IAM1717 – Hiring Expert Places Candidates in Long-term Positions

Jackie Ducci Teaser 00:00

I think it's just that additional service that I was saying, the consulting. I just don't see many recruiting firms at all that do anything like that. I think, they're just concerned about making their fee and moving on. It's just about filling like a body in a seat. And we really don't do that.

We're looking at these hiring issues holistically, we really want the right fit because we look better when the right fit is made.

Intro 00:24

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, You've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you are in search of.

This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:50

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we are repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics. Or as I like to call them, business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners. And what I like to call the CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month we are focused on technology. We're a technology company that does dot, dot, dot. Technology is no longer an afterthought or something that you might do and is actually a core part of your business. If you are a real estate investor, you're using it. If you're a financial firm, if you're a cleaning company, author, speaker, you are using technology. If you are in any business, you are using technology, and if you're not, then you're probably going to be disrupted by an organization that is.

So this month we are going to look into purposing episodes that are around technology, whether that be firms or organizations that are actually using and investing in technology as a core part of their products and services, or potentially those individuals that are using and leveraging CEO hacks and CEO nuggets that center around technology and sharing ways that we can leverage it as well. Remember that you are a technology company that does dot, dot, dot. Sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I AM CEO podcast.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today, I have Jackie Ducci of Ducci and Associates.

Jackie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Jackie Ducci 02:21

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 02:23

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was read a little bit more about Jackie so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Jackie is a hiring expert and founder of Ducci and Associates, which is Talent Acquisition Agency servicing Fortune 500 clients nationwide.

Her firm boasts in an outstanding 90% success rate in placing candidates in long-term positions. Jackie's 15 years in talent acquisition in a consequent front-row seat to countless closed-door hiring conversations led her to write her first book, Almost Hired.

Jackie, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Jackie Ducci 02:57

I'm excited. Let's do it.

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Gresham Harkless 02:59

Let's do it. And so to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story and what led you to get started with your business.

Jackie Ducci 03:05

Oh, great, thanks. So, it's interesting, I fell into this career a little bit by happenstance. Years ago when I was fresh out of college, I stumbled into someone at a networking event who ran a boutique head-hunting firm. And we hit it off and he asked me to come and work for him. In my early twenties, I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I thought, let me try this and just kind of see how it goes and I just loved it. I'm really fascinated by the people aspect of business and how having the right people in the right places can really make or break a company's success.

So I always viewed my role as a recruiter, as really important in helping these clients be the best that they could be. So, I worked for him for a number of years, and then in my late twenties, I will never forget this day. There was a review that he was doing of several employees in the office, including myself, and he told me that he thought that I was a better business developer than I was a recruiter. I remember at the time feeling very offended by that. Like, how dare you tell me I'm not a good recruiter?

But I realized he was right and I was great with clients and I thought if my skill really is business development, then I should probably have my own company. That was like the lightning bulb moment when I started my firm and it's been amazing since then.

Gresham Harkless 04:23

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate that. And just as you said, usually the biggest aspect of business is you may have to make sure that you get the clients to come in the door. So usually

Jackie Ducci 04:31

Right.

Gresham Harkless 04:31

If you're strong in that aspect, then definitely starting a business is a way to do it.

Jackie Ducci 04:35

For sure. I thought, there are a lot of people that can't do business development very well. So if I partner with great recruiters, we're gonna be more successful and thankfully I've been able to do that.

Gresham Harkless 04:43

Absolutely. Yeah. It makes so much sense. So I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear exactly how you work with clients. Could you take us through exactly how that process goes and some of the services you're providing?

Jackie Ducci 04:53

Yeah, definitely. So a couple of things. We are traditional head-filling firms, so we help our clients fill difficult openings. But what makes us a little different is that we also offer consulting services for those business owners.

So, for example, in my years as a recruiter, helping fill those hard roles we just see companies making the same mistakes over and over again, or they're doing something wrong in their hiring process and then they wonder why they have a retention problem. So a lot of the value that we can provide is to just work with them in the bigger picture.

So it's beyond just finding the right candidate, it's also about explaining to the business owner, here's how you can improve your hiring process and just be more successful with it all around. So I like to say we're this one-stop shop for anything hiring-related.

Gresham Harkless 05:42

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And I love what you touched on earlier as well too because I think a lot of success is making sure you get the right people in the right place. I think sometimes, when we look at businesses, we sometimes forget when you peel back the onion of all the numbers and all those stuff is made up of people and trying to put those people in the most successful place so that they can exceed expectations.

Jackie Ducci 06:02

Yes, absolutely. It's so important.

Gresham Harkless 06:05

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And it could be for you personally or for your organization, but what do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

Jackie Ducci 06:13

Yeah, I think it's just that additional service that I was saying, the consulting. I just don't see many recruiting firms at all that do anything like that, I think they're just concerned about making their fee and moving on. It's just about filling like a body in a seat and we really don't do that. We're looking at these hiring issues holistically. We really want the right fit because we look better when the right fit is made.

But it's also just educating that entrepreneur, that business owner, about how they can be better frankly, without the support of a recruiter sometimes. If we can teach them how to hire better on their own, think of how much more effectively their organization's going to run. So I love like that educational component and working with other CEOs and hiring managers to help them be better at hiring.

Gresham Harkless 06:59

Absolutely, and just as you said, it sounds like it's a lot more long-term focus because I think, of course, you can get that hire of the person to go in, but if you never know how to do that hiring, then the next hire or if that person, doesn't stay in the position, you don't have like the tools or the ability to be able to make additional hires.

Jackie Ducci 07:17

Yes. And what's also really interesting to me is I feel like CEOs, hiring managers, whomever, they're in their business every single day. So that company is what they live and breathe. Whereas from where I'm sitting and where my team is sitting, we deal with hundreds of companies.

So our view of hiring is just broader. So I'm coming in and say, look, I've dealt with so many companies, and this is what I see the common pitfalls being. So it just helps, I think sometimes for business owners to work with someone who's got a broader perspective, I could just help maybe shed light on things that they wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Gresham Harkless 07:51

Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of times we fall in love with our companies or the organizations that we work for. So sometimes we see all the great things, but to be able to see like, oh, maybe this is something we can do differently just because this will have more success as far as us hiring because the X, Y, and Z companies doing it gives you a lot of those best practices that we sometimes don't have. Because we're entrenched in our organizations.

Jackie Ducci 08:11

100%. Yeah, that's so true.

Gresham Harkless 08:14

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Jackie Ducci 08:25

Yeah, so this is a big one. Keeping the right people around you in your business, I think is so important. And some people are more sensitive to others around them than other people are, but I'm one of those people that really feeds off the energy of who's in my space. So I think, a great CEO hack is just bringing the right people in, but also firing quickly. If you know that somebody's not a good fit, I have been guilty of not doing that and many people I know have been as well.

When you've got one person in the company that's just not working for whatever reason, maybe they're negative, maybe they have toxic energy, they're not good at their job, whatever it is, and everyone's always afraid to pull that trigger because it's uncomfortable. Right? We don't like to admit that somebody's not working, but, it's a real distraction and I think the quicker you can acknowledge something's not working and just like get the cancer out, it really can have a positive impact on the business.

Gresham Harkless 09:22

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know, if you find this is the case as well too, a lot of times, CEOs, entrepreneurial people are very optimistic as well too. So sometimes when we have that cancer we can see ourselves changing it or helping that person to be their best self. But a lot of times we have to think about the whole entire organization, not just that one person.

Jackie Ducci 09:39

Well, exactly. Yeah sometimes it's just not a good fit and it's not anybody's fault, but the quicker you can acknowledge it and say we all need to move forward, the better off everybody is.

Gresham Harkless 09:48

Absolutely. So, now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. This could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It could be around hiring or some piece of advice that you would tell your younger business self.

Jackie Ducci 09:59

I think staying true to yourself especially nowadays. We're all bombarded with so much information all the time through social media and whatnot. Just opinions everywhere and it's just a lot.

I think at the end of the day, as the owner of your business, you just have to come back to your own gut and make your decisions based on what you know or feel is best rather than all the noise around you. So some of the best decisions I've made are times where I've just sat quietly and said, okay, this is what I know is right.

Even if people around me that I trust are saying no, they're not right all the time. So you have to trust your own gut.

Gresham Harkless 10:38

Absolutely. And a lot of times especially if you're an innovator or you're doing things against the grain, a lot of times you are gonna be going left when everybody's going right. You have to be able to see the long-term success of the business and make those decisions.

Jackie Ducci 11:05

Absolutely. Yep.

Gresham Harkless 11:07

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on this show.

So Jackie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Jackie Ducci 11:16

To me it's about being the vision setter as opposed to following someone else's vision. So I always look at my role as being the leader, guiding the team which I don't take lightly, because it's really humbling actually to know that other people are on your team and they trust you and they're following you. It's like a huge responsibility that is not lost on me.

So, yeah, I think it's about just being the one to be that guiding light for the other people following you as opposed to just being on board, someone else's team. And by the way, the world needs both types of people and there's nothing wrong with either one, but I think that's what differentiates a CEO from everyone else.

Gresham Harkless 11:56

Absolutely. No, I think that makes so much sense, and I think a lot of times when you're helping so many people reach their goals and then also, feed their families and do so many things. It puts everything in perspective on what you're doing.

But just like you said, it's hard to be a CEO if you're not leading anybody. So you need both sides of the coin for sure.

Jackie Ducci 12:00

Absolutely. Yeah, exactly.

Gresham Harkless 12:03

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Jackie, I truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know, and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you, get a copy of your book and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Jackie Ducci 12:18

Awesome. I guess the only thing that I would add since you have a lot of business owners listening to your show is that the best advice I can give to everyone is to look at any retention issues that you have, proactively and not reactively.

I feel like the biggest mistake I see company owners make is that when they've got a problem, they think, okay, how can we retain the people that we have? Whereas they should be doing is changing the prototype of who they're letting in the door in the first place.

You can fix your retention issues with hiring. So I would just encourage everyone to think about that and I think your company will be better for it if you can figure out how to have a new prototype for who you're bringing the door if you're having problems.

What was the other part of your question? Where can they reach me?

Gresham Harkless 13:02

Yeah, reach you and get a copy of your book.

Jackie Ducci 13:03

Sure. So the book's available on Amazon. The book is for job seekers, anyone looking to make a change. It's advice from behind the curtain on how hiring actually works.

So that's on Amazon. And then my website is ducciassociates.com. There's a contact form there and you can learn more about us on the site.

Gresham Harkless 13:21

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much. We will have those links and information in the show notes and I definitely appreciate the reminder that a lot of times we have to make sure that we are bringing in the right people and have that correct prototype when we are hiring, and a lot of times that's the first and best step to be able to make those decisions and bring those right people in the right seats.

Jackie Ducci 13:39

Absolutely. Yep.

Gresham Harkless 13:41

Awesome, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Jackie Ducci 13:43

Thank you so much. Thanks again.

Outro 13:46

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast, powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. Grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co.

This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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