Follow The Brand Podcast with Host Grant McGaugh
Are you ready to take your personal brand and business development to the next level? Then you won't want to miss the exciting new podcast dedicated to helping you tell your story in the most compelling way possible. Join me as I guide you through the process of building a magnetic personal brand, creating valuable relationships, and mastering the art of networking. With my expert tips and practical strategies, you'll be well on your way to 5-star success in both your professional and personal life. Don't wait - start building your 5-STAR BRAND TODAY!
Follow The Brand Podcast with Host Grant McGaugh
The Boardroom Insider featuring Jay Reynolds of WolfCreek Consulting and Grant McGaugh of 5 STAR BDM
Explore the nuanced world of executive recruitment with me, Grant McGaugh, and the seasoned expertise of Jay Reynolds, a luminary with over two decades in the field. We promise an enlightening journey through the significance of personal branding and the art of securing a harmonious candidate-company relationship. Witness the strategies behind conquering talent wars, especially within the tech and healthcare arenas, and understand why nurturing untapped potential could be the masterstroke in your hiring playbook. And with diversity, equity, and inclusion taking center stage, we dissect how businesses can thrive by integrating these essential principles, irrespective of the political landscape.
Stepping into the fray of job hunting and recruitment, Jay elucidates why boutique firms like Wolf Creek Consulting are akin to the elite precision of Navy SEALs in a battlefield dominated by generalist armies. Absorb the wisdom of personal branding as we dissect the shortcomings of AI-generated resumes and champion the power of a well-crafted narrative that encapsulates your professional saga. The secrets to standing out in a crowded market lie not just in what you have done, but in the stories of how and why you achieved it—vital insights for those eager to leave an indelible mark on their industry.
For those charting a course toward executive heights or the daunting yet rewarding path of entrepreneurship, this episode is a compass to guide you. We share the sobering realities of trust in business, the linchpin of mentorship, and the necessity for a meticulously crafted career blueprint. Learn how economic downturns, like the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic, can temper stronger business foundations and the indispensable nature of resilience. Whether you're a newcomer or a veteran in the professional landscape, this dialogue with Jay Reynolds is a treasure trove of mentorship and advice to fuel your journey to success.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest marketing trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates from us, be sure to follow us at 5starbdm.com. See you next time on Follow The Brand!
Welcome to another episode of Follow the Brand. I am your host, grant McGaughan, ceo of 5 Star BDM, a 5 Star personal branding and business development company. I want to take you on a journey that takes another deep dive into the world of personal branding and business development, using compelling personal story, business conversations and tips to improve your personal brand. By listening to the Follow the Brand podcast series, you will be able to differentiate yourself from the competition and allow you to build trust with prospective clients and employers. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make it one that will set you apart, build trust and reflect who you are. Developing your five-star personal brand is a great way to demonstrate your skills and knowledge. If you have any questions from me or my guests, please email me at. Grantmcgaw spelled M-C-G-A-U-G-H at 5starbdm B for brand, d for development, m for masterscom. Now let's begin with our next five-star episode on Follow the Brand. Welcome everyone. I'm Grant McGaugh, ceo of Five Star BDM, where we build five-star brands that people will follow. Our guest today is a true veteran of the executive recruitment world, with over 25 years of experience finding top talent for some of the biggest companies across the nation.
Speaker 1:Jay Reynolds is the founder and president of Wolf Creek Consulting, a top-grade boutique firm specializing in executive search for the finance, accounting, it and healthcare industry. With a database of nearly 2 million resumes and offices in South Florida, birmingham and West Palm Beach, jay has built a reputation as the elite Navy SEAL of Hats Off Group. His firm doesn't just fill openings. They are strategic partners who vet candidates intensely to ensure perfect fits for companies in need of leadership that will drive their organizations forward. What sets Jay apart is his focus on personal branding for candidates. He insists on understanding who they truly are, beyond just skills and experience. And, as he puts it, I want to know what separates you from the 20 million others out there. I want to know what separates you from the 20 million others out there. That powerful differentiation allows him to position the right people in ways that resonate with clients. In our candid conversation, jay pulls no punches on the talent wars raging across healthcare and technology. He shares war stories of underqualified hires who wreak havoc and the intangibles that elevate junkyard dogs or those with just potential. Jay is a fountain of wisdom for any aspiring executive or entrepreneur seeking to build a legacy career and business.
Speaker 1:Please welcome to the Follow Brand Talk Desk the boardroom insider himself, jay Reynolds. Welcome everybody to the Follow Brand Podcast. This is Grant McGaugh. We're going to keep it right here in South Florida. We are going to nail down some things around staffing, around executive search. What's happening now in the healthcare realm when it comes to having enough people to be able to do the work. They need knowledge workers, they need people that are skilled, and it takes certain savvy in order to get that done. We're going to talk to Jay Reynolds. Jay Reynolds has been here at South Florida for a number of years, I think since 1990. We're going to have a candid conversation about how this is affecting his business and how he can actually affect other businesses that are having these types of challenges. So, jay, introduce yourself.
Speaker 2:Hey Grant, again, thank you very much for having me on your show. I'm a big fan, I follow your show, watched it and I'm honored to be included in your show. So thank you for the opportunity to give your audience the opportunity for me to tell my story. So thanks very much for that. My name is Jay Reynolds. I own Wolf Creek Consulting. We are a top-ranked executive staffing firm. I have an office in Birmingham, alabama, one in Fort Lauderdale, florida, and West Palm Beach, florida. My company has been around since you're right since 1998. We primarily place people in finance, accounting, it and healthcare. We are an engaged and retained firm and we do business with some of the top hospital systems in the country, not necessarily just in South Florida or the Southeast, but our footprint is primarily nationally, national.
Speaker 1:That is good. Now I'm going to go right to what I feel is the elephant in the room, and that is diversity, equity, inclusion, and that's really, in the human resource realm, about having the right personnel. And they're saying I don't know what their legislation is policies all around it but I know in Florida they're saying, hey, you can't even say diversity, equity, inclusion anymore if you want to keep funding from the state, and I think the same thing happened in Alabama just recently. Well, I want to hear from you your views on these different things and how it's affecting. And maybe you work with some state and local government, Maybe you also work and I know you work with a lot of enterprises across the nation as well. Give us your take.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you that there are two ways to look at this. Right, there is the political arena. In the political arena, you have the politicians that are basically saying this and that and they're running on this whole anti-woke campaign, right, and part of it is just basically to appeal to a certain base, and they're doing that here in Florida and, quite frankly, some of that is working for them as it relates to the way they're approaching, raising money for their campaigns and getting reelected. Right. That's one aspect of it. The other aspect of it is corporate America. Corporate America sees this totally different. Corporate America says that hey look, we understand that diversity and inclusion in our industry makes sense. We run faster, we jump higher, we have more qualified pool of people to choose from, we make more money, we retain our employees and our professionals much more than companies that are not diverse. We do a better job, we are stronger together. That's what corporate America says. And corporate America is basically saying you know, politicians, you can do whatever you want with your state legislation.
Speaker 2:I'll give you a perfect example of that Disney. Disney is a really good example of that. You know, ron DeSantis and Disney are in a feud and have been for the last three, four years, primarily because of this anti-woke campaign that Governor DeSantis has run on. Okay, not only run in the state, but run as far as his presidential campaign is concerned. But Disney says the reality to that is that we are a better company when we embrace diversity and inclusion and we will fight to embrace diversity and inclusion and we will protect it. We will go to court, you know we will go. We're comfortable being on the news every day because we are going to protect diversity, inclusion. That's a really good example of what corporate America, because they certainly see that as as as important. You know, I believe that things travel in cycles and I believe that at some point in time, you know, politicians are going to get tired of conventions being canceled and pocketbooks being impacted by not embracing diversity and inclusion, and that's what's happening in Florida right now. That's so important.
Speaker 1:And you can't just take a whole group of people and put them to the side. I think that impacts a lot of people when they think through that. I've talked to so many people, even outside of my own state, nate, and I tell them hey, you come here, you're going to go to the beach, you're going to have fun.
Speaker 1:They're like oh, I don't know if I'm going to go to Florida because of this and that and that. Wow, we get that reputation, even though in South Florida it's very diverse, it's a completely diverse population of people in a number of different ways. But let's talk about the biggest problem now. Like in healthcare and in some of these other areas, these other industries, like information technology we talked about finance it's the fact that there's staffing shortages. We don't have enough people to do the work and we don't have enough qualified people to do the work. You've got the great resignation that's happening. We've had a lot of baby boomers leaving the workforce in droves because they can. They're at that point. They've done their job, but have they handed down the knowledge? So there's a vacuum of knowledge or lack of knowledge that's happening in the workforce. How is Wolf Creek Consulting handling this particular dilemma? I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2:I could not have laid that out any better than you just did. I mean, there's a shortage of skilled professionals out there, for sure, and it's a persistent shortage, and it's being driven by those two things that you just talked about Baby boomers. Most importantly, they are creating a vacuum of knowledge and these specific skilled areas that we just can't keep up with. Right, we can't keep up with them and also, you know, as it relates to what you can do, the other thing that you mentioned is that the great resignation where these, you know, even the millennials or the Gen Xers, are saying hey look.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go out and do my own thing, whereas they would have worked in a corporate environment and gone up through the ladder as it relates to those organizations. They're not doing that anymore. They're starting their own businesses, creating their own businesses and they're doing other things. So not only is there a shortage of these skilled professionals, which is really persistent, these people are becoming in higher demand. Why are they in higher demand? Purely because of the change of technology, the pace of health care technology changing the availability of more different medicines, the aging population, right. So we need more people to take care of our aging population, and people are living longer. Before you know, 20 years ago, somebody was living to 65, 70 years old. That was a long time. Now people are living to 65, 70 years old. That was a long time. Now people are living to 80, 90, 100 years old on a routine basis. That's because of medicines, that's because of treatments, that's because of the fact that there's just more opportunities for folks to live better lives right, you know, live better lives, right. What comes along with that is the demand for the staff to be able to make that happen and, quite frankly, I don't see that going away anytime soon.
Speaker 2:You ask the question how are we doing? How are we doing that? We are a traditional staffing firm, meaning that companies bring us in to find specific people with specific skill sets. We're recruiters, we're headhunters, which means that a company tells me hey look, jay, I'm looking for a chief nursing officer with 10 years experience that has done X Y, z. My job is to go out and find that person, and that's exactly what I do. We go out and find people that are passive job seekers or people that are actually looking for positions. We vet them, we bring them into the conversation and our clients have the opportunity to be able to make a decision about hiring that person or not, that person or not. It alleviates the pain for them of posting ads, getting 100 resumes of people that don't fit the job in any way, shape or form, but we narrow that down to four or five candidates of people that absolutely can do the job and the company can determine whether or not it fits their culture. It's very competitive. It's a very competitive marketplace.
Speaker 1:Well, talk to me about the process of working with Wolf Creek. I'm curious about this whole executive search firm. So if you are a current executive, maybe you're an HR, maybe you're in operations or maybe you're the CEO of a company, you're looking at your particular staff. At the end of the day, you've got some openings, or you know some openings are coming open and now you've got to fill those seats. Why would somebody work with Wolf Creek as opposed to another firm? What's the advantage?
Speaker 2:That's a really good question, grant, and I will tell you this. There are a couple of things that I like to say. Ok, you know, there are very large staffing firms out there, the corn fairies of the world, the struggles of the world very large staffing firms out there that are national in scope, and I like to call them the army. There's the army and then there's the Navy SEALs. Right, we're the Navy SEALs, right, we're the Navy SEALs.
Speaker 2:The difference between doing business with us is that you get a boutique firm that will treat your business like it's very important. You get to deal with the decision makers. You get to be able to communicate with the decision makers in real time, and that's, quite frankly, not something that you're going to always get with a very, very large staffing firm. We are definitely a boutique and we're definitely the Navy SEALs versus the Army and you get that kind of attention. You get that. You know. Basically, you know I tell people all the time is that the only time you really can't talk to me is if I'm in the Saints game. If I'm in a New Orleans Saints game, probably not call me because it's not a good time, but other than that, 24-7, you can call the president of Wolf Creek Consulting and you can talk to them if you have an issue or concern. That is the difference between my company and some of the larger staffing firms out there.
Speaker 1:I like that. I like that. I like that. Accessibility is big, especially if you're going to fulfill a very important position within the company. You've got to make sure that you've got the right firm, you've got the right person. You're going to ask a lot of questions. I'm going to ask you this because I'm in the personal brand space.
Speaker 1:When you start looking at an individual candidate's brand, one of the things I've been telling a lot of people is that, okay, you have a resume, you have a CV, you have a LinkedIn profile, but that puts you in a pool of people of maybe only 200 million or something like that. How do you differentiate yourself? And I always talk about having a brand of maybe only 200 million or something like that. How do you differentiate yourself? And I always talk about having a brand, a poster brand, something that's going to get Jay's attention, because if his job is this let's say it's a healthcare firm say Jay, I need you to go out and find me chief nursing officer, coo or a director or that, and I don't want to go through hundreds and hundreds of resumes. I want you to do it Now. You got to go out. How do you then find those candidates and do you see a person that, either their brand, sticks out to you, something that differentiates them? That may be a good fit for this organization.
Speaker 2:Well, there are a couple of things. First of all, we have the luxury of having done this for 25 years, right, I have almost 2 million resumes in my database almost 2 million resumes in the healthcare, finance and accounting, it field, which means that there are people that I have built relationships with or know over the course of years and years and years and, in many cases, have provided a lot of advice to them as they've kind of matriculated through their careers. That's the first thing. The second thing is this Because of AI, over the course of the last three or four years, ai has really changed the look and feel a lot of times of some of the written communication that we see out there, ie resumes and LinkedIn profiles, whatever. The one thing that I would caution people about or give them advice about is avoid word salad about or give them advice about is avoid word salad. Avoid resumes that look like word salad, because I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2:What's going to happen is a guy like myself that's done this for a long time is going to look at this resume and say, hey, look, this resume was AI generated. I'm not interested. I mean they weren't intentional enough to write a real resume to let me know exactly what it is they did. I want to know who you are, I want to know what you did and I want to know what separates you from the 20 million other people that you just you mentioned and that is written by that individual who understands their background and understand their experiences and they're able to put that on paper. I can't tell you how many resumes I see today that a word salad that that is just hung together with you know, with twin stick and you know, and and tape and glue and you know all of that kind of stuff, and it makes absolutely no sense and a guy like me just flips right past that right. So I would just say be very intentional, take the time to write the resume, to really articulate who you are and what you've done.
Speaker 1:I second that. I think that is so big. Ai can be used for certain things that can quickly get you it really like a template. I'm going to send an email to somebody. I need a template. I need to get me going. Everybody has a writer's block or anything like that, but you've got to still massage it and customize it. You've got to put your particular spin on different things. When I heard you just say, if you just give me some generic AI-generated blob of information, and I look at this and I'm like there's no life here. There's no life here, there's no story. I tell people all the time you've got to have a story. Anybody's going to have a laundry list of jobs they've had, but does that really tell you what you did in those positions? Does it tell you how you accomplished different tasks and how you overcame challenges? How did you get like, oh, you know what, I generated $5 million in sales. If that's really the case, like great, well, how did you do that? Yeah, yeah, and how would you rank?
Speaker 2:You generated 5 million, but the number one guy generated 500 million, right? So what does that say? You need to know, we need to have some kind of appreciation for what that 5 million represents. Did it put you in the middle of the pack, Put you in the back of the pack? Did it make you the number one sales guy in your region?
Speaker 2:All of those things are just really, really important, and I think it's really important to the point that you just made of creating stories. You know people, if everybody says I'm detail oriented, I'm hardworking, I'm a quick study, all of that stuff but when people tell stories about who they are and what they've done and how they've overcome things and how they've created something from nothing, that's what's compelling. You know, that's what's compelling and that's what a guy like myself is not only looking for, but looking to have a discussion with his client to say, okay, this is why you need to take a look at Grant Grant's done this, this, this and this. This is how he's ranked. You know, these are some of the things that he's had to overcome in his career and this is why I believe that he would actually add value in your organization because of what he's done.
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Speaker 1:You know, man, I want my audience to really listen to what you just said. You want Jay to be your brand ambassador for this new opportunity at this institution let's say it's a health care institution. You want him to sell you to them. So you've got to sell him on who you are, what you've done, and remember, he just said he has a database of two million resumes, so he's got people he can tap like hey, you know what, I know that.
Speaker 1:So if Jay doesn't know you, you don't stand out and you're just a lily in the field of lilies. You know somebody is going to be a rose out there so he can see you and then give him enough information that he can then sell you to the client so you can get that interview. I appreciate that journey because if I'm the CEO of a particular institution or whatnot, I need to trust you that you're bringing me qualified people and that you've already asked them probably the questions I need to ask them, that I need to know and then now I need to like just get familiar, you know we're local channel let's have a conversation.
Speaker 1:You're pretty high on them. Let's have a conversation because credibility in your game is got you.
Speaker 2:Oh my god, it is paramount. I am a business partner, right, and one of the things that I tell people all the time. It goes back to what we were originally talking about. I'm not a vendor, right. I'm not a staffing firm. I am a partner in this right.
Speaker 2:My job is to make sure that I don't waste the time of CEOs and COOs and CFOs and directors of this and directors of that. My job is partnering with them and making sure that I'm bringing the right people to the table and you know, we get paid for that. We get paid and we get paid handsomely for that. So my job is to make sure that I don't damage my own reputation, because what happens is that, that I don't damage my own reputation, because what happens is that you know, bad news travels really, really fast. Good news travels much slower than bad news, right?
Speaker 2:So you have to make sure that you're not doing something that damages your own reputation and, quite frankly, that is the way that you build relationships over time and again, I'm not a transactional person. My company's not transactional. We're in the building partnerships, and the way you do that is by adding value and making sure that you do what you say you're going to do. And what you said you're going to do is that I'm going to bring you a pallet of candidates that meet your qualifications, that I have vetted, that they are who they say they are, they have the degree that they say they are, they're not ax murderers and, bottom line, they're going to come into your organization and add value, and that's my commitment to my clients. So I have to make sure that I guard that very jealously right. I got that reputation very, very jealously and we try really hard to do the right thing.
Speaker 1:I would ask you, jay, I'm sure you've got stories around this that you were in an executive search, you found the right candidate. You were in an executive search, you found the right candidate, they got hired and then now they became your client. That person now is not, you know, has the authority they need. You know different personnel, that type of thing. Or maybe they moved to a different company, like, hey, I'm going to Jay, that shows you that reputation has, you know, goes a long way for a long time. Give us an example of that.
Speaker 2:Oh, those are some of my favorites, right? I can give you an example of a very large I won't call their name, but a very large hospitality company, and they were looking for a CEO to cover not only their existing business but they wanted to do some mergers and acquisitions. Right, they probably had somewhere in the neighborhood of like 200 properties across the country, but they had been looking for a year to find a CEO. Matter of fact, the COO was performing both as a CEO and a COO at the same time, burning him out. We were brought in to conduct a search. We found the guy brought him in from another company, a Marriott company, marriott corporate company. We recruited him out of Marriott to come in corporate to take over this hospitality company. He comes in and just does a bang up job for these guys, bang up job. They absolutely love him, right? And, and as a result of that, that relationship that I still have today we have placed a CEO, we place a treasurer there, we place numerous and sundry director level and management level people within this very large hospitality company and there's only one retained engaged firm that this, this company, uses today and that's and that's my company, you know, and I can give you story after story of that, you know, and I can give you story, story after story of that.
Speaker 2:And I can give you another story that we came in and cleaned up a mess with the company. We had a company that basically was a manufacturing company and they had hired a CFO CFO that they thought had a CPA, that had a lot of experience in manufacturing, had done all of these things. They hired this guy, they brought this guy in and then, within a year of them bringing him in, they're getting these letters from the IRS saying that they're being investigated for this or tax issues because they hadn't paid their't, they hadn't paid their taxes, they hadn't filed on time. And all of a sudden they're getting all of this stuff from the IRS. So they bring us in and say, ok, what's going on with this guy?
Speaker 2:I do a real short search on the guy. I find out he doesn't have a CPA, he doesn't have an accounting degree. He's got a degree in business administration but he has never done anything at the CFO level that would have provided him the experiences to be successful in a guy who's actually a CFO for Manufacturing Cup, one of their competitors. We got one of their competitors CFO, cpa, two master's degrees. He comes in, he writes this company and these guys again, there's only one staffing company today that they do retain searches with and that's me. But I can just tell you how, when you don't do the due diligence and you, bob, comes in and you like Bob and you shake Bob's hand and he's a nice guy and say let's hire Bob, but you haven't done the due diligence, that's what. That was what happens to you, that that guy, because of his lack of experience, almost took that manufacturing company out man, that's a heck of a story In a year.
Speaker 1:That is one heck of a story. You've got to do your due diligence. You don't know who you're dealing with. You have stated some valuable things that are important because it's not just about, yeah, as they say in cybersecurity, you trust but you verify. You trust but verify. You have got to verify because if they've got that much authority and they can do certain things if they're not qualified, well, yeah, of course they can wreck the ship. So you've got to make sure you know what you're doing.
Speaker 2:This guy was signing documents as a CPA and he didn't even have a CPA. Oh my goodness, it was just a bad, bad thing. But bottom line is that, you know, within a week we found out who the guy really was. They brought us in and said okay, jay, something's not right, can you look into this? We looked into it. Within a week we found out the guy not only didn't have a CPA, but he didn't even have a degree in accounting. You know so you have to be very careful, to the point you make.
Speaker 1:I'm going to switch the conversation a little bit. I want you to talk to our younger professionals, these early careerists. They've gotten out of school, they've gotten their certifications, they've got their diploma. They're on this track now. They're just not getting on this track, but they have goals. Just not getting on this track, but they have goals and the goal is to someday be a senior level executive, be a C-suite executive. What advice would you give them to make sure that they're doing those things? You alluded to certain things earlier around. You've got to have a track record. You've got to have a verifiable track record. You've got to be able to state how you've been impacted. Help us understand what these younger professionals need to start doing now so they can achieve those goals.
Speaker 2:Well, one of them is to be very intentional, and I tell that to not only you know, the kids, that I talk to people that come here, that I'm interviewing or whatever, but I give the same advice to my kids as they're going through these corporate jobs. You have to be very intentional.
Speaker 2:You have to have an idea about what it is you want to be when you grow up. You have to build yourself a personal business plan, and I know how hokey that might sound, but you need to sit down when I have a quiet moment, have a conversation with yourself and put it down on paper to say these are the things that I want to do.
Speaker 2:So when, when things start to waver or you start to go through these cycles, you don't lose, you don't lose your focus, you don't say, okay, I'm, you know, you don't. You don't get off the path. And that's what happens a lot of times. That, I see, is that something, something happens, and throw somebody a curve and it takes them off. You know, it takes them off the big picture. Right? That's the thing that I would, one of the things that I would say, and then another thing that I would say is that we have this feeling that, hey, look, we want to be able to not look at the price tag on things that you want to buy. Right, you know? You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:You know exactly.
Speaker 2:You want to walk up to something and you want to see something that you like and you want to not even have to look at the price tag. You just want to pick it up and say, look, this is something that I want. You can't have that mentality if you're looking at the clock. If you don't want to watch the price tag, then you can't watch the clock. Right? I believe in work-life balance. I understand that, but you still have to put in the work and you really still have to put in the work and you really still have to put in the work. And part of being able to have that ability to not look at price tag is is ignoring the clock and putting in a putting in the time and grinding grinding man that that is so important, and I and I like how you said about you can have failure.
Speaker 1:This is life as they life be like. What does that mean? Things happen that you did not expect to happen. You might have been fantastic in a role. You're just slaying it right and then you get to another role and it just slows you all the way down, or you don't have the right fitness, not the right culture.
Speaker 2:You're not the mentor of goals Mentors and.
Speaker 1:I was going to go right to that have the right fitters, not the right culture. We're not the mentor goals. Yeah, mentors, I was going to go right to that. So somebody has got to. This is another thing. Somebody has got to believe in you, take a chance on you, because you may have. You know what? I don't have the numbers. I don't have the educational attainment, I don't have this. I don't have that attainment. I don't have this. I don't have that. I'm not the pedigree, so to speak.
Speaker 1:However, as a lot of people know, you can take someone who's just raw talented. They have the passion, they have the moxie, they have the go. You are a business owner, I'm a business owner. You're a CEO. You have to vet everybody that comes in, and I'm sure you've seen this Like guy comes in, he looks fantastic. You know he's got the right car, he's got the right look, he's got the right suit. Look at his resume. It's clean, it just seems super perfect. And this other guy walks in and he's just not as good, does not appear as well. However, he starts to show you the passion and the abilities and the know-how and the moxie, what it takes to actually be successful in this business. Talk to us about that.
Speaker 2:Man, I always say the guy that you described is a guy with a lot of potential, right, potential, he's got potential. He's tall, he's good handshake, nice smile. He can drive a golf ball a mile, he can play golf with him, he's a great golfer. All of that that just means he's got potential. It means he hasn't done anything yet.
Speaker 2:From my perspective, right, I would take a grinder every time. I would take a kid that that has a chip on his shoulder, that has not had the opportunity, that is looking for the opportunity, understands that sometimes bad things happen to good people and is able to get up, dust himself off and start over again. Right, I see it all the time. I see the kid with potential, you know, the kid with the pedigree, and I've seen the junkyard dogs. Right, give me the junkyard dog every time.
Speaker 2:And perhaps because it's me, you know I am a patchwork quilt of a bunch of little teeny pieces that a bunch of people put together. Right, that's that's who I am, and and a whole lot of people poured into me and invested into me to make me who I am, and my job or my obligation, not only as a business owner but as a person in this community is to do the same thing. I need to pour into that junkyard dog. You know that Jay Reynolds that is trying to find his way right to mentor that person, to give him opportunities, to pick him up and dust him off when he needs that, or to kick him in his butt when he or she needs that.
Speaker 2:That's what we need to do. That's what we need to do, and that's that's what we need to do as a uh, I don't mean to make make this a black thing, but as a, as black professionals. That's what we need to do in order for us to build our communities, you know, and build legacy business. Um, I, I truly believe that and, uh, you know, I, I've, I've seen, uh, I've seen the good golfers, but I've seen the junkyard dogs and I will tell you this most of the people in my office are junkyard dogs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you've got to have drive, depending on the job, what it takes, what's necessary, and know how to gauge talents. And I know in your business that you've seen a lot of talent that's come through your doors that you recommend to certain individuals. You need to understand the cultural fit that they're looking for. What does it take to really be successful? Because, at the end of the day, it's your reputation, that's your brand, that is your brand, is your reputation, is that what you say about yourself, is what others say about you, right? So before I leave, I'm going to give you the mic. I want you to give us just whatever we have not talked about, whatever we. I don't want to leave anything on the table. We know you're a Saints fan. Anybody who's a Saints fan understands, understands. We understand adversity, adversity.
Speaker 2:Adversity we understand adversity.
Speaker 1:And yet you still going to the game. So some people, I believe, I still believe.
Speaker 2:Hey, man, that means if I got to get on a plane and go see the Saints play, I'm going to get on a plane and go see the Saints play. That's the way that works. Win, lose or draw, it doesn't matter. The thing that I would say is that I got two points that I want to make. One point is to entrepreneurs Guys are out there building their businesses today. Right, I've done this for a long time and I have gone through the ebb and flow. You know, I went through 2008 recession. I went through COVID-19 reset and the recessions associated with COVID-19. And we got through them both. Right, we got through them both and we gained traction coming out of both of those, meaning that I was stronger than I was stronger coming out of those two, those two events, than I was going into them and just maybe, just an attitude, not necessarily in dollars right away, but definitely an attitude and experience.
Speaker 2:What I would say to people is this you're going to look at a lot of successful people out there and think that they haven't gone through anything. That's not the case. They've gone through some stuff. Right, they've gone through some stuff and you know they had maybe even doggone near filed for bankruptcy or something, or had to sell something or whatever. You don't know what they've done in order to protect and grow their business. But I promise you this that most small businesses out there have gone through some stuff. So take the punch to the stomach whatever that punch to the stomach is and keep rolling, you know, because you're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. The next point that I'm that is to entrepreneurs that are building their businesses that are trying to say, hey, look, am I making the right decision? Because I've been there and done that. The other thing I want to the point that I would make is to like millennials that say that want to build their own business as well. But I want to take a slightly different approach to that. I want to take a slightly different approach to that.
Speaker 2:Everything that I learned, that I was able to pour into my business in the very beginning came from the stuff that I learned in corporate America. Do some time in corporate America. Do some time in corporate America. Understand what a P&L statement is. Understand what a balance sheet is. Understand how to build a business plan. Understand how to conduct yourself and to sell your point of view in a corporate boardroom or a meeting room or something like that landscape that we all have to deal with, understand about what emotional intelligence is.
Speaker 2:But I learned all of those things from spending 15, 16 years in corporate America trying to go up to that learning curve and the different positions in corporate America. So at the end of that 15, 16 years I'm not saying you have to stay 15, 16 years, that's a long time and I'm a dinosaur, we did that back then you don't have to, but spend some time to learn some stuff that you can pour into your business and build a business that's built on solid foundation versus a business that's built on sand that's not going to withstand any adversity. Right, if you build your business on solid foundation, it'll stand. But if you build your business on whims and ideas and you know social media, my expectation is that it will not sustain itself. So those are the two points of light that if you would, two things that I would leave you with man.
Speaker 1:Those are two great points of light. That the adversity piece, and I've seen that myself. People are going on this entrepreneurial journey and thinking it's a get rich quick type of thing and it is something that you're going to have to pour into. Even if you did get money real quick, can you maintain it Right? Don't spend it all. God knows, you don't spend it all. No, boy, you can see a lot of athletes and whatnot when you're a 20-year-old.
Speaker 1:I appreciate some of these athletes and being able to hold on to money. I can't imagine if I'm 24 years old, somebody gives me millions of dollars and I'm supposed to just be very disciplined about being responsible. It's not that easy. I remember Shaq talking about he spent a million dollars in one day, you know, and that type of thing, but he had to like look at his own stuff, like all right, I need to take this back. He's a world-class athlete. Not everybody's a world-class entrepreneur and what you can afford to do, you're going to have to take risks. You can't really think through things.
Speaker 1:You brought some other good points about having the right mentor. Someone told me this and I still to this day and I want to say it on the show right now. It's so important that you are in a position to be a mentor to the person you were 10 years ago, five years, and you need someone who's like you know what. If I'm starting on this journey, if I was opening my an executive search firm, I would be seeking out a Jay Riddle Say Jay, sneak a picture, right? This is what I'm doing, doing a six months a year. I'm scrambling, I'm a hunter, you know I'm grinding, but I know you've been in this business 20 some odd years. You got so I would like, jay, you know, help me, just give me a half hour, give me an hour of information that you like. Look, you need to know this, this and this, and when you've done this, this, this, call me back call me back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, you and this. And when you've done this, this and this, call me back. Call me back, yeah, hey, you took the words right out of my mouth. You know, there are people that I try to invest in and they come to me and say you know X, y, z? I say, well, look, these are the things you do, this, this and this. Then come back and talk to me some more, you know, but, hey, don't come back unless you've done this, this and this, because I know that you need these things done in order to be successful. Right, and hey, man, I've done this for a long time and I'm still seeking out mentors. You know, bill Picard, man, anytime Bill Picard is around, I want to talk to bill Picard, you know, anytime he's around, it's like oh my goodness, man, bill, you know, give me five minutes, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, people don't know. Bill Picard is a multimillionaire, ran automotive parts business in Detroit, lives down here in Palm beach. Now I've talked to myself great individual wealth of knowledge and a lot of times it's no nonsense stuff. Oh, absolutely Basic block and then tackle. Did you block and then tackle?
Speaker 2:Yeah, build us that way.
Speaker 1:Say hey, look man, you know, he'll tell you, he'll tell you really quick you know, and we can't get off this show without mentioning Dexter Bridgman and the reason I bring up Dexter, because Jay some people may not know my audience may not know that Jay also has his own show on the Miami media.
Speaker 2:I think it's MIA Legacy Talk it's called the Business of Black Business and, quite frankly, it's called the Business of Black Business and, quite frankly, it's a baby for Dexter and I.
Speaker 2:And purely because of the fact that we were sitting around one time talking and saying, hey look, when I was building my business, I had nobody to talk to, nobody to give me advice, Nobody helped me to find money, Nobody helped me find staff whatever or to get out of my own headspace, Right?
Speaker 2:So we built this, this, this show called the business of black business, and we bring on entrepreneurs, very successful entrepreneurs, thought leaders, all kinds of folks that talk about how to go about building your business and also giving them some a proof source to say, hey look, I did this, you know, I did this and this is who I am and I'm making millions of dollars and you can do it too. And the show has been around for about two years. We started on on YouTube, only doing YouTube, and now we're on the WB on TV on Sundays at one o'clock you know, every other Sunday on TV on Sundays at one o'clock, you know every other Sunday. So we we probably get somewhere in the neighborhood. Right now I think we're getting somewhere in the neighborhood of like 400,000 views or something, something like that, that is awesome.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. I love to hear that, and for our viewers, they got to know how to contact you. Jay, what's the best?
Speaker 2:way and for our viewers. They got to know how to contact you. Jay. What's the best way? Hey, you can. My website is WCCStaffingcom. The name of the company again is Wolf Creek Consulting and again, WCCStaffingcom. My email address, if you want to email me, is Jay at WCCStaffingcom. And Grant, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to share it was. It was a really good uh conversation and, uh, you do a really good job of of of uh this interviewing process. I'm learning from you, so, uh, thanks very much for having me no pleasure is all fine.
Speaker 1:I've been on jay's show and it and it was fantastic about a month or so ago and I thank you for being on your show as well and I encourage your entire audience to tune in to all of Follow the Brand. You can tune in at www.5starbdm. That's the number five star B for brand B, for development and for masterscom. This has been wonderful and I will see you on the golf course from there.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, absolutely Can't wait.
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