Our users, the recruiting experts, are helping us generate new content. I’m so excited to share with you one of the first pieces in our upcoming series, a Q&A with the founders of the Mighty Talent Group. Lauren Gearhart and Maggie Hennessey are throwing out the rulebook and revolutionizing the agency model for the betterment of all recruiters. Get to know this dynamic duo and learn what inspired them to start the Mighty Talent Group.
How did both of you get your start in recruiting?
L: I’ve been recruiting in one capacity or another for 14 years. My first real job was as an Office Manager for a Real Estate company. They didn’t have any recruiting processes in place. I was 19, and thrown head first into developing their entire recruiting program. From there, every role that I have held has incorporated recruiting. I didn’t choose recruiting; it chose me. It’s the best career that I never knew I wanted! I feel like this is what I was meant to do.
M: My original background is in corporate operations, but I was recruited into recruiting! Lauren and I worked together while at a prior staffing firm (she was the only person on the team I didn’t interview with before starting), and we worked together so well there and at other companies that we decided to start our own!
What makes you passionate about recruiting?
L: We started MTG because we love having a positive impact on both people and companies. Sometimes the candidate-client match is obvious, other times its not and it takes making an “out of the box” recommendation to align the perfect candidate with the perfect opportunity. At the end of the day, I want my clients and candidates to walk away from our interaction in a better place than where they started.
M: My most impactful work always comes from helping people, period. We find ourselves tearing up or jumping up and down when we learn we had a direct impact on someone’s life. We love helping people, and we love changing people’s lives through finding them a new career.
Why did you start Mighty Talent Group?
L: We have both been on a path all of our lives to get to this point. Maggie and I worked for agencies of all sizes and witnessed the challenges recruiters face. Recruiters are often treated like a number- they feel held back, undervalued, and underpaid. It inspired us to create a platform that could support recruiters so they can focus on what they do best — recruiting and selling.
M: Our goal is to provide the highest level of support possible to recruiters. We are constantly trying new tools, systems, and technologies to gauge the market and find the most effective way for recruiters to do their jobs. We provide the administrative support and allow the recruiters to focus on what they do best. We describe this as “flipping the agency model” because our goal is to provide both more forward-thinking systems and help recruiters keep a higher percentage of the commission from their placements.
What makes your partnership successful?
M: We are a dynamic pair. We complement and balance each other. Lauren is the what and why, I’m the how and the when. You can’t have one without the other.
L: We don’t stop. We don’t let anything hold us back from achieving the results we promised to ourselves or our team. We take our jobs very seriously and don’t allow excuses or setbacks to stand in our way of short and long-term success.
How did you come up with the name Mighty Talent Group?
M: The name of our company came organically. The word ‘mighty’ means to have the strength of something large despite being smaller. We are a lean team, but the service we provide rivals that of larger companies.
What is unique about Mighty Talent Group?
L: We provide technological, administrative, accounting, loss control, and staffing payroll resources that our recruiters need to be successful. Our recruiters are remote, they manage their day-to-day schedule, and set their own goals. We work with each recruiter individually to develop self-managed metrics and have regular check-ins to ensure they are getting the support they need to achieve those goals. We also encourage collaboration between our recruiters. Referrals and splits are highly recommended. There are so many ways for recruiters to be successful. We believe that if we focus our energy on supporting our recruiters, the monetary success will come.
What is the most important thing to be successful — technology, people, or process?
L: Our goal is to maintain an equal emphasis on all three areas. Technology is important because we can’t do our jobs without it. However, you can have all the tools in the world and not have success without the right people and processes in place. We are dedicated to creating replicable processes that our recruiters can follow for consistent success.
M: Honestly, all three of those things work together, it feels impossible to pick just one. At a typical recruiting company, people at the top usually make processes that are not relevant to the people executing the plan. Mighty Talent Group makes it priority to stay as close as possible to our recruiting team to avoid redundancies and find opportunities for constant improvement.
How does technology factor into your process?
L: We are always researching and demoing new tools. I believe if you go along with crowd you will get the same results as everyone else. I’m always looking around to see what we can do differently or how we can work with available tools in a new way.
M: When it comes to choosing a tool, we start with usability. You don’t want a tool that you won’t use because it’s cumbersome, poorly designed, or ugly. From an operational perspective, it can be a challenge to align everyone’s work style and opinions into one tool, but the time and money wasted in implementing the wrong type of support is far worse in the long run.
How did you decide on Loxo?
L: We demoed nearly 30 different ATS. We wanted a system that would allow us to access and use information at any time without interruption and would evolve with the industry. We saw all of that with Loxo. They are constantly developing new features, (even taking our suggestions!), and seem to implement them in a matter of weeks. The power behind the company is incredible. On top of that, Loxo listens. They have a human factor that we didn’t realize was so important to us.
M: Lauren and I were initially so impressed at how supportive the Loxo team is of our company growth, and how quickly they caught onto our mission. It’s also one of the most dynamic, feature-rich ATS that we considered. You can text, email, call, submit, and place a candidate all with just a couple clicks. When I’m thinking about onboarding our newest recruiters, we need something that’s both powerful and intuitive so our team can start making placements right away.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start their own agency?
M: Talking openly about your business relationship goals and make sure that every decision you make aligns with what you want out of your business’ short and long term. It’s also super important to me that I understand how our roles will change as our business grows and evolves. Get comfortable with quickly adapting to daily change!
L: Start with the why and work forward from there. A lot of people start a business in an emotional state. It’s not a great place to start unless you use that emotion to develop a “why.” Knowing why your business is important to you and others will streamline your daily decisions immensely.
What’s next for Mighty Talent Group?
L: We are at a pivotal point and are hustling to get to our next phase. We’ve been identifying new technologies, developing training content, and building an online community for our recruiters. The next step is to add recruiters to our team.
In case any interested recruiters are reading, what are you looking for in a hire?
M & L: The mission of Mighty Talent Group is to empower recruiters and help them grow in every way imaginable. Our recruiters will keep a higher percentage of their commission, receive training and mentorship, and be able to offer more services to clients (temp staffing, payrolling, etc). Our ideal recruiter candidate would be able to manage their own day and operate independently but also want the support and resources of a large company.
If you’re interested in joining the Mighty Talent Group team, connect with Maggie and Lauren on Linkedin and mention this article.
We hope you come back for future articles where Maggie and Lauren breakdown recruiting fundamentals and offer unique insights on how to improve your process for success.