Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Tampa Bay Staffing Success: Matt Becker's PrideStaff Transparency Strategy

Transcript

Tampa Bay Staffing Success: Matt Becker's PrideStaff Transparency Strategy · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Matt Becker, Strategic Partner and Franchise
0:21
Owner with Pride staff. The franchise or was founded in
0:25
1978 and is based in Fresno, CA. They are a staffing and
0:29
recruiting firm that focuses on providing exceptional client
0:33
experiences across multiple industries by connecting
0:37
businesses with top talent nationwide.
0:40
Their mission is to consistently deliver what clients value most.
0:45
They've earned widespread recognition, including the
0:48
prestigious Best of Staffing award from Clearly Rated Now.
0:52
Matt is the owner of the Tampa Bay franchise and has been
0:55
instrumental in helping Tampa Bay businesses navigate a
0:59
challenging talent market by leveraging local market data and
1:03
proven recruitment strategies. He holds ABA in political theory
1:08
and constitutional democracy from Michigan State University,
1:12
with previous roles as COO for the 2012 Tampa Bay Host
1:16
Committee and Vice President of Private Banking at Regions
1:20
Financial Corporation. Matt brings a wealth of
1:23
experience and leadership to Pride staff.
1:26
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
1:29
brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where
1:32
we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that
1:35
are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your
1:38
bottom line. One recent client was able to
1:41
add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by
1:45
implementing one of our innovative programs.
1:48
Results vary for each company and some organizations may not
1:51
be eligible. To find out if your company
1:53
qualifies, contact us today at AD Back benefits.com.
1:56
All right, back to our guest today, strategic partner and
2:00
franchise owner of Pride Staff, Matt Becker.
2:02
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:05
Hey, thank you for the invitation.
2:06
I'm I'm looking forward to this. So Matt, you actually had a
2:09
number of civic and government related jobs in your career
2:14
before becoming a business owner.
2:16
What attracted you to that type of?
2:18
Work the competition. You know, the, the, the personal
2:24
interaction that you have in politics and in public policy.
2:28
I think having an ability to shape what our world looks like,
2:32
having the ability to, to really have an influence in, in who's
2:36
representing us and what they're doing and, and what direction we
2:38
go. Back in the early 2000s, late
2:42
90s, when I, when I was really heavily into it, it, it was a
2:45
fun place to be. It, it's some place where I, I,
2:48
I tell anybody, if you're just graduated college, it is a great
2:52
start to your career because you get exposed to so many different
2:54
things. I'm looking at one position in
2:58
particular, deputy chief of staff and White House liaison
3:02
for the US Small Business Administration.
3:04
What was that role like? What were you doing there?
3:06
So it it, it's a 2 pronged role, the White House liaison role
3:10
traditionally within any administration doesn't matter.
3:12
Republican, Democrat, it doesn't really matter.
3:14
You're a conduit to the White House and their agenda, whatever
3:18
that policy agenda may be, whatever agency you're in,
3:21
that's part of it. But the other part of it is
3:23
really hiring people within the administration to join the SBA.
3:27
So you're going to work with White House staff, you're going
3:29
to work with outside groups, you're going to try and find the
3:32
best people you can to represent the the administration's efforts
3:36
within the agency, in my case the SBA, so that we can push the
3:40
president's agenda forward. On the deputy chief of staff
3:43
side, it's what you would generally think.
3:45
It's program management, it's oversight, it's looking for
3:47
improvements. It's it's trying to hit your
3:50
deadlines on deliverables. So if if there's a management
3:53
side and a recruiting side, when you think of White House liaison
3:56
and deputy chief of South. And I'm guessing that recruiting
3:59
experience at the SBA is probably very valuable to you
4:03
once you would go on to eventually start your own
4:05
staffing business. You, you know, jumping ahead
4:08
when, when my wife and I finally made a decision that said, all
4:11
right, we want to stay in Tampa Bay permanently.
4:14
What are we going to do? The downside of the Tampa Bay
4:17
market for somebody like me is there's not a lot of people,
4:19
there's not a ton of of opportunities down here for
4:23
government affairs, political consulting.
4:27
I mean, you have a lot of 1 offs, one people or one person
4:30
shops. Excuse me.
4:32
So we started to look back at what do we enjoy?
4:34
What do we like doing? And she was in presidential
4:36
personnel. So she did the same thing, but
4:38
she did it from the White House. We, we both said we, we enjoyed
4:43
this piece of it. We enjoyed put putting people to
4:45
work and watching their faces light up and, and feel like
4:48
they've got a, a jump start. And so that's where we started
4:52
to move. And that's really where the
4:54
Pride staff journey started. OK.
4:56
And I want to come back to that in a minute, but I know at one
4:59
point you kind of left the government work and you went
5:02
into private sector, You were working in private banking.
5:06
Tell us about that experience and what you learned there that
5:09
would later be helpful to you at Pride Staff.
5:11
You know, this one is always challenging to to talk about
5:16
because I don't want it to be a sob story.
5:18
But I think from a from a father husband perspective, there are
5:24
times in your life where you have to make a choice.
5:26
And it's isn't my career or what you know, where do I prioritize?
5:29
Is it my family or is it my career?
5:31
And in this particular case, my my family went out.
5:33
And in the short story behind it is my son was born six weeks
5:39
early. He had RSV, his lungs were not
5:41
fully developed. He was at he moved from Sibley
5:44
Hospital to Georgetown in DC because his lungs were not
5:47
reacting to fact in it. It he was, he was a mess.
5:51
He he, he, he's fine. He's great.
5:53
He grew up fine. But for the first four or five
5:55
years of his life, he breathing was a struggle for him until his
5:59
lungs got fully formed. At the same time, no sooner did
6:03
we bring him home, my mother-in-law was re diagnosed
6:06
with acute myeloid leukemia. And so dealing with the leukemia
6:10
from the mother, that or my mother-in-law, excuse me, my
6:14
son's illness, the pressure of being dealing with hurricanes
6:17
Katrina, Reed and Wilma, truthfully, we made a knee jerk
6:20
reaction. It was my wife needed to be home
6:22
with her mom and her dad and her brother.
6:25
My son needed to be outside of DC where we could care for him
6:28
better because the hours and the pressure wouldn't be so bad.
6:31
So my choice at that point is how do I get from DC to the
6:36
Tampa Bay area as fast as possible?
6:38
So there was no thought behind it.
6:40
There was no strategy of hey, I really love banking on.
6:43
It was just how do I get from point A to point B and make it
6:47
work? Why specifically Tampa?
6:50
She sorry, she grew up in the Clearwater area, so her family
6:54
is right here in the Clearwater area.
6:55
So we wanted to come back so that she could help both with
6:59
her mom but then also have more time.
7:00
She could be a stay at home mom to help with our son.
7:04
And so I see that you were there for about 5 years at the bank
7:08
and then the opportunity to that, how do you?
7:14
Think about it. You got the recession, You got
7:16
the TARP funds. I mean, if you want to pick a
7:18
bad time to get into banking, I chose the best bad time to get
7:22
in. Recession everyone's familiar
7:24
with Explain TARP funds. So that was when they did the
7:26
the bank bailouts because the banks were really failing.
7:31
And So what banks were trying to do, you had layoffs throughout
7:34
the banking industry because all banks were losing money on all
7:38
their real estate investments. And now all of a sudden they had
7:41
to find other ways to generate revenue or cut expenses.
7:45
And so even with what we're doing in private banking, you're
7:48
calling loans, you're trying to keep ahead of your sales targets
7:52
because you could be the next person laid off, you know,
7:54
tomorrow. And so for that, that stretch
7:56
from O 6 to probably 20 or 2910, it, it was just a fist fight.
8:03
I mean, that's really all it was.
8:06
Yeah, It doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but as a dad,
8:09
as a husband and as a son-in-law, you stepped up, put
8:13
your family 1st and you did what you had to do for five
8:17
challenging years. And then a new opportunity comes
8:21
about. You're the chief operating
8:23
officer then at the 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee.
8:28
That sounds like kind of a a big undertaking.
8:30
Tell me about this. What was your role there?
8:32
It was huge. So the, the there's two sides to
8:35
any convention. And again, Republican, Democrat
8:37
doesn't really matter, in part because of federal election
8:40
rules. And without going too deep into
8:42
the federal election rules, the host committee, which is what I
8:45
was part of, represents the community.
8:47
So we are nonpartisan. We don't care who The Who the
8:51
nominee is. We don't care what the message
8:53
is. We we that that has nothing to
8:55
do with the host committee, but we put on almost all the events
8:59
we're responsible for, you know, paying for the staging, we're
9:03
responsible for the welcome event there.
9:06
There's there's a lot of stuff that is considered non political
9:10
that the host committee does. And the whole idea behind it is
9:12
how do we provide a boost to the local economy for our community,
9:16
in this case Tampa Bay? The other side of it is the
9:19
political side of it. And they obviously do care who
9:22
the nominee is and they do care what the message is and they
9:26
work on that stuff. But but we're really the funding
9:28
source behind it to make the convention go and it is a huge
9:34
undertaking. But I will also say, as much as
9:36
I've enjoyed Pride staff and as fun as it is, I never have I
9:40
enjoyed a job more than that one.
9:41
What was so fun about it? The challenge it, it was the
9:46
people you meet, the things you see in the the, the
9:49
conversations you're in like you're sitting with the Secret
9:51
Service, seeing how they work and, and seeing what worries
9:54
them and, and things that you just never and even in my
9:57
business life today, you just sitting there going.
9:59
I never in a million years would have thought of that, but now
10:02
that you mentioned it, I get a perfect idea.
10:04
Like they're, they're looking at, you know what, when the
10:08
nominee is in, in our case, the Emily Arena speaking, you know,
10:12
they're doing math to figure out if an IED is going to blow up.
10:15
What is sort of the radius they need to be out of.
10:17
Well, that's not my everyday vernacular, but for them it has
10:21
to be. And it's just fascinating to see
10:23
how they work and how good they are at it.
10:26
Now taking on a role like this, obviously you know that there's
10:30
a life cycle to it, right? Because once the event takes
10:34
place, there's probably a little bit of wrap up, but then you
10:38
know, this isn't an ongoing role.
10:40
So you kind of, I'm assuming went into it understanding that,
10:42
right? And so what's the the thought
10:44
process is this is wrapping up and you know you need to look
10:48
for the next thing. Yep, that's exactly right.
10:50
So a large part of why I took it was I figured, OK, this gets me
10:53
out of banking's. I couldn't really find that
10:55
lever and it was a bad time even then.
10:57
I mean, yes, we are coming out of the recession, yes, things
10:59
are getting better, but my background still is not
11:03
conducive to finding great roles here in the Tampa Bay market
11:06
'cause there's just not a ton of them.
11:08
So the thought process was go back in, we broadened the
11:11
network that we know in, in Tampa Bay.
11:13
We also reconnect with people in DC.
11:15
And then when it's all said and done, we can sort of then as a
11:18
family make a decision, OK, what you know what, what is the best
11:21
course? Is it going back into DC?
11:23
Is it staying here local? Like what do we want to do?
11:27
But but for me, I felt like it was the best place to really
11:30
broaden the the network to figure out what could I do in
11:34
Tampa Bay and do I want to get back into DC?
11:38
You know, I, I want to rewind for a second though, because I'm
11:40
thinking back to the five years that you did in private banking.
11:44
And obviously it was clear that this was not something from a
11:48
professional standpoint that you wanted to do.
11:51
It wasn't a, a passion. This wasn't, you know, the
11:54
chosen path. It was, it was a necessity, you
11:57
know, born out of families. And, and it's one thing to sit
12:00
here and say it was a tough five years, but I'm kind of curious
12:03
to, you know, pull back the curtain a little bit and like,
12:06
how did you really slog through that?
12:08
You know, it, it's tough when every day you get you're getting
12:12
out of bed and you're like, I hate what I do.
12:14
You know, I, I'm not looking forward to this.
12:17
This is I, I want to be somewhere else, but I've got to
12:20
show up like like how did you push yourself through that?
12:25
An argument, not really an argument, a discussion.
12:27
My wife and I have have frequently and especially with
12:30
our kids, education is important.
12:33
You know, getting good grades important.
12:35
Would not shy away from it. But.
12:36
But what I've always told her an answer to that similar question
12:39
is I grew up as a swimmer and a water polo player.
12:42
And I think athletics more than anything else has what drove you
12:45
through that? There is no quit.
12:47
There is no stopping. If you want to be good at your
12:49
sport, you have to, you have to show up every day and get it
12:53
done. And I think the, the argument
12:56
I've always had with my wife is, yes, academics extremely
12:59
important, but I will also say what we did athletically will
13:03
match academics because of the willpower it, it instills in you
13:06
and the discipline it instills in you.
13:08
Because you're right, I hated going to work and I, I was
13:10
terrified because I'm watching, you know, our private bank
13:14
members or, you know, the, the, the staff dwindle because
13:17
they're laying people off. And and especially for the guy
13:19
with no experience who just showed up in the market and
13:22
knows nobody or anything about banking.
13:25
I'm waiting for that shoe to drop on me when I've got, you
13:27
know, a 2 year old and then in 2008, a second child.
13:31
It it was one of those things where the willpower said you
13:34
can't quit, you cannot stop, you have to keep pushing.
13:38
And that, more than anything else drove me is my back was
13:41
against a wall. Interesting that you mentioned
13:44
sports. This comes up in a lot of my
13:46
interviews, you know, and, and I wonder was the competitive
13:49
spirit there before sports or do you think that sports in
13:53
competing and swimming and water polo really helped to fuel that
13:58
inside of you? I think having an older brother
14:01
beat up on you when you were like four and five really got
14:04
you to go. Like, no, we're going to get
14:05
after this, bud. No, I think both really.
14:08
I think it was there. I think it got further refined
14:11
and further developed as you go through the process and you see
14:15
your hard work pay off or you start to see people that you
14:19
don't think work as hard as you or you don't like that may beat
14:22
you that you're like, that's not happening again.
14:24
Like we need to redouble our efforts and and get after it.
14:28
I'm curious. How and I guess if you've been
14:32
able to instill a similar sense of competitiveness in your kids,
14:37
You know, the your one son I know had breathing issues.
14:40
I don't know if that continued to be kind of a factor maybe
14:42
limited some of the things that he might have been able to do in
14:45
competition. What do you say to that?
14:49
Mixed results, honestly, my son. The good news about my son is
14:52
the doctors basically said he was going to have breathing
14:55
issues until about kindergarten. They said somewhere in that four
14:57
to five year old range, his lungs will sort of match the
15:00
maturity. It'll just take that long to get
15:02
there and his breathing issues will evaporate.
15:04
And that is exactly what happened once we got past
15:07
kindergarten. He was just not that he was not
15:10
a normal kid before that. He was just subject to asthma
15:13
attacks is really what it was. But he he was fine.
15:16
He played competitive basketball and and I think the thing that
15:19
I'm most proud of out of him, his work ethic was relentless.
15:22
And I think he really took that in in he just made himself the
15:26
best he could be with the with the talents that he has.
15:29
My daughter is different. She's a swimmer.
15:35
She's competitive when she wants to be.
15:38
She's a little bit more competitive on the academic
15:40
side. Like she gets really on herself
15:42
if she doesn't get the grade she thinks she should have on the
15:45
athletic side. You know, I, I haven't figured
15:49
her out per SE yet because there's days she's like, eh, Oh
15:53
well. And then the next day she's
15:54
like, we're going to drop some time today.
15:56
And she goes and does it. So mixed bag.
15:59
And it seems to me and my, my kids are younger, 9 and 10 at
16:03
the moment. And at least at this stage, it
16:06
seems to me like when I sort of try to push that, you know, come
16:11
on, let's let's refine, let's practice, let's get better.
16:14
I mean, a lot of resistance and it becomes less fun for them.
16:17
And they they sort of shy away. But when it comes from inside of
16:21
themselves, that's when you know, there's the real inertia,
16:26
the the forward momentum that like, I'm going to do this, I'm
16:29
going to figure it out. Well, the only job I've ever
16:32
been fired from and, and frankly, now that I've mentioned
16:36
this, I can't show her this podcast.
16:37
She'll get mad at me, but the only job I've ever been fired
16:40
from is when I was an assistant swim coach coaching her and she
16:43
finally came up to me one day and said you're done.
16:47
She was in 8th grade. And she goes, I want to be a
16:48
regular kid. You need to exit the deck.
16:51
Yes ma'am. And we're gone.
16:54
All right, so you're echoing what I'm saying here, what my
16:56
experiences have been. All right, so let's move back to
16:58
to pride staff. So, you know, the the
17:01
opportunity with the the host committee there in Tampa Bay
17:04
that was wrapping up and, you know, you had already mentioned
17:07
that you and your wife had kind of, you know, done a little bit
17:10
of soul searching. OK.
17:11
What from our past have we, you know, really enjoyed kind of
17:14
doing? And it's like, yeah, we really
17:15
enjoy putting people to work. Right.
17:18
So at this point, was there a thought of maybe we just start
17:23
our own staffing agency or let's interview some different
17:26
franchisors? Like kind of what was the the
17:28
thought process that kind of led you to the the pride staff
17:31
opportunity? You know, fortunately or
17:35
unfortunately, because I think it worked out best in the end,
17:37
is there was another business deal that I was working on prior
17:41
to starting brought pride staff that literally fell through at
17:44
the 11th hour. It was one of those things where
17:46
the business center decided I'm not selling.
17:48
And it was we, we, I mean, we were down to starting to
17:51
renegotiate leases. It, it was more or less a done
17:53
deal and they just went no. And so at that point I, I sort
17:59
of backed away and said, all right, what's next?
18:00
And I was blessed. I had a friend introduce me to a
18:03
franchise broker here in the area and they put 5 franchises
18:06
in front of me in Pride staff being one of them.
18:09
So I can't really say that we went into it saying hey, let's
18:12
do staffing. It was only after that deal fell
18:14
apart and we sat down with the franchise broker that we went,
18:17
OK, what are we going to be good at?
18:20
What do we want to do? What, you know, what is going to
18:21
interest us? Because the, the, the thing for
18:24
me is I didn't want to do something just to do something.
18:27
I wanted to do something that would drive my interest and
18:29
drive my learning and and drive my sense of accomplishment, not
18:33
from a financial standpoint, but when I lay my head on the pillow
18:36
at night, I go, I did something to help this community get
18:38
better. That has always driven me.
18:40
And that's sort of back to my political interests.
18:43
It's I like thinking that we're doing something that is
18:46
benefiting society. And so the five, you know, you
18:50
get 5 sort of franchises put in front of you.
18:53
Were they all in the staffing space?
18:55
No price staffing was the only one.
18:56
The other there was we're going back now 11 years, but I
19:00
business consulting slash business coaching were the vast
19:03
majority. I had an older, you know, like
19:06
a, a, a gym concept that focused on elderly people, which is a
19:10
great concept here in Florida. And then there was a a window
19:15
cleaning business that I was like, yeah, we're no.
19:19
OK, so Pride staff staffing that intrigued you the most.
19:25
Tell us about the kinds of staffing services that you
19:28
provide. Are these temporary?
19:31
Are these direct hire? What kinds of industries are you
19:35
kind of specializing in? Yep.
19:37
So pride staff will will work the gamma from temporary temp
19:41
hire to direct hire. I will say that I I have
19:44
modified that slightly from my market just because of what my
19:47
strengths and my interests are. I very rarely do temporary
19:50
projects. It it's generally with a good
19:52
client who may have a need, I will help there.
19:56
But generally speaking, I am on the temp to hire and direct hire
20:00
side. And what I like to say is I'm
20:01
not a staffing firm. I'm an employment firm.
20:04
I'm not looking to to just put people and then try and redeploy
20:07
them later. I want them to have stability.
20:10
I want my candidates to have growth.
20:12
I in a perfect world, I want to lose revenue because we did such
20:16
a good job. They don't need a second person
20:17
to replace. And then, you know, the
20:19
challenge for me then is I got to keep finding new clients to
20:23
keep that revenue up. But but that is ultimately where
20:26
we like to go, in part because I where my wife and I both enjoy
20:31
it is we love the comments or we love the the the feedback when
20:35
we hear from somebody who's been at a job that we placed them at
20:38
six, 7-8 years later, going this has been the best job of my
20:42
life. You know, you change the scope
20:43
or the trajectory in my life. That's what makes us feel good.
20:49
Yeah, it would seem to me that and tell me if I'm right or
20:53
wrong here, Matt, but it would seem to me that doing more of
20:57
those direct placements is probably a a better margin, but
21:01
you don't have the consistency that you would with the
21:04
temporary stat. Hey, you placed, you know, 5
21:07
workers here, 10 workers there. You know, even if those
21:10
employees are sort of turning over, you're finding new folks,
21:13
you know, to continue those roles because, you know, your
21:16
client that employer needs, you know, needs that, you know,
21:19
ongoing continuity of that work. So I'm, I'm kind of curious, you
21:26
know, sort of moving away from the consistency of that model
21:29
over here where you constantly have to find new clients.
21:33
What is your process for that? What have you found to be sort
21:37
of the most effective ways to meet new clients on a regular
21:41
basis to, you know, kind of keep your sales funnel full?
21:45
Really, it's, it's been partially a big factor of it is
21:49
networking, it's being involved in the community.
21:51
It's, it's meeting new people. It's, it's just become easier
21:55
when you know Sally or Jim next door goes, oh, I know Bob's
21:59
hiring and they make an introduction, It becomes a much
22:02
easier sales process. But to keep the overall pipeline
22:05
full, what I've really turned to is a little bit more on the
22:08
social selling side. I, I'm very active on LinkedIn.
22:11
We do a fair amount of social media and paper click
22:14
advertising because I think really post COVID that the world
22:19
changed and, and especially in the HR space or even the senior
22:23
management space, so many people work from home that you're not,
22:26
you're not getting them on the phone as often when you call,
22:28
you're not getting responses to emails.
22:30
So you have to find other ways to touch them, which doesn't
22:33
mean that those other ways aren't helpful because somebody
22:35
may see your pamphlet or they may get the voicemail or you
22:38
know, you hit the right time. But you have to, in my opinion,
22:41
we had to increase the, the, the, the bandwidth or, or the,
22:44
the total number of people we were hitting.
22:47
The only way I could do that on my own, I thought and think is
22:50
really through social selling. It's going to be through social
22:53
media. It's going to be through Google
22:54
Pay per click. And you find people are really
22:56
engaging with that. Yeah, actually it's been, it's
22:59
been fascinating. And bluntly, the other thing,
23:01
that's really where my newsletter started trying
23:05
because it was the newsletter's A2 Fer for me.
23:08
One hand, I can get it out to a large number of people to sort
23:12
of see what the data is. And that begs questions and
23:14
that, you know, brings interaction.
23:16
But then the second part is I can now e-mail it out to
23:19
prospects who may not have seen it or clients who may be slow to
23:22
hire and try and nudge them along gently with here's what
23:26
the real hiring market looks like.
23:27
So, so the newsletter really helps me in two ways.
23:29
It helps me with the existing but also helps me attracting
23:32
new. So the newsletter is part of
23:34
what allows you to collect and analyze kind of local market
23:38
intelligence, is that right? So say more about that.
23:41
Like how? How did it start like and how is
23:43
it working now? So the, the whole start behind
23:46
it is once we all went into COVID, everybody really became a
23:50
lot more myoptic, or at least I in, in terms of my clientele,
23:53
because my clientele is generally small to mid sized
23:55
businesses. So they're privately held.
23:57
You're, you're going to have an owner or you might have an HR
24:00
staff, but they all know their business or their industry and
24:04
they just don't know Tampa Bay or they don't know the national
24:07
trends because they just got very focused on their business.
24:10
And especially during COVID, when everybody went home, it
24:14
became a, it became a, a struggle to get some people
24:17
hiring even as we came back because they were working off of
24:19
yesterday's info or, or last year's ideology and it just
24:24
didn't work. And so this was sort of my way
24:26
of saying I want to take actual sources.
24:27
I, I don't want to do news sources.
24:29
So you very rarely we'll see me put NBC or Fox or CNN.
24:33
What you'll see is Conference Board, Brookings, BLS, you're
24:37
going to see the actual sources so that when the client or the
24:41
prospect sees it, it's not Matt Becker from Pridestaff saying,
24:44
hey, pal, hustle it up. You're going to lose this best
24:46
prospect. It's going to be somebody that
24:49
is really well thought of within the market saying here's what's
24:52
actually happening. And Pridestaff brought you this
24:55
information. Interesting.
24:58
And so can you tell us how many subscribers you have or is that
25:01
even relevant to what you're doing?
25:02
So right now I, I looked it up, it's just about 1200 subscribers
25:08
is, is what I have on it, give or take.
25:12
And but what I like about it is for me, my open rate so far has
25:16
been generally between 45 and 50%.
25:19
So I know that I'm getting a good open rate.
25:21
So people are seeing the information and you know, one of
25:24
the things I love to say is I got a call out of the blue and
25:26
this is now maybe 2 years old, but it was a recruiter out of
25:30
London who had seen my newsletter and was calling me to
25:33
go, hey, I want to talk more about the United States market
25:35
because I'm thinking about coming in.
25:37
And so I know the reach that I'm I'm getting is, is significant
25:43
and that those conversations are, are great because the other
25:46
part to it is how I put the newsletter together is through a
25:49
lot of those conversations or the conversations we have with
25:51
candidates, you start to see trends.
25:53
I know generally speaking what is interesting to most business
25:57
owners or hiring managers and then I try and go find the data
26:01
that is going to help them better understand what is
26:03
actually happening based on that trend.
26:06
Matt, let's talk for a second about Pride staff itself.
26:10
What makes this franchise particularly helpful to the
26:15
franchisees? So for me, the, the, the, the
26:19
defining moment from where I get along really well with pride
26:22
staff is transparency. When we started in the process,
26:26
they told me what they were going to do, how they were going
26:29
to do it, when they were going to do it, how long it would
26:31
take. And I'll be darned if they
26:33
didn't find just do that to a tee.
26:34
I mean, it was, it was like clockwork.
26:36
It was perfect. And that transparency is what
26:40
really attracted me to, to pride staff.
26:42
Yes, the, the hiring and, and it hit what my wife and I enjoyed,
26:47
but that transparency is really what put us over the top.
26:50
And I think that has never stopped George Rogers, who was
26:53
the founder, who has since passed.
26:55
He could sell ice to Eskimos, but he had a, a, a, a
26:58
personality that really drew you in.
27:00
So when we did our discovery day, getting to know George and
27:04
seeing the loyalty he built within his own staff where
27:06
people had been there for 20 and 30 years, it really set Pride
27:10
staff apart from the other franchises that we had talked
27:13
about or talked to. There was a great back office
27:17
strength that they had. So as somebody getting into the
27:20
industry, yes, I know how to hire, yes, I know how to
27:23
recruit. But yet on the other hand there
27:24
there's a whole bunch of stuff that you just don't know.
27:27
I felt very comfortable making that move and and it was that
27:30
trust built through transparency, in my opinion.
27:33
And so as I understand it, we talked in the intro about, you
27:36
know, you have the franchise in Tampa Bay, but you actually have
27:39
two franchises. Is that right?
27:41
That is correct. I've got one in Clearwater and
27:43
I've got one in Tampa. OK.
27:45
And they're just sort of right across the bridge from each
27:48
other so that. Yep.
27:50
So essentially, I mean, I'm 30 minutes from everywhere within
27:52
the Tampa Bay market for the most part, so that they're
27:56
probably a little closer together than what I like.
27:58
But on the other hand, the joy of being a business owner is I
28:01
didn't want to make my commute that far.
28:02
So I I get to choose. And So what does it look like
28:06
for you to be active in the community?
28:08
Like, I don't know, you going to the chamber meetings are you
28:13
tell me. But like, how are you?
28:14
How are you meeting folks out there?
28:16
So currently I chair the YMCA, the Suncoast, which is a
28:22
collection of 6 wives as we go up through Pinellas, Pasco,
28:25
Hernando and Citrus counties. I sit on the board of the Y
28:28
State Alliance. So the YMCA is something I'm
28:30
very passionate about and in part Youth and Sports and
28:33
development in, in providing that next generation, the
28:37
leadership for the next generation to come up.
28:39
I think the YMCA is an absolute fabulous place for it.
28:42
And so I've invested a lot of time and effort there.
28:46
But previously I was part of the Clearwater Downtown partnership.
28:48
I've been part of Chambers. You know, I'm involved with Reli
28:51
Quest Ball as a member, you know, just a patron, whatever
28:54
you want to say. I try and get involved in
28:58
various activities where I can meet a large number of people,
29:02
but also involved in activities that means something to me.
29:06
Excuse me? Yeah, Matt, So I understand from
29:11
having talked with lots of folks at the staffing industry, I
29:14
mean, like any industry has seen its ups and downs, right?
29:17
It goes through sort of different cycles.
29:20
Kind of curious to hear how you manage that uncertainty.
29:26
You know, the beauty of it is you get used to it in
29:28
government. You never know what your day's
29:30
going to be like. You never know when you think
29:32
you're going in that direction and then some something happens
29:36
in the world and all of a sudden you made a hard left turn and
29:38
you're going in a different direction.
29:39
Staffing really isn't much different.
29:42
We are the consummate middleman. I can't control the candidate
29:44
and I can't control the client. All I can do is control my
29:48
activities and, and, and how I respond to both sides.
29:51
So that uncertainty is just part and parcel of being in the
29:54
industry. And so I think you just have to
29:58
grow accustomed to it and stay committed and stay focused and
30:01
stay diligent and stay consistent in all your
30:04
activities. And, and eventually through just
30:06
sheer volume of numbers, it'll work itself out.
30:09
But if if I get too caught up in one client or one candidate and
30:12
have that roller coaster of emotions, we're just not going
30:16
to do well in the staffing industry.
30:18
You really have to build that. I'm focused on what I can do and
30:21
what I can control and how I handle it.
30:24
You know, earlier in the interview we were talking about
30:26
how you and your wife had this conversation.
30:28
Hey, what, you know, do we enjoy?
30:29
What might we want to get into? Is she involved in the business
30:32
with you? She is originally the original
30:35
start process is she wasn't, but then once both kids got into
30:39
school, she was like, you know what, I want to get back into
30:42
this, I want to do something. And so really we split the
30:45
business. Now she will do much of the
30:47
hiring with our internal staff. She'll she'll lead the hiring
30:51
and the candidate development. I am out on the marketing and
30:54
business development and community relations side.
30:56
So it it, it's very helpful to me, especially with two offices
31:00
that we can sort of divide and conquer.
31:03
How would you describe your superpower?
31:09
I, you know, I, I, I don't know that I have one.
31:13
I mean, I think, you know, you talked to my mom.
31:16
She's probably saying that, you know, no brain, no pain.
31:19
I just don't, I, I just keep trucking along.
31:23
I think that may be, it is. I, I don't really react to the
31:26
ups and downs. I think I can stay pretty
31:28
emotionally stable, which allows me to make good decisions that
31:34
are not emotionally based. I can make strategic decisions
31:36
because I'm not letting emotion dictate what I think is right or
31:40
wrong. I'm trying to let the data, I'm
31:41
trying to let you know the, the, the, the things that matter most
31:45
to me, which is going to be transparency within my own
31:47
office and how I treat people. That's really where I go.
31:50
So if if I if I had to say something, it's that emotional
31:55
stability. Steady Eddie, Mr. Even Keel?
31:58
Yeah. How about your wife?
31:59
How would you describe her superpower?
32:02
She's, she's a private investigator in waiting.
32:07
She, she is very, very good at being very detail oriented and
32:11
and really uncovering who is good at this type of role by
32:15
digging deep through the interview process.
32:17
She's exceptionally good at that because her where we complement
32:22
each other is I'm more than 30,000 foot view and she's at
32:24
the 0 foot view. And that really works because
32:28
when I find that order and I bring it back and she starts
32:32
working or the team starts working, she's so focused on the
32:36
detail of what they want. We, we do a really nice job on
32:40
that temp to hire side of finding the right people and,
32:42
and moving and moving forward on the direct hire side as well.
32:45
But most of our businesses temp to hire, that is where we work
32:51
very well together because she can pull that 30,000 say here's
32:54
how it's going to work. Matt, my favorite question to
32:57
ask in these interviews is to kind of go a little deep into a
33:01
serious challenge that you've overcome, whether it's personal
33:04
or professional, how you got through it, what you learn.
33:07
We've already touched on some things for sure.
33:10
We can kind of go a little bit deeper into one of those, or
33:12
maybe you've got something else in mind that you want to
33:14
discuss. You know, I think that, that,
33:18
that Regions bank experience, I mean, the bank is fine.
33:20
So I, I, I don't want to disparage your think I'm
33:23
disparaging the bank. It was really the timing of the,
33:25
you know, getting into the industry, the timing of what was
33:28
going on in my personal life that that sort of led into it.
33:31
I still got great friends. Some of my best friends were
33:34
built from those times of regions.
33:37
So it just it banking was not for me.
33:39
And I think to me, when I look back, that was my sort of
33:44
defining moment because life through your curveball, no
33:46
matter how much you want to plan and strategize where my life's
33:49
going, at some point in time, you have to make a choice of
33:53
what matters the most to you. And in that case, it was my wife
33:56
and my child. And, and I don't regret it, but
34:00
it also led to a good five years of pain, as you said.
34:04
And I think the the stamina to keep going proves something to
34:08
me that when you started this business, it was tough getting
34:12
Pride staff from zero up to where we're at now.
34:16
But I relied back on all those experiences of you made it in
34:20
banking where you knew nothing and survived.
34:23
You will do the exact same thing here and you'll apply the exact
34:26
same principles, which is really transparency, consistency, hard
34:29
work, good personality and keeping your mind open to new
34:32
opportunities into how do I market?
34:35
How do I improve? You know, what relationships do
34:36
I need to build to make this successful?
34:40
And how old were you when you first started that position at
34:42
the bank? If I, I'm going to think about
34:46
that, I'm going to say 32 well. Still relatively young, but OK,
34:55
still relatively young, but difficult to make that kind of
34:59
a, a switch from work that you had loved and sort of the civic
35:02
and the government, you know, space to this is something I
35:05
just got to do. And, you know, you know, when
35:08
you're sort of in the slog of that five years in those
35:12
moments, not knowing exactly how long that's going to last, you
35:15
know, I think, and I'm curious to hear if if this has been true
35:19
for you. I think a lot of times, you
35:20
know, as human beings, we sort of get in our minds like, oh,
35:23
this is just my crappy reality forever.
35:26
You know, like I'm just going to be, you know, trudging along for
35:29
the rest of my life rather than like, hey, this is a hard thing
35:32
that I need to go through for now because of the
35:35
circumstances. And what can I learn?
35:38
You know, I this is what I find when I can sort of turn it
35:40
around and be curious, Like what can I learn from this hard time
35:44
now that's going to set me up better for success down the
35:47
road? It's funny you mention that
35:49
because I've got a son who's going into a sophomore year at
35:53
Michigan State and, and as we sort of briefly touched on, you
35:57
know, what is Michigan State football going to look like?
35:58
And, and in his mind, he's like, Michigan State football's going
36:01
to be awful for the rest of my life.
36:03
It's going to be miserable. What I've really been working on
36:07
with him, because it really worked and helped with me, is
36:12
you have to be looking at the light at the end of the song.
36:14
You have to be thinking, I have to learn from this.
36:17
I have to take from this and I have to build from this because
36:19
I'm not going to allow this to define me and I'm not going to
36:24
allow this situation to go on indefinitely.
36:26
I will deal with it for as long as I have to, but I am always
36:29
looking for ways to improve or looking for ways to get a better
36:34
situation for me and my family as opposed to just sitting back
36:37
on we're awful. You know, it is what it is.
36:40
So really working with him to change that perspective of no,
36:44
no, you've got to look at the bright.
36:46
You have to look at the, the glass is half full, especially
36:49
if you want to go into sales or business development, the glass
36:51
always has to be half full or that glass empties out real
36:55
quick. And so there's been a lot of
36:58
work on him because that's sort of his, his mindset and his
37:00
default. I've been different.
37:02
My I'm always a glass half full guy.
37:04
This, this is my time for today. It'll be better tomorrow.
37:08
Have you? Always been a glass half full
37:10
kind of a guy or did you have to develop that?
37:14
I think I've always had it. I, I think I've always sort of
37:17
approached is tomorrow will be better.
37:20
And I, I don't know why. I just think that's just how
37:23
it's made. And as someone now who's trying
37:26
to, you know, coach their young adult son into a similar
37:29
mindset, do you have any advice for folks who are sort of not
37:33
naturally wired the way that you are?
37:35
Like, how can I develop that perspective?
37:38
How can I strengthen that muscle?
37:40
I think it's back to consistency.
37:42
I think it's it's and it's looking for the positive as
37:45
opposed to the negative. I think in today's world, and I
37:49
think the, this, the decided advantage I have over my son is
37:53
the fact that we didn't have social media, we didn't have
37:54
phones locked into our hands. We didn't, you know, you, you
37:57
can just sit there and I think the new term is doom scrolling,
37:59
like, oh, the market's tariffs are going to destroy and all of
38:03
a sudden you start believing everything you see.
38:05
And I think part of where I was able to develop that skill was
38:09
really, I didn't have that when I started my professional career
38:13
and, and we were making jumps and making decisions.
38:16
What was it? I, I'd said Twitter, I think it
38:18
was Twitter, the 2012 election or the 2012 convention was the
38:23
first convention that had Twitter.
38:25
So you think that before 2012 we didn't have all this instant
38:29
information. And I think that was really
38:31
helpful because you can meet somebody, you could see
38:33
something on the news and you'd think this is just passing,
38:36
it'll get better. Whereas today it's just every
38:38
day you're getting reinforced messages of doom and gloom as
38:41
opposed to, hey, it's going to get better.
38:43
And I I think that's a decided advantage I have.
38:46
You know, and it's sort of there's there's two parts of
38:48
that social media, right? You get the doom scrolling, the
38:50
doom and the gloom, right, because what, what bleeds it
38:53
leads. But then you also get people
38:56
that are showing sort of the, you know, very polished, sexy
38:59
side of their lives, right? And wow, look at that person.
39:03
You know, it looks like everything comes so easy to
39:05
them. They've, you know, got this big
39:06
house, this fancy car, you know, beautiful vacations.
39:11
And, you know, then you don't see like the day before they
39:14
were, you know, sucking them thumb like crying in the
39:16
bathroom because something that happened.
39:18
Like, you know, we don't get sort of like the, the real, the
39:21
real view into, you know, what people's lives are actually
39:24
like. Absolutely.
39:25
We just recently we were at an event and we were talking to a
39:28
couple who are great friends of ours and, and they were, they
39:31
had gone on this great vacation down in South America and so on
39:33
and so forth. And I was like, those photos are
39:36
incredible. You did this.
39:37
You did that. And and the wife looked at the
39:39
husband and she goes, yeah, but you didn't post us about getting
39:41
mugged, did ya? Perfect example.
39:46
Yeah. Thank you for that.
39:48
Matt, are there any daily practices for you?
39:51
You've talked a lot about consistency.
39:53
You know, for some folks it's exercise or meditation or
39:56
prayer, like things that kind of get you started in the right
39:59
direction, keep you centered, keep you going in the right way.
40:03
So first and foremost, I generally to and from work, I
40:07
like listening to podcasts and and often times it's it's
40:10
staffing podcasts. If there's days where I'm really
40:13
frustrated or I just I want to tune out the world.
40:16
This is this is probably the crazy side of me, but what's it
40:20
called? Spy true spies.
40:21
And it's really stories of espionage of like how in World
40:25
War 2, you know, the United States was able to figure out
40:27
this or Robert Hanson was one that they did, you know how he
40:32
was caught. I love that.
40:34
I absolutely love that. So, so there are times depending
40:37
on my mood, where I get off the staffing podcasts and, and do
40:40
some more entertainment or just fascinating ones.
40:45
Those, those are things that I do mostly.
40:47
But then the other part is I found where maybe I'm a little
40:51
bit different. I, you know, so many of these
40:52
times you hear, I get up at 4:00 AM and I start working out and
40:55
then I meditate. I, I don't do well at 4:00 in
40:57
the morning. I, I found this gotten older.
41:00
That is not my that's not my thing.
41:02
But after I get home from work, I do exercise virtually every
41:07
day. And it, it's partially to let
41:08
everything settle in my mind. It, it allows me to exert some
41:11
energy. I generally find that I'm much
41:14
more emotionally stable just because I'm, I'm able to work
41:18
out and, and burn and sweat and, you know, even in my head start
41:21
yelling at people. And that helps me sleep better
41:26
at night, which I think helps, you know, keep that emotional
41:28
stability. So yeah, you can generally find
41:31
me after work and even after a community event doing some type
41:34
of physical activity. I think the physical exertion is
41:37
a big one, but I love what you said about the The True Spies
41:40
podcast 'cause I think you and I are probably wired somewhat
41:43
similarly in that I'm always looking for, you know, how do I
41:46
improve myself? You know what, how can I learn
41:49
something new? How can I, you know, keep sort
41:51
of pushing the boundaries and but there's a lot of value to
41:57
just letting your brain kind of turn off and go in a different
42:00
channel, you know, So for you, it's true spies.
42:03
For me, I like getting lost in like a, a Netflix series or
42:06
something that maybe it's based on a true story.
42:09
Maybe it's just a like fun, like, I don't know, just like
42:13
just a story to tell because it allows my brain to shut off over
42:17
here and just go over here for a minute and and then when I come
42:21
back here, this side is refreshed and it's ready and
42:23
it's recharged. Do you find the same thing?
42:26
I couldn't have said it any better.
42:27
That is exactly how I feel. When you think about how you
42:34
build your own internal team, what are some things that you've
42:39
tried and found success with to recruit good folks and then when
42:44
you find them, to hold on to them?
42:47
One, you have to identify what's most important to them.
42:50
I think one of the things and, and, and, and it does change.
42:53
And I get it. If you're in the big
42:54
multinational corporation, your, your hands are somewhat tied
42:57
because you've got policies and procedures and you don't want to
43:00
discriminate. And I get it.
43:01
And the smaller businesses have a little bit more flexibility
43:05
where I can look at is it leave, is it raises?
43:08
Is it bonuses? Is it lunch?
43:09
Is it, you know, what is it that, what lever can I pull to
43:13
really try and keep that person engaged if I really like them
43:16
and, and want to keep them? And obviously, especially in
43:18
today's market, money is still king.
43:20
There's just no in stands or out butts about it.
43:22
But there are other things that make people feel good within the
43:26
office. And it's just really identifying
43:28
who that is. But then I think the other part
43:31
to it is when we're going through the interview process,
43:33
I'm looking less at skill because I think a lot of that is
43:36
a function of will. I mean, short of being, we'll
43:39
call it a nuclear engineer or brain surgeon, most of the
43:42
things that were we do in any type of environment really comes
43:46
down to a function of will. Do you want to be good at it?
43:49
Are you going to put the work in to be good at it?
43:52
And if I think you have that will and I think you have the
43:54
right personality and you fit with us, I'm going to give you a
43:57
chance because that to me is more important than knowing if
44:00
you've had 15 years of recruiting experience, because
44:04
anybody can do that. And I, and I don't want to, I
44:07
don't want to lessen the load. I think you can learn that skill
44:10
if you want to be good at it. And so for me, it's looking at
44:14
how do we mesh? Do you mesh with the team and do
44:17
you have that function of will? How are you able to, as best as
44:22
you can, ascertain that during the interview, during the hiring
44:26
process, you have specific questions you like to lean on or
44:30
that are, I don't know, simple tests that you put people
44:32
through? Bluntly, I think it's similar to
44:35
the question you've asked me here today, which is, you know,
44:39
tell me about time you've struggled.
44:40
Like, tell me what matters to you.
44:42
Tell me, you know, you get into this role.
44:45
What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to do?
44:47
And then generally speaking, those people start to shine out
44:50
after some of those questions where they come in and they go,
44:53
I want to be good at this. And here are the things I'm
44:55
doing or the other thing I really like, which is a lost
44:59
art. And forgive me, most of mine are
45:02
entry level to mid level people. So so when I say this, there are
45:06
probably some executive recruiters going on.
45:07
I see it all the time, but that's not my my, my pad from
45:12
the people I deal with. They don't do a lot of research.
45:15
So when people really walk in and say, I want this job because
45:19
I know you did XY and Z or I want to help people do whatever
45:23
it is when I know that they've done some homework, that is a
45:26
very telling sign. And, and unfortunately for
45:28
especially those recent college graduates, you know, you just
45:32
don't see it as much as you used to.
45:34
All you get now is I'll do anything like I'll just, I just
45:37
want to be employed. And and that's just not good
45:39
enough because now we really have to, we have to dig.
45:44
But usually it starts to show itself out through through the
45:47
interview process, especially when you start to ask them, tell
45:50
me about you. I I don't want to hear what
45:52
you're have done or what I want to know about you and where
45:55
you're going. That's interesting.
45:58
I like that. You know, in my experience,
46:03
Matt, sometimes our biggest mistakes end up becoming our
46:07
greatest teachers down the road or what we perceive as our
46:10
mistakes at the time. Curious if you can think of a
46:14
moment in your career, whether at Pride staff or before, that
46:18
seemed like a set back to you at the time, But when you look back
46:23
on that, you're like, Oh no, that actually propelled me
46:25
forward. You know, I think when I first
46:28
opened, you don't know what you don't know and I think getting
46:35
my wife sort of came into the business because I had to
46:38
unfortunately let the first two people I heard unfortunately had
46:42
to let go. 1 was just not the right fit for our business,
46:45
great person. The other one was not probably
46:48
the best hire. I should just completely wrong.
46:52
And so at that point she wanted to get back to work and she
46:55
went, I'm coming in and I think for the first six months we
46:59
really struggled in the business.
47:00
And then once she and I found her footing, all of a sudden you
47:03
almost see the light switch go on and you started to see us
47:05
grow and you started to see it get easier and you started to
47:08
see it it build. But but you know, when you're in
47:11
that process of, oh, crap, I got to let these two people go, you
47:13
feel awful about it. You think, did I make the right
47:16
decision? Should I keep this open?
47:17
What should I be doing? And then you make that right
47:20
call, which in my case, thankfully, is, is a wife who
47:23
supported all my crazy ideas, who jumps in and says, we're
47:27
going to make this work. And she did.
47:30
Yeah, I love that story because and I was just talking with with
47:34
this about somebody yesterday and and this idea of, you know,
47:37
sometimes in life it feels like we're just swimming upstream and
47:40
like, man, is that hard work. I mean, you come from a swimming
47:44
background, right? Your your daughter as well.
47:46
Like imagine swimming up a river is so hard.
47:49
And then when things start to click and then all of a sudden
47:53
you notice you're turned around and you're floating with the
47:56
river. And it's that's sort of what I
47:59
envisioned there as you were talking about bringing your wife
48:02
in. And like, you know, a lot of the
48:03
second guessing, a lot of doubts like, and I'm curious, you know,
48:07
when that happened, like what was it specifically that she was
48:11
able to come in and do differently that affected such
48:14
big change? She took responsibility.
48:19
I mean, it's our business. It was our money.
48:21
It's, you know, it's us. But but when she came in, it was
48:24
I am going to find the right people and I am going to at
48:26
work. The, the, the, the original
48:29
people in partially my own fault because I didn't know what I
48:32
didn't know. They were waiting for me to
48:35
direct. They were waiting for me to
48:36
lead. And when you're trying to do the
48:38
business side of things as well as get the, the recruiting side
48:41
set up and the paperwork side, you know, to make sure you're
48:44
I-9 compliant and all that. It, it, it was a very, it was a
48:46
lot of sit and wait for Matt to figure this out when she came
48:51
in. It really helped us divide and
48:53
conquer because now I could focus on sales and I knew that
48:57
internal back office stuff for us was done and I didn't have to
49:00
worry about it. I didn't have to think about it.
49:02
It was just done and it was done right.
49:05
That is probably the biggest thing was it was taking that
49:07
bite out and knowing I had somebody I could trust in that
49:10
internal or inside office where everything would be done.
49:13
You could put every single brain cell now on the business
49:16
development side of things allows you to free up that part
49:19
of your brain. Just think more creatively and
49:21
like you said, be a little bit more consistent.
49:23
That word kept coming up here in our interview.
49:25
Be more consistent with those business development efforts
49:28
going forward. Absolutely.
49:29
And the other part too is you, you kind of had a tether to the
49:31
office because you knew you had to be back in the office by say
49:33
2-3 in the afternoon because I don't know how many interviews
49:36
they did that day. You had to go back through the I
49:38
nines, you had to go back through the interview notes.
49:39
You had to think of who was submitted you like you had to go
49:42
through all the, the internal mechanisms to make sure your
49:44
business runs. But the minute that was gone,
49:47
not that I was off playing golf, but in the sales environment,
49:50
you know, you might have to do what you got to do, but more
49:53
often not, you could do the community events, you could do
49:55
the other sales call, you can make another appointment and you
49:57
just you just get that much more done on the sales side, which
50:01
therefore builds your orders, build your pipeline and so on
50:04
and so forth. Where do you and your wife want
50:07
to take the business? Is it, hey, we, we love the
50:10
market that we're in. We just want to continue to meet
50:13
more people, help more businesses in local area.
50:15
Do you think about taking on another franchise location or
50:19
like other services? I don't know, like, where's your
50:21
head on this? Sis, we're the technical term
50:25
that we're in is commercial staffing and staffing in general
50:29
has really gone downhill since 2022.
50:31
So I think for us in the Tampa Bay market, because there's no
50:35
driving industry here. It's just it's really a
50:38
collection of small businesses that deal in a variety of
50:41
industries. We want to get back to where
50:44
we're, to use your example where we're floating with the stream
50:47
because right now we're swimming back upstream because the
50:49
economy is, is just something that is hiring is tough.
50:52
Business owners are hesitant to spend money.
50:54
Employees who are employed are hesitant to leave.
50:57
Employees who are unemployed are desperate for anything they can
51:00
get. And I get it, but trying to make
51:03
him the right fit is also a challenge.
51:06
So I think right now more than anything else we're waiting for.
51:10
I wouldn't say waiting. We're trying to affect as much
51:12
opportunity as we can within the economic environment we have.
51:15
But I'm hopeful that at some point this economic uncertainty
51:18
unravels, staffing gets back to some level of normalcy and we
51:23
and we can really take off again.
51:25
Because as I said, I had one son or I've got a son at, at
51:29
Michigan State. I've got a daughter who is 2
51:31
years away. So where do we want to take this
51:34
business to pay for college? Because both of them are like,
51:38
we want to go out of state, We want to go up somewhere in
51:40
falls. So I have every expectation my
51:42
daughter will be out of state as well.
51:44
So right now it's how do we get through the next whatever seven
51:47
years and pay for college? Why did your son choose Michigan
51:52
State? In part me it, it, I, I, I was
51:57
rather dumb. And, and if you are a young
51:59
father out there, think and you live out of state, think about
52:03
this. Because I remember when he was
52:04
like 8, you know, we surprised him at the Michigan State
52:06
football game. We took him up to a Michigan
52:08
State basketball camp. Like I have put into his brain
52:11
that Michigan State is the best place on earth.
52:14
And and sort of a quick aside because it's a story I love his
52:19
senior year. We were doing, you know, he's
52:20
applying at various places, but he applied to Michigan City.
52:23
He goes. We've never really gone for a
52:24
big game. And unfortunately for me, before
52:27
the whole fiasco with Mel Tucker, I had bought Michigan
52:29
Michigan State tickets. We're going to Michigan,
52:32
Michigan State. And unfortunately, we ended up
52:34
losing anything 48 to nothing. It was just a debacle of
52:37
debacles. But while we're waiting, the
52:39
band's coming out and Tyler and I had spent the whole day out
52:43
out in the, the field or not on the field, but the, the campus
52:46
and my wife is calling me and I finally she goes, did you check
52:50
your e-mail? And I'm like, this game's about
52:51
why am I checking my e-mail? Like I in my head, I'm thinking,
52:54
what, who's hurt? What happened to the business,
52:57
you know, like that? And she's like, check your
52:58
e-mail. My son sitting next to me and
53:00
looks and he goes, dad, I got in.
53:02
I'm a Spartan and I was like, you couldn't script it any
53:06
better than that. As we're sitting in the Spartan
53:08
Stadium with 75,000 people now, I wish I could have script the
53:11
game better, but that was just an awesome moment that I'll
53:14
never forget. Proud alum of Michigan State
53:17
yourself. Proud Papa.
53:18
Yeah, it's a nice, nice place to kind of get that message.
53:21
Then I see that, you know, Matt, I've just got one more question
53:25
for you. But before I ask it, I want to
53:27
do 2 things. First of all, everyone listening
53:29
today, I'm going to invite you to hit the follow button on your
53:32
favorite podcast app. We've had a great interview
53:35
today with Matt Becker from Pride staff down in Tampa Bay,
53:38
Florida. And I want you to continue to
53:40
get more wonderful content like this, Matt.
53:43
I also want to let people know either the best way to get in
53:46
touch with you directly or to follow your story.
53:48
What would that be? You know, follow me on LinkedIn,
53:51
take, take a subscribe to my newsletter.
53:53
It's free, it's generating. What I try and do is provide
53:57
good information for hiring managers or business owners to
53:59
figure out. There is a national component to
54:01
it, but I focus my efforts on Tampa Bay.
54:04
But I, like I said with the London recruiter, I get a lot of
54:08
feedback or comments or or interaction and I really enjoy
54:12
that. So it's Matthew Becker on
54:15
LinkedIn is the best place to come find me with Pride staff.
54:18
And where do they find your newsletter?
54:19
How do they subscribe to that? Within within under your
54:23
LinkedIn profile, the LinkedIn name, it'll say I think
54:26
subscribe to newsletter or find newsletter.
54:27
But there's a there's a button there for the newsletter, and
54:29
they should be able to click on it and find it from there.
54:32
Great. So last question for you, Matt,
54:35
you and I have had a nice conversation here today.
54:37
I hope we stay in touch. Let's say a year from now we're
54:39
sitting down. You're celebrating a thing, one
54:42
thing, something. What is that thing?
54:47
That's an excellent question because kind of like my own
54:50
complaint, I'm so focused on today and, and how to out, you
54:53
know, build beyond this economy. I, I really, I really hope that
54:58
it just becomes easier. I just hope the economy and the
55:01
uncertainty has turned itself loose and we can get back to
55:05
enjoying life and not being worried about is there a
55:07
recession? Is there going to be a hiring
55:09
market collapse? You know what is going to
55:11
happen. I think that getting rid of that
55:15
economic uncertainty, I hope is going to be a big driver for the
55:19
economy and for a lot of people. And, and if nothing else, I'm
55:23
hoping that a year from now we can sort of sit back going.
55:25
That was a tough two years, but we're back to doing it.
55:28
And now I can really start planning more for the future.
55:31
So obviously none of us have a crystal ball, but you know, as
55:34
you're looking into your make believe crystal ball, what do
55:37
you think it takes for the economy to to make that turn?
55:43
Right now I would say once they figure out the whole tariffs
55:46
thing, I you know, whether they remove them, whether they come
55:49
up with agreements, you know what, whatever it is, because we
55:52
saw good start of growth like January and February, I was, I
55:56
was really encouraged. We saw a good opportunity the
55:59
minute the tariffs really started to rear their heads in
56:02
the media in March is the minute everybody hit the brakes.
56:05
I went whoa, because I don't know if I can spend money on
56:08
inventory. I don't know if I'm going to
56:09
have new orders. I'm I'm not getting as much.
56:13
We've really seen a decline in higher, at least in the Tampa
56:16
Bay market for us coming in March.
56:18
And I think tariffs more than anything else is really driving
56:21
that ship. Yeah.
56:23
Hopefully we'll get some clarity on that here in the coming weeks
56:26
and months, recording here in early June of 2025.
56:30
But Matt Becker, I want to be the first one to thank you for
56:32
sharing both your time and your story with us today.
56:35
I really appreciate it. I very much appreciate the
56:37
opportunity to tell my story. It's been it's been fun and
56:40
probably a little cathartic. Folks, that's a wrap on another
56:44
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
56:46
Thanks for learning with us today.