Turn Conversations into Contracts: Rashin Keller's Guide to Candidate-Driven Business Development

Rashin Keller [00:00:00]:
You are going to rock the year, and we're going to help you do that. Here at the Elite Recruiter Podcast, we have the Rock the Year event, the recruiting growth Summit, kicking off on March 10. It is going to be awesome. We're going to be focusing on mindset. We're going to be focusing on sourcing, we're going to be focusing on AI. We're going to be focusing on operations and high performance and BD and sales. Every single thing that you need as a recruiter to make sure that you can rock 2025 and make it the year, year of abundance, make it the year that works for you. Make it the year that you crush every single one of your dreams.

Rashin Keller [00:00:33]:
Let's go get it. Welcome to the Elite Recruiter Podcast with.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:42]:
Your host, Benjamin Mena, where we focus on what it takes to win in the recruiting game.

Rashin Keller [00:00:48]:
We cover it all from sales, marketing.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:51]:
Mindset, money, leadership, and placements.

Rashin Keller [00:00:58]:
I am so excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast. The reason is I have a guest, Rashen, who has dominated her city, dominated her niche. Like, he's going to talk about how to grow, but most importantly, some of the things that we're going to talk about is how you can grow your recruiting business. You can look at different models of a way to explosively grow the way that you actually want to build your business, the way that you want to recruit. I know many of us were trained a certain way, and you're like, you know, this is going back to my wonderful days at a company that starts with the A ends in a tech. You know, there are ways that I wanted to recruit and ways that I want to do my business, but I wasn't allowed to because it was their environment, it was their system. But, you know, we had to move on. So that's why I am so excited to have Rash in here to kind of like, show some of the things that she has done to help you grow and to help you dominate whatever you are planning on winning in 2025.

Rashin Keller [00:01:52]:
So welcome to the podcast.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:53]:
Thank you so much for having me.

Rashin Keller [00:01:55]:
All right, real quick, 30 seconds. A little bit about, like, yourself, your company, and what you're doing.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:59]:
Perfect. My name is Rashin Keller. I am the owner and CEO of the Keller Group. We are a executive search firm based here in Phoenix, Arizona. I have a history, very proud to be raised in, you know, the agency life, one firm, my entire career. Was able to move up and support them in multiple cities, but ultimately decided it was in the best interest of myself. My Family, the growth of our livelihood, to start my own firm.

Rashin Keller [00:02:31]:
That's awesome. Okay, so real quick. And we're kind of like, you know, you worked at one agency before starting your own firm. Like, how did you even end up in this wonderful world of recruiting? How did you fall in that space?

Benjamin Mena [00:02:42]:
I love that question. So I think, to answer that properly, it dates back to. To college and to, you know, what I thought I wanted to do. As many other interviews have shared, there is no direct path into recruiting. It is something that we have all fallen into, especially us, who have almost 20 years of experience. So I have a massive heart for nonprofits. I've always. I always knew I wanted to help others, and that has a lot to do with my family history.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:18]:
My dad had fallen sick when I was very young, and we had a lot of help in various ways, whether they were nurses or doctors or whatnot. And so I just knew that although I wanted to better someone's life, it wasn't in a medical capacity. And I always thought it would be through a nonprofit. Coincidentally, it really aligned with my desire to. To bring people together. I was a part of Young Life. That's a group where we just connect young professionals. And I always just felt that I had this desire to naturally connect others and then an altruistic heart to do right by others.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:59]:
And so when I moved into. My husband and I got married very young, and we had to move across the nation for his medical school, I was supported by a recruiter. I never knew this industry existed. It was a ghost industry to me. And she completely helped me in a dark hour. I was a degreed college grad with a nonprofit background and nowhere to go in a very, very cold city. So when she supported me, I felt like, man, she checked all the boxes of what I want to do and how I want to support others. And so our life moved us again a year later, and I immediately went to a staffing firm, this time seeking their guidance.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:43]:
And I'll never forget the individual that looked at me and considered me for an internal position, and the rest is history.

Rashin Keller [00:04:51]:
That is awesome. So out of curiosity, that recruiter that gave you such a great candidate experience.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:58]:
Yeah.

Rashin Keller [00:04:58]:
Are you. Are you still in touch with that person?

Benjamin Mena [00:05:00]:
She actually retired by the time that I had left, so she was seasoned in her career. But I do still fondly think of her.

Rashin Keller [00:05:10]:
That's awesome. Okay, so you actually, like, hey, recruiting is a place I wanted to go. You started there, and I know we talked about this offline. You asked. Actually built two offices for them.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:21]:
Right, right. So. Oh, go ahead.

Rashin Keller [00:05:23]:
I was going to say before you got to the point where like they looked at you and said, hey, I want you to go build this office in this new location and all this stuff, what were you doing to kind of excel? Whether it's like, you know, production wise, leadership wise and that kind of stuff?

Benjamin Mena [00:05:38]:
Yeah, absolutely. So my start was in temp recruiting for accounting and finance professionals. And I had started in an office where it was a low performing office and I personally supported two sales individuals and it was just me and supporting them. And together we took off. And I loved the cadence of being able to support them and to build up the reputation of this office in collaboration with them and to feel success. And. And so we managed. We went from very little billings to all making our president's clubs, all making a name for ourselves within the first year and a half.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:26]:
Sadly, my husband then again was being asked to relocate for a specialty. After we put Cleveland on the map, it was Cleveland, Ohio. And we were asked to move two hours away. There was no office, there was no footprint, there were no leads, no businesses. And mind you, I was a recruiter. I was a temp recruiter. Although I had a hand in supporting our current clients, I was never responsible for bringing in clients. And so they, looking back, man, I was so grateful to them for allowing me this opportunity.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:05]:
But they, it was zero support. They said, good luck, you could sit in a sister office, you'll have a cube, you'll have a laptop, and if you want to maintain your status with our company, you'll find a way. And so it was always a sink or swim type of mentality. And mind you, my husband was in school. This was do or die for us. And I felt such loyalty to this brand for, you know, just being the, the kickstart of my career. I didn't want to look elsewhere. I didn't believe in going to another firm.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:37]:
So sink or swim. And I did not sink.

Rashin Keller [00:07:41]:
You definitely started swimming. But like one of the challenges that I've seen when it comes to a lot of recruiters is, you know, sales is looked at as like this, I don't want to say like a promotion, but this completely different thing, like when you're sitting there like you had your laptop, you had a cube, and you were literally looking at yourself and like in the mirror, like, what am I going to do?

Benjamin Mena [00:08:00]:
Right?

Rashin Keller [00:08:00]:
How did you get your first few clients in this brand new city?

Benjamin Mena [00:08:04]:
Such a good question. And it's an easy answer. You go back to what you know, I know candidates, I know how to speak to candidates. I know what it's like to build a pipeline and get an understanding of the market through a candidate. I genuinely believe the golden ticket in our industry is a candidate. We can get leads from these candidates. We can learn market intelligence, we can understand hiring trends or company updates, you know, and we take that information and from there we create a plan to go after some business development. But we cannot do that through the business journal, through looking on job ads, just ambiguous emails, hoping to land something.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:55]:
We have to start with intel, and our intel comes from candidates.

Rashin Keller [00:08:59]:
And once you started growing this office, like, you know, how big did you end up growing it before your next move?

Benjamin Mena [00:09:06]:
Again, I know it's so hard to even think about, you know, I was able to. So if this helps, we were able to justify a hire within that office within four months. And so we were. Yeah, it was taking off, but again, it was very much trusting the process, one candidate lead at a time and going after it. I think we left that office with 30 temps on assignment within 10 months. And so for not having any sales experience, being able to bring in a variety of business was huge.

Rashin Keller [00:09:40]:
And then. Okay, then you took off again, like in this story, what happened next?

Benjamin Mena [00:09:46]:
We went to Michigan is what happened next. And they said the same thing, here's a computer. But this time what was really great was I was able to bring somebody on right away. I was able to rent my own space. And they said, do it again. And we did it again. By getting to know the market landscape through candidates, we generated our leads, we understood hiring trends, we got to know who was exiting, entering, and we were able to build that office off the ground. We brought in executive recruiters for that team.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:16]:
I left that office sadly, a few years later and there were six of us. So it was just trusting the process.

Rashin Keller [00:10:25]:
Out of curiosity, the. The owner of this company by this time must have absolutely loved you, right?

Benjamin Mena [00:10:31]:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know if the owner or the CEO, but I had a phenomenal VP who supported me entirely and just always raised me up. But, you know, I do think in large companies, as we all have felt, you know, there's always an expectation for more with very little, you know, just pause for appreciation.

Rashin Keller [00:10:53]:
All right, so you went and built this up with. It was the second or third city up.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:59]:
Right.

Rashin Keller [00:11:00]:
Where did you go next?

Benjamin Mena [00:11:03]:
Well, next was finally home, back to Phoenix. We were done with our seven year journey and I was offered a position to come into our established Phoenix, Arizona branch. At that point, Phoenix was a top biller for the nation, as it naturally was. And I entered that space feeling very much unable to add my own fingerprint in this office. And so very quickly I realized I wasn't in charge of hiring the team. I wasn't in charge of putting in, you know, the altruistic approach where I feel that I was able to weave in web throughout my other offices. This was a number driven office. And so I was expecting our first child and I just, you know, I made the choice to not return after maternity leave.

Rashin Keller [00:11:58]:
I feel like there's a whole slew of people that I've spoken with that decided to start their company with their first child.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:06]:
They're smart. Yeah, very smart. You know, the recruiting is a lifestyle position. At least it should be. It should offer a lot of flexibility. But back in the day, it was very rigid. And so we're motivated as mothers or fathers to bring balance to the home.

Rashin Keller [00:12:25]:
Absolutely love that. Well, okay, so you decide to start your own firm. You're like, hey, this is what I'm gonna do.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:31]:
Right.

Rashin Keller [00:12:31]:
But you also, you just mentioned that, like you wanted to leave your fingerprint.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:36]:
Yeah, yeah, I think that's important. I think that. I think that we all have our individual way of finding success in this role. There is not one proper code of law, if you will, that will dictate someone being successful or unsuccessful. And for me, my approach has always to be to not lose the reason behind what we're doing. And that is truly to bring two great things together. To trust our process and to not be numbers driven. Yes, data is important and volume is important.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:16]:
I am not discrediting either one of those. We need those to be successful business entrepreneurs. But when we lose sight of someone trusting us with their job search or a company trusting us for hiring, and we are just taking this as a volume basis, we're not going to end up being successful. And so that is my fingerprint. It may be different for others, but that is the heartbeat of our firm.

Rashin Keller [00:13:44]:
That is awesome. So, okay, you launched your own firm and you're probably going to give me the same answer as you gave me earlier, but I. You have to ask it. All these years recruiting, you just started off on your own. You made a decision, you jumped off building the plane on the way down. How did you end up getting your first three customers with our own company?

Benjamin Mena [00:14:00]:
Oh, such a good question. Oh, man. I actually, yes, this goes back to all that I just said. It always started with a candidate. So I spent the first 30 days just talking to candidates and I would, you know, have grace with me here. I would put postings out of jobs I knew how to fill. I only had two job slots and I would post these two jobs. They would always be in rotation of roles that I would consider in my wheelhouse.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:31]:
And slowly I started to build a candidate pool in which I could trust and I knew I could take to market. And so after 30 days, I got my first client. I old traditional way. I was picking up the phone, I was leaving NPC's overviews in voicemails. No one was answering my call. And I would follow up with an email and I got a hit in 30 days.

Rashin Keller [00:14:58]:
Wow. And one of the things that you like to focus on is you primarily only work in the Phoenix market, right? Why is that?

Benjamin Mena [00:15:06]:
So I'm really proud of that. I think it matters. You hear a lot of specialists say you need to have a niche and I agree with that. But I also agree that you should have boundaries. And why that's important is because we should be able to recycle our efforts. And so that is a term that I love because I really want that for my team. I don't want anything to be wasted. So in Phoenix we focus in a few areas.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:36]:
Accounting and finance, hr, marketing, digital creative. We have our areas of specialty. And so when we are say if we have a candidate become the runner up, we're able to recycle that candidate, take them back out into the market and continue to work on, work less hard if you will, on existing efforts.

Rashin Keller [00:16:00]:
I love that you highlight the recyclable because I think that's a lot of things that recruiters hear but also don't understand. And it's just speaking like 100% probably to me more than others because govcon is like govcon's big, but I'm always working like new stuff.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:17]:
100%. 100%. Why are we recreating the wheel? You know why? Let's stay within a certain range. Let's stay within certain specialty areas and just get after it. Every time we start we get a new search. Let's go back to our pre existing candidates that we have in our system and see who we can recycle.

Rashin Keller [00:16:42]:
You also mentioned that you did a good job investing in the Phoenix city or in the community. Like what kind of investments did you make for your recruiting business and in.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:52]:
A city, you know, I wouldn't say that. Yes, I would definitely agree. I think we have to show our city that we care about them and so we do that in multiple different ways. We sponsor several groups that are within our wheelhouse in accounting and finance, hr, marketing. So anybody that's coming into town, we are a sponsor of these types of events. We pour into all of our schools. So a lot of members on my team have children and we sponsor their events, we sponsor sports. We want to just show everybody that, hey, we're here.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:28]:
But we want to pour into our community. And so just by sponsoring events, showing up at events, volunteering at events, we want to be known that, you know, not only do we support you in staffing, we want to be a backing to you as well financially.

Rashin Keller [00:17:44]:
I love that you're supporting your team and the things that your team is doing. But for somebody that's listening to this, that has a business, it's like debating on the roi. Have you seen the ROI of investing in the city?

Benjamin Mena [00:17:56]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. I think what we've learned over and over is put yourself out there. Put yourself out there and get a logo that you are proud of that is descriptive enough to highlight what you do and sponsor, sponsor, put yourself out there. It may not bring in business immediately, but thereafter, when you send them an email, there will be recognition of your logo, there will be familiarity.

Rashin Keller [00:18:25]:
Awesome. And I want to talk about now switching gears to building out your team. I know you're incredibly proud of what you've been doing with your organization. And for, you know, some of the things that we're definitely going to cover is like, your retention rate is super high, your client retention rate is super high. Like, you don't lose people. People are excited to stay on the team. Like, what are you doing over there?

Benjamin Mena [00:18:48]:
So you heard my story. I started this firm as a young mom and in my mind I thought, man, I can offer this for so many others. And by this I mean flexibility, high earning potential, a lifestyle, freedom of expression. Yet with the umbrella of our knowledge, of our contracts, of all of our content. And so I created the killer group model to be a 1099 model. And so everybody is essentially their own business under the Keller Group umbrella.

Rashin Keller [00:19:33]:
And when a recruiter's looking at this, like, why would they look at like the Keller Group umbrella versus I'm just going to throw it out there. The company that starts with an A and ends in a tech.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:44]:
Absolutely. So, you know, I think that you have to do, and I'll be very honest with you, we do not make offers to very many people. This has to truly be a fit and for both sides. And the way that we determine that is, are you an Extremely competitive person. I personally, as I mentioned, I was in a sink or swim model for the majority of my career. I had to prove that I can do it in order to keep my job. And I love to hire individuals who are fighting for their families, who are past athletes, who are competitive with themselves, who want a betterment of their life. Because the commission structure that I offer is, you know, somebody might think this is crazy, but it is almost double what a standard commission plan looks like.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:41]:
However, they are running their own business. There are no other incentives. It is just an extremely lucrative commission structure with the support of a collaborative team.

Rashin Keller [00:20:54]:
Definitely love that. How do you go find these like high level individuals to bring on as recruiters?

Benjamin Mena [00:21:01]:
Well, I will say I'm really proud of this. We've only hired outside of a referral network twice.

Rashin Keller [00:21:09]:
Okay.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:09]:
So our existing team bring great candidates to the table for us to consider. I have one particular partner, if you will, and she has changed the life of her and her family. And she has an amazing network that she constantly is advocating our role too. And so she has brought on three, four great individuals.

Rashin Keller [00:21:35]:
That's awesome. It sounds like you're doing a lot of good things. How do you balance the wanting to just absolutely grow like crazy versus controlled growth?

Benjamin Mena [00:21:46]:
Great question. I think that, you know, there's a lot of people that would say grow faster, build your team out faster. There's no harm in bringing someone on when it's a 1099 model. But the reality is when you build such a cohesive unit that truly supports one another, that lives and breathes collaboration and a non stressful environment that is supporting, it has to be very intentional every time we bring somebody on. I think that keeping the integrity of the current, the climate of our group is much more important than, you know, trying to be the biggest and the best, which is never our intention. I feel that we have such residual business because they can feel the difference.

Rashin Keller [00:22:38]:
I'm going to ask you about like the clients and everything in a second. But like, you know, when it comes to the recruiting space, like how did you create that collaborative environment where everybody feels like it's okay to like work together, especially in like recruiting. Because I like, I've been places where it's, excuse my language, just fucking cutthroat and deeper, steal everything from you, including your commission. And then I've been at other places where it was like a breath of fresh air. How do you keep that within your organization?

Benjamin Mena [00:23:01]:
I think that we demand it up front. That is something that we intent intensely. Excuse me. Look for during the interview process, we have to have proven ability to be a cohesive member of our team. Every hire has a culture check within other members of our organization. So even a hiring decision is not solely mine. It is a group decision. And then furthermore, we want wins for one another because there's group incentives.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:32]:
We have awesome incentives that we have put in place that would take us all on a trip or take us out to a great dinner. So if one person wins, we all win by just building a camaraderie based incentive program.

Rashin Keller [00:23:49]:
Cool. Awesome. Yeah. I want to ask about clients because I feel like a lot of times recruiters, you know, we talk, the people on the podcast are masters with client relationships and client development. But.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:01]:
Right.

Rashin Keller [00:24:02]:
Like, I've seen it out in the public, like, that's always a struggle. How do you have these clients and what are you doing behind the scenes for these clients to just keep on coming back to you guys year after year after year?

Benjamin Mena [00:24:14]:
That's a great question. I think it really starts with not being lazy with our clients. You know, Covid really changed the landscape of business development, and that is to do everything, virtually everything remotely. I think it goes a really long way to still carve out time to drop off a coffee, to ask them to lunch, to ask them about any personal child sports update. We work with our clients so, so intently, so closely. Not just when they have needs, but we really want to stay connected with them in preparation for the next one. But we do that by dedicating our time to make sure that we do it right before there's a need.

Rashin Keller [00:25:03]:
And. Okay, so with that, I'm sure you guys get a lot of referrals, right? It sounds like you, you know, you guys are awesome with referrals, but when it comes to everything, do you ever turn down business?

Benjamin Mena [00:25:15]:
Oh, thank you. Such a great question. Proudly, proudly, I love to turn down business. I think that once you get to a place of really trusting in the service you provide, and that takes a while, but once you get there, once you truly want to represent the best opportunities in a market and truly represent the best talent in the market, you will very easily say no to business that does not align with your goals or with your core values.

Rashin Keller [00:25:49]:
Love that. I'm so excited. We're going to be kicking off a AI and clay boot camp at the end of this month. I've actually partnered with Stephen from the Art of Sales Academy. You guys saw him talk at the last summit, but we are putting together a four week bootcamp because if you guys Want to get off? Some of these AI tools are complicated, and I'm going to be sitting in the class learning along with you. But these AI tools, once you master them, they can have such a huge impact in your business. But the problem is learning the tools. So we partnered up to put together a bootcamp starting at the end of this month to help you master these tools so that way you can multiply what you have done for your recruiting business.

Rashin Keller [00:26:28]:
And on top of that, I'm also going to add in a free VIP ticket for the Rock the Year summit, so that way you don't miss any of that. Also so excited. Join me for the bootcamp so that way we together can learn how to master these AI tools so that way it can work for you. Is there any piece of advice that you would give to, like, a founder that's like listening to this and like, hey, I want to grow my team. How should I go about doing kind of some of the things that you did yourself?

Benjamin Mena [00:26:58]:
I would say don't be quick to turn down a 1099 model. I believe that this is an offering that we don't often approach, but it gives you such flexibility with your hires in that it empowers them, it gives them a high commission plan, it gives them motivation to quickly see a return on their time, their investment. But also it does not require you to be a micromanager. You don't have to worry about if they're working every hour on the hour. You are going to hire confidently. Individuals who want better for themselves, have that competitive edge, are in that do or die situation, and you will support them on the back end without feeling that you have to be a micromanager.

Rashin Keller [00:27:47]:
Love that. Well, okay, before we jump over the quick fire questions, we covered a lot. We covered about how you had to sink or swim multiple times and you literally get offices off the ground, which, you know, I've met very few recruiters that have been able to do that, so kudos on that. Secondly, we talked about how you, like, launch your own business as you're having a baby and then how you've been growing it. Is there anything else within that, that box or your story that you want to cover? Before we jump over to the quick.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:11]:
Fire questions, you know, I would say, please don't underestimate the power of a candidate call. And what I mean by that is it is not just a check mark on a box that you had an interview. Please pour in to every candidate that you speak to understand, get any sort of lead from them and Again, that could be anything. But they are the holder of information that we are not privy to. They are on the front lines. Is a company going under? Is it up? Is there a merger coming? Are they, you know, possibly interviewing with a B and C company through another agency? You boom, you just got this lead that there's another company spending money with another firm. Don't underestimate the power of a candidate call. And if there's segregation in the firm that you exist in, where there's individuals that do recruiting and individuals that sell, make sure there's a bridge, make sure that there's clear communication.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:15]:
If somebody captures any sort of lead, how is that information being disseminated to the sales individuals? It has to be a beautiful flow back and forth in order to be more direct in our sales approach.

Rashin Keller [00:29:30]:
I love that. I feel like we need to do like a masterclass on either your secret weapon of like the candidate.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:36]:
It is truly, is truly the most obvious secret weapon out there. Please don't underestimate it. That is just something that I really, really stand behind. And I know my team feels they are the holder of business. So do right by them.

Rashin Keller [00:29:52]:
All right, so jumping over the quick fire questions, they don't need to be quick answers. But and this is kind of a curiosity question when it comes to, like, you're hiring new recruiters. Are the people that you're hiring, are they brand new recruiters or have they been recruiters before?

Benjamin Mena [00:30:05]:
Usually they are brand new recruiters with some sort of customer centric quality to them. One of our coolest hires was a previous spine surgeon physical, a pa so he worked in spine surgery. And he is one of the most impressive executive recruiters that you can have on your side. So, no, we're not. We're not coming to the table with massive amount of recruiting experience, but we're all knowledgeable in our own ways.

Rashin Keller [00:30:37]:
Well, that goes into the first question. And this is perfect because it sounds like you're giving this advice constantly, but somebody that's never been a recruiter before, they're just getting started in an industry in 2025. What advice would you give to them for them to succeed in this career?

Benjamin Mena [00:30:52]:
I would say do not ebb and flow with the wins and the losses. Stay consistent. Again, do not ebb and flow. And so do not find your value as a recruiter based on if your candidate gets the job or if a client signs a contract. Do not allow that to impact how you feel about yourself, which is so easy to say and not actually implement. But that Is my biggest advice. Stay neutral, stay grounded. It is not a reflection of you as an individual.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:30]:
It is just business.

Rashin Keller [00:31:33]:
Same, same question. But, you know, picture this. You're talking to somebody in a room that's, you know, 10, 15, 25 years of experience, and you're just chatting with them, and they're like, hey, you know, I've been in the game for a while. What advice would you give to me to continue to see success in this wonderful world of recruiting?

Benjamin Mena [00:31:49]:
I would say, you know, trust the process. I think that a lot of times we're all looking for easy, quick tools that can help us, and we're seeing AI helping a lot with automation, but truly trust the process. You know, make sure that you feel that you have a great flow of a call plan, of, you know, certain reconnects that you want to do. Just make sure that you are not always looking to recreate the wheel. The wheel is there. Have a plan. Do right by your candidates, do right by your clients, and stay consistent.

Rashin Keller [00:32:27]:
Has there been a book that's had a huge impact on your career?

Benjamin Mena [00:32:30]:
Gosh, there's so many great books out there. Um, there is a book that is very primitive, but I loved it. I never had sales, and it was cold calling 101. And I will return with the author's name for you. But truly, it just taught us. And it really similarly aligns with Atomic Habits, but it just really taught us that with plan, having an understanding of where you want your day to go in terms of a call plan or a business plan, but having that already established the night before is going to dictate and direct your entire day.

Rashin Keller [00:33:08]:
And. And this next question is kind of going to be kind of interesting because you, like, you have your team and you're still recruiting yourself, too. Right. And, like, do you have, like, a favorite tech tool that helps your business or helps your day?

Benjamin Mena [00:33:21]:
I will. Yes, absolutely. I will share our favorite tool that we discovered most recently, and it's called Metaview. Have you heard Metaview? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. I. This is.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:33]:
So we may be late to the game, but immediately drop what you're doing and sign up with the free demo of medaview. It has entirely saved us so much time. What it does, essentially, is that it dictates your calls for you. It's a third party, and it listens in, and it beautifully summarizes any call, whether it's a candidate or a client. And most recently, I was on a very technical call with a PE firm, and they needed such a specialized hire and I'm trying to listen, and I'm also trying to take notes. And Medivue just completely summarized the whole thing for me.

Rashin Keller [00:34:12]:
I will gotta say, for those listening, they do have a free option for up to 25 conversations per month. So just go get it. Go get it.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:21]:
So true.

Rashin Keller [00:34:22]:
All right. Okay. So this is kind of curiosity, like, you had to sink or swim.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:27]:
Yeah.

Rashin Keller [00:34:27]:
Multiple times. You started your own business. You're doing great. You're dominated the Phoenix market. Like, you've really honed in and had a lot of success. And I know you probably had a lot of, like, heartache going through the process, but to your core, like, you keep on winning. Like, what in your core is, like, driving you?

Benjamin Mena [00:34:48]:
I think it goes back to who I was 20 years ago, and that was somebody that enjoyed connecting people and wanted to do right by others. It is the origin of our business, but it's not manufactured. It's who I am. And so, yes, there's a ton of losses, there's a ton of wins, there's hardships. But when you feel that you get to wake up and do something that fuels you, how lucky are we?

Rashin Keller [00:35:20]:
That's awesome. But, like, looking back at those hard days and those hard weeks that I know you have gone through, how do you get yourself out of those funks, man?

Benjamin Mena [00:35:28]:
Yeah, they're there. They're. They're there. And not only are they there, you know, they were for me starting this business. They are currently for my team who, you know, experience peaks and valleys. And so what advice I always give them is what I would give an experienced recruiter is to please trust the process, stay consistent, but also give yourself mental breaks, Allow for yourself to get up and exercise, take a laugh, go grab a cup of coffee. I do not believe in hitting anything harder when you are not in the right mental space. And allowing small graces throughout a hard day will truly enable you to come back tomorrow in a better refreshed state of mind.

Rashin Keller [00:36:16]:
Well, looking at this year, is there something that you are looking that you want to focus on, like, with your business or yourself or things that you like? What are you looking at growing within 2025?

Benjamin Mena [00:36:27]:
You know, personally, for me, it's interesting to admit this out loud, but I've never done a podcast before, and some of you might say, man, I can tell. But I, you know, I like to be a silent. A silent killer. I like to work behind the scenes. I like to crush jobs and take names, but I don't put myself out there. And so I have been challenged this year to really push myself out of my comfort zone, become a bigger presence on LinkedIn, to use the AI tools out there to help me in generating content and putting my thoughts out on paper for others to benefit from. I have these thoughts. I just don't do a great job of being the front and center individual.

Rashin Keller [00:37:14]:
Awesome. Yeah. I got a call from a friend saying that we should chat and that's how this podcast happened. It was like, I know this killer. She doesn't want to talk, but she's a killer and you need to talk to her.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:26]:
Thank you so much. It's true. It's just who I am. I like to be behind the scenes encouraging others. And again, I love to take names, I love to be successful, but I don't necessarily need everybody to know that. But I do believe it's time to share some knowledge.

Rashin Keller [00:37:42]:
Awesome. I'm going to ask this next question two ways. The first is going to be like way back when at the start of your recruiting career. But I take everything that you know, all the conversations, the relationships, the wins, the losses. If you got a chance to sit down with yourself in your first month as a brand new recruiter, what would you actually tell yourself?

Benjamin Mena [00:38:01]:
I think what I would tell myself on day one of starting this job is that it is okay to put your individualized fingerprint on this role. Eventually I got the confidence to do that. But when you start out and you look around a bullpen in the good old days and you hear so and so, do it this way or this person, do it this way, you feel you have to show up a certain way, but you don't be true to yourself. And like I said, as much as possible, do not, do not go up and down with the wins and losses. I just wish I could have had a little bit more confidence that it would always be okay if I trust the process.

Rashin Keller [00:38:45]:
Same question, but let's fast forward a few years. I think it's like seven years. Like to when you, you know, after you had your baby, you're starting your own firm, like, you now know so much more than you did then, what would you tell yourself? Like, if you got a chance to sit down with yourself, literally at those early days, you know, with your company.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:03]:
I mean, if you only knew, I would hardly give myself breaks. I would never leave our back office. I cried many times. You know, just, you are hustling and then you're hustling in your home life. And I think what I would tell myself is, you're going to get there and I did eventually get there, but for me, I would never. I would set goals for myself, which I would highly, highly recommend everyone doing. Starting a firm or running their own book of business. Set a goal for yourself and celebrate those goals.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:40]:
And so I think when my husband and I started to implement that, we are going to go to this great restaurant if my billings exceed this, and truly celebrate those wins. Slow down to celebrate your wins and don't just keep driving through them.

Rashin Keller [00:39:55]:
You said that like, things started changing when you started, like goal setting. Was it a combination of you just you had more candidates and everything in play and clients in play or was there a mind shift switch because of the goal setting?

Benjamin Mena [00:40:09]:
Another piece of advice I would give is that you should always have a mentor in this, in this journey or in this industry, in any role. So for me as an entrepreneur, I had a mentor who guided me in that. Take whatever I'd build for the large company in the past and set that for a personal goal for myself. And that really became my North Star. And so I really think that when you're struggling in the beginning and you're grasping for strides, you'll take any business. You know, it's good to just remind yourself that, man, I'm here to hustle. Even if I hear a no, I have this goal and I'm going to go after it.

Rashin Keller [00:40:52]:
And you, you mentioned a mentor.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:54]:
Yeah.

Rashin Keller [00:40:55]:
Did you have that mentor before you started or did you actually, in the process of starting your business, go seek out a mentor?

Benjamin Mena [00:41:02]:
Well, admittedly, this was a competitor of mine when I was in our Michigan office and I would always be competing with this particular individual. He was a one man band and I called him when I came to Phoenix. And so, no, I didn't have a mentor ever until I was ready to start this firm. And when he told me he was spending most of his days on the golf course and making X amount of dollars, I was like, all right, that's the lifestyle I want for myself. But you don't realize it's possible until somebody really shows you the way.

Rashin Keller [00:41:36]:
Did he start his own firm too?

Benjamin Mena [00:41:38]:
He did, yeah.

Rashin Keller [00:41:40]:
Awesome. Phenomenal. I'm sure you talk to recruiters all the time. You have recruiters on your team, Recruiters, not on your team. Recruiters. Like, you do a good job within a network of, I would say like a mastermind, but a group that you guys meet up with and just share knowledge I think is super important. But I'm sure, like some of the questions that you get is like, hey, how can I become A silent killer like you. Like, how did you get so good with, like, candidates? Like, all these, like, tactical questions.

Rashin Keller [00:42:05]:
Is there a question that you wish a recruiter would actually ask you? And what would be that answer?

Benjamin Mena [00:42:11]:
Man, I wish they would ask me, you know, how can I get a lead out of a candidate? How can I get a lead that would be something tangible that you can walk away from and directly turn it into business? And so I would say the answer to that. Again, it sounds very redundant. I believe in the candidate being the gatekeeper, but truly, the lead is. You don't get it unless you ask a hard question. Why are we not asking the hard question? What firms are you working with? Where else are you interviewing? And then assumptively saying, are you interviewing at xyz through this firm? Allow them to say yes or no, or I'm not at liberty to share. But we must ask these questions because in turn, we're hustling for sales, and we're throwing lines and lines in the water, hoping to get a bite when a candidate will directly tell us who is spending money with our competitors and are also telling us, now they're spending that money. Now let's go get it. And so I wish a recruiter would ask me, rashan, how can I get more leads? And I could do an entire masterclass on this.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:31]:
But we'll never get anywhere unless we ask the hard questions.

Rashin Keller [00:43:35]:
Well, maybe we could set that up.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:37]:
Let's do it.

Rashin Keller [00:43:39]:
Well, anyways, like, a few different things. First of all, if somebody that's listening to this episode and they want to follow you, how do they go about doing that?

Benjamin Mena [00:43:47]:
Thank you. I would say that LinkedIn would be the best way. My handle Rash and Keller, the Keller group in my company.

Rashin Keller [00:43:54]:
Awesome. And before I let you go, is there anything else that you want to share with the listeners?

Benjamin Mena [00:43:59]:
You know, I would just say that if you are even considering starting out, starting your own firm, if that is something that is a desire on your heart, immediately go speak with someone who. Who has done it. Trust in the process. Believe in yourself, and don't underestimate the power and value of a candidate.

Rashin Keller [00:44:21]:
I love that. Man, this has been such a fun conversation. And like, like I said, I think you need to get. I think you. Like you said, you need to get out there more this year.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:29]:
Thank you.

Rashin Keller [00:44:29]:
Teaching other people how to be silent killers as recruiters. Like, just crush it. Like, this is the year. This is the year to chase your dreams.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:37]:
Oh, man. If I can share one more thing, our January 2025 was the most successful month that we've had in seven years. January, or I should say 2025, is already shaping up to be an equivalent year to 2022, which was the year for the recruiter. This is going to be the year for agencies to make a massive impact. So let's capitalize on it. I couldn't confidently say that about the last two years. Thankfully, we did phenomenal in our billings, but a lot of firms didn't this year, this month alone, we are billing more than we did in Q1 of last year.

Rashin Keller [00:45:20]:
All right, this is going to sound like a dumb question are because you live in Arizona, have you ever gone surfing before?

Benjamin Mena [00:45:26]:
I have gone surfing, yes.

Rashin Keller [00:45:28]:
Okay. But if you've gone surfing, this is a t like you need just as she was just saying, get on your board and get in the water.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:36]:
Get on your board. Get on your board. So if this is the year where you take a leap of faith, this is the year that you go from recruiting into sales, whatever it is for yourself, this is the year. Mark my words.

Rashin Keller [00:45:51]:
She believes in you. I believe in you. Let's go. Thank you guys for love.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:55]:
Thank you guys. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, hit subscribe and leave a rating.