Off Script: One Year of Talentless (with Desiree Goldey & Ashley King)

[00:00:07] Recording in Progress. Also, for some weird reason, I'm the one starting this podcast today! Ew, y'all are probably like, this is the wrong show, right? But no, welcome to the Talentless Podcast! It's been one year and Desiree has finally let me open! I'm just kidding, it petrifies me. Plus, she's actually absolutely excellent at it because she has a full script ready to roll and I have nothing on the tip of my tongue right now, so I'm just gonna pass this right back to the master herself.

[00:00:36] Well, welcome everybody back to the Talentless Podcast! We let Ashley have some fun there, but I want to say that this one's gonna be fun for all, we hope so. I want to say though, we tried to do this in the beginning when we first started. We tried to talk about ourselves and interview each other and the episode came out pretty crappy people! I never heard the lie today, I don't think, right? We never heard that one. So I think we're gonna pull it out of the vault, Ash.

[00:01:02] For $20 each. Yeah, each view, they can have it. We were tried for that moment. Yeah, it's a sponsorship style BTS. Oh my god, it was horrible. It was horrible. But I will say, we're a year in. Congratulations, Ashley! Congratulations, Desiree! Now, so, 37 episodes in, folks, and for those that have been along this crazy ride with us, thank you so much. If you're new, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.

[00:01:28] Today, you're gonna learn a little bit more about us as people, which is scary and not a lot of crazy ideas about recruiting. And we're gonna be interviewing each other. So this should be interesting. But let's get it started. Okay. You start. Oh, mercy. Okay, so as of right now, our plan is to ask each other questions. And we haven't told each other the other questions. So this, I don't even know what realm we're supposed to be in. And yeah, but this is what I chose as my first.

[00:01:55] And it is, what TV character do you feel, TV, movie, whatever, character do you feel like describes you the most? Like, if someone was like, give me the 10-second version of you, and they could download, like, that little character. Who is that character? Like, who would that be? Wonder Woman. No, I'm joking. That's not. I say, honestly, I don't know the plot line. And by the way, so I would never pick a DC comic. But yeah, I would say I am two Olivias.

[00:02:25] Two Olivia. Like, oh. I'm a mix of two characters. I think I'm an Olivia Benson from Law & Order SVU. Okay. And I'm Olivia Pope from Scandal. Don't snappery. So I think if you mix the two people, you would get me. Like, Olivia Pope's kind of a hard ass. And she's like, she's always three steps above, like, in front of everybody else. And she's always kind of scheming and stuff. And Olivia Benson has a heart and was like, you know, really cares about people.

[00:02:55] And, you know, but she's still very blunt about her delivery. So I think that would be like, I'm the two Olivias. I mean, yeah. That's pretty accurate. I mean, you're just seeing this show. You know that one. But I'm going to ask that back to you, though. What is yours? Desiree. I'm sorry. I have to know. So, okay. So it's weird. As a person, I feel like I'm a Shrek. Like, I feel like I'm a multi-layered onion.

[00:03:22] I feel like I'm very, like, get off my swamp energy. But I also think in real life, like, Shrek is who I imagine myself as. But I think in real life, at least what I get told the most is Ted Lasso. Like, so many people are like, you remind me so much of Ted Lasso. And I'm like, first of all, chill. Because isn't he, like, dumb? But apparently, like, he, and I've seen the show. But he, like, he's just very positive almost to a fault.

[00:03:51] But in a way that is, like, hopeful. And so that's what a lot of people have told me before. Is, like, you're very much a Ted Lasso. And which I kind of like the Ted Lasso reference only because Ted Lasso actually eventually ends up winning at some point. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, the perseverance. Yeah. And he is funny. So, yeah. So I take it as a compliment.

[00:04:15] But, yeah, I definitely think that in my head I want to be, like, a cold, multi-layered onion that's like, get away from me. But in real life, I'm Ted Flipping Lasso who's like, come over here with golden retriever energy and will never leave you alone ever again probably. So, yeah. That's who at least I get told. Yeah. And it makes kind of sense. Yeah. This episode of the Talentless Podcast is brought to you by Do Better Consulting. Hiring is broken.

[00:04:45] Job searches are broken. And honestly, most career advice out there is just recycled nonsense. Do Better Consulting exists for people who are done guessing. They work with mid to senior leaders, founders, and talent teens to get clear on their signal, how they show up in the market, how they hire, and how decisions actually get made. No fluff, no templates just to say you have them. Just strategy, structure, and honest feedback that actually works.

[00:05:15] If you're tired of spinning, it might be time to do better. Head to dobetterconsulting.net. What is the most you purchased that you made in the last year? Wait, say that question again? What is the most you purchased? Like something for you or represented you or something like that that you made in the last year? Jeez. You're like, oh my god, somebody would totally know I bought this and it fits me as a person.

[00:05:44] Oh my gosh. I don't know. This is such a good question. Because I'm trying to think of like what I buy in general. I did have to buy a new laptop and it is, what is the like the soft pink, the rose gold pink. And I don't know why. I've never cared about pink in my life or really too many colors for that matter. I usually wear black or gray. Like if you look at my closet, there is this tiny sliver of color and the rest is all, yeah, like Wednesday Addams.

[00:06:14] And that's how I dressed usually. Anyway, I don't remember where I was headed with that part, but the point is, is something that I purchased that is just so me. I feel like if I asked my husband this question, he would say dirt because I buy like pounds and pounds and pounds of soil. And I am always planting and like re-harvesting and like propagating off of different plants. So like I feel like if I asked him, he would be like, that's 100% an Ashley purchase, like this haul of dirt.

[00:06:42] But I don't know if there's like anything I can think of. I mean, I think that's a good one. We both have an cover. We both love gardening. I think it's good. Dirt is good. There's like piles of dirt outside of my house. Literally. Mine too. And I have sacks of it because I get, I don't want to use peat moth. Like I have very specific specifications. I'm also trying to teach my kids how to like garden. So like the other morning, Alex woke up.

[00:07:10] She's, if y'all don't know who she is, she's only like one and a half. And she was laying on her tummy playing in the dirt because I was just teaching her like worms, try to dig them up because I do have a compost in some of our garden beds, like an in-bed post. And so anyway, so we were taking some worms over there, but like it was, it was just one of those moments where I was like, this is exactly what I want. Like, this is exactly how I want to live my life. Like, I don't want this moment to end right now. That's awesome. Yeah.

[00:07:34] Like she just had her little legs in the air, like kicked up, you know, like how you would be like if you're talking on the old school phone, just, I don't know. We could all garden for a living. Do you know, I would, I would love it. And I'm kind of a wackadoo with it, dude. Like I know plants don't grow like that overnight. Like you're not just going to pop up and have like a straight up lemon, but dude, if I don't check every like 30 minutes on those plants, like there was a point in time where my uncle was like, you may have to get pesticide for XYZ.

[00:08:00] I'm like, look, I'm standing guard with these plants like every hour on the hour, it seems. Like, I don't know. So we don't use pesticides, not to say that my presence makes any difference, but it is to say that I very, very much tend to that thing. Anyway, moving onward. It's funny because I was just on a potential partner for the show and I was talking about my, the fact that I have a problem with instant gratification and that goes to my plants as well. So I bought a hydroponic. So I have a hydroponic system in my house.

[00:08:29] I love hydroponics. Yeah. So it's a big one too, Ash. It has like 90 pod things in it. Like it's huge. You did like the leaf lettuce pole looking. Yeah. Yeah, it's so awesome. But that goes to my instant gratification needs. Like I can't wait. Like I needed to grow now and I wanted to like do something now. I have tomato plants out there that still aren't flowering and it's driving me absolutely batty. Do you have sticked up? Like, so that way they're not using energy on holding themselves up. Okay.

[00:08:58] Because I messed up on that. I had a flowering and then they all died and completed because they didn't have enough energy. They were like not able to even hold themselves up and I was a dingaling who didn't put the proper scaffolding around it. So there you go. I know. Next question. Okay. All right. All right. All right. And this is like, this is different than the last question. So don't anybody be like, and that same thing. No, it's not. The question for this one is what is your life song?

[00:09:24] And what that means to the people listening is again, kind of the synopsis of like, if someone had to listen to a song that completely, maybe not completely describes you, but got you pretty close, right? Like if you listen to this song, you'll understand me a lot more. Like what song is that for you? Gosh, it's so hard. Like what the media song that comes to mind, like hit me with your best shot. But I'm going to try to not be a Gen Xer and bring it to like real life.

[00:09:53] Like right now, I would say like Stronger by Kelly Clarkson or Unstoppable by Sia. Anything that like is a song like where you've overcome a lot to be where you're at and you don't take any crap from people anymore. And you're just going to do what you're going to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right now. It's like the music I listen to. I just started working out again. And I'm like, my partner came in. I was like, what are you listening to?

[00:10:21] And I'm like, they're all like women marching on. I mean. You know, DC type songs. But that's the energy I get from them. Yeah. I think if you listen to any of those, you'd be like, oh, that's Desiree. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard though. That's a bop. It's hard because I love so many genres of music. So it's very difficult. Music is definitely how I speak a lot. Like I think people don't actually know that a lot about me. But like I was an only child. Didn't have a ton, a ton of friends until like a few grades up.

[00:10:49] And so like a lot of my time was just spent listening to music. And it's how I learned to actually like feel, describe and emote things. So like a lot of times I'll just be like, just listen to the song and like it'll describe it. Like that's it's stupid. But I'm like a mixtape linguist. Yeah. I think it's cool. I mean. Very cool. All right. If you didn't get into HR and talent, we didn't start this podcast. What would you like? We had to reverse engineer, right?

[00:11:18] Your life almost like what would you be doing? There are so many alternate reality, Ashley. Like I don't even there's a few like because initially whenever I first started, I was going into radiology and then I realized or I didn't realize on the very first day they tell you you have to do rectal imaging. And I was like, all right, I'm out. So I hopscotched and bunny dropped over from there and then just started doing my general classes.

[00:11:47] And I took this philosophy class and I was like, good God, I love this class. Like it is so good. It was the very first time I ever took a class where like getting an A was effortless. Like I didn't feel like I was studying. I didn't feel like I was trying super duper hard. And so from there, I remember looking up like that day after my very first class and being like, how hard would it be to get a bachelor or an associate's in like philosophy, psychology, whatever. And it was like I graduate that semester. And so I was like, oh, heck yeah.

[00:12:15] And 18, 19 year old Ashley honestly had no plans of the future. And what I mean by that is like I grew up in an itty bitty tiny town. Like I didn't know what was possible, if that makes sense. So like to me, the maximum that I was ever going to try and my whole plan was like I might work at Joe's barbecue or I might do like grocery bagging at Stanton's. No, I'm not. Like my dream was to be a grocery bagger at Stanton's. I poo poo you not.

[00:12:43] And if they ever try to close down in this tiny town, I will tell them I will volunteer a time of like my time to work a day at least so I can achieve this dream. That's how serious it still is to me because I just always wanted to do it. And I told my grandma I would and I never got to. But for good reason, I didn't get to. But to me, the maximum, the height of becoming anything was going to be like maybe get to be the softball coach of the team town.

[00:13:07] Like I whenever I say I genuinely had no plans of a future, I mean it. And so once I got my associates, I was like, if this is what getting a bachelor's is like and I just have to take classes like this, like I'll be able to do it. And so I did. And then at that point, I was like, OK, I got a bachelor's. Now I need to go get a real job. And I hated that idea. Like I did. I was like, that's disgusting. So I decided to get my master's.

[00:13:36] And when I got my master's, holy smokes, man. It's I know people try to be like, oh, you can stop at a bachelor's. But there is such a difference. Like you get a bachelor's and you have like a general degree with a light focus. You get a master's and now you're supposed to be one of the SMEs and experts in that specific field. And the way in which you do learning and the way in which you kinesthetically take on research and things like that.

[00:14:02] It's just so different to where I really actually wanted to be an educator for like a long time. And so even my last year of graduate school, I was teaching at junior college and I was a psychology course and I wanted to do that whenever I graduated and they offered me an adjunct role, which isn't that special if you know the difference between adjunct associate tenure, like all these different things. But they had not had an associate role in over 17 years. And so she was like, we're not going to probably have one anytime soon. Wow.

[00:14:31] And they paid me less than I was making while I was working at the library getting my degree. Um, so, so I start this off by saying it's weird because every step we go further, like every time we have a podcast and something happens, every time we get posted in Forbes or we, it's just like this weird moment of like, this is not a height. I fathom, like this wasn't even something on my radar that I could do.

[00:14:55] And that's why I think I've been fortunate enough to be able to combine educating others with talent acquisition because it has been such a good job. It has been such a loving, loving field. It is such a good culture of persona and people that like, I want more people to experience this field. I want more people to know that there's a way to have a job that just lets you get to

[00:15:24] know people like let's, you know, like your vibe checking. And so it's just weird, but I don't know. So in my head, I would love to say I would be teaching for more than popstickle sticks and bubble gum, maybe something. But I, I feel like talent acquisition was one of those just beautiful, beautiful things. Cause I feel so fortunate all the time. Cause there are still people my age, like, and even further along searching for like, what should I do? And I do feel like I found that.

[00:15:52] Like, I do feel like this is my field. This is my sport. This is what I loved. And I knew it in graduate school cause I was doing research on it. But at the time I wanted to teach about it. And then later I was like, why don't I just practice it? Why don't I actually do the job of talent acquisition? Not just research what their job applicants are doing or what they're doing to make differences and things like that. The only other thing I would say is I totally wanted to be an actress for so long in my life. Like I wanted to, especially as a kid, like I would just like practice.

[00:16:21] And I would like imagine it was a rainy scene in a movie. And I was like. Little Mone's story. Ashley's actually a real comedian, believe it or not. She's actually done shows and stuff like that. So like, I can see that. I can see that. No, I'm on Moe season two. I'm on Netflix. I'm on Fifth Ward the series on Amazon Prime. I am on America's Funniest Home Videos. I was on NBC standup. How any of those things happened was just like right place, right time.

[00:16:51] And just happened to have a little pixie dust of skill to be like, I'll roll with it. Like, all right, let's see about it. So yeah. But yeah, acting would have been the dream. All right, Desiree, tell us, what would you be doing if it wasn't us? Yeah, I think I would be doing something in events. I think you would too. Like have my own events company. A huge part of it be weddings. I just want everybody to know that I would be really good. And I did it for a while, by the way, in my earlier career. And I think I'd be really great at that.

[00:17:18] And I love the energy of events. Yeah. And so I think that's where I would live. I tried it for a while. But again, it was like one of those things where it didn't make enough money for me at the time. And it was a lot of work. And I was young and stupid. And I was like, well, this is not what I want to be doing. You know, I want to have more money. So I got into sales and marketing really deeply and figured out really the science of how sales works and marketing works.

[00:17:47] And spent a lot of my career doing that. And that applied to the event space, too, at the time. But and then I was like, I really love people. And that's how I kind of and I fell into talent. It was a legitimate choice to leave sales and marketing. But it was it was kind of like, where do people live? Where are people at? I don't want to use the word fell because it was really intentional. You have to. I got out agencies and I like, you know, I went for those jobs.

[00:18:15] So that was intentional on my part. But why I stayed in it is because obviously I enjoy it and I love the theories behind it and all of that stuff. And let me ask you, because you mentioned money, too. Mine was money, too. If no money was involved at all, like if nothing mattered, you get paid a million dollars a year, regardless of if you cut hair or pet dogs. I know exactly what you and I would choose. But excluding that, what would you do for a living if money didn't matter at all? Yeah, I think I'd be a writer.

[00:18:45] I think I would spend a lot of time authoring like murder books and self-help books. And I'd be sitting in a room with like writing novels. And that's what I would be doing. And then, you know, the other answers. I would have a dog farm. Yeah, same. Same. I would live somewhere in like the middle of nowhere with this big dog farm and like be writing books. That's what I would do. I mean, that's pretty dope. I would enjoy it. I would. I enjoy it to the point of like shutting people out of my life to write.

[00:19:15] And so I'm like, please don't talk to me. I'm writing. So for me, that is like a big deal. But again, that's a it's a hard road with very little reward unless you know you hit it once. And it's like being an actress. Right. Everybody thinks they can be an actress, but it's like one in a trillion. Right. And so it's that same thing about being an author. Yeah. So but yeah, that's what I would do. I would write novels. That's pretty cool. Yeah.

[00:19:41] I probably I don't know why, because I guess I could do either of these things at any moment if I wanted to. Well, not really any moment. That sounds cocky. But I mean, in the sense of like if I wanted to just sit down and go try this, I guess I could. But I've always wanted to cut hair, dude. Like I've always. Yeah. But my mom, that was before radio. The reason I went to radiology is because I wanted to cut hair. My mom was like, because that was I guess that's the answer to your question. My big dream was to cut hair. And my mom was like, no, you're not because I have a color to cut my hair, all these different things. But yeah, I guess comedian, too, though, because that's really why.

[00:20:11] Because I don't get to make any money. Again, a comedian. It's like one of those things like, oh, so we need a coolest job. But, you know, it's also one in a million type of thing. You know? Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'm going to ask you a talentless question. Or you want to go first? Snippity snap. No, you go. You go. You go. I think I'm going to ask you a talentless question because this may take us many places. If talentless got kicked out of a networking event, what would we have said to deserve it? Jesus, help us. Probably that right there. That one sentence did it in.

[00:20:40] You know, first of all, I'm going to say this. There's a very different standard for women and media in this space versus men. So like our male competitors can say lots of things that unfortunately we are held to a standard. Yes, we are. Stupid and can't say more of the things that you want. So I will say that. Okay, if someone took us off for saying, I think it would either be we're like too, I don't want to say liberal, but like too much going there, like too much agenda.

[00:21:09] Like someone like that, I could easily see us getting kicked out for. I could also easily see us getting kicked out for and people get mad at me for this, but I am someone who does like to give a little free Palestine, free the people. So, you know, I could easily see that. And even as I say it right now, it's like, maybe we cut the scene. I don't know. We'll find out. But I do think that just has, even though it's such an easy conclusion for all of us to be like, yeah, let people live. It has a lot around it to where I could see it. You know, one day someone should be like, get out of here. And I feel like it would be our politics or our mouth.

[00:21:39] Oh, it's definitely gonna be our mouth. Yeah, we have a lot of mouth. It's not gonna be. Yeah, it's not gonna be like a slick dance move or anything. It's not like something magical is gonna like, we're gonna do magic tricks that get us kicked out. Like, no, it's definitely gonna be what this Lavaca do. Like, it's gonna be that mouth. You know what I mean? We were both report card kids. Like, talk way too much. Could talk too away. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so yeah. Okay.

[00:22:07] So one thing that I've been interested in is like, what is the most awkward conversation you ever had to have with a hiring manager? Like, what was one where you just like, sometimes you may still wake up at 3am and just be like, why did any of us say any of that? So much, so many. But I think the worst, well, I don't know if it's the worst and most awkward, but it definitely was the most awkward for me is that we had a conversation about a candidate that was,

[00:22:34] I mean, above and beyond what we could have asked for, for the role. I mean, and was willing to take our crappy salary that we were offering because they were just at that point in their career. But I must say that her level of modesty and her clothing, this was when it was still very in person. Yeah. And it was shocking to say the least, like, especially when she came in for the interview and we were all like, and she was so good.

[00:23:02] And so I had to have a conversation with a hiring manager who's a guy, right? And he's like, he's trying to, this was like the nicest guy in the world too. Like he wasn't, he wasn't your like horrible hiring manager. He really cared about people and all this stuff. So he's like in the room with me and he's like, yeah, she was great. But like, what about, you know, is she going to fit? And like one point he's like, what about her breasts? He like said it really hard. What? Oh my gosh. What? Oh my God.

[00:23:32] We're like in this room, like there's three of us in the room. We all are like looking around and we're like, oh my God, did you just say that? Like, I don't think you're allowed to say that first of all. Oh my God, unless we're talking about chicken. We all saw it. I don't think you need to say it. But it was like, he was trying to tell us like, I really want to hire her. But like, somebody needs to tell her like, you know, about the rules. And I was like, for me, it was super awkward as a person.

[00:23:58] Like, I've had a lot of tough conversations, but he was so awkward in it that it made the whole thing awkward. And we were all just kind of like looking out of the room, around the room, kind of sweating over it. Oh, I love it. Anyway, by the way, we did hire her. Good for y'all. And hopefully she put on a turtleneck. Good Lord. Well, we did have like a, not a discussion like that HR could come after us, but we did

[00:24:24] have a discussion about, at that time it was still appropriate to like have a dress code kind of conversation. So it was fine. But it was tough getting there. It was like an hour in a room with all of us not saying what we wanted to say type of thing. It was funny. Oh my gracious. I am trying to think. Well, I haven't had one where like the candidate showed up crazy. I actually wrote here. I was like, what's the worst candidate you've ever hired?

[00:24:51] Because I've actually had, I actually for a long time in my career, never had a hire that I heard back from either the hiring manager or the candidate that it ended bad. Like even if they ended up after five years leaving, they still reached out and they were like, that was the best job. I'm so thankful I had it. I just, there was no mobility, you know, whatever. Yeah. But there were two times in my whole career that I have hired someone and I have heard

[00:25:20] back from the manager about the candidate. And both of the times were so extreme that it is, okay, this one blew my mind because he had to go through like six rounds of interviews, this dude. It was for a commissioning engineer, which now recruiters will probably hear a lot of that term because we have all these data centers now that are popping up, but basically the commission data centers. And we hired him and he had to do his training out of New York. Well, they brought him in for the first day.

[00:25:47] He shows up, leaves a little early, said he was feeling sick, goes to the hotel room and then doesn't come back for like pretty much the rest of the week for work, but is in this hotel room. Well, they just thought he was sick and just like went home and has poor communication skills. Like that's what they think happened. But then Hilton is now, because I have to be the one that puts all the travel on the manager's stuff, is calling saying, hey, why haven't y'all checked out of your room? It's been a week. What's going on? And we were like, what do you mean?

[00:26:16] That man went back home days ago. No, no. He was plastered drunk in their hotel room, destroyed the whole thing. Cops are outside the hotel room, won't get, can't get him out. Now, like they're calling my hiring manager being like, can you come down? And it's on like Seventh Avenue. Come get this man. And they're like, yeah, he's worked for us for like 24 hours. You can just do what you need. I had never in my life.

[00:26:44] But even the manager, he's like, he met with every single one of us and none of us could have sensed that. None of us would have sensed that he, they met him in person. They flew him out. So it was something that was very much like it was not a qualification issue. It was like this poor person was at a bad point at a bad time. Yeah. The other one, which was even worse. Jeez. Much worse than that. This one, we had to have an HR crisis, a PR people. I learned so much about HR crisis PR though.

[00:27:13] I will say like I learned so many things. It was a learning experience. This one sucked because it was under my watch, but it was not our team. So I was the head of talent. There was a vendor that worked closely with a manager that they knew each other outside of all these other things that they would love to hire people from without TA's consent pretty much. And that happened. And so they used a vendor to hire someone. The senior leadership signed off on it.

[00:27:41] So I'm the head of talent, but I had nothing to do. Like no one on my team has anything to do with this hire. Right. And so all of a sudden it's 7am on a Sunday and my phone's blown up from my boss and I'm like, what on earth? So I answered the call and they're like, Hey, have you seen the news? And I'm like, what are you talking about, Willis? And I get on just Instagram and there is a, I don't know if I can give full details of this because it was so recent, but the point is, I'm going to be discreet.

[00:28:08] There was an individual in the middle of a park that yelled at a gentleman in a very slurry way. And that gentleman just happened to be a New York time bestselling author who recorded everything and posted it. And so I remember going on LinkedIn that day and having like 60 billion notifications of like fire this person, get rid of them. How could you hire them? Oh, I just bawled my eyes out.

[00:28:36] I bawled my eyes out nonstop because I knew, I knew the pain that that would evoke to our current like employment body. We were such a diverse team that the fact that someone could come through the cracks like that was just such no fun for me. Even though I know, and that was the other thing is like, I knew everything that happened. I still wasn't willing to not take the accountability. So like, even with the people internally, I maybe told a small handful of people, like the

[00:29:05] full truth of what happened. Like I never actually full out just was like, it's not our fault. It's you know what I mean? I was like, yep, this happened on my watch and we should have had a system in place that made sure any additional vendor hires, even if they were done backdoor, we had an extra bedding and we didn't. And that part is on me. And so that's the only thing that I would say is I felt like we spent a year more building up this beautiful team, just so good.

[00:29:32] And then one person got in through the side door with like a shiv and just went because never after that was our company the same. And you know, doing this job, it happens, right? Like, oh, you know, it doesn't happen as much to me anymore. But like in the beginning of my career, I will say that like some people slipped by me now. I mean, probably for the last 10 years, it's never happened to me. I've never. And even again, like both of them were such, you know, but it's.

[00:30:02] But we are dealing with people. There's like no, like people are unpredictable. And so it's like, no, no. Yeah, that was one thing that one of the guys said to me, because we had a ton of like team meetings after this, right? Because like people needed to heal. Like people heard this person's parent real thoughts. And one of the guys, he said, he was like, you need to understand because I was, of course, apologizing for the 15th time. And he's like, you've got to stop apologizing because you have to understand that there are

[00:30:29] people married for 20, 30, 40 years that people go and do stuff like and they never would have guessed that about them. He's like, so there is no such thing as a 30 minute vet that's going to actually handle that. There's no such thing as he's like, so I respect you taking the accountability. I appreciate it. He's like, but this isn't something you could have prevented. And I still stick with that in my head so I can survive. But it is something to where like, you know, if we're talking about like greatest mistakes,

[00:30:59] greatest learnings and, you know, I want to just think we should always take accountability for everything because we are dealing with humans. Yeah. But two, I do think that, yeah, like not making the right hire can be really harmful. Yeah. I learned that through watching all of that. That's what I learned. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah. All right. If Talyn had a mascot, teddy bear, tiger, dog. Talinda.

[00:31:24] And is it something adorable or something feral or is it something in between? So annoying because I feel like everyone would pick a purple squirrel. Like an absolute. Don't pick the purple squirrel. No, it's dumb. That's dumb. I'm not going to. Why did I say unicorn? I want to say the unicorns are what we're looking for. I honestly kind of think we're like a. Can I make a mashup animal? Okay. Because I feel like we're like little yappy dogs. But like we're we can be like central yappy.

[00:31:51] Like we don't have to be chihuahua yappy, but probably terrier yappy. Yeah. And I feel like we're like loving fun, but I feel like we're also more of like a platypus. Like we can go in the lake. We can go on the land. We can go do things different than other people. Like we can navigate a little. But I definitely like if platypus is yapped. That's what I would think someone in talent is maybe just because they're so versatile. Like they can just go do. Yeah. They're like, oh, I'm swimming down here with the dolphins today.

[00:32:21] See you. And then like tomorrow they're like, oh, not me quacking like a duck. And then the next day, just like walking on land like a frog. I like the platypus. I picked chameleons for this very similar reason. Yeah. I picked them for very similar reasons. I was like, because in any situation, we have to figure it out. We have to change colors. That team, that thing, you know, constantly switching on and off and doing all these things that people don't really realize talent even touches or does. Yeah. We're in all these situations.

[00:32:51] So I like the platypus. Yeah. That's a good one. Like let's match a platypus, a chameleon and a yappy dog. There's our mascot. There she is. I'm going to make Chachi PT figure out how to make a mascot for that. Come back with some weird stuff. You can't do that on some public computer. Like don't do that at home, dude. But yeah, I think that's exactly where I lay in my head. I'm like all the things that we do. I didn't have the yappy part, but it makes sense.

[00:33:18] But all the things that we do and all the skills we need to have and how we have to deal with people and all these other things, it makes so much sense that it would be something where it's, you know, you have to adapt to whatever's thrown in front of you. And I think that's a great answer. Platypus is a great one. We're agility animals. Yes, we are. What's your next question? Why do you do this stuff?

[00:33:44] Yeah, my partner asked me all the time, like, why a podcast? Why recruiting? Why talent? Why any of this? And I'm going to answer the question more about the podcast than I am about talent. I think I kind of already answered that about like my three lines through everything I've ever done as people and having influencing people's lives and making sure that organizations treat people fairly. And so that's always been my mission, whether it was in DEI sales, even in marketing, even

[00:34:13] all of those things. That was the through line for me. But I think this show for me, first of all, I recognize the bro culture of talent and the podcasting world. And for me, there are voices out there. Don't get me wrong. Expert interviewers, HR besties, like there don't get me wrong. We're out there. Rona, all of those people. And I don't want to diminish their value as well.

[00:34:38] But the overwhelming majority is this bro culture of podcasting in the HR and talent space. And I really hated it. I hated seeing it. And I wanted to hear from women and voices like ours and a diverse group, a diverse voice in the space. And I think it just wasn't there. And I knew that between the two of us, there was value in that.

[00:35:03] And I wanted people to hear really smart things from you because that's not my area. And I wanted to hear, I wanted them to hear your intelligence about the reasoning behind things. And I wanted them to have fun about the work that they do every day, which is somewhat thankless. You know what I mean? Like they don't get a lot of attaboys. They don't get a lot of, so they need a community.

[00:35:29] And I think there's so many communities in the talent space now, but they needed to hear from other people that the work they're doing is valuable and that it means something. And if they do it right, there is definite recognition for what they do. And I think we've done that kind of effectively for the last year. We've brought on some great guests and I think we've added value to the world of talent. And I hope we continue to do more. So that's my answer. Is that a good one? Heck yeah. Is that a good one? What are you even halfway talking about?

[00:35:59] It was an excellent answer. And I didn't want to go down the bro lane too much, but it definitely wasn't. Can I say though, it's the truth and it's weird because they're only like 20% of the actual field. So it's literally like it's this type of confidence and audacity that like, I don't know what makes us think that we're not qualified after 15 years to do this. But homies who've been in this for 10 seconds and gave someone a resume review are like, I will lead the pack. And it's like, what?

[00:36:29] And here's the other thing that I will say. And I was just having this conversation the other day. Bro culture is also followed up with sponsors and they get them so much, so often, so quick. Like, and that needs to change. How economic structures and whose economic circulation is happening with whom and what. Like, I hope that people start paying more attention. I hope that people start caring more about the balance. And because honestly, it should be eight to two.

[00:36:57] It should be a women podcast to every two male podcast if we're going based off of the actual, but it's reversed in real life. So it's just something to say that, like, you're spot on and it's I'm glad we're here. I don't care if literally only two people listen to us and we die. These will be preserved somewhere in some wormhole time capsule Elon Musk somewhere to where I'm proud of it.

[00:37:23] Like, I'm proud that we're doing this, even if it's in our own way, even if we're the only ones that ever listen to our own voices, which I can't do. It's so gross. But it's the worst. But I do think I think you're right. I think I think it matters. At least that's what I'm trying to say. No, I hope it matters. Right. And for the people that tune in all the time, I hope that we add value to their job or their day or maybe they just get a laugh from dealing with hiring managers and recruiters

[00:37:49] and other recruiters and team leading and doing all the crazy stuff we have to do on a daily basis. And they're like, oh, my God, I'm gonna go listen to Ashley and us and they're gonna make me laugh about the lizards or something crazy. And we haven't done one of those. I need to give a life story an update here on something. I have tons. Well, I think I answered it. I mean, is there anything you want to add on your end about why you do this and why this and why this is not working with you? I definitely think so there's like a lot of different angles to this.

[00:38:19] There's like why talent acquisition, like why any of that? And then there's kind of why the podcast and these all kind of go in the same one. Why talent acquisition? I loved it. It loved me. But then I really realized, whoa, there's like an actual massive opportunity to make a difference here, like on real people with real lives and real time. Like I don't have to wait for legislation for to bump them up from seven dollars and 50 cents. I can do it right now. And that's such a different thing.

[00:38:47] So for a long time and well, anyway, you know, thinking about government positions and people who have power and can make change like that was always something in my head. Like I knew I always wanted to be a change maker, but I didn't know how. So I think the best way to describe this and sorry for the listeners, this might take a second, but it is what it is, is to kind of like explain, I guess, two stories that kind of get me here. So one of them is what happens whenever the TA job is done wrong, right? Or like HR's job is done wrong.

[00:39:17] And then what happens whenever HR and TA's job is done right. And I've been able to be the product of both of those. And so when it's done wrong, it looks a lot like, you know, a benefits manager who is like, hey, did you know that if we can start people on the first after the month that they started with our company for health benefits, we can save, you know, six figures a year just by trimming that and cutting that. And so people make those decisions and they think that they're making great ones because

[00:39:47] they're saving money for the business. But what they don't realize is that you may have someone like a guy named Brian start working for the company and twist his ankle on the clock at this plant site. And they say, hey, well, go to our plant nurse because your insurance doesn't kick in until the first of the next month and we will get you all taken care of there. And so you have Brian goes down to the plant nurse, takes medicine that they give him to help with his freshly twisted ankle while on the job.

[00:40:17] And Brian then in an hour later clocks out and goes home. And what they don't mention is that because they provide the nursing staff on the plant sites, they feel like it's OK and appropriate to leave it those 30 days because you can utilize that. So Brian goes home. He does not go to another doctor. He does not know that the medicine that they give him is going to interact with his medicine that he already takes on a daily basis before bed. So he takes his medicine and he unfortunately asphyxiates that night.

[00:40:44] And four days before his 30th birthday, he dies. And he goes to the hospital and they're trying to bring in a doctor and fly him in. And even though he has no insurance, the doctor does not deny care. He says, I will care for him. However, the hospital has to get a very specific device to that site. So that way the doctor can use it. And the hospital and insurance say, well, he has no insurance. We can't support that. We can't bring that here.

[00:41:11] So even though there was care that was able to be provided, even though there was equipment that would have saved his life because he did not have insurance, he did not go see the appropriate doctors, he did not get the right medication, and he was unable to be revived because they were not willing to spot however much the cost were up front to get those medical devices down to him.

[00:41:32] Brian was my brother-in-law, and he is not with us due to consequences of working on a job and having someone choose profits over people. And so that's what happens whenever we don't make the right decisions. And I don't necessarily blame any benefits manager for this, but what I do blame is this idea that we are here to make profits for one being, one entity, one group. And the only way you can do that is by not serving the whole.

[00:42:02] I do challenge that. I don't think that it has to be that way. And so for the sake of all the people who have done things wrong, that's why I do the podcast. And then there are some people who do it right. So my mom, she had interactions with a company literally all 13 years of me through kindergarten all the way to high school and graduating my senior year. I mean, they touched base with her every single year. And there are so many recruiters that work places 10 years, 15 years, 20 years.

[00:42:30] And I cannot help but wonder how many Julie's they may have held on to and finally got them over to the company because my mom worked three jobs majority of my life. She got pregnant with me at 15, had me at 16 and was a single mom. The idea of her being able to work just one job and have salary was an absolute dream. And they pursued her for that. She never would have made it out of our tiny town work-wise.

[00:42:58] Had they not seen value in her? Because she didn't have any degree. She didn't have anything. She was just someone that whenever they would come and do demos, she just asked a ton of questions about the product and wanted to understand it better. And so they noted that and a recruiter stuck with it for literally 15 years. And we are the product of a good recruiter.

[00:43:22] We're the product of someone who didn't try to negotiate my mom down on salary just because she was making an hourly rate and actually paid her what she was worth. It was the first time that, you know, I got to see my mom get sick time or vacation time and we got to do things that weren't just her working whatever event we were already going to. And I just got to tag along. So, I mean, it changed the overall well-being of our life.

[00:43:49] Just like, you know, decisions with HR benefits changed the overall well-being of our life, but in a different way. Right. It's just it's something that's so powerful and so important. And the way that we do it, God bless, does it matter? And I know to some people, whenever I say that's so dramatic, like we're just we're just filling jobs like we chill out. We're just filling jobs. But to me, it's like, no, you're not like you're doing so much more.

[00:44:16] And I know people don't see it like that, but it is very much it can bring life. It can bring demise. It can bring, you know, wealth, health and the pursuit of happiness. And it can deny all of that as well. And so for me, that's why I do it is because I think it's such a powerful gate that we hold. But to the way we hold it matters. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I can't tell people enough, like how much recruiting.

[00:44:42] And I think this is why I get so frustrated with organizations as a whole about the skipping over talent as a real value is because we do hold the keys to people's success and life and their salaries and their happiness. And like there's just so much that goes into talent versus just being an order taker. And for the people that do this job right, they influence so many people's lives over the tenure of their career. And it's just amazing. I mean, I can't tell you.

[00:45:11] There are stories that I have that actually make me cry about how I influence somebody's life. And like those are the reasons that I'm in talent. Right. And those are the reasons that I stay in it, even though it drives me insane sometimes. Right. And so I hear you. And thank you for bringing the mood down from here to like here, Ashley. You're great. Okay. My bad. Yeah. No, I'm so good at like just settling everybody in and then kicking them while they're down and then being like, all right, stand up. So good at that. I wish I could show my funnier side a little bit more.

[00:45:41] I know that sounds silly and stupid as all get out, but I don't know. I feel like I could be funnier. I'm just not. Well, you know, you need to come prepared sometimes. Like what we were actually talking to. And maybe you could be funny. That's the only thing I want to say to our listeners. I swear I am actually. But you know something? That's why I'm an ex-communian. It's the ex. It's because I wasn't that funny in the first place. Like, hello. So I just didn't want to ease up. They're out here expecting like a type five with a hot 10 and I ain't got neither. So just sit with her down, friends.

[00:46:11] I'm going to be able to fill this time, but I'm going to leave this on, you know, if you had 60 seconds to explain this show to someone who had never heard of us, never doesn't even know they're like telling us. What are you talking about? Why is it? Why is it? Why is it? Why are you doing that? Like, what is that show? Explain it to the folks. I would say that Talentless is hiring for hillbillies. It is how to do talent acquisition, but do it the actual right way. And listen, we're not going to talk to you about rough and fluff and stuff and stuff.

[00:46:41] We're going to give you the actual research, the actual numbers, the hard data that talks about it. We're probably going to give it to you in a little bit of a silly manner because this is life. Like, life is life. So, like, let's all just chill a little bit. And Talent should definitely be the sitcom of the world, not necessarily the dramedy. And then I think that that's pretty much it. It's just we're a podcast with two ladies that talk about hiring and we're a little silly. Yeah. Yeah. Don't expect too much and you'll be happy. We have a good time. Talent should be fun, people. It shouldn't always be a crisis mode like it is on LinkedIn. Please let me do that. Please do.

[00:47:10] People be popping off. There is our sponsorship from LinkedIn. Anywho, folks, thank you so much for joining us on our anniversary episode. Please check us out on YouTube, LinkedIn. We're on threads now as of today. We are everywhere that you can probably find us. Please sign up. Sign up for the newsletter on Beehive. Happy anniversary, Ashley. This year has been fantastic. I can't wait for year two. To our listeners, thank you so much for joining in.

[00:47:39] And join the giveaway if you haven't already. Also, before we close out, Desiree Goldey, you do so much for this podcast. You do everything. You write everything. Thank you. Like, all the things happen because Desiree Goldie makes this world turn. So to Desiree, thank you so much. To Rita, who will also be listening to this. We thank you for completing us. You make our third Musketeer. And without you, we would be two episodes in. So, Desiree, truly, truly. I mean it.

[00:48:07] You are why we are anywhere, why we exist, why we have even a headshot. We would just have a podcast that no one would know about. And I would be probably actually oddly content. So I say to you and to the whole world, thank you. Thank you. Because this truly only exists because of you. Thank you so much. I appreciate everybody. And we will see you next week or hear you next week. Bye-bye. Bye. Bye.