Episode #92: David Anderson - Field of Talent

hello this is coach Tim Campsall and I'm your host for the self-made as a myth make a difference together show where we are chatting with successful business owners to hear their stories of the journey to building their business and because we know that uh building a successful business is not something that we can do on our own we're taking some time to recognize the folks who have helped us along the way today I am excited to have a fellow business owner from Indiana with us my guest once helped Harvest olives in Sicily that's pretty cool we're going to ask him a little bit more about that in his downtime he enjoys uh creative writing as well as long Mountain hikes and he's most proud of his kids he has to have five kids and six grandkids congratulations that's awesome yeah it is my pleasure to welcome David to the show today hello David hello Tim it's good to be here awesome hey let's start with having you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit of your personal story like where you were born and live and about your family and hobbies yeah sure sure so um yeah uh born here in Indiana uh lived here most of my life around the Anderson areas where I grew up worked in Indianapolis most of my career a little bit outside a little bit in Ohio a little bit Detroit mostly I've been in Talent acquisition leadership on the corporate side and some some staffing work as well along the way and you know just uh past a few years uh started uh started Consulting and then that led into starting a company and so um most most of my career has been in technology um software cyber security those types of Industries but a little bit of everything so but but a lot of a lot of uh high-tech fantastic tell us a little bit about your family yeah so uh five kids as as you you mentioned uh we uh my wife when we we got married she was the youngest of five so that was her Paradigm right and uh I was like uh well I just this is my sister and myself so okay so I got on board uh we we uh we have a wonderful family uh so my wife and I have been married for 31 years oh congratulations celebrated our anniversary uh did a 30th anniversary trip to Paris last year and uh spent spent some time in France for about a month and and uh toured around there and and worked from there remotely for a little while so yeah good for you that was that was awesome

oh uh so that was a trip uh about 12 years before uh and you know it always wanted to go to Italy wanted there's there's so much of of Europe I want to see uh but I'm not I'm not really good being your typical tourist you know jumping on the bus and following the crowds and things like that I want to get immersed in the in the language and the culture um studied Italian in in uh school at IU and and uh just yeah I always wanted to go and so I was at that time I was running just a hobby Farm you know like I had a it was just you know part-time Spare Time weekends uh with my kids and we would go to farmers markets we we had some subscriptions as a as a CSA Community supporting Agriculture and um and I've always kind of had this entrepreneurial you know mindset or or uh uh lean uh with myself but I I found this organization in Europe that does organic farming and then they uh you can go and exchange work hours for room and board so it was a great way for us to kind of get immersed and oh wow stay cheap and stay a little bit longer so we were there for close to about three three weeks and uh uh they work to select dogs it was one of these things where uh they were way behind schedule and and we were like okay we'll we'll help and we were only planning to work like four or six hours a day and then you know have the rest of the time yeah we'll tour the countryside and things but no it was it was sun up to sundown

in mud and it was it was awesome what a great experience I love that and we it worked just like a dog it was muddy and horrible conditions and you also said it was awesome it was it was awesome yeah because we I mean the stories that come out of that right and uh you know the food and the culture and uh yeah I could I could share some really really funny stories um uh with with just just being there in central Sicily you know where uh we were we stuck out like Outsiders like you know right very suspect of us right uh you know is this a new boss in town yeah yeah speaking of funny story is there a a story that your family likes to tell about you that you'd be willing to share with us today oh my gosh well it's related to that I don't know this is really embarrassing but it's it's one of those stories I like to laugh at myself so right so and my family does too at my expense um when we were there gosh I don't know if I tell this or not but oh it's too late now you've already too late right I know I know man Tim okay so here it goes um we were harvesting olives and you know we like I said we we uh when you're in central Sicily you're working on a on a farm things were very primitive um no laundry you know we we did our laundry in a bucket right and we were working basically sun up to sundown and you know they fed us they fed us well just you know gracious hosts they were wonderful people and um and we still keep in touch today we it was uh in the fall so olives are harvested around October um you know late October mid to late October early November and this was they had a just a beautiful farm and we were uh it was Halloween so and that's uh I'm not Catholic but that's a big you know that's a uh kind of a uh a big Mass you know hollow's Eve Mass and so we wanted to go the family was going they said hey let's let's get in from the field we're kind of in a hurry we're in a rush but let's go um and we were like yeah we want to we want to be a part of this so uh we didn't have any like clean clothes really you know you know and and so I'm throwing stuff together and I'm out of I'm out of you know undergarments right and uh so I just threw on some jeans and went and we go to mass and it's standing room only and um people are walking in and I'm like hey um I I left my wife and uh our hosts uh those two ladies go up you know front and have the experience and I was just like I'll just stay in the back so I'm standing in the back and um one of the nuns comes in and and uh she looks at me standing in the back and she signals to me and I'm like I don't know what she's saying no you know where I'm going with this so I go outside and I'm just like well I'm just you know this is I I don't know what she's saying but I'm just gonna go outside because there's nowhere to sit and it's I'm like this right so I go outside and this beautiful just evening and you know I'm sitting in the plaza and this this wind comes in off the mountains and just it's cold and it hits me you know hits me right you know where it counts and I'm like I look down and I'm wide up barn doors open so um very embarrassing that may be uh one of the best uh funny stories I've heard so you're you're good at gosh you're in that you're in the running for the award oh the family just we told it at dinner that evening afterward and the family just about fell off the chairs oh thank you for sharing hey David so basically Tim what the the the the punchline of that story is is that I flashed a nun yeah right [Laughter]

claim the thing only I'm not walking back I don't think yeah I can't go back there I have to go to another part of Italy so David tell us how did business come about and at what point did you have the confidence that you could run your own business yeah you know confidence is a great word because for a lot of years I I you know kind of thought I wanted to do this I want to do something on my own but it's a uh it's you know that's one of the things that um I've probably learned over the course of the many years and continue to learn right um I came to a point there's so I remember one conversation that I had with someone that I I respected that I I helped uh hire to the organization I was with at the time she was an executive leader for quality and had helped her hire a lot of people and she said to me one day she said you know you really ought to think about Consulting you could you you do this really well I think you could do that really well on your own and that kind of planted the seed you know for years later when the organization changed we were bought I wasn't having much fun I left made a bad choice with with going to another company didn't work out and then that's started the journey right with with Consulting um and then as I was Consulting I determined that like I don't I'm going to be pretty limited if I'm building my own hours right yeah right so I only have so much time and um and there's more that we can contribute you know and I wanted to systematize what we were doing so that led eventually to Field of talent and so that's I started uh field of talent I consulted for a number of years with another partner uh for a little while and then started field of talent in 2021. awesome well let's tell us a little bit more about field of talent what do you guys do how do you help people yeah so what we do is is recruitment as a service basically or RPO a recruitment process Outsourcing so our approach to recruiting um when I started I never really wanted to have a traditional head hunting you know agency um I I think that's that's a great model and and it's contingency or retained search works for a lot of companies and works for a lot of firms uh just wasn't my style I wanted to take uh the really the white glove service and and the the guidance and the coaching of hiring managers and companies and candidates through the process and be able to provide that as a service as an ongoing subscription service and so we've taken largely uh uh we worked with a lot of companies that are startups or scale-ups that have you know funding they're ready to grow they have some pressure to grow and they're they're um you know they need help hiring so they don't really have an internal team to do that or if they do and they're they're a little bit larger we augment those teams um and Supply them with Talent from sourcing or uh take a section of of some of their jobs that tend to be more difficult wonderful um and you said that uh you didn't want to be the traditional model so tell us a little bit more about that white glove service that you mentioned what what yeah what makes you guys different and unique yeah well I I think it's it's one of the the the things for us it's always about um we I never wanted someone to feel like they represented a fee to one of our team members you know uh and and that's kind of the fee per head model always made me feel that um when I was when I was recruited and and different things and I wanted to take a different approach and and really be consultative and make sure that one of our one of our guide post is to make sure that candidates know about our model and know that we're not going to try to put you into something or convince you of something that you're not ready for all right the the next move in your career it's it's got to be right for you so you know somebody's somebody's career is much much too important to have it based on a recruiter's fee and so that's why we wanted to make sure we we de-emphasized you know it's kind of like um you see some retailers that de-emphasize like well our sales people aren't commissioned you know that type of thing and and uh similar to that but um you know we just wanted to make sure it's very candidate Centric yeah wonderful David share a story where someone pushed you or inspired you that you could do it even though maybe you didn't think that you could and the impact that that person had hmm yeah that's a good question um you know I would say it's um

uh you know that that happens sometimes weekly you know right um you know I see I think it's um

man that's a good question Tim I'll have to let's come back to that okay yeah okay fantastic all right what's your biggest learning as a business owner uh you know rely on others um and and develop others you know and so when you start off Consulting it's just you and so it's a process of of delegating you know and and elevating yourself um but in delegating it's also coaching and teaching yeah and and helping others develop um you know I think that's probably over the years back to the the previous question a little bit is that I've just had I can't think of one necessarily person or point in time but there's been people that I've reported to work for um clients you know that have made us better you know and sometimes it's sometimes it's feedback that like hey you don't really want you know it's not always Pleasant to hear but right it's very helpful yeah you know and so you learn from mistakes or you learn from things that are working yeah that's working okay but you know could be better so we're always asking those questions too of our clients like what could be better how can we make this better for you and and make it easier I I liked your um your thought on the delegation so one of the exercises we have our clients go through is to evaluate right what's your what's your dollar value to the organization and it's a simple exercise you just take your total company revenue and divide by 2 000 hours and and that's your properly value to the company and then anything less than that you should be exploring delegating or Outsourcing now now you don't always delegate or Outsource but that the aha moment comes of wow right if my value to the company is five hundred dollars an hour and I'm doing a whole lot of 25 an hour jobs it's probably lopsided right there's probably more that I could be doing to help my company grows to let go of some of those things and and I also you mentioned the then you have to train so yeah we can't just jump onto our employees but we have to make sure that they know how to do the things that that maybe are only in our head right that we've been so used to doing it that sometimes it's hard to teach someone how to do it because it's so natural for us yeah well that's that's probably a good exercise too for for clients right just to think okay what are they doing that we could help them with and maybe that's maybe that's sourcing building a pipeline kind of nurturing a pipeline of candidates along the way um that takes a lot of time it's not necessarily hard work um the finding and the sourcing a little bit is is kind of like detective work sometimes online you know so uh that takes to take some skills but you know anybody could learn that and if they have interest and a passion for it they can be really good at it but that sometimes that's those are things that we see that clients are trying to do or or the recruiting teams are trying to do that they don't have the time for or yeah they have too much on their play Too Many open requisitions that you know yeah that's a that's a good really good way to think about it and I often um we we all probably hear the well that's you know that's expensive or that's too much it's like well but it's the opportunity cost right like right you can do it yourself and take 10 hours or you could Outsource it to somebody who that's all they do and it takes two hours right right yeah yeah exactly exactly David we know that business success doesn't happen in isolation so tell us about one of your biggest challenges during the years and and maybe a fellow business owner that came alongside you and helped you through that yeah um you know I think it's um uh you know one of the challenges in starting um field of talent was was you know just uh just getting up and running and um like you know thinking about brand thinking about the name like you know just just things that are for me were really important I I think like brand is is really important to me and and some some business coaches and people just say ah just you know start you know start it start a name and go with it right so I put a lot of um effort and thought into that uh had some really good advice from a friend that a guy that I helped get a job years ago with a client and uh reached out to him and said and he's he's a marketing director for for a large services company here in town and uh reached out to him and said hey uh Amos what do you think you know give me some give me some insight and he was more than gracious and and gave me a lot of things to think about a lot of great referrals um and and really helped me kind of get started you know so that's I think that's the hardest part for a lot of people is like where do you start you know and and uh how do you start um what are some things you really need to think about to set yourself up for Success that you don't have to fix later yeah awesome um so I know there's a little bit of a story behind your company name so share that with us why field of talent yeah so you know I I grew up in we my friends used to joke that you know lived a little bit more Suburban right that they would say they grew up like in the middle of a cornfield you know and that's in Indiana that's that's really the reality for a lot of us and uh and that was that was me and that's kind of where I lived today I live purposely I married a girl I went to high school with and and you know we were both uh of the opinion like Hey we're getting out of here the small town we're gonna go you know this was this was college Years and as we got a little bit older um we settled here in Indiana Indianapolis area and then you know her she grew up on some land and beautiful land um wooded and Fields and just you know very bucolic and pastoral loved it that's kind of what I'm what we've both been used to and and as we look out and and you know I think of field of talent I think of of our approach um it's it's holistic it's nurturing it's it's caring um and it's effective and it's it's really high you know value driven um it it rings true of a lot of Rural America so that's that's really a lot of where it came from and then you know the sports theme too I love I love sports and always been an athlete and still try to be I love the the intentionality that you put into the name and and into your business I yes you're right some people will say just just slap a name out there it doesn't matter who cares but it it it truly does matter and and especially the industry that you're in right we've all had situations where we've hired the wrong people I hadn't you know we didn't have they didn't have a cultural fit and then it's like oh my goodness like this was a big mistake and everybody's miserable so having that intentionality of you know the the higher slow Fire fast idea right the so you know coming up with the right company name and the vision for the company and the culture of the company is huge in terms of long-term success because through the The Valleys right the the challenging times of the business the being able to look back and go okay why are we doing what we're doing it's like well here's our vision right here's the here's our core values and our beliefs and this is what holds us together and this is our rallying call of why we all show up every day well yeah I would say that you know yes there's advice people that would advise just jump in and go that I I like your approach because those things are critical to the long-term sustainability and health of a of a business so congratulations on taking the time to figure that out well thanks so I mean you know I mean it comes from leading human resources and and you know leading Talent acquisition for a number of years and that um you know I just saw that as as you know people that joined that stayed and felt connected to who we were right and so we um just when it was just like three of us we spent you know uh half a day just just digging into like okay who are we who do we want to be what are our values uh let's define those and something we revisit quarterly on our values um and we we and annually as well and make sure that is this still does this still ring true you know are we living them you know things like that yeah in our Monday huddles we go around I'll read one of our values and then I start and then everybody follows if I'll share how I feel I'm doing against that so here are the areas I think I'm strong I hear the areas I I believe I I can work on and we'll be focusing on improving and and so that's how we keep it live is if they were we're visiting each of you know one of our values well we're going to do that today actually so thanks for it's been on my mind lately to do that in our level tens weekly and so yeah so thanks let's I'm gonna add that to our to our uh issues list hey David I'm going to put you on the spot here uh yeah if I was to ask you to pick three people in your business owner Journey that you're most grateful for them being um there for you and and helping with the growth who are those three people and how they help you yeah uh well you know number one my wife I think I mean you know she's she's tremendous uh very supportive uh you know when you start out that's you got to have indeed great support at home and uh and what's your wife's name Libby yeah yeah and uh so uh she's been tremendous and um she's she's number one I think uh you know there are others along the way um people I've worked for I would say uh uh a guy named Howard uh with a with a partner that we have has been influential and uh and a good uh good Mentor and a good sounding board he's LED services companies very successfully and very successful uh uh over the over a long period so you know having people that have been you know where you want to go that's really key so those are a couple um let's see um you know the the gentleman I mentioned earlier just getting getting started and getting that initial like yeah I think I'm on to something um uh with with my friend Amos so that was that was really really key wonderful hey let's talk about the future a little bit so as you think about the next three to five years what are the biggest challenges that you see that you're gonna face in getting to your goals and who are the types of folks that you're going to need to help you solve those Tunes yeah I think um you know there's there's a lot of change uh every day a lot of change coming in uh Recruitment and business in general we're seeing a lot with AI and a lot of talk around that how does that how does that play out um I think making sure that we're always on top of our technology stack that it's working well for us that we optimize it we're optimizing our use of it uh is is a continual thing that we talk about that's on our mind um it's a differentiator for us and we want to make sure it continues to be a differentiator for us at some point maybe we we pivot a little bit and move into some product development or something like that but for now it's about making uh processes repeatable predictable or making our business model very predictable we've spent a lot of time on that last year and I think we've gotten to that and gotten to you know some we're starting to see some metrics that make sense and that we can you know use and and reuse and predicting outcomes for you know time to fill time to hire um and uh pipeline you know what what we need to have going into the top of the funnel for candidates to to have the right people coming out the bottom wonderful fantastic and who who are the types of people that you're going to need to help you with that yeah I think uh people that are you know we've we've taken an approach that um uh recruitment and is is a practice that can be taught and there are a lot of people that that want to break into this and so that's the approach that we've taken we've taught a lot of people how to do this um or a few people anyway we plan to teach a lot of people and then along the way I think too it'll it'll you know we'll we'll need to hire some some other folks that have you know a lot of Industry experiences we grow that can help us maybe lead practices but you know so far we've we've been successful with with uh teaching and and training up people and and that's not easy it takes a lot of time it's taking a lot of my time you know but it's very worth it very rewarding awesome hey last question here David Jim Rohn awesome business Guru says that we become the average of the five people that we spend the most time with so as you think about that quote what advice would you have for business owners who are doing it on their own and don't think that it it would be helpful to ask others for help yeah make make friends ask ask for help you know um swallow whatever Pride you have you know just just be so one of the things that we three things that we look for when we hire um from a from a character standpoint we look for people who are hungry humble and smart that's a lincione thing right so um but that's that's really you know I think people that are are hungry want to learn they're teachable they're humble so so that that plays in as well they're willing to own mistakes and improve and uh and they're smart and they have a capacity to do it so so they're that's that's worked pretty well for us so far um that's the advice I would say is just you know continue to make friends Network um admit your weaknesses you know I mean man I've got them you know and uh you know so I I'm trying to always trying to look to see who can help me um you know Shore those up so that I can focus where I'm strong one of the things I hear uh from uh those business owners who are reluctant to ask for help is hey that person I want to talk to is really successful they're really busy right they're not going to have time for me how would you react to that um yeah I would say uh try to tr yeah I always try to get a warm introduction right uh you come in cold and and sometimes it's it's not you know gonna be all that effective yeah but um uh just um you know if I had to say something to my younger self it would it would be like lose the fear you know like just just be Fearless yeah don't make mistakes you know mess it up yeah learn from it yeah right so I think so many of us um just doubt ourselves and and I you know I did for a lot of years yeah and so I think that's that's really key is to say um look here's where I want to go be intentional about you know your plan your goals and share that openly and you know I think there are a lot of people out there have been very successful who would love to have someone who's hungry humble and smart and teach you know teachable and and provide some advice at least too and if you can get a just a nugget of advice um maybe that's the thing that launches you forward and not may not become a mentor of yours but you know you've they've they've remember you you've they're part of your network yes so I'm an introvert by by Nature um networking is not natural for me um but um pardon me and I don't think it is for most people but um when you take the stance of I'm not here for myself I'm here to help someone else [Music] so for me in building a business so far has been about how do I help people that work for us right how do I help our clients yeah and that there's no pressure on me and me trying to be something [Music] you know it's about being altruistic for for others and for other organizations and so when I do that I can talk to anybody right yeah I love to hear what you said about being Fearless I I can't think of one person I've reached out to to ask if they'd be willing to you know have coffee and share stories that said no they may say hey not this month because I'm really busy but you know let's try to get something on the calendars next month but yeah everyone I've talked to has said hey I'd be willing to give you a few minutes and you know stories and answer some questions and I mean it's almost it's I when people have reached out to me it's it's honoring right wow they they'd like to hear my story yeah of course I'm I'll give them some time so so we spend um it's something that is is a practice of ours I'll take a meeting at any time with anybody that's beginning a career search you know a new new job search um or maybe they just they just want some counselor some coaching they're thinking about making a change um that's an important you know these are important decisions in our lives right that affect a whole lot of people yeah and so I'll always making time every week to just have those discussions and try to help someone Network to the next person to the next organization maybe some feedback on a resume so yeah I'll make I always make time to do that the other thing you said about being Fearless is jump in and make mistakes and right learn through here's the reality for everyone listening is you know we all prefer our comfort zone right we've been evolutionarily we've been programmed to stay in the cave because if we step out cave the lion eats us or the bear attacks us but here's the thing everything we want in life and everything we want in our business is on the other side of our comfort zone so the longer we delay right taking those risks and and stepping outside of that the longer we delay the successes that are awaiting us so I love that right make some mistakes jump out figure it out as you go right we're we are going to make mistakes it's inevitable that's how we grow and learn right it's how we learned how to walk we uh just had a discussion with a candidate yesterday that that accepted an offer from one of our clients and and we we helped her through that helped think through it and and you know it was something that she had been with the organization uh for you know 9 10 11 years something like that and she was like you know I've been pretty comfortable here this is this seems stable right and so the fear is is that I go to something that's maybe less stable or doesn't work out or you know just the fear of change in general um but uh for us it wasn't about you know we're never trying to convince someone you know for the next thing um you know we provide the data the facts the opportunity for her it was kind of helping her think and ask questions that she could ask herself to get to that realization that yeah and and you know by through the process and and affirming at the end of our conversation yesterday that yeah I am ready to make a change because I know that I need to do that in order to grow yeah wonderful yes and there's another um fun uh saying that we're we're either growing or we're dying there's no status right right exactly so you know I S you know I see that I still garden and and uh you know love love nature and being in the woods being in the fields and in the garden and you know you see that right that's nature that's just the way it works yes indeed we I do a vegetable garden every year and I don't know what happened to one of my tomato plants but the poor little thing died so it's Infinity right it's sad to invest all that time into those activities and one doesn't survive yeah yeah it's uh tomatoes are finicky they're they're a lot of things that can go wrong there but uh so rewarding when they work out yeah indeed David it sounds like you've been blessed with some incredible people in that have helped you along your journey if they were all here on the show today what would you want to say to them no just you know thanks I mean you know gratitude is something that's on my mind on my heart every day yeah so fantastic just thanks and continual praise and you know thank you for the time for the for the energy the advice the belief yeah wonderful David it's been a pleasure speaking with you today thank you so much great to be here thanks for having me awesome to those who tuned in uh thanks for listening to the self-made as a myth show with your host coach Tim cancel be sure to help spread the movement by liking our show and posting about it on social media and to join our movement go to bemadtogether.com all right folks that's a wrap make sure to pay it forward and I'll see you all next time take care foreign

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