How a Former NFL Player Built a $700K Recruiting Desk

Benjamin Mena [00:00:00]:
Are you still trying to grow your recruiting desk or business on your own? Join the Elite Recruiter Community and connect with recruiters who know your challenges. Members get unlimited access to replays from the AI Recruiting Summit, Finish the year strong and all our past events plus biweekly roundtables where we dive into sourcing business development and mindset. You'll also tap into our Billers Club for accountability and a split space to partner on roles. Join the number one growth environment for recruiters. For just $49 per month you'll be part of a tight knit group that pushes you to grow and you can cancel anytime. Visit the link in the show notes and click Join now to get started and start mastering your craft today. Coming up on this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast didn't kill us. One of the best what fundamental that you learned there that has stuck with you and you still use to this day.

Luke Marquardt [00:00:49]:
Man, so many after that work I ended up having to go to the ER for flying home with a plane. Like pretty much going in and out of it. Like calling my wife like something like this is not good. 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.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:19]:
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Benjamin Mena [00:02:28]:
Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive listener offer@reruitwithatlas.com I'm excited about this episode of the podcast because here's the thing, you can go chase your dreams, you can work so hard for your dreams. You could put everything on the line for your dreams. But sometimes one door closes and another one opens up. Our guests went through years and years of perseverance in the sports world. When I talk in sports world, not like me, little like college level, high school level runner, we're talking like NFL. But now he's in the recruiting industry and he just crushed last year, a $700,000 year. So we're going to walk through a bunch of things here. How he got up to that number, the 100 to 200, the 3 to 400, 500, then growing, what he's doing to have that desk.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:24]:
But most importantly, this is going to be a story of perseverance. This is going to be a story of chasing your dreams. And when one door opens, another one is waiting for me. But Luke, welcome to the podcast.

Luke Marquardt [00:03:38]:
Thank you, Ben. Honored to be here. Appreciate you been listening a while and yeah, it's incredible. I'm humbled.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:46]:
So quick 30 second self introduction.

Luke Marquardt [00:03:49]:
Yeah. So I've been married now for going on my 11th year anniversary to my beautiful wife. I got two girls, a three year old, a one and a half year old that keep us busy. So girl dad. And then I had a little stint in the NFL. NFL. Not for long. A couple years there chased that dream was passionate and that ended in 2016.

Luke Marquardt [00:04:12]:
And now I've been in the commercial construction recruiting space where I specialize in working with general contractors, developers, specialty subs, primarily throughout Southern California and Northern California.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:27]:
So one of the things that we were talking about the pregame is last year you had a 700,000 plus year, which is incredible. Good job on that. But here's the thing that stood out with me. You were excited about those numbers, but you're actually more excited about the 22 lives that you changed.

Luke Marquardt [00:04:45]:
Why going into this, when I first got into the space, especially coming from the sports world, you know, you have that competitive drive, you want to win at all costs. And that was part of the reason why I got into this recruiting space. And I'd say, you know, recruiting is, is all sales, right? We're selling on the client side. And I've been 360 my whole career, so. So in the clients, candidates, opportunities, focusing on the people aspect is something that doesn't come natural right away at first. Especially when you're first getting into this the first year, you're just like, man, I just want to keep my job. I'm just trying to hit, Trying to get a placement in the first couple months for canned. So it's easy to think of people as a number as I've grown into this.

Luke Marquardt [00:05:32]:
And you build success and you get a perspective and putting yourself in people's lives, like, you get an opportunity to be a part of people's biggest decisions of their lives. Right. Their careers, which affects just generations. When you hear the stories of, oh, yeah, I was commuting an hour and a half, two hours each way, and now I'm right around the corner, or I got a 30k raise, or hey, I hated my boss. I'm so glad I'm with this new company now. That's what really has continued to allow me to have such a passion for this industry is the people, the work that I'm doing makes a difference. We're not just selling cars. No, no.

Luke Marquardt [00:06:14]:
Hate to use car salesman. Right. But we're selling and we have an opportunity to change people's lives in this space. So that's really what drives me forward. And that's why the 22 lives.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:25]:
Yeah, I just, I love that perspective. And I know, like, when we were chatting, it was just last week you said that you just had somebody that was supposed to start on Monday and they just backed out.

Luke Marquardt [00:06:38]:
Yep. Yep. That week. We're used to that, though, right? Well, you gotta. You gotta get a thick skin. Thick skin. Yeah. That had been a recent search and I got many stories like that.

Luke Marquardt [00:06:48]:
And I know the goal as you, as you get better and better at this, you know, asking the right questions up front and vetting out the red flags, you can read a lot of this stuff, and sometimes it's hard. People are people, right. You know, they say one thing, they do another. That's what makes this space so fun. So, yeah, had a project manager that was supposed to start that ended up backing out. And. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:12]:
So let me ask you that, Let me ask you this, because you worked a lot, you worked hard for that, but how many times have you worked hard for something and watch it disappear at the last second?

Luke Marquardt [00:07:25]:
Lots. I think that's part of the business, and that's been part of my story, has been thinking things are going to go one way. And that's part of all of our stories. Right. We think it's, you know, this is going to happen. I'm going to go into this dream job. I know we hear on your podcast constantly, like, you never first thought of getting into recruiting. It was always a plan B, like, oh, I kind of fell into it or, you know, once in a while you hear the stories.

Luke Marquardt [00:07:51]:
Yeah, my dad or mom was a recruiter and then. But they, you know, we're never forcing anything. So. Yeah, it. It's kind of just developed from there.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:00]:
Well, let's rewind a little bit. Kyle, take me back to you being a football player. You didn't even play varsity football in high school. How did you even end up in going into football?

Luke Marquardt [00:08:13]:
So I had played all my life as a quarterback. I started when I was five, up until freshman year of we had just moved from Texas to Washington, and we came into the season late. I was backup quarterback and then I played linebacker a bit. And back then I was. I know it's hard to tell on. On video, but I'm 6 9. I'm 270 now. My playing weight was 320, but back then I was 61 as a freshman, which was still tall at the time.

Luke Marquardt [00:08:40]:
Right. And lengthy and grown into myself and late bloomer for sure. So back then, you know, I was backup quarterback. I decided after that season, hey, I think I want to just focus on basketball. So I decided to be done with football at that time.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:58]:
And then what happened with basketball? That got you back into football.

Luke Marquardt [00:09:03]:
So then the journey began. Yeah, I ended up having, you know, I played basketball, sophomore, sophomore year there, and I played freshman year. So freshman, sophomore. And I was playing football freshman year. And then I ended up having knee surgery on one of my knees is a rare case to where I was. I almost. I grew too fast and one of my knees had a hard time getting blood flow to it. So I ended up having to miss my junior year and really was still recovering into my senior year, where during that time I had grown from 6:1 to 6:9, you know, by senior year.

Luke Marquardt [00:09:37]:
And lengthy, skinny kid, used to have, you know, long blonde hair, surfer kind of look, even though I lived in Washington, long to be SoCal. So I was about, like, yeah, I think 6 9, 200 pounds. And the goal was to play college basketball. My senior year, I pretty much, yeah, rode the bench. I was still, like I said, recovering from my knee, you know, not playing a year put me back and was dealing with a lot of. Yeah, those were. Those were tough times. That was kind of like the first start of, you know, here's, you know, something that's not going your way.

Luke Marquardt [00:10:10]:
Right. Here's something to overcome.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:14]:
And I mean, I hate to say this, that young age in high school sports is life. And you watch that from the bench.

Luke Marquardt [00:10:20]:
Yeah. Especially being 6, 9, right? What a loser.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:27]:
You're like, the whole team's like, we need this guy. What the hell is this? Trouble.

Luke Marquardt [00:10:30]:
Yeah. Yeah, that went through my mind. Like, hey, I have, you know, the tangibles here. Like, you know, God, why isn't this going my way? I've had this dream, I've had this passion. I've worked hard to where I'm at. And

Benjamin Mena [00:10:43]:
fast forward to college now.

Luke Marquardt [00:10:47]:
So, yeah, the goal was to play basketball, but I had no right opportunities, really. I had nothing. I barely, like I said barely played my senior year. We had a family friend that was the doctor at Azusa Pacific when I went to college, and they were naia, and so we went out there. I got introduced to the basketball coach out there, and I had planned to go out for, like, a open gym workout, get to the open gym, and head coach didn't show up. Basketball coach wasn't there. Like, all right. Ended up meeting the football coach just by chance, was touring the campus with parents here.

Luke Marquardt [00:11:27]:
Mom's like, hey, why don't you just go, you know, meet the football coach? You know, just say hello. Went in there, just introduced myself and, yeah, and he was, like, I mentioned, yeah, I'm going to, you know, basketball open gym. And he was like, well, hey, I'll have to come check you out. Like, take a look. And so he actually ended up coming to the open gym during the open gym, playing basketball here for a bit. Ended up tearing my hip flexor during the open gym. So got about halfway through, could then barely walk, sat down, and I'm like, wow, okay, there goes this opportunity. Well, basketball in general, because the coach wasn't there.

Luke Marquardt [00:12:10]:
And then I wasn't even thinking of, like, playing football at that point yet or anything. Hadn't played since, like, I said, freshman year. So he comes up to me after, he's like, hey, you know, saw the open gym, like, look great. And I told him, hey, I think. I think something's wrong. I didn't know I had tore my hip flexor at the time, but I'm like, I can barely walk. He's like, no worries. Why don't you just come out after practice? You know, we'll just throw around.

Luke Marquardt [00:12:32]:
You don't have to do anything. So I did that. Threw around. Yeah. And then went home after that. And he ended up actually reaching out and offering, you know, a couple grand scholarship. Azusa's, you know, 30 grand a year right here. You know, a couple grand, like, partial scholarship here.

Luke Marquardt [00:12:50]:
But it was the hope I needed. Like, someone was Interested in me, right? He reached out, wanted me on their team. And I'd always loved football. I was always super physical in basketball and decided, hey, yeah, let's. Let's take a leap of faith and pursue football. So I accepted and moved forward there.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:07]:
Walk me through. Yeah, the first two years there.

Luke Marquardt [00:13:12]:
So I ended up red shirting my freshman year, and I finally stopped growing. So I put on everything, man. Put on £20 right before I started football, right? So I was 220 at that point. Still super skinny, lengthy, figure out how to run straight, you know, finally filling into myself a little bit. So that first year was just, like, getting accustomed to football. I had, like, major shin splints and, like, legs were just adjusting. And so I ended up red shirting. And then that next year I, you know, gained another 10, 15 pounds or so.

Luke Marquardt [00:13:46]:
And then I started as a tight end. I ended up winning the starting spot as a tight end there.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:53]:
And at this point in time, like, you're a tight end, you're NIA level football. Were you even thinking or dreaming about the NFL?

Luke Marquardt [00:14:01]:
No, I was just trying to start. I was just trying to, hey, let's see if I can even play football here. You know, it's every boy's dream when I was growing up. Hey, let's. You know, I'd love to play in the NFL one day, but no, at that point, it was, hey, I want a starting job. Like, this is incredible. I'd worked so hard at that point, sacrificing summers and gaining weight in the weight room and beat out a couple D1 transfers that they had brought in as well. And so we.

Luke Marquardt [00:14:29]:
We would play, like, Division 1 AA, like USD. We played Division 2, Division 3. It was kind of a bit all over the place. When you're Nai, you don't really have a division, per se. I know they are a division, but we kind of moved around.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:43]:
When did that dream of the NFL actually start?

Luke Marquardt [00:14:47]:
Well, we had a. We had a wide receiver that had gotten some looks from a few scouts. When I was a. Going into my. I think that was like, sophomore year. And this wasn't the exact moment, but I remember a scout was walking by, and I remember saying, hey, how you doing? And he just completely ignored me and walked by. Right. Didn't say anything.

Luke Marquardt [00:15:11]:
And I remember just. It just popped in my head of, I'm gonna make sure that guy remembers my name. I'm gonna make sure he knows who I am. So that was like a little chip on the shoulder spark. It wasn't at that point where, hey, I can actually do this. But I think it. When I started playing football there, it's like, man, I'd love to be able to do that. Like, that'd be great.

Luke Marquardt [00:15:33]:
Start off a tight end. Sophomore year, I ended up breaking my foot halfway through that season, about halfway. Went out for a route, shooting pain, tried taping my ankle. Nothing helped. Finished the game, but was limping, Going out on routes, had it checked out. Broken foot, missed about three, three to four weeks. Was in a boot and a cast. And then I came back for the last, like, two games of the season, but they needed my help on the offensive line, so I was like, yeah, I can help you out, because they had some injuries.

Luke Marquardt [00:16:05]:
And I was like, I'll help you out now, but after this season, I want to go back to, you know, scoring touchdowns and, you know, being a tight end here and then did well enough after that season. Coaches came to me, said, hey, like, you have the ability to potentially play at the next level. Like, you had a great, you know, few games here we see you being able to maybe do this. So that was kind of like a little spark there of, like, hey, you got the size, athleticism, ability. But then it wasn't until, like, Jackie Slater, hall of Fame coach, came in and he played for the Rams for 20 years. He became my offensive line coach. It wasn't until he started on that next season, going into my junior year, to where it's like, all right, you know, I can do this. He poured into me and said, luke, like, you do have the ability.

Luke Marquardt [00:16:53]:
No matter what level, they'll find you.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:56]:
So that is where the dream almost,

Luke Marquardt [00:16:57]:
like, really started to go.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:58]:
Like, you've been putting in the work, and then the dream got activated.

Luke Marquardt [00:17:02]:
Yep.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:03]:
I want to take a pause before we go back to your. Your football story in your recruiting desk. Like, you've had success. Like, you put. You've put in work. At what point did that dream activate? Like, hey, I can go become a big villain.

Luke Marquardt [00:17:17]:
So starting off, I mean, just working on anything I could get my hands on, too. Right. I didn't have a specific niche. I wasn't niched into construction. It was working on developers. It, you know, and I realized real quick, I'm like, man, I don't want to be in this space. This is tough. This is tough.

Luke Marquardt [00:17:35]:
And it wasn't a passion. So I think that's. You hear that a lot of, like, hey, pursue your passion. Like, you want to recruit and enjoy what you're doing every day. So I started working on, like, superintendent, construction type positions. Earlier on, I'm like, hey, this is something I can see myself kind of niching into, but just embracing the grind day in and day out, going through the monotonous same sales calls, rejection. Just getting on the phone was my mentality. And I was, hey, jump in.

Luke Marquardt [00:18:06]:
Figure it out later. Has always been, like, kind of my mentality of, like. And early on when I was training, it was coming into recruiting, not knowing what I was doing. I was always naturally like, hey, let me just get on the phone. I remember my manager, the first couple weeks, they did great with training and everything. He went to the Danny Cahill rookie retreat. But so we were coming back like, hey, you don't need to make calls for the first couple weeks. And, you know, so antsy that first week.

Luke Marquardt [00:18:29]:
I was already, like, I was just jumping on the call, just, like, wanting to talk to people. So.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:35]:
So I want to take that back to football. So, yeah, the dreams start activated. Like, you started working toward this. What happened between that conversation? Like, hey, you know what? I see the potential, the possibility to you actually getting to the NFL. Let's talk about that.

Luke Marquardt [00:18:53]:
Yeah. So then going into my junior year, and that's where I became. That was my first full year as starting left tackle, offensive tackle there. I had a great year, and that ended up being the film that, you know, every scout saw and was my film. But this was really my first full year playing offensive tackles my junior year, other than the past couple games, I'd never played offensive line in my entire life. I played quarterback, but so everything was new after that year. I remember a scout came by and we did a couple workouts on the field. He reviewed all the film from junior year, and I remember him coming to me and saying, hey, Luke, I just want you to know you're gonna start getting a lot of attention from the film I'm seeing, from your ability.

Luke Marquardt [00:19:39]:
Just want you to know. So it was at that point I remember, hey, just thinking like, God, like, this is incredible. Like, this is the dream passion, you know, I got, you know, started crying a bit. Like, you pursue something for so long and experience so much failure, it's like, this is actually a dream that could become a reality. And when you have a NFL scout pouring into you like that, in addition to, you know, Jackie Slater, too, and coaches, it's. But that was a big moment for that one. So then my whole. Going into senior year, I had every team come and visit me.

Luke Marquardt [00:20:14]:
So I'd be, you know, in class, and I get a call hey, you know the Chargers here, they want to meet with you. The Steelers, the 49ers, you know, they all came through. I met with them, went over film. And so then he was. Yeah, really, really important. I mean, for a senior year, especially coming from a small school, big chip on my shoulder, because you have the. Hey, you're going against lower level competition. Right? And.

Luke Marquardt [00:20:40]:
And so I knew that senior year was going to be a big year. And going into the senior year, I was put on the Senior bowl list, which is a. A game that, like, the top prospects in all the country at all levels get put on. So I was thankful I got to be on that list. This was right before senior year. And then right before this, I had gone through camp, and a couple weeks before the season started, I ended up breaking my foot again.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:06]:
All those conversations, all those dreams, all that. That excitement and you broke your foot again?

Luke Marquardt [00:21:12]:
Yeah. Yeah. I'm, like, almost tearing up because I just. It's like taking me back to just sitting there under a tree. I'm just like, can't believe I'm tearing up about this. It's been a while. It's like, this is. This has been everything for me.

Luke Marquardt [00:21:32]:
Like, hey, like, it's gone. Like, my. My passion. And. And so many people listening to this know, like, when you pour your heart into soul, into something, whether that's sports or everything else, when that's taken from you. And at that moment, it was like, you're going to miss your whole senior season, essentially. Well, they had said, hey, let's see what happens. And then I ended up needing surgery halfway through, and I missed my whole senior season.

Luke Marquardt [00:21:59]:
So I was riding the bench again here, right on the sidelines. Scouts were coming to games, like, luke, what's going on? Like, where you at? Like, why aren't you playing? And explaining. And so at that point, I thought my dream. Yeah, I thought the dream was over. Like, there. The opportunity was gone. And, you know, who's going to want a guy that missed his whole senior year, Right? He wants someone that's injured. Coming from a small school already, he's only played a year as a offensive lineman in general.

Luke Marquardt [00:22:29]:
Yeah. And it was.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:31]:
And then. Okay, so you literally, like, we're talking for those listening, we're talking, like, like, senior year of high school. All the way through college, you really only played, like, this is like, five, six years of time. You've really only got to really play, like, one year, right? Yeah. Yeah. But you were still there at practice. Every single day. You were still there in the weight room, you were still there in the coaches meetings?

Luke Marquardt [00:22:53]:
Yep. Yeah, so it was, man. Yeah. And just hard time, like just being on the sidelines with an injury. Those who have been injured, it's. It's so frustrating. So by some miracle, and I was still meeting with scouts and everything, I ended up getting invited to the NFL combine, which only top 315 players again in the nation get invited to. And I don't know how I ended up on that list.

Luke Marquardt [00:23:17]:
It was a God thing for sure. But there's enough interest in me still, like, hey, Luke can get, you know, if he can get healthy. Like, we see his ability, drive. And I had a, you know, an agent at the time as well that I had signed with, and they're like, yeah, once we get you healthy, man, like, this is going to be, you know, it's still possible. So I went to the NFL combine. I didn't run or anything. I ended up doing the 225 bench press. So coming into college, I did three reps at 225, and at the combine, I ended up doing 31.

Luke Marquardt [00:23:47]:
So finally stopped growing. I gained a hut. I gained 100 pounds in college.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:51]:
Like, 31 reps of that much?

Luke Marquardt [00:23:53]:
Yeah, 31 reps. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:56]:
I'm a runner. I don't know if I could do one.

Luke Marquardt [00:23:58]:
Can't do it anymore, man. I can't do it anymore. It's all about maintaining now.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:02]:
But you. But you.

Luke Marquardt [00:24:03]:
And getting 100 pounds of weight in college, though, from, like, I graduated it. I started off at like 220, and then when I graduated, I was 320. So building up muscle, finally start growing strength, but went to the combine and then ended up was projected to go even with all that, like, third or fourth round or to my agent and like, hey, you're gonna get going. And then I ended up going undrafted to the 49ers, and at that point, I was still not healthy. I was still going to need. Because I just freshly broken my foot again, and I was going to need a full year of recovery. So any team that was going to get me, I wasn't able to play. I wasn't able to play that first season.

Luke Marquardt [00:24:49]:
So coming from a small school, I didn't play my whole senior year. And then now, Luke, if we bring you on the team, you're going to still need a whole nother year to even get healthy. So it was a miracle. Fourth, fifth miracle at that point, right, of like, hey, the 49ers decided to take that chance and opportunity and Let me heal up for that year. And so I signed on with them in 2013, 2013 season. The year prior they went to the Super Bowl. So I was there the year after that.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:21]:
And were you like, were you able to play at all? Were you able to practice or was you just sitting on the sideline? It's like watching.

Luke Marquardt [00:25:27]:
I was in a boot, I was recovering. So they, they took me to every, every game I got to go to, you know, got to go overseas to London, played to London. So I was always on the sides of kidney involved. And that was when Harbaugh was the coach. And he would pour in him. He's like, Luke, yeah, I remember him coming up to me like, we can't wait to get you healthy. We're excited about you. And to have a coach like that, right? Of like, why should he even know my name, right? I'm not producing anything, come from no name school.

Luke Marquardt [00:25:51]:
But he was the head coach back in the day at USD who we used to play at college, that we played in college when I was there. But it was a little connection we had together there. But yeah, that first year and then going into the 2014 season, had overcome the injury, was getting reps at that point with the ones going to minicamp. I remember looking around the huddle, you know, seeing Frank Gore, Kaepernick, Vernon Davis, just like, wow, again, like an aha moment of like, this is happening. This is my dream. Like I'm doing it. Two weeks later, guess what? Break my foot again.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:37]:
You broke your foot again? Okay, so yeah. Did they keep you, did they let you go? Like at this point?

Luke Marquardt [00:26:42]:
Like at that point I just got a little pain in my foot from that practice and ended up being a stress fracture. And I kind of knew right away if it wasn't going, I was like, man, I think I broke my foot again. And then ended up sure enough, scanning it, broken. At that point it was going to be a full, you know, their six months to year recovery and they had just invested all that time and me and him, they're like, I remember meeting with the GM Trent Olke here and he's like, dude, Luke, I'm sorry. Like, we just can't invest that time again into you. Like we're going to have to, you know, let you go. So I, I did a little bit of a, got a little bit of an injury settlement, a little bit of, A little bit of money there to get a down payment on a home and stuff. But ultimate was released and then, yeah, was thrown back to reality.

Luke Marquardt [00:27:28]:
Of you got to figure something out, and then you.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:34]:
The dream didn't die yet, right?

Luke Marquardt [00:27:35]:
No. Did not end up.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:37]:
Yeah.

Luke Marquardt [00:27:38]:
Was it dead yet? Keep going. Never, never give up.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:45]:
But, like, another team, like, actually picked you up.

Luke Marquardt [00:27:48]:
I needed that full year, right, to recover, so I went home. I was doing physical therapy, ended up doing substitute teaching time to kind of keep my mind right. I was helping out with Azusa Pacific, coaching a little bit part time, keep my head in the space while, you know, the ultimate goal was to get healthy again. I still had my agent and was like, hey, let's get you healthy and get you back. Six months, eight months in, I fully, like, fully recovered, and then I ended up needing surgery because I ended up getting a small fracture again while recovering. So then I have to start the. In my foot. So then they went in the same foot.

Luke Marquardt [00:28:28]:
It's been the same foot. So all in all, like, four different surgeries on my foot. I had screws in there. They took them out. They took bone from my hip to fill in the screw holes. And then the. Ultimately. So I ended up having to have another surgery, and I had to start that process all over again.

Luke Marquardt [00:28:47]:
So at this point, it had been about two years since being released from the 49ers. You're gonna have two years to where then I was now fully healthy again. And then that's when I started doing workouts with the Raiders, the Jets, the Colts. So I did some workouts. A couple teams didn't sign me, and then it. I ended up getting signed by the jets at that point, like, two years out. So this. At this point, right? Like, I've only had a year back in junior year, which was about.

Luke Marquardt [00:29:22]:
What was it, Three. Three years or so?

Benjamin Mena [00:29:24]:
Three or four.

Luke Marquardt [00:29:24]:
Four years ago at this point was the last time I played in a game competitively. And then now I'm throwing in, Hey, 100% full speed. This is the NFL. Figure it out.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:38]:
And how long were you with the jets before the next transfer?

Luke Marquardt [00:29:41]:
For Jets? I was there for about four months. Um, and then I ended up getting released, and I was still. At that point, I had. My foot was fused. They ended up fusing my foot as a final last hurrah of like, hey, let's fuse it with your talus to prevent it from breaking. And that did the trick. The problem was every step was I was in pain. It took.

Luke Marquardt [00:30:04]:
You know, I didn't have the same mobility, and I was adjusting right to the speed of the game. And. And so, yeah, NFL, they don't. They don't give you time. You got to figure it out quick. So it was, you know, I was trying to figure out the momentum, so I was released from there. And then I ended up doing a workout with the Lions, and I was signed by them going into preseason.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:25]:
And you had to finally play games then.

Luke Marquardt [00:30:30]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:31]:
So.

Luke Marquardt [00:30:31]:
So then.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:32]:
Yeah, yeah, we're talking high school all the way to three years, four years within, like, the NFL world. You've played one year playing games.

Luke Marquardt [00:30:46]:
Yeah. Yep. So then I started and played in all the. The preseason games. Dream come true. Walking out. Our first game was against the Steelers. This was preseason.

Luke Marquardt [00:30:56]:
But walking out in the stadium, like, aha. Moment. Like, again, hey, this is it. Like, incredible. Like God's answering prayer. Like, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And yeah, so started in all four of those games, and then it was a cutthroat competition. It was me trying to learn a whole playbook in a matter of, like, three weeks at that point before the first game, competing against guys that had been there for years.

Luke Marquardt [00:31:22]:
Right. And they had drafted other guys, and so guys that had a whole off season, everything else against me. So it was big adjustment, to say the least. And then I was in shooting pain every single day. I remember coming home from practice, talking to my wife, like, I don't know how much longer I can even, like, do this with the pain that I'm in. Like, people that know pain, right? Everything's miserable when you're in pain. You know, you're. You're just praying for a way out of pain.

Luke Marquardt [00:31:48]:
But this was like, my career, like, livelihood, like, kept pursuing and kept it going and then was. Yeah. Released on the last round of cuts right before the season from the Lions. And then I ended up getting diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Late onset.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:05]:
So wait, so you got really. Hold on a second. We're gonna unpack a bunch of stuff. But you got released. How long after you got released until you found out you had type 1 diabetes?

Luke Marquardt [00:32:15]:
So I was experiencing what I didn't know at the time. A lot of the side effects that come with type one, blurry vision, losing a lot of weight, urinating non stop. I know tmi, but I just thought a lot of that was, hey, I'm just exhausted from camp, right. Like, just going through it. So it wasn't until I was released I ended up. The side effects, like, increased tenfold because I was no longer, like, burning glucose and my blood levels were skyrocketing when I was playing. It would kind of stay. I was still my Blood level was still high, but when I was released, it went way higher than four or five hundreds.

Luke Marquardt [00:32:54]:
And then at that point, I remember googling the side effects because I was going through it, I was like, I feel terrible miserable. And I googled that night, and I. I looked over my wife. I'm like, hey, I think I have type 1 diabetes. She's like, what? You're healthy. What are you talking about? And we knew nothing about diabetes at this point. We just think type two, you know, which is usually due to diet or genetics, right? You don't know Type one is genetic. So I ended up getting tested.

Luke Marquardt [00:33:19]:
Sure enough, I had type 1 diabetes. I ended up having a Seahawks workout, and at that point, I had lost, like 20 pounds. I was feeling miserable, and the doctor was like, hey, you shouldn't be doing anything right now. Like, you got to get healthy. And I'm like, well, this is my livelihood. So I ended up doing the sea. They flew me out to the Seahawks, ended up doing a workout, and they just punished us. They were just taking us through all these conditioning tests, like, killing me.

Luke Marquardt [00:33:46]:
And after that, work, and I ended up having to go to the er, flying home with a plane, like, pretty much going in and out of it, like, calling my wife, like, something like, this is not good. And so as soon as I got home into the er, and they're like, yeah, you could have gone into a diabetic coma. Your blood level's like 450, and we need to get you, you know, insulin as soon as possible. So they ended up getting me an insulin pump, and now I'm. I have an insulin insulin pump attached to me. I'm gonna, you know, depend on insulin the rest of my life now, right? That's in me. And then I have a sensor in my leg. And so that was the final straw.

Luke Marquardt [00:34:22]:
I was like, all right, Lord, this is the final nail in the coffin. Through all the injuries, it was like, there's no way I can try to. And even at that point, I was still like, should I still try to pursue this? There's guys that have played with type 1 diabetes, but it was so fresh figuring out. I can't imagine trying to play at that time with, you know, the. Trying to figure out all the diabetes stuff and pump and everything else. So I ended up calling it quits.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:48]:
I'm a. I'm. We're going to unpack a little things before we jump back over to recruiting. I'm counting eight, whatever. For many people, be life altering injuries, whatever things happening to you and Four times breaking your foot.

Luke Marquardt [00:35:04]:
And I also tore my meniscus while in college. I forgot to mention that. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:08]:
All right, so.

Luke Marquardt [00:35:09]:
So there's none. Okay.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:11]:
So you're literally, you, you have this dream.

Luke Marquardt [00:35:14]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:15]:
And you break your foot over and over and something happens to you over and over again. What does that do? What did, what did that do to you or somebody mentally?

Luke Marquardt [00:35:25]:
You know, if we, if we don't go through hard times, right. How do we, how do we get better? If everything was good all the time, we'd never grow, right. We'd never improve, we'd never change. So looking back now, it's easy to say when you're going through it. Yes. The worst thing in the world, like my dream and passion that I've had for years, like, oh, I'm gonna. And then financially, like, I'm gonna go make millions of dollars. Right.

Luke Marquardt [00:35:50]:
Let's do it. I'm gonna be set for life and you're in. And then that all just crashes to nothing. Yeah. It challenges you. And, and I grew tremendously. I remember, I know a lot of times people will, you know, from, turn away from God and that, you know, when I went through a lot of this, I was reading through Job and the trials and tribulations and you know, Jesus's apostles, like, how much did they suffer? And they were Jesus's right hand man, right. They were suffering and dying.

Luke Marquardt [00:36:22]:
And I'm not in any way comparing myself to them or what they've been through, but taking that mentality of like, you know, this is gonna allow me to, to grow. And it's easy to look back on that now, but going through it, you know, I was thinking, this is terrible, I don't know what I'm gonna do. But now it's like, hey, how can I use this to, to grow, pursue something that I'm passionate about and what's next? And I've always, I'd always kept a, a forward thinking mindset. And I think in sports that really helps you. Right. Like, you can't keep thinking about the last play. You gotta always think, hey, what's going on? I can't think about my mistake on the last play. Like, we gotta keep moving forward.

Luke Marquardt [00:37:05]:
And, and so that carried over well into life of like, I'm just gonna keep pursuing what's ahead. I'm not gonna dwell on the past. And don't get me wrong, when I was released, like, I couldn't even watch football for a couple years. Right. It's, it was hard. That was my identity. That's what I was, you know, getting into.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:22]:
But I'm going to be honest with you. I really believe that 2026 is your year. I truly believe in you. I truly believe with everything in my heart that this is the year that you can own it. This is the year that you could hit your dreams. And to help you do that, we are kicking off a summit called this is your year. You are elite. You were born to be elite.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:48]:
You were born to be the best. You were born to be the greatest. And I'm pulling together some of the industry's best speakers to help you get there. Going to be kicking off April 27th. You do not want to miss this. Make sure to run to the show notes, get registered. All the live sessions are free. I'm bringing in Mike Williams, Brianna Rooney, Mark Whitby.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:08]:
We have an entire week of stacked speakers that are going to help you achieve your dreams. This is going to be the industry event that you do not want to miss. I believe in you. I believe in you so much that I'm pulling the best to help you achieve your dreams. 2026 is your year. So you kind of mentioned something kind of like joking around in the pregame session. You said something which I thought was kind of powerful. I touched the sun and then I was back.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:44]:
And you said, you're just back to earth. What did that do to your ego?

Luke Marquardt [00:38:50]:
And when you're on a team, too, in the NFL at that level, people treat you at a whole different respect, right? They see the team, the brand. Like, wow, you're part of the 49ers. Like, you're on the team automatically. You're almost worshiped. It's pretty sad just in regards to how. How much value is put on people just for, you know, what you're a part of, not for who you are or anything. Right. It's probably seeing the team and value.

Luke Marquardt [00:39:20]:
So having that kind of ego, you get into that, and you can get caught up in that, too. The ego, the, hey, I'm part of this team. Like, people are. Are respect me, worship me. And then, you know, then when that's over, right, it's like, no, I'm just a regular dude. I've. Yeah, I. I had my.

Luke Marquardt [00:39:40]:
My claim to fame for a brief moment. Like I said, NFL, not for long. And. And then I was humbled real quick into coming back down to reality. Like, the stream's over now.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:52]:
What.

Luke Marquardt [00:39:52]:
What do we do now?

Benjamin Mena [00:39:54]:
So let's move forward a little bit. Somebody, like, introduced you to recruiting. How did, like, talk about that, yeah, I ended up.

Luke Marquardt [00:40:03]:
So the CEO of my previous company, he ended up going to my church. And I originally reached out to him to help me with my resume. And this was as soon as I was released. I was like, you know, I love speaking with people. I'm relational, competitive, like sales. Naturally light is what I was thinking. So I was interviewing for, like, medical sales positions. So I'd reached out to.

Luke Marquardt [00:40:22]:
Yeah, his name was Scott, Scott Keith. And great mentor, CEO, previous company. Love the man. And he ended up saying, actually, you know, we're. We're looking for a few recruiters. Have you thought about recruiting? Like, no. What the heck is that? I don't know what that is. So after interviewing for a couple medical sales roles, I was down in la.

Luke Marquardt [00:40:41]:
I was like, you know, we don't want to live down there. And I was like, yeah, let's, let's interview and figure it out. And so I ended up signing an offer with them and starting. Yeah, it's been about nine years now. A little over nine years.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:53]:
And you started. Was it almost like hourly, right, If I remember right from our conversation, yeah.

Luke Marquardt [00:40:58]:
So I tried to negotiate, you know, some hard negotiators back then. My, My previous manager there, and I was always negotiating with them. But yeah, started off hourly and then was on like a tiered, you know, commission structure and got paid overtime. That was nice. Put in the extra hours, you know, I got a little time and a half pay, but, yeah, started from the bottom.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:21]:
I don't know how to properly ask this question. So, Luke, you can, you can hit me later for it. Actually, I don't want you to hit me. You might take me out.

Luke Marquardt [00:41:27]:
Be direct, man. Direct the better. Put it out, sir.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:30]:
You started hourly, bottom of the barrel. How did that feel after the NFL?

Luke Marquardt [00:41:38]:
Yeah, humbling, man. Tough. Yeah, it's like, wow, I'm a failure. Gotten to that point, I mean, it was a little bit easier because I had the injury excuse. And I know you talk to every uncle that played sports or someone and you hear, you know, oh, yeah, you know, I could have, I could have made it to the NFL, NBA. But, you know, I tore my knee. You know, I had some injuries, but mine, mine was genuine, right. I had some real interest.

Luke Marquardt [00:42:04]:
Mine's real. Mine's real. But yeah, like I said, I couldn't. You know, it's hard to watch football for a while after that. And, you know, I saw some of my teammates that went on to have, you know, long careers and get those million dollar extensions and.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:21]:
And so you had to completely change industries. And there's a lot of recruiters that are sitting here listening to this podcast. They weren't in the NFL, they weren't at pro sports, but they've had to completely change, like shift industries. So recruiting is something brand new. How did you shift your identity during this process? In these early days,

Luke Marquardt [00:42:49]:
a lot of what I've learned, I think people coming from sports make great salespeople and recruiters in general. Not saying all, but the values that are driven into you at an early age and as you're growing up, sacrifice, perseverance, team competitiveness. That short term memory carried over well for me. So I think switching industries, people listening here, transitioning over. It's having that forward thinking mentality of like, let me move. I was all into football and that was my passion. And then that was done. And I remember my passion had like switched.

Luke Marquardt [00:43:31]:
It was different. It's almost like God took away that passion too. Of like, hey, it was hard to watch and it was still painful. But recruiting and making this now my new NFL was the goal. And that had turned. My new focus was let me be the best that I can be every single day. Let me just be learned. Let me humble myself.

Luke Marquardt [00:43:53]:
Let me ask good questions and see if I can figure this out.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:00]:
And the early days, you got to go hang out with an absolute legend of the industry. They shipped you off to Danny Cahill school.

Luke Marquardt [00:44:08]:
Oh, Cahill. Mr. Too Small T. Don't tell him I said that. No, he looks good, man. He's in good shape. He's got the arms, you know, you see some of those videos, the veins popping, you know, off the arms there. It looks good.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:20]:
He's in incredible shape.

Luke Marquardt [00:44:24]:
Yes. So started off previous company. They did great job with training and they sent us to, yeah, Danny Cahill's rookie retreat. So I got to fly out there, met Danny Cahill, the team, got to hear some of their top performers and yeah, went through kind of that. That training. Got my packet of goodies preparing me for the. The upcoming year. And that was kind of my, yeah, first exposure.

Luke Marquardt [00:44:51]:
So I did have some training. We were a small boutique recruiting agency and they were more so known for. They'd been around for about 65 years at this point and they were more. More so known for like recruit. I mean, for aerospace and manufacturing. So construction was a rarity. I think once in a while they did some of that, but it was primarily just engineering and aerospace.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:13]:
So I'm kind of curious because like Danny Trey. Danny Kahl is one of the best what fundamental that you learned there that has stuck with you and you still use to this day?

Luke Marquardt [00:45:25]:
Man, so many. We had access to his like video, his video library as well. So I remember proves companies pulling that up. A lot of time of going through. He would talk through specific scenarios, how to handle counteroffers. You know, what red flags to look for. So much of this job is figuring out where not to waste your time, especially early on. Right.

Luke Marquardt [00:45:49]:
You're just working on whatever you can get, whatever agreements you can get, no matter the terms or how hard the position. And as you go and as you continue to get burnt and burned. And this was one of the many trainings I got from Danny there was, hey, how do we ask the right questions in order to get as much of that out of the way on the front end on that initial call? Because the better questions you can ask initially and the better vetting job you do initially can save you, right. We know hundreds of hours on searches and months of searches or weeks of stuff that we shouldn't be working on that we do. So as. And that's natural. As you're getting in, you're just trying to figure it out. You grow, you learn.

Luke Marquardt [00:46:35]:
So I'd say that was one of them.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:38]:
So walk me through your evolution of year one, year two and three, and then before you started hitting that big biller zone.

Luke Marquardt [00:46:50]:
Yeah, initially, like I had made mentioned that did an injury settlement, you know, made a couple hundred grand, right. That I was able to pay off some student loans and put into a. A down payment for a house. Like it wasn't retirement money. Right. But it was a big boost compared to normal people, right, Coming out of school. And so that was a big blessing. But with that, it was that first year I did, I think about a hundred, a little over a hundred.

Luke Marquardt [00:47:19]:
So like my goal going into there was, hey, if I could just make a hundred grand, like that'd be great. That'd be set, like that's a good number. And that was like, hey, take home. And that first year I did not. I think I made like, I don't know, 40 or 50 grand or something maybe. But I was having a blast, like at a good time. You know, I met some to my best buddies working there in the bullpen, the trenches. We're doing full desk recruiting, right.

Luke Marquardt [00:47:45]:
So you eat what you kill and we'd, you know, share some splits time and time again. But it's like in the thick of it, hey, let's make how many sales calls a day? Subs, middles, interviews, like, it's all on you.

Benjamin Mena [00:47:59]:
And then like going into year two and three, like you. You pretty much doubled what you were able to do, right?

Luke Marquardt [00:48:04]:
Yeah, so I think it was, yeah, year two was two something. Year three, yeah, it just kept it. It always got better. And then I had a couple like year four and five. It was like, you know, around three to 400. And then it was really, you know, 2020 was like one of my actually biggest years. I ended up billing like just over 600 that year during COVID which is. Wow.

Luke Marquardt [00:48:30]:
Thankfully I had one client that I built like probably close to. I think it was close to 300 with. And then it was, you know, some other clients that were part of that. So one of those clients went off and at that time that was like a hydrogen fueling company that was a startup and they were hiring like crazy. I placed their director construction. And at that time I wasn't fully niched into construction at this point. It was me just like working on somewhat construction focused positions. Like I wasn't really working aerospace.

Luke Marquardt [00:49:02]:
It was like in that realm. But I wasn't as niched as I am now.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:05]:
And then like, things are going good but you ended up getting a new opportunity. Like, why'd you make that change?

Luke Marquardt [00:49:12]:
Yeah, so I'd been with.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:14]:
Yeah.

Luke Marquardt [00:49:15]:
Previous company there for about, what was it about eight years about. And yeah, things were going well. Like, I wasn't actively like looking to leave and it was actually, I think it's partially your fault. Then I started listening to your podcast. I was introduced Shout out to Steve Norton who kind of introduced me to your podcast, recommended it. I saw he recommended it. I was like, oh, let me see this. At that point, I'd never listened to listen to any sort of recruiting podcast or anything at that point.

Luke Marquardt [00:49:47]:
So I started listening and just hearing. It's like watching film, right? Listening to the people you talk to and host. And it's like, what nuggets can I take away from each conversation? So I would, you know, kind of. My last year with amtech, I was like relentlessly like listening to all your interviews and I'm like, wow, that's. That's such a good point. Like listening to business owners, people at my level, but mostly above that are way better at this than what I could ever dream to do was impactful. And it at that point is like, man, could I go off on my own. That sounds appealing and I know a lot harder than it seems, right? So that was like filtering around in my mind.

Luke Marquardt [00:50:26]:
And then I actually ended up Getting introduced at a charity golf event to my now CEO, Dave Koiman. Shout out, Dave. Like, love you, man. Great, great guy. Loves people. Well, treats people right. And him and I connected. And he.

Luke Marquardt [00:50:41]:
It was more of just like, hey, we're in the same space. He did construction, specific recruiting, but on the contract side. And then he had a little, you know, direct hire division at that point to where he's been mostly a contract guy going in. He's had a lot of success there. And then it was like, luke, I want to, you know, let's meet. And then he ended up making me an offer. Like, I want you to help, like, lead our direct hire recruiting construction division. So it ended up making sense.

Luke Marquardt [00:51:08]:
He made me an offer I couldn't refuse and took the plunge.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:12]:
Also with taking the plunge, your billings went up.

Luke Marquardt [00:51:16]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:18]:
Like, what did you change that year that really just made. Was it. I'm looking at running some stupid numbers, like, 30, 40% increase in your billings.

Luke Marquardt [00:51:30]:
Yeah. Because that previous year to this last year, I did about 400. So then coming in this year, yeah, big jump to get slightly past seven. And that was full desk recruiting. I filled every single job with my own clients except for two. I did a couple splits and then. But yeah, coming into this year, I didn't have like a. A client that I had been working with for years and years and years.

Luke Marquardt [00:51:55]:
I know it's. I had, of course, relationships. Right. But then starting off a new spot, you have to get all new agreements. And so I was transitioning that of like, hey, do we still want to work together? Or like, can you sign a new agreement? And that was part of it. But essentially coming in, had a few relationships, but I was essentially starting with nothing. So from there, like, I just started calling. And I've never been a.

Luke Marquardt [00:52:19]:
I'd love to learn more, and I do want to develop that more of like, you hear a lot of feel the interview that are doing sequencing and, you know, emails, but it's been all relational. And I'm. I'm one to just get on the phone and just have real conversations. A quote that I heard that was great. I forget where it came from exactly. But like, hey, talk to prospects and people like, they're your friends. Almost like that's the tonality that you should be using with a lot of these, like, hey, low stress, a caring tone here. Like, but then also getting to the point.

Luke Marquardt [00:52:51]:
Construction is very to the point. So it's finding that balance of, hey, I don't want to further stress you out. I want you to enjoy every conversation you're having with me to where you remember me. And I just enjoy relationships. I love talking to people, meeting new people. So it kind of naturally flowed in that space. So starting off it was just. I'm just talking to anybody and everybody.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:14]:
Were you putting in the same amount of work? Did the work increase or did you just. Was it more niche down or you just. You had realized that you were starting from zero and you had to go all in?

Luke Marquardt [00:53:31]:
I think it was more so. Yeah, back up against the wall. Like I knew my owner here, David invested a lot of time and money into me and I didn't want him to feel like he got shortchanged. So that and you know, providing for my family is like, yeah, we gotta make it happen. So yeah, it was a matter of. I think it kicked me in the gear of I need to invest more time in hearing the hours that people put in from your interviews and industry leaders like in the investment and time it takes like yeah, I was putting in 10 hour days and starting off and it's tough with little ones. We just had a baby at a time too. So it was.

Luke Marquardt [00:54:10]:
That's a whole nother balance of like I had a. Our second at that point. So we were going through the no sleep and thankfully, you know, I was working from home. I could help out when I could. But yeah, it's, it's tough to make the time right as you know.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:26]:
And so you build that much with a brand new baby at home.

Luke Marquardt [00:54:32]:
Yeah, two babies. I have a three year old and a one and a half year old. So we just had, we just had our one and a half year old Clara. Yeah, fresh baby, somewhat fresh there. And we had her. Yeah, that previous year in November. So toddler dealing with all that, man, I don't know, it's. It's.

Luke Marquardt [00:54:53]:
I think it took me into a new space of hey, let's really focus in. I think my core word for that last year moving forward has been like, hey, focus. I think I had a different focus and mentality that I had had previously to where I was investing that much more time and then having this specific construction focus, working with a team of mine too here at arena that focused strictly on construction and seeing their conversations and working with the contract sales guys and seeing their professionalism like that all helped my desk that much more of like what can I take away from. Even though they're doing more contract construction recruiting here with general contractors and stuff, they were in the same sales realm. Right. And so taking away work ethic tips and nuggets and. But yeah, really investing the time and then focusing in on hey, what are revenue? What are revenue? Revenue producing activities and like being so strict and militant with my time of where hey, I'm needing Focus 100. I only have so much time in a day of like what's going to bring that next deal in.

Benjamin Mena [00:56:15]:
Love that especially like I know how it is when you have a little one at home that just is needing attention and they need your attention to survive. But learning how to focus I think is a great nugget from you on how to like actually get it done.

Luke Marquardt [00:56:36]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:56:37]:
So I want to take a few steps back. You had these dreams and you watch these doors being closed, but then you watch one get opened. How did you know that recruiting was the right door?

Luke Marquardt [00:56:53]:
I was good at it. I enjoyed it. Like I said, like when I first started and I didn't know what I was good at and I was figuring it out of course along the way. In this industry it's all learned. But you're doing a lot of the same things right. Over and over and over again. And with practice, you get better at this. Comparing my ability to overcome objections and having these high level conversations that I have now with VPs, owners, directors night and day.

Luke Marquardt [00:57:26]:
Difference from when I first started. Right. You don't know what to ask, you don't know what questions, you don't know how to read the room. You don't know what you're going into. So I think it just, yeah, it comes with practice there of, of asking, you know, what can. What am I doing each and every day? How can I control my effort? That's something you can always control. And always. I've always said that like no matter what I'm doing, I'm not the smartest guy in the room.

Luke Marquardt [00:57:49]:
Never have been. School got my degree but you know, was never great at school. It was always like, how can I outwork the next person here? What am I doing today to outwork, to control what I can control and let me put in 100% of my effort each and every day. You can always control your effort no matter what you're going through. So that's always pushed me each and every day of like naturally, hey, how can I get that much better today that 1% every day? Right.

Benjamin Mena [00:58:21]:
Love it.

Luke Marquardt [00:58:22]:
That answer your question?

Benjamin Mena [00:58:23]:
It did. Okay, so I know we've covered a lot. We've walked through the story, we walked through billing, we walked through the entry into recruiting, we walked through the. I'm counting, I Think it's four foot breaks and nine really crazy entries. Is there anything that I forgot to ask or something that you want to go deeper on before we go to the quick fire questions?

Luke Marquardt [00:58:45]:
No, I think you about covered it.

Benjamin Mena [00:58:47]:
Yeah.

Luke Marquardt [00:58:48]:
Anything specific to add?

Benjamin Mena [00:58:51]:
You've been recruiting for eight, nine years now, I think.

Luke Marquardt [00:58:55]:
Yeah, just over nine years. Yep.

Benjamin Mena [00:58:57]:
What do you think is the most underrated recruiting skill?

Luke Marquardt [00:59:07]:
Asking the right questions in the right tonality? I think so much of what you say isn't just about what you say, the right, the specific question, but also what goes into that is the tonality in which you ask it. I think people can sense that high pressure, pushy sales person. Right. And it's a natural barrier to push away candidates too. So I'm just, when I'm speaking with anyone, candidates, clients, it's a natural friendly tone of like, hey, you know, I'm Luke. How, how can I help you? And with anyone, it's about perspective. Like putting myself in someone else's shoes is something I try to carry over into every conversation. How would I be appreciate being taken care of? Who would I want to work with? And initially, early on, you know, you, you start just, you're just going a million miles a minute, oh, I can do this.

Luke Marquardt [01:00:03]:
And you sound like a robot like every other person. So how can I differentiate in what I'm saying in the conversations I'm having?

Benjamin Mena [01:00:12]:
And what do you think has been one habit? Or what do you think is one habit that separates a 300k biller and a 700k biller?

Luke Marquardt [01:00:24]:
So much of this again is figuring out where not to waste your time being so militant with your time to say, hey, what are revenue producing activities? You can't talk to everybody. You can't help everyone. You help where you can. But if this conversation isn't leading to an opportunity, if this isn't a fit, I'm a direct guy and I appreciate people being direct with me and I'm direct with others and giving feedback of why this isn't a fit or what can we do to improve. And I do that with clients too. I've appreciated that. But I would say the volume when I'm comparing my own desk to where I've had, you know, the 300 to 700 years has been the, the volume in which you're having to have, you know, just these conversations or like, how many sales calls are you making every single day, how many recruiting calls the volume needs to be there. But also not just that, the quality.

Luke Marquardt [01:01:23]:
We can't be in the Spray and pray. Business like, I'd rather do less submittals and have quality than dump a bunch of people on a client here. So I think having that balance of volume of having the calls and you got, you put yourself in the right place by getting on the phone and speaking to whoever you can. Flipping calls, speaking with candidates. A lot of my business has come from flipping candidates into clients or getting referred. I remember one of my $300 million general contractors I've been working with the past couple years that I build a lot with last year as well, is it. It came from me working on another project executive position and me asking the right question to this person. Hey, you're, you're at a high level here.

Luke Marquardt [01:02:06]:
Like who do you know? You've been in this industry forever, right? He's flipping that call and he said, hey, actually I know the president at this general contractor. Here's his number, give him a ring. So it was just me asking at the right time, hey man, a contact. And I end up just cold calling that contact. And it snowballed from there of setting up a meeting and, and then ultimately getting their business. But so again, that volume just needs to be there. The focus, the time. There's, there's no shortcuts in this industry.

Luke Marquardt [01:02:36]:
Right. Like you can get lucky on some stuff, but at the end of the day, this industry humbles the heck out of you real quick. And that's what I love and hate about this business.

Benjamin Mena [01:02:46]:
Like humbles you more than football.

Luke Marquardt [01:02:49]:
Yeah. That was the start of the humbling. And then I get humbled every single day in this industry of like you said, a deal not working out right before he's supposed to start or someone does start and then they end up being a terrible fit and the client wants to let them go and you got to replace them. And I mean going through what I went through in so many, I mean of us have, have overcome anyone that's been through so many different tough spots. Right. It makes you that much better of a recruiter because that's the daily life in this industry of like it's not going to go your way. People are people keep the emotion out of it and move forward, have a short term memory and don't let that, that deal that didn't work out ruin the rest of your desk or day and take a moment but continue to push on. Like that's just part of it.

Luke Marquardt [01:03:42]:
It's going to happen. It happens every year. No matter how good a year you hope as you ask the right questions, read out A lot of red flags. It happens less and less, but at the end of the day, people are people and they're going to do what they want to do. You can't control them.

Benjamin Mena [01:03:57]:
Love it. Well, Luke, we've had an incredible conversation, like walking through your background, and I got two last questions before I let you go. If somebody wants to follow you or connect with you, how do they go about doing that?

Luke Marquardt [01:04:10]:
Yeah, I'd say LinkedIn. LinkedIn's best. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [01:04:15]:
Before I let you go, is there anything else that you want to share with the listeners?

Luke Marquardt [01:04:20]:
Just the. The value, I think, in having to listen to and make it a priority to listen to. I mean, shout out to your podcast. Like I said, it's watching film. Like, have a Let go of the ego. Did you miss your question on recommended book or are you coming to that one?

Benjamin Mena [01:04:39]:
Actually, my. I was gonna skip it, but, like, let's do it now. What's the book?

Luke Marquardt [01:04:44]:
I had it, man. I had it. Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday is one I got recommended to by my vp, shout out to Lee there for recommending me that book. And I think so much of this, this job will keep you humble. And the sooner you can let go of your ego, the better recruiter. It's going to make you the better person. It's going to make you a father, husband, person in general. This book goes through specific scenarios of history, of leaders that have let their ego, you know, get ahead of their abilities and has ultimately led to their destruction.

Luke Marquardt [01:05:18]:
So I think, especially in this job, right, you can feel like such a high, like, oh, I'm doing so good, so good, so good. And then four deals fall apart, right? And you're again, like, crap, I'm the worst recruiter in the world. And my, my wife will attest to this. And it's a few times every year. I'm like, man, do I really want to do this? Like, maybe I should quit and do something else. She's like, shut up. It's that time of year again. Like, keep going.

Luke Marquardt [01:05:41]:
But I think that'd be something I would. It's the two for one of, like, that's a great book to check out. Easy read. And then what I'm leaving people with is like, leave your ego at the door, ask the right questions, be proactive in making that third, fourth, fifth follow up. Leave emotion out of this is something I learned early on, too, of like, it's so easy to fire back on an email, get on the phone, don't address it on email, get on the Phone send out a video invite is another tip that's helped my desk a lot this year of, like, just sending out random calendar invites to either clients that I haven't heard feedback on. I'll send out a calendar invite and then be surprised how many just get on and you're getting that feedback. For someone that hadn't given you feedback for a week or two, that's really helped my desk this year in building that relationship. I think I've struggled over the years of, like, how can I continue to build and maintain these relationships and not have it be forceful, have it be natural? Because it's hard.

Luke Marquardt [01:06:44]:
It's hard. Like, you have your friend groups and you're trying to, like, connect with people that are completely different than you. It's using that emotional intelligence, and it's like, man, you don't have to be their best friend, but it makes a huge difference when you put yourself in their shoes and you're genuine with your conversation. It doesn't feel forceful of, like, oh, you're just trying to be my friend so you can get my business, blah, blah, blah. So I think I've developed that a lot over the years of being able to connect with people early on. On. But genuinely, hey, I care about what you're doing. I care about the stress you're going through.

Luke Marquardt [01:07:16]:
I go through a lot of myself. Here's. You know what? I'm. I'll be honest with people. I'm telling about my kids of, like, man, yeah, you know, Cali threw up last night, and we stayed up all night. It's been miserable. And just being honest, like, and just having direct conversations.

Benjamin Mena [01:07:32]:
And so I. I gotta ask. Did Cali really throw apostate and you're up all night?

Luke Marquardt [01:07:37]:
No, no.

Benjamin Mena [01:07:39]:
I was gonna say because, no, she's okay.

Luke Marquardt [01:07:42]:
She actually sleeps pretty good. It's Clara who we. We still have her in bed with us. We've been biting that bullet. We got a sleep trainer getting her own bed.

Benjamin Mena [01:07:50]:
I was like, wait, that's exactly my night last night.

Luke Marquardt [01:07:53]:
Was it?

Benjamin Mena [01:07:54]:
Yeah.

Luke Marquardt [01:07:54]:
Oh, man. Dang, dang throw up. Oh, yeah. You just have one, though. You got it easy.

Benjamin Mena [01:08:01]:
I just have one.

Luke Marquardt [01:08:01]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [01:08:01]:
I just haven't walked.

Luke Marquardt [01:08:02]:
Just think if you had another or another. My buddy has five kids, and I'm like, how do you even breathe?

Benjamin Mena [01:08:09]:
Gabe is awesome.

Luke Marquardt [01:08:10]:
Perspective, man. Perspective. It's all about perspective.

Benjamin Mena [01:08:13]:
Well, Luke, I am so, so, so, so glad that we got to sit down and have a conversation just because, like, so often this is a business where you can work and work and work and something at the last minute could get taken away. How do you set yourself up? How do you rebuild? How do you rebuild your mind? How do you rebuild your desk? How do you attack the day? How do you keep on chasing your dreams? Because that's what 2026 is. The year that you chase your dreams. You go all in, you block your desk. Like Luke was saying, focus on those revenue drivers because this is the year that you make this dream come true. Luke, I just want to say thank you so much for sharing. I am. I'm sorry the NFL door shut, but do you know how many lives you are changing because another door opened?

Luke Marquardt [01:09:14]:
It's right on.

Benjamin Mena [01:09:15]:
Yep, 2026 still change lives, guys.

Luke Marquardt [01:09:18]:
Absolutely change them. Do it.

Benjamin Mena [01:09:21]:
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Benjamin Mena [01:09:55]:
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Benjamin Mena [01:10:31]:
Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive listener offer at recruit with

Luke Marquardt [01:10:36]:
atlas.com thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed hit, subscribe and leave a rating.