So don’t use us. Just do it yourself. I mean, you know, I don’t, you know, it’s not even, you know, take the, the idea that we do self -lead services and, and take this information and content we’re saying and apply it in your own way. You can do a lot of these things that we talk about yourself.

Brad Bialy (26:16.62)
Right, right, right.

Steve Gipson (26:31.655)
And I would encourage everyone to become as self -sufficient as possible from a marketing perspective. so, you know, it’s, I feel like I’m, I feel like I’m LeVar Burton from Reading Rainbow. Don’t take my word for it. Just, you know, do it. do research, look online. There’s tons of resources that are saying exactly the same things that we do. And there’s resources for you to be able to be equipped to do this yourself. So whether you’re using an agency or not, these are all things that every recruiter should be doing today.

Brad Bialy (26:35.598)
100%.

Brad Bialy (26:46.456)
Yeah.

Brad Bialy (27:02.296)
Couldn’t agree more. Steve, last segment here that I want to talk about why we need to start thinking about one of one content and being more deliberate with it. This is something that’s been on my radar for quite a while. Alex Hermosy, somebody that I respect and look up to quite a bit in terms of his content, he talks about one of zero content, content that has never even been thought of. One of one content is certainly that one of one. There’s no other content like it.

I again was listening to that podcast or that I was just talking about modern wisdom and they were talking about how we’re getting inundated with articles and resources and in posts on social media. My inbox is a dumpster fire in terms of people cold outreaching to me. I can’t tell you how many things I unsubscribe to a day just because I don’t want to be bothered with it. We need to think about one of one content because people crave uniqueness.

When we think about creating content for staffing and recruiting firms, I would encourage everybody listening in again, just like Steve said, you can do this yourself and I hope you do do this yourself. What is that content that only you can create? We do not need another how to write a resume article. We do not need another what to wear to an interview article. We do not need a blog article on how to interview more strategically. It’s already been done. But you have inside information in doing this for so long.

that you can put your spin on it and you can say, I’ve interviewed a thousand people, this is what works well, this is what makes candidates stand out. Or I’ve reviewed 10 ,000 resumes, these are the five things that usually make them stand out from the top of the stack and make it that one of one spin because you have a personal take on every single thing that you do. Steve, thoughts?

Steve Gipson (28:48.607)
Fair. Yeah, I agree 100%. I do think it is hard, right? Because I think in a lot of ways there becomes that barrier of, I don’t really know anything unique, know, an imposter syndrome kind of thought process that’s there. And even the vulnerability of putting yourself out there, I think can become very, very difficult to put out that one -to -one content. Because I know I struggle with that all the time, right? So the background I have in the industry and…

Brad Bialy (28:53.805)
Sure.

Steve Gipson (29:17.673)
You know, does anybody really want to hear any other marketing advice, all those things, but, every time I’m able to, put something together and, and it has my perspective and my thoughts is that one to one is that unique. It is now something that no one’s ever thought about or said in that exact same way. And so, I think, I think it’s extremely important. I will lean on the side of if it’s difficult and maybe even throw a question at you is, so what are you, what is your recommendation? What is a process? What is something that you can do to kind of start implementing it or

putting together that type of content.

Brad Bialy (29:50.53)
Think about a question and answer it organically. Exactly what we’re doing right here, Steve. We can talk about anything, but it’s a personal take at it. And when we start thinking about one of one content, here’s a great place to start. One of one content. You get a brand new testimonial that comes in, write an article about it, position it like a case story, right? So a candidate reaches out, they love working with you, a client reaches out, they love working with you, they give you a testimonial, great. What was the challenge they had?

What was the solution? What strategy do you put together to help them? And what was the resolution? That is one of one content that is only important to that one individual. But now others see themselves in that world because they want to be like Steve, candidate who is now placed at a great location. Other opportunities. If we’re thinking about blogging, we’re thinking about creating articles. Again, think about your topic and then think about what you can bring to it. So if you want to talk about hiring in Buffalo, New York.

Okay, so right now, you need to drive more orders in Buffalo, New York, specifically from I don’t know, you work with marketing agencies, you place marketers in Buffalo, New York, okay? Well, what are those decision makers worried about? What are their challenges? What are their pain points? You’ve been doing this for years, educate them, talk about what it is that you know that they might not know. If they do know it, talk about how you know a couple things that they do too, so that you position yourself on the same level as them.

But when we think about it, it’s tearing back the generality and speaking more from the heart about the topic and have some sort of opinion on the topic. I hope I did that justice.

Steve Gipson (31:27.231)
Right. Yeah. No, think that, no, I think you did. think that’s great. because even, you know, we tell this to some of our new employees that they come in maybe with a great marketing background, but that maybe don’t know a whole lot about like staffing and recruiting yet. Maybe they’re learning that part of the business. but on let’s say day one, they know more about marketing and staffing combined than 90 % of the people they’re talking to just because now they’ve, they’ve started to learn about staffing and, their marketing background that they bring to the table.

Brad Bialy (31:51.63)
100%.

Steve Gipson (31:56.455)
It’s such a great perspective that that that individual on the other side of the phone is that has no idea about. And so so you can be an expert. You can find a way to be able to create that you need content, even if you don’t feel like you have any more of a different perspective than some of those individuals you’re talking to. But that person in a marketing agency, they’ve never probably recruited before. And they may know more about marketing to you. But your combination of marketing and recruiting and your ability to be able to the knowledge of the Buffalo marketplace.

allows you to be able to have a unique perspective and create information that’s going to resonate with your specific audience.

Brad Bialy (32:31.5)
Yeah, and you had made a comment about, that imposter syndrome that creeps in or somebody’s already creating this content. Why me? Or I don’t want to be an influencer or I don’t want to be on camera. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do that. That’s going to creep up. I have crazy imposter syndrome. I’ll be the first to admit that so much so. And I’ve said this on the show before, when I’m speaking at a conference, I don’t watch one or two sessions before me because I get so in my own head that I shouldn’t be on the stage with someone like that. I usually go to the room or I’ll go get a cup of coffee. I’m alone.

Steve Gipson (32:55.849)
Sure.

Brad Bialy (33:00.206)
before a talk because I get in my own head even after doing this for 11 years and being on stages and having a podcast for six years. But when we think about why we create content in my mind, and this goes back to a conversation that Lozar and I had a little while ago, is everyone’s looking for a coach. Why not us? Why not me? Why not you? Why not somebody else? When you think about a diet,

strength and fitness, training for a marathon, whatever it is, there are thousands of people that have a diet plan. There are thousands of people that have a marathon plan. You stick to one person because you trust them. You find them, you listen to them, you respect them, and now all of sudden they’re your proverbial coach. When it comes to finding your next job, when it comes to hiring, those individuals need a coach. They need to trust somebody. And the only way that we can create trust is by putting out great content, by having testimonials, by having case stories, by…

letting them do their due diligence and do the research and say, listen, I trust Brad. I know there are 10 other people in Buffalo, New York who can do this, but I trust him because of his track record, because of everything he’s done, because of everything he says, I want to work with Brad. And then as a result of that, they trickle in. But when we think about creating that content, I hear you. I get it. I don’t want to be on camera. I’m not a good writer. That’s fine. Find what you do like to do. I don’t like to write.

you’ll never catch me writing a blog article. I’ve tried, I can stare at a blank sheet of paper for hours, but I can get on a podcast with you, Steve, and we can talk for 45 minutes, shoot from the hip. We barely talk about the segments because I like it more organically like that. Or I can get on a stage in front of a couple hundred people and the jitters go away after a minute or two because it’s more excitement than it is nervousness. But I can’t write. I don’t want to write. And that’s okay. That’s just the world that we need to live in. So think about the medium then that works for you.

Steve Gipson (34:35.23)
Right.

Steve Gipson (34:50.739)
Yeah, I think that’s great. One thing I gotta say, how dare you mention Matt Lozare’s name in front of me?

Brad Bialy (34:53.614)
Please.

Brad Bialy (34:58.894)
I, yeah.

Steve Gipson (34:59.743)
I feel like the new girlfriend that just got this old relationship thrown in my face about how smart he was or how well he treated you. Man, he was such a good, good co -host. Ouch. Ouch.

Brad Bialy (35:03.564)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, how witty. Yeah.

Yeah, his golf game. I think he still listens to the show, so he’ll probably hear this and texting me about it. Matt, if you’re listening, I hope you’re well and I hope your golf game is doing well and I hope your lawn is green. Steve, anything else for the show, buddy? That’s your show and thank you for listening to another episode of insights. If you found this episode valuable, please, we would love to know. You message Brad or Steve on LinkedIn and tell us what you’re thinking. If you have a question.

Steve Gipson (35:23.679)
That’s awesome. No, I think that’s it.

Brad Bialy (35:39.17)
you need a hand with your digital or recruitment marketing, you can reach out to info at Haley marketing .com and be sure that you tell them insights sent you for Steve Gibson. I’m Brad Byley. We’ll see you next time.

 

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