IAM2221 – Author and Human Resource CEO Helps Healthcare Companies Fill Hard-to-Fill Positions

Title: Transcript - Tue, 27 Aug 2024 17:39:19 GMT

Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2024 17:39:19 GMT, Duration: [00:16:58.77]

[00:00:00.28] - Rhian Sharp

But again, it's about shutting out all of that negative energy. So really having that level of focus to say, you know what? I really am in touch with who I am, and I am really confident with what I'm doing.

[00:00:13.78] - Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEO's, entrepreneurs and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the imceo podcast.

[00:00:40.65] - Rhian Sharp

Hello, hello, hello.

[00:00:41.49] - Gresham Harkless

This is Gresh from the Imceo podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Rhiann sharp of sharp medical recruiting. Rhianne, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:50.00] - Rhian Sharp

Yes, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me. Reshm, this is great.

[00:00:53.85] - Gresham Harkless

No problem. Happy to have you on. And what I want to do was just read a little bit more about Rhianne so you can hear and learn a little bit more about her. Rhianne is the president and CEO of a sharp medical recruiting HR Consulting. She started her company three years ago as a response to the ever increasing demand for qualified direct and indirect care staff in all areas of healthcare. Rhiann has been in human resource for over 20 years and holds both an MBA and a master's certificate in human resource management. She's the author of the new book Maximum Employee Engagement, how healthcare Companies keep their best people. Rhianne is originally from the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and is a mother of two amazing kids and is an avid runner, swimmer and figure competitor. Rhianne, are you ready to speak to the imceo community?

[00:01:39.73] - Rhian Sharp

I am. Gosh, that sounds like I'm overly ambitious when you read it that way.

[00:01:44.06] - Gresham Harkless

I know you're superwoman, it sounds like. So, oh, gosh. What I wanted to do was just to kick everything off to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and hear how you became superwoman.

[00:01:53.20] - Rhian Sharp

Yeah, so you're really correct. I was in HR for a really long time, 20 years. I worked with really large companies. McKesson was one of them. And throughout the entire process, I just felt like I wanted to do something on my own. And you just have that. I think all entrepreneurs have that kind of nagging voice that stays with them regardless of what you do. You either can't, you're not satisfied in the job, or there's something missing. And for me, that something was, okay, what can I provide as an individual versus as an employee and make a good living out of it and really add value to organization, specifically healthcare, because that's where I cut my teeth, if you will. And from there, I just kind of kept putting it off. Putting it off, kept working, you know, my nine to five, nine to 20, because most people work way more than nine to five these days. And then, you know, just three years ago, I put on my, you know, I'm gonna. I don't know if my parachute's gonna just go ahead and take a leap of faith. I sold a house that I had. It was really just too big for me and my kids and sold it, used some of the proceeds from that just as a cushion to start the business and just started calling contacts that I knew and getting contracts and starting placements. Because in healthcare, is anybody familiar with healthcare, you know, that we always have this extreme shortage of staff, whether it's in the front office or back office in terms of physicians or nurses. And that's. That's where I started to play first. And that's really, in a nutshell, how I got started with the company.

[00:03:27.15] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And so it's great that you saw a problem, seems like, and then you decided to create a solution around that.

[00:03:34.08] - Rhian Sharp

Yeah. And, you know, I'm in one of those spaces that, you know, with all of the debate around healthcare reform or Obamacare or whatever somebody's calling it these days, you know, it's kind of scary because on the one side, I hear all of this distress around affordable healthcare, and then I see the extreme shortage, which is not getting any better, by the way, for whatever reason. I mean, we just never will have enough qualified healthcare providers unless something is done to really manage the cost, it's going to continue to inflate.

[00:04:05.97] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And now I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear how you're helping to kind of support these clients. I know you touched on a little bit, but could you tell us a little bit more about what you do for your clients?

[00:04:15.46] - Rhian Sharp

So, of course, one of the main things that my clients request would be to help them fill hard to fill positions, and a lot of those positions are doctor jobs. So either a lot of psychiatrist jobs, child and adolescent psychiatrist is the biggest shortage area in psychiatry at this point. It's kind of sad and scary, but, yeah, a lot of child and adolescent doctors are needed. I do a lot of physical therapist placements, home health placements, because, as you can imagine, as our baby boomers are getting older. They want to be in their homes, which has given extreme rise to the need for home health services, which, of course, then gives rise to a need for home health providers. So that's the first leg of it, is the placement. The next service that we provide is training. So in terms of management and leadership training, we provide a lot of in service for our clients. If they're struggling with employee relations issues, they have new managers who've come on to help them lead the organization. And that person may have been a really good direct care person, a good direct care provider, but they may or may not be the best manager. So they need a little bit of coaching or training, and we come in and provide in house training and coaching for them as well.

[00:05:26.16] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret. And this could be what you feel kind of distinguishes you or sets you apart. So could you give us an example of a secret sauce for you and or your organization? Yeah.

[00:05:37.73] - Rhian Sharp

So I think that maybe I have two secret sauces.

[00:05:40.85] - Gresham Harkless

Okay.

[00:05:43.38] - Rhian Sharp

The recipe. So let me. The first ingredient is tenacity. And I think that helps me a lot in terms of being a recruiter. I mean, especially working with hard to fill jobs. Most of the people who I'm looking for are not looking for work. And they're 30, 50. How many of our people calling them day in, day, day out, asking them if they're ready to make a change to another employer? And, you know, you can't accept no as the answer. No is the answer for right now. And I think that what I've been able to do a lot is to just kind of make lots of copious notes and follow up and just really be tenacious around continuing to be in contact to provide information for them, whether it's changes in the industry or what have you. So that's the first one. I think the next ingredient would be just knowledge about the industry. If I have a coffee meeting with somebody, I always want to know what's happening specifically within the context of their business, whether there's an acquisition pending, whether there are layoffs pending. And getting that information really helps my next set of clients. It also helps me think through things with the person that I'm talking with, and it also helps candidates, because then a candidate for XYZ facility, for example, may not be aware that facility of their dreams, the hospital of their dreams, is getting ready to open up a new wing. But I may know that information always just being involved with a specific organization and just always following up with them and asking them detailed information about their line of business. And I think that the next is using social media to your advantage in terms of getting your brand out there, but not relying exclusively on social media. And by that I mean I think that a lot of us, we've kind of gotten used to social media doing the legwork for us, whether it's contacting people via kind of robo messaging. But in truth, in my line of business specifically, healthcare as a whole is very kind of hands on and intimate. And really picking up the phone and calling people is so much better than just relying on whether it's a constant contact message or just LinkedIn or any of the social platforms. It's a good base, but it's not going to distinguish you from your competitors because everybody's kind of using a lot of social services at this point.

[00:08:00.44] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. A lot of times, like you mentioned, you know, with social media especially, is that a lot of times to break through the noise, you have to do something that's different because everybody's now shifting towards, I'm going to do everything online. Sometimes when you're able to just go and do a phone call or whatever it is, that's a little bit more tangible. It sets you apart, you and your organization apart.

[00:08:19.50] - Rhian Sharp

Yes, definitely. And you see it more and more in all aspects of life. I mean, if you can get somebody in a more organic setting that is real life, then you have a higher. To build a relationship and build a client, a good, strong client, versus just kind of socializing via social media makes perfect sense.

[00:08:41.85] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient as a business owner.

[00:08:52.97] - Rhian Sharp

So, you know, my hacks, I think, first of all, you know, we talked about my, my working out and my running and those types of habits. I think creating habits is so important because discipline when you lead is important. And if you can create a habit that allows for a greater level of discipline, then that in itself will allow you to be a better leader, a better CEO, and make more conscious and clear decisions. So, you know, leadership and being a CEO is not for everybody. You know, some people are happy being employees and they, you know, they have a set schedule, they have a set group of things that they like to do. However, if you want to lead and you want to be a CEO and you want to kind of stand out from the rest. You have to develop these habits. And I think that for me, running and lifting and being physically active helps create a level of discipline that allows me to have that level of discipline in the business. So I'll create a schedule of things that I need to do every day. I'll be sure that running and physical activity is part of that schedule. And then when I get back, I'm able to really focus on whether it's calling a new client, whether it's signing a new contract, whether it's reaching out to some new psychiatrist, new nurse practitioners, or what have you. So definitely developing the habit of running to allow for a greater level of discipline is important. There's one book that I'm reading now. It's called, oh, my gosh, my mind went blank. But it's about being sure that there's no limits. I think a zero limits is the name of the book, and it talks a lot about, you know, just kind of creating that energy around yourself to bring new things and improved sense of being into your life. And I think that that also adds to this idea of discipline and allowing for creativity in your life. So I don't know. I think that's a long way of answering your question.

[00:10:59.71] - Gresham Harkless

That's a great way of answering the question because I think a lot of things that I try to do sometimes is, I can say, vibrate higher. So one of the things I do try to do is jog so that I can vibrate higher. But like you said, just so that you have that kind of mentality that you, I guess they're talking about in the book, where you have no limits, where you can start to approach things in a different way because you are doing those practices which allow you to kind of think at a higher level and get your blood flow and everything.

[00:11:23.54] - Rhian Sharp

Exactly, exactly. And, you know, it's, you know, negative energy is very easy to pull you under. And it's so important to remember that you are in control of your life. And that's one of the values and the beauties of being a CEO, being a leader, is you're able to really channel positive energy to allow for yourself to be in control of your life and your own space. So it's important to remember that that space between your head is so critical to your overall development.

[00:11:57.70] - Gresham Harkless

Makes perfect sense. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a co nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self, be confident.

[00:12:08.24] - Rhian Sharp

And, you know, I think confidence is everything. You know you're going to make mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. But just the ability to say, you know what I'm going to learn from that mistake. I'm confident in the decisions that I've made and, and the decisions that I've made, I've weighed them pretty carefully, but not to the extent where I want to, like, overanalyze my decisions too much because time is a resource that you really don't get back. So really, you know, having the confidence to look at the decisions, make it fails and pick yourself up and try plan B or plan C or plan D, but just have that level of confidence in yourself to do it. And it's easy to say be confident, but it's super hard to actually be confident when, you know, you have all these people asking you, are you sure?

[00:12:57.65] - Gresham Harkless

Are you kidding?

[00:12:58.27] - Rhian Sharp

Are you crazy? You have so many naysayers. But again, it's about shutting out all of that negative energy. So really having that level of focus to say, you know what, I really am in touch with who I am and I am really confident with what I'm doing and I'm probably going to make a bunch of mistakes and it's going to be really painful. But at the end of it, you know, you'll be successful because you've tried again after failing and you learn so much from failure. So definitely confidence is like the biggest, most important thing. I met a client, a prospective client this past Thursday, and he said to me, he's a super smart guy, but he just didn't feel as though he would ever be able to do his own business because he just felt like he didn't have that confidence. You know, he just didn't feel confident enough to go out and ask for business and try to generate new contracts. So he's perfectly content working within an organization. So definitely the confidence piece.

[00:13:54.50] - Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question. And we touched on it a little bit, but it's the definition for what it means to be a CEO. So we're having different, quote unquote, CEO's on the show. So I wanted to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:14:06.60] - Rhian Sharp

Being in control of your own life, your own destiny, being able to have a decision, to think through the decision and to execute, to have variability in your life. So you're not focused on one functional area, whether it's human resources or finance. You're in many, multiple different areas of a business. So you get to see the business from all different functional areas. So that variety is definitely part of being a CEO, being able to fail and then pick yourself up and dust yourself off and start again. All of those things really define that idea of CEO. I think that people look at it and think, oh, you know, leadership, and you just kind of sit back in a golden chair in a golden office in a corner room with the sun beaming through your window. And that's not necessarily the truth at all. And, you know, gosh, God bless those CEO's who have that. But it's a lot of work, it's a lot of challenges, but it's a lot of wins, too, when you overcome the challenge.

[00:15:09.49] - Gresham Harkless

I would definitely agree with that. And Rhianne, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and then also how best they can get a hold of you.

[00:15:21.61] - Rhian Sharp

Sure. Well, thank you, Marshall. This is really great. I enjoyed it. If anybody has questions, they're always welcome to email or call me. And my name is not the easiest. It's rhian@sharpmedicalrecruiting.com. that's all one word. Or you can call. My telephone number is 404-67-0478 call anytime if you are interested in finding out about my book. If you want to keep your employees and not go through the headache of constantly recruiting. My book, again, is maximum employee engagement and how healthcare companies keep their best people. And it's for all you know, I've been in multiple functional areas. So if you are not in healthcare and you want some valuable advice, the book is good about providing steps around that as well. And you know, don't be a stranger. I'm on LinkedIn, so that's a good way to reach me also. And awesome, awesome, awesome.

[00:16:13.00] - Gresham Harkless

Well, thank you, Rhianne, and we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can follow up. But I truly appreciate you for taking some time out and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:21.08] - Rhian Sharp

You too, Craig. Thanks so much. Have a great rest of your day.

[00:16:24.39] - Intro

Thank you for listening to the Imceo podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at Imceo Co. Imceo is not just a phrase, it's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts and watch videos at CBNation Co. Also check out our I am CEO Facebook group. This has been the imceo podcast with Gresham Harkness Junior. Thank you for listening.