[00:00:00] Fuquan Bilal: All right, guys, we’re back again with another great episode of P F R E I passion for real estate investments. I’m your host for Kwan Balao. This is going to be a great show. I got a good friend of mine on a daring carr from carr talent acquisition. This is actually probably the first show that we had. We had a guest on that was really a service provider.
[00:00:32] And I really want to introduce Darrin to you guys because he helped me so much in my business. And I think it would be a great value add to you guys and gals as well. Um, so I’ll let him get into the background of what he does, but just off the top. Um, he is a recruiting firm and he can help you level up your business by finding the right butts for the right seat.
[00:00:52] Can I say that right? The right butts in the right seat. He puts the right butts in the right seat. And there’s a process that we’ll talk about that he goes through to help business owners recruit. But their businesses now, I know this is a real estate show, but I wanted Darrin to come on because this is one of the things us real estate investors need to continue to be successful.
[00:01:11] We need to build that the right team. We need to help create culture and we’re going to speak to a lot of that. And why is it important to your business? So welcome to the show,
[00:01:18] Darrin Carr: buddy. Thank you so much, Fuquan. I am always glad to be talking with you. There’s not many that can match your tour de force energy and positivity.
[00:01:27] So it’s always a treat. I really
[00:01:28] Fuquan Bilal: appreciate it. Uh, and he makes you feel really good about yourself when you leave the call. So that’s an added bonus. If you’re ever having a down day and you speak there, you leave the call like I’m the greatest. That’s awesome. So yeah, I wanted to show, um, even though it’s a real estate podcast, I think it’s important.
[00:01:45] That people like yourself on to kind of this is one of the resources that we need as business owners to help us thrive. Right? So, um, a while ago, I was the GSD guy to get stuff done. I wanted to do it all right. Nobody can do it like me. Nobody can do it better than me. And what Darrin does is he, he proves you’re wrong.
[00:02:06] He said, no, you, we’re going to help find people who are smarter than you, who you can develop a great team with, and then you can manage those, those team members. And for me, a manager is someone who makes leaders. So let’s tell the, uh, the audience a little bit of background and then, you know, some of the services you provide, then we’ll get into it.
[00:02:25] Darrin Carr: Yeah, you bet, you bet. Fuqua. So, yeah, just a little bit about me to kind of set the stage for where we’re at now. I grew up, uh, you know, in the dark side in corporate, so I was in sales and that’s why we, you know, I think we focus a lot in on sales. So I was a sales rep and then a district manager and then a regional manager.
[00:02:40] Um, so I started hiring, you know, I was hiring hiring managers in my late twenties and so got to know a little bit about. What it takes to hire great people and just prove the golden rule of recruiting a players hire a players. So that’s what we try to do here. My last 10 years in corporate, I was a director of recruiting for some pretty big companies, some billion dollar companies in publishing.
[00:02:59] So, um, uh, McMillan Pearson, Prentice Hall, Cengage, uh, you may or may not know some of those companies, but that gave me a big seat at the table, got me a strategic view, and then I just wanted to get out and start my own deal. So, uh, we are a, a recruiting company. Um. We, uh, that specializes in REI, in real estate investment.
[00:03:18] So we were generalists coming out of the gate eight years ago. And then we just started helping from other masterminds and other business communities. We started helping more and more, um, REI companies, uh, until we got introduced to some pretty big, uh, communities, um, out there. That has really helped us hone in and specialize and get all the tools and tricks and job descriptions and compensation models and interview questions for all the different REI positions.
[00:03:43] So, we train our people up. We got about 15 recruiters and we train them up hard in REI, uh, everything, you know, what it takes to be a good lead manager, acquisitions manager, aka home buying specialist, etc. So, we’re all tuned into that. We’re all, um, you know, focused on that. It’s what we do 90 percent of the time.
[00:04:01] Um, and so we, uh, you know, we have, we’re very process oriented. Uh, we pride ourselves and be able to take people whose expertise isn’t recruiting and isn’t making an offer and isn’t attracting good candidates and really taking them by the hand step by step and providing that sort of white glove service.
[00:04:19] So I could go into more detail, but that’s the, that’s the, that’s a quick summary off the top.
[00:04:24] Fuquan Bilal: No, thank you for that. And for those of you who are actually the do it yourself type of person, I can tell you it’s so worth the investment to have a firm like carr Talent Acquisition kind of do the dirty work for you.
[00:04:37] Like they basically, their style and their approach, the way they do it is different. Uh, they don’t place ads. They pretty much headhunt pretty much. The way they do it is when they present the applicant in front of you, it’s all laid out. There’s a predictive index profile. Uh, there’s an alignment with the position that you’re looking for, you’re recruiting for.
[00:05:01] Um, and then they’ll do the first interview process to make sure That we’re all on the same page and then it set you up for success. So the rest is really up to you and I’ve had nothing but a great experience from that. But let’s talk about, um, some of those processes that you go through. And then also, what are you seeing in today’s job market for real estate?
[00:05:21] Because we’re now in, um, uh, this, this podcast may get launched a little later, but we’re in Q1 of 2023. And there’s been, um, unemployment is still low than it’s ever been in many years nationwide. So that’s a good sign versus before when, um, you know, they were paying bonuses. So to hire people, um, there’s still some people I would guess and you would know more than me that’s still picky about certain jobs and, you know, still wanting certain things.
[00:05:51] But we’re that’s a multiple question. I gave you something back up. Yeah. First, let’s start with the process that that your firm go through this high level and then we’ll get into. Well, we are in a market today with recruiting.
[00:06:04] Darrin Carr: Well, if you don’t mind, I think I might flip it because it might inform one might inform the other.
[00:06:08] So you are exactly right. Uh, at the beginning of February, we just learned unemployment. It wasn’t a 50 year low at 3. 5%. It just went down to 3. 4%. That’s the lowest it’s ever been since the 1969 loon landing. Right. So, um, it’s. So, I mean, so it’s tough to it’s tough out there, especially for salespeople. The good people have jobs.
[00:06:33] So, um, and that sort of I’m getting to their process because this informs it. Um, if you’re placing an ad out there, um, you know, and we do place ads, but 75 percent of our hires come from us really listening to what our clients need in terms of. functionality, what do they need, and culture, because that’s for long term fit.
[00:06:51] And we, you know, we hire for hungry, humble, smart, and cultural fit. So, um, so unemployment’s low, you place an ad, what are you going to get? You’re going to get a lot of people who are unqualified. You’re going to get a lot of people who may or may not be interested because they have hit a button 50 times that day on Indeed, and they don’t have a job.
[00:07:08] And why don’t they have a job in this market? That’s another question you need to ask yourself. And so that precipitates the need for us to be the poachers. Yeah. You know, the people who are like looking to harpoon them out of the sea and to flush them out of the mountains. And and how do you do that?
[00:07:24] It’s with a couple of things. And this this starts the process. Um, it comes with, um, first of all, volume. You’ve got to sound out. You got to call. You got to text. You got to email a lot of people now to get the response. Uh, half the response we used to get. Uh, you know, a couple of years ago, a couple years ago, we sent out 100 messages and we get 16, 18 back.
[00:07:45] Now we get two, three, maybe none. So, uh, so it’s volume. Um, and, uh, and it’s also, uh, spark charisma, um, hustle, like, uh, you know, a players hire a players and I pride, you know, I’m, I’m proud of my recruiters. Cause they have a couple of things. They’ve got the technical skills. They know how to find them that takes key wording.
[00:08:05] Um, right you need you need you need four things time tools expertise and process a lot and what a lot of people don’t Have is the tools and we pay the big bucks for the software That we’re able to have the whole universe of people out there We’re able to uh, tap them on the shoulder and say hey, man, you look like you have a great looking profile We’re working for a great company.
[00:08:22] Here’s why this company’s great. Here’s why fucon’s great Um, you know, here’s a little bit about what’s in it for you. Here’s a little about what you’d be doing. You want to learn more, you know, good recruiting is good sales for the right people at the right time. That’s just a straight up answer. You got to be, you got to be selling while you’re, while you’re, um, while you’re, um, while you’re assessing these folks.
[00:08:42] So how does that all start? The process is, um, that, uh, so we start with a discovery meeting. Um, as you know, many times, I think we’ve probably done it 15, 20 times with you for your various positions. And, um, we need 45 minutes and we just really dig in. Tell us about what you need functionally and culturally.
[00:09:00] Tell us about, um, you know, how, what the best people in this company, how they have gotten along, how they jived with the company, what, what has made it a good fit. And then we can replicate that. And we kind of know the sort of profile that we’re looking for. Um, and, uh, you know, from there, you Uh, you know, we, we, we also want to learn what makes your company special.
[00:09:19] What makes this sparkle? Why does it shine? We need to tell stories to attract the best people away from their best sales jobs. They’re killing it. We want the people who are killing it, but they just don’t know they could kill it more with you. Uh, and so we need those little tidbits and you’ve been very good about providing that about, you know, what, what you do, you know, culturally, and do you take people out every Uh, you know, quarter to do different events, things like that.
[00:09:41] So anyway, discovery meeting where we really dig in. Um, we, we present, um, the next step is we present calibration test candidates where we send out a few people before we reach out to a couple 100 people spend a lot of time and money doing that. We fine tune, we send a few people out to the to our clients to say, hey, We’ve heard you what you’ve told us in terms of what you need.
[00:10:02] Here’s some people we haven’t reached out to yet. What do you think about this? Yes, Darrin, because of that. Yes, Darrin, because of that. No, because of that. Okay. Now we’re dialed in even more. Now we’re off to the races. We’re pushing out hundreds of messages to get those three to five. Candidates that we want to submit for every position because nothing we want.
[00:10:20] We want a choice because nothing brings clarity like comparison. And so we want people to think, you know, to have that choice. They might think number 2 is good. So they talked to number 4, so we keep them coming and usually provides a good choice. So the process from there is that we’re off to the races, you know, being polished ambassadors of the brand reaching out to a lot of people.
[00:10:40] Get them on the phone for an informal chat about what’s your first question. We ask them what’s important. We don’t go into interviewing them. We have what’s important to you. You know, they, they like that. They want to know that they need that tells us it shows them. We carre shows them that, um, the first of all helps us also helps us align, do their core values, what they just told us aligned with the clients.
[00:11:00] And number three, if they’re good, tells us how to sell them. Uh, okay, great. You told me you want X, Y, Z. Well, Fuqua has got X, Y, Z, and one, two, three. What do you think about that? What’s your interest level now? Okay, it’s a 10, Darrin. Then we move into the assessment phase, and we’re, um, we’re asking, uh, we’re asking the hard questions.
[00:11:16] We’re asking behavioral interview questions, and those are, those are the tricky ones, and, um, I can tell you just a little bit about that. It’s, you know, just to give you a flavor, um, they, they need to come, you know, they can’t come prepared for these. It’s tell me about a time you had a challenge with sales regarding X, and it can be whatever’s most important to our client.
[00:11:33] Number two, what was the plan? How’d you put it together? Um, You know, who to talk to to put it together. Number three, how did that plan unfold? Execute number four? What was the result? Sales go up to 28%. Um, uh, what was the benefit to the company? And number five, what did you learn from that experience? Or what would you do differently going forward?
[00:11:51] And that really gets at their adaptability, their intelligence, their coach ability, and they got it. They can’t, you know, they’re not expecting that they got to have a cogent, coherent, compelling story. For us to, to, to believe them and you can tell when people are BS and on on something like that. It’s hard to make that up on the fly.
[00:12:06] Fuquan Bilal: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I appreciate that. And then there’s a, there’s other steps that you go through once they make it past that. And then you want to set them up for the next round. Then we do the behavior testing and the predictive index testing. So you can see the cognitive score and. Basically, the profile that they fit in to make sure it’s in alignment with that position.
[00:12:24] I’m not sure if all companies that you work with do that, but I know we do a few other guys that I know you work with us and our mastermind do. But how do you think that that helps to identify by. Uh, the person that tool.
[00:12:38] Darrin Carr: Yeah. So we have three certified PI people on staff, so they, they are, uh, they are the experts and they, and all of our recruiters help facilitate it.
[00:12:46] Um, the PI and most REI companies use that. There are some other companies that use other things, um, but that’s predominantly the one. Um, and so, yeah, what we like to say, and as well, our, you know, leading expert here says it’s, it’s, it’s one tool and, uh, it’s, you know, it, it should be taken into consideration.
[00:13:05] You know, a full account. It’s it’s one part. It’s one piece of the puzzle. Um, you know, uh, and, you know, along with those results of the behavioral interviewing, um, and other questions we ask, it’s something to take into consideration. We, we do think there should be some leeway because. Some people can take the I mean, it’s first of all, it’s a very incredible tool.
[00:13:25] It’s accurate is usually very accurate. I was so surprised how much it nailed me. It doesn’t get in the details. Uh, so, uh, they, uh, so yeah, we, we do rely on it, but we also have, uh, we also take a more holistic, you know, view like, you know, Because there are people who have taken it twice and it’s come out totally different.
[00:13:43] Um, and some people can game it too. So some people are good at it, but overall it’s a great tool. We just take it, um, we, we, we take it as a part of the, part of the piece of the puzzle. Um, important to, to many, including you, I know it’s the cognitive score. And I think that, that is, um, that, that is key.
[00:14:01] That’s hard to gain.
[00:14:02] Fuquan Bilal: That part is hard to gain.
[00:14:05] Darrin Carr: Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. How? The profile is easy,
[00:14:12] Fuquan Bilal: the profile, yeah, the cognitive, that’s, that’s really, you know, where you get the chance to see the intelligence level, how quick they respond, if they can think out of the box. their problem solver, you know, a few of those things.
[00:14:25] What have you seen in that? Because I’ve seen some, I’ve seen some people that didn’t meet the score that I wanted for the position, but that didn’t mean, like you said, that was just one piece of the puzzle. So it mean probably they wasn’t good for that seat, but they were working another seat in the company.
[00:14:42] Darrin Carr: And the other number look for is that overall score, that overall fit score to that one through 10. Um, that’s, that’s part of it. Um, and you know, as far as the personality profiles, it’s funny because they’re shifting a little bit. Now, I see for my clients, like, not everybody wants a Maverick anymore, uh, you know, in, you know, and so.
[00:14:59] You know, it’s kind of like, you know, toe the line, get, we need, we need you to follow the process. We don’t need, you know, everybody to be a cowboy. So that stuff shifts. But, um, but, yeah, it’s a, it’s definitely 1 of the helpful tools. And so we take that into account as we, you know, we’ll wrap up our interview process and, as, you know, we’ll present to, you know, a submission to our client, which is a paragraph summary of why we think they’re a good fit functionally and culturally bullets on specific strengths.
[00:15:24] resume, LinkedIn profile link, um, uh, what the competition they need, um, and, uh, yeah, that’s, that’s how we get, you know, our three to five, uh, choices to, to our, to our clients.
[00:15:36] Fuquan Bilal: What challenges are you seeing now most business owners are having in this market? Um, you know, are, are people, uh, in this current market still like holding off on hiring?
[00:15:46] Are people still like Let’s go. Let’s recruit because of of the economy where it’s at. Um, there’s a lot of layoffs happening. There’s some people who’s laying off rock stars because they just, you know, trying to keep the liquidity to have a burn rate, and then they’re going to recruit back later or they some people dropping dead weight or people who may have been operating in a function of the company that just slowed down dramatically and there’s no need for it.
[00:16:09] So how does that, you know, come into play with what you’re doing? You’re hiring on one end, and then there’s massive layoffs on the other end. Like, did that like, make the hair stand up on your back? Like, what’s going to happen to my market?
[00:16:22] Darrin Carr: Yeah, no, I, so, to, I mean, to be 100 percent honest, we, through last year, we didn’t see any.
[00:16:29] Uh, we were just as busy as we were in January is where we were in December because good companies still need good people. And there’s, you know, they there’s attrition. People fall out for any number of reasons. So I think we probably hired more dis, but we hired, you know, a certain percentage more dispo than, uh, than we had to be at the end of the year than we did at the beginning of the year.
[00:16:49] Um, but it remains fairly steady. January is always a little bit of a lull when people kind of figuring out what they’re doing. And, and, uh, you know, I think as you are sort of like reassessing, you know, your staff level, the expertise, and, you know, do you need this type of leader or this type of sales person?
[00:17:03] So, you know, January is always like that. But I’ve attended a lot of, uh, Meetings, you and I belong to some of the same groups and group. Um, and I’ve attended a lot of those lately and there’s this week and next week, and there’s been round robins around, uh, uh, from, uh, from, uh, chief operations officers, um, the, the COO calls that I’m on.
[00:17:24] And they were asking, you know, what have you seen this January? And almost with, you know, without exception, people said, Slow fourth quarter, but January is ticking up. I mean, it was really across the board. Um, it was really kind of gratifying and heartening here. So, um, it didn’t slow down for us very much.
[00:17:41] January is a little bit of a lull, but, um, you know, the signs, the signs were. You know, we’re good, even though, you know, interest, interest rates might take another little bit of a hike here because we just added five, you know, added last month, we added 517, 000 new jobs when it was expected to be 180. So again, the Fed may look at that may raise the interest rates, you know, again, but, uh, but, um, What I have seen in these meetings when they’ve gone around robbing around the country, and they made sure they went regional too.
[00:18:11] And everybody said uptick uptick uptick. And I’ve taken 3 or 4 sales calls here the last few days where people are saying we’re, we’re, we’re out of the gate. We’re going hard. So it’s not doom and gloom from I’m sitting.
[00:18:24] Fuquan Bilal: Yeah, that’s good. I mean, I’m hearing the same thing. It just depends on what market you’re in.
[00:18:29] Um, I think what happened was people were just preparing for the worst, right? They were saying, okay, if this is going to happen, I need to start cutting expenses now and, you know, get lean now and prepare because things did slow down for you for and. Some early January with people don’t know what’s happening.
[00:18:46] It was just unexpected. So people were just preparing for the worst and getting lean, um, and figuring this was the time to cut that weight, get rid of people who I’ve been wanting to get rid of. So a lot of that has been going on and now people are look like they’re kind of transitioning to what may be in some markets, more inventory is coming out.
[00:19:05] So they’re trying to hire staff up now to prepare for that. But yeah, I mean, is there anything else you’d like to add to the show? I definitely want you to plug your contact information for people who can reach out. Um, Darrin has helped me in my business and several others that I’ve known in their business.
[00:19:19] And this guy hire like some really high level position. I’m talking about six figures and up type of positions, or, you know, you go down lower also. But, um, before we do that though, I had asked you this question through email and you answered, but I’d like to share with the show. I was like, Hey, what do you think about hiring for someone who’s in house Versus someone who’s virtue, like a really key player of your team.
[00:19:45] If you need it, um, I guess that’s depends on what you need. If it’s marketing, I guess that would be virtue. I don’t know. But if it’s like a CEO operations person, that would be in house because you need somebody to kind of brainstorm with. You know, integrator that person. I think that’s what you reply back.
[00:20:01] Hey, you know, I think if you hire for this type of position, you want to have that person to kind of shoot ideas by in the flesh. And let’s talk about that a little bit. What’s your experience with, you know, virtual or in house for those type of positions?
[00:20:16] Darrin Carr: Yeah, yeah, well, we’ve seen an uptick in the last 6 months on and what I’m saying last couple of years on remote people doing things remote lead manager marketing.
[00:20:26] You’re right. But as far as those kind of positions, we’re a director of operations operations manager. C. O. O. Yeah, it’s my, uh, you know, firm belief that that’s where you want boots on the ground. You want that. You want that solid connection. You want that reportability. You want that visibility. You want that gravitas that that person in that role is bringing as a top leader of yours in person face to face.
[00:20:49] I think it’s much more impactful to have a that that level of leader on the ground with you side by side. And that’s another thing. And they can see you are a team, a unit. And you are leading the company and that helps them understand that this person’s, um, that, you know, they’ve got the same kind of weight that you do, you know, that they, they’re, you know, you are sharing decision making power and, uh, and, and I think it’s, um, you know, while it can be done, uh, I’ve managed remotely my whole life, um, uh, while it can be done, uh, I think it’s certainly, uh, usually more effective to have that, that operations director, uh, on the ground.
[00:21:28] Fuquan Bilal: Yeah. Thanks for sharing. If you want to plug information where people can find more information about you and your services.
[00:21:33] Darrin Carr: Yeah, I would just, uh, Leo, you asked if I wanted to add one more thing, I would just say that, um, if you’re, you know, I, I’m about ready to do a presentation for a couple of other real estate groups, and, uh, if you’re relying on job ads, you’re not, you’re getting the smallest slice of the, of the pot potential candidate pool and not anywhere near maybe the kind of a level that, that you need.
[00:21:55] So you got to be active. And that’s either yourself, it’s a little bit more difficult because a lot of people don’t have the tools, but I think you got to be active poachers and outreachers, you can do that for your own employees, you can hire a recruiter, but I would just advise against relying on whoever happens to waft your way via an Indeed ad that week, that day, that month.
[00:22:15] So that’s what I’ll say about that. People can reach me. Uh, at my phone number, (641) 691-2990. I’m at Darin. Uh, my email is Darin at carr talent, D-A-R-R-I-N at carrr, carrR talent.com. And we are@carrtalent.com, uh, for our website.
[00:22:34] Fuquan Bilal: So, so no posting ads on Craigslist.
[00:22:40] All right, guys, another great episode of PFREI, a passion for real estate investments. I’m your host for Kwan Bilal. Make sure you catch us on YouTube. If you do, be sure to like share and repost it. Uh, if you could catch us on all other social media channels too, where you can find podcasts. It’s been a plump, pleasing pleasure.
[00:22:56] Pleasure. Thanks, Darrin. Same here. It’s great talking to you, buddy. Thanks, brother.