From Navy Veteran to Recruitment Owner: Micah Clay's Journey to Success

Benjamin Mena [00:00:00]:
Coming up on this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast.

Micah Clay [00:00:03]:
Everything to me is long term relationships, relational over transactional. That's my entire wheelhouse. Really does come down to be omnipresent across all channels at all times where you can. That's how you're going to build your trust and recognition. 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 [00:00:36]:
I'm excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast. One of the main reasons why I'm excited about this is this recruiter does zero cold calls. This recruiter does zero V gen. Everything is inbound, but also his heart's in the right place as retired military. Like, he just has such a heart for working with veterans and he has figured out how to set up his business to be able to do that, but also set up his business where he's not having to sit there and chase the work. The work is chasing him, chasing him so much that he's in the middle of hiring right now to help because he has so much inbound. So, Michael Clay, I'm so excited about having you on the podcast.

Micah Clay [00:01:11]:
Thanks for having me, Ben. And thank you again for joining mine. And it feels like I'm finally getting spotlighted amongst tons of my mentors out there. I know Aaron Opoluski, Brent Orsuga, Billy Bowman, Dom Cross, and your who's who of your guest. And just to have the opportunity to hop on here with you and have a conversation about what we're doing is phenomenal, man. So thanks for the opportunity, man.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:32]:
I'm excited because, you know, it's not too often that you see a veteran coming out and then just learning, having to completely learn the recruiting game and then just go crush it. So excited to have this conversation. And also like some of these guests that come on, like the Brenna Cerrigo's and some other ones are actually because Micah Clay in the background, he's like, have you heard of this person? I'm like, no, who's that? You know, I'm just in my own little bubble here in the D.C. metro talking about, you know, government contractor critting all day long. But you know, there's a lot of podcast, podcast guests that we've had on here is because he's actually made the introduction behind the scenes. So let's dive in. First of all, how did you even end up in this wonderful world of recruiting?

Micah Clay [00:02:10]:
So man, this is a wild story. And it's kind of the pitch, the pitch here for a lot of this stuff that we're having, conversation wise. So I was a 23 year military Navy guy, always worked around weapons. Started off in 1996 as a fire controlman and then spent several years in Japan over there. Made it through the ranks up to E6. And for those that don't know fire control men, we're not the firefighters, we're the ones that work on. We basically create the fires through ordinance on target, right? So radars, electronics, missile systems and things like that. And then just decided basically after some mentorship from one of my department heads, that it would be a good idea to swap over to the commission side of things.

Micah Clay [00:02:46]:
So got my commission and stuck around in the weapons world. Was an anti submarine warfare officer a couple times over, weapons officer on various platforms. Just loved to blow stuff up, basically was kind of my forte. And so not really recruiting centric if you think about it, but one of the shore duties I had there was with Navy Recruiting District Houston and they renamed it. The Navy does great things about renaming organizations, right? So that admiral can get the next star on or whatever it may be. So that was my first foray into recruiting. I got professional selling skills courses and started my recruitment journey as an officer recruiter for the Navy in College Station, Texas, which is the main campus for Texas am. I always like to say I was the tallest midget.

Micah Clay [00:03:25]:
So my skipper reached out to me at one point and said, micah, we love what you're doing. Your numbers are great. We want you to come up here and be the officer programs officer, or basically the head for STEM recruitment on the officer side of things. So that's how I cut my teeth and then basically finished that tour of duty up, went back out to sea and did a little bit of combat operations. Decided I was like, all right, we're at 23 years now, or we were at 21 years. And then I got stationed in Gulfport, Mississippi and basically transitioned and retired at that point. Tried to retire for a couple of years, thinking that was what life is about, right? Mid-40s, we've made it. Life is brand.

Micah Clay [00:04:00]:
You've saved well, you've invested, you have this retirement, all this other good stuff. I went out, bought an airplane and golf carts and all the toys, thinking this is what life is about, right? And turns out it was the exact opposite. It was complete and utter misery. You don't have any purpose or passion or sense of belonging in anything and going from having Your, which, I mean, the military to me is very tribal, right? So your own little purposeful tribe that you have all this connection and with and everything like that. And then just to go to kind of being an isolated guy on property, just, you know, chasing the vices where he sees fitness. So long story short, did that for two years. Spotted got kind of dark for me, man. I got very, very depressed on the backside there.

Micah Clay [00:04:43]:
Basically. It just kind of came to a cusp and it was really kind of like a weird highlight moment for me. So in grade school, they give out these little pizza buffet golden ticket things for the kids, excel in academics, and this is probably what was. It was back in 2020, I would say probably may timeframe or no, it was probably March timeframe. But anyway, regardless, we were driving in town to go take our little one to the pizza buffet and again, we're insulated right out on our big property in the middle of nowhere type of thing. And was driving through town and we only have about 5,000 people in our town. And the food bank line was stretched around the corner. And I'm like, you can't have that in your hometown.

Micah Clay [00:05:22]:
So long story short, there reached out to a buddy of mine named Joey Rampelli, who runs a small firm called Cypress Staffing Solutions in Cypress, Texas, who I'd met while I was recruiting, and basically asked me if he had any of these remote ops manager roles or PM roles. Because every officer getting out of the military thinks that's what they're going to do in their next life, right? We can lead people and do these things. And so, yep, I drink that Kool Aid well and kind of, kind of drink it. And so reached out to Joey. Joey's like, mike, they're not doing these kind of roles. And I've known Joey very well. We'd shared beverages and things and basically reached back out the next day. He's like, why don't you start growing recruiting firm? He's like, you did very well out of here.

Micah Clay [00:05:58]:
You're Percival and all that. I'm like, joey, I'm an engineer by training and mba. I'm an ops guy. You know, that's going to be what I'm going to do. And he kind of knew my struggles that I was going through and things like that. He's like, we'll talk to Ashley about it, which is my wife. And she basically called me everything but an idiot and asked me what took me so long. And I love her to death.

Micah Clay [00:06:16]:
She's my rock and my guide and mentor in Life, you know, so you take the heart because happy wife, happy life, and long story short, less than a week later, we had the llc, we had the ein. I was in live plan, building out the business plan and kind of doing that. And we did pretty much what every recruiter does, right? We did light industrial. And this is where Aaron Opulewski and Billy came into the team. They were gracious enough to offer me a split fee and let me know the light industrial world. And that is an interesting world to be in. It is volume, it is turnover centric in staffing, and kudos to those who like to play in that field. It's definitely exciting and they are killing the game over there.

Micah Clay [00:06:51]:
But it wasn't really my forte or cup of tea. But what it did was it bought me tons of bandwidth and cash flow so I could really focus on my niche, which is power industry for us. Power industry wasn't really an accident either.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:03]:
You, like, started looking at working with Aaron and the team, doing some splits on light industrial. Were you always like thinking about power industry?

Micah Clay [00:07:13]:
I would say not really. Not until I started doing a deep dive and looking at the macroeconomic scale.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:19]:
Okay, let's talk about that. So you sat down and did analysis, I guess got some cash flow because of some of the, know the splits that you were doing. Had some money in the bank because you were smart financially while in the military. But how did you start analyzing the market?

Micah Clay [00:07:33]:
So for me it's really comes down to you have a couple of core, you know, and this all breaks down in your NAICS codes, what specific functions and industries are out there. And then basically I just did a reverse engineer and kind of started looking at the data and metrics on data centers, on grid upgrades and things required. And it did tie to my background. So I have a propensity towards electrical and electronics based on my experience, so I could speak the language. And that was kind of a driver for me to kind of lean into that one over say forestry or agricultural or manufacturing or something along those lines, because I could kind of speak the language, but I didn't know it well enough. And this was kind of like a blank slate for me, if you will, based on the fact that I didn't have the experience and I didn't have any civilian industry experience either. So it truly was a blank slate for me. And basically it was just looking at the macroeconomic conditions and see what's going on in power that really ultimately drove my decision to get in there.

Micah Clay [00:08:23]:
And it just very well aligned with my background. And things like that. So if you look at the grid resilience issues and there's a great book called the Grid by Gretchen Bakke that's out there. I know we'll talk books later. I've listened to tons of your podcasts and I've got tons. I want to share some knowledge on, on that one. But Gretchen Baki's book the Grid is phenomenal and kind of explaining and really gave me some insights. And then of course there's various podcasts that are out there that kind of talk power and then just all the various reports from Moody's and you know, Forbes and all the other kind of magazines to talk to that.

Micah Clay [00:08:51]:
Long story short, I just, I see the direction that the industry is going on and kind of hedged our bets, planted our flag in power and decided that was going to be our forte basically.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:00]:
What other industries did you look at?

Micah Clay [00:09:02]:
So looked at agriculture, so I'm based in Mississippi, so we're very forestry driven agriculture. So a lot of timber mills and things like that. I definitely heavily evaluated that one. Just mainly because the traditional advice was start locally, build your footprint, establish relationships and start know expanding your knowledge there. And so I was fairly limited to some shipboard manufacturing work via govcon and stuff with Ingles and things of that nature. Pretty saturated market from the staffing stop. We had several other agencies that were servicing that niche and it was really one of those things. So I would say that forestry was probably one of the larger ones that I targeted in some of the manufacturing around here as well.

Micah Clay [00:09:41]:
But again, we're not exactly a hub of economic prosperity and that's where I was able to kind of null that out as my entering argument. And then just kind of. We had basically adopted a nationwide model right out of the door. So just based on the lack of opportunities that are local here outside of your traditional light industrial stuff.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:00]:
So when you did all this, like you built out this business plan, you thought about this as a business you didn't like. You know, I see some recruiters that just look at everything as just being a recruiter, but do you actually look at this as like I need to build out this as an actual business? And was there two different hats that you were wearing or you were just 100% all in on business ownership?

Micah Clay [00:10:17]:
So pretty much 100% all in on business ownership. And I do kind of come from that business mindset. I've got an MBA and all that stuff. So I think half of that is ingrained. And then with the operational leadership experience that you get in the military. A lot of that is based on mission objectives and kind of, you know, deconstructing things and kind of figure out what trends are going to. So I think I'm just kind of wired that way if it makes sense. And so the business plan and figuring out how we're going to do outreach and marketing and all that, that was step one for me.

Micah Clay [00:10:42]:
The splits were an opportunity to where you could you get in there and have enough cash flow being generated on those. But it was really to feed the outcomes of what my ultimate objective was with the business.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:53]:
Okay, you launched the business, you got everything going. Do you guys do a lot of outbound to start with or like how did you get your first few clients?

Micah Clay [00:11:00]:
So this is, this again is a very, very long term play and definitely not for somebody who is more worried about their cash flow constraints currently. So I realized that I'm in a very unique position, having retirement, all bills paid type of thing. And this is a passion project. But for 0bd, I did try it initially and I brought my wife on board and we were reaching out to all the HR managers and companies thinking because I didn't know any better instead of hiring managers and things like that. And that was my foray into it. We had the tech stack, you know, we have zoom info and all that we're cold calling and it just, you know, because that was kind of like your traditional background. Marketing and sales wasn't getting much traction and I was facing an uphill battle because I didn't have a network already within power, nor did I have a really a network in recruitment either other than just getting started. So for me I just kind of again looked at what the trends are going on in the market.

Micah Clay [00:11:51]:
I'm a big fan of Hormozi fan. I don't know if anybody follows Alex Hormozi out there. A lot of his stuff just resonates with me and getting your face out there and being omnipresent on all channels and things of that nature. So basically to your answer for my BD it was social media driven and very much so started. Everybody gets, you know, kind of doesn't want to be in front of the camera or whatever it may be. So I started doing little leadership insight videos to get myself comfortable with speaking and writing reps and sets. What really started making my inroads into the industry was I started doing interviews that I was turning into clips with subject matter experts in the power field. And so by doing that, and the cadence is five Days a week, I do take the weekends off and we're growing as I would like.

Micah Clay [00:12:31]:
But between that and then another initiative that I call Digital Cups of Coffee, I'm doing a thousand digital cups of coffee as well over the course of the year. And it's basically a passive way to have conversations and open up the floor and doing those things and to gain trust and recognition in an industry. So to your point, whenever you did the intro, we're 13 clients, over 100 roles, and I've done zero outbound for any of those clients.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:56]:
Okay. So it's one of those things that backs and forth with social media. Like when you were sitting there starting to post on social media, you started doing videos like you were 100% focused on your ICP, which was the power industry.

Micah Clay [00:13:08]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:09]:
Like you didn't give a crap if Benjamin Meta clicked on your stuff.

Micah Clay [00:13:12]:
Don't get you don't even.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:13]:
You don't even want me click. I mean, it probably helped the algorithm, but you, it wasn't made for recruiters.

Micah Clay [00:13:19]:
Right into your point. That's one of those things. A lot of people get caught up on metrics and things like that. I know my ICP and my TAM, my TAM for the market of need is 20,000 technicians, over 143 companies, which is one of the niches that we serve within power. And so, like, you're already working on that market. You're not going to be the 100,000 impression, you know, influencer type person. And that's very intentional. And that's not something I even care about.

Micah Clay [00:13:42]:
It's, am I getting my message in front of the right people? To our point, like, I expected my content with a gentleman by the name of Robert Bryce and you to be one of my top performers just based on the social media, you know, reach that you guys have. It was actually opposite to that compared to my technical subject matter that I'm putting out. And to me, that is like, that's actually a really good sign for me. That means I have honed in extremely tight on my icp and I know I'm hitting my core audience. And what I do care about, the metrics that I'm looking at, LinkedIn, is who is it? Is it sales folks? Is it operations manager? Is it technicians? And I'm definitely seeing that mix there. So that would be the metric that I probably give the most attention to outside of impressions, because I don't want, I don't care about the superfluous outside of my niche. That may be kind of, you know, Ancillary or singularly focused. But to me, that's where I'm doubling down and planting my flag and just focusing and going all in on that particular.

Micah Clay [00:14:37]:
And I am a believer that niches are in the riches from that, you know, from that instance.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:41]:
Okay, so if somebody's looking at like really doubling down on their social media presence to really like expand their outreach in the niche. You said you started with leadership videos and then you turned to interviews. And like the interviews are almost like a podcast, right?

Micah Clay [00:14:55]:
They are. And it's kind of funny. So that's what everybody called them when we'd hop on the interviews. And then organically it was another media channel that we could use that wasn't been taken advantage of. And I'll kind of run through my sequence of how I parse my clips and reels and all that if it's beneficial to anyone. But I am the master of repurposing, man. Unless I'm doing like a role opportunity video or something like that, that's a one off. But typically my whole cadence for this is I'll do a long form, typically an hour and a half.

Micah Clay [00:15:23]:
Hour, hour and a half long. It gets a, you know, a little promo the day before it drops on YouTube. It drops on YouTube and then it's hosted there forever Green content, obviously. Then I take that same video and I basically start parsing it into reels and sequence to where I get almost probably three and a half to four weeks of content, sequencing it from topic to topic within the conversation. And then I've staggered it so the same episodes get released as a podcast about six months after their release on YouTube and then they drop over here. So I'm getting that much ROI out of singular pieces of content, basically. And then we use your typical channels, your LinkedIn, your YouTube, podcast, Instagram and Facebook. I'm staying away from TikTok mainly just due to the fact that you cannot lock your ICP down over there, or at least that's been my experience.

Micah Clay [00:16:11]:
So that's what we do for our social outreach, basically.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:14]:
And like how many of these interviews are you doing? Like, you know, is it like maybe one interview every few weeks because of how much content you get out of this?

Micah Clay [00:16:22]:
So it's great. So I've actually got about a year's worth of content in the bank right now.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:28]:
And so you're pumping out this content. You're now, you know, almost a thought leader that you develop yourself as in the industry. How is the work now coming to you? Like, how are you Turning those into clients.

Micah Clay [00:16:39]:
They're reaching out to me now. So it's typically the HR leaders within some of these organizations and a lot of it is due to the way we treat our technicians. Like my intake call, I'm about as unconventional. I don't do the 15. It's an hour and a half long phone call. Because of the TAM being what it is at 20,000 people, I would equate it to almost recruiting for some, you know, high level engineer, doctor, surgeon. That's the amount of supply and demand that we're seeing in the space.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:04]:
What are you doing on these hour and a half intake calls with these candidates?

Micah Clay [00:17:08]:
I want to know about you, I want to know about your desires, where you want to be in 10 years, where you want to be in five years. And really it kind of ties into. I'm really breaking down the barriers to try to get to the truth of these individuals. Right. So in the conversations it'll start off, there's usually a little rigidity at first and I try to get that iceberg out of the way and then I'm just doing a deep dive because I really, really want to make sure that I'm fitting you to the company that you aspire to be in. Are you driven by culture? Are you driven by pay? Are you driven by growth opportunities, you know, travel and all the other various aspects of it? But I also want to know, like diving into your experience in the industry and who you know and what you know, because those are also word of mouth opportunities. And that's also been a lot of the candidate flow that we get is from other candidate calls on the intake side, like these hour and a half long calls. It's really to just build the next level of trust and rapport with the expectation that I'm building long term relationships by transactional relationships.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:04]:
I've seen recruiters do some like recruiting calls, literally taking just a few minutes. Do you think you taking that long, like it's blocking out your calendar. Do you think that's also really helped you drive more business?

Micah Clay [00:18:16]:
Absolutely. Everything to me is long term relationships, relational over transactional. That's my entire wheelhouse. It comes down to pro bono placements and things. I now am at a hundred thousand dollars worth of pro bono placements across companies and it is to do things and it's primarily in the veteran space. So that's kind of where we're doing. We're not giving away all of our work, but just to, you know, really build these relationships, build your brand around being a positive force in doing these things. And this is one of the things that Formosi highlights in his books is the 8020 offer.

Micah Clay [00:18:48]:
Right. 80% of what you put out there has to be giving for your 20% ask, basically. And so I drive our life and our core values and the way we train and building people and doing things that nature are all driven around that as our core vision.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:03]:
Okay, and what the hell is a thousand cups of coffee like? Explain this to me.

Micah Clay [00:19:07]:
So it was basically one of these things. So I hate. I hate. I hate. I hate feeling like a slimy salesman in general. Right. And I know in our industry, there are about seven or eight specific industries, and we're all hitting the same candidates up on a constant basis. They're just being saturated and so a lot.

Micah Clay [00:19:26]:
And we're seeing our response rates drop pretty heavily over since, I would say, June, and that's when we kicked off a thousand digital cups of coffee. And it has also led to some more media and client inbound, but it's mainly just, hey, I'm on a mission to have a thousand digital cups of coffee. I love being in the industry that we work in. I want to learn more about you. I want to learn more about your business, and I want, you know, just in general. In that way, it allows me to share, and then if it's a fit, we'll ask them to be a guest on the podcast as well. So it's also kind of giving me a guest pipeline as well. That's kind of the way we've kind of structured it, man.

Micah Clay [00:19:59]:
It's just. It works. And basically it's to drop the barriers. Right. So I'm not hitting you up with a job offer. I just want to know more about you. I want to network, I want to help you. I want to connect you with others in my network.

Micah Clay [00:20:10]:
It's more to be a partner with everyone in the industry is kind of the way I look at it. Right or wrong.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:14]:
Are you sending them, like, a Starbucks gift card before the call?

Micah Clay [00:20:17]:
No, no. This is just a passive. And that would be a great idea, but it would get very expensive at a thousand bucks.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:23]:
Well, I mean that. Yeah, in case. In case somebody listened to this and like, well, I'm going to go buy a thousand cups of coffee. Literally.

Micah Clay [00:20:29]:
Yeah. Actually, I'm like, damn you. Damn you, Ben. Ah, that. See, look, I've learned something here today. So I think. I think that's actually a phenomenal way to get better response rates. And we are getting pretty great response rates, I would say.

Micah Clay [00:20:48]:
We're at about 5, which isn't bad for this market on that. That would be our cold outreach from that aspect of it is for that. But the response rates are definitely exponentially higher than what we're seeing in cold outreach for opportunities.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:59]:
Okay, another thing I want to talk about because I feel like you're just incredible at this, is building a community within your niche. So you've been doing it with podcasts, you've been doing it with, you know, Starbucks coffee. What else are you also doing to this cultivate this power community?

Micah Clay [00:21:15]:
So I'm a big, big believer in groups and spreading knowledge and awareness and education. So one of the things that we did, I formed a group called power veterans on LinkedIn as well, and it's specifically geared towards military veterans, hiring managers and recruiters in the space. And then we have a couple of thought leaders that are pretty well known that have been guests on our podcast and things like that. They make contributions and articles and things and highlights from the industry. So you're getting some real time updates on what is happening in the field and things like that and best practices. We also share our content there because a lot of what we cover is technical in nature, for instance, and kind of why we won't ever see these hundred thousand impressions. Like our latest one right now is covering partial discharge in shielded dielectric cable. So, you know what I mean? It's pretty in depth from that, but the guys and gals in the industry love it.

Micah Clay [00:22:01]:
So trying to build a community as well. And I think what you're doing with the summits and events and everything along those lines is phenomenal as well. And I could see that kind of becoming, you know, something that we try to weave in as well in some way shape or form. Once I get, I can take a couple of these hats off and really focus on the marketing aspect.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:17]:
So love that. So you've built out this group like how many of these professionals are in this group?

Micah Clay [00:22:23]:
So we started it, it's been online about a year and I believe our latest count was up in the 800s right now. So slow climb from Hades, but we're getting there.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:31]:
Is it pretty active?

Micah Clay [00:22:32]:
Yeah, it's very active. That is the one thing is they are very engaged and they are very active there. And I would say I actually get more clicks on because I share on my personal page in the LinkedIn group and on our professional page as well. And I actually get more engagement oftentimes out of the Power Veterans group because it's very singular in nature and so.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:52]:
I think of power people that aren't typically sitting on LinkedIn.

Micah Clay [00:22:55]:
They are not.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:57]:
But you've created this group that's gotten high engagement. It's became like, almost like another part of your business development funnel off a type of skillset that's not typically active on LinkedIn.

Micah Clay [00:23:08]:
It is. And then you kind of. And again, this kind of goes into. Where else are you finding these people? And these are the struggles that we're trying to get in a lot of the word of mouth, and I think that's where, like, an event would be very helpful. And I'm just trying to figure out how to solidify that. And of course, we're building our candidate database and all that other good stuff so that we can kind of do it as it sits and growing. I have to remind myself, this is year two. Year one was just figuring out what life consisted of.

Micah Clay [00:23:32]:
And then year two is when we really started moving forward with the stuff and. And started gaining traction.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:37]:
Okay. You'll have no idea how much of technology was behind the stuff that I did.

Micah Clay [00:23:42]:
I can only imagine, dude. I look at it, and, I mean, it is sleek. It presents so well, and I can only imagine the amount of work that went into it.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:51]:
I mean, it was a lot of work. But the second, like, you know, somebody said, you know, I did the introduction, like, many times, I was back on the phone behind the scenes, like, talking to candidates and, like, working with clients. So I was able to still, like, work.

Micah Clay [00:24:02]:
Recruiting is awesome. No, that is. That is absolutely awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:05]:
Well, recruiting is what pays the bills.

Micah Clay [00:24:07]:
No, I'm with you. I'm with you. I get it.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:10]:
This is fun stuff that I got to figure out what to do with, but that's another story.

Micah Clay [00:24:13]:
I know we've had that conversation several times about. It is one of those, like, if you enjoy it, it's kind of, you know, it's just kind of being able to monetize your passion and just to kind of keep it working and flowing. And I think what you're doing is phenomenal.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:24]:
Okay, I got a few questions. More on the veteran, veteran side of the House. Like, yeah, you love working with veterans.

Micah Clay [00:24:29]:
I do.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:30]:
I don't see that many veterans as recruiters outside of government contracting. What can we do to have more veterans succeed in the recruiting game?

Micah Clay [00:24:40]:
So I would say it really comes down to the root cause being that the military as best as they try, and their transition assistance program, it doesn't really dive down in helping those individuals. I mean, they walk you through how to create your LinkedIn account and how to do these things. And you need to work in an established relationship that doesn't really dig down in the reverse engineering. And this is one of the things I actually go and teach veterans on is reverse engineer, where you want to be in 10 years. Right. So first you kind of have to know what that looks like in your head. And for us, we run across a lot of the skill sets we have in the military, even though you get a lot of core curriculum training. But some of that stuff doesn't necessarily translate in the civilian world.

Micah Clay [00:25:20]:
Right. Like if you're an operations specialist has been running around charting courses and nav and running a radar plot for a while. Not necessarily as applicable in the industry. So I think there's a translatability issue and there's tons of organizations out there trying to work around that. For me, it's based on lived experiences. So I knew that the transition assistance program was kind of struggling there. And so I've opted to go do that on pro bono basis as well. I've got one coming up on the 28th that I'm going to go do an etap class out of New Orleans for that reason, to kind of bridge that gap.

Micah Clay [00:25:50]:
But I think a lot of it comes down to with the civilian counterpart industries not really understanding. Right. I think there's a stigma associated with a lot of the military. And it makes sense that the stigma exists because where the follow your orders, go execute as command robots. Right as it kind of seems. But for those that have lived and sat in those seats, these are some highly, highly intelligent, adaptable, resilient individuals that, you know, have faced some of the most perilous situations that man can even fathom. And does it break some? Yeah, absolutely. But it also forges some really unique talent coming out of the backside of that.

Micah Clay [00:26:24]:
And I think that's where a lot of individuals kind of miss those arbitrage opportunities. And then of course you run into things like certifications and accreditations and things like for specifically Empower professional engineer neater or nice set or all these other various hats. And so that is another barrier to entry for a lot of the folks outside of not even know that the industry is not there. So I think there's a little bit more liaison that needs to happen between industry and the military from that aspect. I'll give you Army Prime Power is a prime example of this Prime. I know that was weird, but I.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:55]:
Mean, are they the prime or are they a sub guy?

Micah Clay [00:27:00]:
But like, so army prime and Power, a U.S. army Corps of engineers has a working relationship with the needle organization, which is the International Electrical Testing association, where they offered basically offer the opportunity for individuals involved in army prime power to test to those certification levels. And we're talking substantial deltas in pay when they get out. So if you're in need of one getting out, it's 35 to 45, 245, 55, 355 to 65 and on up, you know, up to level four is where it ends up. And those numbers are progressing to where the deltas are even getting more substantial at the higher levels. But it's a barrier to entry and I can't really do as much, and this is where I give a lot of those pro bono placements away is because nobody wants to pay me for a nuclear electrician's mate that doesn't have the requisite knowledge and skill set required for that. They want plug and play talent at that point. So that is one of the barrier entries, and that's one of my side projects that we're working right now with a couple of our clients is to try to figure out a way to bring in this, you know, this lower level or perceived lower level talent that's not familiar with the industry standards on the spilling side, but they have all of the core competencies required and probably in spades in most cases.

Micah Clay [00:28:09]:
If you take say a nuclear electrician's mate who has gone through some of the most rigorously academic curriculum out there, literally operates on mobile Navy nuclear reactors at sea with no support and auxiliary equipment, you gotta be pretty sharp and you have to be capable. And by the way, we're doing this for 19 and 20 year olds that are out there. So, you know, little Jimmy that was drinking in the hay fields not long ago is now out servicing and working on the electrical equipment required to run a nuclear reactor. And so to do that, and I think one of the talents the Navy does really well is screen for that talent. Like a lot of people sleep on the fact that the Navy's been around forever and ever and ever. And so we've had a lot of time and unlimited resources develop these intelligence screening forms and culture and behavioral screening assessments that they have via ASVAB and some of the follow on testing. So just the vetting, I think the way I would look at it if I were a hiring manager in the civilian world, if you step back and look at the amount of vetting that military does at those very elite level positions and the screening that takes place, so they've already Done the screening to let you know this is top 10% talent in the nation. Just to be able to get into the pipeline to do something along the nuclear electricians realm.

Micah Clay [00:29:20]:
It's very meritocracy based in there. You are basically, you know what I mean? It is 100% meritocracy. Can you do the job? Can you do it well? And they're looking for the most elite and that's how you have your civil operators and your nuke electrician, things like that. And I think that gets slept on a lot, if that kind of makes sense.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:36]:
Yeah, totally. You know your space so well, you're passionate about your space.

Micah Clay [00:29:40]:
Love it.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:41]:
What are your thoughts to recruiters out there that haven't niched down?

Micah Clay [00:29:45]:
So again, this is niches and the riches. And if you dive into those Hormozi books, people literally give you the examples and they play out as you see it now. I'm living proof as well. Right, so your billable rates and things like that, you want to gain omnipresence and trust in your industry and become a subject matter expert. I can sit there and talk with your highest level technicians and talent out there. And by niching down and understanding the lexicon and the lingo and how things go. And I've been out and done distribution, you know, distribution station visits and substation visits and things like that. So I've seen this stuff in action and I've live and breathe it every day because I wasn't in the space and I don't want to represent something that I'm not.

Micah Clay [00:30:25]:
And to that point, once you establish that level of trust and omnipresence on all these channels, I'll give you an example without naming names, this is the power of niching down and truly understanding your market. There was one of these third party testing companies that hired on a new recruiter that was doing sequencer outreach basically. But the message said Fernita, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 technicians. And so I've got candidates that this was being sent out to. And they were sending to me in a joking manner like can you believe that this company would put this stamp on there? So they're destroying their own brand. And I'm like, give them a break. It's a new person, all that. And we all make mistakes, right? But it's understanding your icp.

Micah Clay [00:31:04]:
And if you're on these phone calls every day, you just by proxy of the reps and sense know who these people are you're talking. And I was just on a call, a Kennedy call, this morning with a sales engineer and we were talking through some people that were here, had moved to here and this and that and the CEO that started this one. I know all those people. So you are now integrated wholly into this ecosystem of power and you're going to be the one that's on top of mind. It's like driving by the lawyer billboards you see on. If you see enough of those, who are you going to reach out to? Well, that's the one I remember seeing the number for. So let me up in this time of need.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:38]:
So, okay, look at this. You're two years into your recruiting company.

Micah Clay [00:31:41]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:41]:
How are you keeping track of all these conversations and remembering and accessing all this, like, mental data?

Micah Clay [00:31:47]:
So I need to do better. I do take intake notes. I also leverage AI in this particular. I'm on board with AI. I love it, I love where it's going. But Otter AI's so typically on conversations, I can capture that and then query the AI for any specifics. Also jam out intake notes. A lot of it is just based on these reps and sets because it's not just one call.

Micah Clay [00:32:07]:
It's typically. I've got Anita 4 that I talk to, you know, twice a month. So they just kind of become ingrained. And again, that's definitely not a massive tam. And it's probably not scalable to keep on doing it the way I am unless we hire on enough, you know, to kind of really ingrain that outreach and that mantra. But that's really how I'm tracking it right now. We're evaluating. I have to admit, I'm still kind of behind on the Tech stack over here.

Micah Clay [00:32:31]:
I was a solo recruiter and the book of business grew and now we've got 21099 on board and we're looking to integrate and get a centralized ats. And I'm going to carry the overhead cost on Tech Stack and all that. So long answer to your short question was I'm mainly doing it in Excel via Otter AI and Word Documents. But now we're expanding the tech stack and that's some of the struggles we're dealing with over here as far as that goes. So I'm evaluating loxo. I use Recruit CRM before, liked it. And then we've got another side project that looks like it may materialize. It's going to be more of a staffing centric thing.

Micah Clay [00:33:04]:
So we've evaluated Aviante looking at a lot of stuff, but the answer is I'm not very organized in that particular.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:09]:
Instance, I don't think most recruiters are. Those recruiters are just so organized. I love it. Other ones, they're just pure chaos, but they make things happen. Okay, but you, but you've been, you've been hiring, you've been scaling. Like how are you, like, you know, how are you finding these recruiters that are helping you crush it?

Micah Clay [00:33:22]:
Our model and again, I've got a lot of mentors in the space that tell me that this probably isn't the best model to follow. You know, as far as the like a base rate and then commission or something like that. We're pretty straightforward. Man. I'm looking for. I like to grow recruiters, so I've got a couple right now on the roster. One is the next Navy nuclear machinist made engineering manager guy that really has a passion, wanted to get into recruiting and so I'm more of the consultant slash team collaborator leader guy. So I'm managing tech stack but our recruiting firm and the way I plan on building it out and yes, yes, for you folks that are looking for an exit in 10 years, I know this isn't the way to go about it, but that's not the strategy play here.

Micah Clay [00:34:01]:
I'm basically going to build like a team of industry subject matter experts that I'm going to turn into recruiters and that's the model that we're trying right now. So I've got a 20 plus year senior relay technician that's been in the industry, can speak to all that. And I'm showing the ropes on sourcing and outreach and marketing and things like that and setting, you know, all the stuff you have to navigate in business. But we run 50, 50 splits and then if they bring in their own clients, we're basically going to collaboratively host all the roles that we have. So it's going to be basically like a staffing firm full of 1099 or a direct hire firm full of 1099. I carry the tech stack, candidate management, role management, all for our little collective group of individuals. So 5050 splits and then 8020 for anything that you bring full seat if you want to include them in the tech stack. But if you want to keep that role for yourself, that's okay as well.

Micah Clay [00:34:48]:
So. And that's more. And the reason I'm not really worried about the exit and all that. I got it, I'm fine. Right. I had an airplane, I sold the airplane to start the. So this is a passion project for me and kind of like my. What I want to leave is legacy is more entrepreneurs and that's kind of what.

Micah Clay [00:35:03]:
So I guess I'm more legacy vice monetary driven. Like I said, horrible business decision from an MBA perspective. I get it. But that's the model we're following mainly to grow more entrepreneurs. And then for me, it really benefits my space because we're powered. If I know people that work in power, I can teach the recruiting side. Obviously, once we screen them for personality and the ability to connect and things like that.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:25]:
We just said it wasn't like, you know, I'd like to sell and you know, scale and sell and that kind of stuff, but it's also what lets you up at the end of the day. Yeah, you've hit like a personal passion and you've like found a way to also make money with it while still recruiting.

Micah Clay [00:35:39]:
Absolutely.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:40]:
Well, before we jump over to the quick fire questions, is there anything else that you want to share about how you built this community? How you don't do any business development, no cold calls inbound, flipping people into customers and clients, like anything. You also want to share on that.

Micah Clay [00:35:52]:
So for me, man, it really does come down to be omnipresent across all channels at all times where you can. That's how you're going to build your trust and recognition, double down on those relationships and really focus on being relational, vice transactional in every instance you can and be, you know, analytical in what's out there. So if you're a new recruiter trying to get into a space, really step back and evaluate kind of where do your passions lie and is that industry sustainable for as long as you would like to be in the industry and if it looks like that's going to be the case and you'll run across circumstances like in tech, right. We had the tech boom and then the tech bubble and everybody in the layoffs and things like that. And then be willing to evaluate. I just did a social media piece on is it ever too late to transition into new opportunity? I don't believe it is. I think you can do it. I was 44 when I started this gig and literally from nothing.

Micah Clay [00:36:39]:
And I'm living proof that if you focus on your passions and put people first, it's all going to work out in the end. So I would say those are my little salient words of advice, if you will.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:50]:
Awesome. Well, jumping over to the quickfire questions and you know this pretty well, what advice would you give to a brand new recruiter? Actually, this is perfect for you. Since you literally started.

Micah Clay [00:36:59]:
I am a brand new two years.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:00]:
Recruiting what advice would you give to a brand new recruiter that's just getting started in our wonderful world?

Micah Clay [00:37:05]:
Don't beat yourself up too much. Understand that greatness takes time and repetition and doing the mundane. Well, if that's your marketing, your social media, whatever it is, have strategic goals laid out for yourself within that wheelhouse. Set that expectation. I'm a big fan of the EOS entrepreneurial operating system kind of system. Right. Set your quarterly rocks, set those goals for yourself and lay out a pathway ahead and then execute that. And then always keep the candidate experience at top of mind and truly realize that you're not there for volume.

Micah Clay [00:37:39]:
You're there to be a consultant and really offer value not only to your candidates but to your clients. And to that point, I'll use an example right quick. One of our clients were evaluating nuke electricians, meat talent. They didn't really understand what those individuals brought to the table. I used my Navy knowledge, I went and dug up all the required curriculum that's kind of there and sent that over. That's consultative. That's doing something to grow those relationships. And I didn't do that quite as well year one as I did in year two as we kind of grow and learn.

Micah Clay [00:38:07]:
So I would say that would be the advice I would have given my younger self.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:11]:
And, and next question. Normally it's for experienced recruiters, but I want this to be about veterans. If a veteran wants to win in the recruiting game, they want to become like a great recruiter. What advice would you give to a veteran?

Micah Clay [00:38:24]:
Lean into your existing network for a veteran specifically so that we don't maintain a huge presence as far as veterans go. But there are a lot of networked opportunities and groups out there. Align with your tribe. You're going to have to find your new tribe post service and that's one of those soul searching things that we all kind of go through having lived this brotherhood and sisterhood over here. You get there are tribes that exist on the outside as well. You're just going to have to work a little bit harder to find them. You're going to find those individuals that are living the same situation, circumstances and things like that. So align there.

Micah Clay [00:38:54]:
Reach out to agency recruiters that are working in the space you want to. Mainly because you're just leveraging our network. Did we make money on you? In some instances, yes. But there are a lot of people that are out there doing the pro bono things like that, leverage those kind of things. A lot of the talent also, and this is one of the Things we teach too is figure out where you want to land. And you can do this on like a year out basis. And this typically I usually tell veterans, start working on your stuff two years out. And it's obviously not necessarily all that easy if they don't have a LinkedIn account and have it made themselves known.

Micah Clay [00:39:23]:
But we definitely kind of word of mouth and I have some senior leaders, some of the other military installations, I'm like, put this out to your troops, they need to understand this and start working on this now to set themselves up for success. So you're not three months out from getting out and not knowing what you're going to do next. But if they're doing that evaluation of where they want to land in the next two years, figure out what industry makes sense based on your core knowledge or whatever. Or better yet, if you're looking at doing a lateral move into a different industry, start evaluating what you need to do to be a successful there now because you do have some bandwidth while you're still in to get the certs and a lot of that stuff is free for veterans based on the very or active duty, based on the programs that we do have internally that so many don't take advantage of. So definitely two years, three years out, start evaluating what you think you would like to do. And it may seem asinine, but you get so caught up in the day to day in the military that you, you wake up and you're six months out and it's like, oh crap, what am I gonna do? And so I would say be very, very proactive in figuring out where you want to land at least 2, 3 years out. Start working towards, asserts, be involved on LinkedIn, start networking with individuals in that industry as far out as you can. And I am a firm believer that your network is your net worth.

Micah Clay [00:40:34]:
I see it, I live it every day. And so by doing that, and not only that, you get an inside spot of the organization. So another for instance here I've got an individual that's possibly interested in heading out to Puerto Rico to work on the island and do some of their subs, you know, basically their repair work and stuff like that. I know folks that are out on the island, I'm going to put those two in touch and let them talk to each other so you get the no BS understanding of what's going on day to day and so you know what you're walking into and the more relationships that you have like that and figuring that out, I think it serves you better. So network Plan on what you want to do, reverse engineer where you want to be, and start kind of working your way out there.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:12]:
What has been a book that's had a huge impact on your career and success.

Micah Clay [00:41:17]:
So one of your guests, and this is one that I would recommend everybody. Steve Finkels Breakthrough 2.0. Phenomenal. Like it'll give you like the little roadmap broken down in old school. How to ICP or how to npc, how to figure out your icp, all that other good stuff. So Steve Finkel plug and shout out to you. Great stuff. I mentioned Hormozi earlier.

Micah Clay [00:41:37]:
$100 million offers and $100 million leads. He's got another book out there as well. I haven't read that one, but those two are going to give you this very, very unique purview to your point on clickfunnels and talking through funnels and pipelines and top of funnel and just basically how sales work. And what we do is sales and I would say we're 2x salesman. We have to sell candidates and we have to sell clients. Right. So I have not done anything in the way of outbound from that aspect, but it's helped me refine those conversations when I'm having it. Do I have the power in that relationship that they're reaching out to you? Yes.

Micah Clay [00:42:09]:
There's a dynamic there. Right. Makes it a little bit more interesting. But there's still some things where you can kind of weave in upsells and kind of hit salient pain points and things like that. Hormozi does a great job of. And one of my all time favorite books, there's a book called Delivering Happiness by Tony Tsai. And so he's the founder of Zappos and basically he kind of tells a story and it's kind of done in this. He gives you his childhood experiences and takes you through his various things from starting his first domain company with a friend and kind of really doubles down on the customer service and delivering the ultimate customer service experience.

Micah Clay [00:42:44]:
And it's also got some really cool operational insights for really how to focus on and building and developing your team. So those would be my buck recommendations for you today. That was Tony Shays delivering Happiness. And that's H S I E H. Awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:59]:
Yeah. Okay. You've only been into this game for like two years.

Micah Clay [00:43:02]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:03]:
But you're doing well enough that you know inbound, keyword, inbound. You've had to hire recruiters.

Micah Clay [00:43:09]:
Yeah, man, it's weird.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:12]:
What do you think? Has been a major contributor to Your personal success and like getting ramped up like pretty well within a short window of time.

Micah Clay [00:43:20]:
So I, I tell everybody whenever I hop on a call, they ask, how are you doing? I said, I feel like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest every day. Right. So you, you never really know. I would directly contribute. What we've been able to accomplish is due to the fact that I understood the business aspect of it. I understood what the framework looked like, I understand pro formas, I know where we want to be in kind of doing things in a methodical nature from that aspect. But the biggest thing for me is what you see is what you get. What we're talking right now, this is me.

Micah Clay [00:43:51]:
Every day I wake up, I am what you get. I'm transparent, I'm blunt, I'm direct, I'm honest. For instance, in that I've got a client of ours I was doing sourcing for. They're based in Houston it and I was reaching out to some folks that were recruiting for the Dallas office and I was getting horrible feedback. I'm not going to sit on that feedback. I called the field service manager and I'm like, hey, here's the feedback I'm getting. You have a problem at your organization. I'm not going to fill these roles over here for you because I'm not going to send my candidates into that until we have some resolution.

Micah Clay [00:44:20]:
I have the ability to do that because I have the ability to fire clients right now. And I think kind of really shaping what we're looking for. I think we've really locked in on clients that pay on time with great culture, with, you know, great pay rates and things like that. And we've kind of honed our clientele list and hired and fired rapidly from that expectation. Not burning bridges along the way. It's just, hey, I can't meet things into your expectations. I would love to stay connected. I will send you candidates over where I don't have a fit and they may work in your organization, but I can't do it for this office or whatever it may be.

Micah Clay [00:44:54]:
So be candid, be honest, be transparent, act like a freaking human. And it resonates. People know if you're full of crap or not.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:03]:
Recruiting's hard. Like it's a hard. Yes, it's a hard, hard, hard job. Like it's not easy.

Micah Clay [00:45:09]:
Agreed.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:10]:
I'm sure you've had some hard days and hard weeks.

Micah Clay [00:45:12]:
Absolutely.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:13]:
And even started off at the beginning of this conversation that you struggled with a bit of a dark time, which I'VE seen a lot of people coming out of the military dealing with.

Micah Clay [00:45:19]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:20]:
How do you personally push through those times?

Micah Clay [00:45:24]:
So this for me is kind of falls back in a military mantra of having lived some very, very hard times. And my worst day in recruitment will never be worse than my worst day in the military, I promise you. We just go by a mantra called embrace the suck. Right. You know you're going to come out of the backside of it. Nobody's going to die on this mission today if I don't place this person. Whereas a lot of what we did in the military was life and death. Right.

Micah Clay [00:45:46]:
You don't know what's going to happen if you're going to come out of the backside. So it's just maintaining that macro mindset of like, nobody's going to die today, we're not getting underway tomorrow or next week, and I'm not going to have to be away from family in eight weeks. I may have pissed this candidate a client off. Got you. I'll call back and I'll eat crow, you know what I mean? And admit it and know that we're not all perfect and those kind of things. That's how I get through it. Right. I take it serious.

Micah Clay [00:46:09]:
I'm very passionate. Your emotions can roll over into that, no doubt about it. But if you kind of do it. And there is another book I will recommend, and it's called Third Circle Theory by Pejman Gadini. And so this one is really just about pulling yourself out of the minutia of the day, getting out of side of your head, looking at the big picture and really evaluating things from an external loci point of view and kind of looking at the situation and evaluating the situation for what the situation is. And that's really what it comes down to. So. And that's the mantra I adopt.

Micah Clay [00:46:40]:
Recruiting will eat you alive. In my little amount of experience, it will eat you alive if you get too emotional about it. And we all do it when you start sitting the seat for the first time and you're hitting those calls up or you lose that first deal. And it seems like it's career ending, game ending, shutting down the company next week. And then you realize you can't live in that existence, so you have to be able to back out of that, you know, and kind of do it. So I try to. And none of us are perfect. I try to remove as much emotion from it and just base it on the metrics.

Micah Clay [00:47:08]:
Okay, got it. Had a bad day. Go back in the hopper, get back on the phones as soon as humanly possible or, you know, start putting out the content or whatever it may be throughout reached that day.

Benjamin Mena [00:47:17]:
You also talked about how you've had all these, like, you know, mentors, and it sounds like you've, like, leaned on them and picked their brains and really got, like, a lot of influence from these people. What was one of the most powerful questions that you asked one of these mentors, and how did it help you?

Micah Clay [00:47:35]:
Oh, wow, that's a very, very good one. I would say Brent or Suga was pretty critical in kind of directing the direction of what we're doing. So obviously, the multiples that sell and all that getting in. I was kind of looking at exit strategies and things like that, because that's the MBA and me, that kind of does it. And we since refined that based on some of these conversations with mentors. But what I thought was phenomenal and just kind of looking at was more the impact and what he's been able to do with Brent Orsugi Inc. 5000 company. All direct hire.

Micah Clay [00:48:01]:
Right. So strictly direct hire wheelhouse. And he was pretty pivotal in shaping that direction as far as us really doubling down on the direct hire, even though our moniker says staffing, and we may eventually foray into that, but really doubling down and focusing, it was almost like niching down into direct hire, if that makes sense. So that one was definitely, probably one of the more impactful. And then just in general, like, these conversations, Ricky Polloi is another one that you've had on with a guest. And he and I just as far as navigating some of those emotional ties with the industry and kind of doing it. And it wasn't really a poignant question. It was more of, hey, brother, I'm struggling with this.

Micah Clay [00:48:35]:
I know you've been in the industry a long time and, you know, what are you doing to navigate this and things of that nature? And I would say those are probably the most critical things I was able to pull out of it, was kind of pulling the emotion out of it and then truly solidifying the direction that we were going to have with the company.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:51]:
And, you know, kind of like on the same thread, if you got a recruiter that's actually reaching out to you, asking you, like, you know, they listen to this podcast, they're out there doing outbound like crazy, out there doing BDI crazy, and if they could ask you one question, like, just in general, what would that question be that you wish that you could give the answer to?

Micah Clay [00:49:11]:
Marketing. All marketing. And I will double down if you could tell me, hey, I see the value add in marketing and what a disruptor it is depending on your space. There is no other recruiter in power that is putting out the content that we're putting out that was intentional. We also looked at doing medical field service engineering techniques, biomedical BMATs, basically biomedical electronic technicians. That space is saturated in social media, so you're not really. Can you have an impact? Can you stand out? Yes. But if you find that area, like, how do I go about a social media strategy, Micah? Is what I would do.

Micah Clay [00:49:45]:
And then I would touch on the digital cups of coffee and everything else because I see the impact that it's had on our organization personally, and I think it's replicatable.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:54]:
Awesome. Here's a question for you, looking at you getting your company started. If you can give yourself, if you can literally go back in time and just like everything that you've learned now, all the stuff to see, ups and downs, the wins, the money, the no money, and sit down and have like a cup of coffee with yourself, you know, sending yourself a virtual cup of coffee at the very beginning of you starting, you know, the Southern staffing group. What would you tell yourself? What advice would you give? What conversation would you have with yourself?

Micah Clay [00:50:19]:
Run. No, not really run. It's been a journey. I would definitely going back, focus on your SOPs, your processes, really locking that in. I should have adopted an ATS by now, and I haven't. And I realize that. I know it's coming and that's a future hurdle for us. But even on top of the business planning that we did to actually implement the business, really double down on those SOPs, solidifying codifying those processes.

Micah Clay [00:50:44]:
Because if not, you recreate the will every time you bring on a new recruiter. And that's kind of what I'm looking at now. And I'm facing some of that stuff and try to move it from my desktop, where I operate from and I'm comfortable with, but that's not replicatable for the other individuals that bring it on the team. So focus on processes, procedures, organization, and really come up with a cadence. I wasn't the best. I knew better. And I knew I had to live by my calendar from my time in the Navy, but I thought I could get away with not doing that in the civilian world. That was a lie as well.

Micah Clay [00:51:12]:
My calendar is my second brain. So, you know, document everything. Don't think you're smart enough to remember. Write it down immediately or you will end up forget and things will fall through the Cracks.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:23]:
Awesome. Well, Mike, if anybody wants to follow you, how do they go about doing that?

Micah Clay [00:51:27]:
Easiest way, man. I'm a big Link Tree fan, so link TR e Southern staffing and it's got links to all of our social media and all that other fun stuff you can reach out there. I've also got a personal one that's got a business plan, hosted, a resume template, book list, podcast recommendations, you're on there and things of that nature. That was on my personal link tree. And that's linktr ee Micah W Clay. That's M I C a H W C L a Y. And those are the easiest ways. Always open and connecting on LinkedIn and networking.

Micah Clay [00:52:00]:
I will let you know. I don't accept many outside of recruitment or power on LinkedIn, and that's because I'm very, very focused on my niche. I actually started out with like 7,000 or something LinkedIn connections, worked it all the way down, and now we're back up to like 3,800, I think. All connected in power. So that's kind of what we're doing on that one. But if you're a recruiter, love to connect with you. If you're outside of the industry, I don't know that I will, but I'm definitely always willing to help. Shoot me a message if you have a question, and I'll be more than happy to share any knowledge, anything I can do.

Micah Clay [00:52:30]:
But recruiters, feel free to send me a connection if you would like. And if you are a technical recruiter that knows power, I'm hiring three. I would love to take you on board. This is going to be for the entrepreneurial types that want to kind of get their own. They don't want to fight the book of business and building the bd. We've got the clients, we've got the roles. I'll show you how to do your llc, your ein, all the other stuff. We'll work ops and we'll make money together.

Benjamin Mena [00:52:53]:
Awesome. But Micah. Yeah, I mean, definitely, if you're looking for that, definitely hit like up a man before I let you go.

Micah Clay [00:53:01]:
Yeah, man.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:01]:
Anything else you want to share with the listeners?

Micah Clay [00:53:03]:
Dude, I, for one, I just want to say thank you for everything that you're doing for the community. Like I said, we are very niche over here. The value you, you provide. And I know I'm kind of flushing you're, you know, growing your head, but brother, the amount of and outside of the books and the mentorship and the time you've taken a help mentor me on the backside that a lot of people wouldn't know outside of this, in our conversations before this. It is a great, phenomenal industry. Please keep doing what you're doing. The service you're providing. I'll shout it from the rooftops, man.

Micah Clay [00:53:29]:
And anybody and everybody I know that I'm bringing on board, they all. It's a mandatory thing. They kind of get in to listen to you and Mark with these podcasts and kind of figuring stuff out. And what you're doing is truly special, man. And the summit was phenomenal. So just thank you is what I'll leave it with. And, you know, let's get after it and go make some money.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:46]:
Let's roll. I mean, the marching orders right there. Let's get after it. Let's make some money. But I mean, talk about, you know, just want to recap this. Like, I love that, the things that you're doing, and I don't know if it's maybe because you didn't. I hate to say this, grow up in the recruiting industry, you haven't spent two decades in. You haven't, like, been ingrained on.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:02]:
This is how you do things. You've had to go figure out your own system. You had to go figure out things that work. And because of that, you're hiring. You have so much inbound without a single cold call. But on top of that, you're out there impacting and helping vets. So thank you so much for coming on. For the listeners.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:17]:
I know we're coming on. It's Q4, double down. Because everything you do now is going to make 2025 the year of personal abundance. Let's go.

Micah Clay [00:54:25]:
Absolutely. Thanks, Ben.