Inside the Mind of a Recruiting Pioneer: Adam Posner's Podcasting Success Story

Intro [00:00:00]:

Welcome to the elite recruiter podcast with your host, Benjamin Mena, where we focus on what it takes to win in the recruiting game. We cover it all from sales, marketing, mindset, money, leadership, and placements.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:19]:

I'm actually excited about this episode of the elite recruiter podcast. I have my special guest, Adam Posner, who is the founder of the Poz's Pozcast. He's one of the biggest recruiting podcasters out there and is impacted and helped a lot of people get into podcasting. So I have Adam on here to really talk about why podcasting could be make such a huge impact for your recruitment business and your recruiting career. So welcome to the Pozcast. Adam?

Adam Posner [00:00:45]:

Benjamin, Ben, Ben, what do you prefer? Let's get that out of the way.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:49]:

No. I I answered to either But the reason why I typically go by Benjamin is my last name is Mena. And, you know, sometimes us recruiters are talking about that.

Adam Posner [00:00:58]:

Ben Amina. Yep. Yep. Benjamin. Thank you. Benjamin. But with Benjamin and Benjamin, thank you so much for having me. That was a that was a great intro. It's it's hard sometimes. I don't know if you get, like, Like, I've been doing this for a long time, and it's, like, sometimes I don't feel like I've helped people, but lately, I've been getting, like, a lot of emails and messages and kind words. And, like, Alright. I guess I guess I'm doing something right. And I wouldn't call that imposter syndrome more than, like I don't know. Do you have do you have a problem, like, getting, like, positive feedback sometimes. I don't know if it feels weird, like, undeserved.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:28]:

It it is one of my limiting beliefs that I deal with constantly.

Adam Posner [00:01:31]:

Good.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:32]:

Like, so you're not alone with that. Good.

Adam Posner [00:01:33]:

We're getting it. I'm excited to be here, man. Let's rock and roll. I'm I'm in the today, I'm in the passenger seat, which is hard as a podcaster. I'm gonna go to the passenger seat. So I'm gonna move over here. I'm gonna go into the passenger seat. You got the keys. It's your car, man. Let's go for a ride.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:47]:

Well, Adam, before I do a deep dive in your background, like, talk about your recruiting business and talk about your podcast.

Adam Posner [00:01:54]:

Yeah. So they they kinda they kinda go hand in hand where they they They feed each other, and I didn't know that was gonna be the case in until we got there, right, like building this plane as we fly it. My recruiting practice, I have 2 prac is NHP Talent Group and probably nothing talent wearing short haired, actually rocking the brand. NHP Talent Group, Well, long story short, got into recruiting about 8 years ago, spent the first two and a half years working at search firms, learning the art and science of recruiting because I pivoted into it from working in the advertising industry. So I knew the industry I was recruiting for, but I didn't know how to be a recruiter. Right? Everyone thinks it could be a recruiter. Everyone thinks, oh, like a real estate agent. Oh, I I bought a house once or I did construction, I could be a real estate agent. That's not how it works. Benjamin, you and I both know that. So learn how to be a recruiter. Long story short, spent a couple years owning the business, And then 6, six and a half years ago, I launched NHP Talent Group, which these are my daughter's initials right here, always above me. Mina Harrison Posner is before my son was born. He'll have a company one day, but, yeah, looks over my shoulder all the time. Predominantly recruiting and marketing media ad tech, MarTech, we do a mix of RPO and traditional contingency recruitment. The Pozcast the podcast came about in February 2019, I grew up huge Howard Stern fan. Always, in my opinion, he's the best interviewer of all time. We're not talking about the dirty midget porn star, kinda Howard Stern. So if we're talking about the interviews, the long form the long form format of his interviews, And once he went from terrestrial radio to satellite radio and he was able to just have infinity long conversations with folks, that was a game changer. And be able to say what you want and curse. And and he turns an interview into a conversation, and that's that's what I like to do. And and I look at some of his interviews, for example, Hillary Clinton. Two things about that interview. 1, he prompted her to tell the love story of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Like, how did they meet? Like, something you've never heard before. Like humanized her. And after he humanized her, he basically got her to say if she came on the show during the election, maybe she would have swayed enough votes to change the results in the course of history. That's how powerful it is. So, anyway, I I I and the other the other great one that I love also Tom Brady conversation where he actually talks the same thing similar. The love story of Tom and Giselle, like, how did that happen, right, like, 2 powerhouses in their industry coming together? I was listening to shows back in 2019, and there wasn't really any great recruiting each other. They were very, like, clinical. Like, here's how you get a job. Here's the interview questions. Right? I'm like, no. No. No. We could do better than this. And I said, screw it. I'm just gonna go for it. And I was working in a a co working space in in Long Beach, Long Island. And I reached out to one of my LinkedIn connections queue. And I said, hey, dude. I'm I'm giving this show a shot. Do you wanna do it? He's like, yeah, man. And I was in a little, like, glass box. And I had the computer, a yeti mic, some old headphones in front of me, and we just did it. And it was just a conversation. My buddy is a DJ. He made a, an intro track for me. There's a third version that I have on this show right now. And, I figured it out. I figured out how to put these pieces together. I figured how to do it all and fast forward, you know, almost you know, 5 years, 300 episodes, millions of downloads later, and and it's it's a beast, but they feed each other. They do.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:13]:

And we'll we'll definitely, like, talk about that, shortly, but you're, like, you didn't have the traditional approach to getting into the recruiting this straight out of college like most of us. Like, you work in advertising, you're in media, you are marketing, you work for Gary Vee, like, Where did it come about and why did you even get into recruiting from the advertising space?

Adam Posner [00:05:33]:

Yeah. It's interesting too. So I appreciate doing your research. Yeah. It's 1st 15 years of my career working in Adland, account management strategy, big small agencies, client side, American Express, SiriusXM, spent time there. So it's kind of a jack of all trades. Right? Like, I I knew marketing from a lot of different angles, web 1, like, when I was at Sirius, we were I was the second person ever to have the SiriusXM app on their phone. It was actually a BlackBerry because I was beta testing it for the tech team. Right? Like, fun fact. But it wasn't until I went to go work for Gary V, which I thought was my dream job. I thought the grass was greener on the other side Benjamin, but it wasn't. And I've told the story many of times, but it just It wasn't the right time and place for me. That stage of my life, I was thirty 5. I was kinda like at a point where I'm like, alright. Well, making okay money. Like, what am I doing here? We just bought a house and the burbs, and I, like, I just wasn't feeling it there. The culture wasn't right for me, and they ended up losing my job as story goes, I got fired in that day that I that I got let go. I'm sitting there with Gary, and he started to break down He said to me, he's like, you need to stop focusing on your weaknesses and double down on your strengths. And when you think about that, at this stage of your life, right, like, I'm I'm great at so many things. Why don't I double down and go big and all in on that versus trying to fix things that maybe I'm not so good at? And then you just because if you do that, you're just in the middle. Things can be in the middle. And we're talking about my strengths, what I'm good at, what I'm what I'm excelling at and and all signs, kinda point towards recruiting. And I and I said to him, I'm like, well, you know, Gary, I got a friend who does health care recruiting, and he kills. He goes, Dude, he goes, you would crush it in recruiting. And Benjamin, I thought he was just blowing smoke on my ass to get me out the door. Right? And the pat on the ass said, hey, buddy. Go get him. You got this. Right? No. No. No. So I was like, alright. This this is kinda clicking in my head. All all things are kinda like pointing. Like, I I I've worked with a 1,000,000 recruiters. I've I know kinda how it works a little bit, kinda like real estate agent thing I was going to before. And I also knew how much money my friends were making that were hustling. And the fact that I could move out of a, you know, mid $140,050,000 job getting incremental 3, 4% raise a year, and have unlimited earning potential really lit things up for me. But I didn't know how hard it was gonna be. Right? That's what we don't know, Benjamin. We don't know that the a draw. We don't know commission structures. We don't really know, like, how the whole financial thing works till you get into it. So there I was out of work. April, May. And I'm like, what am I doing? I'm just kinda sitting around. And there were some low points, man. There were some really, really low I would say it was the lowest point in my life where I was at rock bottom because I felt like, I had no identity. I felt worthless. Luckily, my wife's an attorney. She does well. We were able we didn't we didn't skip a beat as far as bills and stuff and everything, and I was lucky to have that because many people aren't. But I I didn't know who I was. I was like, shit. I just failed. I can't go back to Adland. I can't go back and interview and have to tell a story why I was only in Vayner media for 7, 8 months. Like, what happened? Right? Like, That's a shitty story. Like, what are you gonna do about that? And then I keep thinking, well, recruiting, like, am I really gonna start a new career? Like, it's mind blowing. And I sucked it up, and I did it. And I went out and did my due diligence, and I met with every recruiter that I could get my hands on and interviewed at places like Solomon Page and Robert Half, like these big kind of smile and dial. I'm like, I do not want that. I do not want that. I I will lose my mind if I do that. And someone who who tried to recoup me once, this guy, Fred Sill, he's like, hey, dude. I like you. Why don't you come have a chat with with with my boss, Tom, at Onward Search? And my first chat with Tom, I I knew, like, him and I hit it off because, a, he was a Met fan like me, a, a sad Met fan like me. And, b, he recognized that I wasn't gonna be a smile and dial guy, but what I brought to the table was insane industry experience and a role of decks like none other. And he taught me how to utilize that. And build relationship based business development versus cold calling and just straight MPC kinda, techniques, which is so important to use. And he nurtured me, and he taught me the armed science of recruiting. And I thank him forever for that because I have a foundation that I have applied, and I I'm a good recruiter. I'm good at what I do. And the client side of it, I did that for 15, 16 years before I even got to recruiting, so I understand client management. Had to manage expectations, right, under promise, over deliver, over communicate. Those are fundamentals, and and and that's my core man. Thanks. So let me rant.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:56]:

And and there's a few things I wanna, like, dive into this. First of all, Gary Vee fired you, but he sat down and actually gave you good advice.

Adam Posner [00:10:04]:

Best advice over. Yep.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:05]:

I I've, you know, I've been let go from places. And it was like, peace out the door. See you later. Here's your email. Goodbye. Like, We never wanna see you again. Yep.

Adam Posner [00:10:16]:

Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Right?

Benjamin Mena [00:10:18]:

Yeah. Pretty much. And then secondly, like, Your entire identity was around the ad tech space and advertising space and marketing space. How did you, during those low points, work on shifting that identity, and not holding on to that to go make a complete career change.

Adam Posner [00:10:36]:

That was tough. And and here here was the toughest part. What do I tell my family and friends? That the the the career stuff I could I could I could figure out the optics around that. Like, I could I could figure out what that's gonna look like, but how do I tell my family and friends the truth? How do I tell them And at first, it wasn't really the truth. It was kinda like, yeah. You know what? It didn't really work out. You know, I've been thinking about it a lot. I'm just gonna change it, and then finally, like, fuck it. Like, you know, People are gonna know the real story anyway. Why don't I just own it? Own the story. Own my failures. And that was my self awareness epiphany, man. That that that that 3 or 4 month period during their time also, and I and I've talked about it a couple times. My my daughter on our on our 3rd birthday had a terrible accident. And, hot water. A cup of tea was spilled in our lap by accident, and we she had 3rd degree burns. Had to get, like, skin graft. Like, it was fucking terrible. And this was in the middle of me going through everything. And it was in the it was a week before I was about to start recruiting. I already got the job. I already was gung ho headfirst into recruiting. I'm like, god, what are you what are you doing to me? Like, how much more could I take right now? Right? Like, I was mindset into starting a new job and and, like, getting myself ready internally to be like, alright. I am starting at 0 Rookie. Like, training day. Right? Like, like, hard knocks. Like, first day on the field, there's a rookie. Right? Like, you're gonna get smashed up and, like, scared that I have to learn a new career. You know what I mean? And, like, and then this happens. And I had to push through that, and we got through it. We moved through a couple of weeks. And then, you know, my start date was delayed a couple of couple of weeks, but then I did it, and I jumped right in. And I actually closed my first deal in a month. I I had somebody who left and I kinda got a deal kinda handed to me. Like, a quarter of the way there. I still had to bring it home and close the deal, but I did that. So I got my first role. It was kinda like a gift. Right? I got the first deal into my belt, you know, but here's a crazy story. You can appreciate this and all the other recruiters out there. So everyone is from my wait. Is your audience mostly recruiters?

Benjamin Mena [00:12:33]:

Most of your creditors.

Adam Posner [00:12:34]:

Alright. Got it. So every everyone understands the the guarantee period, which I could go on and run this thing. It's the worst thing ever to happen and continue to see recruiting because Why are we responsible? Once that person gets hired, we need to make that hiring decision. We're not onboarding them. We're not responsible for saving them up for success. Why are we responsible for that hire that we have to give money back or replacement if they get fired? Anyway, So this first candidate that I placed through the little gift that was given to me got let go 88 days into a 90 day guarantee period. For allegedly being high on drugs at work. The client would not tell me what drugs or any more detail. Than that. I was like, I don't believe you. I think that you're just using this as a free trial period, and that was my first, like, Hi. This is great recruiting. Yeah. Welcome to recruiting. Right?

Benjamin Mena [00:13:29]:

Did you talk to the candidate? What did the candidate say?

Adam Posner [00:13:31]:

He never responded to me. That was the other weird part. He he -- Okay.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:34]:

So so

Adam Posner [00:13:35]:

I kinda was like, this guy was probably fucked up on drugs or something. Like, maybe they're right, but that was a kick in the ass. Losing my first commission check. Yep. Mhmm. Is it

Benjamin Mena [00:13:43]:

was it one of those things where you they already paid you? And now if they had to pull it back out of your account?

Adam Posner [00:13:47]:

Yep.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:48]:

Okay.

Adam Posner [00:13:48]:

Worst thing. I think we ended up doing a replacement, though, but, like, It was just

Benjamin Mena [00:13:52]:

a kick

Adam Posner [00:13:52]:

a kick in the junk. Welcome to recruiting buddy.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:54]:

And from, like, you started that firm. When did you decide to actually jump and go have your own search firm?

Adam Posner [00:14:02]:

Yeah. So after onward, I got I got recruited to join a UK based firm that was setting up shop here in the states, and they were launching a digital this. And I got Wind and Dine then. I got part of me was like, I was kinda happy at onward. I was doing well there, but I got Wind and Dine. I said, screw it. Let me just go for it, and it took this chance. And it ended up being terrible, a terrible choice. These guys were there was 2 firms, One of them was a digital firm that I was going to run, and the other one was a firm that handled management consulting roles. So these roles average salary were 4, 5,600,000 dollars. These guys close 2 or 3 a year, they're murdering it from a fee perspective. So they were not supportive. They would roll into the office you know, 11 AM the next day wearing the suits that they're wearing the day before. And for what you want from that. Right? Long story short, 6, 7 months in. I'm like, this is just terrible. My commission checks were getting strangely rooted through the UK and diluted and everything. I said, fuck this. You don't mess with somebody. Somebody's money, especially in New Yorker. Right? Like, that's not how it works. And I was talking about this with my wife one day during lunch in in in New Square Park. He's like, why Why can't you just do this yourself? She's like, what are they giving you for half of your commission? What are they actually giving you? You're commuting every day to the city, You have a computer. You have your contacts. What are they giving you LinkedIn access? Like, can't you figure that out and everything? So it's screwing. That was it in week later, I launched an HP talent group and the rest is history. Yeah. It's how it works.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:33]:

If your wife didn't say that and if your wife wasn't in your corner, Would you have NHP Talent Group today?

Adam Posner [00:15:40]:

Probably not. Most likely not. And if she's listening to this, most definitely not. Yeah. I mean, she's she's she's everything. She's she's my force of nature. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:49]:

Phenomenal. Now when it when it comes to podcasting, What is the impact on your recruiting business from having the podcast?

Adam Posner [00:15:59]:

Great question. So there's there's 2 approaches. So so we're gonna talk client side, and we're gonna talk candidates. Right? So from a, 1st and foremost, the podcast over the years has been able has enabled me to create a brand that's backed on true social proof and credibility. It is giving me a platform where I could share my thought leadership and industry experience, and current clients and prospective clients could see that candidates see that too as credibility. And best of all, I get to feature guests on my show who are the experts, and I shine a light on them, and that light reflects back on me. So I put them center stage, I set the canvas for them, and watch the magic happen. The other great part was, organically, probably about 30, 40 episodes in, I started to book decision makers at companies that I wanted to do business with. And organically, I would follow-up with them, build a relationship. Listen. Having a guest on, first of all, people like to come on Pozcast. They like that for their ego. Right? Like, they like that. Let's be real about that. So if you have somebody instead of sending them 30 cold emails and phone calls, you book them on the show. You build a relationship with them. You do what we are doing right now, building a rapport, having a conversation. And the week later, you'd be like, hey, Benjamin. I see you have 4 open roles, 4 open developer roles in your com in your company. We we we do that. Could we help out? And then, like, Yeah. Adam Adam's a cool dude. Why don't you go talk to to to Megan HR, and we'll get you set up? Dude, for a 2 year period, I was drilling that until the market crashed. And then the show evolved and I'd mix in some more lifestyle and cool story, I guess, but it's a great business development driver. Now from the candidate perspective, they get hit up all the time. Right? And they start to see me. And if they're on LinkedIn, they see me doing things. And like, oh, Adam, Adam, I see him all over my feet with his podcast and his other shit. Right? Kinda knows what he's talking about, has good guests on, good looking set, has a nice, you know, short microphone here in the Pozcast. He's pretty legit. Right? But that adds a credibility. Right? That adds a social proof because you know what you're talking about and you bring on guests that are such a high caliber. Like, wow. Adam at X Y And Z on

Benjamin Mena [00:18:00]:

a show,

Adam Posner [00:18:00]:

really, he must be doing something right. And I am. Because you're on my show. Right? Like, It all it all works out.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:07]:

I on the candidate side, I think I had the funniest call, last week. I called up a developer TSO CI security clearance, Yeah. Sorry having a conversation, and the guy was just like, your voice sounds so familiar. And I'm like, okay. I mean, it's the cleared world. I probably had conversations with him multiple times over the last, like, 15 plus years.

Adam Posner [00:18:29]:

Right.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:29]:

And he's like, do you have a podcast? And I'm like, Yes. Yeah. He's like, are you the lead recruiter podcast? And I'm like, and he's like, oh, yeah. Have my recruiting friends, like, send that to me. And I'm like, You're a divorce. It's great. -- never know.

Adam Posner [00:18:44]:

You never you never you never know. I mean, that's magic. It it opens up so many opportunities. It's opened up speaking gigs for me. It's opened up. I've I've done a bunch of of of, I moderated a bunch of panels all across the US. Globally, I I spoke in London last summer. I'm speaking in Germany in October. Like, that wouldn't happen without a podcast. It adds a brand to the recruiting. Now is it for every recruiter out there? Absolutely not. A podcast is not for everybody. You and I both know how hard this is, consistency, the work that goes into it. And some people, you're not meant for it. It takes a certain something.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:20]:

So I wanna dig into two things that you've said. One more time, go over a the BD strategy that you use to crush it with having the podcast.

Adam Posner [00:19:29]:

Very simple. I'm gonna synthesize it. Instead of cold calling and cold emailing decision makers or companies, you invite them onto your show. You book them, You have the interview. Do all your prep. You have those questions set with another part about the questions in there. I would like to ask them hiring questions. I'm like so so Benjamin, alright. You're you're I got you on the show right now, and I gotta ask you, what is your secret interview question? How does Benjamin Mana, how how how do you really listen. By the time someone gets to you, Ben, right, they already have the skill set. They're they're qualified for the job, but they're meeting you so you can and their personality, their values, their character. How do you do that in a 30, 45 minute conversation? Right? So now now you're showing your crowess as a recruiter. So you kinda, like, backdoor in that shit right in there. Right? You have a great conversation with them. You build a good rapport. You send your thank you email. You wait a week. You see their open jobs, and then you hit them up. So you're not asking for anything. You know, even, like a lot of my guests don't even know I'm a recruiter until I tell them. That but that's a good thing because then they're not they don't have that that bias in there. Like, Adam only wants me on the show because he's trying to close and I don't reach out to every guest like that. Right? It's gotta it's gotta feel right. But when it does, it's a slam dunk. I'm telling you it's a slam dunk. But but but but you can only do that if you have a good podcast. Right? Like, it's

Intro [00:20:50]:

--

Adam Posner [00:20:50]:

Yeah. You gotta you gotta build a good show.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:53]:

Hey. And it's it's something like I've told multiple people over the years. I was just like, you know, I we had a podcast in the web brief space. I think it was my episode 3 or 4. I somehow was already an authority in the space. People were reaching out to me hiring managers and during the interview, like, I would just be like, you know, some of the questions I like Adam said is like, Now where do you find your top talent? Mike, with the quick fire questions that I have for this podcast, I had some of those re we like, evolved around recruiting. So they're literally, like, also giving your secrets. You develop the relationship, and then you go work with them to get it stuff filled.

Adam Posner [00:21:24]:

So -- Exactly. It's a Trojan horse. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:27]:

It's it it really is like the secret weapon of 2023 in my personal opinion.

Adam Posner [00:21:32]:

Mhmm.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:32]:

Now you've The podcast has also opened some doors into you doing speaking gigs for web 3 recruiting. You know, I think you're keynote speaker at upcoming, like, web 3 event. Yeah, brilliant. -- positive Pozcast. Talk about that.

Adam Posner [00:21:44]:

It it it's it's it goes back to credibility and it goes back to setting the stage and and you look at, like, the coverage I did I did for Beacon the last few years, I'm literally interviewing the best folks in web 3, fry this Friday, Jesse Pollock, they found their base at Coinbase. Is coming out tomorrow. This dude is tops in the industry. You know, I'm interviewing, you know, Sarah Buxton from Gala games. Like, these are the top in the industry. So it gives you the credibility where an event, looking for speakers, and they're looking for also moderators. That's my other Trojan horse. A much I love moderating much more than key noting. I've done a keynotes is not natural for me. Right? The moderating is basically live podcasting on stage. I mean, it's it's plug and play. It's my wheelhouse. And they're like, wow. Adam has an a great ability to interview and ask questions on the fly. We're gonna have a great Web 3 guest out there. We need somebody who could do this. And really elevate that experience for the audience and create content around it. So it's just opened up it's opened up so many doors. I mean, it just works. It's credibility validation, scalability. Right? Cause a lot of a lot of conferences, they they kinda get suckered into speakers and moderators who are sponsors. Right? It's kinda like a pay the flight kind of thing. And that's shitty. That doesn't make for a good conference, but the conferences have to find a balance between the 2. And to make that work. And those are the smart ones.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:04]:

So and I you jumped in Vecon. I was that was gonna be another question. I was like, come you you were everywhere for V Con. And one of the things that I love about, like, you being a V Con is also that's turned into, like, months of content for you.

Adam Posner [00:23:17]:

Dude, it was it was 30 hours of raw content that Chris and I shot my my producer, and it was a mix of 33 days, 3 full days, of him following me and doing man on the street interviews, random random people interviews, and then set interviews that were scheduled during the event too. And I was lucky enough because I have access. I had a media lounge at a at a proper studio set up, and it was great, but it was exhausting. It was app. So, like, I came back from vcon. I was shot for a week, but it was worth it. So out of that, we got 3 daily vlogs, audio video for each day separated that, 6 sit down interviews, proper 6 down interviews, and then so much micro content that I still have it and have it scheduled through the end of Q3. And I loop it back to the shows that we already did. Because it's such good content. It's like off the cuff, improv, hot takes, about the industry, web 3, Gary V, like, all stuff that kinda resonates, but it's that human story. Right? Like, and now it's the biggest part about V Con is, like, What brought you here? What are you learning from it? Like, and then you start to put the pieces in your head, like, it's insane with Gary V's building. Right? He's building a real Do people connect to be friends and what it's all about? This is the next Disney Sesame Whatever you wanna call it, man, but it's it's awesome to watch. And, I'm lucky that I get to document it. And, looking forward to going back next year and ETRA elevate the experience. Year 1, it was just me with the microphone. It was kinda tough. It was my first kinda live event. And this year, I said, screw it, brought my video guy with me, and we crushed it. And next year, I know all the lessons learned from this year, 1st year with video, how to do it better. Had to preschedule a little bit more things, had to, like, not run around as much, maybe stay stationary. But I also like running around. Like, that's an adrenaline rush man, like, If you watch if you watch these videos, you literally see me running around Lukas Hill. I feel the giant, you know, 80,000 person football stadium. I think I did, like, a million steps in 3 days. I looked at my my Apple watch shit. One point is, like, you're having a heart attack, man. Like, slow down. Like, it gave me the heart attack warning, but, yeah,

Benjamin Mena [00:25:20]:

that was

Adam Posner [00:25:21]:

a good time.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:22]:

Yeah. I I love watching the content on on LinkedIn. So, yeah, definitely follow Adam on LinkedIn to catch some of the things that he's doing. Now when it comes to actually building a podcast, I'd love for you to kinda cover, like, lessons learned or what you advice you would give to somebody that's looking at starting 1 and, like, tools, tips, tricks, all that kind of stuff.

Adam Posner [00:25:44]:

Alright. So a a couple things here. And I and I and I like talking about because I haven't know why. 1st and foremost, a podcast is not for everybody. You have to want to do it. If you're working at a company and, like, that marketing guy's like, oh, we need podcast, right, because everyone's doing it. No. No. We want you to do it, Ben, because I think you have a cool radio voice. You have to wanna do it. Because if you don't wanna do it, it comes out in the audio, the audience doesn't feel it, and the show is not going anywhere. You have to feel the motivation in the host's voice. Now out of the gate, was I like this? Was I was I polish? Was I able to do this? No. I was rough around the edges, and that took a lot of work. And the the biggest moment came to me about 18 20 episodes in where somebody had trusted to me. It's like, Adam, like, you're you're doing a good job. I gotta tell you something. You're not listening to your guests. You are thinking about the next question before they get to answer it. So you're doing 2 things. You're jumping over them. You're cutting them off. You're not letting them answer, and you're also not giving enough space to listen and maybe take a left turn, a right turn, a u-turn, and dig deep into those questions because those are the conversations that people wanna hear. They wanna go deeper. They want that follow-up question, and that was a game changer for me. So for my show, we do a ton of prep We have a ton of prep. Chris and I work really hard. He's amazing. He's got my tone. He's got my voice. He's got the flow. So I have an outline of where I wanna go and a story arc. But I also have the ability to to veer off the road and and and take a shortcut and maybe come back and get back on the highway. And that and that and that's key. So that that's number one. Listen. Listen more than you talk. And that's why when I get to be on a on a show like yours, I could I get to talk. And I love it because I could find talk about what I wanna talk about instead to pushing the my show alone. But remember, you're telling a story and the audience has to feel it. Always keep your audience top of mind. They are the ones listening to it. Think about their audio experience. Right? Think about Are they enjoying it? Are they getting into it? Could they get behind this? That's critical. 2nd part is you and I both know there's somebody called Pozcast. I think the status most shows make it past 6 or 7 episodes because people don't realize how much work it takes. So it comes down to process, batch production, and outsourcing. I'll record, for example, in, June July, I recorded probably about 12, 13 episodes. That enabled me to take 5 weeks off in the summer where I could just chill and not do anything, and I already have shows that are already recorded through end of September. Now you gotta be careful with that because you don't want shows to go stale, and most of my content's evergreen, but you gotta be kinda mindful of that. And also, the guess is, like, you send them the email that the show is live and then, like, they're, like, Did we record this in April? Right? Like, shit. Like, you gotta, you know, be be be be mindful of that for sure, but it's hard, man. And you gotta be consistent and you gotta always improve and up your game and put the time and effort in because it shows.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:36]:

Now they are somebody thinking about doing a Pozcast. Is there, like, a goal number that you would say that, like, to get to?

Adam Posner [00:28:45]:

We were going back and forth with us on a LinkedIn post yesterday, and I said 50, but first is 10. If you can make it to 10 episodes, people don't know how hard it is. We did our our web 3 show. I'm using Pozcast. We made up to 25, and we had to shut the doors on that for various reasons, but that was hard too. And I thought it'd be easy for me to get there because I'm almost a 305 years. And I realized by starting a new show of artists, and now we're working on a 3rd show coming out with one of our sponsors called got fired, and we're struggling just to get shows recorded and coordinated and figure it out and everything. And, like, you don't realize until you start a show from scratch, how hard it is. So challenge yourself. Set set set realistic goals. Get to 10, then put drives out there to 25. Like, Jordan Power said to me when I was at 16 shows, He said push yourself to 50. And that number was important because that's a year's worth of weekly shows. Committed to a year of fucking shows, man. You did it?

Benjamin Mena [00:29:38]:

That's awesome. I I think I think it's like one of the things. Like, going back to Gary, the I don't remember if it was, like, in a video or if it was something you I He was talking about, like, making content, and I just put on my podcast hat. I was like, you know, he he's like, if you get to a 100 and you're the only person listening and you've gotten some out something out of it, it still went. Mhmm. And -- I

Adam Posner [00:30:00]:

I get to know. Yeah. At least for a lot of my -- -- for one person.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:04]:

Yeah. A lot of effort, you know, luckily, like, you know, there are some phenomenal listeners, and thank you guys for listening. But, yeah, it was just like, you know, it was like, hey. It takes work. And luckily, like, you know, I know you have a team. Like, I'm a single person Pozcast kind of doing everything myself, and I use a lot of, like, now AI tools that

Adam Posner [00:30:23]:

don't even talk about that. Yeah. They didn't have those when I was with Riverside. Right now, the platform we're using right now, I mean, I have a team that is amazing. I figured out outsourcing, and and here's the way I do it. Anything that somebody else could do better, faster, cheaper, and more efficient to me that I don't have to learn audio editing, video production. Anything I'm gonna outsource I could focus on my core business. So that's my philosophy. Now that's not realistic for a lot of people, and people wanna learn it. You have tools in front of you like Riverside right now. At the end of this episode, within minutes, you're gonna have the ability to have AI generated clips. And I did this yesterday with a show because I wanted to get a message out for a show. I recorded that data. It's not coming out. For 5 weeks. I bang that shit out in 2 seconds. It'll give you the transcript. We'll be able to download individual files. You could literally in the platform, edit it, audio, video, If you have your your your intro sound, you could literally plug and play it in, and your episode's done. We didn't have that 5 years ago. If I have this now, maybe I would've just kept it myself.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:18]:

I mean, I I, like, I started out on Zoom. Like, I tell people if you're getting started, like, Riverside is the best. I started out with Zoom. There's things you could do. I don't know if you ever heard of Descript at all. Yep. So I I actually personally use the script. What the script does is it literally transcribes, like, word document, and it gives you you can literally edit a video or edit an audio, like, or, like, editing or document. So it's the way that I get rid of all my ums and the u nose that I say constantly. And then there's a bunch of a different AI video tools. Like, now that Riverside has that, that can just easily cut clips. I do outsource the video side for the clips because I realized back before Riverside's Magic Eclipse, I was probably spending 5 to 10 hours a week just doing that. And that was just my focus was I'm

Adam Posner [00:32:03]:

suck, man.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:05]:

I I personally outsource the clip making, but outside that, like, the recording, the editing can literally be done within about 2 to 3 out

Adam Posner [00:32:15]:

check out check out Opus Pro game changer on that. Check out Opus Pro, the the the AI technology. What's crazy about that, and and I am I would love for them to be a sponsor. It uses AI scoring. Right? So they are pulling the clips through the transcript, and they are scoring what would be the most impactful clip based on virality. Whenever their algorithm is, and it spits that clip out with captions and everything done for you. And then you could set the parameters to by 160 second Clipsmax, 92nd Clipsmax, depending on what you're using it for. Dude, it's game changing the technology that's out there. Makes it so easy for us to put content out. You're stupid to.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:50]:

It is I, like, we're 90 something episodes in. I think by the time this one goes live, it'll be over a 100. I'm like, I wish all those tools were there when I first started. Well, Adam, is there anything else that you'd love to share about your background or podcasting before we jump over the next part of the episode?

Adam Posner [00:33:05]:

Yeah, man. I mean, definitely check out my Pozcast. Podcast. And, I I also, put all my thoughts. I distilled my years of podcasting into a little thing I called the pause course, poscourse.com. You could check that out. And, I'm not gonna teach you how to set up your microphones or optimize your audio video, but I'm gonna teach you what we're talked about today with about how to how to utilize a podcast for B2B Business and my my method and approach and mindset strategy tactics.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:31]:

And I'll have that for in the checkout

Adam Posner [00:33:33]:

So -- Appreciate that.

Intro [00:33:33]:

--

Benjamin Mena [00:33:33]:

link will be there.

Adam Posner [00:33:34]:

It's a playbook. And I literally outlined, like, I'm I'm handing you, you know, the playbook on on how to do it. Now it's up to you to to do it. Like, soup to nuts. Here's how you do it, man. Here's how you go about it. Here's a mindset. Here's how to approach it from a business development standpoint here that the email templates to book guests to to follow-up with them. Like, there you go. Now do what you want with it.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:56]:

Phenomenal. Well, Adam, ready. Are you ready for the quick fire questions?

Adam Posner [00:34:00]:

Yes. Go.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:01]:

So what advice would you give to a recruiter that's just getting started in 2023 in the recruiting industry?

Adam Posner [00:34:08]:

Every day you wake up in the morning and you probably ask this question later, but plan your work and work your plan, start your day with a plan. This is what I'm going for. This is what I'm focused. And you have to have volume and activity. Volume and activity will drive action.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:22]:

Same question, but what advice would you give to a crew that's been around the block for a long time?

Adam Posner [00:34:26]:

Take a moment to step back and and reevaluate what's working, what's not, and be open to change and feedback. Don't be stuck in your ways if something's not working.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:34]:

Do you have a favorite recruiting rec tech tool that you absolutely love?

Adam Posner [00:34:38]:

Yeah. I use and they're because their sponsor might show you, I use inter seller. Inter seller is a CRM tool groups, email addresses, puts them into a CRM. And

Intro [00:34:46]:

--

Benjamin Mena [00:34:46]:

Has there been a book that has had a huge impact on your own personal career?

Adam Posner [00:34:50]:

Yeah. Absolutely. I just finished reading. It's called Burn the Boats by Matt Higgins. Matt Higgins is Gary B's partner at Vayner Media. If you think about the concept of Burn the Boats, it's literally do not have a plan b and put all your effort into plan a. Check it out. 100,100,000,000 percent recommended game changer. Okay. Oh,

Benjamin Mena [00:35:07]:

I'll I'll make sure.

Intro [00:35:07]:

--

Adam Posner [00:35:07]:

firm the boats. Link it up.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:09]:

What's your thoughts on the future of recruitment with artificial intelligence?

Adam Posner [00:35:14]:

This is an interesting one. I am all for using AI that'll make our jobs faster and more efficient so we could put more effort and time to the human elements of recruiting, which are the conversations. Understanding someone's why, understanding someone's motivation, you still have to have that human connection as a recruiter. There are many elements that can be automated from email outreach. I've even seen great tools that have a lot of initial conversations, for example, tech roles to qualify them. Do you have this experience? Do you have TSA policy clearance? Do you have, like, all these things that you need before we even get to the conversation? But if you frame it the right way, and bring it from me, like, we're asking you these qualifying questions because we wanna be mindful of your time. Once we get these out of the way, the recruiter will be able to use that time instead of going through those qualifications. To talk to you as a human and find out what you're looking for and answer questions. That's how I approach it. Not to wrap up my hair, but my my thoughts.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:04]:

And, you know, even though they are quick fire questions, they don't have to be, like, super quick answers. So but, yeah, absolutely love that. Now when it comes to your own personal success, do you think has been a big driver of that?

Adam Posner [00:36:15]:

I think I think it's it's self awareness, and I think it's the ability to know what's not working, what is working, listen to feedback, be open to feedback, and, just have a general sense of kinda where you are and where you stand in in in the market. Okay.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:32]:

Now and this is actually my favorite question about asking everybody. Everything that you've learned, the ups and downs, the successes, the failures. If you could really sit down and have a cup of coffee with yourself, at the very beginning of your career, What advice would you actually give yourself?

Adam Posner [00:36:48]:

I would say trust your gut more. Stop. Be more on the offense than the defense. And double down on releasing chips even more than I'm doing now.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:59]:

Awesome. Well, Adam, I just wanna say thank you so much for being, I guess, on the recruiter podcast. Make sure to go check out the podcast, millions of downloads, tons of stories about recruiting, tons of stories outside of recruiting, and He's done such a good job. I if you're looking at starting a podcast, like, she does such a good job interviewing the guests, asking questions, doing a deep dive, a bit of a rewind, And there are so many lessons that you can learn for when you could do your own podcast. So definitely, Adam, thank you. And before I let you go, Is there anything else that you would love to share with the listeners?

Adam Posner [00:37:35]:

Yeah. I mean, you could you could please connect with me on LinkedIn. I I enjoy having conversations. I'm really trying to focus a lot more on on the on the comments than just the post, check out more at the Pozcast and, check out the pause course and just happy to connect and and Benjamin, kudos to you, man. You're you're a great host. You got something good here. I could see it and hear it and feel it in your voice at, like, this is something that you wanna do. You put out a good show. People get value from it, and I truly believe in the abundance y model mindset. Right? Like, I truly believe in that that that there's enough for everybody, even when it comes to recruiting, Right? Like, we're all competing somehow with each other. Let's call it what it is. Right? So so let's just all play nice in the sandbox and and Just be nice to each other. Just be kind.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:20]:

Absolutely. Well, Adam, once again, thank you so much. For the listeners, keep crushing it.

Adam Posner [00:38:24]:

Thanks, man.

Intro [00:38:25]:

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