​Russ Johns 0:03
Welcome to the #piratebroadcast, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings where you can expand your connections, your community. #Kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let's get this party started.

It's another beautiful day for the #piratebroadcast. It's amazing when we can bring #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. A lot of people ask me, what's the point of the show? It's like, if you pay attention, you'll pick up some hints. You'll pick up some strategies. You might even pick up a few ideas for your business, or your life or anything like that. If you like the show, and you're in the comments, drop us a note so we know what's going on where you're coming from any questions that you might have. Today we have Kelly in the room and Kelly, how are you today?

Kelly Robinson 0:56
I'm doing great. It's a beautiful Tuesday here and I told Ross before we went live I've got landscapers outside. Sorry if you hear that.

Russ Johns 1:06
Well, we all got to get our landscaping done. It was suck landscapers is the garbage truck or the recycle truck or they might cover a van or something back, somebody backing up it's like replacing other pins

Kelly Robinson 1:26
You might come to we don't know.

Russ Johns 1:33
For those that don't know you, and if you don't know, Kelly, connect with her. She's on LinkedIn, she's out there in the world. Share a little bit about who you are, what you're doing here, Kelly.

Kelly Robinson 1:49
I am a newly entrepreneur, I'll say within the last year or I've built my business called PannaKnows, pa n and a panna is a Sanskrit, Pali and Sanskrit language and in Pali Panna means wisdom. So from wisdom means learning through experience. It's a recruiting company. I help my partners attract and retain talent. Clients and partners will call me and say I need to find, these specific needs, and then my team and I will go kind of hunt them down and find the best possible fit for them.

Russ Johns 2:32
That's fantastic. In this time right now, I would imagine you're very active in terms of a lot of people a lot of knowledge workers that are not actively working, looking different types and styles of people do you have a vertical that you're working in specifically or a tower or that you look at

Kelly Robinson 2:56
I work really in anything Across the board from I'll say entry level, up to director level and executive level is a small enough company. I happen to do a lot of work in technical types of companies, especially SaaS, Software as a Service types of companies. And the ground is a lot of health care. So nurses therapists have done a lot of that.

But my business and my team is built around all different a variety of backgrounds and that's intentional. I am an expert in recruiting and that's what my philosophy is, you didn't you don't have to walk the walk, you have to be able to talk to this talk, right? If you are smart enough, you can really dive in and understand what a client needs. Me I'm building searches customized every time because I'm retained by a client to find specific needs for them, the kind of recruiter builds a talent pool and kind of tries to sell them for lack of a better term sell them to clients that need, and I do the opposite. My philosophy is that recruiting is recruiting if you're smart enough, you can pick it up and they'll strategy.

Russ Johns 4:25
Well, there's a lot of people in LinkedIn there's a lot of recruiters and I know that it's a huge service opportunity that a lot of people need and require and it's interesting I get people reach out to me for different reasons, because my work background is fairly diverse. Recruiters will reach out to me And much like yourself, I'm sure that you're looking for a very specific skill set. We're unique client that needs a position filled. It sounds Like you go out and search for that ideal candidate, rather than building an inventory of people that do things.

Kelly Robinson 5:09
That's right. One thing that I do that I have clients that rely on me for is starting to build an inventory specific to their ongoing needs. They might say we always look for these three to five types of positions. I will go out and especially right now where people aren't necessarily hiring, they are still recruiting, which is smart, right? Because there's a lot of inventory right now available. There's a lot of people looking for work. My team and I will go out and pipeline and kind of build that for them so that when they are ready, they're ready to go. There's a difference between hiring and recruiting. When I talk to people and they say, well, we're not hiring right now I'll say, well, it's okay. You should be recruiting. Right,

Russ Johns 6:01
Don't worry about hiring process just recruit,

Kelly Robinson 6:04
You need to build your pipeline so that when you're ready to go, you've got people.

Russ Johns 6:09
Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly Robinson 6:10
It's different. Now people may look at hiring differently. They might be bringing on freelancers or, you know, maybe independent contractors as opposed to full time employees. There's opportunity for rebranding kind of on the candidate side, but also from an employer's perspective as far as what they're going to be hiring and what their needs are going to be.

Russ Johns 6:34
Look who's in the room.

Kelly Robinson 6:35
Oh, hi, Nick Dorsey, we were talking about you Before we went live

Russ Johns 6:43
Yeah, we're talking about you, Nick. So welcome. Welcome. Welcome to the pirate broadcast. So and then Gabriel, you probably know Gabriel.

Kelly Robinson 6:53
Yes, yeah.

Russ Johns 6:55
How are you doing Gabriel? I love learning these types of things. Then Wendy

Kelly Robinson 7:00
Hi, Wendy.

Russ Johns 7:02
Yeah. And Jill Sullivan is here.

Kelly Robinson 7:04
Whoa, Jill. Hi, Jill.

Russ Johns 7:07
How's it going?

Kelly Robinson 7:08
Oh, that's awesome.

Russ Johns 7:10
Kon is here. Kon is a great one to know.

Kelly Robinson 7:15
Yeah

Russ Johns 7:16
I just want to bring it to the attention of everybody here that there are different times we go through our lives have different periods in our lives. For myself. I'm always been a relationship individual that is received employment. Like all my income right now, all my revenue I was thinking about this the other day, is directly related to a relationship I've built over time. Your position is probably a lot the same way you know, of people.

You've talked to people, you've had conversations, you met them online you kind of get a sense of who they are. Then maybe a company comes over and says Hey, I think that I would like to hire somebody to do X. You say, I know the person that needs to be introduced to you. It's kind of a sense. How did you evolve into this position? Have you always been in recruiting? Kelly, Have you always been of a fascination with this? Or is this a skill set that was acquired over time?

Kelly Robinson 8:26
Yeah, I think I was kind of pushed into it. Listen, people go to school for human resources. Recruiting is a part of human resources. It's a big part, but you have to remember HR is like a huge umbrella of things, right? People go to school for HR people don't go to school for recruiting. It just doesn't happen. Interesting story. I was in college.

Three years ago, in my third year, I was just finishing up and I decided I didn't want to go to school anymore. Not such a popular decision with my parents. My mother was a teacher for like 30 years and my father worked for why Yes. Which is not Pfizer major pharmaceutical company for 40 years.

Russ Johns 9:16
Oh Wow

Kelly Robinson 9:18
Entrepreneurial

Russ Johns 9:19
Able employment?

Kelly Robinson 9:20
Yes. And both, right. Pensions, both of them pensions, that kind of thing. So different world now. I decided to do that. That wasn't a popular decision. My father who is amazing, he's my late father, but he is my person in life. said, Listen, kiddo, you you have two choices. You can you have, you're able to live in my house for two months, but in two months, you either get a job or you go join the army or something. I got a job. What I did was I said Dad, I don't know what to do. And he said Why if we use this company called Kelly girls, which is now called Kelly services, so if anyone knows Kelly services, this is 20, some 22 years ago, it was called Kelly girls, which is terrifying.

But he said, Why don't you go to them? It's a temp agency, and they'll interview you. Maybe they have some jobs for you and I went in, I interviewed within a week because I was like hot to work. I wanted to work. I'm just not a student, but I don't mind working 100 hours a week, I couldn't go to school for 12. So it's interesting. It's just not how I work. I went and they said, you should be a recruiter and we have a job for you. We're going to place you in this three month job as like an assistant recruiter and I was an assistant recruiter for this company for three months. Then they moved me into a recruiting job and I was there for six years. I did technical recruiting, which is one of the hardest to learn and clinical.

I fell into it and here I am 22 years Later now I own a recruiting company. I always say like people don't go to any recruiter will tell you that they don't go to school to do that. something you'd like you say it's a skill set you acquire. It's something you have to really work at, because there are a lot of recruiters and you have to differentiate yourself. You have to be really focused on making good matches and not know the dollar at the end of the day. Because if you're only focused on the dollar, you're not going to make good matches, and your business is going to fall apart.

Russ Johns 11:24
Tha's a great point and I want to dive into that a little bit more because, having, let's say, discovered recruiting you discovered it through a chain of events that took place and it's been very valuable for you. It sounds like it's something, sometimes you have to Learn to love what you do versus find out what you love to do, right? It's kind of like you were recruiting for yourself it's like, Okay, I'm gonna go out this there's wide open spaces here. I could probably find a number of jobs that I could positions I could fulfill. However, it was very fortunate that you that you discovered this position in recruiting that actually allows and creates value and adds value to the world in its many other dimensions.

Kelly Robinson 12:30
Yeah

Russ Johns 12:33
Are you enjoying it?

Kelly Robinson 12:35
I love it yeah, also you know, this whole COVID has slowed things down because people are I don't want to hire I don't want to hire so we we still have some clients that are hiring and we have some just building pipeline and recruiting. I told them about the importance of doing that. When they're ready to they're ready to go, but Because of that, it's given me an opportunity to do some other really cool things to that, or things that they're they've come out of recruiting, right? Like I've learned, like, I have a podcast now. I have a virtual advisory board.

These are things that I've learned from some of the skill sets that I build within recruiting and networking and talking to people and building my relationships. It's a really exciting time for me, there's a lot of passion. I'm a very passionate person that could be good and bad, right. I try to focus on the good part of it. It's been a fun time for me because the the recruiting skill set has really brought a lot of value to my life and other avenues.

Russ Johns 13:47
Yeah, well I think right now, there's a lot of discovery taking place. A lot of people are reflecting on is this really what I want to do? Maybe I want to find Somebody else to work, maybe I want to find something else to do. It's one of those things that you have to kind of evolve and then almost through unplanned circumstances like being laid off because of a pandemic. It gives you the opportunity. It's an unfortunate circumstance. However, it does open up doors to new opportunities.

Kelly Robinson 14:26
Yeah,

Russ Johns 14:26
I think it's really important for people to understand that there is a gift in the challenge.

Kelly Robinson 14:32
Yeah, it will be interesting to watch everything unfold when companies start hiring again to see what they're going to hire for. But it gives people this kind of timeframe has given people an opportunity to really take a look at themselves and think what makes me happy what kind of work makes me happy. Where do I feel valued, so people have not lost their job. Being in a virtual environment has brought to light. How maybe they're not happy, right? Because some people, their managers haven't even checked in on them.

Your three months at home and you haven't really heard from your manager or heard from the leadership team that makes and guess what you're doing so it gives you if the look on the flip side of the positive is it gives you an opportunity to think Is there something else that I want to do? Is there a way that I want to rebrand myself now, because there's so many potential options for people and players and candidates, if you

Russ Johns 15:40
Do you have any kind of sense Kelly I don't know about the percentage of people that are comfortable with their remote work now that they've done it for three months versus the people that are can't wait to get back into the office.

Kelly Robinson 15:57
I hear. I'm gonna This is just Anecdotally about what the people that I'm talking to. This is anyone, not just, you know, candidates in general, the world that I'm talking to every day, which is five to 10 people every day, I'm going to say about 10% of them has said, I just can't wait to get in the office. The rest say, I love this other than the kids being at home.

Russ Johns 16:21
Sure.

Kelly Robinson 16:22
Something I could get used to because I'm more productive. I'm able to get here earlier. I do hear a lot of this. You've probably heard this resume fatigue people have, because zoom for whatever reason you would think in person would be more but I think because there's so much zoom now all day even replacing some phone calls that would have been before getting tired. I do hear that. I think if we continue to go in this format, we will we'll return to lessons and phone calls and it just a better mix. I think right now, it was like how do we engage everyone let's try to do zooms as much as possible.

Russ Johns 17:09
It's almost like overcompensating for the fact that you're not in an office

Kelly Robinson 17:13
Right?

Russ Johns 17:13
Phone calls may not take place you're still in the situation where you're having to stay in communication, reach out and feel like you're part of the team you're part of the equation so the audience how many are remote workers and have been remote workers or our new Lee remote workers. I'd be kind of curious into that. Anyway, I do have relationships are key. Jimmy Clem, a Jimmy's here

Kelly Robinson 17:55
Hey Jimmy

Russ Johns 17:55
Rock the house from Colorado. I can Jill, so we get a lot of people in here. Oh, yes. Wendy, there is a gift in the challenge.

Kelly Robinson 18:07
Yeah, that's true.

Russ Johns 18:10
Then also, Damon said that been a time to really figure out how to follow your passion and create more value.

Kelly Robinson 18:17
Mm hmm.

Russ Johns 18:19
I have to say, Kelly, I think that as a recruiter and somebody that is really searching for the ideal person, not the one that will make you the most money. I think there's a unique blend of personalities that have to be in play. You look at the environment, the culture, the individual company, you have to look at the culture that the individual has arrived from or been exposed to. Then it's almost like, finding the right date, right?

Kelly Robinson 18:51
Yeah.

Russ Johns 18:52
It's like that conversation has to take place and it's just amazing to me, that that's a skill set, like you said, that has to be earned and learned over time, I just something that you can take a test and get qualified for and, the steps that are necessary to do the job.

Kelly Robinson 19:08
Mm hmm. It's not a one size fits all. So it's not that I can say my philosophy is skill set over character, or something like that or character over skillset, because every company is different. It has to be a good match for whatever the need is. It is starting over every time. You have to be a really good listener, right? That's really, really important for me to understand what a client needs, but then also see past what they're saying, because sometimes we don't really know what they need. Sometimes its mission and they're learning themselves.

It's about listening and paying attention and adjusting agile, agile, so you have to as a recruiter, You need to be able to flex and bend a little bit. It's not a black and white situation, it's not like it is this or it is that sometimes there needs to be some movement in between a little gray little color something. You know how to bring that information to a client and a hiring manager because often they don't know how to hire. It's not something, they're really

Russ Johns 20:27
First first job description.

Kelly Robinson 20:32
No, and they don't want it to be right, which is why we're expertise. One of my concern that I've had, Russ is that because there's so many people available, companies will start to say let's do this on our own. Let's just post these jobs and see instead of partnering with a company like like mine or other companies, they might try to do it on their own and then guess what happens their main job becomes recruiting

Russ Johns 21:01
Yeah, then they take their eye off the ball and then all of a sudden they're making mistakes on the recruiting process.

Kelly Robinson 21:07
That's right. That's why I say it's not rocket science, but I am in business for a reason.

Russ Johns 21:15
There is an art involved, as far as I can tell PannaKnows

Kelly Robinson 21:22
That's right.

Russ Johns 21:25
I just want to I just want to remind people that concepts in times of upheaval and crisis relationships can carry us through the other side, human connections are even more important. In the days if social distancing. Yeah, virtual hug six feet away, right?

Kelly Robinson 21:42
Yeah, I always say that it's really, it's really important to do the right thing for the client. I always tell when I'm doing a sales call, or I get a new position from a current client. I'll say, listen, I'm going to ask you questions, and I'm going to interact with you a lot. It might seem like a lot of time upfront, but my only intention here is two things. The only intention is to either get more business from you or get a referral. I don't do the right thing by you, that's not gonna happen. That's why some recruiters, they teach you to focus on the dollar, like when I when I first started it was like, focus on the dollar, what's closest to the dollar, and that is not helpful. I think if you focus on what's right for the client, for your partner, and for the candidate or potential employee, the money comes if you're doing the right thing

Russ Johns 22:45
Focus on the value.

Kelly Robinson 22:49
Right

Russ Johns 22:50
I love that.

Kelly Robinson 22:51
The Other stuff comes

Russ Johns 22:52
Everything will come if you put it out there, it will return. Damon says he's been living remote live for two years now. It takes a balance of both to be happy. I've been in remote work for over 10. So it's like, okay, and all of a sudden, Nick pannaknows rocks.

Kelly Robinson 23:12
Well, hold on. I got a picture. Leave it up.

Russ Johns 23:17
Take a Picture.

Kelly Robinson 23:19
Thank you, Nick.

Russ Johns 23:21
Yeah, zoom fatigue is real.

Kelly Robinson 23:25
I think something else that's interesting is what what Damon was just kind of saying, like, you have to find your balance when you're at home. I think we're gonna have a lot more of this at home, which I really hope so as a recruiter because I can find the best talent, not the best talent available in Chicago by the client so we can look for the best talent but finding a balance is important. I get to my desk every day by 715 at the latest sometimes earlier, and I make sure that I'm done In the afternoon, usually later afternoon, but I'll make sure that I'm done. I go exercise and I spend time with my child, and then I might come back. But we'll have to make boundaries for yourself.

Russ Johns 24:13
Yeah

Kelly Robinson 24:14
Otherwise you really can get burned out. I mean, you've been doing it for 10 years, right? So you know that

Russ Johns 24:19
It's a marathon. It's not, it's not a, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. You have to make sure that you take time out, you break it up. That's the beauty of it is you do have the opportunity. If something comes up, you can take time to go do something. I just think it's a different mindset. It's a different way of approaching the way you get things done because you still have the priorities. You still have the deadlines, you still have everything that goes along with that. It's just a matter of pacing yourself. I really think it's important for like you say, to take time out for yourself and self care.

I want to shift gears before we jump off here, Kelly, because I think that, as a recruiter, you would probably get very good at searching for certain subjects and things. LinkedIn is probably a tool that you use on a regular basis. I would imagine.

Kelly Robinson 25:15
It is. Yeah.

Russ Johns 25:18
Are there any secret knowledge or nuggets of knowledge that we would be able to acquire, that you might want to share with somebody?

Kelly Robinson 25:26
Yeah, that's great. here's my secret, I pay for LinkedIn recruiter. Google searches, and then save them into different projects, which are really nice. So you're not kind of reusing the same people. LinkedIn to search in LinkedIn, even the free version, it's similar to Google, right? You're on building a search. I may be looking at either an industry or certain companies, certain locations or certain skills, and you can build that all out. In the free search, but something that's really cool is, if I were to be searching, and I come up with Russ John's, if you look on the right side of LinkedIn, you'll see it'll say, Here's people who are to Russ Johns. I don't know if you ever noticed that that's a good way more intelligence, right? Because you're, oh, this company has this or you can cross reference on titles, but my biggest secret is to pay for it.

Russ Johns 26:29
I have Sales Navigator and it works for me. The point I'm making here is folks sometimes there are good tools that you pay for that optimize your work. It's like a carpenter has a sharp saw and it's a baker has balls and, things like this analogy that if you're doing work and you're making progress, and you're building a business you need to make sure that you invest in your tools to,

Kelly Robinson 27:04
Okay, here's what I'll say I have a lot of tools that I pay for, I use LinkedIn 98% of the time, it works better. I have these tools because as a recruiter, you have to have them right. I have to be able to serve certain sites. So that prospects are you know, comfortable and my partners are comfortable with what I'm doing. I still pay for them. But LinkedIn is 98% of what I do, and I've been a member since like, 2004, but I really used it until about a year ago when I really started growing my personal brand It's an amazing tool. It really is you could do stuff you can meet people, like all the people that just came up

Russ Johns 27:52
You can become a pirate at any moment.

Kelly Robinson 27:55
You never know. You never know you're going to become a pirate. I've been watching the show. I got an invitation and I was so excited. I didn't know worthy of being a pirate.

Russ Johns 28:06
You are so pirate worthy even with your landscapers

Kelly Robinson 28:14
lawn now thank goodness

Russ Johns 28:18
Well, it's a wonderful time to be here. It's all about like Kon said is it's about relationships, it's about putting things in perspective and making sure Damon mentioned it earlier. It's just a matter of being able to pull these things together and say, Okay, what do I want to do with what it is that I'm doing? Because I heard a micro on Dirty Jobs. He goes, a lot of people find these jobs, and then they've learned to love them.

They find a way to learn to love their jobs versus what am I passionate What am I going to go do what I need to what do I love. It's adifferent perspective and we all add value to the world and we all bring things that can create value. I appreciate and applaud your work and your efforts and things that are finding the right people for the right jobs. It's amazing to be connected here and if people need to connect with Kelly, she's a pirate now. So tell her Russ sent you. Captain Russ sent ya.

Kelly Robinson 29:28
Yeah, yeah, I am open to connections. I'd love to meet new people. I've met really great friends.

Russ Johns 29:34
What life wisdom Would you like to drop in for the show today? Life wisdom.

Kelly Robinson 29:42
I would say no, no regrets. Things happen to teach you along the way and to challenge and my other piece of advice would be to read Curtis Tompkins more daily morning posts on LinkedIn. They're so uplifting to get you going And the last thing is, I would say things that I do every day are I visualize my day, and I practice gratitude every morning from the day before. So it sets me up for the day to be happy and focus on what I'm going to do. And then the next morning, I start all over saying, Wow, I had a great day yesterday. So I think that's really important.

Russ Johns 30:23
A little bit of joy, a little bit of gratitude every day makes a big difference. So well, Kelly, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. As everybody knows as I close out the show, #kindnessiscool. #smilesarefree. You #enjoytheday.

Kelly Robinson 30:44
Thanks, thanks. Great to be here.

Russ Johns 30:48
Thank you for joining the #piratebroadcast. If you found this content valuable. Please like comment and share it across your social media channels. I would love the opportunity to help others grow Their business. #Thepiratesyndicate is a platform where you show up we produce the show. It's that easy. If you want to be seen be heard and be talked about. Join #thepiratesyndicate today.

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