Speaker 1: 0:30

My name is Kirsten Greggs. I am the founder and principal talent acquisition consultant at Trap Recruiter LLC. Trap Recruiter is an acronym. It stands for Trusted Relationship Builder, Accountable and Proactive, and it's just my philosophy on how I approach talent acquisition. I like to bridge the gap between job seekers who are from historically excluded communities and marginalized folks and connect them with the employers who are most excited about hiring them.

Speaker 2: 1:04

I love that. What made you want to jump into this career and how did you get started and what led you here?

Speaker 1: 1:09

It's been an interesting and long journey. I started out in recruiting in the year 2000. Okay, and long journey. I started out in recruiting in the year 2000. Yeah, it was a staffing company and I didn't even know what recruiting was. When they reached out to me, I just happened to put my resume on monstercom and it took off from there. I live here in the DC metro area, so obviously defense contracting, intel contracting, is a huge business and about 10 months into my first recruiting job my first introduction to recruiting in general we got asked to come on board as the in-house recruiters for one of our clients and it just took off from there.

Speaker 1: 1:55

I have been fortunate to work at some of the larger defense and intel companies, which also gave me an opportunity to try different things. Within TA, I started to learn more about human resources. I got my master's degree in human resources management, I worked on projects, I started to like systems and I moved into operations. And then, fast forward in 2016, I got laid off for what I said was going to be the last time and I didn't want to deal with that kind of thing and instead of taking a break and saying you know what are you going to do. I had a lot of people in my corner that were reaching out to me and say you know, here's the kind of work you do. You should do that for yourself. You know here, come and help me do this, come and help me do that. And I just built Trap Recruiter around that.

Speaker 2: 2:44

That is amazing. I love how you like leveled up each time until you finally got to like where you wanted to be. How has it been having your own business and being able to run it? Do you have many employees with you? I have no employees.

Speaker 1: 2:58

I am a sole proprietorship. I did not even intend to have my own company. I thought I was going to go back to work honestly in some capacity.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Even calling myself a consultant felt odd and felt weird just because I'm from know, I'm from the 1900s, so when I was coming up, you know parents, you know my parents are boomers and they say things like you know a consultant means you're unemployed and I didn't want that. You know kind of have that stigma around me. But nah, I got over that pretty quickly. I have ups and downs, obviously. I enjoy it. I enjoy it most of the time when it comes to like I don't have to answer to anyone else. Yeah, if I don't want to, or giving myself space and time when I'm not feeling, you know, like engaging with someone, I can just take a break. I have that flexibility. So that's the great part about it. But it does get lonely sometimes, Especially. You know I've been working remotely since 2016, 17, a hundred percent before the pandemic, and then when everyone came back in, you know it came back into the house.

Speaker 1: 4:09

That was a little bit weird for me but it changed my daily routine as well, because I could no longer go out of the house for a while when I wanted to be around other people, when I wanted to have that human connection which is extremely important in my line of business. So that kind of took some getting used to of 100% doing calls via Zoom or via Skype or Microsoft Teams or whatever, google, gchat, whatever. That was a little bit difficult to do, but since then I don't have many complaints about being a business owner.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Yeah, no, it doesn't sound like it. Did you have a mentor or coach that helped guide you Many? Okay, talk to me about that, and do you think other entrepreneurs should pursue a coach or a mentor, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 5:00

Again. This is not something that so well for me. I didn't wake up and say I want to be an entrepreneur and, as much as I push against it, I do think that that is where what I'm supposed to be doing. So I've had folks who have successfully had their own businesses. I have folks who talk to me, who coach me, who mentor me, who guide me, who work full-time jobs and also have their own businesses so I get to see both sides of it and folks that have been doing this for many, many years, many years, even the person who recommended me to your podcast, jermaine Williamson.

Speaker 1: 5:36

He's someone that I've known in talent acquisition spaces for quite some time well over a decade and he has always been that person that can start a business and when he feels like it, he may go back to work, but I feel like he's 100% entrepreneur right now as well, and just watching him and other people that have been very successful has kept me encouraged and has kept me motivated.

Speaker 2: 6:02

I love that. I love that you have a little community of people that you can look up to and also ask for a helping hand when needed right.

Speaker 1: 6:08

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 6:09

And now for your business. How are you helping employees and potential um? How do you say this? Companies who are looking to hire them? Like is there a loss of communication somewhere between the two of them when they're trying to get together and work?

Speaker 1: 6:29

It depends on the capacity, which way I'm helping. So I do career coaching as well, which is from the job seeker perspective. So I help job seekers identify who their next employer is going to be and then, if it's on the actual recruiting side so client facing recruiting side a company will come to me and say I need to fill these roles, and it's normally small to midsize companies who either don't have an internal recruiting department because they either don't do much hiring or they're just a small company, or some that are looking for, say, someone in their C-suite or a special project. They may have a surge in work and they'll call on me to augment that. I also do true talent acquisition consulting in terms of helping organizations pick their applicant tracking system, helping them process, get their processes back in line and in order, doing hiring manager training, doing recruiter training. I do a great deal of work on that side too. That's the kind of stuff I love doing.

Speaker 2: 7:34

Yeah. And when it comes to being on the side of the person who is looking for a job, what are some steps or tips that you could give to our listeners who maybe are wondering what they could be doing better? They can reach out to you for some guidance and help as well.

Speaker 1: 7:48

They absolutely can reach out to me. I just completed a series that was presented by my podcast, trap Chat, and it was called AI Tools for Job Seekers. So, when I can't be as hands-on with everybody because I just don't have the bandwidth to do that, we provided them with some tools that can help them do some of the things that I guide them through. With more of a high touch, they can use the high tech to get them there as well. Of a high touch, they can use the high tech to get them there as well. So helping them with their resume, job matching, job searching, interview skills, even negotiating an offer, things like that.

Speaker 1: 8:24

So I definitely spend a lot of time helping job seekers, first and foremost, get their confidence back, because that seems to be where most people find their first roadblock in their job search, depending on how they got into that position. Many folks I work with are actually mid career and higher, or they're very entry level. So they either don't know where to start or they've been working for an amount of time and now they feel defeated because they may have gotten laid off or because they don't really know how to get unstuck and move into their next role or even make a career shift. So reminding people how to believe in themselves, how to get their confidence back, how to trust themselves, and then again I'm going to lean on the trap, you know. Start to build relationships. Hold yourself accountable. A lot of times we blame everything else, we blame things on everyone else. Yes, you didn't follow up with that company. You didn't go a step beyond searching on whichever job site you want and just sending your resume. You didn't do any research.

Speaker 1: 9:45

You didn't do all the other stuff, and then again being proactive, like really setting that plan but also realizing that job searching is a job in and of itself. So when you are, you know, tired, when you feel burnt out, when you've been looking for a role for however long, or if you just need a break because you applied to 10 jobs yesterday, that's okay, yeah absolutely no.

Speaker 2: 10:17

Thanks for sharing that. The most current work history there. They've been out of work for a while. What kind of advice would you give to people like that? I know it starts with helping their confidence, but is there? Is there like a light at the end of the tunnel for them? Will they get that call? Will they get that interview because of their history?

Speaker 1: 10:36

Yes, there's a lot of. There used to be a lot more stigma for breaks and we wouldn't identify them, but I even saw someone today and I was impressed by it 100% that they actually put their mental health and wellness break on their resume and I felt that was extremely courageous. Wow, just again that transparency. That goes an extremely long way. That goes an extremely long way. And when you're not employed by someone else, the likelihood that you're not doing something that has a transferable skill in your own time is very slim. I haven't seen that happening.

Speaker 1: 11:18

So people will be spending time building their skill set, acquiring more skills, acquiring certifications, reading and learning about this next either profession or this next company or this next role that they want to be in. People volunteer, people have other skills that they don't apply to their job, that they don't even realize. For example, I always use myself when I'm giving people examples because they don't apply to their job that they don't even realize. Like, for example, I always use myself when I'm giving people examples because I don't want them to think I'm just saying things to say them. So I wasn't the best at Canva, or I shouldn't be name dropping all these companies, but so there is like I wasn't that good with making graphics, you know, like I'd actually hired someone else to do it.

Speaker 1: 12:09

And then I start the more. I started doing it for myself and I had what I call an in-between job where I was helping a friend's church just do their programs every week. And then it became okay, we need the I need you to make the announcements, meaning what they're going to see visually on the screen, and I built my muscle and understood the more that I designed these things and that gave me encouragement to do a series that I called Monday Motivation. So I went from just grabbing a picture and putting it in the meme generator to actually creating things for myself.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Now, no, I'm not a graphic designer, but because there's, you know, there's enough templates and there's enough help Resources out there, yeah, with other things, but you know, there's things that you can learn. I also know someone who was a recruiter for many years and again lost their position and then they were just volunteering at a, at a workforce development center within a local community college and ended up with a job, you know. So there's a lot of things that folks are doing the work you're doing, you know, at your community org or helping your children's sports teams. You know you might be creating those graphics, you might be the one that's making those calls. You know some of that's project management, even organizing a family reunion, reunion, all of those things.

Speaker 1: 13:29

Oh yes, oh, my goodness that takes extreme amount of skills and budgeting. All of those things are transferable skills to your next job. I love that.

Speaker 2: 13:38

And I love that outlook because you think you're doing all these things and you're like, no, that's not even worthy of putting up, but it is these things are skills and volunteering helps.

Speaker 2: 13:47

Like, if you really are out of it and you really want a job bad enough, then you should definitely find a place, even if it's not a job like volunteer to get your name out there, put your foot forward and go in there and be kind of like a go-getter. You know you can't sit and wait for someone to be like, hey, do you want a job? You kind of have to like go out there and do the work, as you said. What have been some of the challenges for you with the job market? I know people are just like, oh, right now it's hard to find jobs. Nobody's getting hired. How does that affect you and what changes have you seen?

Speaker 1: 14:18

It's a little bit more unpredictable than it was in past slowdowns. So when we're used to a cycle, so what we like. Right now, september, and we call this the September surge, but instead of seeing more people opening up roles, I'm seeing more layoffs, depending on the industry. So a lot of tech jobs are still laying folks off because what they say they overhired during the pandemic. So there's things like that that I'm like okay, wow, there's a lot of pushback from hiring teams of using things like chat, gpt, using automatic application, you know tools, so that the job seeker can kind of sit back and do those things. But you know, I caution to not reject those people because the thing is we meaning in-house recruiters, third-party recruiters. We use AI tools as well to help us be more efficient and to help us have a broader reach.

Speaker 1: 15:27

And then I am seeing a trend of what I'll call fake jobs, for lack of a better term. So there's a lot of predatory things going on. I've actually been taking the time to screenshot. When I even get the text messages, they seem to be like the same kind of boilerplate template of saying hi, you know, send me your information, here's a job, are you interested? And it's like it's either nothing I'm interested in or whatever. But you know, these fake jobs are things that you know. They might ask you for money to buy your own equipment. Or they'll say give me your social security number and all of these things, here's a job, or you know. Or they'll say give me your social security number and all of these things, here's a job. Or there's no pay or the company name doesn't match the email address.

Speaker 2: 16:13

So there's a lot of weird stuff going on. Right now.

Speaker 1: 16:14

People are looking for jobs and now we've got to deal with scamming, but I'm not saying this in a bad way or disparity way, but desperation makes you do certain things. It's true, yes, and if someone, if you get this random text message saying hi and you know it's your name, they have your telephone number and they're texting you with this thing and say this job pays this much an hour, here's the things you need to do. Like you're like oh wow, Amazing, Sweet, I've been waiting for this opportunity.

Speaker 2: 16:44

Oh, that's so messed up. I'm glad that you mentioned this on the podcast, because maybe somebody's listening and they weren't aware. Like I, was not Give some visibility to that because you don't want to get scammed out there.

Speaker 1: 16:54

You don't, you don't. I also have another friend who has a show called the Voice of Job Seekers and he has a whole newsletter dedicated right now to fake jobs.

Speaker 2: 17:03

That's how bad it is, oh my gosh, okay, well, there's a way, apparently. When you're not doing all of this stuff, what do you like to do to unwind, because mental health is important? I like to touch on that with entrepreneurs because I know it can seem like they're always on the go, but I'd like to know what they do in order to relax themselves so they can be at their best at their jobs.

Speaker 1: 17:24

Talk to me about that I like to do things that people think are nerdy, like jigsaw puzzles. That's cute.

Speaker 2: 17:31

It's good for the brain.

Speaker 1: 17:33

I love puzzles, I love puzzle games, I do like to read, also color, and then I just, you know, hang out with my friends, I guess.

Speaker 2: 17:46

No, I love that. No, that's good. It's always so good to take time for yourself and re-energize, reset, so again you can be at your best with your clients. Do you set any boundaries for yourself? Absolutely Good. Talk to me about that and why it's important.

Speaker 1: 17:59

It is important and I have to slap myself sometimes because I overstep my own boundaries. I have made it I start in the summer times like I will not work on a Friday or I will not work past 12 o'clock on a Friday. But I have again overstepped that boundary where I'll respond to the call or I'll make things, but I try to leave my weekend for myself. I try to as best I can. That's important. And then I have more recently been scheduling time dedicated to Kirsten taking care of the administrative things that she needs to do. So I block that time on my calendar so that no one can come and schedule something. Just go on my Calendly and schedule a meeting with me during that time. I make sure that I dedicate that time frame every single day to me getting stuff done and then handling meetings and all of those things at the other times.

Speaker 2: 18:57

Good, I love that. Love that for you. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? I know you say you're like my calendar, making sure that. Have you considered any help with somebody like scheduling stuff, expanding that? Talk to me about that.

Speaker 1: 19:12

I do need help. I would love to expand Trap Chat. I love doing it so much. I love podcasts. I love being on podcasts. That's why I'm here.

Speaker 1: 19:21

Thank you so much we appreciate it. I love interviewing people. I love learning more about people, talking to them, asking them questions. I'm smiling right now because I'm getting so energized just thinking about all the things I get to. That's so amazing to hear people talk about their success stories, and I try to amplify the voices of folks who aren't necessarily well-known or they're not the most sought after, but they have a great story and they and I love that we can define success for ourselves. And you know, hey, you found that last puzzle piece Like that's amazing, that's awesome, you know, and finding a way to do that. So the next five years, I would love for Trap Chat to be like a real thing, like maybe, you know, a global televised show. Who knows, I just maybe I'll manifest that. Yeah, I really don't think that far ahead.

Speaker 2: 20:15

No, I know I'm like that too, but I always just like to ask you know, maybe you've got like a little, because in five years I'll be in my 50s and I can't imagine. Well, you look great. You don't even look like you're close to being anywhere near your 50s. So, whatever you're doing, keep it going.

Speaker 1: 20:29

Okay, well, I will continue to drink water, I will continue to mind my business. There you go, and in five years I will still look five years younger than I am.

Speaker 2: 20:39

Heck yeah, I love that for you. You're looking good, all right. So what have been some of the challenges for you not your clients, but for you You're looking good, all right. So what have been some of the challenges for you not your clients, but for you when you're running a business and when you're doing it all on your own?

Speaker 1: 20:54

I'd like to know, and if you could share some of those tidbits with us, when I don't know how to do something I kind of just sit there until I figure it out, or I figure out who can, who I can reach out to to help me do that, because you don't know what you don't know. That's been my business. My biggest challenge is not knowing what I don't know. And wow, that's why I need help. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 21:21

See. So if anybody's out there and looking to help, please, please, please, reach out. We would love that. Sorry, I'm like drawing a blank right here. Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you about your events, because you have public speaking events. Talk to me about those and like, who can contract you to come talk?

Speaker 1: 21:41

Anyone can come, can contact me to talk. The topics I talk about, obviously for job seekers will be career related, so I do have, you know, series of content that I tailor to the audience. So I have folks that called Fear Factors. That's about getting over your fear. So getting over that first step so that you can attack the job search with again some confidence and some boldness and an assurance that the end goal is going to be met, which is securing your next position there's another one called Major Keys.

Speaker 2: 22:28

So obviously I try to keep them aligned.

Speaker 1: 22:30

To like songs no, I love that. Sing me one so it's like your relationship, so that's like Major Keys to relationship building. I was fortunate to like I gave that talk at the FBI.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Oh my gosh, it's intimidating, yeah, but you know one of the things that I got over very easily. I do want to share this with your audience because, like I said, I like to be authentic. A lot of people didn't want this company to be called Trap Recruiter, Because they saw the word trap and they thought trap music, Trap music, yes, and they thought rap. And they're like, oh, you're going to cut yourself off from a significant portion of potential customers. But what I've found is that even people who don't know me like my reputation speaks for itself, just even having been working in corporate world for I don't know how many years, a long time. And you know there's people that reach out to me because they just want to know what is trap recruiting. They're excited about that. They want to know what that is.

Speaker 1: 23:33

There are people who are, you know, like I said, they know who I am and they got over it. So I had to get over that and again be and present my authentic self and not worry about it. At the end of the day, the people that I am for, I'm for them. You know, those people that have a problem with it, I'm not there, I'm not for them anyway. So, getting over that, like you're not for everybody. Yeah, no, thank you for touching on that.

Speaker 2: 23:56

Why do you think authenticity is so important to you? Because that's like a little thread that I've seen throughout this conversation that authenticity is important to you.

Speaker 1: 24:05

It's extremely important to me because I don't like you, can't be something that you're not. That shows that comes through Me. Take, you know, putting my guard down, letting go of the misgivings that I have, have been the best thing I could have ever done. There's been times I've spoken somewhere and I scrapped the whole thing because someone asked me a question and that's what they really wanted. Like I came in with and, and you know, maybe the, the organizer or the person that you know invited me, said thought this is what the people want to hear, but actually they wanted something very different. So you know, there've been times that I've just 100% just had a conversation, just let folks ask me questions and given them the tidbits and the insights that they actually want and that they ask for, the things that are most important to them.

Speaker 2: 24:56

Yeah, no, I love that. I think you should write a book. I feel like you'd be good at that. You're like girl, I'm already busy. Please don't add onto my pile. You're like girl, I'm already busy. Please don't add on to my pile.

Speaker 1: 25:04

I would love to, but I wouldn't know even what to do, which is again me being a hypocrite, because that's one of the questions I ask on my podcast.

Speaker 2: 25:15

Really.

Speaker 1: 25:16

Is you know, if you were to write a book about your career so far, what would the title be? And then I always challenge people. I'm like, okay, so we can look for that on this date. And I check up on them and you know I've gotten like they have some great titles. So I'm like, yeah. So when someone asked me that back, I'm like good luck. So I feel like Confessions of a Trap Recruiter is coming. I love that. Oh, my gosh. Okay, it used to be my blog, but I don't write on my blog anymore. Why'd you stop? I write for other people and it just got to be too much. And again, I'm not the best at managing my website and going on WordPress and all that, see, and I like your honesty.

Speaker 2: 25:54

You're not lying or pretending to be something, so sticking to the brand. I want to talk about marketing. Are you an avid social media user? Are you out there doing some dances, but keeping it educational?

Speaker 1: 26:06

No, you know I have a TikTok because I wanted to reserve my name, but I don't go on TikTok and all the TikTok videos I see are on a different platform.

Speaker 2: 26:21

Oh, like Instagram showing the repost or something like that.

Speaker 1: 26:23

I see all the TikToks, I just don't know them. I don't post as much because I feel like I got social media burnout and again, I've been doing this for seven years consistently and I used to have even before I started my business. I used to have a weekly meme series called Recruiter Problems and I would just post. You know something that was funny going on with us and I realized I have so much content that I need to start recycling and reusing some of that, or schedule it out automatically, so that way you don't have to think about it.

Speaker 1: 26:59

If I knew how to do that, I would. It's okay. No, actually, campbell, lets you do that now. Yeah, I'm going to look into it how to do that. But yeah, I try to post, I try to keep up with my posts, but not as much and not as much as I should. I love when I do something like this, because someone else does the marketing and then I can share it.

Speaker 2: 27:20

Smart girl, very, very smart girl. All right, is there anything that maybe I have missed or not touched on, that you would like to share with our listeners? It could be in regards about yourself, something about your business, that maybe we did not touch on anything.

Speaker 1: 27:33

No, I think we covered a lot of good stuff you sure?

Speaker 2: 27:37

Yeah, I want to make sure I have your time here. I want to make sure I get all the highlights and all the good stuff.

Speaker 1: 27:41

I can't think of anything else. I'm, I'm hard. This is gonna sound horrible, but again, like I'm, I'm a recruiter by trade. People think that's a salesperson, but I'm not one of those people that like goes out and sells myself and I'm not saying that in a you know that way but like I'm, not out there like hi, talk to me, people come to me.

Speaker 1: 28:00

I'm fortunate that people come to me and ask me and people refer me. So shout out to all the people that keep me in front of people's faces, because I am not a self-advocate that way, stop it.

Speaker 2: 28:15

No, but you're great, I love it. You've got like a cool outfit going on here. We've got the leopard print, you've got your glasses and then your name is like different. Like I like how you keep things fun. You could have just came in here with just like a regular colored suit or anything, but just you can sell like the authenticity. You kind of got like this little swag about you. I can't explain it, but like I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 28:36

And that shows through, and the fact that you like authenticity. I can agree with that too, because sometimes I guess, like, maybe my style is not the same as some interviewers or I don't know. I like to keep things more not real real, but more like where it's comfortable and I feel like myself and I'm not just like hi, so welcome to like I can't do that I like it when it's very conversational right exactly all right.

Speaker 2: 29:03

Well, since we've touched a lot of things, I'm going to ask you my one last question. It's going to be if you could share a mantra or a saying that is meaningful to you or has inspired you in any way with our listeners, so they can take that as well and maybe find some inspiration through that. Wow, take your time, just putting you on the spot.

Speaker 1: 29:30

There's so many things people say to me and there's so many people that have inspired me, so I don't know where this came from, but it is something that I've been saying to myself a lot, and that's just to do it. Scared, do it scared.

Speaker 2: 29:46

Yeah, oh my goodness.

Speaker 1: 29:49

Tell me a little bit, Do it scared. So, like you have fear, you have the anxiety, you have that you know trepidation about what will happen and a lot of times we procrastinate and we put off taking that step and doing that thing. So do it scared.

Speaker 2: 30:10

Do it scared. Okay, use that as like the light to light the fire under your booty. Yes, all right. Well, thank you so much for being here today. We really appreciate it. I appreciate your time, and where can people find your podcast? Is this on YouTube, spotify?

Speaker 1: 30:28

can people um find your podcast? Is this on youtube, spotify, on youtube, linkedin, instagram? Most of the time it the live works. Uh, it's also on my facebook page. Uh, it's the same name.

Speaker 2: 30:36

This is at trap recruiter you can find me everywhere at traffic. Okay, that's why you were saying, like I saved the name on text you, you like, made sure you got all of them all right. Well, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Thank you absolutely.