In the staffing industry where the key to thriving is differentiation, creating a unique brand identity that resonates with clients and candidates is essential. Today, we are joined by Richard Rosner, the founder of Staffing Shark and America’s favorite flip-flop-wearing job agent, for a crash course in personal branding. Named one of the Top 100 Staffing Leaders to Watch in 2022 by the World Staffing Awards, Richard knows what it takes to stand out from the crowd! In this episode, he shares his unconventional approach to getting noticed as a recruitment professional and offers invaluable advice for captivating high-quality candidates, leveraging your unique personal brand to boost your company’s profile, and creating engaging content to grow your audience on social media. We also discuss Richard’s favorite AI tools to help you boost your brand strategy and your online presence. For all this and much more, don’t miss this fun, fresh, and inspiring conversation with the Staffing Shark, Richard Rosner!
[0:01:13] DF: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us for another episode of The Staffing Show. Today, I am super excited to be joined by Richard Rosner, who’s the founder of the Staffing Shark and is America’s job agent. Richard, super excited to have you on the show today. Kick things off. Can you tell us a little bit about who you are and how you got into staffing?
[0:01:32] RR: Hey, David. Thanks for having me on the show. Shout out, it is Shark Week. So, to have this recorded on Shark Week is a special for me, bro. Well, you know what? Okay, so here’s the story with me. I used to be a probation officer for 10 years. I don’t know if you know that, for the state of Pennsylvania, and I quit my job in the summer. Yeah, 2007. Yeah. Then we moved to Pittsburgh and actually a recruiter found me for a job in IT and liked me so much and said, “Do you want to come on board and be a recruiter here in New York City and Pittsburgh?” 10 years later, here I am. It’s been 10 years this year, I’ve been in the industry.
The reason I’m called to Staffing Shark? I’m going to tell you, David, back in the day and I tell everybody this. People love Richard Rosner. What’s going to make your brand? This is before the brands came like out five years ago. It wasn’t this big personal brand. I’m thinking, I’m not going to make this up, man. I’m sitting at Myrtle Beach. I’m drinking some LandShark beers. After about four or five, you see the white caps? You think you see a shark and I’m thinking, “I need a tag name. Staffing Shark. Always on the hunt, never sleeps, and drinks a LandShark beer.” I’m thinking, “Dude, that could be me.”
Then I’m thinking, “Maybe I take it to the next level.” Let me put the Kenny Chesney vibe on it, flip flops, ripped jeans, medium shirt, and a shark necklace. I’m like, “I’ll be the only one at a conference that looks like I just walked off the beach and ready to have beer. I guarantee that can attract talent.” There I am. I can’t make it up, man. I’m loving it, man. Every day.
[0:02:56] DF: You created the brand. You created the –
[0:02:58] RR: I created a brand more than once. I got to tell you. My family –
[0:03:03] DF: I was like, who’s this guy? Who’s this guy? He’s got all this energy, flip flops.
[0:03:08] RR: But you know what’s funny is my parents call me the shark. I mean, they don’t even call my real name anymore. It’s like –
[0:03:14] DF: I love it. I mean, so you’ve been in staffing for quite a bit. You got in from think of the first and only percent of those a probation officer before jumping in, which is a crazy background. What are some of the trends that you’re seeing in staffing today?
[0:03:26] RR: I think the biggest trend is that, we’re talking about AI. Of course, AI we’ll talk about that all the time. But I think the biggest thing is a lot of recruiters now are getting scared that AI is going to replace them. I think that’s one of the biggest things right now that in our industry, everybody is not on the offense side. They’re on the defense side of saying, “Can I save the day? Can I find a candidate?” Me, I’m all about hunting on the offense side. I always say that.
I think that’s one of the big things right now that recruiters are doubting yourself. A lot of layoffs in the industry too. That’s where you’re going to be proactive, David. You know that is, man. We got a lot of good friends that lost their job this year, but in a day, if you’re proactive and you reach out to all your platforms and networks, you should be fine.
[0:04:06] DF: Yeah. I think the, I mean, AI is definitely replacing components of jobs, but if you’re building relationships and truly connecting with people and using AI to accelerate your own skill set, there’s plenty of jobs out there as well. Though staffing has been, it’s been a challenging year and a half. Things seem to be moving in the right direction.
[0:04:24] RR: Let me go out right real quick about AI. I’m going to tell you real quick. AI is best for sourcing. I mean, if you know anybody, who wants to make a hundred phone calls a day, sourcing? AI is always happy. It’s pretty much right now, not biased. On that hundredth phone call, it’s still saying the same things. I think that is the one thing that’s going to be a game changer for a lot of staffing firms and recruiting firms is the sourcing part. Then now we have the voice AI, which is incredible. I mean, me and you could be sleeping at three in the morning and somebody can just get on a website and have a voice bot come out there and talk to you for 10 minutes.
[0:04:59] DF: Yeah. I’ve seen some of the AI tools that are doing the auto responders, auto-scheduling, some of the components that are just mind-numbing as a whole anyways. It’s like you’re going to eliminate that part of the job and actually focus on having the conversations and it feels like a better spot to be.
[0:05:16] RR: It is. Maybe I’m a bot right now. I might not even be the real person.
[0:05:20] DF: The staffing bot. The Staffing Shark bot.
[0:05:22] RR: That’s – oh, boy. That’s kind of scary. I think with my lingo, you could never have a bot for that.
[0:05:29] DF: From a trend’s perspective, you’re all over social media. You’re always creating engaging content. You have a great brand. What are some of the things that you’re seeing? I know you have some exciting stuff coming out as well with staffing TV. What do you see when it comes to video content and some of the different approaches to branding and content generation for staffing agencies?
[0:05:47] RR: I think a lot of the branding in the videos, but I keep it short. Short and sweet. I always say seven to 15 seconds for an – I created is called the branding burst. I got one coming out actually. They’re on today on LinkedIn. It says, a surfing. I’m surfing. It’s like surfing into the job. So, it’s like videos like that. People want that Netflix and I talk about this in the blog today, that we want that trailer, that 15 to 30 seconds of excitement. That video of just saying, “Come on down to my agency, I have 200 jobs,” is obsolete. I’m going to tell anybody out there. It doesn’t work. I mean, the only people who are going to like that is your internal staff or some of your friends. That’s it.
I think the video content these days has to be creative. We talk about creative. How does it engage your audience? Here’s how I do it, David. I sit back and I say, “Okay, I’m Kenny Chesney on the stage.” I visualize this. There’s my audience screaming and yelling at me, “One more song.” What content can I put out there to make them happy to engage them, not myself? I’m here to make them shine. It’s about, right now, it’s summertime. You should be blasting out all that kind of stuff. Even if you have a peanut colada in your videos. People want that. It’s Shark Week, but stuff out there with sharks. That is going to engage you.
Then guess what? You’re going to have your name on it. They’re going to see your face. You’re going to have your logo there. That is what we have to do in the video world. I’ll be honest with you right now, I don’t see much of it out there. We have a lot, but set yourself as a cartoon character. I mean, I’m like Rambo in one. You got to see this one picture. I look like Rambo and it says, Recruitbo. People’s like laughing and joking, but that’s where you get your traffic from. Then after that, they’re going to be curious of who you are. Then they go to my Facebook or one of my platforms and then they say, “Wow, he’s finding people jobs.” I mean, before you know it’s just a snowball effect.
[0:07:27] DF: Yeah. It’s pretty incredible what you’ve done. Can you tell us about the background of coming up with Staffing Shark, but like what’s driving you forward right now? How are you working with talent? What’s the approach today?
[0:07:38] RR: I think the biggest approach right now for the talent is, I already built a database pretty much on Facebook. I always joke I have like 3,000 friends on there. I think 2,000 are people that have hired over the last five years. Then, I have a couple of – members, and a couple I don’t really have under anyway, but just joking about it is, I think that, you know what? When you have all of them on there, they reach out to me all the time. I’m going to tell you, David, I got so many people reaching out to me.
I think this is what’s great about the staffing recruiting industry. When you build a brand, you don’t chase them, they chase you. You trust them. I mean, one thing about me, I’ve never ghosted anybody. If I did, call me out, because I’m there and that’s a big thing that we can talk about right now. A lot of candidates are getting ghosted by recruiters. That’s where I come different. I’m like, dude, I got two seconds to send you a message and say, hey, you didn’t get this job. We didn’t get this job, let’s move on to another one or they want it for direction. That’s all it takes. Guess what? They’re going to say, “Dude, thank you for that respect.” It could be through texting.
I mean, they all have my phone number. That’s probably one of the biggest things I will say to game-changers. Everybody has my cell phone number. It’s my personal number. It’s my business number. It’s my revolver. It’s all my hip at all times. They could call me on the weekends. Dude, if I’m watching football or if I’m having a couple beers at eight o’clock at night, I’ll get back to you in the morning or maybe I’ll answer the phone at halftime and start cussing about my team losing, and then take your call. But that’s a part of me being real that everybody sees and the candidates just love it. It’s not me. It’s because the team I have around me, we just keep it real. I think that’s what we have to do now. We’re going back to the basics. We’re just engaged and keeping it real with people.
[0:09:12] DF: Tell me a little bit about what’s going on with Staffing TV. I think this is an exciting stuff that some –
[0:09:16] RR: Oh boy. This is not –
[0:09:17] DF: Yeah. And unique.
[0:09:19] RR: Yeah. This is fun. You know what? We all have podcasts. I’m on your podcast now. I have my own and all that good stuff, but there’s nothing out there where it’s like an entertainment six to nine hours. I call it a streaming service. So, when I came up with Staffing TV, just like MTV, but it’s Staffing TV. The logo is a little bit similar, but my brother made it, so it’s no copyrights at all, but it is cool. We’ve got shows like, remember TRL? Now, we’ve got Total Recruiters Live. You know MTV Raps, we’ve got Recruiter Raps with a little bit of DI and stuff. We’re going to make it fun.
I’ve got a great team of leaders there. I have probably 13 contributors that you probably know. Brad Biley’s one of them. We got a lot of good people that’s going to be on, that’s going to contribute every day with data, AI. We’re also going to have people not from the industry, like economists come on from the new stations and job seekers from the streets talking to us. This is going to be something that’s going to be awesome. It’s always live because freaking life is live. I don’t record anything. No, and we’re going to have alcohol on Fridays a little bit, but we are going to have a great time. Six to nine hours on all platforms.
Everybody’s invited to be on it. It’s free publicity for everybody. Why have you a podcast and get exposure when you can come on to Staffing TV? Do your 30-minute spiel, take the Reels back, and blast them off. We don’t own that. You own it too. That’s the one thing about it. We’re going to grow together on this. I’m just going to tell you. It launches like the end of summer here, man. It’s going to be freaking fun, man. I can’t wait.
[0:10:50] DF: Well, that’s great. With that and some all, I mean, you talked about a handful of different content pieces that you’re doing, and some recommendations on the marketing side. But what – if you’re a staffing agency today, I know you’re saying get out there, be different, short clips. Any other recommendations, if you’re sitting there saying, how do I get more talent in the door from a marketing perspective? I ask you because I feel like you’ve given me examples over the years of some of the guerrilla marketing campaigns you’ve done. I feel like, you’re the, really like an OG.
[0:11:19] RR: OG. The gangster.
[0:11:22] DF: You’ve done a lot of cool things over the years. I’m wondering, what are some things that you’d recommend for staffing agencies to look into? Tell their marketing team to do? Yeah. Where would you go with that?
[0:11:31] RR: Okay. Here’s what I think, right off the bat. The marketing team and the recruiters have a disconnect. I see it all the time when they go in. I think the recruiters should be micro-influencers. How about that, David? It’s a name I came up with. I got some blogs. Everybody, even a sales rep. They should be micro-influencers too. You’re the face of the company. The company, the logo is not the face. You are because you’re in the front line. You’re going out to try to get sales. You’re trying to recruit. They have to be part of the marketing. I don’t see that anymore. I see just the marketing department putting out marketing posts that they think.
I’m going to tell you what, if you know how to market a tennis shoe, it’s different than marketing candidates. You got to know the industry. You got to know what it is. The recruiters and the sales reps too. Some of the stuff that I like to do, real quick, coasters, and all the bars and restaurants around here have the coaster to get hired by the Shark. Another one, I sponsor a baseball team. Another one, I have NIL. I have a couple, real quick here, probably the first one in the industry, have a couple of high school students I’m going to sponsor. Guess what? For basketball and everything. They’re going to be on my videos and everything now.
The NIL is coming to the staffing industry now, so hey, I can’t make this up. This is good stuff. I even have a singer now that I sponsor. Every time he goes to and does a show, man. My name is out there. He’s got T-shirts with my logo on the back. That’s stuff we have not done. We just do billboards, which is boring. You pay all that money for a billboard. Billboards, I mean, it is as it is. But these are just community marketing things that you have to do. When you do all this, guess what? Guess who your recruiting team is, David? It’s your town. It’s the town you live in. Right? That’s your recruiters right there.
Everybody that you are surrounded by, that is your recruiters now. Now, you don’t have a team of four recruiters, you have 20,000 people that are recruiting for you. It’s worked everywhere I go. Give me one year. I will turn that whole town into a Shark mania where they all want jobs. They all just have fun together. That’s the vibe you get. I think a couple of other things I’m going to say is social media. I think if you’re just on LinkedIn, I got to tell you, David. You’re losing out. There’s more than LinkedIn. I tell people, TikTok, you got to be on it.
I was in New York City a couple of weeks ago for business. I’ve seen CEOs. I was going to take a video of it. They’re scrolling on TikTok. If they’ve got a shirt and tie and they’re first class, they’re on TikTok, what if they pop up by your company or my company? All it takes is one swipe, right? So, why put that content on every platform? One platform that I think is really going to boom up this year, I’m going to give you a tip is Clapper. I don’t know if you guys heard a Clapper.
[0:13:55] DF: Yeah. I know Clapper.
[0:13:56] RR: It’s a competitor to TikTok. Yeah. It’s based out of Texas. I think it’s going to be the up-and-coming thing for video content. If you guys get a chance, Clapper is one of them. I love the video content. I think video is the king. Everybody should be doing videos, six to seven a week. I mean, and get out in the streets and do it. You’re in Colorado, so you know the Denver Broncos football. Move stuff up with your Bronco shirt on or whatever, whoever you cheer for.
[0:14:20] DF: Yeah. Yeah.
[0:14:21] RR: Then hashtag that. Then guess what? All the community that loves the Broncos is going to see the Shark or David swimming around, or they will get curious who you are. That is how you drive traffic to your website and everything else.
[0:14:32] DF: I love it. The short videos on social media is hands down one of the more impactful approaches to getting eyeballs, getting engagement, getting shares. I don’t know exactly how the algorithms work, but they’re definitely favoring that content. I think it’s because it gets the engagement in it as well. The one part you brought up the micro-influencers. I just read, there’s an article in Harvard Business Review last month about influencers and how – I don’t remember the exact number, but it’s something 12 million people in the US list their primary job as content creators or influencers. It was like the same amount that’s in manufacturing or something.
It was some crazy stat. I read it and I’m like, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” It’s just like that is a wave the whole micro-influencer movement, I think is a thing that’s going to get more and more traction. Instead of the brand talking about the brand because nobody trusts that. Get your people to talk about it. Obviously, I’m behind that with the whole referral movement. I think that’s moving that in that direction. That’s great advice that you’ve got there. From a technology perspective, I know you get to talk to different agencies. When it comes to automation, AI, are there tools, platforms that you’re seeing out there that are having an impact, or things that you’re generally excited about?
[0:15:45] RR: The two AI ones I like is Jasper and Flick, I don’t know if you heard of both of them. I love them in the industry right now. I think they’re great. There’s so many other ones that are out there that does cartoon characters and all that stuff and brings it to life. I think when you do a lot of AI – people, they do a lot of cartoon characters, but they don’t put their self in it. You have to have your face in it. I mean, I did a Jedi one for May 4th and I looked like a Jedi. I mean, people want to see your face over and over again, and that’s how you get it. You flood yourself out there, but it’s also you just don’t flood yourself about yourself. You got to flood yourself about every scenario.
I mean all these movies coming out all summer long and stuff like that. Put yourself in it. Beverly Hills Cop’s out there. I got one with that now. It’s like put yourself in the movies with them and at the current time and then hashtag all that stuff. I think one thing that I got to say real quick is I wrote it down real quick here is like, ads shouldn’t look ads. I really believe that, like advertisement shouldn’t be that salesy QVC kind of stuff, shouldn’t say that, but you know what I mean? It’s like you only got 10 minutes. Come on down. We can’t be a sales person. We got to be like I said, again, excitement; excite, engage, employ. That was my slogan for the last four years now. That is what it’s about to get candidates and clients.
I’m going to tell you, David, most of my clients, I close 38 deals in 18 months and only one in person for a staffing firm in West Virginia. I did this with everything else I do. Travel and doing 38 conferences and stuff. Guess what? Only one was in person. It was never like, “Hey, I’m going to send you 10 bodies.” No, I’m not selling bodies here. It’s about me just having a bullshit, coffee chat, beer chat with them. Then send them a link to some of my videos. This link and they’re like, “Dude, you’re crazy. I’m curious about who you are, Shark.” Seriously. I’m a third person all the time. If you know that. I call myself the Shark all the time –
[0:17:35] DF: I know you do. It’s great.
[0:17:36] RR: It’s funny, because people joke about it. I’m like they’re running joke, but I love it. It’s like, so if that third person they’re talking about, you’re in a third person, they’re talking about me. Guess what that is? That’s activity. That’s engaging. That’s what you want all the time. If I can give any tips out there about sales is the cold calls and all that’s great, but use all different avenues. The emails are still alive, texting’s still alive, use emojis. There’s so many different avenues. I’m going to tell you on the weekends, if you throw seven to 10 emails out there from 10:00 to 1:00, peoples on their phones all the time. We’re on our work phone all the time.
CEOs and managers. Now, managers are on it too. Reach out to them and throw something out there on the Saturday. If it’s like Labor Day’s coming up, throw something out there and say, “Hope you have some hot dogs and ketchup.” Something funny and comical. They’ll respond to that. Instead of just saying, “Hey, you know? I’m the staffing firm, A, B, and C, and I have 10 people. Are you interested in looking at them?” Nobody gives a shit about that. They can go to D to find… I mean, it really comes down to that. Now, we are in this day and age where entertainment is the number one thing, because we’re all – since the iPhone came around. It’s, “Dude, we only have 15 seconds.” Right? Not even that, seven seconds to engage somebody’s interest.
[0:18:49] DF: Yeah. The attention spans are so low. I do think you’re right. So funny is I feel like people write off different social media platforms. Historically, it’s like, “Oh, we’re B2B. We don’t need to do stuff on Facebook.” It’s like, well, our customers are Instagram. It doesn’t – I mean, it’s not where you naturally take B2B sales, but I get targeted on Instagram nonstop with AI, SDR stuff. All kinds of platforms. It’s like if your customers are there, you can figure out how to connect for them to get that –
[0:19:18] RR: Big time. One other one, I’m going to give another tip out. There’s associations. We all join and we love NAPPS, ASA, SIA, shout out to them, but how about your association – the Manufacturing Association of West Virginia? David, there’s 250 members there, one staffing firm, that was me. That was the only one there. It’s like, you’re going to the conference, like you know how it is. If it’s technology, whatever, go to the conference where you’re trying to find candidates and you really want the clients. I mean, all the other ones are great. Chambers, people go to chambers. Chambers, I’m not going to lie. I laugh about it. Every time I go to a Chambers, it’s all these banks trying to say, “Hey, Shark. Can you transfer your money to my bank?” It’s really true like that. But if you go to the interest of the associations that if it’s manufacturing, health care, and the small ones in your town or in the state, I’m telling you what. There’s not much staffing competition at all.
[0:20:09] DF: That’s interesting. I haven’t thought about it. It makes a lot of sense. Show up where your customers are.
[0:20:13] RR: Exactly. They brought the crowd. All you do is jump and entertain them.
[0:20:17] DF: I love it. I know we’ve talked a lot about the Staffing TV. Is there anything else from the coming out, anything next on the Staffing Shark front? Anything else you’re excited about?
[0:20:27] RR: Yeah. Some speaking gigs this year, I’ll be there. A lot of it’s going to be on the social media platforms and video content, stuff like that. Growing the brand. Trying to bring a lot of other people into it. I think a big thing is on job seekers. We’re going to have a show on just getting job seekers out there. I think it’s going to be called Job Seekers Got Talent. We definitely people, if you’re looking for a job, reach out. I think that’s the biggest thing for the rest here, David, is to make an impact on people who don’t have jobs.
We know there’s a lot of shit coming up there. The people are scared, so at the end of time. I can say, every day is positive for me, man. I don’t put that negative. I think when you’re positive, dude, you’re going to rock it out because people are scared right now. This is a time for us to grab the business. People are hiring, David, I’m going to tell you right now. They’re hiring. If you hunt hard enough, you’re going to find them, man. Just be persistent and stay on the phone and in person. Rock it out.
[0:21:14] DF: I’ve got two last questions for you, then we’ll close it out. What advice do you wish you were given before entering the staffing industry?
[0:21:21] RR: I would say when you go in with it, go in with an open mind. With me, I keep it with an open mind, because being a probation officer, locking people away every day. This is not a job. This is a lifestyle I’ve got now. This is easy guys. I don’t delight staff that easily. It’s like, work nine years with me is probation at 10:00 at night with a gun and bullets going over your head a couple of times. That’s for another story. That’s a real job. Seriously, an open mind, communication. Communication with your leaders, communication with your recruiters. I think that’s the biggest thing is, oh, it’s okay for people to say no, they don’t want the job. It’s okay for a client to say no.
If you have ideas, tell your manager. Don’t be scared. We’re in this day and age it is good to go and think outside the box. I think be creative. Be yourself. I mean, when you’re on the phone, I think the biggest thing I can tell people getting in staffing industry, when you’re on the phone, that script that we always had, I only had it for two days and I ripped it up. I’m like, “Dude, I can’t script this shit. I’m not an actor.” So, but I think within the day, be yourself. Sky’s the limit. This is the best industry to be in. I’m going to tell you right now, man. I love it. I fell in love with staffing and it fell in love with me. I’ll never change anything. Anybody coming into industry. If you embrace it with people like yourself, myself, there’s so much love in the industry that you’ll never need to leave it.
[0:22:34] DF: In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
[0:22:40] RR: You know what? I think my brand. I’m going to be honest with you. My brand has created me to give back to more people. I think the first five years of staffing, I’m getting into it, trying to create my career, trying to start speaking, and trying to get that niche where to get exposed and to blend in with people. I think the last five years, I’ve done that where it’s now, it’s time for me to make everybody else shine. That’s my big thing. It’s, I’ve already done my shining. Even I continue to shine. I think if I can bring everybody else to the forefront, that’s what I’ve learned in the last five years that I love now that I can embrace and help everybody else out to be successful.
[0:23:16] DF: That’s great. Well, Richard, I really enjoyed having you on. Great conversation. Shark Week. So, cheers to you. Do you have any closing comments for the audience?
[0:23:25] RR: I think the closing comments is never give up. Never give up and creative content, put out whatever you like. That’s all I have to say. Look at me. I’m different. I did the flip-flop thing. You can do it too. Don’t ever doubt yourself on the content. Put it out there, let it go, and don’t look at the followers and likes all the time. Just walk away and watch it just –
[0:23:45] DF: Just do it again.
[0:23:46] RR: Create amazing stuff.
[0:23:48] DF: I love it. Well, thanks so much for being on the show. Great conversation. Can’t wait to watch Staffing TV and have a great day.
[0:23:56] RR: All right, brother. Take care, man. See you, guys.
