One of the core competencies of successful recruiters is influence.
When Cathy Stewart became a recruiter 15 years ago, recruiting seemed like a perfect fit based on her ability to build trust and influence others. In this episode, Cathy reveals her exact approach to influencing people which has enabled her to become a top biller.
Recruiting is actually Cathy’s third career. Prior to becoming a recruiter, she started out as a music teacher before going on to achieve great success in direct home selling, building a multi-million dollar organization.
Cathy Stewart is the Vice President of the Senior Living Division with Jeff Harris and Associates. Since she began her recruiting career in 2008, Cathy has been a consistent top biller and she became a Pinnacle Society Member in 2018.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [2:43] How Cathy went from music teacher to top-producing recruiter.
- [6:31] Exploring the Senior Living niche.
- [08:37] Cathy’s greatest accomplishment as a recruiter
- [11:38] The ‘doctor’ mindset in recruiting.
- [14:10] How to maintain a positive mindset.
- [24:06] How to master the art of becoming an influencer and trust builder.
- [38:17] Cathy’s comparison of contingent vs retained.
- [47:46] Client development and not putting all your eggs in one basket.
- [57:10] Work-life balance and creating your dream life.
The Keys to Success in Recruitment
Cathy is an achiever. Since she began her recruiting career in 2008 she has been the lead recruiter and top biller in the office her entire recruiting career and she became a Pinnacle Society Member in 2018. But what would she consider her proudest accomplishment as a recruiter?
“I don’t see myself as a super special awesome person. I just think that I am really good at the basics,” is how Cathy describes it. Here are the key things that she believes have contributed to her success:
- Mindset
- Influencing Skills
- Building Trust
- Work-life Balance and Creating Your Own Dream Life
Creating and Maintaining a Positive Mindset
A positive mindset is not something you will get from someone else. You must create and maintain it within yourself. Cathy shares this from a recruiter’s perspective: it is about being passionate about your selected niche. It is about having a solid foundation of ‘Why’. Her love for seniors really motivates her to consistently do her best in her chosen niche which is senior living. She also added, “Being able to stay positive is really about gratitude. You can’t feel anxiety and negativity if you feel gratitude.”
Honing Your Influencing Skills and Building Trust
Cathy believes that influence is her “superpower.” How does she do it? As a DISC profiler, Cathy applies her knowledge and understanding of personalities when communicating with her stakeholders. An important key is having conscious self-awareness about both your own personality profile and the other party’s. This plays a huge role when influencing and building trust.
Her sales background trained her to hone this approach when dealing with hiring managers, and interviewing candidates. She explains in detail how she incorporates these influencing skills in the recruitment process.
