Operating at Peak, Enthusiasm is One Way To Ensure Recruiting Success
In this solo episode of Recruiting Conversations (episode 45), Richard Milligan argues that a recruiter’s success hinges on operating in a personal "passion zone" – a state of high energy, enthusiasm, and alignment with core values that can be transferred to candidates. He begins by emphasizing the strategic importance of content creation for recruiters, describing how a single podcast can be repurposed into multiple video clips, articles, memes, and social posts, thereby expanding reach. Milligan then introduces the passion zone framework, explaining that recruiting is essentially the transference of the recruiter’s excitement about an opportunity to the candidate. He stresses that most candidates are not actively looking; they are “cold” or content where they are, and the recruiter must motivate the unmotivated by projecting genuine enthusiasm. To sustain this high‑energy state, he outlines an "external toolbox" of practical tactics—nutrition (e.g., apples, water), movement (quick walks, exercise equipment), breathing exercises, and high‑energy music—to combat fatigue without relying on artificial stimulants. He also highlights the importance of daily self‑assessment (a "passion meter" rating from 1‑10) and reflective questions about potential energy blockers. Milligan notes that misalignment between a recruiter’s core values and their organization’s leadership can erode passion, leading to disengagement. He contextualizes the recruiting leader’s role as a demanding “professional juggler,” managing hiring, team leadership, and operational responsibilities, often comparable to running a small business. Throughout, he shares personal anecdotes (e.g., network marketing tactics, health challenges) to illustrate how intentional energy management fuels recruiting effectiveness. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to adopt these practices in 2020 and beyond, reinforcing that passion, enthusiasm, and energy are the differentiators for scaling recruiting success.
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Hey everyone, it's Richard Milligan here. We're about to cut another podcast, episode 45 on Recruiting Conversations. Thanks for checking out my video. And we, you know, if you see these videos, we do a little intro, a little outro in addition to the podcast. This is just a great way for me to capture content in an environment Where content is really centric to any business. If you're a recruiter, you better be creating content. And there's some framework around this. If you want to check out one of my episodes, we talk about the 4 C's of social. You know, there's 4 C's that you need to be following if you're going to be successful on social. And creating content is so critical to your success as a recruiter because, you know, we see a lot of data now coming through where A lot of recruits, in fact, the majority of experienced recruits, we're talking about people that have experience in their business, are now moving through non-direct solicitation. That means that they're not being contacted by a recruiter and making a move. So one of the things that I do, why I do this particular format, is that it allows me to capture a ton of content. It allows me to capture maybe 6 to 7 different video pieces in addition to the full video piece. I transcribe this, I write articles from this, I create short-form articles or content pieces, written word content pieces from it. I create memes from it, quotes from it, like all kinds of things come from this single content piece. So I'm not really here to talk to you about that, but I do think it's relative. It's the beginning of 2020, and if you don't have a content strategy, you are not going to reach your potential this year. As a recruiting leader. So that's one thing to think about. But I'm going to transfer from that topic into a different topic today, which is we're going to talk about operating in your passion zone. We're talking about operating at high energy. We're going to talk about operating with a lot of enthusiasm. Because recruiting, if I oversimplify this, recruiting is simply a transference of my enthusiasm, my energy, my passion To you to get you excited about the opportunity. And so there's just some— I try to oversimplify some things. And that's a very simple framework for recruiting. It's me being excited about an opportunity and getting you excited about the opportunity. And if I'm not excited, and I'm not operating at my peak performance, and I'm not operating in my passion zone, that just kind of has you going, what's he so excited about? It gets very difficult to get you motivated to make a change. And for the most part, We're trying to motivate the unmotivated. We're not trying to find the hot recruit that's like had a trigger event happen that's looking to make a move. What we're trying to do is we're trying to find someone that's actually already happy where they're at ultimately, that we can transfer our passion and our energy and our core value system and our vision to, to get them energized about, you know, what we have to offer in terms of our, our, our core value system, the vision of where we're going and what we're going to accomplish. It's things that most people don't typically think about when they're recruiting. Most people think about the offer, right? Let me give you more money. A lot of people talk about success or titles or those things they think are higher motivators, and they're just simply not. So I'm gonna talk about that passion zone today as we go into the podcast. I'm about to go into the podcast now live, so bear with me here as we get our recording set up. We're gonna go live here in 3, in 2, and in 1. Hey everyone, it's Richard Milligan, your host for Recruiting Conversations. I'm excited to be back. It's the new year. And I don't know, it just seems like when you get to turn over a new week, a new month, but a new year, something special, but then we're into a new decade. There's just success is in the air, right? It's like, it's like, Rain on a spring morning. It's just like everything feels different, smells different, and that's kind of what I sense here headed into 2020. Maybe I'm a little too excited. I don't know, but we're going to talk about enthusiasm today, so it's okay. I'm showing up excited. One of the things, if you're in my coaching and you're listening this, you know this to be true, and I laugh. In my coaching, I literally have to stop myself and pause. I did it. 2 or 3 times today in different coaching sessions where my energy starts to go up and it goes up and it goes up and it goes up and suddenly it's like, I gotta bring myself down. I get way too excited about doing what I do and sharing what I have to share, but I'm operating in my passion zone. I actually love this. Seriously, if someone came in and said, we want you to work for 20% of what you're currently working for, I would have no problem with it. I love it. I absolutely love it. One of the things that came up today is that my energy in a coaching session was extremely high and someone's was extremely low. In that, a question that came up was, what's going on? Where's the enthusiasm? Where's the energy? What are you going through? What are you dealing with? One of the things that came up is this individual said, I just don't have any Passion. I don't have any energy or enthusiasm in doing what I'm doing today. One of the things that I coached them to was a simplistic understanding or framework for recruiting. If I'm a recruiter or I'm a recruiting leader and I get someone on the phone, it is imperative. Okay? It's imperative that I have a passion and enthusiasm and energy About the opportunity where I am right now and the opportunity that I have to offer. The reason why is that in the most basic form, recruiting is simply a transference of that energy. If I can get you excited about what I'm excited about, if I can get you energized about what I'm energized about, if I can get you passionate about what I'm passionate about, you come join me. It's really that simple. Network marketers, I despise you. I hate you, but I love you. You are the greatest, but you're also the worst. And that's because I keep buying your stuff. It's like, I don't want to be approached by a network marketing opportunity. I just don't want to. I'm a busy guy. I run multiple successful businesses. I don't want to buy your stuff. But one of the things that network marketers are amazing at is figuring out how to get themselves and to get other people into this passion zone where someone's really excited about the product. And so, man, I've bought— I'm embarrassed to tell you the things I've bought over the years. Okay. I've bought a lot of Beachbody products. I've bought a lot of facial stuff that's supposed to remove 25 years of wrinkles. that I never used. I've bought like, I don't know, pink drinks. I mean, my wife buys all kinds of crazy stuff with this. And the reason why is because these people are operating in a way that allows them to transfer this excitement to other people. And when people get excited about it, they're like, yeah, sign me up. Yeah, I'll buy the product. Right? So it's, as recruiting leaders, it's critical that we operate in our passion zone, that we're operating at this peak enthusiasm, that we can then transfer that to somebody else. The great recruiters understand they're not looking for someone that's had a trigger event already happen that is already going to make a move. Think about this. So I do a lot of coaching inside the mortgage industry. The average tenure inside the mortgage industry for an experienced loan officer today is 3.1 years. Okay, so let's just do a little math. 3 years is 36 months. Let's just say it's 37 to 38 months. Okay, so every 37 to 38 months, an experienced loan officer, that's a solid, experienced, producing loan officer, is going to make a change. Okay, if I'm only looking for the warm or hot candidate, it's almost like this. You know, I call the phone now, okay? And I'm hoping in that moment, that person is like, is in their trigger moment, right? Something's happened. Or I'm calling now, right? And it's like, it's like on a timeline, I'm picking a specific moment, and I'm trying to like go there right then. And if I hit it, At the right moment, then it's great, right? They're like, yeah, glad you called. I'm already looking at making a move. And you're like, oh, this recruiting thing's all about timing. And it's not. It's not about timing. Okay? The bulk of people that make transitions with great recruiters actually started out cold. Like, you know that phone call where they say, I'm not interested. I'm happy where I'm at. Right? That's where they are. And that's not just a guise that they're putting up. It's actually true. And what great recruiters know how to do best is to motivate the unmotivated to make a change. How do they do that? They're passionate about their opportunity. They're energized and energetic about where they are, right? So you got to be looking at this passion meter concept and asking yourself on a daily basis, like, Where's my energy at? On a scale of 1 to 10, where would I rate my energy? And if you're not operating at 8, 9, or 10, then you're going to have a difficult time trying to get someone to cross across that finish line when they're content where they're at. And that's almost 95% of the market right now. So, I would say this, give me a person Who's passionate working at an average company with an average toolbox at that company over an unpassionate person who's working at an incredible company with an incredible toolbox? Because the passionate person will motivate people. Even though everything else is subpar, the passionate person will motivate people. I work with a lot of directors of sales, a lot of high-level, high-ranking Heads of recruiting, CFOs, COOs, CEOs. And when we look at their group of recruiting leaders, there tends to always be within an organization these hotspots where it's like, this person's really winning and this group really isn't. Same toolbox, same company, but some very dramatically different results in different parts of the organization. Why is that? Well, I've met the people on opposite ends of that spectrum, on the opposite ends of those spectrums. Someone's super excited and passionate. The other person is a 5 or below in their Passion Meter. They're just going through the daily grind. So you got to work on improving your passion before you work on improving your tactics, because passion Matters more. In this, I've found that there's a lot of reasons why passion can be low. Sometimes it can be fatigue, and I've been in that place myself where I'm like, why am I not passionate about what I have going on today? And so I ask myself 2 questions at the beginning of every day. One of those questions I ask myself is, what is one thing that might trip me up today? The other question I asked myself is, how would my best self handle that? When I looked back and I did a review, so I use a planner throughout the entire year, and on my planner, those 2 questions are there. And so as I was going through my year and just kind of reviewing it, one of the things that just kind of blew me away, because in the moment I didn't realize it, is that as I answered that question, Over and over again throughout the year, the one thing was my energy. OK? What's the one thing that could trip me up today? My energy or I put, I'm feeling fatigued, or something along the lines of that. I would dare say that it wasn't exactly a scientific research piece I did but I would say it's about 80% to 85% of that question being answered last year was my energy in some way, shape, or form. So, being aware that like I'm in a busy season, I'm, you know, this business is growing fast. I'm having a hard time just staying up with it. I'm crazy passionate about it. So, I'm always chasing excellence in the things that we're doing here. And so, because of that, it's requiring a lot of me in this current season. I do believe that it's a season. I think that, you know, my business is just a little over 2 years old. It operates more like a teenager than it does a full-grown adult right now. And so, we're building systems to scale it. We're figuring things out that we've never had to figure out before because it's a new business. And as we do that, it requires a lot of me. And so, in that, what I have to be aware of is that, man, if my energy's low coming into a day, man, I have to be real intentional about bringing my energy up. And so, as recruiters, this is something you got to be aware of. And in being aware of that, I know that I have this toolbox That I can tap into that has motivation in it. It's an external toolbox, I call it, my external toolbox. And so, let me just give you some of these things that were— if your energy's low, you're like, I'm having a hard time tapping into my passion zone, then dive off into this. And here's some of the things that work for me. Look, I try to stay away from Monsters and Red Bulls and things like that that are just artificial Stimulators that have this real peak energy and this real low energy. One, I think it's unhealthy. I think there's that component of it, but the other part is that it's not sustainable. It's not like I can drink a Monster a day for the next 3 years, right? I just can't do that. So one of the things that I do is I look at the healthy options. One of the things I'm aware of is that an apple is equivalent to a cup of coffee in terms of energy. What a great replacement that is. 2 glasses of water is something that gives me almost instantaneous energy. MIT did a research piece that said that 5 minutes of 4 breaths in quickly and 4 breaths out quickly for 5 minutes actually gives you an oxygen high. Taking 10 minutes and going outside and going for a quick walk. Outside my office here, I actually have an exercise ball, weights, and a yoga mat. Those are things that can actually be part of that external toolbox. I'd be embarrassed to have you listen to my YouTube playlist because on YouTube, I actually have a folder there with a playlist in it of high-energy music and I got to— I mean, I'll be honest with you, Justin Bieber is actually on the list. The reason why is not because I'm like a huge Justin Bieber fan, no offense Justin, but it's— I'm not in your age group, one. I'm not in the demographics that would typically listen to Justin Bieber. But, you know, I do recognize that high-energy music is actually a stimulator for, you know, for energy and so that's in my toolbox. So I have all these things I can wrap my arms around if it is energy, if it is fatigue. I recognize that Navy SEALs have proved this, that when we think we've reached our max, there's a lot more available. In fact, there's 40% to 60% more available. We think we've reached our max. And so, one, I'm aware when my energy is low and I work really, really intentionally to bring that energy up. But I'm also aware that beyond just fatigue and being tired, there are other things that can impact this. Look, last year I had multiple conversations with people that said, I just can't get excited about my current opportunity and I can't figure out why that is. And as I began to ask questions, they answered it. What they came to the conclusion to, not me, is that they were operating in a place, in a business with leadership where they were not aligned with their core value system. And when that happens, that can affect your passion zone, that can affect your enthusiasm around the opportunity. In fact, I've been in seasons in my own life where my core values were out of alignment with an organization or with a leader. And then I began to struggle daily just putting in You know, simple work because, especially on the recruiting side, because I knew I was bringing people to a place that I'd already determined wasn't a fit and that I wasn't bought into. And so that can be an element of it as well. And I think you've got to be aware of that. Here's what you just got to remember. Your passion matters to the level of success that you will have as a recruiter. So you have to operate and figure out how to get to That max enthusiasm, that max energy, and those who are intentional about this will be the ones that win at scale on the recruiting side because it's that important. So there you have it. Figure out how to operate in that zone in 2020, and that will be one of the most critical things that you can figure out. And let's be, to some degree, network marketers in terms of our energy. How's that? You know a network marketer? Send them this podcast. Tell them you got to check this out. This guy's like dishing you but loving you all at the same time. I appreciate you guys listening to Recruiting Conversations. If this brings value to you, would love for you to do me a favor and do a review. We have several thousand listeners here, and if over the course of the last year or however long you've listened to this podcast, there's been a nugget or two and it's been worthwhile for you to come back to, would love it if you would actually do a review and then also share it. The recruiting leader has the most difficult job in any organization. That's not just a blanket statement without any knowledge. Look, I just— it's true. Anybody want to debate me on the most difficult job in any industry, in any business? If you're on the sales side and you're hiring experienced loan officers and you're managing a team at the same time while you're doing that, look, I have a lot of empathy for you. I operated in that place for a long time in my career. You are that middle management role where all the information comes from the top that you have to actually disseminate to those people underneath your umbrella, underneath your leadership. And you get all that noise from the people underneath you that needs to go up to the top of executive management. And so you got to figure out how to navigate the 2 components while motivating both sides of that to change. And then you wear the hat of recruiting. And so being passionate about what you do is going to matter a lot because you're going to have a lot on you. In 2020, no doubt. So with that said, have a great week, everybody, and I'll look forward to seeing you again next time here on Recruiting Conversations. I think it's true. I really do. If you're, if you're what I would call a recruiting leader, someone who leads a team and then also is responsible for recruiting to that team, you are a professional juggler. You are. You're a professional juggler. 12 to 15 balls in the air at all times. Right. I kind of jokingly before said, man, if they gave the recruiting leader a sabbatical and said, take a month or 2 months off, we just want you to create a checklist of all the things you do so we can make sure they get done, they would need to hire 5 or 6 people to do what you do. Okay? You operate like an entrepreneur. You know, they've done studies of entrepreneurs and they found the average entrepreneur does operate to the capacity that 5 to 7 employees normally operates at. And if you're a recruiting leader, then you are really operating that role. You're kind of running a small business. You're acting entrepreneurially in a lot of the things that you do. And so this passion piece, it can come and go, and we've got to be aware of that. And it can come and go based off of a recent struggle, based off of just being tired and having a lot of weight on you and carrying a lot of pressure. Uh, from the position. And some of it can come from other places, right? I mean, I've had personal struggles where those have actually weighed on me, and in, um, in seasons. And so I've had, I don't know, I've had my neck, my disc fused in my C5-C6. I've had 2 major knee surgeries. I've had 2 major shoulder surgeries. You know, all those things can come and go. And some of those major physical issues that I've had over the years, I've been able to work through in a short season, have actually played into some of that. And so I'm well aware of that. This is something worth fighting for. Remember that. Anything worth having in this life, you will have to fight for it. Perseverance is a 12-letter dirty word, and nobody wants to be told, go persevere, right? But in seasons, we, we, you know, anything worth having, you know, ultimately comes through the lens of that, of persevering and getting to the other side of that. And so we have to do that. And the only way we get from where we are to where we want to be is if we bring our passion, we bring our enthusiasm, we bring our energy with us. So let's be that kind of a person this week. So have a great week, everyone. Look forward to seeing you again here on one of my videos, and I will talk to you or see you whenever I see you on our next video.
