At Recruiters Websites, we always strive to remain on the cusp of the industry, understanding and staying ahead of trends. Recently, we sat down with Michael Gionta, Founder of The RecruiterU, a go-to source for the tools and training you need to generate predictable profits, reliable growth and true business freedom, to talk about his company, what they do and what they can bring to your recruiting business. 

How did you get started, and what was your vision for this company? 

I opened my recruiting firm, an MRI franchise, in 1990, but by 2006, I started realizing I didn't want to run a recruiting firm anymore. So, I did an inventory of what I loved about my firm, which was the training and development part. After that realization, I transitioned my firm to what would become The RecruiterU in 2007. 

In all honesty, it wasn't like I went in thinking I was going to transform the recruiting industry, but I thought if I were to get six or seven one-on-one clients, I could go into semi-retirement to spend more time with my family. 

But I had been fortunate financially in recruiting and my transition that the market started coming to me with one request or another, which led to a completely different approach. I loved it. We didn’t have an SOP (standard operating procedure) in place; we had nothing recorded. It was just like how The Iliad and The Odessey were passed down—word of mouth.  

We started sorting our clients into groups as we noticed 90 percent of our recruiters’ challenges overlapped, and we were hearing successful feedback at that point. We created our Ignite Program for solo owners who want to increase their billings and our Platinum Program for firm owners looking to scale.  

From there, we ran offsite Masterminds for 10 or 12 clients at a time, helping them develop business plans for the next three to four months, provide one-on-one coaching, group coaching, etc. And by “we,” I mean “me.” I was the salesperson, coach, content creator, marketer, everything. In order to truly grow and succeed, I had to let go of parts of marketing, sales, and coaching because some of the things I love doing, I’m not effective at, to put it bluntly. 

That's great. How many firms would you say you've partnered with through the years? 

Hundreds. The average client probably stays two or three years and a percentage of those come back because they start to slip when they're on their own and get away from the structure.  

I had a bunch of clients that just outgrew their original groups, and they said if we ever get a bunch of owners together doing $2 million-plus, they’d be happy to be part of that group. This led to the formation of our Boardroom Group, which is eight or nine elite offices where we discuss hiring, scaling, compensation plans, incentive programs, etc.  

It seems people are just dying for some community, and that’s always been interesting to me about the recruiting industry. You just look around and see so many Facebook and LinkedIn groups because recruiters are willing to share and look for feedback. In 2006, were there many mastermind groups around at that point? 

There weren’t any in recruiting. 

What are some things that you feel have made you unique and to be able to sustain and do this since 2007? 

When you're in a community of coaches, no matter the niche, systems and processes could be very similar because performance coaching is performance coaching. And then you're just down into the strategic parts of the niche of owning that type of business.  

The first piece is accountability. A lot of coaches will come with the attitude of, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.” We can teach them everything, but it’s up to them to implement those changes. We have a saying at The RecruiterU, “We’re going to bring 100 percent of our 50 percent of this relationship.” And that's the knowledge, the performance coaching, the holding you accountable. But you've got to bring 100 percent of your 50 percent, which is doing what you say you're going to do. Not what we tell you to do because there's got to always be agreement, it's got to be co-created, which brings a level of accountability from both sides. For example, in our Masterminds, everyone leaves with five projects to implement over the next four months. And then we have contests for those who did implement their projects. 

In 2017, I sat down with our coaches to break our clients into three groups. There were the top 20 percent who were getting great results, and the bottom 20 percent who were getting better results than they did on their own but still struggling. And then there was that middle 60 percent that were getting above average-ish results but not everything they necessarily wanted. They were all being coached by the same coaches, so it’s not like one coach was better than another. We discovered their success was related to the way they thought about their business. Yes, marketing is hard. It’s time consuming, overwhelming, and expensive. But those are also limiting beliefs. They can be true or not true based on how one thinks about it. 

With this in mind, I attended a program with the intent of teaching my other coaches how to use this information in their sessions. But what happened was we learned strategy coaching and mindset coaching needed their own sessions. When we added mindset coaching to our programs, our retention rate went from 40-50 percent at the time to 75 percent now. 

Wow. So, The RecruiterU isn’t just “how to recruit” and “here’s the process” because anyone can go pick up a recruiting book or watch YouTube. It’s more about helping them overcome those mental barriers that are limiting them from truly executing their strategy.  

Exactly. 

Do you have any type of requirements for a client to become a client of yours?   

That's a really good question. When I first opened, if their credit card cleared, that was an all-star client. But now that we’ve been doing this for so long, we’ve discovered there's certain people we can’t help, and luckily, it’s a small percentage of the population. Now, we have a process to get you clear on exactly what you want to accomplish before joining the program. 

Additionally, we're currently developing a brand new recruiter training program for those who have never been a recruiter but want to dive in. We're almost done putting together the program, and it's going to be a combination of video training with daily coaching and accountability in a group format. 

For a firm to get started with you all, what does that process look like? Is it them just reaching out, having a conversation, seeing if they're the right partner for you, the right firm to work with you? What does that look like to you? 

One way is for people to reach out. We send out content every week, and people reply with their challenge and ask for help. Usually, our team will reach out to them, have a very quick conversation with them to see how we can help. Then, I will then jump on and take them a bit deeper. 

One of the first questions I always ask people, which is the hardest for them to answer, is “what do you want?” They have to usually sit back and think to answer that question because here's the key thing: if we can’t help them identify what they want, whatever they’re doing, whether they’re complaining about it or not, becomes the new comfort level. Without a vision for something bigger, they are going to get stuck. 

So, that's part of the process of determining if they're a good fit.  

Anything that I haven't asked you if you feel like is important for us to make sure that we make our audience aware of? 

I think we've covered a lot of the areas. I know, like, and respect all the other trainers in the business, I just think most recruiting coaches don't have a program for continuity. They'll provide some great modules on business development, time management or recruiting as a whole. They provide these little islands of training versus what must be true for you to change your approach like we provide.  

It’s like leaving a conference with 20 pages of notes and great ideas, but unless you do something with them when you get home, they just remain as notes. Our goal is to help our clients take that content, combine it with strategy, and hold themselves accountable to get results. 

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