From Living Room Startup to $6M: How Aida Rodriguez Built an All-Women Legal Recruiting Powerhouse

Benjamin Mena [00:00:00]:
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. I am so excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast because it's just the power of what can happen with a team, and you bring together a group of amazing women that are excited about chasing their dreams and building their future. And when I talk about, like, amazing, like, in the past few years, $6 million in revenue, Inc 5000, like, stuff is happening. So I am super excited to have Ida Rodriguez as the guest of this week's podcast. So welcome.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:00:45]:
Hi. Thank you for having me.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:48]:
So, real quick, before we get started, quick 30 seconds. Tell everybody, like, a little bit about yourself and your firm.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:00:53]:
Sure. So, Ida Rodriguez. My firm is Ascension Global Staffing and Executive Search. We're a national legal recruiting and executive search firm focused on law firms, corporate legal departments. We opened our doors in the midst of the pandemic in July 2020, have grown and done some pretty cool things since then, and even opened a school, Ascension Legal Studies Institute. I guess we'll chat more about that later.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:15]:
That is awesome. Okay, so we have a lot to talk about this episode. I'm so excited. So let's just take a few steps back. How did you even end up in this world of recruiting?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:01:26]:
Totally by chance. I think a lot of folks on your podcast have said I ended up here by the grace of God. But, yeah, so for me, it was a 2009, and I was in the law firm. I grew up in the law firm, had been in the law firm since I was 17 years old. And in about 2009, after I had my last baby, I was like, I had the itch, right, to pivot. But I didn't know how to do that because I'd been in litigation for so long, and my skills were what they were. So I didn't know how to transition. And so.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:01:53]:
But it was also the. The market had crashed, right? So folks were being laid off, companies were closing. It was a really bad time to have this itch. So I kind of just put it the back burner. But I continued manifesting right, what it is that I wanted, although I didn't know back then that's what I was doing. But I was revamping my resume 30 times, reaching out to just people and seeing how I can, you know, reinvent myself. And then, lo and behold, early 2011. That was 2009, early 2011.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:02:20]:
I get a Call from one of my former companies, Special Counsel. They are the legal arm for adeco, and they're like, hey, we need a director to build our Miami office. Had me at hello. And that was the end of that. So it was all very serendipitous, and it was the best thing.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:37]:
Okay, so pause, pause, pause. Okay, so they called you up to build a Miami office, but you were never a recruiter before that.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:02:43]:
That's right. But the recruiter that called me, he's amazing because he recognized that I was a people person because I was chairing organizations. I was super involved with the community. I was networking. I was out there. So he knew I didn't really need to know how to recruit or to sell, for that matter, because I was a people person. And that's kind of like the gift in this industry. You know what I'm saying? So I think he's wonderful.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:03:10]:
Alex was his name, and I owe it to him, honestly, because he saw beyond. Right. What was required of the job.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:17]:
Just out of curiosity, like, when you saw the job description, like you're a lawyer, were they looking for a recruiter or looking for a recruiting director, or they were looking for just somebody that's in the industry?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:03:27]:
Well, I mean, ideally, yes, but, you know, finding folks in this industry, especially with legal industry experience, is hard. Right. So I think that they were just crossing their fingers, and they needed somebody to just come in and try to, you know, help them built something in Miami. And I was up for the challenge. I was ready because I wanted to make that change and, you know, leave the law firm, and it was perfect. So I had never sold a thing in my life. I don't even think I sold chocolate in elementary school when fundraising. Right.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:03:57]:
It's just like, that's something I did because I was, you know, I was kind of. I was kind of shy as a child, and not anymore, but as a child, I was very shy, so that wasn't my thing. But I quickly recognize it. I wasn't selling a product, was selling me right to my clients or to candidates. And so once I realized, I'm like, okay, I've got this, they just have to like me, and then everything else is going to follow. So that's kind of how that worked out.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:22]:
Okay, so you took a position to grow an entire, like, office, and you were there for a few years. You actually grew a team.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:04:29]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got there in 2011, and they ended up buying a huge office down the street from where we originally started. The team grew to about 10 people, an entire managed review office for document review services that were being sold during that time. And yeah, I mean, we really made an impact in the industry. It was a good time.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:48]:
And then from there, like, you actually got recruited away?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:04:52]:
I did. Then got a knock on the door by a Beacon Hill staffing group, and I was asked to do the same thing for them. And again, because I'm always ready for a challenge, I accepted and I helped them do that. I was there for five years as well. And yeah, and they're still around, so doing good things.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:10]:
Okay, so you literally built up two offices pretty much from scratch for somebody that has never technically been a recruiter before.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:05:16]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:17]:
I want to dig into this for a second. Just for people that are sitting there, they're working at an agency, they've been given the gift of an opportunity to build an office. What were some of the things that you did that really stood out that helped you successfully build an office and a team locally?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:05:32]:
Listen, I'm not going to lie. I've never worked harder. Okay. I worked hard. I worked so hard. I needed to understand the business. And not having a recruiting background, it really does help when you know the industry. You know, what a lawyer does, you know, what paralegals do, legal assistants.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:05:48]:
When you understand legal operations generally, that is like a big, big win. But then after that, I just had to understand the industry. So that took me some time. I'd say eight to 12 months. I always tell people, you will understand this business when it's like, aha, moment eight to 12 months in, when it finally sinks in. And it took me about that time. But in the meantime, I was busting my butt and working super long hours. But I was super committed to failing.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:06:12]:
And, you know, of course, and I had the support of this big corporate team, right, that was behind me. I didn't do it by myself. They helped me. They helped, you know, build out a team. And it was just up to me to lead. And, you know, we had some great people in the team that are still friends of mine today. So, yeah, I mean, it just takes being focused on a mission and willing to work. Roll up your sleeves.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:06:32]:
I remember I was doing everything. I was recruiting, I was selling. If we had a documentary project that we needed to put together, I was on the floor, on my back, wiring computers, you know, monitors, whatever needed to be done. You know, moving furniture. I would go to furniture stores, put together. My God, those are crazy times. But a client would come and say, I need 50 document review attorneys for Tomorrow? Oh, sure. Let me open up an office, get you a new, brand new kitch, office equipment, office furniture, and we build out a brand new office within 24 hours just to get this project off the ground.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:07:03]:
So it was wild, wild, wild times. I'm thankful for the pandemic that kind of sent everybody home and everybody does this remotely. But it was. It was good because it. It built me. Right. That experience truly built me.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:14]:
So, okay, so you literally built two offices that are still around doing amazing things. What spurred you to make another change again?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:07:25]:
With opening of my. Of my own company, you mean? Yeah. It was always in my heart, right, to do it, because I'm like, okay, I've done it for other guys. Why can't I do this for myself? But there's always such a fear factor, right, when thinking about opening up your own shop and leaving, you know, the comfort of a, you know, paid position. But the pandemic was what shook me, right? It was the middle of the pandemic. We didn't know we were going to survive another day. We didn't know if the world was going to be around for another day. I was like, okay, if I don't do this now, it's now or never.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:07:55]:
So in the middle of the pandemic, it was July 2020. I was like, it just came over me like, today's the day I called my husband. I'm like, hey, I'm doing this. Got your back. Then my next call was two of my best friends. I called them the Coral Gables housewives, because they did nothing but, you know, be housewives all day. So I'm like, hey, I'm doing this thing and do you want to join? They're like, we'll do it with you. So it's kind of like, I don't know, like, going out of brunch or something.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:08:18]:
And. But we did. So next day, we were in my living room training like, mad women, just, like, hitting it hard. Somebody else was laid off. Somebody, another friend of mine. Because with the pandemic, remember, people were being laid off. People in retail particularly. Right.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:08:37]:
Remember? And so people within different industries, zero background in legal, zero backgrounds in recruiting, zero. They were just looking at my door. I'm like, sure, I'll take you. Come on in. So we ended up building this amazing group of Hispanic women who were ready for change, ready for more, ready to do something awesome and amazing, and they believed in me. And we just spent months training, but at the same time we were training was a great time for the legal industry. All of a sudden, the market blew up. Everyone was hiring, and it was a perfect storm.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:09:10]:
It was honestly the perfect storm. And they are, you know, they grew to be amazing executives, amazing recruiters, amazing salespeople. So we opened our doors in. In July and in November. I just. Out of curiosity, I just opened up an Excel sheet. Cause that's. We know, we all.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:09:27]:
We had. We ran everything through an Excel sheet. Candidates, clients. That's what we had. Okay. So I'm not ashamed, but, you know, we've got up since then. But, you know, I added up. I tallied up all the orders that we had and the potential on the fees and.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:09:40]:
And I was floored. And like, we had. In such a little bit of time, we had, you know, met $7 million in pipeline, and I was like, oh, my God, what are we doing? I'm like, okay. The thought of failing has never crossed my mind. That never. That's not an option. Never has been an option for me. I just knew that we were doing something good.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:10:00]:
Everyone was committed. We're smart, amazing women, and we were killing it. And so that was by, I don't know, by 2021, 2022, finally, the market normalizes. And I'm like, okay, the market is normal again. Clients were paying us like 50% fee, which is like double of our fees, willing to do that. It was just wild. Was great for training. It was like everybody was like thrown to the wolves.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:10:25]:
But finally, markets normalized. And then last year, 2024, we won Ink 5000's fastest growing companies.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:31]:
So we got some stuff to unpack here, first of all.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:10:34]:
Okay.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:34]:
Yeah. Like, when you started, your brunch crew literally became your team.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:10:40]:
That's funny.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:42]:
Instead of, like going to brunch, you guys were literally like, hey, let's start training on how to. How to recruit.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:10:46]:
Yeah, yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:48]:
For any.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:10:48]:
Exactly what it was.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:49]:
For anybody that's sitting there that has an idea that they're like, hey, I'm going to go do this with my friends. You said you focused on, like, a lot of training. Like, what do you mean by that?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:10:59]:
The thing was, is that we were sitting in my living room and I was like, these are our clients. I know. We needed a product, Right. We needed people to sell. So because everybody was sitting at home, we couldn't call offices. Right? Everybody was home. We don't have home numbers. So we literally built this entire business on emails.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:11:18]:
So I bought Zoom Info. Back then, it was something else. Now it's Zoom Info. We had bought something similar. And I'm like, okay, this is how we're going to find people. I heavily invested in technology. I'm like, technology was my best friend. I'm like, we're going to do this.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:11:30]:
We need technology. So that's how we just found contacts for folks all over the country. We just went crazy. I mean, literally, we're just like, this is what we're doing. This is what we're selling. Let's go to the market. We just started sending emails, and we literally built that $7 million pipeline on emails. Never made a phone call.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:47]:
Okay, so all emails, never made a phone call. And for people listening, there's so many people, they're like, I'm starting a firm. I need to build out this entire tech stack. You build a $7 million pipeline on, excuse my language, fucking Excel.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:11:59]:
I know. It's all we have. Hey, well, you know, didn't Steve Jobs, you know, build his empire from his garage?

Benjamin Mena [00:12:06]:
I mean, that's what I'm trying to say.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:12:08]:
Mine would go from my living room.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:09]:
And like, you, you guys didn't wait for everything to be perfect for your tech stack. You just attacked and figured it out.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:12:18]:
Yeah, that was just the way we just did. We made do with what we had at the time. I, you know, I came from huge companies that had the infrastructure done. They had the money to back it up. I had none of it, but I had fire. I had women who had so much fire in their belly and they didn't care. Nobody cared. You know, we were just on a mission.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:12:38]:
So. So, yeah, the Excel sheet works and, you know, we may do with it, and we've since grown up, but, yeah, that was our humble beginnings.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:45]:
What do you guys have now?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:12:46]:
We use recruiter flow.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:48]:
Okay.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:12:49]:
For our CRM. I don't know how many other platforms we use to get our job, to get the job done. Probably I invest too much in technology. I need somebody to come consult with me and just show me, like, how to consolidate it all. But I don't care. I really don't mind if there's any investment that needs to be done. It's always going to be technology. I think that's a big part of our success.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:13:07]:
Like automation. I'm all into that. All things AI, all things automation. I'm all about it. But, yeah, we've come a long way.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:13]:
I still want to go back to these early days. So you guys started in July. By August, you guys had five people on your team?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:13:19]:
Oh, yeah. Probably more, actually, by that time, like, at one point, we were like 11 people. I'm telling you, like people were like losing their jobs. And so there was like, what are we doing? Where do we pivot to? It was like, either you're going to go work at the hardware store or the grocery store because that's what was opened, right? Nobody was hiring the world. Remember it was, it was a crazy time. It was a really wild time. So I had people and I didn't mind that. I was happy to give someone a chance, somebody that was willing.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:13:45]:
So at the time we're like 11, 12, maybe up to 13 people in the early nearly days.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:51]:
But you found like a group that was like really driven and self motivated and you've had the opportunity to like really build them up. I want you to kind of talk about like the training that you've done over the past few years and how you've really been able to build up a true team of executive search professionals.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:14:09]:
They are our biggest asset, my biggest asset. I love my team. It really helps that we were friends before. So we agreed from the get go, listen, if this business thing doesn't work out, we're still friends, right? We might showed up. We were sure that that was very clear from the beginning. But I'm so invested in them. I really have invested so much of myself. I knew that I couldn't do it by myself and I have, you know, I have big plans for us and I've invested in them by, you know, if I can send them to conferences or hire business coaches for them, you know, to make them better.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:14:44]:
Plus I had already had 10 years in the industry so I had a bunch of knowledge, right, to download on them and they're like sponges, right. You know, they took it all in and yeah, and because they're ambitious, they wanted to be better and be the greatest. And there's so much competition. Like, you know, we love each other but there's a lot of competition amongst us. Right. So yeah, I think it's just, you know, my core team, they've been with me since day one and they're just phenomenal. It's phenomenal.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:10]:
How did you create that like that healthy level of competition within your team but also keep it a good culture?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:15:18]:
Well, it takes a magician, honestly. I'm not going to lie. We're a group of women, right. And so there's so much that happens with a group of women. There's like a whole different layer of complexity that's added. But I lead with my heart. I think that's helpful. I think everybody knows that before anything, you know, they're here, right? And they've got my back, right? So we've got this thing, like, today, I'm gonna.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:15:42]:
I'm gonna yell at you, hey, we need to go get that client. But tomorrow, I'm gonna be like, okay, let's go to lunch. I got you girls go to the spa. And, you know, so it's just, like, it has to be a combination of we always have to win, you know, like, tough love, right? But then we'll go out at night, and everything is fine. I think you have to respect them, know that they know that I have their back in every which way. And I think that you establish that trust. I think that's very important. And that they know I'm invested in them.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:16:08]:
Like, they are Ascension. They are Ascension. They know that.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:12]:
When it comes to, like, you guys breaking into that Inc 5000, that magical barrier, did you guys, like, really do something different, or was it just, like, you guys still putting in the same work? And it was compounding finally, you know.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:16:22]:
The Inc. 5000 thing, it was almost like a game. You know, never in a million years did we think we'd make the list, much less number 46. So it was kind of a big surprise to all of us, but it was just a testament to our hard work. And, you know, we haven't done it again for this year. But the fact that we just did it. We did it so early on in our journey, it just drove home the fact that they deserve to be here and that they deserve that win.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:51]:
And where do you see, like, this team going in the future, you know, as a company?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:16:57]:
Yeah, that's so funny you say that. So I do a lot of networking. I'm always somewhere with some group doing something. And yesterday I was at a networking group, a local group of business leaders. And the leader of that group, he put out an assignment to us, and he says, where will you be in five years? Right. Which from a financial standpoint, I'm always planning, where will we be in five years? But he wanted to know where personally, where we thought the company would be in five years, and we should create a headline for it. So where would I be on April 3rd in 2030? And that made me think some. And I'm like, I think that we should go public, right? So that was my headline, right? Like, that's audacious goals.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:17:35]:
So I'm always pushing my team. I mean, how big can you think? And so for them, they all have their dreams. I have one of them who wants to be, like, the top we started doing firm mergers and acquisitions last year. She's become, like, this amazing recruiter in this space. So her dream is to, like, you know, be drinking lattes in the corner of some Parisian cafe, you know, pushing deals from the comfort of, you know, the cafe. Everybody has a different dream, but the goal is being able to own your time, which is the most precious commodity that we have. And that's something that I give them is being able to, you know, we work hard with, but we play hard. That's a big part of our culture.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:18:14]:
And so, anyways, they have these big, audacious goals that I absolutely love. You know, they want to be Fortune 10. Right. I want to push this to see how far we can go.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:25]:
That is awesome.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:18:26]:
Yeah, why not?

Benjamin Mena [00:18:27]:
Exactly. That's the thing. Why not? Well, when you do go public, keep me updated so I can pick up some shares.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:18:34]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep me posted on that.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:38]:
Keep me posted.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:18:39]:
I will.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:41]:
So as you guys have evolved and as you guys have changed, you did your first, like, pretty much year with an amazing pipeline. Just 100% on email, not cold call. Has the business development tactics changed with time and what you guys are doing?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:18:55]:
Absolutely. So recall that when we started, the market was blowing up. Everyone was hiring. Everyone wanted us to help them. We hardly had to do anything. We just could sit there and, like, the jobs would just fall. Fall in. So.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:19:10]:
But what happens when the market cooled down? Which was really, like last year, when the market really just like, okay, we're back to, like, pre pandemic, you know, status. We had to really hone in on our sales strategies, and we developed what I call our top 20. And I felt that we were going so fast for so long, just focus on the transaction, that we lost sight of what we're really about, which is relationship building. And that bothered me. I'm like, we cannot be those people. I don't want to be those people. I want to know my clients. I want to know our candidates.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:19:43]:
I want to know what their children are doing. I want to know what they're doing for summer vacation. I want to know them. So we developed a 20 strategy that helped us really hone in on our clients and mushroom. Because some of our clients are global firms. Right. They're humongous. You have a thousand decision makers within one organization, and we only knew one at a time.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:20:02]:
So we just revamp our wholesale strategy and just kind of started taking a more white glove service. Right. I have loved that process. For us, it's been fantastic. So we're just to build. Continue building what we had originally built, but just in a deeper, more meaningful way.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:18]:
Did everybody take that change towards that, like, the consultative measure, like, okay. Or was it, like, a total shift of mindset that required a lot of work?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:20:27]:
Listen, when you're so small as we are, change is a daily thing. Okay? I love my team because they don't complain. You know, rarely will they, you know, say, question me. You know, they trust me. So they're like, okay, another change. All right, let's keep going. But honestly, changes our middle name. Like, we've had things happen, and it's made us have.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:20:48]:
You know, like, last year, we lost our emails. We lost access to emails because we have one very ambitious person on our team who sent out, like, 15,000 emails one shot. And Microsoft said, no, we're putting you in timeout for two weeks. So, anyway, so we had to pivot, and we found the silver lining. So, yeah, we definitely always have to change. And they're always very receptive to what's happening. You know, they'll question me, but typically, you know, they'll roll with it because ultimately they know that it's for the best of us.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:17]:
So you guys ended up in Microsoft jail.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:21:20]:
Yes. Oh, my God. Nightmare. That was a nightmare. That was a true nightmare. But I have a business coach, and he taught me about positive intelligence. And he's like, ida, you have to find the positivity in this. And I'm like, I don't see it.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:21:35]:
Don't see it. I don't see it. And he literally stared into my soul. He's like, you're going to find, you know, the silver lining. I was like, this guy's nuts. Because how do you find the silver lining when losing access to your emails? You've lost touch with your entire client base. But we had to pivot, and guess what we had to do. We had to pick the phone and hear people's voices.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:21:56]:
We established a business on emails, so we really didn't leave email comfort until we were forced to leave email comfort and pick up the phone. So it ended up being a very beautiful thing, actually.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:09]:
So guys literally built, like, everything on email until you guys really got blocked out of email. Like. Like, I don't know what I would do without email for two weeks. Like, I know you did that Docusign thing. Like, I never got the notification. Like, what?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:22:21]:
Oh, my gosh. Don't even remind me. I get nervous just thinking about that. So luckily, that was a life lesson that hopefully will never happen again. Now we have protections against people like my friend here who's ambitious and sends many emails at one time. But yeah, that was an experience.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:36]:
That is awesome. The Elite Recruit podcast has multiple summits coming up that you need to make sure that you are registered for webinar. 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 in the summits and see you guys soon.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:09]:
Well, before we jump over to the quick fire questions and you don't need to be quick answers, is there anything else that you want to share about, like, you know, what you guys have done? How would you build a firm? Like, you know, building up another office or really like investing in and building women?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:23:24]:
Yeah. Running a business is so multifaceted. There are a thousand things that personally I'm always looking at. You're not only building a business from, you know, revenue, right? You want to make sure that you have positive revenue year over year, but you're building your team. You're also building yourself. Because I'm not an expert CEO. I just. I'm a baby.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:23:44]:
I just started doing this the other day, so there's so much learning that I have to do. Right? And then on top of that, I'm very mindful about my community, right? My legal community, the people that, you know that buy our services, the people who are affected by what we do. So I'm really big about giving back, about mentoring, and I encourage all of my team to do the same. So the business is so multifaceted. We're always doing things. What are we going to do next? So we started off selling permanent attorneys. They were like, okay, well, we're doing good on the attorneys. Let's start doing non attorneys.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:24:15]:
And then we went to temps. So we started, you know, selling temporary everybody document review attorney. So all things temp. And then I hired someone to help me flesh out the executive business, right? CEOs, CFOs, but they're only for law firms. So the C suites for law firms, because all we do is legal. Then we got good at firm mergers and acquisitions. We're like, okay, this is interesting. All right, so built out that business and this year we partnered up with a company to Help us provide near shoring services to our clients.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:24:46]:
And then finally, earlier this year, we also opened a school, Ascension Legal Studies Institute. So now we offer education as a service to our clients. So we bring critical skill courses to our law firm clients or in house clients that need to like, you know, elevate their people's skills for them to be better. And yeah, so we're constantly looking at what our clients need and you know, keeping an ear to the ground so that we. I can't say stagnant. That's never going to happen. And my biggest fear is that all of my eggs are in one basket. And then what? So what kind of happened during the pandemic with my former company? I felt that I was scary.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:25:24]:
Right. Because you're only selling one thing. So we know here at Ascension we have the flexibility to, to do more and really, truly be full service to our clients.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:33]:
Has having like that new school and this add on, has that really helped like with the deliverability for your clients?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:25:40]:
I think so. I think that it has been so incredibly well received that clients are, they're just, they've just been incredibly receptive to the fact that we can bring them classes that are cle approved that their teams can take and you know, they can learn how to apply AI in the law firm or e discovery classes. We're rolling out a class on legal marketing or a class on legal Spanish or a class on privacy. So we're looking at what's happening in the legal world and bringing, you know, short, you know, four week courses where they can really dive into the subject matter and be a little bit more prepared. Right. For their assignments at the firms or the corporate legal departments. So it's solely critical skills, but the law firms love it and it's an additional service for them. Right.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:26:27]:
So I'm super pleased and I'm, you know, the clients are happy.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:31]:
I love that because it's one of those things like the market's shifting, the market's changing and you have to find ways to still serve your clients.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:26:38]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. In more ways than one. I think that's always a challenge. Right. How do we keep our clients? Because I have competition, how do I stand out? What can I do to be different? I'm always thinking about that. What else are we going to do? How are we going to elevate our game? How are we going to set ourselves apart? And there's many ways of doing that. Right.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:26:57]:
By not only the people that you're selling, like your candidates, but the services that you Provide how you provide them your message to the world, Social media, the marketing. I mean, it's. It's a lot. It's a lot of things. Okay, we here all day.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:12]:
This is like a fun conversation, too. Problem is, like, I could be here all day, too. Easy, easy brunch conversation.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:27:18]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:20]:
Well, jumping over to the quick fire questions, like I said, they don't need to be quick answers. But you're probably dealing with this as you train new recruiters. But what advice, if a new recruiter, whether on your team or not on your team, came to you was like, you know what? I want to have success in this career. What's the number one piece of advice that you would give me to have that?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:27:37]:
Listen, this. This industry is. Is not easy. It's feast or famine, right? But consistency is the name of the game. You have to keep consistent. And if you're going to focus on recruiting, you have to consistently recruit. If you're going to focus on sales, that is what you're going to focus on. And if you're not willing to go through the, you know, it's like this, right? You're on high, you're on a low, you're on high.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:28:02]:
It's like a roller coaster. You can have bad days, bad weeks, bad months, right? And then it's going to be a fantastic quarter, and then the next quarter will be okay, but then the other one will be even better or it's going to be really sucky. So you have to be willing to roll with those punches. But it's an incredibly rewarding career. You have to love it. It's not for everyone, but because it's so rewarding, we do it and we do it with so much passion that I think it oozes out of us. You know, we certainly enjoy it, but I think if anyone's looking to open up their own firm, they really need to know that it's a school of hard knocks. You know, there's a lot of learning.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:28:34]:
The learning curve is steep, but it can be done. Absolutely can be done. You just have to have, you know, the tenacity and just know that you have to stay on your game, a game all day.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:44]:
I will say, I think out of the conversations that we've had, like, if I could think of one word that would describe you as passion.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:28:50]:
Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I think that drives us. You have to meet my team. You have to meet the brunch club. Okay. You'll love them.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:00]:
Well, in the same question. But for somebody that's been around the block, someone that's been in the recruiting chair for years, they're hitting you up, like, what can I do? What should I be doing to have like, some sort of, like, you know, you're successful. Like, I want to be successful like you. What do I need to be doing?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:29:14]:
For me, I really attribute my success to networking. I have a son who is super bright, and he tells me, your network equals your net worth. And when I say, I'm like, no, that's kind of corny, but that is so true, right? So I think that your network is going to be your backbone, right? You need your network in order to get you to where you need to be. People need to know you. And at the end of the day, people want to do business with people they love, right? Or like, not even love, but like. And that's important. But you have to build yourself. You're not going to be an overnight sensation no matter what you're selling.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:29:47]:
You could be selling people, you could be selling vacuum cleaners, right? It takes time. It takes time. And you have to be dedicated to, you know, building it.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:55]:
I love that. Well, you've built two offices. You've been building your own team, your own company. What is like a leadership principle that has helped you get all that done?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:30:05]:
Being devoted to my team, I. I know I said it earlier, but I'm so invested in them and investing in their success. That is it. Because without them, you really have nothing. I could network all day and, you know, have a hundred clients, but at the end of the day, your team is your business, right? Without your team, you're nothing. So really, for me, I invest heavily in, but I invest in them in so many ways. Not just because I'm sending them to a conference or for a business coach. It's like an emot thing, you know, It's a relationship, right, that you have to build.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:30:36]:
It's like a marriage you have to devote time and love to, and you got to nurture it. So that, for me, is why we're here today.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:43]:
It's because of our team and talking about investing and like, stuff like that. Do you have a favorite tech tool that you love?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:30:50]:
You know, I've been forced to get into tech just because of the nature of my position and because it's the world that we live in. But honestly, AI right now is my bff.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:01]:
When you say AI, are you talking like chatgpt? Are you talking everything?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:31:06]:
Everything AI? I mean, I'm implementing it everywhere, Automating emails. We're just Trying to do as much as we can so that we can work smarter, not harder. That's like our slogan here, work smarter, not harder. Because this is a very high volume business, right? You have to have a thousand phone calls, a thousand emails, you know, on the daily. And so how do you manage that and not lose your mind? Right? So we've had to invest heavily in technology to help us get there.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:30]:
Has there been a book that's had a huge impact in your career?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:31:34]:
I don't have a favorite anything. I take pieces of books of, you know, poems that I read. I don't have a favorite anything. I read everything. And I'm always taking in all kinds of information. I do podcasts and webinars and I'm constantly learning, but I don't have a favorite anything. So I hate to disappoint you. I don't have an answer for that one.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:31:54]:
I just take it all in.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:55]:
I think that's the perfect answer because, you know, you're talking about constantly absorbing information, so that way you can turn around and use that information. So you're constantly learning all the time.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:32:05]:
All the time, all the time.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:08]:
So kind of digging into you a little bit. What is one of the biggest failures and how did it shape your business?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:32:14]:
Oh, my God. The email thing. The email thing that hit us last year, that was. We know we had had like little bumps in the road, but nothing as serious as that. But that ended up being a game changer for us. You know, how we had to pivot and pick up the phone and start talking to clients. It really allowed us to get to know our clients better, hearing their voices, going to lunch with them. You know, we were hiding behind emails for four years until the emails died.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:32:37]:
And then we were forced to, you know, face everyone. I didn't see it then, but I see it now being one of the best disasters that could have happened to us. Yeah, definitely that. Definitely that.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:51]:
Well, your entire journey has been like, going from like one opportunity to another opportunity, and it's got to be like, super uncomfortable, right? How did you get through that uncomfortableness at each stage to really just elevate your career and like, how can others also do the same?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:33:09]:
Listen, my mantra is, everywhere you've been is perfectly preparing you for where you're going. So everywhere that I've been in my career, going back to the law firm life, you know, to my first job in recruiting, the second gig in recruiting, you know, chairing organizations and nonprofit work that I've done, I've taken pieces of all Those experiences to help me be who I am today. It's just innate in me to just go after something and be challenged. I cannot stay still. For the life of me, I wish that I could. I cannot be still. So I'm always. I'm always challenging myself.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:33:40]:
Okay, what are you doing today? What's the goal? Who are you going to, you know, who are you going to meet? What goal are you going to smash? Like, what are we doing next to, like, make an impact? It's just like a day daily grind to be different, to make an impact, to do something cool.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:57]:
In saying that, what does your typical day look like?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:34:00]:
Well, it starts off with a plan and then the world just goes, no, scrap all that.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:07]:
But you plan everything.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:34:08]:
I have plans, Yeah. I have a to do list that's like, never goes away. I'm always in the weeds with my team, you know, so we work, you know, elbow to elbow. I am very much client facing, so I do a lot of client related events or meetings or lunches or networking events. So I am on the road a lot. But if I'm not on the road, I'm definitely elbow to elbow with my team in the trenches, you know, playing matchmaking. Right? Professional matchmaking. That's what we do.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:33]:
I got a question because, like, you're highly driven, you're successful, but it also sounds like you got a great family too, and you have four kids. Like, how do you balance building a business while building the kids?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:34:47]:
Thank you for asking that. For anybody that's looking to enter the business world, I think it all starts at home. Your life at home has to be stable. Your life at home has to be where you can go to and be comfortable. So choosing the right partner, critical. And if not for my village, I would not have been able to do what I have done, right? My village being my husband, my mother who takes care of my children or has taken care of my kids when I haven't been able to, you know, when I can't be there. But also having, you know, bosses who gave me the flexibility, right, to go pick up my kid or to go to the recital so that I can be a mom at the same time that I was building my career. But I think everyone needs a village.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:35:22]:
Everyone needs support system, right, that they can rely on so that they can go off and build a career. I have four wonderful children that range in ages from 30 to 16. And now beautiful fur baby, who is also our company mascot.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:37]:
Aw, yeah. What's the fur baby's name?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:35:40]:
His name is Oakley. He's a chocolate lab. He's a baby. He's so adorable. Yeah, he's super cute.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:45]:
Please tell me he's on the website.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:35:47]:
He is.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:48]:
There we go.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:35:48]:
He is ascent in search.com, he's our team mascot. Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:52]:
I love that. Well, you know, you've gone through a lot. This is going to be a question two ways, but we're going to take it first, back to the very start of your recruiting career. Like, you were given the opportunity to open that office with everything that you know now. The wins, the losses, the hard work, the grind, the like. If you can go back and have a conversation with yourself, what piece of advice would you give yourself for that window of time?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:36:18]:
Everything's going to be okay. Because, you know, as a CEO, there's so many sleepless nights. Right. If the deal that you're planning on didn't close, or are you going to make payroll this week, where's my next hire going to come from? Oh, I have to fire somebody tomorrow. There are so many issues that rob us of our sleep that I think if everyone needs to know everything's going to be okay, everything works out, you will figure it out. But you have to be open to figuring it out and have, like, I have an advisory board, right? Not the company. Me personally. If I have an issue, I have people that I can go to, whether they're clients, former clients, friends, two of my oldest children, my husband.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:36:59]:
We're all entrepreneurs. So, you know, we feed off each other. And you need that. You need a support system. Somewhere where you can go and say, hey, listen, I think I need to, I don't know, open a bank account and take out a line of credit or something. Where do I even start with that? You need people to, you know, help guide you. You're not. You shouldn't be in it alone.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:37:18]:
You need a support system.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:20]:
Like, if you don't have one, how do you build a support system, you ask?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:37:24]:
I've gone to people that I admire, people that I'm like, okay, they look successful or they've built something, or they're leading a law firm. Imagine partner from a law firm, or they're leading a department. Whatever it is, whoever it is, anyone that you admire, trust me, they' going to want to help you. Because people are genuinely good and they want the best for you and they will help you. And you're not asking them to build America. You're just asking them for advice. Right? You need guidance on how to run a business or how to deal with A HR issue or, you know, what, whatever it is. But I'm a real.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:37:55]:
Listen, I need it. My village is nice and strong and it's like 50 people in, but I need that, you know, and. And everybody comes with something fantastic. And I think you need to leverage that.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:03]:
I love that. That was like a perfect answer. Go ask, go ask.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:38:08]:
Don't be afraid. Don't.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:11]:
Well, in this question, like, you talk with a lot of recruiters, you invest your time in, like, helping build, like, female executive search professionals. You probably get asked a lot of questions like, you know, how do I write this perfect email? How do I burn through 15,000 emails in, like, one second? How do I destroy my inbox? What works with sales? Like, all these questions that you might be getting. What's the question that you wish a recruiter would actually ask you, and what would be that answer?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:38:35]:
I think everybody needs to know that the ramp up, right, to success. You can see success in this business within two hours of being in the hot seat. But it might also take you six months, right, to make your first placement. I think that anybody coming into this business, I would love them to ask me exactly that. Like, what is the expectation? And I try to always, you know, I always try to inform people of what to expect, you know, being in this business. But not everybody understands, right, that this is a business of, you know, feast or famine. It can go really well, really fast, or it could take you some time. But once you hit it, you know, and you're consistent with your business and you're hitting those numbers, you're going to be okay.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:39:16]:
And it's incredibly rewarding business.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:19]:
Love that. Well, for anybody that wants to follow you, how do they go about doing that?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:39:24]:
Sure. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm super active on LinkedIn. Ida Rodriguez, I'm in Miami. I don't know if there's another. There is another Ida Rodriguez who's a comedian. That's not me. Although I probably can be a little funny.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:39:35]:
Just kidding. I'm in Miami. My company is Ascension Global, Saffy and Executive Search or my website, ascensionsearch.com and that's all of my contact information is also there.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:45]:
I love that there's a comedian with your name in Miami because I used to live in Tampa, Florida, and there was a doctor that was named Benjamin Mena also. So, like, I actually made him my primary care for a little while before I left the area. And I sat down with him and he's like, all right. He's like, I've been using all your race times. Cuz I'm a runner to tell my friends how fast I am. And he was like, your last race, like, you really ruined it for me. He was like, you got slow. I was like, thanks, buddy.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:12]:
Yeah, it's funny, before I let you go, is there anything else that you want to leave with the listeners?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:40:17]:
Go big, go big, think big. It's all possible. I mean, I'm always looking at ways of how to just be bigger, do bigger things, you know, make more of an impact. I want to leave a legacy, not only for my children, but for the world that I live in. So how am I going to do that? And the only way that you're going to do that is if you really, you know, you're devoted to your cause, to your mission and, you know, think big. Audacious goals.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:43]:
I absolutely love that. So I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming on and definitely sharing your story. This, this is.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:40:50]:
Thank you for having me.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:51]:
True reality of what thinking big, going big and working hard can turn into. And I just love that. Like, was it the Coral Gable crew? The. The brunch crew? One of these days I gotta, when I'm down there, I'm like, hey, when's that brunch happening?

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:41:08]:
Yeah, it's brunch time. Let's do it. Let's do it. Oh, it's gonna. It'll be fun. You will not regret it.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:12]:
Yeah, but it's just like, it just shows, you know, what is capable with a group of friends. They come together, work hard, and make a dream come true.

Aida C. Rodriguez [00:41:21]:
Exactly right. Beautiful thing.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:25]:
You know, what can you take in your life this year, 2025, if you decide to go big and chase your dreams. So thank you for listening and I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, hit subscribe and leave a rating.