HHH - Steve Hardy
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[00:00:00]
Nicole: All right, everybody, listen up. Grab a drink, grab a seat. We are continuing with our executive series, and I am ecstatic, over the moon, I say over the moon a lot, but I really, really, really mean it, um, to have an amazing human with us here today. He's the kind of guest who just [00:01:00] makes you think bigger about what a business can truly do.
He's a five-time CMO who has scaled SaaS companies from 50 million to two billion. That's right, two billion plus ARR across HR tech, cybersecurity, AI, and enterprise software. He's a Forrester Marketing Executive of the Year, recognized for generating game-changing returns on marketing investment. He's a global team builder and demand generation powerhouse, Chief Marketing Officer at SmartRecruiters.
Please welcome Steve Hardy.
Steve: Oh, Nicole, thank you so much. A, I'm super excited to be on the pod with you. Uh, but that was a really sweet intro. You really, you really buttered me up. Thank you.
Nicole: Oh, I've been watching my, uh, baseball, you know, talk, and so therefore I went with the Hardy, the long intro. Get everybody roused. We should have just had your walk-on song next, right?
Steve: exactly. I, I am not a baseball fan. Um, I'm not an American [00:02:00] sports fan. Uh, but I, I... That, that is definitely kind of, uh, I can hear it in my, uh, in my ear now. I'm gonna use that intro every time I come on a call.
Nicole: Okay, and we will at another time choose your walkout song, and it can just be walkout to anything, right? Doesn't have to be an American sport
Steve: Superb. I love it.
Nicole: Thanks for being on the show. Thanks for being here with us, and thank you for all you do, first and foremost. I just want to say a personal thank you. You have helped and been such an advocate of the Center of Excellence, uh, my team at SmartRecruiters, and also helped with this transition as we become one big family with SAP.
So thank you, first and foremost.
Steve: Oh, you're, you're so welcome. And honestly, you make it easy. You're, you're, you're a powerhouse yourself, and there's nothing better, there's nothing I like doing more than enabling, empowering, making great teams. So when you've got great people, that's just a heck of a lot easier to do.
Nicole: Love it, and sounds like we should just jump into more that you love to [00:03:00] do. Uh, so I'm going to do that. Uh, you know what this is about. You know what hiring happy hour means. So please share with our lovely friends out there that are, that are listening and watching what your hiring happy hour is.
Steve: Well, I think I was there, wasn't I, when you and I started talking about what is-- what could be the theme for this, uh, uh, for the podcast. So I think the happy hour is absolute genius. Uh, and it's not always about drinking. It's not always about, um, you know, yeah, being in a bar or whatever. Uh, it's just about, you know, what makes you, what makes you truly happy. Uh, however, my hiring happy hour is actually about drinking.
one of the, um, w- I, I talked about, you know, I, I love building teams. Uh, uh, in my five-time CMO environment, I've been in some really tough environments, particularly private equity-backed environments where, you know, you're being beaten up every single day for how much pipeline have you created?
How is that [00:04:00] pipeline converting? You know, is that campaign executing? Are you enabling sales teams correctly? Are the customer success teams having the right kind of conversations with their existing customers? this one particular situation that we were in, it, it was tough. It wa- it was really tough.
We, you know, we had to let go of a lot of people, which is never really int- great to do. Uh, my, uh, employee satisfaction scores were literally in the toilet. And I just needed a way to bring people back. And, um, it sounds crazy, but I introduced a sip club. and, and it was exactly as it sounds. Every Friday at
Nicole: Oh.
Steve: Got my team on a Zoom call with... I, I've got a, I've got a can here. It's not a, it's not a, a, a... It's not booze. Um, but with a drink, and we'd have a, a quick sip at the end of the week, and we'd shoot, you know, the shit. We'd, you know, talk [00:05:00] about what we're doing over the weekend. We'd chat about our successes and our challenges for the week. And honestly, it was just such a great way to align the team, to bring us all together. Um, and yeah, I, I, I... The, the, the marketing leadership sip club was, a great way to, to get the team kind of reset for the, for the week. Um, so much so that after I left particular company, I got invited back to the sip club
Nicole: Oh.
Steve: Uh, every now and again.
Nicole: The legacy continues. I love it.
Steve: So, um, you know, I think for me, that's just a... I mean, it's, it's not really about drinking at the end of the week, but it's just about how do you create connections and community and a real sense of belonging with a team when they're mired in the day-to-day, not in the same office. Um, and you know, I just think that building that kind of connection is super important
Nicole: [00:06:00] I love this because first of all, sipping happy hour drinks, no drinks, anything that is collectively, you know, informal in regards to just bringing people together and talking about anything under the sun makes my heart happy. But, um, the fact that you invested in this, right? We hear a lot of people out there talk about, "Oh, I wanna do a remote, you know, one day a month session where we just have fun and we just shoot the shit or sip," and it, it doesn't end up happening, right?
It's the first thing that we lose, and I think this is so powerful because not only did you make it happen, but the legacy lived on. The legacy lived on.
Steve: You can't force fun, but, you know, if you-- if there's a, if there's a need and there's a... And people are really keen to, to, to come together and to, you know, let off some steam, it's a, it's a great way to do it. So, and I think now, particularly in environments where, you know, the vast majority of work is done
Nicole: Yeah
Steve: and is done virtually, you have to be able to recreate some of [00:07:00] those experiences for people in a really natural and informal way.
So yeah, big believer.
Nicole: Yep. And I think we see it here at SmartRecruiters, or at least I do, whether it's having an opportunity to get your team together in person or having a baby shower for one of your teammates. Even after those special moments, you see this level of comfort amongst teammates and increase in collaboration, execution.
So the psychology and the stats are there too. Tell me out of these SIP clubs, um, some, some impactful moments, whether it was, and I know you love data, but I don't want you to pull up any reports or sheets right now. Uh, but tell me some impactful moments this that really stick with you as you think about creating this institution.
Steve: Yeah, I, I love data. Uh, I, I tease my team. Marketing is not an art, it's not a science, it's just math Okay. It's just math. Marketing is all math. Um, you know, lots of, lots and lots of impactful [00:08:00] moments. You know, we came up
Nicole: Wow. Love you know, one of the challenges that we had was around how do we align, uh, all of our messaging.
Steve: And it.
was really difficult,
uh, to do that remotely in virtual team meetings, et cetera.
But, you know, the idea for creating what we ultimately ended up calling the MMM, the Multi Matrix Messaging framework or something like that, came in, in a sip club, right?
When the pressure was off, we didn't need... You know, we weren't sat there looking at a blank sheet of paper. We weren't at a whiteboard trying to ideate. it. was just actually, you know, we just need to connect the dots here between product and corporate and the market and customer needs and create a framework. So that's how-- That was one idea that I know came from, uh, from the sip club. Um, and there were lots of problem-solving
that we, that we did, but it wasn't forced and it wasn't against a particular framework
Nicole: Yeah.
Steve: Model.
It was just, you know, [00:09:00] done casually, informally at the end of the week when you were kind of letting off a little bit of steam. So I actually don't have the math to prove that sip club works, but I guarantee that it does.
Nicole: I mean, I think a raise of hands or even that it continues, like time is, is your math in this situation, right? Again, back to legacy. I love this because it just makes hopefully all of you reflect on a similar moment in time, and I think the two times where I really feel this creativeness and this collaboration is either exercise or drinking at a bar.
Um, fun fact, I don't know if you know this, but our Barbie-themed, uh uh, conference, I think it was HR Tech, came from a late night conversation with a number of individuals on the back of a napkin because Mattel is our customer. Um, so I mean, it's just, it resonates so true, and I hope those of you listening out there get this, right?
I mean, we've kind of forgotten in [00:10:00] this remote first world that in-person or time for informal fun is so, so key.
Steve: Yep, absolutely. Um, you know, I was reading about, kids the other day, right? And the amount of questions and the inquisitive nature of kids. that, level of creativity spurs so many ideas and new concepts and, we don't call it innovation when it happens in a playground,
What it is, right?
They're just completely, you know, being creative,
that's because you give them the space to, be individuals and to, innovate. and I think that we need to create more of those kind of opportunities in the workplace to get the, best out of people.
Nicole: Love this. Love this. Um, I want to talk a little bit about how we bring this into our new world, right? We are now integrated into SAP, and
[00:11:00] Mm-hmm.
are a culture carrier, as you like to say, as we like to say, and I think SAP is excited about the culture we're bringing. How do we utilize this informal feeling of collaboration?
Like for our larger companies that may be going through an acquisition or for our larger companies that just feel, you know, disparate, h- what is your advice to them?
Steve: I would definitely say that, you know, you kind of embrace the cultural differences, right? I mean, that, that i- that in many ways is potentially your superpower. Uh, I, I've always-- When I've been building teams, I've always found, and there's a lot of research that supports this, that having a diversity of interest, having different backgrounds, different cultural experiences is really powerful in driving better, outcomes. So for us in this moment, as we are really tightly integrating with, SAP, on product, on go-to-market, on our partnership and our ecosystems, [00:12:00] we're really embracing the differences. our teams are, learning to ask more questions to really understand how things are done, how things have been successful, how things are working. five whys, I mean, that's an oft-used framework, but five whys is a great way to really get to the bottom of a problem and to really understand a situation. so, for us, you know, that's kind of what we're doing. I'm, here this week, you know, we're walking through a particular product challenge and a roadmap, and we've brought together all kinds of different perspectives and point of views to help inform what our go-forward strategy would be. so yeah, that would be my, real piece of advice there is embrace diversity, embrace the different points of view and, and turn that into, better outcomes.
Nicole: I think that's great, and it all starts with a [00:13:00] sip club.
Steve: It could all start, or it could end with the Sip Club.
Nicole: Steve, let's learn more about you, right? I mean, you have so many accolades. You've done so much in your career. And before we get to your personal happy hour, I wanna hear more about your journey and kind of what drives you to be this collaborator, this fun individual that truly tries hard to ensure that the culture and kind of collaboration is a continuous theme.
Steve: okay, so a little bit about me. So as you can tell, I'm American, despite this funny accent. I've been in the States now, uh, for twenty-six years. Uh, but I grew up in Sheffield, in Yorkshire, in the north of England. Um, and, uh, you know, I, I-- my very first job was delivering newspapers. Uh, and, you know, for anybody of my era, you know, in the seventies and early eighties, The Sunday Times in the UK was [00:14:00] literally, you know, a, a, a wad of paper like this thick, and I'd have two satchels on the side of my bike, and I'd be riding around trying to stuff those in.
So, but in my family, hard work, you know, from an early age was-- it, it wasn't just kind of... It, was expected, right? I mean, e-everybody had to, had to, had to pull their weight. I, I studied marketing, uh, for my undergrad. Um, so I, you know, I was always kind of destined to be in, in the, in the marketing realm. And then my first job, just happened to be in technology. I was looking for an internship, and a really-- what I thought was a really exciting job at a c- a s- a little company called Sun Microsystems,
Nicole: Oh,
Steve: came, beca-became available. And, uh, so I took a job at Sun Microsystems.
Nicole: Wow.
Steve: What I loved about that was just the crazy pace of [00:15:00] innovation,
Nicole: Yes.
Steve: And, like, literally, we were launching products and killing products, um, you know, every three, six months, we
Nicole: Wow.
Steve: New products. Um, and, I had friends from college who were, you know, who went to work grocery stores, right? Like Tescos or Savers or w- the Walmart
Nicole: Sure.
Steve: And, you can imagine the innovation there, the innovation in canned beans or in, you know, a-apples and oranges just doesn't exist,
Nicole: No.
Steve: Certainly didn't exist back then. So I was just so inspired and excited
Nicole: Oh, that's so cool.
Steve: Um, that I just, I just stayed in that environment. And, and even now Uh, I'm not gonna say exactly how many years, but a, number of decades later, I, still get motivated by, the pace of [00:16:00] innovation and change. at SmartRecruiters, just after I joined, we shifted from a quarterly release cycle to a monthly release cycle. And because we had so much innovation and so much new capabilities that we wanted to get into the hands of our customers as quickly as we possibly could. and frankly, we didn't want them to wait for 12 weeks to get access to that.
candidly, there was a lot of concern about what that was gonna mean. Could, our customers consume it? Will our salespeople be able to get up to speed about it? But 18 months later people are now 18 months later, are We have hundreds of people on our webinar every month. it's our most opened email every month. People are really excited about what new nuggets, we're, launching into the market. we launched in the [00:17:00] last year, 160% more, product and capabilities than we did in the prior year.
So Once you get into this flywheel of creating and delivering, Faster and people want more and, want to consume more.
um, yeah, I
Nicole: I didn't--
Steve: from where I started to where I am, but...
Nicole: but it's relatable, right? If you think about it, w- in today's world, innovation is so hard to keep up. We don't necessarily kill it, but we continue to build upon it, right? And connect. And so there is so much agility that we need to have. Um, I didn't know that stat, which I appreciate you, numbers guy, for giving me that.
But I think One thing that our audience may not know is the foundation that you need to build behind this to keep up with the pace and innovation, right? It's not just a wonderful ex-product leader CEO saying, "Hey, we're gonna do this." It's actually we need to change how an R&D looks, how they [00:18:00] work, and also how all of the supporting other departments such as marketing, enablement, and sales, et cetera, respond to this.
And then, oh, by the way, our customers. So it is a lot, but it is today's world, and I mean, you and I live it every day. It's not slowing down.
Steve: Yeah. Yeah. But I, I think the important part that you said there, Nicole, is that, uh, innovation, it often starts in product, and it often starts in technology, and that's where it's perhaps most visible. But in order for that innovation to be consumed and to be adopted, has to be a really collaborative Oh,
between Product and the engineers
Nicole: My buddy back [00:19:00] there.
Steve: To really help and accelerate the hiring process for both
Nicole: Oh,
Steve: and now, uh, nearly sixty percent of all hires consume some part of Winston.
They're using AI this agentic experience, to just, improve, the experience. so when you deliver great product, you have an amazing sales team who, knows how to articulate the value, you have a kickass marketing organization who can create excitement and demand, you've got channels who are really motivated to develop, then I think that's really where magic happens.
And it all starts with, you know, rapid pace of innovation, to, actually build that. I will say one thing, though. What's also important is knowing when it's not working, right? if something
isn't
sticking or [00:20:00] if there's a, problem, that, you're not, solving or not addressing, killing things is equally as important I mean, right back to my Sun Microsystems days, we'd launch a product and then three months later replace it with something else because we had a better way to do it.
So
saying no
the, killing of innovation is not as important, but part of the whole picture of how you really drive change.
Nicole: Well, it's prioritization, right? And you think about customers and looking at the adoption rate and looking at kind of where the industry is going and, and where you can see yourself kind of accelerating or what I like to call future forward to help those individuals, right? It's all about making the users' lives easier, whether they're the candidate, the hiring manager, the recruiter.
And I agree with you, right? We've lived through some [00:21:00] things that we've, you know, I will say sunset, um, or will sunset, and even just replacing a product at SuccessFactors, right? I mean, there is a lot that goes into this, and it is not with ill will, but more just good intent that we continue to empathize with anyone on either side of this equation.
Steve: That's right. That's right. But also, you know, it's important to prioritize and where do you prioritize? you prioritize the, the needs, behaviors, wants, and demands of, of, of, of customers. So having, uh, an organization that truly understands that, understands where the market is going, understand the customer behaviors, and then, you know, appropriately prioritizing resources and investments against that is, uh, is really, is really key.
Nicole: Yeah, it does help when you get more resources, right? I think another tried and true testament.
Steve: about getting more resources, Nicole? And you we-- And you manage to weave that into the [00:22:00] podcast?
Nicole: I mean, I wasn't even going there, but yes. I'm gonna ask you for-- No. Uh, no, but in all serious, right? A- and again, guys, like we are being honest here. You can put a lie detector test on me if you want. But, um, within the first three months, SuccessFactors, uh, Dan, the product leader, saw the value that we were providing, saw the innovation, saw the way that we release and said, "I am going to give you this part of R&D and allow you to hire X amount more," right?
I mean, that is a huge investment in believing in what we're doing and that we're doing it right. And now we're seeing that trickle to other parts of SuccessFactors. And again, proud moment, right? I mean, that doesn't happen without the collaboration, uh, of all parts of, of SmartRecruiters, but with SuccessFactors.
Steve: Yeah, that's, that's absolutely right. So-- And very specifically to your point, uh, we doubled our engineering resources on our, [00:23:00] uh, Smartrecruiters recruiting platform and the onboarding platform within, within three months,
Nicole: Yeah
Steve: that's, you know, testament to, the way that we work is actually, is actually working.
And we've already got, you know, tens, nearly hun-- well, more than a hundred customers who are already starting to leverage some of the value of, uh, what those engineering teams have been delivering.
Nicole: Right? I mean, prior to acquisition, I thought we were launching quickly and launching a lot. And then now in the last six months, the whoa factor has gone up, right? And it is incredible because a lot of times we'd have to have conversations with our customers to practice patience. It's coming, we're working on it.
And now I feel, well, we've amplified the number of ind- customers that are coming to us, but we are also turning around a lot more in a short amount of time and quality, right? It's what the customers are asking for.
Steve: That's right. And, and I think that we've got to a place now where we've really [00:24:00] started to earn the trust. I wouldn't say that there's not, you know, the customers who don't have requests or don't
Nicole: Oh.
Steve: challenges with our product. Hell, of course not.
Nicole: I have a daily call for it.
Steve: But they've seen that we deliver as we say on time, on schedule. Uh, we put out a bold and audacious vision of new
Nicole: Sure. past couple of years to Yeah.
Steve: to, you know, automatically build campaigns, to automatically build segments, to leverage agents, to create content that's highly personalized. [00:25:00] I mean, I kind of want more of that for myself. No,
Nicole: Oh, totally.
Steve: That to, to our customers. But that's a really exciting capability that will be in the hands of our customers over the next couple of quarters, which is, which is awesome. So it's exciting to be able to see, um, the pace.
It's exciting to see, uh, a vision and to see how excited customers get about that vision. Uh, and, and then to see the impact that it has on, uh, their hiring processes and on their on-onboarding processes.
Nicole: Yeah, 100%. And I know both of us have lived through many times where product was stagnant, right? And it was frustrating, and the customer requests, escalations piled up. We waited for innovation, and it wasn't there. And so to live in this time, I, I feel very fortunate. I feel very fortunate to be in a future-forward organization.
Um, you know, testament and shout out to all of our [00:26:00] leaders, but also all of the doers, right? All of product engineering and every other part of that pinwheel that makes this happen across the organization. real fun. Real fun.
Steve: as well. You know, one of the-- I mean, I,
Nicole: Yeah.
Steve: customers a number of times, but, you know, we have, um, customer programs where we're working in concert with our customers, our design partner program, uh, who are testing and giving feedback and collaborating on what the end product actually, actually looks like. There's not a feature or capability that we just drop randomly now
that Yeah.
been, you know... Yeah, if it-- d-does this stick? But there's not, there's not a product, a feature, a capability that we deliver now that has not spent hours in, you know, in front of real users and got their feedback and been shaped and molded into, uh, into something that's gonna add real value for them. So that's, uh, I, I think that's testament to, to everybody who's involved, whether they're, they've got [00:27:00] an SAP badge or they're
Nicole: Yep.
Steve: really important customers.
Nicole: Yep. All right, Steve. Um, we, we heard about you, but we still haven't heard what's your happy hour outside of work, right? Um, when you're not making magic happen here, SmartRecruiters with SAP, what brings you bliss? What are you doing?
Steve: so I ski down mountains in the winter, hike up mountains in the summer.
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: So that's kind of my, my, my yin and my yang.
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: When I'm at the bottom of the mountain,
Nicole: Okay. Okay.
Steve: a, I, I'm a middle-aged old white guy, and I-- and honestly, uh, there's something about gardening that I really like. You know,
Nicole: Wow!
Steve: spend, I spend, you know, way too many hours in front of my screen, in spreadsheets, in dashboards, in PowerPoint presentations, and it's all, you know, all the work is up here. And [00:28:00] there's something about at the weekend just getting out in my yard, things up, things, getting my hands dirty
Nicole: Wow!
Steve: and, you know, creating this big, beautiful, I wouldn't entirely call it that, but you know, slowly tended, curated, uh, garden experience. So yeah, so I'm, I'm
Nicole: Wow.
Steve: I'm a gardener.
Nicole: I did not know this. Um, what is your favorite plant vegetable that you like to plant?
Steve: no. That--
Nicole: No.
Steve: I don't have that, no.
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: whatever takes my fancy.
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: not that. Uh, it's, it's really the act of gardening
Nicole: Okay. Okay.
Steve: you know, looking at plants and flowers.
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: the act of grabbing a spade,
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: It in some dirt, turning over some dirt,
Nicole: Wow.
Steve: yeah, and getting on my knees and kind of pulling out weeds and things like that.
Nicole: Uh, come on over. I've got tons of garden for [00:29:00] you.
Steve: Only on my own patch. Only on my own patch. Only on my own patch. And then the other thing, you know this, we, we share this in common, but I'm a, I'm a dad, right? And, and a husband, and I'm a, you know, family is super important to me too.
Nicole: Yeah. Yeah. I love that picture on your desk, um, how we talked about how we haven't gotten around to switching out our pictures for a while, so it's all right.
Steve: daughter, who's a freshman in college, uh, the photo on my desk is literally, she's like three months old.
Nicole: all right, we're gonna play a game of this or that. You're familiar with this, and I'm very excited because we've mixed it up today to be a kind of marketing-themed this or that.
Steve: Okay. Now I'm nervous.
Nicole: Why?
Steve: I be nervous?
Nicole: Yeah, I
Steve: Okay.
Nicole: that comes out of your mouth is the right answer, so we're good.
We're good. Okay. Uh, we'll start with the basics first. Resume or LinkedIn profile?
Steve: I mean, I know the answer is LinkedIn profile, but I'm even starting to think that LinkedIn is a little kind of redundant [00:30:00] and billboard-y and showy these days, and how really accurate a reflection of Steve Hardy or a candidate it really is. So I'm kind of hopeful that there's a post-resume, post-LinkedIn
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: Represent the skills, capabilities, experiences of somebody that maybe AI could help us with, right? All
Um, but yeah, for me, both of those are rather static, so it's neither this nor that. That's a
Nicole: Okay. Wow. I've never had that, but I love that. No, I love the differentiation. I'm good with it. I'm good with it. Okay. AI or no AI?
Steve: AI all the way.
Nicole: All
Steve: yeah, AI
Nicole: the way.
Steve: AI in my work life, AI in my sleeping. Y-yes, I'm all in. You know, I, I mentioned, I mentioned, uh, one of my kids. I've got kids who are just about to enter the work, force, and there's a lot of pressure at the moment [00:31:00] about, you know, what's happening to the entry-level workforce, and this kind of diamond shape, workforce where there are no jobs for entry-level, people or recent
college
graduates. I, see the data, I understand the challenges, but I actually think that there's actually a really big opportunity, and we just don't know what those opportunities are today. When I started at Sun Microsystems back in the early '90s, The, cellphone industry didn't exist.
Starbucks didn't exist. Cloud computing didn't exist.
And I could go on and on and on, but these are all industries, jobs that have been created by smart, driven, curious people. And, that's what our kids are gonna have to face. They're gonna have to go out and create some industries.
Nicole: I love it. I love it. I mean, you're gonna get those creative ideas, kids, when you're either gardening, going up or down the mountain, or [00:32:00] sipping a drink at a bar with your sip club. See?
Steve: you're 21, kids. If my kids are listening, when you're 21.
Nicole: Right. Big launch energy or long-term brand impact?
Steve: That's a good question. Um, you know, brand is so-- brand with a capital B is so important, right? Um, how your salespeople show up, how your product performs,
Nicole: Mm-hmm.
Steve: you show up at an event, you know, the, look and feel of your logo, et cetera. So I get that. I get that that's really super important. and frankly, at SmartRecruiters over the past 18 months, two years, we've invested an awful lot
into, lot.
not establishing our brand, but cementing our brand for
Nicole: Yeah.
Steve: who we were known as, as this kind of purposeful, driven, fun, uh, experts in, in recruiting. So, so the value of [00:33:00] brand is incredibly important. However, I, I think there is a-- that, that there's a, a real opportunity in marketing and in go-to-market when you've got something to say, when you are changing the way that people do things, when you have a moment between what's going on in the market, what your competitors are doing. I think sometimes it's really important to have a big, bold lightning strike of action that only a launch moment can, can, can bring. So I'm sorry, this and that.
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: Important and,
Nicole: I love it.
Steve: Important too.
Nicole: Okay, so then do I even ask this one? Pipeline impact or brand recognition?
Steve: Pipeline impact.
Nicole: Customer voice or market trends?
Steve: Oh, I-- See, I think market trends, uh, despite how much I love customers, um, I'm a m-- a, [00:34:00] a classic marketer. Okay.
You that, right?
Nicole: Yes, data.
Steve: is all about understanding the needs, be-behaviors, wants, desires of customers and the, and the market. And I, I think customer voices and customer voice is one important into that, but understanding what's sticking, what your, what your, uh, competitors are doing, what, uh, non-adjacent competitors are doing,
right? Yep.
I mean, who knows? Uh, SmartRecruiters, I, I'm gonna say this hypothetically, may not exist in ten years' time,
Nicole: Yep.
Steve: We may just be going to an agent to a j-- Well, maybe jobs won't exist in ten years' time.
Nicole: Mean, who knows?
Steve: You know, just listening to customers alone, is a little bit myopic and, and, and a, and a little bit too narrowly focused.
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: To have that broader sense of what's going on in the market.
Nicole: I like that [00:35:00] advice. I like that advice. All right. I'm curious about this one. Fast iteration or perfect execution
Steve: fast iteration.
Nicole: Okay
Steve: progress over perfection, you know,
Nicole: Yes. Okay, fair enough. Yes, I remember that.
Steve: I-iterate, tweak, Yep.
and, uh, and, and perform.
Nicole: Love it. Influence the market or inspire the team?
Steve: Well, I don't think you can influence the market unless you have an inspired team So inspi-inspiring the team,
Nicole: I love it. All right, now the fun ones. Um, reward or recognition?
Yep.
Steve: personal. I think that some people are really motivated by, by recognition, and some people really wanna be put on a stage, you know, given a medal, say, "Whoa, you did a great job."
Nicole: Woo-hoo!
Steve: others are motivated by, by other rewards.
I
Nicole: Yep
Steve: had, um, w-when we-- Early on in our founding, we, um, created a, um, a program called, um, [00:36:00] Smart Giving, which ba-- and we took the one percent pledge, which basically meant-- said that we would give one percent of our, uh, earnings back to, uh, to charitable causes. Uh, and when we were acquired by SAP, resulted in a really significant contribution that we made to charitable causes. And I gotta tell you Smartians, as we call ourselves, SmartRecruiters employees, so motivated and so excited and so happy about
Nicole: Yeah.
Steve: act
Nicole: Yeah.
Steve: giving back that you couldn't put a price on that.
Nicole: Goosebumps. I know. I know. It's, it's a real good one. It's a real good one.
Steve: Yeah, you couldn't put a price on that. So,
Nicole: Yeah.
Steve: and we didn't have to sing from the rafters. We didn't have to,
Nicole: Yeah. Yeah.
Steve: on stage and hand a big check.
We didn't have to do any of it, but we made it-- We-- People were so
Nicole: Good karma.
Steve: The impact that we made.
Nicole: Yeah. Yeah. Beach or [00:37:00] mountains?
Steve: Um, I'm a mountain guy.
Nicole: Uh,
Steve: mountain guy, yeah.
Nicole: vacation or staycation?
Steve: okay. I think the unwritten truth about being in the C-suite or being a senior leader in any business is that fundamentally there is no such thing really as a vacation. Uh, so, um, think you have to, as in when you, you know, you turn your laptop off, you put your, uh, cell phone away, and you totally disconnect. So I think it's really important to get out of your environment and change things up. So get-- hiking up a mountain, even if it means you gotta take a call on the gondola you're coming down, uh, you know, or whatever.
Nicole: Yes.
Steve: a different view, um, can really lift the spirits. So I think vacation over
Nicole: Okay.
Steve: Any day
Nicole: final, final. Whiskey or gin?
Steve: [00:38:00] That, that's, that's really tough for me. That's tough
Nicole: I know.
Steve: One of my nicknames with my friends is Whiskey Steve, 'cause I like whiskey. I have a, I have a, a collection of whiskeys. I put-- I'm a particularly big fan of Japanese whiskey. Um, but I'm British, and a gin and tonic is k- it kinda goes with the territory.
So, um, summer afternoon, gin and tonic,
Nicole: Yes.
Steve: winter evening, glass of whiskey.
Nicole: Oh, Steve. Okay, tell everyone where they can reach you, where they can learn more.
Steve: Well, first and foremost, I'd encourage you go to s- to go to smartrecruiters.com. Everything you need to know about SmartRecruiters is there. Uh, of course, I'm on LinkedIn like everybody. Um me. I'm actually a bad LinkedIn, um, social promoter. I kind of have sporadic LinkedIn [00:39:00] experiences. So if you catch me in one of those sporadic moments, I share some really great content, but I might go quiet for a couple of weeks.
But smartrecruiters.com
Nicole: wise. You have something wise to say, you'll share it. I love it.
Steve: exactly right.
Nicole: Thank you, Steve. This has been so fun. I don't think I've stopped smiling, and I don't think I have had this trip down memory lane or impact in a long time, so I appreciate it. Um, and again, I'll round it out by saying thank you for all you do.
Um, listeners, I didn't share this, but SmartRecruiters has had a number of leaders in marketing, and Steve is the only one that stuck, and I'm being honest, and I appreciate that, right? Like we have this remember when for us that have been here for 11 years of all of the marketing leaders that have come in, and there's been some interesting ones, and I just thank you because you really have helped us in these last few years and great things ahead.
But, um, I hope all that [00:40:00] are listening took something from this. Um, and if you want more, just reach out.