A few weeks ago, Ben and I had a trip planned to see a client in southern Missouri. Since we were in the vicinity, we decided to tack on an extra day and fish the, always amazing, White River in Northern Arkansas.
We were joined by my father, my brother-in-law, my brother, and his son. The day began in a section of the river where everyone usually pursues their fishing, within a short distance of where boats can be launched and rented.
In this section of river, one can utilize just about any type of bait or tackle, and anglers are allowed to keep their limit of fish. In this section of river, where everyone fishes everyday, we did OK. Nothing to write home about, but OK.
After about a half-hour in this section of the river, my Dad (who will turn 80 on his next birthday), turned to us and said, "Pull in your rods boys. We're moving".
My father knows this river well enough to know that we had seen nothing yet. He turned the boat upstream and opened up the throttle taking us two miles up river. The destination was a one-mile stretch of river that was different from the downstream portion of the river.
Why? What was different about this section of river?
First and most importantly, it is a designated "catch-and-release" section. If you are unfamiliar with this term, catch-and-release means exactly what is says: You cannot keep any fish. Now, catch and release is common in Seattle, but in the Ozark's, folks go fishing for sustenance, not necessarily solely for sport.
Secondly, it requires us to use modified lures
that make catching fish less injurious to the fish and theoretically more
difficult to catch fish.
Four hours later, the six of us had caught and
released 169 beautiful trout, primarily rainbows. Catching these trout was not
as easy as it may sound. We spent some time figuring out what they were going to
pursue. Once we broke that code, my
brother-in-law (with his tackle box that resembles a magicians hat) pulled out
some red paint and modified other lures to resemble what they were attracted
to.
In the
real estate industry, there are a few well-known ways to recruit. In these
popular venues, your company is forced to compete for the same agents as
everyone else.
One of the ways to remain ahead of your competitors is to find new ways to fish. This often means fishing where no one else thinks of fishing.
It’s no secret that HiringCenter was designed to provide “access” to the section of the river where no one else is fishing. Working this section takes more time, innovation, and discipline than remaining in the areas where everyone else fishes. It also requires “cracking the code” of what attracts and engages these candidates.
The payoff is a steady flow of productive agents who would have never been found downstream.
As many of you know, this is not a solo effort. We’ve enjoyed the help and partnership of many great companies and recruiting leaders who have helped us “paint the lures” that attract the fish and learn new techniques to engage the next generation of real estate agents. Thank you for being such great fishing partners!
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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.
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