The NFL & Forbes 400 Hire Her. Here's Why

Benjamin Mena [00:00:00]:
The AI recruiting summit is coming back this year, 2026 and my God, things are starting to get crazy. We are seeing the change that we've been talking about for a few years now, but man, you do not want to miss a summit. Registration is free for all the live sessions. It is going to be kicking off July 13th, all the way through the 20th. You do not want to miss as we are going to have tech tools. We, we are going to have operators, we are going to have recruiting engineers, we are going to have recruiters that are actually using tools to make a difference in their recruiting desk, talking about what they're doing. The world's changing fast. This is a chance to see what's happening behind the scenes with a lot of recruiters.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:42]:
You don't want to miss this. Get registered today. I'll see you there. Coming up on this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast, your team is. It's you and two other people, right?

Rebecca Stewart [00:00:52]:
Correct.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:52]:
And you guys make seven to 12 placements per month. You guys do no paid ads, nothing on LinkedIn. You don't have like a SDR making calls. You're not out there like doing like these crazy outsource automations on reaching out to like everybody and playlists and that kind of stuff. Mathematically, how does that work out? When did you realize that charging a bit of a fee on the front end might be saving you from some crappy clients?

Rebecca Stewart [00:01:14]:
When everyone else in the United States was doing it, except for Los Angeles.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:19]:
Welcome to the Elite Recruiter Podcast with your host Benjamin Mena, where we focus on what it takes to win in the recruiter recruiting game. We cover it all from sales, marketing, mindset, money, leadership and placements. You know the resume never tells the full story. Candidates share what really matters during conversations, on calls and interviews, over email, their motivations, salary expectations, plans to relocate. Most of that detail ends up buried in notes and forgotten. Atlas changes that. It's the AI first recruitment platform built to eliminate admin. It captures every conversation automatically and turns it into something you can use.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:59]:
With MagicSearch, you can ask Atlas questions like who talked about wanting a four day week? Or who mentioned they're open to relocating next year. It searches across your entire database and pulls the answers instantly. No keyword guessing and no digging through old notes. You get insight from real conversations, not limited resume fields. Atlas also makes BD easier with opportunities. You can track and grow client relationships. Powered by generative AI and built into your existing workflow. If you want visibility, smart dashboards give you a clear view of the pipeline across your business.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:31]:
And that's not theory. Atlas customers have reported over 40% EBITDA growth and over 80% increase in monthly billings after adopting the platform. It's built for agencies that want to grow without adding more manual work. Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive listener offer@reruitwithatlas.com I'm so excited about this episode because this is a story of one, you can go find your own niche. Two, you can go chase your dreams. And three, just like the rest of us misfit toys that just ended up in this space, I know the one or two you guys has actually studied and figured this world out. Don't send me another message on that.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:12]:
I get it. I know. But the. For the rest of us, there is an opportunity here if you go all in. So let's just dive right in. So I got to ask you, your client list includes two NFL franchises, a chunk of the Forbes 400. The crazy thing is like, in hearing this, you would think that you are the most expensive option in town, but you're not. Your fees are right in line with the market.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:41]:
So what are people actually paying you for?

Rebecca Stewart [00:03:46]:
That's a great question. People are paying us for quality service. They're paying us for quality candidates. They're paying us for a job well done, and they're paying us for high touch. What does that mean? Communicate in a timely manner, respond in a timely manner, file paperwork, make introductions in a timely manner. If edits are necessary on a contract, make edits in a timely manner. They're really paying us for the best of the best.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:20]:
And let me take a step back. Your team is. It's you and two other people, right?

Rebecca Stewart [00:04:24]:
Correct.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:25]:
And you guys make seven to 12 placements per month. You guys do no paid ads, nothing on LinkedIn. You don't have like a SDR making calls. You're not out there like doing like these crazy outsource automations on like reaching out to like everybody and Clay listens like that kind of stuff. Every single deal that you do is inbound or referral. I can guarantee you every single recruiter listening to this is like, mathematically, how does that work out? So how does that actually work out?

Rebecca Stewart [00:04:52]:
Early on there was some paid ads. So this will be our 20th year of business.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:57]:
And how long ago was the paid ads?

Rebecca Stewart [00:04:59]:
Fifteen years ago, maybe when there was. I mean, I know there's paid ads, but when there was such a thing as paid ads. I'm talking penny saver we're talking like mommy magazine, you know, not online, anything in practice. And that might be where I even made the mistake was I did. I wasn't paying Google a dime for over a decade. I could have been growing. Who knows where we would have been, you know, but yeah, we've just, we've really done it all with relationship connection and finding where, how you started this, where the niche is.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:34]:
And I know that your entire business is around nannies. VIP nannies. Hulu is about ready to drop a special in Ibiza called Million Dollar Nannies. Do you think that's actually going to help be a major PR boost for you or is it going to be a huge reality check for you and your clients?

Rebecca Stewart [00:05:52]:
Wait, what? A TV show? Is that what you were saying?

Benjamin Mena [00:05:55]:
Yeah, there's a TV show coming out called Million Dollar Nannies in Ibiza.

Rebecca Stewart [00:05:59]:
Okay. In Ibiza, they've launched a couple of nanny shows over the years. I think super Nanny and Nanny 911 were actually really great for our industry. It was showing, you know, an elite level nanny going into family's homes and showing what they could do. I don't know. The Million Dollar Nanny. I don't know if that's like a reality show.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:17]:
Like, it's a reality show.

Rebecca Stewart [00:06:19]:
Okay, so we're fine. I don't know if we're finding the best nanny or what's going on here. We've been approached by about reality shows a couple of times. No, thank you. Because our, you know, our clients would not be going. But I don't think it would make the phone ring. I think it would kill business.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:32]:
I was gonna say, like, okay, so for everybo listening, like real quick, 30 second self introduction because all of a sudden the listeners are hearing nannies. Like, wait, you could do nanny recruiting. So Rebecca, who are you?

Rebecca Stewart [00:06:43]:
I am Rebecca Stewart. I am the owner and founder of VIP Nannies household staffing. We staff the homes of celebrities and high net worth families with nannies, housekeepers, chefs, estate managers, personal assistants, baby nurses. We could staff a full estate if necessary.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:59]:
We're going to dive into this. But like when we initially had the conversation, I was like, wait, you were niched in what? Like, wait, you can make recruiting fees in what? I need to get out of the govcon space and figure out what I actually love. So I'm sure somebody else listening to this by the end of this end of this is going to be like, my God, I can go find a niche. And that's exactly why I wanted Rebecca here. All right, so real Quick, you grew up in a small town, but then you, you went to Cal State Fulton, you got your degree in human services, something that you mentioned, the pregame. But you also get played college basketball and you joined the Peace Corps. Can you talk about that real quick, all of that?

Rebecca Stewart [00:07:35]:
Yeah, I grew up in a small town. Correct. I went to college. I played basketball, which I never thought I would in college, but I did. I went to a small college and then I went to Cal State Fullerton where I graduated. And then I went into the Peace Corps in Paraguay, South America. I was there for a short stint, three months. Peace Corps can be up to two years.

Rebecca Stewart [00:07:54]:
But I was there for three months, fully immersed, live with a family. You're put in part of a country where they don't speak English at all. So you're forced. I had taken a couple years of Spanish in high school, nothing in college. So I quickly learned Spanish, became fluent. I unfortunately don't speak it much at all now. But, yeah, about 25 years ago, went into the Peace Corps and then came back needing a job.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:22]:
Okay, real quick, I want to take a step back. Why did you join the Peace Corps?

Rebecca Stewart [00:08:25]:
So all of my friends were going to get their master's degree. So to, to join the Peace Corps, you have to have a bachelor's degree. And all of my friends are going to get their master's degree. And I'm like, I don't want to go to school anymore. And I wanted to become fluent in Spanish. I wanted to save the world and help everybody. And Peace Corps was an option. And I took the plunge and applied that.

Rebecca Stewart [00:08:45]:
You don't know where you're going. You could have gone. I could have gone anywhere. A lot of my friends went to Africa. I asked for a Spanish speaking country, but it's not a guarantee you're going to get that. And ended up in Paraguay.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:57]:
And you came back and you say that you needed a job. Is that how a small town girl ended up in Bel Air?

Rebecca Stewart [00:09:05]:
Yeah, I needed a job. So I called a friend from college who was a year older than me, and she had a nanny job. And I said, how did you get your job? And she told me about an agency and she had a great job. And I said, you do what? And you make how much? Like that's more than. I went to school to be a counselor. That's about what a counselor makes. If I went and got a master's degree and started working in a school. And she said, yeah.

Rebecca Stewart [00:09:27]:
So I went and applied for a nanny job. Nanny jobs. I interviewed for one and before I could get home, they called and said you were hired.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:36]:
Okay, talk about that, that first nanny job. Cause I, I feel like that call completely changed the direction of your life.

Rebecca Stewart [00:09:44]:
It did, completely. I can't even believe it now that we're talking about it. I interviewed for this job. I remember my boss, my pre boss, with interview, saying, we don't want you getting your master's degree or your doctorate because we need your full flexibility and availability during the week, even when you're not working. I worked Friday to Monday living and staying at this house and available during the time I was there. And I thought, oh my gosh, like, what does he know? Maybe I'll go get my master's. Like, what are you going to do Monday through Friday when everyone else is working and I didn't go get my master's? I would drive home every end of shift thinking, I'm a nanny, this is what I do. And no one believed it.

Rebecca Stewart [00:10:28]:
In my small hometown, where you trust the high school girl or the person down the street to take care of your kid, they were like, you do what? But you're going to get your master's, right? You're going to go get your master's. And I was like, I'm really sure. I think this nanny world's for me. And then I. That job ended. And then I started doing research on what does it take to own or run an agency, a nanny.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:52]:
Okay, so real quick, let's take a pause there. The job ended. Was it a quick in. Was it like you decided to.

Rebecca Stewart [00:10:57]:
Yeah, it was just a. You know what I really thought about? I worked Friday to Monday and most people work Monday through Friday. And so I just told my boss, you know, I don't want to work weekends anymore. I do want to go to church on Sundays and, and have a life like everyone else. And it was sad. I was crying, she was crying. We were sad about it. But she understood and it was time to move on.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:17]:
Maybe it's because I grew up in recruiting, got sucked into a recruiting agency right out of college. But you, once that job ended, you were like, wait, I can run a recruiting agency for nannies? Like, that was your initial thought?

Rebecca Stewart [00:11:33]:
Yeah, I didn't like the way that some recruiters treated me and I wanted to, Yeah, I wanted to change the game. And mind you, I'm in la, but I'm still a small town girl. Like, I think people should be treated like humans. And I'm not. I wasn't here for anything else. I was here to be a nanny. And I wasn't faking it to make it or anything like that. I just.

Rebecca Stewart [00:11:54]:
I didn't like the way I was retreated by one recruiter, maybe one and a half. And I liked the way I was treated by the person who actually got me my job.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:03]:
So a bad experience made you say, wait, I can do this?

Rebecca Stewart [00:12:08]:
Well, it made me say, let me look into how to do this.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:12]:
You're having this idea. You're thinking about this. You're talking about this. You're doing this. How old are you?

Rebecca Stewart [00:12:16]:
23 at the time.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:20]:
So 23. You're thinking about starting your own agency. When you decided to hit go, what was the first thing that you did?

Rebecca Stewart [00:12:28]:
I really started researching the other agencies in town. And I can recall I had, like, a spiral notebook, and I was writing notes about them. And then I was writing how I would be different. And then I called my mom and I needed a name. When you're going to do something, you need a name. And I don't know. Mom came up with vip. And to be honest with you, I think I was pushing a stroller because I had a temp job with a baby.

Rebecca Stewart [00:12:52]:
You'd still have to pay the bills. This is. Money doesn't come when you start a business right away. Let's be real. It does not come right away. So you still have to pay, pay the bills. But I remember pushing a stroller, maybe earphones in, and my mom and I were talking, and I remember she said something about, like, vip, because the client is vip, but you also treat the people you work with and find jobs for as VIPs.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:13]:
And then you. Okay, I love that your mom, like, helped you with a name and. Amazing. But then, like, when you decided to start the business, you actually went and called a bank.

Rebecca Stewart [00:13:25]:
Yes. A hometown bank. Small. I don't think the bank exists anymore in my hometown. I called a banker and I said, I have an idea for a business and I need a loan because I need money to advertise. That's really advertising, making a website. That's really what I needed the money for. And told him my ideas.

Rebecca Stewart [00:13:44]:
I remember reading it off of that paper that I had written my notes on. And he said, well, it sounds like you know what you're talking about. Well, let me get you the paperwork. And I filled out all the paperwork, and he said, I'll get back to you. And then he called. Within days, he called and said, okay, we can get you that loan. And I got a loan and took the money and Immediately put it into building a website, which I call now is like four pages of content. You know, it was really just like, boom.

Rebecca Stewart [00:14:09]:
And it was like, I don't even pictures and maybe some verbiage. I don't even remember. Call us.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:14]:
You know, I love that at the age of 23, going into 24, you literally wrote down like, you studied most of the other agencies out there, realizing the ways that you could be different. And then I don't think most people have ever thought about, hey, let me go get a loan to go start my recruiting agency. I just love that you just bet on yourself and like, I don't know what's. What are they going to do? Tell me. No. Okay, cool. I'll just keep on going. Hey, here's a $10,000 loan for you to start your company.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:45]:
So walk me through a little bit of the first year. I want to know three things. What was your first placement? What was the first family that scared you? And where was the first month where money actually exceeded money coming in exceeded money going out?

Rebecca Stewart [00:15:01]:
Those are great questions. Any family that called scared me because I wanted to do it right and I wanted to find the right connection. The first family that called me, I decided to go meet them in person, go to their home, interview them, ask them what they wanted, what kind of nanny they were looking for, meet the family. That was a huge mistake. Why? Who was the first nanny they wanted to hire? Me. I wasn't hirable. I'm trying to build a business. I'm not trying to work in it.

Rebecca Stewart [00:15:33]:
I never met a family after that. Never went and met a family. But I did find this family. A nanny, great nanny. She was there for years. That was money in, but money exceeding money out. Was probably between year three and four, really. A colleague of mine at a conference told me, give it three to five years.

Rebecca Stewart [00:15:52]:
And at that point, she had been in the business, I think about 15 years. She said, Give it three to five years and you'll have an aha moment. And I remember thinking, oh, it's like year one or two. Like, could that third year get here? You know? And I remember sitting in my office and I don't remember what it was in that moment. Maybe a client called, whether or hired or it was a celebrity client. And I remember just going like this. I remember sitting back and going like, this is what she was talking about. About a year and a half, two years had passed.

Rebecca Stewart [00:16:25]:
And I remember that so vividly that that was the moment where everything started to shift.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:32]:
We're going to Come back to that moment. But I want to go back to what you first said about that first family that you sat down with. They wanted to hire you. How hard was that to say, no, I'm building a business, I will find you. And any. When you could have just taken the almost the easier route, like, hey, this is money for me right now.

Rebecca Stewart [00:16:51]:
That wasn't even a thought. Me taking a job, their job or any job, like that wasn't even a thought. I would pick up gigs to pay the bills, but I wasn't going to take a job that came into the company. Now every now and then. True story. I had it in my head like, oh, if this celebrity called, it was like a, again, that was really just a joke in my head. If this celebrity called, maybe I'd go work for her or him. But actually the person in my head, I actually met their nanny and heard about the experience and I was like, that was really just in my head.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:27]:
I, I love that. But yeah, so it was like three, it was about three years of you building your business where you finally had that aha moment. Like this stuff's working out.

Rebecca Stewart [00:17:35]:
Yeah. And I really believe that in life, like whatever it is, if it's meant to be, it just, it flows there. Oh, trials, errors. Yes. But if it's really meant to be, it should be quite seamless.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:48]:
So I know we were talking about this in the pregame. When you first started your business, you were going after anybody that could have. You thought you could afford a nanny. At some point in time you realized that the market was a bit somewhere else. Tell me about that realization and that wake up call.

Rebecca Stewart [00:18:04]:
Yeah. The small town girl that went to a foreign country that wanted to save the world, thought everyone could have good childcare at the core of the business. From the beginning, I just wanted good people working with kids. And it's 20 years later and I still want good people working with kids. But I quickly realized not everyone can afford childcare. And at the end of the day, not everyone can afford a nanny. Preschools are expensive, daycare is expensive. Nanny world is just a whole nother expense for a certain caliber of client.

Rebecca Stewart [00:18:36]:
And I learned that as people would call and ask how much it would, how much is it? How much is it? How much is it? I got a lot of just how much is it? Versus actual becoming a client. And I read a book about marketing to more elite, more high net worth families or individuals clients. And I changed our marketing approach which was higher fees, pouring more money into our website for marketing and Somehow that shifted.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:13]:
You could have kept on trying to bang your head against the wall.

Rebecca Stewart [00:19:19]:
I probably banged my head against the wall for a little too long.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:23]:
But you know, it's one of those things. I think a lot of recruiters, when they think about it, they have the idea where their market is, they have the idea where they want to build the business, but sometimes the idea that they have in their head doesn't match the reality of the market. Need and the market fit. How many months into your business did it take for you to. I really make that realization.

Rebecca Stewart [00:19:42]:
Months? I'd say years. It took years. I think I really wanted to help more people than I really realistically could. And I think a lot of that is also a mentality where you come from and also what you've been exposed to. Remember, I, I worked in Bel Air. Bel Air is a very. And people know it. Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Rebecca Stewart [00:20:06]:
But people know Bell. Yeah, right. People know Bel Air. But have you lived in Bel Air? Have you walked in a home in Bel Air? Have you been to Beverly Hills? Have you been around high net worth families? Have you been shopping with a client on Rodeo Drive? Very different experiences than just someone trying to help someone get a nanny. And that experience coupled with putting myself in places where I would have never put myself before VIP nannies, I think really helped shift my mindset. This is how clients operate on a day to day basis. Not my reality, but that's their reality.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:49]:
One of those moments you mentioned, it was the awesome Hilton Beverly Hills Hotel of you going to an event. And that was like another one of your wake up calls. Can you talk about that?

Rebecca Stewart [00:21:02]:
Yeah, I worked actually at an event and it was just a moment where this is where we needed to be. This is the client base. This is where they hang out, this is where they eat, where they visit, where their friends visit. And I knew that was a time where the business model had to shift. And I say business model, but as the owner, I take full responsibility. It was, it's my mentality. I had to shift. I.

Rebecca Stewart [00:21:34]:
In la, I can't speak for everywhere, but in la, it's really hard to say that you're successful and own a great company and you work with these, this level of client and you're in a 1990 Honda Accord pulling up to the Beverly Hills Hotel. Sorry, but you gotta have something a little nicer and invest in yourself showing

Benjamin Mena [00:21:57]:
success for the listeners. You were that person that pulled up in that Honda Accord, right?

Rebecca Stewart [00:22:01]:
Yes, absolutely. That was me. Ballet parked and then never did it. Again, parked on the side.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:08]:
But it's, you know, especially for recruiters that never see their clients. Recruiters are live on the phone. Like. Like, what you started to realize is you had to have a little bit of, like, an identity shift.

Rebecca Stewart [00:22:20]:
Yes. I live on the phone. One client called me the Charlie of Charlie's Angels. I could be in a room full of celebrities who are my clients, and they don't even know that. They know. They've talked. They don't know who I am. They may have emailed me, called me.

Rebecca Stewart [00:22:35]:
We've chatted on the phone handful of times. I may have got you a nanny, a chef, a housekeeper. We are literally in the same room. And you know, I know who you are, but you're not aware of who I am. I'm not sad about it. I will go up and say hi. But at the same time, respectfully, there's been times I've been at a restaurant with clients, and I see them meeting over there. And I know you have a great nanny in your home that's a VIP nanny.

Rebecca Stewart [00:22:57]:
And sometimes I'll say hi, and sometimes I just let them have their dinner.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:01]:
I love that. But I also want to talk about the mindset shift, because you had to go through it. You had to realize that you had to play at a different level. Especially, like, at this point in time, you were, what, 26 years old?

Rebecca Stewart [00:23:12]:
Yeah, I don't even. What? I don't even know how time feels like 20 years. It feels so. It feels like I haven't been doing it that long, but that's a really long time when we talk about it. I was 28 when I had. When. No, I was 30 when I had my child. That helped shift a bit because now I'm a mom, and now I'm pushing a stroller, and now I'm seeing how other moms operate around town, going to mommy events and such.

Rebecca Stewart [00:23:43]:
Again, not always our client base. Just because you're a mom. Right. So understanding, still understanding that mentality of where the client's at and what they need and going book back into those places and reminding myself of who these people are and. And what their needs are and where they. I think it's very hard to do what I do if you aren't immersing yourself somehow in that culture.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:14]:
So talk about my set shifts like the first one was, or realizing that you had to be played a higher game. The mom shift. When did you realize that you had to start raising your.

Rebecca Stewart [00:24:25]:
Your fees after reading that book? It was like, change your elevator Pitch. So I already shared what I did at the beginning of all of this. And that is what it's been. People used to say, oh, you own VIP nannies, I need a babysitter. Literally, like I need a babysitter. And I'd be like, we don't do babysitters, we do full time nannies. This is their career, their jobs. People go to school for child development, child psychology, teaching.

Rebecca Stewart [00:24:51]:
And when I change the elevator pitch, you already heard at the beginning of the segment, we work with celebrities and high net worth families and we place nannies, housekeeper, chefs, estate managers who. Oh, oh. Literally this is what I get. Oh, oh, oh. I'm not a celebrity, I'm not. Okay, well that's fine. But now you understand who I work with.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:13]:
How long did that shift take from when it really started to show up income wise in your business?

Rebecca Stewart [00:25:19]:
More like seven years.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:22]:
Seven years of you committing to that shift before you really saw the fruits of it.

Rebecca Stewart [00:25:26]:
Because that shift didn't really happen till that three to five year. Okay, remember? And once I started, you know, using that, I'm not equating it all to elevator pitch, but that elevator pitch, changing the website, some marketing strategies, I would say seven years.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:45]:
As you were changing personally in your business and this new version of you, did anybody around you just kind of like see that as like almost like inauthentic or. This wasn't really you?

Rebecca Stewart [00:25:57]:
No, I've always been me. I think the mindset shift is different. Expecting excellence is always something that's been important to me. Living in excellence, operating in excellence has always been important. Mindset shift, I think it's just growth. I think it's learning through trial and error. What works, doesn't work. Changing the marketing and a mindset shift I don't really think changed me.

Rebecca Stewart [00:26:30]:
I'd have to ask some of my friends that have been friends for 40 years

Benjamin Mena [00:26:35]:
and for any agency owner or recruiter listening to this, that they're almost, you know, still looking at themselves, the Honda Accord version of themselves, like, I'm here to do the work, I'm here to do the job. But they need the ones that realize that they need to make a change and start really just like making that shift too. What would you say to them and what would you say is one of the most important things that they could do tomorrow to really start making that shift?

Rebecca Stewart [00:26:58]:
Two parts. Do what you love. If you're recruiting for sports, if you're recruiting for tech, if you're recruiting for nannies, if you're recruiting for bicycles, do what you love. If you know, if you love horses, find a way to. And I don't even know we can see to all recruiters, just a life lesson. Do what you love. If you're in recruiting and you're hating it or you're hitting a brick wall, why take recruiting out of it? What about you? Are you not enjoying about the process? What are you not? What are you hating? What are you loving? What works for you? I mean, this is what I talk to clients about all the time. Even people that have staff.

Rebecca Stewart [00:27:41]:
Like, what do you love about your staff? What would you like to see different? But one is do what you love. That'll make life so much easier. Some people go to school for specific things and use that degree to its fullest. Doctors, lawyers. Some people go to school for a degree and never use that degree for specifically what they do. But some tools I'm sure come in handy. But do what you love.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:09]:
What's something that they could do tomorrow to start walking towards that?

Rebecca Stewart [00:28:13]:
Honestly, focus on yourself. I think a lot of people are missing the self reflection, the self realization. So look at social media. There's so many, like how to improve and how to, how to be a better this and how to get and how to. And how. But like, what are you doing to like better improve yourself? Every morning I do, I've done the same thing. My stepmom even laughed at me. She goes, you still do that? I wake up, I have my quiet time with my bible.

Rebecca Stewart [00:28:43]:
I journal. I don't want to say every day because I'm not perfect, but like I journal every day before my son gets up. I do that, get him up and off to school. I usually hit the gym. I might hit the gym at 6am I might do it right after I drop him off at school. My morning has been the same for probably 20 years. I get my mind right, my mental body, health, it's all connected, right? And then I take on the problems of the world.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:10]:
I want to take a step back to doing what you love. And there's always this idea of doing what you love, but also how do you pay your bills on some of the things like how do you connect the doing what you love? And this is one of the reasons why I wanted to interview because you've found a way to do it, but doing what you love and also making some sort of monetary benefit out of it to help pay for living life. How do you think those.

Rebecca Stewart [00:29:37]:
I'm, I think I was a serial entrepreneur from such a, such a young age. And I think no one in my family was. There were no. There was no business owners. There was no how to run a business. But I'm so fascinated anywhere I go in the world with what people do. I think real estate is fascinating. People love it.

Rebecca Stewart [00:29:56]:
I have a real estate friend. He's phenomenal at what he does. You can tell he loves it. I mean, he now owns things. He started as an agent, but now he owns his own company and he owns buildings and houses and finding what you. Or knowing what you love and following your passion. Like, do what you love, but, like, follow your passion. How fun is that? Some people want to be reporters on the news.

Rebecca Stewart [00:30:22]:
That's their goal in life. Do it, go for it. And look, you could try it. Maybe you don't love it and you find something else. No one has to say you have to stay in something for 20 years, the rest of your life. But if there's something that you really enjoy doing, find a way to do that. You go, you know, again, going back to, like, going all over the world. I'm just like, oh, my gosh, that's so cool.

Rebecca Stewart [00:30:40]:
Oh, that could be a business. Oh, we could do that. Who owns this? I was at a bicycling race and there was a guy selling coffee and I was there supporting my sister's boyfriend. We had to be there at 6am and the race started at 7am but there's a guy there with coffee and muffins, and I'm like, everyone's at his table. And I'm like, this guy's got it made. Like, this is genius. Sold out of muffins within like 30 minutes. He was going to be there all day, till noon.

Rebecca Stewart [00:31:11]:
I was like, this is such a great. And I'm like, how'd you get into this? I'm just fascinated by what people do because there's a niche for everyone and everything. There's probably a niche for recruiting baristas. You know what I mean? Like, who knows? I don't know. And so he was talking about what he does. But there's something for everybody. And maybe it's not recruiting, maybe it's recruiting. I know most of the listeners are on this, doing recruiting, but sorry, for maybe a percentage of you.

Rebecca Stewart [00:31:38]:
This is. Might be the wrong industry.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:40]:
And you knew early on that nannies was a passion.

Rebecca Stewart [00:31:46]:
No, I knew that I wanted people working, good people working with children.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:51]:
So you had this idea in your head, or maybe even this idea in your heart, and then you constructed a recruiting business around it.

Rebecca Stewart [00:31:59]:
You have to do Your research when you have to find out, is there competition? Who's doing it? How are they doing it if no one's doing it? Well, you've got something going on. Start it. Take the leap. Life's short. Like, don't. We can't live in regret. Not everything's perfect. Not every day is going to be rosy and shiny.

Rebecca Stewart [00:32:20]:
But do what you love. And I say this in a nice and honest way. I know people live in this like YOLO mentality, but like the whole live life to the fullest. I mean, don't break the bank and make me. Can't pay your bills and you're traveling around the world. But really live your life to the fullest. Treat people with respect, be kind. Human decency.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:40]:
I want to flip gears a little bit because we always constantly talk on this podcast about how recruiting is relationship business. And I think like, you are a prime example of that because pretty much everything that you do is referral and inbound. I mean, seven to 12 placements a month is a awesome recruiting business and it's all inbound referrals. But you've also become the preferred childcare provider for the LA Rams, the Chargers, and a lot of like large scale institutional people and organizations. Like these are clients that don't just magically switch. How did you become in your relationships the go to person for these power players in your city?

Rebecca Stewart [00:33:25]:
Yeah, I can tell you the RAM story was actually quite funny. When they moved first to back to Los angeles, which is 10 years ago, maybe even 11 at this point when they moved back to Los Angeles, I don't use LinkedIn as you pointed out at the beginning, but on LinkedIn every now and then they send you updates. People are getting new jobs in your email and it said say congratulations to. I even forget the man's name. Sorry. But like so and so he's the new person at the Rams. And I was like, oh, congratulations. If they need child care, please let me know.

Rebecca Stewart [00:34:02]:
That's all I said. And two to three weeks later I was getting a phone call that was like, we'd like to talk to you about child care. And I said, okay. We talked about it and unbeknownst to me, they actually already had someone in mind, so someone already that they were going to go with. And they went with us. And we've been the preferred child care provider for 10 years. We were providing game day childcare for

Benjamin Mena [00:34:31]:
nine years, a LinkedIn DM. And you are almost never on LinkedIn. But that one message got through.

Rebecca Stewart [00:34:37]:
I'm never on LinkedIn. I'm not even on LinkedIn. It was just, you know, LinkedIn sent me a say congratulations. And I said, great. Congratulations.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:47]:
Yeah. Because when I started doing my pregame research, I was like, she's not on LinkedIn. I mean, I get it. Like, that's her user customer base. And client base isn't probably sitting on LinkedIn either. They probably have a ghostwriter on LinkedIn, but they're not on LinkedIn.

Rebecca Stewart [00:35:00]:
And that's another thing. Our clients aren't on Facebook. Our clients aren't on LinkedIn. They might own them, but they're not on them.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:09]:
And, you know, walk me through, like, this relationship thing, because, like, over the years, these relationships have compounded. Like, what have you done? Like, I mean, most of the time, if somebody hires a nanny, they only need a nanny for what, five, 10 years? So a lot of these are probably like one off, I'm guessing. I know nothing about the nanny, Rob. You're laughing.

Rebecca Stewart [00:35:28]:
Well, until their kids go to college and they have another kid and they stay on and they stay on and they stay on.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:35]:
But you're not making a placement with a client every six months or every this. It's a lot of, like, one and done. Like, how do you keep the relationships going? So that way you're always top of mind, but also the referring people to you.

Rebecca Stewart [00:35:50]:
I will say we send a newsletter out every month. We place people in the home that are great people, and when their job ends, for whatever reason, they have to call someone. And thankfully, they call us. I mean, how do I keep the relationships going? I have no idea. Just do my job. Do it well. Be a. Literally be a kind person.

Rebecca Stewart [00:36:12]:
They need help. I mean, look, sometimes, look, they might not call us. They might call someone else. I'll be honest. You know, I don't know if, like, we get every. You know, because we had a good relationship here, you call us again. But for the most part. But it's also, it's not even clients.

Rebecca Stewart [00:36:25]:
You can't always put it all on the client. Right. Because the people that you find jobs for, that's a huge relationship. And I think because the client is paying the money, people get so caught up in that. But honestly, the real money is in that relationship with who you're building. Because they could go with another recruiter, they could find a job on their own. Where's the loyalty to how you do business? And so investing in the people that you also represent is a big one. And how simple is it? Hey, how's your day? How's it going? Oh my gosh, I remember your mom was sick.

Rebecca Stewart [00:37:05]:
How's she doing? Listen to people. Everyone has problems and some people don't have anyone to talk to. And you might be the only person who gives them a few moments in the day to share how things are going. Be that person. I told you I got into this because I was treated bizarre and ways I didn't want to be treated. I felt like non human walking into some of these recruiting offices and it was we're high touch. We are in someone's home, we're taking care of their precious big little people. You know, you need to be a great human.

Rebecca Stewart [00:37:39]:
You need to have a heart. You need to have a heart for service. And if you're not pouring into the people you represent, what are you doing

Benjamin Mena [00:37:50]:
outside of like a phone call and outside of listening? Has there been some creative ways that you've poured into the nanny community that you've built and helped place the nanny community?

Rebecca Stewart [00:38:01]:
We've created nanny socials because what we do is if I don't, for us, it's a very isolating business. You're with a child, 40, 50 plus hours a week. Let's just say one child, you and one child, maybe you and two children. Most of your life is spent with a child. Majority of the NI's we represent sign NDAs confidentiality agreements. They can't even talk about who they work with, what is going on, who are they going to go to? I mean, obviously they can talk about their job. I say obviously but like loosely to their families, depending on the situation. But a lot of them call us, they need to talk to someone who's going to keep it confidential.

Rebecca Stewart [00:38:44]:
And we've been there for that. But we do nanny social so we do once a month get togethers. We'll go hiking, we'll go bowling. We made, we did a floral arrangement class which can also like go on your resume essentially if you want to make flowers for the family you work for. Nice arrangements. We've done hikes, fun things, just get togethers to make it more of a social. People are missing, you know, since COVID people are missing the get togethers, the happy hours. No one wants to walk up to a happy hour.

Rebecca Stewart [00:39:14]:
They have social anxiety. But if you say, hey, we're all going to be there, we're going to meet there, you create something that they look forward to. That's one way I think, staying connected, remembering at someone's birthday, maybe sending a gift out, a congratulations box, something special, something small,

Benjamin Mena [00:39:36]:
remembering the moments I think that's a lot of what many of us struggle with, especially with how transactional recruiting can actually be. I want to switch gears a little bit. I want to, like, start walking through just. And this is just curiosity, like, how a placement works. So you're making seven to ten placements a month. Walk me through. Like, who does what? What does it look like when a search starts, stops, ends? Like, how does that process look like for you recruiting?

Rebecca Stewart [00:40:06]:
Okay, so a client will call, and one of us will take the call. Let's talk about. I'll take the call. Give me your wish list. What do you need? How can we help you? And then they'll give us the wish list. If they have somebody now, if they're looking to replace somebody now, and we'll talk about realistic expectations, they'll give us a job description. If it's something we think we can work on, we'll take it on. If it's something we can't, we'll let them know.

Rebecca Stewart [00:40:31]:
I don't think we're the right agency for you. You might want to call someone else. You know, this doesn't fit our wheelhouse, and that's okay. And some people. I had a client recently call and say, hey, we're paying like 25, $30 an hour. And I said, oh, that's great. We're not taking on jobs that are paying less than 35 an hour, so we might not be the right agency for you. They said, oh, we might be willing to pay like 35, 40, 40 tops.

Rebecca Stewart [00:40:54]:
Oh, oh, okay. Well, then let's talk about what you want. So we get a job description, we send out a contract, an agreement. They sign the agreement, we take a 450 registration fee before we'll work on any job. Once we have the signed contract registration fee, we then start recruiting for the job. Now, being in business so long, we don't recruit for the job externally. We go internally. So my team and I get together, we talk about who we think would be right for the job, compile a list of people, then we call them.

Rebecca Stewart [00:41:27]:
Hey, we got a great job. We think you'd be good for it. Do you want to interview? They say, yeah, sure, sounds great. Let's interview. We send three to five candidates to a client, and truth be told, within three to five candidates, you're going to find your 1. We're that confident. Three to five, you're going to find your one. If we have to send you more than five, we need to talk.

Rebecca Stewart [00:41:47]:
What's going on? What, are you not sharing what are we not doing? What's missing? There's some part of the equation that's missing. It doesn't happen that often, but sometimes maybe we get some feedback from some of the people who interviewed. Like, hey, did you know she's pregnant? Expecting a second child? No. This was just a recruitment for one child. No. Yeah, she's actually due in four months. Oh, that might be some. Something you might want to communicate that you're going to be responsible for two children or nannies have gone on a job and there's a special needs child.

Rebecca Stewart [00:42:15]:
And maybe they didn't tell us that the child had any special needs. So there's been just circumstances. But after you've met someone, you extend an offer of employment. Now if you've Zoom interviewed, they're probably going to do an in person interview and then extend an offer of employment. If it's an in person interview, they might have them come back and depending on the age of the children, maybe spend a couple hours with the kids and then extend an offer of employment. We write up a work agreement and they're placed on the job.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:47]:
Do you have like guarantees?

Rebecca Stewart [00:42:49]:
Like a. Yeah. So if something happens in the first six months, it's not a good fit for either party or for whatever reason. We'll find you a new person for the job within the first six months.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:03]:
I love that you also charge a fee on the front end. When did you realize that charging a bit of a fee on the front end might be saving you from some crappy clients?

Rebecca Stewart [00:43:12]:
When everyone else in the United States was doing it, except for Los Angeles, we were like, I'm part of an association of agencies all across the U.S. actually, all across the world. And you know, we'd be at conferences and people would be talking about their registration fees or their engagement fees, whatever you want to call it. And we're over here like, no, we can't do that. No one over here is charging that. And truth be told, some people don't charge it. And I've heard, oh well, I'm going to go with someone else. They're not charging a fee.

Rebecca Stewart [00:43:40]:
I say by all means, yeah, go over there. Because if you can't pay $450, you're really not gonna be able to pay 14, 15,000 for a nanny.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:50]:
So true.

Rebecca Stewart [00:43:52]:
All respect, go to where you think can find the best person if you don't want to pay for a registration fee. But also what other recruiters would tell us, or, you know, other people in my industry is we were working for free. We were working for free for so long. And then once you start to have employees and you need to pay your employees, that registration fee really comes in handy because we're working, they're working, and you're needing to pay their salary. And if it doesn't go through, I mean, 450 is not a lot, but if you have a couple four 50s, you can, you know, get towards someone's salary.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:26]:
I love that you were just like, well, everybody else is doing it, but

Rebecca Stewart [00:44:29]:
it's also in the US but not anyone in la. So when we started doing it, it was a little bit of a like, oh, what do we charge? How do we do this?

Benjamin Mena [00:44:36]:
I love that because, like, that's one of the things that we hear from a lot of recruiters is talking about that engagement fee. Like, hey, give me some skin in the game. Be committed to us. Like, I get it. Like, the fee is on the placement. But if you truly are actually looking for what you're looking for, like, throw a little bit of skin in the game. Let's play ball.

Rebecca Stewart [00:44:57]:
People don't value what they don't have to pay for.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:00]:
Say that again.

Rebecca Stewart [00:45:01]:
People don't value what they don't have to pay for.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:05]:
So true.

Rebecca Stewart [00:45:06]:
If you host an event and say it's $25 for your RSVP, but if you say, hey, we're having an event, 40 people say, yeah, I'm going to be there. Five people show up. But if you host an event, you say, it's going to be $25. Even though you shelled out $3,500 for this event, you're putting $25 per ticket and 25 people pay $25. You're probably going to get 25 to 23 people showing up.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:38]:
I want to ask a question about, because I know the type of clients that you're working with, and, like, I know there's a lot of recruiters that are like, you out there or maybe, like, maybe a younger you. You're very nice, you're very personable. The pregame, you are laughing and having fun.

Rebecca Stewart [00:45:58]:
You.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:59]:
I'm guessing some of the clients that you work with can be rough, can be tough. How did you go from. Or how do you go from the fun? I want to help the world, Rebecca. To like, yeah, no, I. I get what you're looking for. I know you're worth $5 billion, but this is how the business is going to run.

Rebecca Stewart [00:46:23]:
Yeah. I think it's some of my favorite people to work with when they're so aggressive because I'm not aggressive. I might be assertive, but I'm not aggressive. So when people are like this, that and I listen, listen and take notes from the beginning, listen and take notes. I don't get to make my own schedule. These nannies are walking in and, and they're making their own schedule. In corporate America, you don't walk in and make your own schedule. I said, well, sir, when you called, there was no schedule and you said you just needed full time help.

Rebecca Stewart [00:46:59]:
So we are making a schedule as we go along. Oh yeah, I guess you're right. I guess you're right. I listened, I took notes, I re reiterated what they said. And some people are very difficult. I would say early on, younger self, I took everything so personally. I took everything so personally. I would answer the phone all the time, all hours of the night.

Rebecca Stewart [00:47:24]:
And I'm not saying don't do this early on. Whatever you're doing, you're gonna bust your butt for it because you're wanting to make money, you're wanting to build your business, so do all the things you can do. You're gonna sacrifice. You're going to miss fun events. I missed one of my best friend's bachelorette parties because I was building. And honestly that wasn't an expense I was willing to shell out. And so you're going to sacrifice, you're going to just work really hard and then eventually, and maybe you're good, maybe you put boundaries in place from the jump and you only work 9 to 5 and maybe that helps you build. But I would work really hard, focus on what you're trying to build.

Rebecca Stewart [00:48:04]:
Everything else kind of becomes secondary and then you can put, you know, boundaries into place. But I took things so personally that after having my son, I ended up with shingles. I stressed myself out so much and that's when I had to take a step back.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:25]:
Shingles hurts.

Rebecca Stewart [00:48:26]:
Shingles hurts. I had no idea. I didn't even know I had it because I just had a child. They say breastfeeding hurts. I was like, man, this, this hurts my back. This breastfeeding suffered. Why is it my back hurts every. And the doc was like, you have shingles and they think shingles is like an old person thing.

Rebecca Stewart [00:48:45]:
You know what I mean? You hear, you see that? I don't know if you see the, or if you get the commercials for the shingles and they come on late at night too, by the way, at like 11pm and it's old people and the shingles vaccination or something.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:57]:
Anyways, I think it was about five or six years. I had shingles five or six years ago. Yeah, I did. I was like, what the hell is this? This hurts.

Rebecca Stewart [00:49:07]:
Yeah, yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:09]:
So in all that, how did you learn? Because, I mean, you are also dealing with people that expect the world to snap their fingers and they're catered to. Like, that's your client base. How did you learn to actually start having boundaries for yourself?

Rebecca Stewart [00:49:24]:
You just start. Well, the shingles was really probably the kicker of it all. And having a child, my focus was him.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:35]:
Okay.

Rebecca Stewart [00:49:35]:
First it was business building, couple years, child. This is really the focus. But you have to make money too, to pay the bills. And setting boundaries is just a learning curve. Even with friends, even with family, setting boundaries is a learning curve. People are not going to like it. People will get. I remember a nanny said, oh, I told them to call you because you always answer the phone and you're always there for me.

Rebecca Stewart [00:50:03]:
And I was and I did. But then there became a time where I couldn't be all the time and I just couldn't be. Part of the boundary was just I wasn't available and I didn't need to freak out every time the phone rang. Freak out in excitement. The phone's ringing. You're a business person, you want your phone to ring. But I need to freak out every time the phone ring.

Benjamin Mena [00:50:23]:
I wanna go back to. There's a niche everywhere and I've actually. Prior to your team reaching out, I actually was researching a nanny recruiter because I just kind of blew my mind that there was a entire business wrapped around placing nannies. It's one of those things like so many of us. Like, when I first started recruiting, they sat me down in a chair and said, you were going to be a construction management recruiter. This is what you are going to do. This is your only option. If you want to do anything else, you're fired.

Benjamin Mena [00:50:58]:
And then the market tanked and they like moved me to aviation. I personally, from 8 to 6 I was. Or from 9 to 6 I was doing aviation recruiting from 6 to about 9 o' clock at night. I wanted to be a government contract recruiter, so I started focusing on that. But I had that option in my recruiting company to chase that work. But you were literally in a niche that I probably would have didn't even know that existed for my first 18 years recruiting. Is it actually possible to go find a niche that you love and create a recruiting business out of it?

Rebecca Stewart [00:51:33]:
Oh, yeah. People need help. I can only speak to my business. I get calls all the time. Parents are like, I've put an ad on wherever. They put an ad up online somewhere, and I've gotten a hundred people responding. Can you help me? Yeah, absolutely. Just last week, a client said, I was out to dinner with friends.

Rebecca Stewart [00:51:55]:
We're talking about how hard it is to find a nanny. And I was like, I know. That's why I have a job. That's why I have a job. We get hundreds of people a week wanting us to represent them because they know we get good jobs, and it's our job to find the best of the best. Is this a VIP nanny for a VIP client? That's the question. So, yes. Is it possible? I do believe.

Rebecca Stewart [00:52:23]:
I think, call me optimistic. I think anything's possible. In recruiting. There's so many jobs and businesses out there, I can't even comprehend them all. You think it just drive down the street for a couple miles, maybe 20 minutes, how many jobs, businesses? How do grocery stores find butchers?

Benjamin Mena [00:52:45]:
What do you think? Like, that first step is?

Rebecca Stewart [00:52:47]:
I mean, that was an example. I'm not. The only thing made me think, if I'm driving down the street, there's a grocery store. What. How are we going to staff the grocery store?

Benjamin Mena [00:52:53]:
You know, And I know you mentioned this earlier, but, like, can you, like, walk me through just, like, if they're excited about something, what should they do? Spend some time, like, writing down what they want to do, exploring it. Like, how. How can they start? Like, maybe I want to explore this niche. Do they just start making phone calls potentially to clients or. I.

Rebecca Stewart [00:53:11]:
Let me ask you something. What's your hobby?

Benjamin Mena [00:53:14]:
I drink wine, and I do podcasts. Actually, podcast is now my hobby.

Rebecca Stewart [00:53:21]:
If you could do anything in the world and money not being an issue, you're living your best life, and you just get to do whatever you want in the world, what would it be?

Benjamin Mena [00:53:34]:
It would probably be interviewing people.

Rebecca Stewart [00:53:36]:
And so we figure out how to make a business with your podcast with interviewing people, or make a business interviewing people. There's podcasts. I think of a guy who. I don't know if he monetizes this, but he goes around asking people, how did you become a millionaire?

Benjamin Mena [00:53:54]:
He makes about. I know who you're talking about. He pulls in about $1.2 million a

Rebecca Stewart [00:53:59]:
year now, but he started somehow.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:02]:
Yeah.

Rebecca Stewart [00:54:04]:
I asked someone once, if you could do anything, money not being an issue. They were dabbling in this and that, Real estate, you know, money not being an issue could be. Do anything. What would you do? And they said, be a pastor. And I Said, yeah, maybe you should pursue that. They're a pastor of a church, successful, growing.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:26]:
So if money was an issue, would you still be doing exactly what you're doing right now?

Rebecca Stewart [00:54:29]:
I would probably do multiple things. I have other business ideas in my head. If money wasn't an issue, I think I would start multiple businesses.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:39]:
But I want to go back to the love thing. I've noticed this with a lot of successful recruiters. They love the industry, they love the people, they love the impact. That exact phrase that you said, that I love it, I've heard time and time again. But here's the thing, like, you didn't go to college to be a recruiter. You didn't go to college to start a recruiting company. You went to go, you know, save the world. At what point in time in this 20 year journey of recruiting did you go from like, I'm doing this, I'm building a business to I love this.

Rebecca Stewart [00:55:08]:
It sounds so cliche, but I think I really loved it from the beginning.

Benjamin Mena [00:55:11]:
Even when it was hard, even when you couldn't pay the bills, even when you were showing up to the Beverly Hills Hilton in a Honda Accord that everybody kind of looked at you.

Rebecca Stewart [00:55:20]:
Yeah, I loved it. I loved the first business card, I loved the first four page website. I loved meeting the first nanny. I loved making the first placement. To this day, the first two girls I placed 20 years ago, one of them's working for the owner of an athletic team. And the other one now lives in the uk, married, but she was working with us forever. I, I'm still in touch with them. I was at one of their weddings and they know I love it.

Rebecca Stewart [00:55:49]:
I think it's part of the process. If you're building a business, recruiting business, a business, there's a process, there's yeses, there's no's who people accept you won't accept you. And you just kind of have to love the process and believe in yourself. And honestly, faith is huge. Sometimes. I'm sitting over here praying for clients. I'm over here, God, can you make the phone ring? You know, I really am, I really, I'm not gonna lie about that one. You know, it's not everyday money's coming in, it's not every day.

Rebecca Stewart [00:56:22]:
You know, in 20 years we've had some stretches of like, oh my gosh, how are we gonna do this? There's been times where I'm like, oh my gosh, do we need to take a loan out again? Covid hit. Do we stay in our office? Do we go Virtual. Do we keep an overhead? No one can come in. And if they are, they're wearing a mask. Pivots. Things need to happen. But, yeah, the process. Enjoy.

Rebecca Stewart [00:56:47]:
Love and enjoy the process. You know, just embrace it all.

Benjamin Mena [00:56:52]:
And I think that's where a lot of us forget is the process, the enjoyment of the work, the chasing the dream. And, like, you know, if you're listening to this, spend some time this week figuring out what that dream is. We were talking about this in the pregame, and this is like, actually, I got so excited about sitting down with Rebecca. I was like, oh, my God. Like, she's just so full of passion for what she's doing. She believes there's opportunity out there. And, my God, there really is a niche for everything.

Rebecca Stewart [00:57:23]:
I have a fun exercise. 12 minutes for 12 days, and you set the clock for 12 minutes. Paper and a pen, and you write for 12 minutes. And you don't stop and you don't lift. You don't think. You write for 12 minutes, and then at the end of it, you rip it up or you burn it. If you can burn it, it's the best. But if you can rip it up, then you rip it up.

Rebecca Stewart [00:57:51]:
There's a lot of clarity that comes at the end of that.

Benjamin Mena [00:57:54]:
Well, there's a challenge for you guys. 12 days, and you can hit it up, Rebecca, and be like, I did it.

Rebecca Stewart [00:58:01]:
Yeah, something's gonna shift. Something's gonna shift. Start with gratitude. I'm so grateful for. Start there. I'm so thankful for. And then just keep writing.

Benjamin Mena [00:58:13]:
So once you're done with the 12 days, tell Rebecca.

Rebecca Stewart [00:58:16]:
Yes, do it. I would love that. I would love it. Well, you know, the. The pastor friend that I was saying about, I had him. I told him to do that, and I think he did, actually. And like I said, now he's a pastor.

Benjamin Mena [00:58:28]:
Well, there's your homework. 12 days and then hit up Rebecca. So we've covered a lot. We've had some fun. Before we go over to the quickfire questions, is there anything that you want to go deeper on, or is there a question that I should have asked you?

Rebecca Stewart [00:58:41]:
No. This process. I've loved it. Embrace the process. And I loved it. I don't think there's anything else up.

Benjamin Mena [00:58:50]:
So for a recruiter out there that's listening to this, what book has had a huge impact on your career?

Rebecca Stewart [00:59:00]:
Rich dad, Poor Dad.

Benjamin Mena [00:59:02]:
Why?

Rebecca Stewart [00:59:03]:
It's a classic. I never knew about rich dad. I didn't grow up with rich dad. I grew up with lower middle class. Like, I grew up with a mom who was a waitress, career waitress, who retired as a waitress, and a father who was a firefighter. And my dad was paralyzed when I was 16, so his firefighting career ended early. But he's still alive. He's quadriplegic.

Rebecca Stewart [00:59:33]:
But rich dad, poor dad, that was a mindset shift. Actually, if we want to talk about. Now that I'm saying that out loud, I remember I was sitting in the gym on one of those bikes that you sit on with a backrest, and you just do this with your feet with rich dad, poor dad in my hand in a highlighter, and I would re go over what I was highlighting. That was a good one. I can't say business, but it actually just culturally shifted my mindset. Kareem Abdul Jabbar wrote a book called Writings on the Wall. So good. And honestly, I'm not a big reader.

Rebecca Stewart [01:00:11]:
There's the audible. Now you can listen to a book and walk around. You know, I think a lot of people are doing that. But early on in my career, rich dad, poor dad, for sure. There's another book called Millionaire Mindset. It was pretty good, but I couldn't get into it. It was okay. But Rich dad, poor dad, and Kareem's book.

Benjamin Mena [01:00:30]:
Out of curiosity, for the recruiters out there, what does your typical fees look like?

Rebecca Stewart [01:00:37]:
So our fees for full time placement, for full time nanny placement and part time nanny placement are 18% of the candidate's annual salary.

Benjamin Mena [01:00:48]:
Okay.

Rebecca Stewart [01:00:49]:
For temporary staffing, anywhere from like zero to six months or a week to six months is 25% of what they make during that time of employment.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:02]:
Okay. Right in line with the market. But your relationships are what has gotten you guys so much business.

Rebecca Stewart [01:01:10]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:11]:
I'm so curious on this. What's your favorite tech tool?

Rebecca Stewart [01:01:14]:
Oh, my gosh. I'm the worst at tech. So we customized Salesforce for us that we use it for our CRM. We have a customized Salesforce database that's really like our main tech tool, if you will. We use DocuSign for, like, contracts, but AI not really. Not there yet.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:42]:
What is one of the biggest challenges that you've had to work through in your recruiting business?

Rebecca Stewart [01:01:46]:
The biggest challenge is hiring internal staff.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:51]:
Okay.

Rebecca Stewart [01:01:51]:
And an even harder challenge is firing them.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:55]:
Is there a story there? Do you want to skip it?

Rebecca Stewart [01:02:01]:
It's just so hard to fire people. Even if they're doing. It's just hard. They say hire slow, fire fast. Or someone told me that and I made the mistake of firing slow and hiring fast.

Benjamin Mena [01:02:21]:
I mean, it's one of those things I see with a lot of recruiters. Like most people in the recruiting world, yes, we get annoyed with clients, yes, we get annoyed with candidates. But at the end of the day, like, you're in a people business and you do actually care for people. I've seen it. Especially for firm learners, that part's the hardest because you actually do care about people's success.

Rebecca Stewart [01:02:41]:
Yeah. You care about their future. You give them a paycheck. So you're slightly responsible for their lives. I think at a point where my marriage was falling apart, I was falling apart, and that bled into the office. I was, how embarrassed. And you're, like, coming to work as the owner and you're like, got into a fight or you're crying or, you know, it was. I was.

Rebecca Stewart [01:03:06]:
And so therefore, I take responsibility of not being the best employer and not fully being aware of what was going on internally. But everyone that I've ever hired, I feel like I've learned and grown. And they put so much value into VIP nannies. Changing the way we have an email signature, something so small. Right. Everyone has contributed to VIP nannies in some capacity, and I really appreciate that. I'm so grateful for everyone.

Benjamin Mena [01:03:38]:
If you can go back 20 years ago, sit down with and have a cup of coffee with Rebecca, what advice would you give her? What would you tell her?

Rebecca Stewart [01:03:50]:
You got this. You can do it. I don't think anyone was, like, cheering me on during this process. They were like, you're gonna do what? Just like you right now, you know, 18 years into recruit, there's a niche, but most people were like, you're gonna do what? And there wasn't a lot of support. And I don't mean that. I know my family loves me. They're gonna probably listen to this, but there wasn't a lot of support. When you're doing it on your own, when you've got this drive and this passion and you.

Rebecca Stewart [01:04:22]:
This is what you wanna do, and this is what you're gonna do it. You might lose some friends, you might gain a ton. You're gonna meet new people, new worlds, new visions, but you got this, like, let's go.

Benjamin Mena [01:04:37]:
I know you don't talk to that many other recruiters, or maybe you do within your associations.

Rebecca Stewart [01:04:43]:
Yeah, yeah. Within our association, we actually have a monthly mastermind.

Benjamin Mena [01:04:47]:
There's an association of nanny recruiters.

Rebecca Stewart [01:04:51]:
Every major city across the US Has a few nanny agencies at this point in time.

Benjamin Mena [01:05:00]:
Well, let me ask you this, okay? In all that you've been successful, like, you've been able to hook up and be the VIP for multiple NFL teams. Like, I'm sure people ask you questions like, how do you do this? Like, how do you. What's your expertise in a relationship? How does your contract look like? What does business development look like? So with all those questions that you get, do you ever just wish I'd be like, I wish they would just ask me this, but nobody ever does. What would that question be?

Rebecca Stewart [01:05:28]:
I don't think it's a question. I wish people would call clients and just trust us with the process, especially if they're referred.

Benjamin Mena [01:05:38]:
Okay.

Rebecca Stewart [01:05:39]:
I wish it was like, there's a handful of clients that are like, we know you're good at what you do. Our friends told us to call you. We know that it's going to cost us the price of a college tuition, but we know that you're going to give us the best person for the job. Probably one of the best things I've ever heard. But when other people. If you want questions, what do I wish someone would ask me? I don't really care about all that. How's your day? How's your son? What's new? Just get to know me. All that other stuff.

Rebecca Stewart [01:06:10]:
Too much work.

Benjamin Mena [01:06:13]:
Love that.

Rebecca Stewart [01:06:14]:
People want free tickets to the games all the time too. I don't get them. So don't ask for them.

Benjamin Mena [01:06:17]:
Wait, so they offer like daycare at the games?

Rebecca Stewart [01:06:21]:
Yeah, for the players, coaches and personnel.

Benjamin Mena [01:06:27]:
That's amazing. My mind was blown. There was an event this weekend where I live and the event was offering free childcare. At the event, I was like, oh my God, we need more of this. But this is a different level of childcare. You're handling 40, 50, 60, 70 million a year.

Rebecca Stewart [01:06:45]:
I think anyone in the nation, if they heard the word free child care. Well, one. I know that, I know that. I know. We'd all question, like, who's doing the child care? You're gonna.

Benjamin Mena [01:06:55]:
True, true.

Rebecca Stewart [01:06:56]:
And then the second question is, yes, please. How do I sign up? Every parent wants 30 minutes to hours to go have a glass of wine or just sit and stare at the one you do as a parent. Oh, it's exhausting out there. I know.

Benjamin Mena [01:07:17]:
One last question. I'll let you go. You've been building this as a parent. Being a parent is freaking hard. How did you juggle raising a tiny human and raising a business?

Rebecca Stewart [01:07:35]:
I hired help.

Benjamin Mena [01:07:37]:
Okay.

Rebecca Stewart [01:07:38]:
Absolutely. I had the best nanny. Of course. Hello. I had a part time nanny early on, actually. I. I'll start from the beginning. From the hospital room.

Rebecca Stewart [01:07:49]:
When I thought I could raise this tiny human on my own because women have been doing it forever. That quickly changed. And I'm texting every baby nurse I know at the time. $1,000 a day 20 years ago was a lot. Now it's kind of average what people are paying sometimes for childcare. But I was like, I don't care what these people are going to charge me. I need help. I'm losing my mind in the hospital.

Rebecca Stewart [01:08:09]:
We're about to go home. I don't know what to do. This tiny little human and thankfully got a baby nurse, got us on a nice little sleep routine and schedule early on had a part time nanny. Still keep in touch with her 14 years later. Great part time nanny. Then we needed something more full time and I can't recall if she was moving out of the area or what the shift was, but we ended up hiring a full time nanny. Loved her. And then we moved to a new city and it was a little bit far of a commute for her.

Rebecca Stewart [01:08:44]:
And then my son was starting school so we went a little part time ish. And then it, it faded into just him going to school full time and taking on those responsibilities before and after school. But hiring help, investing in it. Not to say whether you can afford it or not. Thankfully we could afford it. But that was very helpful later on in life. Family was really helpful. They don't, I don't, like I live in LA and this is a very common thing I hear in la.

Rebecca Stewart [01:09:18]:
Like, oh, I don't have a family here. We don't have family here to help. That's why they're, they're calling us. I would say 50% of our clients in a family in LA. And even if you do, you're not gonna leave your kid with grandma 24 hours, you know, I mean, and I mean 24, seven like hours, you know, but we hear that a lot. I don't have family here. I don't have family here. So we need a nanny, we need a chef, whatever.

Rebecca Stewart [01:09:39]:
They need hiring help. But my sister moved to LA after going to college and she was a huge help. Auntie D shout out. She actually works for VIP Nannies now full time.

Benjamin Mena [01:09:56]:
Awesome. We've talked about a lot and I just want to say thank you so much for joining today. For anybody that wants to follow or connect with you, how do they go about doing that?

Rebecca Stewart [01:10:06]:
Yeah, you can find us on IG VIP Nannies la. You can also find us on the website. That's actually a good one now. VIP nannyagency.com yeah, give us a shout. Let me know what happens after 12 days of clarity.

Benjamin Mena [01:10:23]:
And before I let you go, is there anything else that you want to share with the listeners?

Rebecca Stewart [01:10:28]:
Do what you love. Might change your mind today, might change it in a couple weeks, but do what you love. Life's too short. Being miserable, struggling, being in a toxic relationship, it's not worth it. Do what you love, write it down, pray about it. It'll make your days better.

Benjamin Mena [01:10:57]:
Initially when I was looking forward this conversation because I was just like my mind is blown. There's an entire recruiting network for nannies and now that I've seen yachts, I've seen all these like random things over the course of having this podcast. But during the pre game and during the conversation, it really shifted into finding a passion and finding a love for what you do. And what I have seen over and over from elite builders, elite owners is this passion for their industry, the passion for helping people. Yes, you can make a ton of money, but so for most of them, even though we talk about money on this podcast a lot, the impact that they make in their industry is first in mind, way over money. So maybe it's time to make a shift. Maybe it's time to make a shift where I want to learn how to be passionate about the space I'm in because that's, that's the mindset shift too. Or do you need to make a shift to a place where you are passionate about? She gave you the challenge.

Benjamin Mena [01:12:03]:
12 days, 12 minutes of writing. Hit her up on Instagram once you're done. 2026 is your year. I believe in you. You know the resume never tells the full story. Candidates share what really matters during conversations, on calls and interviews, over email. Their motivations, salary, expectations, plans to relocate. Most of that detail ends up buried in notes and forgotten.

Benjamin Mena [01:12:24]:
Atlas changes that. It's the AI first recruitment platform built to eliminate admin. It captures every conversation automatically and turns it into something you can use. With MagicSearch, you can ask Atlas questions like who talked about wanting a four day week? Or who mentioned they're open to relocating next year. It searches across your entire database and pulls the answers instantly. No keyword guessing and no digging through old notes. You get insight from real conversations, not limited resume fields. Atlas also makes BD easier with opportunities.

Benjamin Mena [01:12:54]:
You can track and grow client relationships. Powered by generative AI and built into your existing workflow. If you want visibility, smart dashboards give you a clear view of the pipeline across your business. And that's not theory Atlas customers have reported over 40% EBITDA growth and over 80% increase in monthly billings after adopting the platform. It's built for agencies that want to grow without adding more manual work. Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive Listener offer@reruitwithatlas.com thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, hit, subscribe and leave a rating.