Ryan Hart is the Director of Product for the background check and drug screening company, Verified First. Verified First is improving the HR Tech industry by making technology integrations better within the recruiting and onboarding process and improving the candidate experience. Ryan met the founder of Verified First (Devon Dickinson) while pursuing his MBA in Entrepreneurship and knew he had to work with him. That was almost four years ago and the company is exploding in growth since then.

Agenda:

• Ben/Ryan find common ground with coffee and treasure hunts - Ryan still uses cream and sugar in his coffee, but we still accept him.
• Ryan talks about why working for a background check company can be sexy.
• Ryan talks about generations in the workplace and the marketing fluff around it.
• Ryan talks about a trend that will get bigger in the coming years for recruiters, candidates and hiring managers - “Ban the Box”
• Ryan shares the technology he could not live without. Something many of us share - Amazon.
• Ryan gifts a bag of coffee to his Dad, Sumato Coffee of course
• Out

Links:

Verified First website - https://www.verifiedfirst.com/

Ryan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanhart/

Verified First on Twitter- https://twitter.com/VerifiedFirst

Sponsor: www.sumatocoffee.com

Secret Tech Sauce Talent via  www.benmartinez.co

Erik Kostelnik is the Co-Founder and CEO of TextRecruit, a candidate and employee engagement platform that leverages text, chat and artificial intelligence to help companies hire better people, faster. Prior to TextRecruit, Erik served as the Head of Sales at Wrike from 2014 to 2016 helping it reach #116 in 2015 Deloitte Fastest 500 and ran sales as VP at Identified through its acquisition by Workday in 2014. He acts as an advisor to startups including Eatify.com, Outreach.io and HIRABL, was named an Upstart 50 Inventor by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and lives in San Jose with his wife and three kids.

Agenda:

• Ben/Erik find common ground with basketball - Erik played power forward in college.
• Erik talks about his Finance background in college on the east coast and how he made it to Silicon Valley
• Erik gets tired of making a lot of money for other people as a sales pro. Starts TextRecruit
• Erik opens up about how recruiters use texting for recruiting. Coming soon - You will soon be able to apply to Chipotle over text message. Can I get guacamole with that?
• Erik talks about how his company got acquired by iCims
• Erik gifts a bag of coffee to his friend at Cracker Barrel, Sumato Coffee of course
• Out

Links:

TextRecruit website - https://www.textrecruit.com/

Erik on LinkedIn - Erik Kostelnik

Erik on Twitter - https://twitter.com/ErikKostelnik

Sponsor: www.sumatocoffee.com

Coming soon: New Secret Tech Sauce website, here - www.benmartinez.co

Matt Schwartz started his executive search firm back in 2003. After looking for his next gig working in a search firm he quickly realized that he could go out on his own. Fifteen years later and growing his firm “one logo at a time” his company is known for bringing “Transformative Talent” into companies. His recruiting firm recruits some big players in the executive space who make anywhere from $500K to $2M in total compensation. He gets the work that must go in when recruiting and helping companies transform their talent. He has worked with some of the biggest brands - Pepsi, Fila, American Express and Groupon.

Agenda:

• Ben/Matt find common ground with coffee, Sumato Coffee of course
• Matt talks about how he came to start his own business 15 years ago
• Matt’s background - from formative years to now
• Importance of employment branding and recruiting
• Key Trends coming in 2018 - AI, employee engagement, etc.
• Matt’s friend who gets a bag of Sumato Coffee.
• Out

Links:

Matt’s website - https://www.mjsearch.com/

Matt on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattschwartz1/

Sponsor: www.sumatocoffee.com and Secret Tech Sauce Talent

Lane Sutton started a blog when he was 11 years old and a decade later he is doing more in the employment branding and recruiting space than your entire recruiting and employment branding team on steroids. Lane gets it. He has worked with some of the biggest brands - Hubspot, TripAdvisor, Sprinklr and Walt Disney. Now that he is old enough to drink a beer (I think) we talked on my podcast:

Agenda:

• Ben/Lane find common ground with coffee, Sumato Coffee of course
• Lane defines Generation Z vs. Millennials vs. Gen X vs. Boomers
• Lane’s background - from age 11 to age 21
• How to create an employment brand
• Top technology for recruitment marketing
• What’s coming in 2018 for employment branding
• Out

Links:

Lane’s website - http://www.lanesutton.com/

Lane on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lanesutton/

Lane on Twitter - https://twitter.com/LaneSutton

Lane on Insta - https://www.instagram.com/lanesutton/

Sponsor: www.sumatocoffee.com

Jörgen Sundberg gets employment branding. He runs Link Humans, London’s employment branding agency. In this episode you will learn more about employment branding than any conference can teach you because we touch on metrics, real life examples and then cover areas in Jörgen’s book, Employee Advocacy: The Ultimate Handbook. Jörgen also comes alive on his views about generations in the workplace, books to read, coffee to drink and advice to his younger self.

Agenda:

• Ben/Jörgen find common ground with coffee, Sumato Coffee of course.
• Jörgen talks about his morning freshly brewed coffee, running a marathon and Dad life
• Employer Branding defined at a dinner party
• Using metrics - What is the Social Employer Branding Index?
• Employee Advocacy: The Ultimate Handbook - The views behind the book he co-wrote with Microsoft Executive, Ben Donkor
• Jörgen on generations, music and books
• Jörgen gives a bag of Sumato Coffee to Lane Sutton at Walt Disney. Good coffee karma.
• Over and Out.

Links:

Jörgen’s book - https://linkhumans.com/employee-advocacy-book

Jörgen’s book on Amazon- http://amzn.to/2Axos3b

Jörgen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgensundberg/

Jörgen on Twitter - https://twitter.com/JorgenSundberg

Jörgen’s company on Insta - https://www.instagram.com/linkhumans/

Sponsor: www.sumatocoffee.com

Ben Martinez shares an update on Sumato Coffee Co., his plans with his consulting work at Secret Tech Sauce Talent, how guitar changed his views on entrepreneurism and upcoming plans with podcast guests specializing in employment branding.

This episode is part check-in/part advice. Enjoy the show.

Links:

Website - www.sumatocoffee.com

Instagram - Sumato Coffee Co. on Insta

Facebook - Sumato Coffee Co. on Facebook

Twitter - Sumato Coffee Co. on Twitter

Zach Daggett packed his bags from Arkansas and went to Jalapa, Guatemala to start a specialty coffee shop, La Fabrica. Four years later they have a flourishing business doing small batch coffee roasting, barista training and offering wholesale coffee.

Prior to starting La Fabrica, Zach received his formal barista training through Anacafe (National Association of Coffee Producers in Guatemala), coffee contributor for perfectdailygrind.com and still does import/export work with various different coffee brokers. Enjoy this episode as we cover the following...

Agenda:

• Ben/Zach find common ground with ties to Arkansas.
• Zach talks about his morning freshly brewed cup of Pacamara coffee and why it is special - hmm.
• Zach talks how he first started drinking coffee in college.
• Zach tells you how a coffee cherry fruit tastes.
• Zach talks the importance of freshly roasted coffee.
• Zach gives advice for starting a coffee company.
• Over and Out.

Links:

Website - http://www.lafabrica.coffee/buy/

Zach on Insta - https://www.instagram.com/zdaggett/

Facebook - La Fabrica on Facebook

Sponsor: www.sumatocoffee.com

Ben Martinez shares what he is been up to and why you should care if you care about coffee. Ben has been focusing all his time and energy into reimagining coffee in the workplace. In 1952, the phrase "coffee break" came about from a massive ad campaign targeted for workers to take a moment & get their "caffeine jolt" BUT nobody focused on the quality of the coffee in the workplace. In the coming weeks, Ben and his team of coffee slingers are launching Sumato Coffee Co. - Their purpose is to reimagine coffee in the workplace.

Ben shares insight on what fresh coffee is, the benefits and the industry of “third wave coffee”. Enjoy the show.

Links:

Website - www.sumatocoffee.com

Instagram - Sumato Coffee Co. on Insta

Facebook - Sumato Coffee Co. on Facebook

Twitter - Sumato Coffee Co. on Twitter

I had the opportunity to meet live at Publik Coffee Roasters with comedian, Steve Soelberg . Steve is a comedian centered on making his audience laugh. He prepares his material without the worry of being politically correct and believes that comedy is the last form of “free speech”.

Being alone on stage with the goal of making hundreds of people laugh and connect with you requires personal power and Steve gets this power with a deep-rooted believe in himself. If you do not believe in yourself, then nobody will. Steve has performed all over America and knows that he needs to believe he is the best before he can think anyone else will think he is the best comedian.  

In this episode you will learn:

• The type of hot beverage Steve and I are sipping – Coffee from the small country of Burundi for Ben & tea for Steve
• Steve’s background and how he got into comedy
• The power of believing in yourself
• Comedy – The last true form of free speech
• Comedy is not for the thin skinned or politically correct
• Indie – Comedy. What is it and how does it relate to other comedy
• Being “funny” or being “famous” in comedy. There is a difference
• Getting fired from a job – turning lemons into lemonade
• Top comedians Steve picks as mentors
• The importance of making more mistakes
• Coffee’s for closers – Episode over

Without further ado, please listen to this episode.

Links:

Steve’s website

Steve on YouTube  

Steve on Instagram

This podcast is brought to you by Anthology. - Anthology is careers reimagined. Get better job candidates using confidential data. They will do an anonymous job search to find passive candidates or connect passive candidates with employers.

With all the attention of start-ups going in the big cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles or New York City - Colleen Jenkins has found her niche in St. Louis with PluggedIn.

She has created a customized technology platform as a service as a software. During her days leading Talent Acquisition for the VC firm, Cultivation Capital, she realized that early stage start ups do not have the time or help finding top talent. Thus, she took her entrepreneur skills to work and started PluggedIn.

Entrepreneurship is nothing new to Colleen. In May 2014, she founded and launched CoderGirl, an all-women’s coding meet-up and training program and even started a music company way back in the day called, Coma Gun Music. The point is she has hustle and can ball with the best of them.

In this episode you will learn:

• Insight into coffee styles and how techies are using coffee
• Colleen’s background - St. Louis style from high school to graduate school
• Technology for the productivity minded- Slack to Google docs to SLC, Utah based - Lucid Software
• Product CEO vs. Sales CEO
• The importance of mentors and who Colleen goes to for advice
• Reading and music - important for anyone who wants to live wisely
• Colleen’s days in her 20s living in a treehouse with her roommate and a monkey
• Coffee's for closers - episode over. Check PluggedIn - For your start-up.

Without further ado, please listen to this episode.

This podcast is brought to you by Anthology. - Anthology is careers reimagined. Get better job candidates using confidential data. They will do an anonymous job search to find passive candidates or connect passive candidates with employers.

We are a few weeks into the New Year and I submit to say you have already failed at your resolution. 41% of Americans make resolutions. Only 9% succeed in making the resolutions and 42% never succeed at their resolutions. These statistics do not mean we should avoid thinking about how to be better.

Resolutions fade away over the year because of our attitudes. Every day we have a choice of what our attitude will be, not just the start of a new year. No matter how little sleep you get the night before, your attitude will carry you through the day and attract the people and work you do.

In this episode you will learn:

• An approach that is better than New Year's Resolutions.
• Reflection upon my past resolutions since 2013 and how they have helped my life.
• Insights into my new podcast logo
• Peak under the covers about my coffee roast profile
• And much, much more…

Without further ado, please listen to this episode.

This podcast is brought to you by Anthology. - Anthology is careers re-imagined. Get better job candidates using confidential data. They will do an anonymous job search to find passive candidates or connect passive candidates with employers.