Humility, Success, and Leadership in Recruiting with Casey Jacox

Casey Jacox [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the Elite Recruiter podcast with your host Benjamin Menna, where we focus on what it takes to win in the recruiting game. We cover it all from sales, marketing, mindset, money, leadership and placements.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:18]:
Announcement before we dive in, first of all, the recruiting growth summit is coming back. Make sure you get registered. Hop in the show notes it is going to be one of the most power packed weeks in the recruiting industry. I'm bringing almost all of the best people I possibly can to this event to help you grow and finish your strong. On top of that, the AI recruiting summit is happening in August. Register in the show notes technology is coming fast. It's changing. Get a chance to see some of these demos of AI recruiting tools and also listen to some of the best speakers that are out there when it comes to what is going to happen and how you can make more money using AI.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:53]:
All right, let's dive in. I am excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast. My guest is going to talk about how to become an elite recruiter without becoming an asshole. We're going to talk about winning and staying humble. We're going to talk about winning and the habits that it requires for you to become an elite recruiter. So I am so excited that I have top Biller author Kasey Jacox with me to share, most importantly, how you can win and still be authentic and still be you. Because over time, I've seen it change so many people. But I know you want to win the way that you want to win.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:30]:
So, Casey, welcome to the podcast.

Casey Jacox [00:01:32]:
Benjamin, thanks for the warm introduction and I'm honored to join you. And you got my name right. Practice pays off, buddy, for the listeners.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:40]:
Like I try to practice so many times before we get started. It is one of my biggest fears.

Casey Jacox [00:01:47]:
Well, I know I joked you before we started recording, but do you mind if I tell a quick, funny story about how people have messed my name up?

Benjamin Mena [00:01:53]:
Yeah, please do.

Casey Jacox [00:01:54]:
So I've had Jay an Cox, like, they thought my first name was Jay Ancox, but the story I always like telling. So when my son was a little over one, or actually he's about six months old, we went on our first trip to Phoenix where my mom used to live. My wife and I was like, our first weekend away, we went to Phoenix and we drove up to Sedona, which is north of Phoenix, for the people don't know Arizona. And we got a couple's massage and they were like this, like deep french accent. And the masseuse comes in, she goes mister. And misses Jacoi. And I'm like, oui, oui. And my wife's like, what is wrong with you? I'm like, I was getting into just rolling with character.

Casey Jacox [00:02:27]:
And so, like, then we, like, we were trying to giggle, and then she pretty much put me in like, a figure four leg lock for the eighties wrestlers out there. But, like, it was like, this intense move that I think I don't, maybe because she picked up. I was being a smartass. But, yeah, so it's. Sometimes my buddies call me Jacquois, but it is Jacox, for the record.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:43]:
That is awesome. And it is like, we've done a lot of traveling to France. So, like, when I was initially, like, working on the pronunciation, making sure I was pronouncing correctly, I had, like, a little bit of, like, a french accent in my head. I'm like, trying to knock that out. But real quick, we always get started on the podcast and how you ended up in the wonderful world recruiting. But I also want you to cover, like, some of the things that you did, like, you know, numbers wise, being a top biller, because we don't have too many, like, contract success stories on this podcast on the contract side of the house. But you got up to 306 consultants on your books, like, over 500 that you were in charge of. Those are just, like, mind blowing numbers that we're going to go into later.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:22]:
But for the moment, let's talk about your recruiting career. How'd you end up here?

Casey Jacox [00:03:26]:
Well, just like everybody did. I was a kid. I had staffing gods on my wall, like, you know, Dan Marino and people that ran staffing companies. I just. I always knew I wanted to get into the industry from age six. Didn't you?

Benjamin Mena [00:03:36]:
I didn't even know what stuffing was.

Casey Jacox [00:03:38]:
Funny story. So my first job out of college was I worked for a company called Barcodes west. They sold labels. I called them stickers. Showed my maturity level. And I was selling, like, barcoding technology. Had really no idea what I was doing, other than I love to compete. I love making friends for a living, which is what I told my son first.

Casey Jacox [00:03:54]:
One of the very first lines of the book I wrote, because I think as sales or recruiters, if we're making friends and treating people the way we want to be treated, which is one of the most underrated skills in life, it goes a long way. So I was in that job for about nine months, and then a good buddy of mine, Kelly Hanson, who is still at K Force, where I worked, he told me about this place called Hall Kenyon, which K Force bought that company in June of 2004. And he told me, you gotta get into this thing. And I was like, okay. And then I interviewed once. I didn't really understand. I couldn't grasp it. I was like, wait a minute, contractors? And wait, wait.

Casey Jacox [00:04:23]:
You're paying them and you're billing something, but it just didn't click. I was like, what in the hell is this even a real business? And then I kept interviewing because they were like, I just don't think you have the right skill sets. And when someone tells me they don't think I can do something, I'm like, look the eff out, because here I come. It just. It fires up this, like, competitiveness in me. And I just kept calling. And my first managers were Lisa Crawford and Angela Ronica. Shout out to them.

Casey Jacox [00:04:44]:
And I remember literally interviewing nine times. And on the 9th time they said, all right, we'll give you a contract hourly sales job. I think I was making 31,500, and I thought I hit the jackpot. I was like, oh, my God, this is best. So I left a full time job for a contract sales job without benefits. How dumb was that? Wow. Yeah, they told me it's probably taking me about six months before I could prove to them that I would be converted to a full time employee. Well, fast forward story.

Casey Jacox [00:05:11]:
Three months into it, there was some complacency in the organization in terms of, like, how you use a CRM, how you document, how you compete, how you build a sales plan. I just thought that's what you do. And a lot of that came from my sports background, just, like, being prepared for every game. And that's really how I got into the industry. And then I was surrounded by really, really great people who taught me so much. Again, a lot of times, success is about your environment, who you're around, the clients you have, those types of things. But, yeah, I'm so grateful I stumbled into it because that industry changed my life.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:40]:
Okay, so, and for the listeners, you became an executive over at key force. Like, I want to go into that. How did you grow up those leadership ranks? Because I know there's a lot of people when they take that agency job, you know, many times you're just stuck as a recruiter, a frontline salesperson, but you actually grew. How did you do that?

Casey Jacox [00:05:58]:
Yeah, well, so I think it started out just selling. So I sold for 1516 years. Like running a, running a book, carrying a bag, or whatever that may be. And that's a longer story in itself. When I first got in, got into the industry, I had multiple accounts. Then it started shrinking down to five, then three, and then eventually it was just down to one. Then I was, me and my colleague, we actually ended up kind of building. I was in charge of more sales and growth.

Casey Jacox [00:06:21]:
She was more operations, but still had a good sales background too. And the goal was to really grow that thing. So we kind of helped change the model of how you work with a national account from just being local office by office. We learned to change and understand how you move into more services based work. So, like statement work, best managed services work, professional services. Understanding that the mix between staff augmentation and services, it can be intimidating, it can be a lot. But in the end, when you really just understand how to mitigate risk, how to ask really good questions, how to expose. Sometimes these more expensive consulting firms that are, in my opinion, can be overcharging people at times.

Casey Jacox [00:06:54]:
So I learned how to ask questions like, for example, one might be, tell me how you measure the success of your consulting firm if they're doing such a great job. Tell me how you measure success of why you pay dollar 400 an hour for a consultant. And I just stared him. Cause I love silence. So anyway, so I did those types of things. And then towards the end of my career, one of our CEO's said, how can we create many cases? And I didn't really like that because it made me feel uncomfortable. Like, why I, I don't want to create like that as humbling that they thought, like, how do we replicate yourself? And so I remember at a time, I didn't want to like, walk away from obviously billing at a very, very high level because that wouldn't make sense from a comp perspective. So, you know, grateful for the team at Caveworce.

Casey Jacox [00:07:29]:
They helped kind of create a role for me that made sense. And that's where I became a non named executive. So we were publicly traded company, but I was not a named executive, but I was a president title. And really, that job was some of the most fun three years I've ever had. I was an executive sponsor over our largest account. I was responsible for trying to drive the growth of staffing to services across like four or five large brands. I did executive coaching internally for people who are newer sales leaders to kind of help them get out of their own way. And lastly, I ran an internal podcast that's been speaking writing as well.

Casey Jacox [00:07:59]:
But at the end of that three year journey, they wanted me to get back into running a desk. And I mean, at that stage, in my career, I was looking for another challenge and, you know, grateful for the 20 years I worked there. I left on great terms. Just kind of ran out of time, just clock ended. There wasn't a really role for me in the team, but it allowed me to kind of go down this entrepreneurial path that I never thought I'd be doing.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:20]:
Well, that is awesome. So. And I want to take a few steps back into your sales days, because you were a top biller at kforce for, like, a good decade. Like, what were you doing different than all the other salespeople out there? To see that kind of success and see those numbers, it such a large organization, too.

Casey Jacox [00:08:36]:
Fundamentals is the non sexiest answer. I had people inside my company that said, jaycock, we can swear on this, right?

Benjamin Mena [00:08:43]:
Yeah.

Casey Jacox [00:08:44]:
Okay. Jaycock. Like a goddamn robot. You got your email up. You got your CRM up. You're just. You're constantly just email documenting phone. It's like, I had fun.

Casey Jacox [00:08:52]:
I joked around a lot, but I was very structured, meaning that, like, I'm talking to a customer, I have their little dialogue box up there where I'm taking notes. I'm letting them know I'm taking notes. Mister and misses client. Every time I spoke to somebody, it was always about follow up. Never guessing, never like, I wonder I should call that person. Well, I let my clients lead me to the next step. For example, I was selling to you, I'd say, hey, Gray. Benjamin something.

Casey Jacox [00:09:12]:
Now is not a good time. Tell me, when would be a good time to check back in with you? Uh, great. Call me on June 18. June 18. I literally would. Every time I. Hey, Benjamin, it's Casey with k force. I want to follow up your advice from our last conversation.

Casey Jacox [00:09:24]:
You told me to call you on June 18. Is now a good time? Like, little things like that. Just doing that. Every single time I had a plan, I set goals. I pushed myself way outside my comfort zone. One of my great leaders got him, Jeffrey Neal. He challenged me early in my career to reach a number I thought was never going to be reached. Which was.

Casey Jacox [00:09:40]:
First time I hit 155 consultants was because of him. I learned the power of visualization. I had the lily on number 155 on a piece of paper that went everywhere in my office, we would move cubes to cubes. You know, five, six years later, this piece of paper with 155 on it looked like a piece of paper at the Gettysburg address. Just burnt edges and brown and stained. Looked like I drug it by the back of my cardinal. But because I saw it and believed and I literally constantly asked for feedback. I was constantly trying to figure out ways to get better.

Casey Jacox [00:10:07]:
The business will humble you, right? And I saw people, like, thought they were the shit. They'd lease, like, nice cars. They'd do this, they do that. They'd always be flying first. I'm like, I don't know. I think playing quarterback in college always kept me humble because it was never about me. Quarterback needs a lineman to block for him. Quarterback needs receivers to catch.

Casey Jacox [00:10:25]:
Quarterback needs a defense tackle for him. Just like in sales and staffing, I needed great recruiters. I need to help make their job really, really easy. My accounts, my back office team was going to create collect invoices. I got to make sure they know exactly who they're calling, when they're calling, where to send invoices. How do I make their job really, really easy? Sometimes people would say, why are you making it so easy on them? I go, why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I be a good teammate? It's not a fluke that these fundamentals, which I end up writing about in a book I wrote called win the relationship, not the deal. Like, a lot of those things, is what I think separated me. It was showing up curious.

Casey Jacox [00:10:57]:
It was bringing energy to the room, not sucking it out of everybody. If I had a bad day, I'd make sure I get my shit right before I walked in the office, like, okay, it's not their fault. Take a deep breath. How can I bring energy and just, it's like, we go to a bank. I can't go to a random bank and say, hey, can I borrow 40 grand? They'd be like, get out of here. Beat it, bud. I have to actually open up an account and then deposit into the bank for. I can withdraw money out of it.

Casey Jacox [00:11:19]:
Basic analogy. But sometimes people get so about them, and I do the opposite. I think I'm more. I try to give stuff away for free, even now. And I call it a boomerang mindset, where I'm not, like, devaluing myself, but I look to connect to people on LinkedIn. I look to serve others always. And I know that I believe what I do matters, that in the end, the experience I have, it's going to create opportunities for myself and in which knock on what it continues to happen.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:45]:
So how do you have a boomerang mentality when you're working in that sales desk, working in that recruiting desk, when you're sitting there trying to really push those KPI's, hit those production numbers day in, day out? Like how do you switch to a boomerang mentality?

Casey Jacox [00:12:00]:
Great question. When I worked with a large account I used to ask sometimes even if a client didn't have any needs, any hiring needs, I'd say hey, tell me is there anything I can do to help you grow your business? Tell me, is there anybody else you like to connect with internally at your company? Because Mister and misses client, I'm talking to people all day long in your account and a lot of times your peers continually did tell me like Casey, how do you know so much about our customer or my company? Because I meant it. Every single day you're in one business pocket mister misses manager, I'm talking to everybody all over the place. I'm on site, I'm going to networking events, I'm doing this same thing as a recruiter. I think sometimes recruiter, you know, it's such a what's in it for me now? But like I was begin to always call people back. Always call people back and set expectations. Hey Susie, I'm sorry, you're not the right fit, I don't have any for you right now. But if you call me I'll call you right back and I'll constantly try to figure out ways to help refer you to somebody else.

Casey Jacox [00:12:48]:
Maybe I'll tag them on LinkedIn. You do something uncommon that most recruiters don't want to do because most recruiters may don't have something for you, they're going to put you to voicemail and never call you back. But when they need you they're going to be begging that consultant, that resource to call you back. And to me they remember those types of things. So I think a boomerang mindset to me is just doing the uncommon nice thing to do in life. One thing I used to joke about with my team is I go imagine if your mom and dad were our client and they were the last client on earth. How would you treat them right? How would you serve them? Would you still pump a KPI? Would you still pump a shitty can over there because your boss is putting pressure on you? Or would you say, maybe you go back to your boss and say hey, I know boss that we got to get ten submittals a week or I got to get ten visits a week, but I don't want to just do it to do it. Maybe we train the recruiter salesperson to go ask for help from the leader to say, you know, lean in on the curiosity so that the leader can get a little bit more, more vulnerability, more humility.

Casey Jacox [00:13:39]:
Because I think when those skills aren't present either at the desk level or the leadership level, then complacency loves to hide. Fear loves to hide, which are two easy ways that are going to erode any culture. And I see it now as a sales leadership coach when I'm working with not only staffing and recruiting, recruiting companies, but multiple industries.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:57]:
I want to take a few steps back into some of these fundamentals that you were talking about, and we're going to cover the humility and humbleness and all that stuff shortly. But I want to go back to the visualization, the exercise that you had. It was at 151. You carried it everywhere. 155, 155, sorry. 155. Carried it everywhere you went. If a recruiter, and we've had a few guests recently that have actually talked about visualization, has been a huge part of their success.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:21]:
If recruiters are listening to this podcast right now, what advice would you give to them to write out something visually that they can carry around with them? Does it need to be complex? Does it need to be something short? What do they need to do?

Casey Jacox [00:14:32]:
I love to hear good questions. So, good job, man. So let me tell you, I created five new swear words. Let me answer your question with a story. So I created five new swear words. These are like, bad than an MF. Shit. Damn it.

Casey Jacox [00:14:43]:
I'm not gonna say mf. You can say if you want to, and if these swear words are need to, should, do, want to, have to, and can't. When we say those words about things we want to do, it creates anxiety. Instead, I write down, I will simple. But it changes my mindset. It gives me a plan. And so, like, for me, I would say, think big, recruiter. If you're listening, someone's going to do it.

Casey Jacox [00:15:04]:
Why not you? The great Tommy Lasorda, who I'm going to date myself here, was a great baseball manager for Los Angeles Rogers in the 1970s and eighties. He said, there's three types of people in life. There's people who watch things happen, there's people who wonder how things happen, and there's people who make things happen. So who do you want to be? Right? If you'd have told me, hey, Casey, you're going to be the number one producer at Cape Force for over ten years, and I had a 3.2 gpA, and they barely passed my sats. They're like, how the f are you gonna do that? You're a football guy. All football guys are idiots. Prove that wrong. So, to me, visualization is getting really clear.

Casey Jacox [00:15:38]:
And put it someplace where you always see it. Like for example, you can't see this to my left, Benjamin, but it says, be curious, not judgmental. Behind my computer on that back. Why have a list of dream podcasts, guest lists, the people I always want to see to my right, actually, I'll show it to you. Storyboard, vision board, things I'm going to, I will see. Keyword will I will accomplish this year. So I think by putting things out of your mind and getting them just visually seeing them. Stories sell slides, don't I? Tell people.

Casey Jacox [00:16:07]:
So I think when you can see it and then see it often. And I didn't even realize I was doing this back in 1996 when I played quarterback at the harbor to the west coast, which is called Central Washington University. Many people don't know it's the Harvard of the West. I do heavy sarcasm, but our football coach, we would put the first play of the so if I'm a Tuesday practice, I would know the first play of the game on Tuesday for Saturday. And every day I'd walk in the coach's office, I'd see, oh, trip's open right 334 stretch, z post, x stop. Okay, I can see it. Yep. Hey case, what's first? Play the game.

Casey Jacox [00:16:37]:
Trips open right 334 stretch, z post x stop. I saw it. Okay. And now I start going to visualization. Okay. If I have this defense, what am I going to do? If I have this happens, what am I going to do? The same thing equates to sales, right? Or recruiting. If I go in visually thinking about, you know, what I will want to accomplish or what I want to talk about, and it's all about me, let's say. Well then maybe that's not always going to go well, but I like to teach a question.

Casey Jacox [00:17:00]:
Again, I like to tell stories here. Benjamin, one of the questions I got taught late in my career at k force from one of our consulting partners we hired, he said to ask this question, which is describe what would be an ideal outcome for you in the time we have today. And that question gets me the answers to the test every time. Every time. Now, regardless of how much I want to talk about x or Y or z, when I put that question down in front of my computer, visually, I saw it every day. When I put down the question, tell me more. It reminded me, ask that question. When I put down a sticky note on my computer said, ask for referrals, it made me think about it.

Casey Jacox [00:17:32]:
Hey, before I let you go, mister misses consultant, tell me, is there anybody else in your network that you think I should be speaking to that might be interested in a new role within the next three to six months. Just uncommon, open ended questions and all those little sticky notes, those examples of visualization I share with you, I couldn't hide from them. And now I think this word believe is one of the most underrated words in life. I believe. And one of my mentors, Guy John Kaplan, asked me at age 41, I'm a little bit older than that now, damn near 50. He goes, do you believe what you do matters at age 41? I go, yeah. He goes, do you truly believe what you do matters? I go, 1000%. I do.

Casey Jacox [00:18:09]:
He goes, would you ever try to convince someone to do something where you win and they lose? I go, no, why would I do that? He goes, okay, good. When you believe what you do matters, you're going to have the confidence to ask anybody any question, anytime. And when he said that, man, it hit me in the heart. I was like, okay, because think about as you're a junior recruiter out there, you're afraid to ask a question because you don't look like an idiot. Well, I don't want to ask about web services because then they're going to think I'm a dip shit and they're going to want to go call ABC company. Well, I don't know what Ruby on rails is. I don't know what a prompt engineer is. I don't know what those things mean.

Casey Jacox [00:18:40]:
Why not ask? I had a client one time challenge me because. Why don't you know this? I go, because I'm not a software engineer. That's not my job. My job is to give you access to talent that you don't know exists. That's my job. If you hired me to be a programmer, that code would fall apart in a hurry and we would get hacked and you lose a shit ton of money. So my job is not to do code, because I believe that I do matters. I have the confidence to stand up that guy nicely.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:02]:
So, in recruiting, many of us fall into recruiting like we did just happens to be the job that we take. There's many ways that we fall into this. How do we reframe into believing what we do matters?

Casey Jacox [00:19:14]:
How do we reframe what we believe? Yeah, I think it goes back to making it more about a job, making it more about the story, because the stories we tell ourselves, Benjamin, and we like to be the hero or our own story or the victim, and once we get to that negative loop of, like, oh, man, staffing, it's so transactional. I don't like it. Ooh. I don't like to do that. Because. Or, no, I love staffing because I'm changing a person's life. I'm giving them a job that they didn't have access to before, and now they can feed their family, and now their career is just taken off because of me and my team, like, taking it that serious, I think it can help you reframe what you believe you do matters. I think sometimes slowing down to go ask your clients or go ask your consultants or the people you were full time, people you placed, let's, for example, on my role play this, Benjamin, we placed you four months ago.

Casey Jacox [00:20:01]:
Tell me what's changed since you started. And if you had to describe two things that we did to make your life easier in that job interview process. Describe what we did. So, like, open ended, I call those Ted based questions. Tell me, explain. Describe open ended questions that put you back in the moment of how I helped you or how we helped you. You'll now start telling a story, and you start selling yourself on why you hired us or why you used us. And then once we can get people to tell stories about why we did a great job, now my confidence goes up.

Casey Jacox [00:20:32]:
Now my belief goes up. Now I have more confidence to say, well, great. Well, tell me who else I can help. Tell me who else in your network I should be speaking to. I simplify this job. I want to make friends. That's what I do. I make friends for a living.

Casey Jacox [00:20:43]:
That's what I told my son. He was seven years old. Cause I couldn't tell him, hey, buddy. Daddy provides staff augmentation and product marketing. And b, two, b, commerce and ui, design and design. Led thinking. He'd be like, what the hell is that, dad? So I told him, I make friends.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:56]:
I want to go back into your old days. There's something else that you hit that I think is super important. How did you plan your day? How did you structure it? You said you did lots of planning.

Casey Jacox [00:21:06]:
I let my CRM plan my day for me. I was an activity junkie. Every single thing, every single client was. If it was in the database. This is like sarcasm. I said, if they were in the database, there better be an activity for me to call them. If there's someone in the database that does not have an activity, that means they either passed away, I need to take them out, or they quit, they change jobs. That would be like, step one.

Casey Jacox [00:21:27]:
I let technology drive me. I joked earlier where they said, jake, I showed a goddamn robot. I mean, I literally had the CRM up. Our old platform was called recruit Max. That's kind of an OG right there. But I literally would right click on this edit activity. It would pull up a dialogue, and I would literally just bang out calls. That's one thing that more like even basic is I put my customers or my targets in a framework, and these were called leads, targets, customers, and key accounts.

Casey Jacox [00:21:51]:
And so I would spend certain days of the week trying to move people from lead to target, target to customer, customer key count. And so a lead was just the name of a company. I knew nothing about them. It could be Bob's plumbing or Susie's hair design. But maybe they needed an oracle dBA. Maybe they needed some network support. Maybe they needed a new website. I don't know.

Casey Jacox [00:22:11]:
So that was leading a target? Was. I know they used contractors or consultants because either my recruiter told me they were my neighbor, met a guy or girl at a networking event, or they randomly called me, or I saw it on LinkedIn, whatever. A customer, someone who's giving me money and then a key account, as somebody who has the ability to spend a million dollars or north of ten to 15 consultants. And literally my goal was to try to get people from just up that chain. Leads, targets, targets, customers, customers, key counts, and really focusing on making that funnel as tight as it could be. Because once I had clarity, then the plan even went to the next level. Building charts for all my customers that could tell a story. Even now when I teach this, sometimes people will say, well, Casey, it's different.

Casey Jacox [00:22:52]:
I can't do an.org chart because we're doing Zoom. I go, that's the story you're telling yourself. So I'm making excuses. Have you heard about this button called share screen? Share? The chart you build up, have a color coded, and the manager might say, well, why are some in pink and why are some in gold? Well, because the pink ones I've not met yet, mister and misses client. All of a sudden, they start selling for you. Like, clients are begging for people to understand their business. They're begging for people to be organized. They're begging for people to follow up.

Casey Jacox [00:23:17]:
They're begging for people to create an uncommon experience that is about them, not us.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:23]:
Well, I got a few more questions that we might jump back into, but I wanted to kind of go back into winning and not being an asshole. You've been, like, humble. We've had conversations, like, even before we hit record, like, a week or two ago. And you are very humble. You're extremely nice, but positive and good. How did you keep that while still being a top producer? Because I've seen so many people, like, just win and then become jerks.

Casey Jacox [00:23:50]:
I gotta give love to my parents for raising me right. I gotta give love to my coaches for instilling humility. My quarterback coach in college, shout out to Bo Baldwin. He's up in the canadian football league at Calgary Stampeders. For these stampeder fans out there, he said, Casey, if you have to tell me how good you are, you're not that good. When you're great, I'll tell you. And I always remembered that. I always remembered that.

Casey Jacox [00:24:10]:
And then say that one more time, if you have to tell me how good you are, you're not that good. When you're great, I will tell you. And that hit home big time. The other thing that helped ground me, the very first one of the very first years, or very maybe the second year, I won number one. I would give a speech at our award strip every year. And I loved getting people's, like, the peoples who didn't get recognition or appreciation, like trying to highlight administrative people, trying to hide back office folks when they get their name set in front of everybody, that it made their day, which made me feel better about myself. I was like, look, the smile on that person's face just made you. I get goosebumps just telling the story again.

Casey Jacox [00:24:45]:
But my CEO said, casey, I don't understand it. You did more building this year than you did last year, but yet you're more humble this year. I don't understand it. When he said that, I was like, I never want him to say anything differently about me ever again. And that was my goal. My goal was to have him say that to me every year at our presence club trip and just to prove that you don't need to be a prick. And that's what I love about telling, like, AI is awesome and it's changing everything, and it's so easy to get obsessed. But the one thing AI will never replace, in my opinion, is being nice.

Casey Jacox [00:25:18]:
Just be nice. Chris Martin. Shout out to Chris Martin. He's an executive at a company called WWT. I met him on this entrepreneurial journey, and we actually had met in New York for a speaking event. We had dinner one night and we. We talked about that. We're like, just be nice.

Casey Jacox [00:25:31]:
When I interviewed him on my podcast for dads, he said, be nice. And so people sent me this will say that. But a great way to test it is when you go to a restaurant, how are they going to treat the waitress. How are they going to treat the waiter? When we got that restaurant, he asked her for her first name. Hey, how long you worked here, man? I like what you've done at the place. Be nice. It's so funny to me, that mindset of which we were taught as kids, to treat others where you want to be treated, that that's somehow lost, ain't lost by me.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:57]:
Where do you think, like, when people start having success, they start losing that ego.

Casey Jacox [00:26:02]:
Ego. It's, um. I think it happens because you start thinking you're better than everybody else. You just have to stay grounded. I think a lot of it is maybe the leaders around you. I think you, when you stop seeking feedback, it can sneak in there. One of my favorite ways to get feedback is called give to take to. It's, you know, tell me two things you thought I did great in that meeting.

Casey Jacox [00:26:20]:
Tell me two things I could have done differently or better. I. Every time I speak on stage, whether I do sales kickoffs or events, I'll tell the leader, like, I'm going to teach your team this, but then to prove I'm not full of shit, I'm going to ask you for feedback. Like, tell me two things you thought I did great today in this presentation, and then tell me two ways. That was just like, I missed the mark. And your team's like, what the hell is he talking about? But the biggest thing is you're going to ask for that feedback. Don't get defensive. Everybody in life, we're all flawed.

Casey Jacox [00:26:45]:
And one of my favorite things I love telling, maybe answer your question, or the story is, can you believe when I left k force Benjamin, they didn't go out of business? Can you believe that? It's a miracle. Heavy sarcasm, right? We're all replaceable. And I wish them the best. I hope they're kicking ass. Go get them, guys. They don't need me anymore. That's okay. And once you get to that mindset of just like, it's freeing, freeing, then sense.

Casey Jacox [00:27:09]:
I don't have to be perfect as long as I'm being my best each and every day. I don't know. That mindset just kind of helps me stay grounded and humble.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:17]:
You're extremely driven. You're very focused. You plan visualization, created an environment around you. I know in staffing and recruiting, there are days that get. Just get freaking hard. Weeks get hard. Months get hard. How did you pick yourself back up during those times? To keep on being a high producing.

Casey Jacox [00:27:34]:
Recruiter, let me first say I wanted to quit probably ten times in that 20 year run. Multiple. I was like, oh, this sucks. To winning solves a lot of problems. A good phone call solves a lot of problems. I created a habit when I was younger that when I would have bad days or a bad couple days, I just wouldn't let multiple bad calls ruin my day. And so I had, like, my nice friend list where I would literally call a client that I know liked me, or I'd call someone that I know liked me. I'm gonna get shout out.

Casey Jacox [00:28:00]:
Francie Boothby. She in port. She passed away. Rest in peace, Francie. I would call Francie from Primer Blue Cross, and I would just say, Francie Casey with Hulkinion. I'm having a brutal day, but I know when I talk to you, you make me smile, and I just want to hear your voice. If you can call me back, I could really use a pick me up. Who's doing that? Not many people.

Casey Jacox [00:28:18]:
And so, like that, that helped me stay positive or just getting a little bit of a pick me up, getting out of my desk, taking a break, taking a walk, finding somebody in my team I respected. I would just say, man, I need some help. I'm struggling today. Sometimes when I would struggle, I would literally just be nice to somebody else. Hey, you're kicking ass today. Great job, man. You've had a huge month. What are you doing that I'm not? Make it about someone else.

Casey Jacox [00:28:39]:
All of a sudden now they want to help you? I found, I think when we get in our own way, when we kind of close down, we stop learning. We remove our curiosity, our ego puts this big wall around us. That's where the growth stops. But I think when you're going to go through those tough times, which we're all going to go through, tough times, adversity can be a golden ticket in life if you learn it. Lean into the adversity of why it's happening, not to me, but for me, and try to find something positive in there and say, like, man, I'm going to get through this thing. And I don't mean to make this like a rah rah, Pollyanna, but, like, these are the fundamental things that I still work on to this day. At 48 years old, Benjamin, I built my business on accident, and I'm relying on the things I wrote about in this book to help me get through it.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:21]:
Back when you were at k for us, you were top producer. I'm sure that you had people ask you how you do it, what you do. Recruiters salespeople, what is a question that you wish they would have asked you?

Casey Jacox [00:29:32]:
A question that I wish someone younger than me or just less experienced, less.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:36]:
Experience or, you know, I'm sure you got a lot of the questions, like, we've already asked on this podcast, but is there, like, a question that you wish that somebody was just like, why don't they ask this question?

Casey Jacox [00:29:45]:
I wish people would have asked me how often I practice.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:49]:
Why?

Casey Jacox [00:29:50]:
Because I think people. People in business don't value practice. They think it's a waste of time. I would practice in the car on the way to work. I would practice asking questions. I would practice presentations. I would lean into role playing through practice. And I wish that people would ask that because sometimes they don't think top performers do that.

Casey Jacox [00:30:11]:
I mean, rest in peace, Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant would work out before everybody else got to practice. You wake up early, people who are really, really good at what they do, it's not luck. You just don't see it, but they're doing behind the scenes. So I wish someone would ask me that, because then I could have maybe hopefully impacted knowing what I know now. I could have said, hey, tell me how much you practice. Like, how much you practice your craft. And they said, zero.

Casey Jacox [00:30:31]:
I said, well, imagine if we told your clients you practice on them and you wing it. How would they feel about you?

Benjamin Mena [00:30:36]:
What does practice look like for recruiters asking questions?

Casey Jacox [00:30:40]:
So, it's like, if there's something you don't know. So, a recruiter, to me, I think it's really, really simple. Maybe your company has you focusing on development or design or whatever it may be. Practice with your team, asking questions that sound authentically like you. Record yourself. Record yourself on the phone. Or do you tell yourself, well, I don't want to practice. Cause it's just not normal? That doesn't sound like me.

Casey Jacox [00:30:59]:
Okay, keep making excuses. Keep making excuses and telling yourself a story that doesn't exist in your head. But I think, and I'm not saying practices would be like a four hour thing. Benjamin, it could be five minutes a day. If you're practicing five minutes a day, 25 minutes a week, that might be a lot more than most of your competitors are practicing. I can pack full stories where I got coached hard at the end of my career, hard. I got a little complacent on practice, then got me back to it.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:23]:
Can you share one of those coaching stories?

Casey Jacox [00:31:25]:
Yeah, sure. I wasn't sure how much time we have, so, at the end of my career, I was a part of, like, a, we'll call it six or seven core people that we were leading this, like, sales transformation on, like, value based selling for both sales and recruiting, the way we went to market, massively impactful experience. For me, it just like, really, it kind of relit a flame at that stage in my career. I traveled all over the United States for a year. And at the end of that journey, it was like a train the trainer model. So we had to, like, prove to, like, not only our executive team, but also this outside consulting partner that we knew their stuff and we could teach it just like they taught it. And it was a two day, like kind of, we had to get past, well, the first day, I'd done it for a year. I've been practicing for a year.

Casey Jacox [00:32:00]:
In my mind, in my mind, practicing. Did I practice in my hotel room the night before? No. Because I knew it. That was the story I was telling myself. So I get paired up with one of their top people. It's like my CMO Coo, a couple of my peers, and I have to present now day one of the content. I do it and I see some good body language. I see people smiling.

Casey Jacox [00:32:19]:
I'm feeling, ah, this is going great. I get done. This guy named Ray goes, hey, Casey, how'd you do? I go, I thought, pretty good. I saw you smiled at me a couple times, you know, a couple of my corny jokes got some laughs. I feel like I told stories. I feel like I moved the content along. I was thinking through all the things we, we taught. I learned through you guys.

Casey Jacox [00:32:35]:
He pauses. He goes, Casey, what I've heard about you is that you're elite. That was not even close to elite. I mean, it was good. It was pretty much great. I'll pass you. But that wasn't elite. Sandy, you're up next in front of everybody.

Casey Jacox [00:32:47]:
And I was like, mother f. Now, the key of that story, Benjamin, I was not mad at him. I was mad at me. He was mad at me because I, on accident, made him think that I'm the shit. I can wing it. I can just do this. I can just show up and compete. And I had to literally sit in my own, you know what, all day until like 05:00 till we got excused and like, we get done, we get the meeting, and I'm just pissed and call my buddies like Jacobs here, we're going to grab a beer at the bar.

Casey Jacox [00:33:14]:
I go, I'll be right down. I just got to go up to my room and knock out a few things. I didn't make it down, Benjamin. From like six after eight, dinner from six until about 1010 30, I practiced in front of the mirror. Day two, content overdose and over sharpening my stories, making sure that this was tight, making sure I present it well. Making sure I understood every single thing about what I was going to present the next day because there was not a chance in shit that dude was going to say that to me again tomorrow. So I wake up the next day, I get in the room and this guy Ray goes, his my buddy Sandy. He's like, hey, Sandy, I want to have you go first.

Casey Jacox [00:33:44]:
I go, nope, nope, sorry, I need to go, Sandy, can I please go first? I've been itching to go. I want to go first. I want to get this thing started. He's like, dude, I don't care. I go, I present Ray. You ready? Yep, let's go. I get done. Ray looks me, looks at me, goes, that's what elite looks like.

Casey Jacox [00:33:58]:
Nice job, Casey. Sandy, you're up. He wasn't a big rah rah, but it was like he knew I could take it. But like, that level of coaching I strive for, so it's like, and I love telling that story. He's like, listen, I was the number one guy at this company. I was one of our executives. Yeah, I still was getting coached, everybody. I still found gaps.

Casey Jacox [00:34:14]:
I still found ways to get better. So why can't you? With 33 people on billing and you think you're the shit?

Benjamin Mena [00:34:19]:
Throughout your career, did you always have coaches?

Casey Jacox [00:34:23]:
Internally, yeah, I sought out mentors. I wanted to be the dumbest in the room, weakest in the weight room, not the strongest. I always sought people to help make me better.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:31]:
I know many companies, like, you're given a mentor or you're given a manager. How did you go find these people.

Casey Jacox [00:34:38]:
To get around at k wars? You mean you could just search for who the top people were? Right? I was like, okay, how is she doing that? I'm going to go do what she does. Or if there was a leader around the company, I would just reach out to him and say, hey, man, I've been really impressed by how you handle yourself. And if you'd be willing to give me me, you know, 30 minutes a month, I'd love to be able to just ask you questions and learn and kind of how you're asking me these questions. These are types of questions I'd ask them like lessons learned. If you could go back and change anything, what would you do? Hey, what are the top people in your office doing? What are you seeing with your clients, just constantly learning. Constantly. You heard of Michelangelo? Yeah, he's a pretty famous painter, right?

Benjamin Mena [00:35:11]:
I think so.

Casey Jacox [00:35:12]:
He's done okay for himself. Rest in peace, Michelangelo. You know what he said at 87 years old?

Benjamin Mena [00:35:16]:
No.

Casey Jacox [00:35:16]:
I'm still learning. When I read that, I'm like, dude, 87 years old, bro. Painted one of the craziest things. Sistine Chapel of all time. Yet he still was getting better. Tom Brady still getting better. You know, these elite quarterbacks, Peyton Manning still getting better. I'm sure there's people in theater still getting better, people in music still getting better.

Casey Jacox [00:35:34]:
Like, once you stop learning, to me, that's where, just like, you're. It's like, quitting the world deserves more of us. Keep learning. Keep pushing yourself. Keep growing. I've hired three coaches on this entrepreneurial journey I've done. It's fun.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:46]:
Love it. Well, Casey, before we jump over to the quick fire questions, is there anything else that you want to share about your journey to becoming a top recruiter, your journey to the executive level, your journey to leaving and starting your own entrepreneurial journey, or even just some of the structural things that we were covering?

Casey Jacox [00:36:01]:
I would remind everybody that when I left and figured out this entrepreneurial journey that found me, I wrote a book, started a podcast for dads called the quarterback diecast. And then this coaching and speaking journey found me, and I reflected. And I do gratitude work every morning. It's apparent that curiosity is a superpower that gets unused for most people. It's one of my superpowers. Every email you probably saw, I write, stay curious. That's how I end my emails. I did it one day.

Casey Jacox [00:36:23]:
It's kind of a joke. I'm like, you know what? That kind of a fun little tagline. I'm gonna make that mine. So, curiosity, everybody. Be curious. Whenever you think you're done asking questions, ask two more to stay humble. No one likes working with a dick or a heartless wench. Just be nice and be humble and find ways to grow and then embrace vulnerability.

Casey Jacox [00:36:40]:
If someone asks a question that you think is a dumb question, don't tell them they're an idiot. And if you have a question you think is dumb, ask it anyways. Because when we can create these environments where people aren't afraid to be their best version of themselves.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:51]:
I got one question before we jump to the quick fire questions, because you do a good job, like curating your environment. You have a picture behind you, and you can't see this if you're listening to podcasts of the streets of Paris. Why that picture?

Casey Jacox [00:37:03]:
That's actually kind of a funny story. It's kind of an embarrassing story. I'm more happy to share it. So my kids were. I have an 18 and 15 year old now. When my kids were, like, nine and seven, we had some friends up the street. We had little mommy and daddy wine night. And this beautiful colombian woman who barely spoke English came by.

Casey Jacox [00:37:22]:
Lily. Her and her boyfriend were new to our area. They were selling paintings out of their car. I'm like, no, we're good. I'm not really big into paintings. Best of luck, though. Go get them a few more glasses of wine. They dropped by again.

Casey Jacox [00:37:33]:
Hey, are you sure? Yeah, come on. Yeah, why not? Show us what you got. Couple more glasses of wine later, I'm like, can you give us a presentation on this? This is the best thing ever. It's an oil based painting. So moral story is don't drink wine and buy paintings. But I love the painting. Actually, I went to Paris that's on the Champs Elysees a long time ago, and it just really pops at you. I'd love to say I'm, like, an art aficionado, but I'm not.

Casey Jacox [00:37:56]:
It was the wine.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:59]:
Wine and painting is a yemenite dangerous thing. I'll tell you that.

Casey Jacox [00:38:02]:
I'm proof.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:04]:
Well, jumping over to the quick fire questions, and they don't need to be quick answers.

Casey Jacox [00:38:08]:
Okay.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:09]:
What advice would you give to a recruiter that's just getting started in the industry in 2024?

Casey Jacox [00:38:13]:
I give them two things. Make sure you learn something. Three things. Learn something every day. Give yourself grace. And one of the best pieces of advice I ever got was, someone told me, Casey, do you want. He asked me a question. He goes, do you want to be right, or do you want to get what you want? You can't get both.

Casey Jacox [00:38:28]:
You got to pick one. And I was like, ah, okay. I want to get what I want. He's like, good answer. That means your ego's on the way. So the number of times I had to tell myself that advice in staffing, think about when you work with a hiring manager and you think you have the perfect candidate, quote in quotes, which doesn't exist. And the client's like, this guy sucks. What are you doing? This guy's horrendous.

Casey Jacox [00:38:48]:
Why'd you send me this person? You're all of a sudden, you're defense mode. You're like, oh, this manager's an idiot. He doesn't know what he's talking about. She sucks to. It's like, great. Tell me why you think this sucked, mister manager. Because I'd love to share why I like them. Cause I met them.

Casey Jacox [00:38:58]:
I can tell you about why I presented them. Like leaning to curiosity. If people that work with me who know me, they'll be probably giggling right now. Because a number of times I said, do you wanna be right or do you wanna get what you want multiple times a day, multiple times a week? Super powerful advice.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:11]:
Same question. But for people that have been around the block, 510 15 2025 years, I.

Casey Jacox [00:39:16]:
Would ask someone who is a senior, I would say, tell me the last time you've gone out of your way to tell someone who's less experienced than you how you sucked early in your career. I would say, tell me the last time you really focused on sending the elevator back down. Tell me the last time you went desk side by side to say, hey, I see you're struggling. Tell me how I can help you. Like, those things change cultures. Or you can just be the smartest in the room. He or she, sit in your corner. Just keep producing at a high level.

Casey Jacox [00:39:40]:
Do what you do and don't create moments, because when you don't do those things, you create walls. And people get intimidated by top performers. They don't want to go ask them questions because they go. They're too busy. I don't want to bug them. But if you go out of the way, you say, listen, man, I know what it feels like to be new. I used to be really, really shitty. You're way better than I was.

Casey Jacox [00:39:56]:
We hired you for a reason. Let's go. I'm here to help bring positive energy and lift them up versus trying to be the smartest in the room and like the arrogant douche.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:04]:
I love that you always talk about constantly learning. Has there been a book that's had a huge impact during your own career?

Casey Jacox [00:40:09]:
I'm a big reader. I mean, anything by Malcolm Gladwell has been good. Patrick Lunci on your own called getting naked. I would not like search for that in your corporate directory, by the way. Pun intended, I guess. One book that I really liked was written by a guy named Jeff Olson. What's called the slight edge. I really liked that book.

Casey Jacox [00:40:25]:
My friend, my good friend Ryan Fournier showed me about that book and it just. Every decision we make in life, every minute, every hour, like when I wake up this morning, God, I'm tired. Do I want to work out or do I not? I'll work out later. No, I'm going to work out now because I'm habitual. Do I want to do my gratitude work now or do it later? No, I'm doing it now. Like, little things, those little habits of, like, success frame your mind for the next hour, the next call, the next activity to create, which is what separates people, I think those slight edge moments throughout the day. So that's what really the book's about, and it really hit home for me.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:56]:
I feel like I just like walking into the answer to this question. But you've had success throughout your career. Football player, quarterback, top biller at K Force, executive at K Force, successful entrepreneurial journey. What do you think has been a big personal driver for your own personal success?

Casey Jacox [00:41:11]:
That's a deep question, my man. I think just knowing that we all have room to grow. And to me, what fuels me is, like, just learning new things. I don't know why, but I just. Maybe it's how I'm wired. I was born. Like, I didn't know shit about podcasts when I started podcasts. I like leaning in on other people to, you know, if there's someone's better something than me, go ask for help.

Casey Jacox [00:41:32]:
I don't like having to make dumb mistakes by myself where I can get help from someone else. I'm not too proud to say I need help. My buddies know I'm probably the least handy person in the United States history. I get made fun of all the time by my buddies. I don't care. They're handy, and they can come help me with stuff. I think I'd answer it. Just staying again, curious, humble, and vulnerable.

Casey Jacox [00:41:48]:
Those three pillars, which is what guide me.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:50]:
How did you land on those three pillars?

Casey Jacox [00:41:52]:
I think through the book writing process, just like in deep thought a lot. Trying to think through stories, trying to think through, like, hey, why was I successful? What did I do? And then as I talked to a lot of people, as I just started networking with people, it just became more clear. I was talking about vulnerability forever at K Force. I used to get made fun of about that, too. This is like me before Brene Brown made it big. She did Ted talk. I didn't. But, you know, being vulnerable would be, I'd say, I just never was afraid to ask questions.

Casey Jacox [00:42:17]:
I think, again, that comes back to my days of football. I hate to make this about, like, uncle Rico Napoleon Dynamite moment, but, like, because the game of football, you'll get exposed if I say I know what I'm doing. And then they. We go watch film, and they're like, Jacob, you told me you knew what you're doing, but I just watch film, and you don't know what you're doing. Why did you do that? I remember my freshman year. I remember having to get coached that hard. I was like, I'll never do that again. That sucked.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:38]:
If you got a chance to sit down with yourself at the very beginning of your recruiting career and give yourself advice based on everything that you've went through, what advice would you give yourself?

Casey Jacox [00:42:47]:
You don't have to be perfect today. You're going to make mistakes, but do your best not to make the same mistakes twice. When you make a mistake, go ask for help. When you go meet with people, make it more about them, not you, and listen for two words, which are, great, question, and shut the fuck up. Because when I make people think, that's how you separate yourself. Remember Voltaire, little french philosopher? I'm going to date myself here. He said, a man, I'll say, or woman, because I want to make sure we bring our ladies along. A man or a woman is not judged by his or her answers, but by his or her questions.

Casey Jacox [00:43:18]:
So, Voltaire was teaching this what I'm still trying to teach in two thousands. He's still teaching in the 15 hundreds, yet we still can't get it right. I always say success leaves clues.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:27]:
Fast forward five, seven years. You've been a top biller for five years. On your ten years of being top biller, would you give yourself any advice?

Casey Jacox [00:43:36]:
I wouldn't give myself advice. I would look for. Well, the advice I'd give myself is the things that got you here. Are you still doing those things? The things that got you there? Are you able to delegate things to bring your team along? So it's not all about you? If I think of, like, one thing that Benjamin really helped me grow was, you know, most account managers and staffing love to send every resume to their client, has to go through them like they own the client. Once I learned that it's not all about me and I wanted to get my recruiters in front of my clients. They weren't my clients. They were our clients, by the way. So I would get my recruiters, I turned them into, like, miniature account managers and made them get, you know, facetime.

Casey Jacox [00:44:10]:
When I did that, their confidence rose. Now they could actually understand what was going on with the client. Now they actually heard from them. It's like a real wreck. Account managers not making it up. It's, like, legit, you know? So it's like, once I learned that, I would be questioning myself, like, okay, are you doing the things that you knew or helped you along the way, and if not, hold myself accountable. Why?

Benjamin Mena [00:44:29]:
Same question, but one last time. Now that you're on this entrepreneurial journey, have you had a chance to coach yourself when you just got started? Anything you would tell yourself?

Casey Jacox [00:44:37]:
No, because I would want someone else to coach me. I would seek outside advice, because I think sometimes we as humans, we all have an ego, but I work hard to keep mine at bay. To me, I've hired coaches. When I know, I get to a point where, like, okay, I don't know what I want to do yet. I think that's a gap. Then I would start networking, and then it just kind of happened. Shout out to Kelly Shoetrop. I just worked with her.

Casey Jacox [00:44:57]:
She was fantastic.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:59]:
Awesome. Well, for the listeners, if they want to follow you, how do they do that?

Casey Jacox [00:45:02]:
I'm very active on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn all the time. So I think if what we talked about today piqued your interest, you want to connect, please connect. I always say, when you do connect, though, like, put a little note, make it personal. Don't just say connect, because that tells me you're winging it. Let me know you heard us on this podcast, and I can make sure Benjamin knows he's got grown listener base a little bit. My website is caseyjaycox.com. my books on Amazon.

Casey Jacox [00:45:23]:
It's a great place to find it. Or if you're a dad and you want to listen to. Over five years, 249 episodes of dads talking about fatherhood and checking our ego and whether you're a CEO, you're a pro sports person announcer or a stay at home dad. Our kids don't care. Everybody. You think they do, but they don't. What they care about is, can I go to Billy's house tonight? Hey, can I have ice cream? Hey, can you take me to practice on time? And so what I love about the podcast is just, I get free therapy out of every episode, but it's a way to just make sure we're creating the best ads possible in the world.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:55]:
What's the name of the podcast again?

Casey Jacox [00:45:57]:
The quarterback. Dadcast episodes come out every Thursday morning.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:00]:
Awesome. Before I let you go, is there anything else that you want to share with the listeners?

Casey Jacox [00:46:05]:
Find ways to be nice every day. Just find ways to go out of your way to be nice. I still send handwritten thank you notes. I teach my kids that I'm old school like that because I think people say they don't like handwritten note in the mail. They see it like, it changes your mindset. Like, oh, who did this? Who wrote me a note? And then you read it. It just. People aren't doing that stuff anymore.

Casey Jacox [00:46:22]:
And I like to be uncommon. So I would just say, be nice. Be nice whenever. Go out of style. My boy, Chris Martin from WWT, he's still being nice. He's got a lot of experience. He was a 20 plus year staffing executive at Ronstadt. Now he's killing it.

Casey Jacox [00:46:35]:
WWT. Fantastic. Him and being. I'm being nice every day, every minute, so be nice. That's how I just leave people with.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:42]:
Awesome. Well, Casey, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on the podcast, talking about how you were a top producer, how you became a top producer, how you kept it going, and on top of that, like, how you found ways to keep your ego on check so you didn't become a monster that destroyed yourself. Because that's, I think, some of the hardest things that, in the recruiting world is once you start hitting that success, is finding ways to keep it. And many times, people self destruct and lose it, lose that momentum and lose that success because of that. So thank you so much for coming. For the listeners, I want you guys to keep on making 2024 your best year yet. Keep crushing it, guys. Thank you.

Casey Jacox [00:47:16]:
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, hit subscribe and leave a rating.