$28 Million Staffing Agency Exit: Diane Prince’s Step-by-Step Playbook on Niches, Scaling, and Life After Selling

Benjamin Mena [00:00:00]:
Coming up on this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast. You sold your company for $28 million?

Diane Prince [00:00:07]:
Correct.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:08]:
How was that? How'd it feel?

Diane Prince [00:00:10]:
How did it feel?

Benjamin Mena [00:00:11]:
How did it feel?

Diane Prince [00:00:12]:
One thing that people say often, though, is that fear of other people. Like, what are people going to think when all of a sudden I'm changing my branding? Like, literally no one cares? They'll forget within a week. Nobody cares. You just start owning it. Just start doing something different and just own it and just do it. Don't be afraid of that. People are not talking LinkedIn branding with their families over dinner.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:35]:
Welcome to the Elite Recruiter Podcast with your host, Benjamin Mena, where we focus on what it takes to win in the recruiting game. We cover it all from sales, marketing, mindset, money, leadership, and placements. Recruiters. Imagine having a recruiting sidekick that works 24 hours a day. Meet Pin, your AI powered assistant that never sleeps. Pin combs through over 850 million candidate profiles to find perfect fits for your clients, even those hard to find unicorns. It then engages them across email, LinkedIn and SMS with smart outreach that gets nearly half of candidates to respond. And Pin doesn't stop there.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:15]:
It automatically screens resumes with pinpoint precision and handles the back and forth of interview scheduling for you. It's like having an extra team member who never clocks out so you can fill roles faster and focus on closing deals. Visit pin.com to book your demo today. I am so excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast because I have one of my friends coming back for round two and we're going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk about living the dream because, you know, so many people go out to build a recruiting company for many different reasons. One of those reasons is you want to build it, scale it and sell it. She sold hers for $28 million. So we're going to talk about that the first episode.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:55]:
Like, if you want to deep dive onto how we got there, go back and listen to the first episode. We're going to talk about the fun stuff after the sale, but it was also a super important thing that we're going to talk about after that. It's about the niche and it's why you need to find the niche, how you find the niche and what happens if you might need to change your niche because the riches are in the niches. And yes, there's a lot of great recruiters out there just specializing in the generalist, but. But the ones that I'm talking to constantly that are the big billers or scaled big firms riches are in the niches. So, Dan Prince, I'm so excited to have you back.

Diane Prince [00:02:29]:
Hey, Benjamin. How is my favorite podcaster? Whatever.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:36]:
Whatever. Well, real quick, before we start having fun, give Everybody a quick 30 seconds about what you got going on, a little bit about yourself in case this is the first time they've heard you.

Diane Prince [00:02:47]:
Yeah. I'm Diane Prince and I have. So my. My newest staffing agency is like, people kept on asking me, why, why aren't you starting another staffing agency? So I'm staffing offshore virtual assistants and integrators and sourcers for staffing agencies and recruiting agencies. So very excited about that. It's going really well. We also work with other small businesses and coaches and consultants. So if anyone needs a virtual assistant, this is my plug.

Diane Prince [00:03:11]:
Before the show, I also coach. I still do some executive coaching for staffing agency owners and recruiting agency owners.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:18]:
Okay, so before we start having fun, real quick, va, like, should everybody have one?

Diane Prince [00:03:22]:
Can I just have fun now, too?

Benjamin Mena [00:03:24]:
Yeah, have fun now.

Diane Prince [00:03:27]:
Everyone. Yes. I mean, honestly. Yes, everyone should. I mean, it's the way to scale. It's the way to be competitive. And virtual assistants, I set out this iteration, this business, like, this part of my career. I set out to build a business where my main function was to clearly express my vision and have other people execute it.

Diane Prince [00:03:50]:
And there's so many phenomenal people. We are mostly working with people in the Philippines. We also have people at other parts of the world. But yes, it's. It's unbelievable how much you can get done with such incredible people. So highly recommend.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:03]:
And you do all the vetting for them, like, you find them for us.

Diane Prince [00:04:06]:
Oh, yeah. I actually have. My counterpart is. I have a head integrator in the Philippines. She's amazing. So she's my counterpart there. We also have someone in India who's head of sourcing. So we have, like, it's dialed in.

Diane Prince [00:04:20]:
We have. We not only do we find the people, but we also help with strategic guidance along the way. So it's not like just finding a random person on upwork or fiverr and figuring out how to manage them.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:31]:
It's one of the things, like, you know, I. We've had this conversation offline. You're like, ben, you need help. Which I probably need help when I'm working like 90 hours a week putting on summits while we're still recruiting in the podcasting and everything else that happens. But in saying that, I remember the first time, like, I tried doing a VA and man, I got. I think I spent like $7,000 getting burned and got nothing out of it.

Diane Prince [00:04:50]:
Yeah, one thing that we do, we hear that a lot. We also manage other VAs. So when you work with us, you get an integrator and then they. They can. Because, yeah, it can be difficult to. In managing VAs is a big part of it, how to manage them. And if you get that right, you know, I wanted to crack the code on that and I'm just. I can't live without my team.

Diane Prince [00:05:13]:
So I'm really excited to share with other people.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:16]:
I was just like, you know, spend all this money, I'm just going to do it myself. Thought they were doing some stuff. Started looking at the numbers behind the scenes, what they. They're telling me they were tracking versus, like, what was actually being tracked. And it was just like a complete black and white difference. And, you know, it's just like, I think it's a problem that most of us recruiters have is like trying to be superhuman and do everything, but that's a whole other discussion.

Diane Prince [00:05:36]:
And we do tracking, like, we do weekly meetings with tracking and metrics, and it's all very. It's very structured so that it doesn't happen.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:43]:
But I blame, like, everybody listening and I just threw my pen. I blame myself like 100% on me. Like, I should have done so much better. But, you know, you live and learn and have some fun. But we're going to talk about. Let's. Let's jump to talking about the dream. You sold your company for $28 million.

Diane Prince [00:06:00]:
Correct.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:01]:
How was that? How'd it feel?

Diane Prince [00:06:04]:
How did it feel?

Benjamin Mena [00:06:05]:
How did it feel? Let's start there. Let's start.

Diane Prince [00:06:07]:
Yeah, it was, it was. It was epic. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:10]:
How, like, okay, like from when you actually got the check to, like when you started the process, how long did that take?

Diane Prince [00:06:17]:
It was long. But I mean, you have to understand when I say it was long, the whole business, like, we started it, it was, it was a. It was from starting the business to exiting was only six years. So where is the process? Seemed long, but the last year was pretty much going through the process. We had one deal that we thought was going to close. Their accounting team was in LA from New York from the trade towers, doing due diligence when 911 happened. And so that deal fell through. Not only did that deal fall through, but the economy was just in shambles for a while after that.

Diane Prince [00:06:52]:
And then we decided we're going to hunker down, not sell at that point. It was very depressing because we thought we had this deal, we ended up getting a better deal. But then that whole process lasted several months. It was about seven months of working through. The deal was a lot.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:08]:
Okay, so like when somebody here is like, hey, I just sold my company for 28 million, like, you know, you've built the company, you scaled the company, you had like, you know, was it million dollar weeks in revenue, like, because you were on the staffing side of the house. But like, what were some of the things that like they dug into and they looked at and they were analyzing to make the deal actually go through?

Diane Prince [00:07:27]:
Yeah, one thing that's really important is having having solid books. You know, that's one thing people ask, like, what would you do differently? And I would always, always start with a bookkeeper. You start with a bookkeeper, start with a solid accountant. So that is, that's really important. Other things, they look at that, they look at recurring revenue, they look at how deep you are with it. Which is why I love staffing versus, like direct hire. Because you're so entrenched in your clients so that their employees, like, they can't run their business without you at a certain point, when you have so many temps there or contractors there. So they look at that.

Diane Prince [00:08:02]:
They look at the diversity of your client base. You can't have any one client take up too much of your revenue share. They look at team. Team is incredibly important. But I will say every. Because I've had some other exits and every single one was different and for a different reason. So you're probably not. It's kind of hard to predict who's going to buy you and what they're going to want from it.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:26]:
And I know you said this in the first episode, like, where did you meet the people to get the deal done?

Diane Prince [00:08:32]:
Yeah, well, for the $28 million exit, it was, we hired an investment banker. What happens with them is they shop the deal. So they put together what's called a book. And it costs a lot of money, thousands of dollars to put together this book, which is basically like your pitch. You know the pitch, your story, and then they shop it out to potential buyers. So that was the first stage when we found that what the first company that was going to buy us was TMP. They were the holding company who owned Monster.com and their reason was they were buying up a bunch of staffing companies. We had some other, like what they do is they bring, they'll bring a few deals to the table.

Diane Prince [00:09:11]:
So like one was a private Equity firm. Mayor weirden of L. A was in that one, which was kind of interesting. So there are a few different, like random, like you just don't know. So there were strategic buyers and then PE firms. And then, you know, we choose kind of choose and then you go down the path. And then. So we were really excited about that deal with TMP and then that fell through and then we decided we were going to kind of hunker down and just it wasn't a good time to sell after 9 11.

Diane Prince [00:09:36]:
And. And so we actually hired someone to start looking for businesses for us to buy. His first call, he hauled a business broker who was like, we have someone who might want to buy you. And then that's what happened. And the reason that they bought us was completely different to their two main reasons. And one was they were in tech and we were in title insurance. They wanted another niche. They wanted to add to diversify their business.

Diane Prince [00:10:01]:
We brought in a c level executive at a certain point because we always took the steps towards selling and extricating ourselves. And they also wanted him. So that was perfect.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:13]:
So they like really like zoned in on the leadership. Okay, this is going to sound dumb, like why didn't they head hunt that leader instead of taking the whole package?

Diane Prince [00:10:20]:
That is a really good question. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know because she. So the CEO is a publicly traded company called Hall Kenyon. The CEO of Brenda hall wanted to, she wanted to retire and like take acting lessons. And I think also because they wanted our business too. Like they wanted our, you know, so it was, I think it's like through the acquisition they were able to like afford a replacement for her and then also get that extra, that big stream of revenue. And then they sold to kforce a few months later.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:50]:
That's crazy. So they were buying you guys to sell again?

Diane Prince [00:10:56]:
Yeah, I don't know if that was their intention, but they did like with it. Yeah, very, very shortly after that. And then kforce, so we were called on staff. And then kforce actually ran that division for years. It was called kforce on staff. So that was. Yes, that was on staff was the business we started.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:10]:
Okay, so when that money hit your account.

Diane Prince [00:11:13]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:13]:
Were you guys like officially separated for the business or did you guys get like locked in for like another year having to do stuff or an advising or something of that nature?

Diane Prince [00:11:21]:
Yeah, so you know, we had like an 18 month contract.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:26]:
Okay.

Diane Prince [00:11:26]:
But sometimes they didn't really have us do anything.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:29]:
Okay. The money hit your guys's account. What was the first thing that you guys did?

Diane Prince [00:11:33]:
You know, it's so funny because we were. I remember really clearly. We had two little kids and I was. I did not know yet that I was pregnant with my third one. I found out when we were about to celebrate and we had a limousine waiting, and I did the pregnancy test. I'm like, why did I do it before the party? But anyway, so we were actually. We lived in Malibu and we were driving through the canyon to go to Toys R Us. I don't know why we are headed to Toys R Us.

Diane Prince [00:11:59]:
There's no cell service typically in the canyon. So we got to the Valley and then we saw the wire hit, and then we went to Toys R Us.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:11]:
I mean, I got a kid, so I get it. Like, you know, Toys R Us is a place to celebrate, especially with the, you know, after selling your company for 28 million. Hey, guys, pick your favorite. G.I. joe and Barbie.

Diane Prince [00:12:23]:
Exactly, exactly.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:25]:
Okay, let's fast forward. Like, you know, like, how'd your life change?

Diane Prince [00:12:29]:
Well, life changed a lot. And we ended up, you know, then. So we were a married couple, and so we were always working and had the business. And then that went away and we had the kids and each other, and that was a big. That was a big change. And we were young and we had a lot of money in the bank all of a sudden. So it was. It was a lot like, it was.

Diane Prince [00:12:49]:
It's a lot. It was a lot to handle. We're 33, so we were 27 when we started the business. We were 33. It was a lot.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:56]:
And out of curiosity, like, you guys could have, like, with that kind of money, probably just rode off into the sunset. But you've been back building more businesses. Like, why?

Diane Prince [00:13:06]:
It's. Yeah, I mean, it's such a. It's such an interesting question to me because it's like, okay, so we got $10 million. That was our cut. Like, so we had 10 million in cash. Okay. You know, that was our deposit because we had other partners and taxes and things like that. So that.

Diane Prince [00:13:20]:
That was actually our plan. But it is a funny question because it's like, it's a big amount. It's a life changing amount. But, like, compared to, like, so many people, it's a small amount. You know, I mean, there's so many people. It's like, like, look at, you know, Jeff Bezos. Or, you know, it's like, so it is kind of a funny question, but, you know, I'll be totally, totally frank. Is that like we got greedy.

Diane Prince [00:13:42]:
Like, at one point, you know, we had this plan, and I mean, there were a lot of things that happened. Like, we got. We ended up getting divorced, and there's a lot of, like, gnarly stuff in the background. But we, you know, we thought, well, let's do it again. And we had this. This accountant who was. I mean, I think it was a little bit shady. And he was like, you know what was interesting too, is he was like, no, you need more money.

Diane Prince [00:14:01]:
And we kind of bought into that. So we started another business. And so that was one thing that we learned is. Or at least I'll speak for myself, that I learned and is. Just because you had, like, did it and had a giant exit, the subsequent businesses are still. You're still sitting down at the poker table again. Hmm.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:20]:
Well, how about this? Like, you had the advice, you started another business. Looking back, like, with everything that, you know now, you've had multiple exits, you've. Building another staffing agency. Would you do anything different with that money?

Diane Prince [00:14:33]:
Yeah, yeah, I would have, for sure. I mean, I wouldn't have started a business so soon. Like, I love what I'm doing now. It's just if this is such a, like, good stage of my career and entrepreneurship and. But no, I probably would have. Yeah, would have. And I mean, there were dynamics between the two of us, and, like, I didn't necessarily want to start the business, so. So there are dynamics like, that I would have taken much more time off.

Diane Prince [00:14:57]:
And then we ended up selling that second business. I ended up taking it over. It was crazy. Like, during our divorce, one of my emails that I'm like, I gotta take out this email, but it's in my email sequence. So if you want to get my newsletter, one of them is how when I fired my husband, because then that.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:12]:
I just saw that one today, I was like, I. That's when came through today, as I was, like, prepping my questions, I was like, I don't know if I should ask any questions around this, but I'm.

Diane Prince [00:15:20]:
Like, every time I see it, you know, my coach was like, you gotta talk about that. And I'm like, it's so cringy, though. And I know, but then I'm like, I don't know. I haven't changed it, but. But that did happen. Like, there was a lot of dark stuff. And then I ended up taking over that business. And that one I sold to the former chairman of Adecco, and they were the biggest stuffing company in the world at that time.

Diane Prince [00:15:39]:
That was A whole like, crazy thing. So I'm kind of going off on a tangent, but I would have. And then after that, when I sold that, then I started a clothing business, which I definitely would not have done that again. I would have gone off into the sunset, at least for a while and chilled out. Like, I would have just. Yeah. Taken some time.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:58]:
Was it like a Malibu beach boutique clothing business?

Diane Prince [00:16:02]:
No, it was a home party, like Mary Kay business. So I had women, I had over about 350 women that I recruited around the country who sold in home parties.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:12]:
That's awesome. Well, I mean, your specialization was recruiting.

Diane Prince [00:16:16]:
The great parts about it were. Yes, it was the recruiting and then the coaching because a lot of it, you know, was like, about, like coaching the women. And that was, that ended up being my favorite part. And I think the thing that most people took away from it, I had women after I closed and I had it for about what was maybe, was it five years, three to five years, something like that, maybe four years. And then when I closed it, I mean, women, they're still saying to me, hey, you know, I started this business from what I learned. And so there were a lot of good things that came out of it. But. Yeah.

Diane Prince [00:16:46]:
And I will never have inventory again.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:50]:
Well, let me ask you, like, you know, we talked about some of the fun stuff that you did. You know, we've talked about some of the crazy stuff. If you can name like one dumb thing that you did, the dumbest thing you did after selling the business, what would that be?

Diane Prince [00:17:00]:
Dumbest thing. And I knew that was a question you're going to ask me. And I don't got, how do I even choose?

Benjamin Mena [00:17:07]:
I was hoping it wasn't going to be that many.

Diane Prince [00:17:10]:
A lot of dumb things, but we just spent too much money. We just spent a lot of money. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:14]:
Would you have saved more, looking back?

Diane Prince [00:17:17]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:17]:
Or invested more, I should say.

Diane Prince [00:17:19]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Wouldn't have, wouldn't have taken so many risks afterwards. Yes. You know, it's interesting too, Benjamin, because we met people who did the same thing. Like we met before we exited. Like, there was this one guy who had talked about buying us and we were like, oh, guy is like, like, why is he, why is he starting other businesses or whatever that like we ended up doing the same thing. Easier.

Diane Prince [00:17:43]:
It's much easier to, to hear the stories and think you're above them and then, you know, at least for me, than making the same mistakes.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:51]:
So, you know, maybe invest a little more, taken some actual time off yeah, yeah.

Diane Prince [00:17:57]:
And I mean, I would say, like, I did spend, like Most of my 30s, I was mostly retired. Like, we had some other businesses. We had a BMS company that we ended up selling, like, so we did some things like, that we invested in, which was fine. So I did spend quite a bit of time, like Most of my 30s, mostly retired, but you know, with small kids and stuff.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:16]:
So I want to talk about that. Like, let's talk about, like, what retired life with small kids in your 30s looks like. I mean, it's like the place where you have like the absolute most energy, you understand, the most. Let's focus like five minutes there.

Diane Prince [00:18:27]:
Yeah. You know, that was an amazing time. That was amazing.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:31]:
Pay me that, paint me that picture. You're in your 30s, you're retired with your kids. What's life like?

Diane Prince [00:18:36]:
Yeah, I mean, being like 33 and two kids went on the way, like, it was, it was great. I mean, because we had the money to do whatever. Kind of did get to our head though, because everybody was like, oh, you guys are so awesome. Having sold the business and then having that time, I appreciated it so much because it was an accomplishment. So it wasn't like, you know, I can't really imagine if I like. But like, I didn't work and just, I don't know, I felt good about it, like just doing whatever, you know. So for a while, I mean, I. We lived on the beach in Malibu and I was stand up paddleboarding and I was in insane shape, like, working out with my trainer.

Diane Prince [00:19:18]:
We traveled, went to like the Amazon rainforest. I mean, there were some really cool things that we did and then, you know, I could be there for my kids. We did have help. We had a lot of help with the kid. Like, we had a nanny and a housekeeper. So that was nice. But it was. Yeah, I mean, it was funny too, because like, some of the parents, especially the moms, because they're mostly moms who are, you know, picking up the kids and stuff.

Diane Prince [00:19:39]:
And they'd be like, they were so busy. And I'm like. In relation to. Because I had had that experience building a business, I'd be like, what are you talking about? Like, I read a novel today. I'm like, why are you so busy? Like, you know, I think it was just such a different, different view, you know, I'm like, how, what's, what's busy? Like, you dropped the kids off from school. I'm like, what do you have to do? I don't know. It's like, not at all to like, Diminish the role of stay at home parents. One thing that was super interesting though is how people like revered my ex husband because he took the kids to school.

Diane Prince [00:20:11]:
And I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, I'm taking them to school. You're all taking your kids to school. So that was like, yeah. People were like, what does he do all day? And I was like, well, what do you do all day if you want.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:22]:
A really good laugh, you know? Earlier this week I took my son for a run. I think on like a Wednesday morning. We went for a five mile run and I got stopped by a car. I was like, you're with your kid. Like that's not normal. And I'm like, yeah, why can't I guy be with my kid?

Diane Prince [00:20:38]:
Yeah, yeah, I know. Then, yeah, it's, it's, it's crazy.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:42]:
I digress though. Back to like living like living the dream, like house of Malibu. Spending time with your family.

Diane Prince [00:20:50]:
Yeah. Reading, doing things I enjoyed. It was great. It was really nice. Best trip that you guys took, the Amazon rainforest. That was awesome. That was probably the best one. Yeah, we went to the Caribbean a lot.

Diane Prince [00:21:03]:
You know, I still do, I still do that stuff.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:05]:
I want to shift gears a little bit. Like, you guys were able to sell the business because you guys specialized in a niche.

Diane Prince [00:21:12]:
Correct.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:14]:
Do you think you would have been able to sell the business if you were generalized and all over the place?

Diane Prince [00:21:21]:
We would have probably been able to sell it, but we would have not had the valuation we had. And the particular business that bought us did buy us partially because of our niche. That's also, by the way, why Kforce bought them, because of that niche.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:39]:
Well, I want to kind of go into like, you know, there's riches in the niches. We talk about that, you know, but I think a lot of recruiters out there struggle sometimes with finding the niche, finding the niche that works for them or finding like where they want to focus. You know, you hear this, you hear that, Like I want to jump here, jump there. AI is super cool. But then you got somebody that's actually just doing back end fashion recruiting, making a million dollars a year. Like there's so many options that we have as recruiters. Where do we land? Where do we start?

Diane Prince [00:22:08]:
Well, I really believe in, and I do have, I have a nine step tool to building your niche. We'll give the link to that. But I really believe in keeping things as simple as possible. So when we started our business, it wasn't like we were recruiters and then had Started, decided to start a staffing agency and then tried to figure out the niche. It was all like, let's start a temp agency for title insurance. That was the idea. So the niche was even like just part of the idea. It was really good timing.

Diane Prince [00:22:41]:
It's important to have niche market fit. A lot of times people are afraid to niche. They think they're going to miss out on other business. They tend to complicate it. I hear so many people thinking that they're going to go into health care staffing, but they have no experience in health care. So I say like, keep it simple. Keep it close to what you already know how to do and where you have the most connections. And then you know there's other work to do to make sure that there's demand.

Diane Prince [00:23:08]:
But keep it simple and make it easy. And like we were the first ones to do our niche nationwide. There were some small companies, which was funny because we just started and we were tiny, but we kind of always had that attitude of being bigger. Business is like putting a puzzle together. Just look at your puzzle pieces and see what is going to be the best niche for you.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:28]:
Well, why are recruiters afraid to commit?

Diane Prince [00:23:30]:
The biggest reason is because they think they're going to limit themselves. They think they're going to miss out on opportunities. And a lot of times they're already generalists and they're afraid that their messaging is going to alienate their existing clients.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:46]:
How do you get over that fear?

Diane Prince [00:23:48]:
You know, I actually experienced it when I first started coaching because I even like did not follow my own advice. And I coached all kinds of founders. I didn't just coach staffing and recruiting agency owners. I coached tech founders and everybody. Like all kinds of business owners. And then my coach, I hired a coach and he said, why are you not niching into recruiting? And the second I did, everything changed. Like, I went from like cold outreach to getting clients to all of a sudden just flood of incoming leads. So I had that experience myself, which was so interesting to me.

Diane Prince [00:24:23]:
So I think it's just doing it. I mean, let go of that fear. Because one thing to understand is if you already have clients and no one cares about your website, right, like you already have clients, they're not going to say, oh, you know, Benjamin's doing whatever, you know, like he's doing tech so we can't use him in logistics anymore. Whatever, you know, like that's not going to happen. Okay. If you still have relationships, you can look at niche as a front end issue where niche is Marketing, you can become a specialist in your niche. And I guess some of it is a leap of faith, because once you do have that niche and you let go of everything else and you only speak to your ideal client, things just open up. Like, it's unbelievable when you have the right niche.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:09]:
Okay. Which. You got a point. And I see that constantly. But what happens when your niche is going through a downturn or a downtime? Like, everything is cyclical. Like, I understand that. I've been in the recruiting chair for 19 something years now. Like, I've seen so many cycles.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:23]:
But at the same time, like, some cycles can last a little while longer in certain niches. Like, if your niche is, like, going through a horrible time, should you pivot to a new niche or double down on where you're at?

Diane Prince [00:25:35]:
Yeah, I mean, I'm a poster child for that. Because Countrywide Home Loans was our biggest client in 2009. And their CEO is literally, like, when you Google him, Mozillo, like, Wall Street Journal called him the poster child of the financial crisis. That was our biggest client. They went bankrupt. Then B of A took them over. Bank of America did not become a client of ours. So that happened, like.

Diane Prince [00:25:57]:
Like mega to us, you know, like, huge. And we did not pivot. Like, we stayed and. Because our client base was diversified and we definitely took a dip, but. And we had added banking as well, but we stuck with it. And things do come back. It depends. Like, you could have.

Diane Prince [00:26:18]:
You could have roles that are obsolete because they're taken over by technology and things like that. But I think it's always about, like, finding, okay, what's something adjacent, like, if we can't place these people. We did try healthcare then. Didn't work. We didn't know anything about healthcare. It was stupid. But we thought, oh, let's diversify into this. It didn't work.

Diane Prince [00:26:37]:
But, yeah, I mean, and I think that that's also part of why staffing works, because of the ups and downs. Because if it was always flat, you wouldn't really. I don't know, it's just with the ups and downs, that's what kind of makes it work. The different, you know, cycles of supply and demand of candidates versus clients.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:56]:
The Elite Recruit podcast has multiple summits coming up that you need to make sure that you are registered for. We have the AI recruiting summit 2025 coming up. And on top of that, finish the year strong. These two summits are going to help you move the needle, help you achieve your goals, help you achieve your dreams, and make 2025, the year that you started out and you wanted it to be. Make sure you get registered and also stay tuned. Got something cooking for you guys. Working on another project that you guys are going to absolutely love. All right, see you guys at the summits and see you guys soon.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:28]:
So you guys did a good job, like, kind of taking over your niche, like your specialized, hyper specialized niche. Picture that somebody's like, okay, I've narrowed down my niche. This is exactly what I want to do. This is the type of roles I want to focus on. How do I become that? Go to person in that whole circle.

Diane Prince [00:27:46]:
Yeah, just own it. Talk about it. Own it. Like, for me, with my virtual assistant staffing agency. Just own it. Like, I'm talking to staffing and recruiting agency owners. Those are the people I service now. Do I service other small businesses, too? Yes, but just own it and answer every.

Diane Prince [00:28:05]:
Like, figure out what your ideal client, what their problems are. Show them how you can solve their problems. That's the kind of content you need to be putting out there on LinkedIn or YouTube or whatever, your newsletter. Solving their problems. Okay. Don't try to be a thought leader and nobody really cares. Honestly, solve people's problems and they will become loyal readers and followers of your content and eventually become clients.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:33]:
So you said something real quickly. Don't be a thought leader. Solve problems. What do you see as the difference between those two things when it comes to actually creating content?

Diane Prince [00:28:43]:
I guess what I. What I see is that people will write about things that everybody's talking about or things that, like, actual famous people are talking about, like, AI. And it is possible to, like, own a segment of that or whatever. But show people, like, show people how to do things. That's easier. You know, to be a thought leader, you have to be, like, different and have a completely different take. But I see so many people just putting out really boring, bland content that nobody wants to read. What people want to read is, how is this going to help me? That's easier.

Diane Prince [00:29:17]:
It's much easier to get a loyal following and turn people into clients when you're actually telling. Giving them, like, tools that they can use.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:26]:
And to give an example of that, like, let's just, you know, dig a little deeper. Well, throw me out there. I create a lot of content. Let's pretend I create zero content.

Diane Prince [00:29:33]:
Okay?

Benjamin Mena [00:29:34]:
I focus on government contracting. That's my space. Mostly the DC market around technology in government contracting, in the debt sector.

Diane Prince [00:29:43]:
Okay.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:43]:
What kind of stuff should I be sharing to try to solve people's problems? Really get out there and start doing this.

Diane Prince [00:29:48]:
What is one of the roles that you like? What is a difficult role that you.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:51]:
I would say a difficult role, like the most difficult would be like a software developer with a TSS AI and a full scope poly, but we'll skip that one. Let's go with cloud developers doing AWS transformation. You know, helping one of the government agencies move over to the cloud.

Diane Prince [00:30:05]:
Okay. So a piece of content that you might do is, this is how I placed, like, I got this order for this, you know, AWS developer. All the things he said and in the, in the cloud and for the government. And this is exactly how I recruited for this role. You could take off names and things like that, but like, just share the.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:27]:
Playbook is what you're saying.

Diane Prince [00:30:28]:
Yes, yes, yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:31]:
All day, every day.

Diane Prince [00:30:32]:
Yes. Then what happens is you'll start getting questions from your ideal clients. Now, what I recommend is you figure out where they're talking. Okay. You figure out where your ideal clients are talking to each other. That is not on LinkedIn, because people aren't really sharing their deepest, darkest problems on LinkedIn. Okay. It's the customer.

Diane Prince [00:30:52]:
I call it the customer copy code. You can figure out where your customers are talking, what they're saying, because they're talking to each other somewhere about their challenges. And then just start answering those questions in public. Just start answering how you would solve their problems.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:08]:
How many times a week should I be doing this? Like, on like LinkedIn or whatever other place?

Diane Prince [00:31:13]:
The way I did it is so. Because it was always a struggle for me when I was being more generalist, and it was always a struggle for me to get consistent with LinkedIn. So once I got consistent, everything changed. Once I got super focused on my niche and got consistent. So what I did first is I scheduled out. I wrote out a month of posts and I scheduled them. That's what I did at first. I don't do that anymore.

Diane Prince [00:31:37]:
I probably could do it sometimes. Then it got to the point where people started reading my content and they started messaging me questions and then I use that for content. So it's the customers that are telling me what they need to know.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:50]:
And like, a good example is one of your coaches, Julia. I always tell people, go back and look at her content. Like, she's actually absolutely like one of the ones crushing it with LinkedIn content. I think because of that also her work ethic behind the scenes. Yeah, she's almost a million dollars. And was it 16 months?

Diane Prince [00:32:09]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. You know? Yeah. She's Just doing it. Like she's somebody that just is doing it and not like complaining. She learns and she just does it. You know, it's funny because people, people will hire me and they'll be like, I want you to show me what you showed Julia. And I'm like, I am showing you. Julia just does it.

Diane Prince [00:32:29]:
And she also, like, she has other people that she follows for stuff like that. So I cannot take credit for all of Julia'. Maybe, maybe just a little bit.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:38]:
Well, I know we talked about a lot of that. Is there anything else that, like, I, as a recruiter that hasn't really done this before, should be doing to really start owning my, my niche of the market?

Diane Prince [00:32:48]:
Yeah. I mean, other things you can do to show that you're an expert in your market. And this is pretty easy to do in LinkedIn if you have even Sales Navigator. You don't even need recruiter for this. But like, you can know stats like, how many of those AWS Java developers are there? Like, there's content like that. Like, this is how many unemployed people in this role are. This is, you know, you can get the data. You know how to get the data because you're a recruiter, but your clients probably don't.

Diane Prince [00:33:16]:
This is, you know, these are how many are actually in the D.C. area. Okay. And these are how many that are looking for work. These are how many that are currently employed and passive candidates. You can get all that Data just from LinkedIn. You can share that kind of data. That kind of data is interesting to your clients.

Diane Prince [00:33:34]:
And that's another way that you can really niche because you can know every single AWS Java developer that has government clearance and whatever, whatever in, you know, within the D.C. area. You can get to know that and you can actually own the market that way.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:49]:
I like that. I love how you like, laid it out because, like, I actually get a lot of, you know, questions to myself and I'm like constantly tell them I'm not a coach. Go talk to a coach. Like, I, my job is to bring people together, but I'm like, you know, you gotta kind of go hard on wherever you want to be.

Diane Prince [00:34:08]:
Yeah, yeah. You can't do everything. It's like, you know, think about athletes or, you know, very few people excel. Like famous people. Like, very few people excel. I mean, some do, but very few people excel in multiple things.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:21]:
Maybe I should just focus on podcasting. If it actually paid one day.

Diane Prince [00:34:25]:
You always look at the podcaster, you're like, I get the most, most incoming. Like I saw you I. I saw you on Budget summit or podcast.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:36]:
Well, it is kind of funny because I think you really just, like, talked about the very beginning. It's just like. It's the fear of committing. It's a fear of, like, missing out. It's the fear of, like, what happens if I. I pick this for the next five years? I'm now taking over this niche, and this is what I'm talking about. And what happens if that disappears? What happens if it does that?

Diane Prince [00:34:51]:
One thing that people say often, though, is that fear of other people. Like, what are people gonna think when all of a sudden I'm changing my branding? Like, literally no one cares. They'll forget within a week. Nobody cares. You just start owning it. Just start doing something different and just own it and just do it. Don't be afraid of that. People are not Talking about your LinkedIn branding with their families over dinner.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:15]:
I hope most people aren't even checking LinkedIn outside of recruiters over dinner. So I want to take a step back on focusing on kind of your coaching. And you've had a chance to talk to a lot of recruiters.

Diane Prince [00:35:28]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:29]:
What is some of the things that you've seen that has held recruiters back from winning?

Diane Prince [00:35:34]:
Yeah, I would say there's a few things. One is all of the information that's available, people get analysis paralysis. Back when I started, there was no. I mean, there was no social media. You know, we had a couple of advisors. We had how to Start a Temp Agency for Dummies book. That was it. That was it.

Diane Prince [00:35:57]:
And we figured it out and we did it without, you know, I mean, faxing and, you know, paper timesheets and all that stuff. Now there's too much information, and people want to know what the right way is to do it or, like, which coach should they follow? And what I truly believe in the way I coach people is not like, I don't have a blueprint or nobody does. What it is, is, it's what works best for you. And that is, I think that is so important. Kind of forgot your question. Would you say, oh, what people do wrong? One mistake is they think that there's a certain way they should be doing things, and they look at the competition too much. They look at what they should be doing too much. Instead of trusting their gut and doing things that cause might discover things that no one's done before, I think it's harder to do that now because there's so much information.

Diane Prince [00:36:46]:
Everybody wants to see what the formula is, try different things, you know, Some of the best people that I coach had never were in recruiting, but they're looking at it from a fresh viewpoint, so they do things differently.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:58]:
Well, my next question for you is going to be like, the ones that are absolutely winning that you've seen, whether coaching or not, what's the differentiating factor for them?

Diane Prince [00:37:06]:
You know, discipline is a big one. Just doing it. Like, you know, you use Julia as an example. She'll be like, I haven't gotten a client in a couple months. And then she's like, I mean, then we talked yesterday and she's like, okay, just like you said, she just closed three deals. You know, it's like, just do it. Like, commit to it and just, you have to do the work and always be building your pipeline. Sales is your lifeline.

Diane Prince [00:37:34]:
And a lot of people make the mistake of they'll get some orders, they'll get some racks, and then they start working on the racks, which you need to do because that's the closest to money. But at the same time, you also have to build your pipeline. That's something, you know, little plug for virtual assistants. Virtual assistants are not necessarily just to take things off your plate that you don't want to do. They're there to help you to 10x, to really build your business. So if you're getting wrecks and that you don't have time then to sell, you've got to figure out how to do both. You can never stop selling. So people come to me that are like, their pipeline's totally dried up.

Diane Prince [00:38:05]:
They don't know what to do because they stopped when they were busy.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:09]:
Pipeline sales. Do the work is what you're saying.

Diane Prince [00:38:14]:
Do the work. Yes. And speak to your ideal client when you're making doing LinkedIn content. Speak to your ideal clients. Don't talk to anybody else. Don't talk to anybody else. Only talk to your ideal clients if.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:28]:
You want to get laugh. That's always been a struggle for me with having the podcast completely different from the client work that I do.

Diane Prince [00:38:33]:
You know, that's why I didn't say don't talk to other recruiters, because I know.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:39]:
It'S like the story of my wife. Like it. It has helped because, like, you know, anybody that's in my space because I post so much, they're like, they know me.

Diane Prince [00:38:47]:
Yes. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:49]:
If you're connected to me and if you show up on LinkedIn at least once a month, I guarantee you that you see my face.

Diane Prince [00:38:56]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:57]:
Anyways, we've covered a lot. We've covered living the Dream we've covered, like, what you've learned from, like, you know, a $28 million exit. We talked about, like, you being retired and what that felt like, what you were able to do with spending time with your family and traveling. We also talked about being in niches, which, you know, I'm with you. I see a lot of people afraid to commit, but I see the ones that are committed, like, some of them are being overloaded with work right now.

Diane Prince [00:39:20]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:20]:
But in saying that we've covered a lot, is there anything else that I didn't touch on that you want to go deeper on before we jump over to the quick fire questions?

Diane Prince [00:39:28]:
Okay, one more. Just one more thing. Maybe this is. This might be an answer in your quick. Let's go to the quickfire. This might be an answer in your quickfire.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:34]:
Okay, so brand new recruiter. Never have been a recruiter before, never have been in the industry, but they chose this as 20, 25, the year to jump in. They came to you and say, okay, I want to win. What advice would you give me to have a successful career as a recruiter?

Diane Prince [00:39:49]:
Start with staffing, not direct hire.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:51]:
Okay. Oh, they don't have to be quick answers.

Diane Prince [00:39:57]:
They're just quick questions.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:01]:
You're like, let's go. You're like, next answer. Okay, next question. Next question.

Diane Prince [00:40:07]:
For some reason, it's really hard to go from direct hire to staffing. Staffing's not that complicated. You get an employer of record. If you need one, message me, and I will introduce you to them. They will fund your payroll. They will do all of your back office. That is how you get recurring revenue. That is how you get consistency.

Diane Prince [00:40:22]:
That is how you're not. You build a business that is not crazy. Like, some months are zero, other months are whatever. Like, you're. It's not feast or famine. Start with staffing.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:33]:
For those listening like that haven't done staffing. How do you sell staffing then?

Diane Prince [00:40:37]:
How do you sell staffing?

Benjamin Mena [00:40:38]:
Yeah, how do you sell it? How do you get that first client? It's self staffing.

Diane Prince [00:40:41]:
The same way you get a first client, direct hire. You sell contractors. I mean, this is what we do. You people do what you sell. I mean, like, have you ever shifted your messaging? People buy what you're selling, you know, so you gotta just be clear on it. I talked to a group this week and they were like, they want to make staffing 50% of their business, but they're like, oh, and we also do staffing. No, start with staffing. We do staffing and then you can also do direct hire.

Diane Prince [00:41:05]:
That's icing on the cake. But you just, and I mean, there's a whole, like, it's not that complicated to sell staffing. I always tell people, just tell people that you do staffing and then hit me up on LinkedIn once, once they say, we need you. And I'll just, I'll send you a little tidbit to get it done. But you just, just, same way. It's generally the same people, it's generally the same buyers that are buying, that are signing your contracts for your fee agreements for direct hire are generally the people that are also doing staffing. So just tell people you do contractors and it's.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:35]:
Yeah, same thing. Okay.

Diane Prince [00:41:37]:
I knew nothing, Benjamin. Like, I knew nothing. I didn't even know what worker's comp was. I knew nothing about employment. And I got my first placement and then I figured it out within the week.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:46]:
And that was before EORS too. Right.

Diane Prince [00:41:48]:
You know, I didn't even. I think EORS existed, but we didn't know from eors, so we just did it ourselves. Which was nuts.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:56]:
You know, it wasn't in the book of dummies.

Diane Prince [00:41:59]:
I was, I skipped that chapter. I don't know.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:04]:
And for those listening, like, EOR is employment of records. So they handle all the back end stuff for you. So that way you get to focus on it. Think of it this way as Nvidia. Guess what? They don't make the chips, they just sell the chips. Another company handles all the back end for you.

Diane Prince [00:42:18]:
Yeah. And they also fund your payroll because that was something. And we didn't even realize that, like, they will fund your payroll for pretty low rates so you can get into staffing without that barrier to entry of having to front payroll. And the thing with eors, though, there's different ones. Some will do healthcare, some will not. Some will do forklift drivers, others will not. So you can hit me up, because that's one thing that I do is I talk to ers, so I kind of know who's good at what. So we love introducing people to ERs.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:48]:
And this is a like, kind of like people have heard this before, but in case you haven't, like when it first launched a company that knew about me as a recruiter, they're like, hey, we want you to hire contractors for us. And I was just like, awesome client, we're ready to go. And then I was just like, looked at my, how much money I had in the bank and like, I can't afford like, One week of, like, even one, like, engineer. So I ended up turning down the work because I didn't know about the stuff.

Diane Prince [00:43:12]:
So many people do that. It kills me. It just kills me. And then that business just stacks up, and sometimes the temps just stay there forever. It's just so good.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:23]:
If you want to talk about, like, temp stacking up, I actually just did an interview with a woman who has a $10 million staffing desk just hers. Her team does another 7 million just hers. But she's also traveled the world to, I think, like, 45 countries while doing that.

Diane Prince [00:43:39]:
Wow. That's amazing. That's great. It is funny because those numbers, people are like, wow. That is a proven business model, staffing. So don't be afraid of staffing.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:47]:
All right, next question. Not a quick answer. Established recruiter that's been in the game for a while, asking you how to win.

Diane Prince [00:43:55]:
Best advice, Start doing staffing.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:03]:
All right, well, that works.

Diane Prince [00:44:05]:
That was a quick answer. Saving time.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:09]:
Favorite book that's had an impact on your career?

Diane Prince [00:44:11]:
Okay, well, we already talked about rework. That's what I shared. That is my favorite book, though, and I think I forgot to. I mean, there's so many. I'm such a reader. But I guess I would say lately I've been reading. You know, I switch off from, like, business. Like, traction is a good one, to mindset.

Diane Prince [00:44:29]:
So, like, lately I'm reading Power of now by Eckhart Tolle.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:33]:
Nice. Okay. Phenomenal. Favorite tech tool at the moment.

Diane Prince [00:44:38]:
Still chat. ChatGPT. I mean, good old ChatGPT. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:44]:
Favorite part of ChatGPT.

Diane Prince [00:44:46]:
I'm just exploring all the apps it has because there's all those different apps on ChatGPT. But favorite part is I'm using it to help write my book. So that's. That's cool.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:56]:
Doing the same, too. So nice.

Diane Prince [00:44:58]:
Nice. Yeah. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:59]:
Have you played with deep work at all?

Diane Prince [00:45:00]:
Have I what?

Benjamin Mena [00:45:01]:
Played with deep research yet?

Diane Prince [00:45:04]:
No, I haven't.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:05]:
So when you go to ChatGPT and you start typing in, there's a little deep research thing.

Diane Prince [00:45:09]:
Yeah, I've seen the button.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:11]:
Yeah, Use it. Use it.

Diane Prince [00:45:12]:
All right, cool.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:14]:
Use it. I pay for the $200 version just so I can use it anytime I want.

Diane Prince [00:45:18]:
Really? Okay. Oh, you know what else is. Let me see. I always forget the name of this, but so my daughter. I got to show you this, because this is hilarious. So my daughter, for my birthday, made me this. And she's a journalist. She made me this.

Diane Prince [00:45:30]:
The ChatGPT. Do you see what it says?

Benjamin Mena [00:45:33]:
That's awesome.

Diane Prince [00:45:34]:
And it's so funny. I mean, it's hilarious. And then let me see if I can find it real quick. There's this other tool that I always forget, but it's one of Google's, and they. Have you done the one where then they turn what you say into a podcast?

Benjamin Mena [00:45:47]:
The Notebook.

Diane Prince [00:45:49]:
Yes. Yeah. So not really a podcast, but yes. I took this Sexiest business coach and I put it into that. Wait, what's it called again? Notebook LLM.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:57]:
It's Google's Notebook LLM or something like that.

Diane Prince [00:45:59]:
Yeah, that was hilarious. And then I did it for all my friends and made them, like, the sexiest. Like, one of my friends, like the sexiest math teacher at Phoenix Kent Baseball.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:07]:
So I thought about making, like, a separate podcast, just seeing how far that would go. Just literally using that.

Diane Prince [00:46:13]:
It's so funny. It's awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:14]:
Yeah, like, you know, we talked about a lot, the ups and downs. What do you think is one of the biggest failures that you had to work through in the recruiting space?

Diane Prince [00:46:23]:
In the recruiting space? I think it was just like, once we had a vendor management. We had a couple of vendor management companies. We just got, like, way in over our head. So things like that, like, just diversifying too much and trying too many new things when we should have focused on really, what was our core business, Just, you know, not focusing on what we were good at.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:39]:
Focus on the niche.

Diane Prince [00:46:41]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:42]:
I asked you this question way back when, like a year and a half ago when we spoke. But, like, you know, you've talked to a lot more recruiters, you've done a lot more things. You've grown a ton yourself. If you can go back in time and give yourself advice when you, like, head deep in your guys's company, what would that advice be?

Diane Prince [00:47:02]:
Do you remember what I said last time you asked me that?

Benjamin Mena [00:47:04]:
I have to go back and check, and I don't. And I want to cry because I.

Diane Prince [00:47:07]:
Said what I said was, I spent so much time trying to change the past, and then I realized I can't. So I try not. So I. There's a reason I don't like that question, because I've spent, like, so much time working on myself to realize that I can't go back because I tried to go back. But I will give you an answer. I would have recorded everything. I would have journaled and taken more pictures of the journey. Like, I have a couple of pictures that are really fun, but I would have journaled and recorded the whole thing.

Benjamin Mena [00:47:36]:
I love the answer by the way because I think that's what everybody. Like when your head's deep, working, grinding, you literally look back up and like six months go by and you're like, wait, what happened? Where did I. Like the pictures? What changed? Like this and that change. And especially like, I'm seeing that now with a little one and like, oh, my God, he's now 18 months. This is crazy. Here's actually one of my favorite questions. You talk to a shit ton of recruiters. Like, they ask you, like, how to do staffing, they ask you how to do this, they ask you tactical, what's working at business development? How do I succeed? How do I win? How do I pick my niche? Is there a question that you wish they would actually ask you, but they almost never do? Oh, gosh, what would be that answer?

Diane Prince [00:48:17]:
What do I wish they asked me? I'm going to try to form this into a question, but I guess the thing that I wish that people would understand is maybe I wish they would ask me, should I keep doing X, whatever, Fill in the blank. Because this is one mistake that I see a lot is people have the fallacy of sunk cost that they've been doing something for so long. Like, we invested in this, whatever it is. Like we started building an ats, we put all this money in. Stop. Like, if something's not working, you have to look, you have to see if it's still the thing that, like, if you started today, would you choose this? If not, you gotta cut it.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:59]:
You're talking about ats. Do you see it also with a lot of people's actions and what they're doing, work wise?

Diane Prince [00:49:05]:
Yeah, yeah. People, just, people tend to, like, I've been, you know, invested in this, or it could be an employee. You know, we've invested all this time in this person and it's so obvious the person's not working out. Just that fear of changing something that you've invested time in is generally holding you back.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:26]:
That's actually really good. Well, maybe somebody listening to this needs to pick a new niche.

Diane Prince [00:49:32]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:33]:
Well, Diane, I know you're going to be sharing finish the year strong in October. I cannot wait for you to share again. But for those listening, I know it's a little while before that time period when this goes live, but if somebody wants to follow you, how do they go about doing that?

Diane Prince [00:49:47]:
Okay, so LinkedIn is my main thing. So it's Diane Prince and. Or my website is DianePrince co.co. and you can find my LinkedIn DianePrince co LinkedIn but you can always go to my website just in case if I ever get kicked off of LinkedIn through it. And, And. And I also have my link tree, though, is my link on LinkedIn, so you can find, like, the nine steps to choosing your niche and how to get a va and all that stuff is on my link tree, so I'll send you that link, too, so we can put it in the notes.

Benjamin Mena [00:50:19]:
I will have that in the show notes, so that way you can easily grab that. Well, we've covered a lot. Is there anything else that you want to leave with the listeners?

Diane Prince [00:50:26]:
I just. I appreciate you so much, Benjamin. And it's just, you know, and everybody in this business, it's just. Just, you know, it's not that serious. Like, we're not doing brain surgery. We're all, like, pretty much on the island of misfit toys. Just have fun, you know, it's a great business. You can make a lot of money and just don't take it that seriously.

Diane Prince [00:50:44]:
Just do it. And it's a lot of fun. And it's also a lot of fun to get. Get the big checks. And that's kind of the reason why we do it, even though we say we do it to help people.

Benjamin Mena [00:50:54]:
Love it. Well, Diane, I just want to say thank you so much for coming back. Like, it's one of those things, I think, because, like, we. You, the summits, and following each other on LinkedIn. I didn't realize how long ago you. You were on the podcast.

Diane Prince [00:51:06]:
Was it like, two years ago?

Benjamin Mena [00:51:07]:
Yeah.

Diane Prince [00:51:08]:
Time has flown crazy. I'm gray now. I decided to go gray. So.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:18]:
This is, like, one of the fun things. One of the fun things about the podcast is, like, the relationships that you start having with awesome people and get to see everything going on and track them, and they track you and, you know, have fun together. So.

Diane Prince [00:51:30]:
Yeah, I know. Weren't we supposed to do the next summit in Paris?

Benjamin Mena [00:51:34]:
I'm still working on that. I know I keep on promising that, Like, I keep on promising that I.

Diane Prince [00:51:39]:
Speak French, so you might need me to, like, help to, you know, I might need to help with that.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:44]:
You know, it's. That promise might be coming sooner than later. All right, I'll keep you posted on that. So for the listeners, hey, guys, want to come to Paris? Let's put on a summit there. All right. I want you guys to crush it, keep crushing it, and talk to you guys soon.

Diane Prince [00:51:57]:
Bye, everybody.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:59]:
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Benjamin Mena [00:52:34]:
Visit pin.com to book your demo today. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, hit, subscribe and leave a rating.