Jared Stauffer, an account manager at Apex Systems, was fired from a car-wash job after a gap year, which taught him resilience. He credits Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People and Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist with shaping his approach to IT staffing, where success means genuinely understanding people.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hey, hombre!
¡Hey, hombre! ¡Hey, hombre!
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Jared Stauffer with us. He is an account manager for Apex Systems and he provides hiring solutions and scalable IT services to companies in the Columbia, South Carolina area. So welcome to the show, man.
Thanks, Tyler. Appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me.
Of course. Grateful to have you here. We'll jump into the first one. The first question I have for you, Jared, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Yeah, man, I really like this question, honestly. So I gave it some thought, and my parents took me— forced me to take a year off between high school and college. And so I was just working a lot. And so I was working at a car wash, and I kind of rose up the ranks, became an assistant manager there. I was actually making pretty good money and out of the blue they just decided to fire me one day. And so they didn't really give me any reasoning behind it. I think part of it was because I was looking to go to college the next year and they wanted to replace me, but it kind of forced me to be more resourceful and keep a positive attitude on life. And I mean, it kind of hit me, it blindsided me. I didn't have a job and And so it forced me to kind of stay mentally strong. And in business and in life in general, like, attitude is everything. So it kind of forced me to stay positive, and it worked out really well. I found an internship that helped me get a job later on, which is great.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, so within IT staffing, it can be a pretty difficult industry for sure. I think the biggest thing is really just showing genuine interest in other people and really trying to understand where they're coming from. One person told me one time, I can't remember who it was, but they were like, people buy from you when they feel understood, not when they understand you. People just really want to feel understood, and that's probably the biggest thing.
What's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
Does it have to be business-related or like life in general?
You can go life, that's fine.
Okay, I think the biggest thing for me would be travel more. Just really get outside your comfort zone and experience more cultures and risk more in life in general. So don't play it small, make sure you play life big.
I couldn't agree more, man. When I traveled abroad for 6 months and it opened my eyes up so much. I think people that never leave let's just not even just say the country, but they're just like small town that they grew up in. Like, you don't realize that, like, yo, the world is so different than the town that you grew up in.
For sure. And honestly, that was my biggest regret. Like, through college, I didn't study abroad at all. And I mean, if I could go back and do one thing differently, I would study abroad for a semester for sure. Like, somewhere in Europe or Asia, or I mean, honestly, wherever we can go and experience different cultures, immerse yourself in whatever is there and stuff like that. So I mean, I think that's huge and that can honestly give you so much more perspective on life in general.
Absolutely, man. And if you could give— the next one is if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Apart from what I just mentioned about traveling more, probably just being more selfless and helping others and understanding that life isn't all about you and building your own goals, but it's also about helping other people and loving other people and building relationships.
And so kind of go a little bit down a different path. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Oh man. Probably just just building those relationships and loving other people. I don't know if you're familiar with Macklemore, but he has a quote in one of his songs. It's, "The quickest way to happiness is learning to be selfless." So honestly, when you're— all the times that I felt the happiest is when I'm serving other people. I've done like a mission trip to New Orleans after it was devastated from the hurricane. I like helped paint a house there. And this woman like literally lost everything. And we helped like restore her house and paint it and stuff. And just the feeling that like you could feel her joy and her happiness, like from us being there, and then that like made you happy. So it was, I mean, that's probably what I would recommend is just, I mean, don't necessarily chase money and fame, but I mean, Serve others.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Business-related, I'd probably have to go with How to Win Friends and Influence People. I'm not sure if you've heard of that book before. It's by Dale Carnegie. It's a pretty good book. It essentially just dives into building relationships and the importance of of understanding people and understanding what they want out of life. Non-business related, I'd probably go with The Alchemist. And that's just kind of— it just details like the importance of travel and listening to your heart.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
It's actually— it's a quote from Winston Churchill. It's, "The definition of success is going from failure to failure without losing." Enthusiasm. That kind of goes back to what I was mentioning earlier, like after I lost my job from the car wash, like just keeping a positive attitude, staying enthusiastic and like understanding that like sometimes failure is just like part of the equation and like that's a necessary part of achieving success. So I'm sure you're familiar with that. I'm sure everybody else is too.
Definitely, man. I literally think failure always is like a part of the equation, man. Of success. So dude, thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find and/or connect with you online?
Yeah, man, Tyler, it was great. Great being here. Probably the best way is just through LinkedIn. It's just Jared Stauffer. Just look me up. Yeah, happy to connect with anybody.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for joining us.
Cool. Thanks, Tyler. Appreciate it, man.
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