$650K in Offers in a Single Day: Mindi Romero’s Secrets to Authentic Sales & Building Elite Recruiting Teams

Benjamin Mena [00:00:00]:
For the last 150 episodes, this is something that I knew I had to put together. An environment for recruiters to grow. Kicking off September 15th is the elite recruiter community. And here's the thing. All the previous summits, all the future summits are going to be part of the community, finish the year strong. The firm owner summit, the sales and BD summit, the AI summit that we just had, are all going to be part of it. On top of that, we're going to have roundtables, we're going to have split opportunities, we're going to have a place where recruiters can connect with other recruiters and grow. Starting September 15th, the founder pricing is going to be $37 a month.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:37]:
That will lock you in for $37 a month where you can get access to all the previous summits and all the future summits. At the end of September, the price is going to go up to $49. So make sure to log in a founder pricing. Now. Get excited about growing, get excited about connecting, and let's go crush our dreams together. Coming up on this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast. Did Adrian find you or did you find Adrian?

Mindi Romero [00:01:02]:
Adrian's on me, and I have LinkedIn to thank for that. I had people in my life telling me, I've got to get on LinkedIn, gotta get on LinkedIn, gotta get on LinkedIn. I finally did, and literally the next day, Adrian found me. Through a mutual connection. Instead of just presenting myself as a recruiter, instead of just wanting to help them hire one specific person or multiple specific people, I've gotten to a place where I am really trying to add value when it comes to hiring strategies and when it comes to what I see their competitors doing.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:39]:
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. The market's noisy right now. Everyone's using AI, automation, outreach, and most of it sounds the same. If you're a recruitment founder, standing out isn't about doing more. It's about being known. Hoxo's personal brand Bootcamp shows you how to build real visibility with the people that matter. Not by going viral, but by showing up consistently and positioning yourself as the go to in your niche.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:19]:
Their 3X system is helping founders generate inbound leads, strengthen their authority, and grow lean, profitable businesses, often with just a couple of hours a week on LinkedIn, they're giving away a free masterclass that Breaks it all down. The link's in the show notes. Check it out before access closes. And if you decide to enroll in the full personal brand bootcamp, you're in luck. Hoxo is giving listeners of the Elite Recruiter podcast a bonus £500 off the cost of the program. Make sure to tell them we sent you. I am so excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast because my guests crushed 650k offers in one day, 24 hour period, and everybody accepted. But here's the reason why I'm actually excited about this.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:59]:
Guess in recruiting, there's a dirty S word that everybody hates. Everybody tries staying away from it. It's the word selling. So many recruiters look at themselves as recruiters and they never look at themselves as the sales people they actually are. And maybe it's the way that we all got trained, at least here in the United States. But one of the best ways to be a top biller and a high level recruiter is to actually sell. And my guess, I hate to say this, like she actually kind of hates selling. She doesn't look at herself as a salesperson.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:31]:
She actually looks at herself as, as a recruiter. But she learned how to organically sell. She learned how to make it feel natural. She learned how to sell without realizing that she's truly selling. And that's what I am so excited that she's going to share today. So, Mindy, welcome to the podcast.

Mindi Romero [00:03:49]:
Thanks for having me. Appreciate the invite. All right, quick, excited to be here.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:54]:
Quick 30 second self introduction before we do a deep dive and how you ended up in this wonderful world.

Mindi Romero [00:04:00]:
Yeah, I had no idea recruiting was a career. So it's not really a path that I chose intentionally. It's a path that my leader chose for me. He found me, sold me on the opportunity and on the benefits of doing win a job like this. Gave it a try and honestly was really good at it, fell in love with it, and here I am.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:21]:
Was this like a college try or professional try?

Mindi Romero [00:04:24]:
It was definitely a professional try. And it did take some persuading. I met with my boss and leader still to this day, Adrian Dominguez, for an interview, and then for another, and then for another. And that man is a salesman. He sold me on recruiting as a career, so I shouldn't say I gave it a try. I made an intentional decision to. To go down this path and ended up loving it.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:49]:
And what kind of recruiting do you guys do?

Mindi Romero [00:04:53]:
We focus on? Well, that has evolved, but we focus on construction and manufacturing. When I joined the team, we did staffing. So the direct hire wasn't a main focus. The headhunting wasn't a main focus. We recruited for the trades. We were really good at it, and that was a learning process because there are so many trades. But it's evolved over the years, and now we still have a team that focuses on the staffing side. We support a lot of companies and a lot of clients and have a lot of partnerships in that arena.

Mindi Romero [00:05:29]:
But we've evolved also into a search team which focuses on those leadership roles and that direct hire headhunting aspect.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:37]:
We're going to do a deep dive in that story. But before we even start focusing on that, because I think there's some stuff that every recruiter working in an agency listening to this can learn from you on how you've also helped build out some other divisions. So we're going to talk about that in a second. I got to ask, did Adrian find you or did you find Adrian?

Mindi Romero [00:05:59]:
Adrian found me. And I have LinkedIn to thank for that. I had people in my life telling me, I've got to get on LinkedIn, got to get on LinkedIn, got to get On LinkedIn. I finally did, and literally the next day, Adrian found me through a mutual connection. Seriously. One day later, he found me, he called me, and the rest is history.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:19]:
Were you looking for a job? Is that like.

Mindi Romero [00:06:22]:
I really wasn't necessarily looking for a job, but LinkedIn was this new way of building your career and just a social media that was more professional. And funny thing is, my grandfather, who kept pushing me to. To get on there, and so I did, really, to appease him. And thank you. Thank you, grandpa. Because without having jumped on, I wouldn't have met Adrian, I wouldn't know Rolink, and I very possibly wouldn't be in. In staffing and recruiting today.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:54]:
That is wild. Like, you literally just like, okay, find in. I'll get on the social media platform. Thanks, grandpa. Sure, whatever.

Mindi Romero [00:07:01]:
Actually.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:05]:
And now look at you, like, just absolutely crushing it, having a blast. So, okay, so Adrian found you, hit you up with a message, sold you on the dream, said, all right, let's. And you were like, cool, let's do this. Let's start this recruiting thing. Your first few months, how were they?

Mindi Romero [00:07:20]:
They were a lot. It was a lot to learn, to be quite honest, a bit overwhelming because at the end of the day, I was absorbing so much knowledge that I had to go home and just let it sink in before getting in there the next day, you know, and it was Exciting because it was challenging. I like a challenge. I am an extremely competitive individual, and I had a great leader who was opening this path for me, showing me what this career could turn into, which ultimately led me to giving 100%. But those first few months were certainly challenging, and without. Without the amount of information that I had to absorb in those first few months, the success probably wouldn't have come. Because it's an evolving process. Without.

Mindi Romero [00:08:13]:
Without seeing that success and bits and pieces of it, it's really hard to keep going, you know, So I get a little piece of success, a little bit of excitement, and I just want more and more and more.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:24]:
That is awesome. So, like, looking at your first, like, few years, you just kind of, like, learned the space where you, like, ever dealing with a sales side then, or was it just the recruiting side?

Mindi Romero [00:08:35]:
The first good year and a half, it was just recruiting. It was fine tuning my skills. It was evolving and learning the trades, learning the terminology, getting to know my clients. And I didn't do any sales at first. At all. Although I will say I think the reason. Well, the reason Adrian found me initially is because I did sales at a young age, and I think that's what attracted him to my LinkedIn profile.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:04]:
Awesome. And when did you, like, decide in your career here that you wanted to take the next steps and you wanted to grow and you wanted to do more? Let's talk about that.

Mindi Romero [00:09:18]:
Yeah. Yeah. Pretty early on. It didn't take more than, I don't know, maybe four to six months before I became a leader. I was the lead recruiter for our team, and I really enjoyed the leadership. I felt that the more I was teaching what I was learning, the better I became at it. Teaching something helps you really pay attention to what works, what doesn't. Passing that knowledge on, I felt like made me better at my job.

Mindi Romero [00:09:51]:
And then it wasn't much longer than that before Adrian approached me and asked if I'd be interested in launching a branch. So we started down that path.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:01]:
Okay, so I really want to talk about this launching the branch thing because, like, you know, like, that's hard. You're going from, like, recruiter to now running everything. Almost like a step back, like six months before you guys actually launched this brand. What were some of the discussions that you were having? What were some of the things that you were doing before you guys got this branch off the ground?

Mindi Romero [00:10:23]:
Yeah, lots of leadership training. He was great at providing resources that I need in order to develop different skills ultimately to make the branch successful. Not just me, but the branch as a whole. And I came to a point as a recruiter where I was a very high performer and I was producing extremely well. And I learned how to manage my time in a really great capacity where in order to really increase that productivity, I had to recognize that I needed to duplicate myself. I needed to duplicate that in someone else because I only have so many hours in the day and, you know, I can only do so much. So as we traveled down that path, I started to learn more about the client development side, more about the sales processes. He drugged me along to all of his sales meetings, all of his proposal meetings.

Mindi Romero [00:11:19]:
I learned about how the back side of the business works when it comes to creating, pricing, and when it comes to invoicing. And really what it takes to build the relationships with the clients and maintain them, but also what it takes to duplicate myself in another recruiter and help them find their passion for the job, help them fine tune their skills and really dig in.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:46]:
So in learning all this, what was one of the biggest surprises that you're like, oh, crap, I didn't realize this.

Mindi Romero [00:11:53]:
I think the sales. Like, I know that sales is even when you're recruiting, you're selling. I mean, believe it or not, I said that in the first few, few months or the few years I wasn't in sales. But when you're selling someone a job and you're selling a company, you know, a candidate, you've got to align and you've got to share all of the reasons why this is a fit. So you're selling that opportunity. But learning how to really go out there and find brand new clients, that was where the shock came. Because it's a time consuming process. It's something that I always said, I'm not a sales guy, I'm not a saleswoman, you know what I mean? But I ultimately had to be to make the branch successful.

Mindi Romero [00:12:33]:
And I had to learn how to love it. Because doing something you don't love, you can't really be great at it if you're not enjoying it.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:42]:
Okay, how did you learn how to love it? Cause I think that's a thing, that's a differentiator. When people like in our, at least in the recruiting world, where you go from being a recruiter to a career.

Mindi Romero [00:12:53]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:54]:
How did you learn how to love?

Mindi Romero [00:12:57]:
Took time. It took time. I went through a few different sales processes. I pushed and I pulled and it took some time to figure out and to believe that I really am good at this and I'm not just good at it. But I can do it in a way that I enjoy. And I did that by shifting my mindset to feeling like I'm not really selling, to building relationships, to connecting with people organically, to putting myself out there in a way that they can get to know me and, you know, build that trust without a pitch. I mean, ultimately there's always pitch, but that pitch became me being me and wanting to collaborate and connect instead of a really. I don't know how to put it.

Mindi Romero [00:13:46]:
Instead of a really aggressive sales pitch. You know what I mean? And to be quite honest, it took time for me to learn to love it. It really did.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:55]:
Okay. And we're gonna go deeper on the sales stuff a little later just. Cause, like, this is gonna be such a fun conversation that I had offline with her that we're taking online. But here's the thing. Back to this. Opening this branch. You guys opened the branch, and it was a new location too, right? It was your first few months. How was that? Like, what were some of the biggest challenges? What do you guys have to do to, like, get it off the ground?

Mindi Romero [00:14:21]:
Yeah, it was exciting. It was challenging, but it was exciting. My first big task, ultimately, was to find a partner in crime. So I started interviewing potential people who I could train before going there physically within our main branch. And once I identified the right person and. And I knew right away when I met her, I knew right away that she was the person for a lot of reasons. But once I identified that person, really investing myself in training her, in teaching her the recruiting, and getting her as excited as I was to launch this branch, so that when we went down there, I wasn't just this one person remotely on an island, you know, sitting in a different location, just recruiting and selling by myself. And that was the most important decision and challenge initially, I think, because once once that happened, things just started to fall in place.

Mindi Romero [00:15:18]:
And while I'm not going to say it wasn't hard work, it was hard work. Every day was a hustle. I had someone right next to me, like, just as excited, hustling and putting in that work to build something, build something big.

Benjamin Mena [00:15:34]:
You had a vision put into you, and did you just take that vision and share it with her?

Mindi Romero [00:15:39]:
It did. It did. She was on board immediately. We had a really great connection, and she was a fast learner. She, on the other hand, was natural at sales. So it, you know, even though initially it wasn't her job to sell, she. She sold. And she still, to this day, is amazing at her job.

Mindi Romero [00:16:03]:
She's not with me anymore. But I'm cheering her on every day because she's a great salesperson. And I think that finding someone and recognizing that you need to find someone who compliments you in that way. You have strengths and she has strengths and together you guys can conquer the world. I mean, that was the feeling anyways. You know, together we could bring what we're good at and compliment what doing. We're maybe where our faults were at and we really hit it.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:35]:
And you guys opened this branch in 2020, which we did.

Mindi Romero [00:16:39]:
Like, we did.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:40]:
This is like the world going upside down. Like, how did you guys navigate that?

Mindi Romero [00:16:45]:
Yeah. So I will say that the actual opening day was delayed. It was delayed several months, maybe three or four months. I think we initially wanted to launch the branch late spring, but we all know what happened. The world shut down, like you said, turned upside down. And we ended up launching in October. So I think that it still felt extremely successful that during that turmoil, that during everything that was happening in the world, that we didn't let that shut down that plan. We didn't let that damper what we had set out to do.

Mindi Romero [00:17:24]:
And when October came and we were physically in that new branch every single day, it was a huge, it was a huge accomplishment, especially facing the challenges that we were awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:37]:
And you know, fast forward a few years, like, what did that branch look like? What did you guys turn that into?

Mindi Romero [00:17:43]:
We had some extremely performing recruiters. We built a whole clientele, a whole list of partnerships. I honestly like to refer them to my partners because that's the type of company that we, we really valued is finding people who aligned with our values, people who we could build a relationship with and build a partnership. And I think that's what helped us be successful is being strategic and who we chose to do business with. But as that branch built, we for several quarters and, and for several years were the top performing branch, which was amazing. Yep, it was amazing. And definitely my competitive side comes out. And Rolink is a company that, you know, publicly to.

Mindi Romero [00:18:32]:
The whole company posts numbers and performance and sales and gross margins every week, strategically and successfully. Because as a competitive individual, I had to learn how to see my success not just in my numbers, because my numbers, obviously my performance had to had to change into investing into my team's performance. And so having the top performing recruiters and having the branch that produced the highest numbers was ultimately the goal on a week to week basis. And we were successful. We did it. I won't say that 100% of the time we had the highest numbers, but most of the time we certainly did.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:16]:
Since I've been this recruiting chair for, God, almost two decades now, I've seen a lot of like top performers go try to become managers, and I've seen them crash and burn. And some of the reasons why I've seen them crash and burn is like, they weren't good with people. They wanted to go back to producing. They wanted to be better than their team just to still like, hey, show off, like, look at me, like, I still know how to do this. How did you kind of navigate some of those things to like, where your recruiters became the stars?

Mindi Romero [00:19:47]:
Great leadership. Adrian is a great leader and he helped me evolved in that way because initially when my numbers weren't the top numbers, I had to change the way I saw my success. I had to change the way I felt like I was succeeding because instead of having these rockstar high flying numbers that no one had ever seen before, I had to adjust the way I invested myself where instead of investing myself in myself, I was investing myself in my team. And while that took some leadership and it took some guidance to feel like I was still successful even though my numbers took a big hit, once I realized that the branch was my success, that the numbers my branch was performing, the recruiters, ultimately that my branch was training and putting out into the world and into this career is where I was able to eventually see my success. And I can see where that could be one of the most challenging parts of going from being a high performing recruiter to building a brand and not feeling like that type of success in and allowing your recruiters to shine. But it's rewarding.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:11]:
And let's fast forward a little bit. Like now three years in, you've created a branch, you've built out some awesome recruiters. Were you ready for the next challenge or where did this next challenge idea come about?

Mindi Romero [00:21:24]:
Good old Adrian, he came to me with an idea to launch a direct hire division. And while we did place people in a direct hire role, indirect hire roles, if we had a client who needed our help with an operations manager or you name it, we helped them. And that need started to grow and we started to see more and more of our partners needing that support from us, where we decided to carve out an entire division that focused solely on those type of roles. And he came to me and said, look, I think that this could be the next step in your career. I think that it could be a great place for Rolink to evolve. You know, love to hear your Thoughts on taking that on. And a big part of taking that on was sales again, but a different form of sales, you know what I mean? So that's really how the idea came about. And we launched that division in January of 2023.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:28]:
And how's it been going since?

Mindi Romero [00:22:29]:
Exceptional. Exceptional. While I love recruiting on the staffing side, while I loved leading on the branch management side, I have definitely found my stride in. In the search side. I love the full desk feel. I really find it rewarding to identify people who I can connect with and collaborate with organically, become partners with those individuals and with those companies, help make a difference, like a true impact with their team and make a true impact in the lives that I'm connecting with these amazing partnerships and these amazing companies and then oftentimes once getting those leaders in place, helping them build their teams. So being able to work with someone in different phases of their life and on different sides of the spectrum when it comes to staffing and when it comes to recruiting has really been where I've fallen even more in love with, with the job and with my career.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:32]:
Okay, so you like another idea, Probably a late night idea, like, okay, what about this? And then you guys chat about it and then you go implement it again.

Mindi Romero [00:23:42]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:43]:
And you're successful again.

Mindi Romero [00:23:45]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:45]:
But here's the thing. When you're running a 360 desk, it really is about sales, no matter how bad you want it to be. About recruiting. Sales is a secret because without sales, you have no recruiting to actually recruit on.

Mindi Romero [00:23:57]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:58]:
And when we talk about, like the dirty S word in recruiting sales, when we talk about being organic, what does that actually look like?

Mindi Romero [00:24:06]:
Even when I first started truly selling and having a full desk, I was still finding my footing, I was still evolving. And I have been able to find people who have helped shape that, find people who have helped coach me, find people who have guided me in identifying my voice and my brand and my sales cadence, if you will. And even, even to this day, it's still evolving. But I'll say that in the past six months, I've kind of been able to shift in a way that has been even more successful because I'm loving it more and more and more. I'm loving the process more and more and more. Those leaders in my world, those mentors are helping me evolve in that capacity. So I guess to dig in a little bit, which I assume is the idea here, is LinkedIn has been a resource for me that I wish I would have taken advantage a long time ago when I Was a branch manager when I was recruiting. Adrian's like, lean into LinkedIn, lean in.

Mindi Romero [00:25:12]:
And although I was present, I didn't lean in as early as I had hoped I would. But building a network there has helped me evolve to building a presence in my community, Building a presence in associations, speaking at events to get to know the community. The world is big and the city is big, but the community in which people are connecting the right people with the right opportunities, specifically within construction and manufacturing. It's a small community. And the more you get your name out there, the more you get your face out there and build that trust and become present in that world, I think that the more it helps and allows you to have an organic sales process.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:58]:
You, you just said the community word, I think three times in the past, literally minute. But here's the thing, okay, so you're in the construction world and this is just for the recruiters thinking out there. So, you know, how do I go find that community? How do I go to start tapping into that community? Like construction wise, are you mostly focused on your city?

Mindi Romero [00:26:17]:
I do most of my business in my city. A lot of my partners have branches in several cities. So I'd say mostly the western US So whereas I'm not traveling to every city in the western US and attending their conferences, I have built a community here locally that is helping me to expand across the US if that makes.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:46]:
That definitely makes sense. So, like, when you say community, are you going to trade events? Are you going, like, what does that mean?

Mindi Romero [00:26:52]:
I am. So I'm a part of the AGC Associate General Contracting Association. I recently spoke at Future Forward, which is an organization that helps get young individuals into the trades, where I connect with the companies and the leaders in the industry who are looking for those individuals. There's a lot of organizations and a lot of events where the leaders in construction and the leaders in Mac manufacturing show up. And being there is how you get to know them. Shaking hands, breaking bread, putting a face to a name, it changes the dynamic. It changes the dynamic from just being someone that you see online or a name behind an email or even a voice behind a phone. It really makes you human.

Mindi Romero [00:27:50]:
And people do business with people, not necessarily with companies, not necessarily with organizations. You know, people do business with people. And the more people get to see me and know me, the more they want to do business with me. And so that's where the success has come from. Being out there and showing up with.

Benjamin Mena [00:28:11]:
Being out there and showing up. Are you still like cold calling? Are you still like npcing, Are you still sending cold emails? Are you doing that? Or are you really just leaning into all these different things that most other recruiters aren't doing?

Mindi Romero [00:28:22]:
I'm really just leaning into all of these other things that most recruiters aren't doing. That's not to say I don't have a cadence. It's not to say that I never cold call, but I guess I never cold call. It's more of a warm call, honestly, it's more of a warm call because when I do pick up the phone to call someone, they've already seen my face at these organizations, or they've already seen my face on LinkedIn, or they've already seen some sort of success somewhere where they're likely familiar with me. It's not very often that I sell to someone who literally knows nothing about me, what I do, what I can offer, or on the flip side can potentially offer me some knowledge. Like, I'm always just looking to collaborate. I'm not always reaching out to sell my service. I just want to.

Mindi Romero [00:29:12]:
I just want to collaborate. Like, how can I help you? How can you help me? What can we learn from each other and what does a partnership look like? Is it. Sometimes it's more beneficial on your side, sometimes it's more beneficial on my side, and that's okay. Because in this industry, timing is everything. It's a matter of building those relationships, connecting with those people genuinely and authentically, so that when the timing is right, you're the person that they think of, you're the person that they come to for support.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:39]:
Finish the year strong is going to be the most impactful summit of the year. Every single summit we have held up until this point is preparing for this one. So that way it could propel you to have the strongest quarter yet. Finish the year strong. It's kicking off October 13th, and you do not want to miss this. Get registered now. Okay. So this is going to be a question that baby recruiter Ben would have loved to know.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:02]:
So you're sitting there talking about collaborating, you're sitting there talking about having all these conversations. And as a recruiter, we can get a thousand people to easily have a conversation with us. We can easily have a back and forth. But how did you organically flip these people into being clients? Because so often a lot of recruiters have conversations. They great conversations, but they're never able to make the flip.

Mindi Romero [00:30:26]:
Yeah, that's a great question. Again, I think timing is everything. Staying in front of these people and building that relationship. There is A point in time when I make my pitch, if you will, where I reach out and say, hey, like I spoke to a candidate that made me think of you, or hey, I saw a project that you've got going on that's going to be extremely demanding or whatever leads into that pitch. It's something or someone who've identified can make a difference for this company. And that's where I lean in and that's where I make the flip. For a good portion of it. The conversation is really just conversation.

Mindi Romero [00:31:07]:
Like it's just to get to know each other. But you're right. At some point, there's gotta be a time where you can value add, where you can add something to their company, or where you have a solution to a need. And it's important to be able to identify that and the people that you're connecting with and collaborating with. And timing is everything at that moment is when you need to, you know when you need to present your value add and that's how you pull them in.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:35]:
So is there anything else that you're doing that other recruiters probably aren't thinking about doing that's just helping with your organic sales cycles?

Mindi Romero [00:31:43]:
I think that I have gotten to a place where instead of just presenting myself as a recruiter, instead of just wanting to help them hire one specific person or multiple specific people, I've gotten to a place where I am really trying to add value when it comes to hiring strategies and when it comes to what I see their competitors doing, that that's working or that's not working and offering again, value add, offering insight so that I can contribute even before I'm hiring and while I'm hiring and in between and beyond, so that it truly feels like a partnership. And strategically choosing the people that I partner with is also big, because when our values align, when we jump on a call like you and I are right now, and it feels natural, it feels like a conversation. And we're getting to know each other and we're smiling and we're sharing our values and we're aligning really well. That natural sales meeting is what I have found turns into the best partnerships. And so if I, I guess if I can encourage anything, is to connect with people who, who you align with, connect with companies who align with your values instead of chasing the ones that don't.

Benjamin Mena [00:33:14]:
When you're doing all this, how important is on the flip side, your LinkedIn and what you're doing on LinkedIn?

Mindi Romero [00:33:21]:
I feel like it's extremely important. I was watching one of your summits or attending one of your summits. And I think I want to butcher his name. His name was Steve, Steve Perchakov. And he did a presentation about tech stack and AI. And there was one thing that stood out to me where he talked about first connections and he talked about like, you get one chance at selling to your first connections. Like, these are the ones that already know you. These are the ones that you know will likely recognize your name or have heard a story somewhere through your LinkedIn post.

Mindi Romero [00:33:59]:
And these are the ones that are going to have the most successful turnover. And you get one chance. Make sure you're doing that. And I kind of sat back and I did that and it was successful. And in my head I decided like, why is there only one chance at this, you know? And I kind of turned my entire sales cadence based on that first connections drive. And I started focusing on connecting with people who I think I can make a difference for, who I can collaborate with and building that first connections list over and over and over so that I can repeat that successful process of selling to the people who recognize me. And that's driven my sales the most is repeating that process instead of allowing it to be a one time thing.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:44]:
Awesome. And you've also really done a good job increasing your copywriting skills on LinkedIn.

Mindi Romero [00:34:50]:
That's thanks to Callie. Callie Shoe Trop is one of my mentors. She has been my coach over this past, definitely this year and well into last year. I'm blessed to spend time with her every week, collaborating, learning from her thought leadership. She provides me with guidance when it comes to being myself, being authentic and finding my voice. She helped me transition from just someone who's present on LinkedIn, posting stuff that maybe isn't speaking to the right people, to that authentic voice that I've found in myself on LinkedIn. If that makes sense.

Benjamin Mena [00:35:28]:
That makes sense. Well, we've covered a lot like, you know, you opening up a branch and switching and opening up a division to organic selling. Before we jump over to the quickfire questions, is there anything else that you want to go deeper on within all that?

Mindi Romero [00:35:40]:
No, I think that it's just a constant learning process and identifying people who can contribute to that learning process and reaching out to them. And I don't mean clients, I mean people like Kelly and people like Steve and people like I've worked with Clark, Clark Wilcox and people like you, like identifying those of you who have found success in different areas and just wanting to soak up all of your knowledge, wanting to take on those Little tidbits that will help you get better from a day to day and just always learning, always growing.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:17]:
Awesome. Well, jumping over to the quick fire questions. And as you know, they do not need to be quick answers. Okay, picture this. You have somebody coming onto the team. They're working at a different office. They're on the staffing side. You're on the direct placement side.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:31]:
So you're not seeing them day to day. But they've heard about you, and they call you up and are just like, hey, Mindy, this recruiting thing looks like it could be good. It looks like it was good for you. What's the number one piece of advice that you would give me? I've never been a recruiter before to make this a career that I can have success in.

Mindi Romero [00:36:51]:
There's two different answers there for me. The initial answer is, why business? Business wise, why do I do this job? Because I'm making a difference in people's life. Because I'm making a difference in companies. And that's very rewarding to see evolve and making a difference in their families. But also, like, what's your personal why? Why are you doing it? For me, it's the life I want to build outside of recruiting. It's my kids. It's finding a job that I don't dread, finding a passion that they can see me excited to go and do every day. And if you want to be in recruiting, you've got to find your why and your passion for it.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:33]:
Same question, but for somebody that's been around the block 15, 20, 25 years, what advice would you give to them?

Mindi Romero [00:37:42]:
I guess that's twofold for me. I think that we kind of touched on it. Just that continuous learning, like, the industry's changing. I've only been in the industry for eight years, not 25 or 30, and it's changing even from first quarter to second quarter. You know, it's fast. So you've got to. You've got to change, and you've got to be flexible, and you've got to be fluid to continuously grow and stay in love with what you're doing. But also, I think that time management is really the toughest part of this job.

Mindi Romero [00:38:18]:
And if you're not managing your time wisely, then you can feel buried and you can fall behind, and you can definitely lose that passion for the job. So I guess be flexible. Continue changing and learning as the industry does.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:38]:
Awesome. Is there a favorite tech tool or recruiting tech tool that you cannot live without?

Mindi Romero [00:38:45]:
Ooh, that's a good question. I Think right now, the way I'm evolving is learning tech is adding to my tech stack. And that's a place where I am, as we spoke, evolving right now where I am trying to add. I was introduced to Dripify by Clark Wilcox, and when I first started using it, I didn't find the success initially because my process is to sell organically and to really invest in my quality outreach. And at first I think that I allowed that to take away from that a little bit, but now I use it to continuously build those first connections, to continuously chase down the people that I want to know and that I think that I can add value in their world. And for me, that's helped me repeat that first connections process where connecting with people who I want to know and can eventually warm sell to.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:57]:
Awesome. Do you have a favorite book that's had an impact on you?

Mindi Romero [00:40:01]:
Yeah. Find my why that has been super impactful. I've read it a couple times, and it started with a book club that Adrian, one of our leaders, started at Rolink. All of the leaders within our team would read a chapter, and then we'd come together after a week or several chapters. I mean, not always one chapter per week. And then we talk about it. And helping us identify our why, helped us identify our company values and evolve our company values and ultimately help build our culture. And maintaining that culture as I build partnerships has been super important to me.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:38]:
What has been one of the biggest failures in your recruiting career that you've had to work through?

Mindi Romero [00:40:44]:
For me, what I took as a failure was the recruiters that I lost. And while in hindsight, I don't think it was always a failure, I think that they've moved on and built their career in recruiting elsewhere and have become incredibly fulfilled in the industry. But at the time, having invested so much of myself into these individuals, into building them, part of the way we hire is we bring on people who have potential to be amazing in recruiting, not people who have proven to be amazing in recruiting. And so when you bring someone on who's new to the industry, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of energy, and you pass a lot on to them. And so for me, having someone leave at first was a really tough thing to face and felt like failure. Like, what did I do that didn't keep them here? How did I fall short? That led them to go, you know, leave my team and go elsewhere. And for me, that was probably, probably tough because it felt a little personal, even though it wasn't always Is it.

Benjamin Mena [00:41:56]:
True that you were in a gang when you first started recruiting?

Mindi Romero [00:42:01]:
No, absolutely not. But that is a rumor that Adrian Dominguez has started, and he has never let go. He jokes about it all the time, even in sales meetings, when people have no idea what he's joking about. And I have to let them know that it's. It's not real.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:19]:
Watch out. Mindy was in a gang. She'll get you.

Mindi Romero [00:42:24]:
He says he took me off the, the cold, hard streets and, and brought me into staffing. But no, that's not true. I am born in Colorado, grew up in the mountains, no gangs.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:36]:
I had a podcast recently with Steve Farrell, and he actually joked around. He's like, once you fall into staffing, because his background was retail, you can never get out.

Mindi Romero [00:42:45]:
It's like joining a gang. Huh?

Benjamin Mena [00:42:49]:
The recruiting gang. But if you could, you know, go back in time and have a conversation with yourself, we'll say, a first few months into your career, what advice would you give yourself?

Mindi Romero [00:43:02]:
Lean into LinkedIn. So many people told me to, and I just would sporadically, and I didn't initially. But also, I think that, again, touching on time management, that's hard. You've got so much on your plate and, and you're learning so much and you're juggling so much, and when something falls through the crack, it feels like a huge failure. So really, learning how to manage your time is going to be the key to success when it comes to this career.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:30]:
This is one of my favorite questions. Like, you know, you got people on your team center asking you, like, at your company, and you're posting online, you're public about the things that you do, and they're probably asking you, like, hey, like, what's your sales sequence? Or what's your opening pitch? Or what's your BD strategy? What's this? What's that? So all these questions you're getting, and especially from the new recruiters on your team, what's a question that you wish they would actually ask you but never do?

Mindi Romero [00:43:52]:
How do you manage your time? How do you, you know, especially in full desk? So on the recruiting side, yes, there's a lot going on. Sometimes it feels like you're babysitting grown men, and sometimes it feels like you're chasing your tail on the search side. That shifts a little bit. But now you're a full desk recruiter, so how do you manage selling and developing relationships with existing clients and recruiting to make sure that you're fulfilling the promises that you've made with the relationships that you've worked so hard to build. How do you do that? And this might not be the answer everybody's looking for, but I think that the advice that I've been given is build a schedule, Cut your blocks out, know exactly what you're doing at every time of the day, and stick to that. And for me, that doesn't work, because timing is everything. And if I have been collaborating with a potential client and then they have an urgent need and they give me a call, and that has to become my priorities, things have to shift. You have to be flexible.

Mindi Romero [00:45:01]:
And while I commit to sales and I commit to recruiting every week, it's not always a perfect balance. Some weeks you're spending more time in one area than the other, and some weeks you intend to spend more time in one area, but, you know, a priority comes up, and you're gonna go to that sales meeting even if you meant to be recruiting today, you know, So I think being okay with the fact that your priorities will change from week to week, from day to day, and sometimes even from moment to moment, and being flexible in that and recognizing that timing is everything and being able to identify when something is both urgent and important and then run from there. I think, you know, timing and time management is everything.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:53]:
Awesome. And I know I spoke with Adrian before sitting down with you, and some of the things that he said is like, you're a phenomenal people connector. Like, one of the craziest things is your solid intuition. Let me ask you this. Your intuition within recruiting, is that something that grew over time, or did you just have it initially?

Mindi Romero [00:46:12]:
I think I. I was honestly a natural when it came to recruiting. What I had to grow over time was the discipline was there's just so much knowledge to absorb. The talent I had, I felt like I was a natural at it. It was everything else I had to learn.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:31]:
Awesome. Well, Mindy, this has been such an awesome interview. If somebody wants to follow you and your journey, how do they go about doing that?

Mindi Romero [00:46:40]:
Yeah, I mean, if you're local, reach out. I am definitely. By the way, I'm in Colorado. I'm definitely around and would love to see you and shake your hand and get to know you at all of the wonderful events. But if you're not, which is probably most of you, I am on LinkedIn, Mindy Romero. And let's. Let's start by connecting there and getting to know each other's journey and taking it from there.

Benjamin Mena [00:47:03]:
And if you can give one last thing for the listeners, what would that be?

Mindi Romero [00:47:07]:
Don't be afraid to say yes when someone reaches out to you to do something that pushes you outside of your comfort zone. Being here now, even with you, certainly pushes me outside of my comfort zone and I'm having a blast. I'm really grateful to be here and I think that when you do something that makes you uncomfortable, you grow. And so here we are.

Benjamin Mena [00:47:29]:
Awesome. Well, Mindy, I just want to say thank you so much for coming on. It's like in the sales side of recruiting, it's the dirty word. Everybody hates it, but we have to do it if we want to become great recruiters. Learn to love it, learn to love it. But also just think of all the things that she talked about that's working. What are you doing during the day? Like reanalyze your week? What can you do different to bring people in organically like she has? So I hope this was a great learning lesson from you guys. Can't wait to see your guys success this year.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:02]:
Make 2025 the year that counts. Remember, you're one placement away from changing your life. Thank you guys.

Mindi Romero [00:48:08]:
Thank you.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:09]:
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Benjamin Mena [00:48:46]:
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