What Is An Entrepreneur and How To Hire People?

Tamika Jeffrey: This is how I see entrepreneur. Today is my 60th day as being an entrepreneur. And so as I see it is that an entrepreneur is a promoter of their own party.

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Zeke: I’d like to welcome everyone to another episode of the Let’s Gather Podcast. I’m your host Zeke. In this episode, I have a great entrepreneur named Tamika Jeffrey, to talk about her journey in entrepreneurship and the hiring process as a whole. You can go to her website, mydreamstaffing.com to get more information. I hope you have a nice day and enjoy the show.

Tamika Jeffrey: So I would say anime, animation of sounds racial, but of a Black Girl in a white mix, like in a white environment because that’s how I started I was the only black girl in a all white Catholic school and to swim out of it and to become something better so that’s what it would be it’d be an animation of me in this white world and with the name of to Tamika, the ultimate black name. Your now and to come into something that like where now everyone sees me as equal and before I didn’t see myself as equal and now I see myself as on the same playing field so it wouldn’t be an anime. No, it would definitely be two installments. It would like no it would definitely 20. No definitely be like two or three installments of just from the beginning then the middle which will be like Junior High High School and then the real life like real life would be more of now and seeing myself like prosper and how you can make it out of anything by just continue to dream. Yeah, that would be my story. Not only to be an entrepreneur, but just to be better in life. That’s how I am happy I am an entrepreneur and I can affect many. I, my store would be more of how to make it with the power of happiness. I consider myself one of those individuals that things like I can tell you many things that happened to me in life, but the power of smiling through it and believing in yourself. That’s what got me to where I am now. And then I just I just happen to be an entrepreneur. But before then I was an employee, you know, I was a student. So it’s many levels. But if you just keep, like dreaming you keep that power of happiness that’s the name of, of my anime. It’s called the Power of Happiness. Yeah. That would be correct. Because how else can you get through it as far as blaming someone are having doubt on yourself now you’re definitely not going to make it through but if you look at it on the flip coin, where everything that happens is hard to understand that when you’re younger, but everything that happens is for a reason. That that reason it’s like making you greater when you have that outlook. All you can do is like smile like I smile that he broke up with me I smile, but I got a D you know, in psychology, but I, you know, I minored in it, like it’s just a lot of different things that’s going to come your way. And if you don’t have that power, either the power to succeed or the power of happiness or the power to dream, then you’re definitely going to be the one on the sidelines saying, I wish I could play. I wish, I can play. So in order to play you, you have to believe in yourself and keep that power of happiness or, man.

Zeke: So is that, what does, what does entrepreneur mean to you?

Tamika Jeffrey: That’s funny, because this is how I see an entrepreneur.   Today is my 60th day is being an entrepreneur. And so as I see it is that an entrepreneur is a promoter of their own party. I’m promoting my party. I want everyone to come. This is only my party. And that’s how I see it. You have to put in all the legwork. You’re up You’re making the flyers, you’re passing it out. You’re marketing yourself. Yes, you can outsource all these companies to do it, but it’s really your party. And if you’re not promoting it, then no one’s going to hear about it. So I see an entrepreneur as a party promoter for their party.

Zeke: Did you always have that kind of mindset? Or was it built by you just slowly built on top of experiences you had?

Tamika Jeffrey: I think I always had that mindset. I’ve gone to my father wanted, Father so my father was he had like grocery stores and lounges like he was always that type of innovator where he didn’t want to depend on someone else to put the bread and butter like on the table. He wanted to do it. And so I started really at root. But no, it goes back because I started. That’s how I am. I’m from Ohio, and I moved to New York City to write business plans. So that was my own thing. I’m like, okay, and then I got here and I seen the rent. No, it didn’t fly. And so when I started Baruch, ah, my son was diagnosed with autism, and I wanted to be there for him, but I still wanted to finish school like, Yeah, you do both. So I started selling hair extensions and natural gemstones at Baruch and I would recruit individuals to go to Jacob Javits Center with me until then. And so that like is where it really like above really began not only can I help a person, make a small amount of income, but I can create something for myself.  And that’s really where it started. And once I got that bug, and I continue to work at other companies, I’ve always seen ways for them to improve. Like, you know what, you should do this, you should do that and you should change this and, and like in 2019 I was just like, you know what’s Tamika? You should do this for yourself like, no, like stop giving away all your free ideas and create it for yourself.  And that’s where I came from.

Zeke: So what kind of skills a entrepreneur really need like sales, communication, communications anything else like that?

Tamika Jeffrey: Yeah, those are like the soft skills but the hard skills is you need determination. You have to be you have to take initiative and you have to be able to be by yourself. Like the loneliest people are successful entrepreneurs were very lonely. Why? Because you need to atleast have I take an hour and a half a day just to create different, like aspects of my company that I feel like can grow more. Well, that’s solid to like you need to be able to harness that solitude. And then you have to have belief, because not every day like, again, when you’re a promoter, you don’t have a back of cheerleaders that’s like,go, go like, you don’t have that until you start creating traction and then everyone knows your brand. But before then it’s like you’re your own cheerleader. And so as you are easily intimidated, that being an entrepreneur is not your, you need to be an employee. Because here it’s and people say it’s a cutthroat business. I don’t see it as being cutthroat I see the, you must be very determined. And nothing can throw you off of your end game like the end goal. If you don’t have an end goal in what you’re doing, then each day is just like grinding the wheel. But if know that you have an end goal. And you the thing is with entrepreneurs, I think is setting a plan in action and like, every day trying to make that plan even greater. That is like the skills I think you need in order to pursue entrepreneurship. But anyone can be an entrepreneur. I mean, it just determines on your willpower. You know, so.

Zeke: So with that like so you do you help people who um like find employees stuff like that, right?

Tamika Jeffrey: Correct.

Zeke: So what makes like a good a good employee like somebody to hire?

Tamika Jeffrey: So you have what’s called dream assistance, right? A dream assistant is an individual that believes in your dream. That’s a dream assistance no matter what your dream is, they want to come and add value to what you’ve already created. So there are people that just want to be a dream assistant. And then there’s people who want to be a dreamer. And I think what makes a good employee is that once I meet you and I explain what my mission is, that you can enhance that mission, not that you can just ride along with me, but you can really enhance it and that’s what makes a good employee. If you see someone that’s there just for a check. And eventually you can find out I can also give you ways of interviewing that you can find that out.  That is not a good employee because they don’t even believe in themselves. So how can they believe in you? Right? But things that make a great employee and should someone is not a jumper. And again, you have to have you know, there’s a lot of different words I look for adaptability is low on the totem pole, but that is one. They can adapt to different situations. But I need someone who has a tool, you know, autonomy, and that can take initiative. These are people that you want to be around you when you’re creating your success. Your successful company, you want people that wants to be successful around you. And it’s hard it’s hard to find that employee that harnessed these qualifications. But there’s a way to find out.

Zeke: Cool. So with today’s climate more people like doing jobs like two to five years. So

Tamika Jeffrey: Which is great.

Zeke: Is that a good thing or is that more of like, it’s just?

Tamika Jeffrey: A great thing, it’s a great thing for individual. And I’m going to tell you why. Because when I read your resume, and I see that you’ve been somewhere 10 years, someone else would say, oh, my goodness, they have great tenure, they’ve been here 10 years. In this world today in this tech world, this media world, this creative world, if you tell me that you’ve been somewhere for 10 years, that is an individual I can’t hire right now. Why? Because that means that I have to retrain you to think the way that my Corporation think because you’ve been there 10 years and the way they do their company. has been embedded in you like for 10 years you won’t you know, you you wake up, you do the same exact thing.

Zeke: It’s second nature.

Tamika Jeffrey: I look for people. Yeah, I look for people that want to grow. And the only way that you grow is to step out of your boundary. You know, and in a way that you step out of your boundaries, you step into a whole new culture. So if you tell me two to five years, like that’s the best to see on your resume that you’ve been somewhere three years, and you went somewhere else for another three years, that is the person that is looking to climb and, and harnessing their own dream, like they feel like you know what, I don’t want to be stagnant. Yeah, I want to continue to grow. So those are the people that I think are gone to make it and those are the ones that have higher salaries. I can show you statistics, where an individual that makes 10 that’s been there for 10 years and the individual has been there for three years, two separate places. Make more because they’ve learned more like applications, they learn more how to decipher between what’s great and what’s not. Yeah. So, two to five years. Speaking to new grads, that’s what I would tell them.  Okay. So wit that is how you tell like somebody who’s like doing stuff like that compared to someone who just like jumping from job to job, just tryna? Those are called jumpers.

Zeke: Okay.

Tamika Jeffrey: So a jumper is someone who’s somewhere for six months or a year, and then six months or a year. And then when you talk to them, and you ask, why did you leave? Like why were you only there six months and they’re like, oh, my goodness, the culture. It was not great for me. Or like, every reason is about the company. It’s always a negative. And that isn’t enough. Because I don’t want to my company because if you’re going to speak negative on that company, you’re definitely gonna be negative on my company when you leave. So when you meet these people and you talk to these people, you understand that they haven’t honed into their greatness yet. And what they’re doing is using every ample opportunity to jump and then blame someone, someone else and the best thing that I would tell people who are jumpers is before you take another opportunity, research that company or take a temp assignment. And a temp assignment does not have to go on your resume. But it also gives you time to see if this is the company you want to be that you want to grow with. Because if not, you’re losing and you’re losing valuable time on your resume by us, looking at you as a jumper, you have honed into, like what is your greatest quality yet. I didn’t know that I love communication until I started Baruch. And then after taking so many communication classes that was like where I want it to be. Yeah. So sometimes it takes time for you to see where you need to be but if you take too much time then you discredit your resume and you’re never going to be able to get to that level where you want to be. Yeah.

Zeke: So if somebody is a jumper. You said, like to take 10 jobs, how do what is the main problems people have with just starting college two years after college is like find themselves as somebody find themselves?

Tamika Jeffrey: Like before college a, it would not matter I cannot put it on your resume so that you lump it together like you don’t show the 10 year you lump it together and then you show the 10 year for all of them added together. And then label like, that’s the best now after college internships is always great. And if you are somewhere for a little less than a year, let’s just use that as an internship that was like you were learning and just continue to say that. But I think the way that you find out what it is you want to be as, of course you that pre college and during college work, this is the time that you need to start writing down the qualifications of what makes a great boss, the qualifications of what makes a great culture. Start writing these things down and unfortunately, I don’t think enough. Advisors, college advisors, I hope they’re not mad at me when I say that, but I don’t think they take enough time into helping you figure out what is going to be the best career path. For you, they want to know they got you a job and they can put it on the statistics that they help this many students. But it’s more than that. You really have to and you have to take it upon yourself as well, to figure out what is going to be best for your future. Where do you see yourself, I did not see myself owning my own recruiting company, but I did see myself as a recruiter. So I seen that vision and then once I started to learn more and more about recruitment, and I started to learn about the biases that happen in diversity, recruitment, it made me grow my it just made me grow my passion more of wanting to be behind the desk of a company that helps diversity recruitment. So that was like, you know, a three year run before I even got to sit right here. But each time I continue to make sure that I wrote down what I value. And each year I change my values change at every year, like you know what I want? And I think that’s what students should start to do. And they should start to teach it from freshman year on. Yeah. They are not like stagnant after graduation of what do I want to do in my life? And then they started taking all these minimal jobs. That doesn’t accumulate to get to that great one. Yeah. So that’s what I think they should do. Advisor should take accountability for what I just said.

Zeke: Also, what do you say to somebody who like did like three years of college, got to an a major, they studied it and didn’t like it? But there’s like stuck between returning to the school for a little more years, if they know who they are, or just finishing out and then this vision in like four years, everybody wants to finish in four years.

Tamika Jeffrey: I would say I’ve met many of geniuses that are not in the profession of what they graduated Like it’s just not but I’ve met many geniuses that need a mentor, the mentor is what so whatever you love, and that’s what I mean it sounds so cliche, but you need when you get to the level where where I am. I must love this in order to do it every day and thrive. So I would tell them, find out what you love that may not be what you’re majoring in, right? You may be majoring in political science, and you don’t love it. You want to get on Wall Street, get a mentor. Get many mentors, as many as you can, and start to like adapt their world and go on that world. There’s it’s not set in stone that you must major and what You’re going to be, yeah, that time, as I just told you each year your values change. I don’t know not every individual but each year my values change and what I want. So I would say the mentors play a strong role and everything that creates a college grad. So get a mentor, and I appreciate the route they, they have a great mentor program and that’s how I like my mentor. As soon as I met her, she said, What do you want to be and I said, a recruiter and she said, No one wants to be a recruiter. Like, they fall into it. Like they may go to HR, but they just don’t want to be a recruiter. But I did. I knew that and she seen that passion to me, and then she put me in Cushman and Wakefield. If I’m Cushman and Wakefield, as I’m sitting here today, because I knew what I love. I knew I loved like talking to people I didn’t know to they don’t teach you recruiting in college that I know about. But once I got on the floor of Cushman Wakefield and learn how to really recruit and how to read a resume and how to interview and once I learned those things, I knew that was what I want it to be. And it all started from a mentor. So I would say you know, engulf yourself into what you think you love. No matter what it is, and still get that degree and go after what you love and, and that’s what you can see when you interview people as they love it, or they hate their job.  You can talk to them and see if, you know if they’re just trying to get a check. It’s different. You know, I don’t want to put down anyone at the DMV, but I don’t know if they love their job. Like But yeah, I just think a mentor is the best way to go.

Zeke: And it was that do you think grades are important as people like so let’s put the pressure on ourselves or is it more of like, what skills as far as you have, in addition to having okay like having grades?

Tamika Jeffrey: All right. So I don’t know, my child, I am not going to, like hover over him and make sure that I want him to be like, I want him to be great at wanting to like excel in everything that he does, but I don’t want him to feel that that marking on a piece of paper is gonna determine who he is. And I think we do that, like at a younger age. We do that to our children. And then when we become grown, we’re like, you know what, it doesn’t matter like my bank account does not determine if I’m going to receive an A or B, but my drive and my will does, and that really showcases when you are so so this is where I think it showcases. If you are unable to commit to completing your class to your best ability, it’s going to be hard for me, I’m not going to look at your grades but that determination if you’re able to commit to my company to be the best that you can be, so if you’re so used to not trying and not putting your best foot forward, I mean, it’s going to reflect on you in life. That doesn’t mean that you have to receive it, you know, 4.0 when you graduate, but it does mean that you try your best and if you submitted a paper in English and it wasn’t great and she said, well, you need to go see the English tutor you don’t go. You know like that is what makes determination but I don’t think like the marking of what it was. I fell film at Baruch. Still, how do you fail them like that? That is terrible. That’s gonna always be my story like, yeah. And I got a D I’m like, how did I get a day? But I know how I got a D I wasn’t watching the freakin movies. I was like, trying to go around it, but he knew I wasn’t watching the movies. But that doesn’t determine like who I am right now. It just made me understand that like, if you’re not putting your best foot forward, it’s going to reflect in your life. So I would say try as hard as you can.

Zeke: And just know like, even though sometimes you might get a top score, but he knows you tries like another skill and like, this may not be like the thing you’re gonna win but if you try to, like the same determination tactics and different settings, they work out better.

Tamika Jeffrey: Correct. things will work out but like right like maybe that wasn’t the best setting for you. Maybe that wasn’t the best teacher to teach you maybe like you know other circumstances, that you are not able to be great. And maybe that was a bad time in your life but as long as you learn for it from it and continue to try hard you’re gonna see regardless that it’s going to make a difference of the way that you now proceed with other things. Yeah. Cool.

Zeke: Also today’s claim it people are looking less than 295 so look into more like self employment, anything.

Tamika Jeffrey: Uh huh. work life balance.

Zeke: Yeah.

Tamika Jeffrey: Oh, listen, I am a promoter like companies would really hate me because I am a promoter of work life balance. I recently hired two new employees. But even with them, I do not want them to constantly check in with me. We all work remotely, but don’t tell me you have a doctor’s appointment or don’t tell me like, just go and like do your work because this is how I feel if we continue to baby our employees, like where, you know, breastfeed them, hand feed them constantly. They are unable to grow and eventually take over your company, because they’re so used to like checking in with you and making sure you don’t give them the ability to think on their own to grow on their own. So to me, companies are losing when they want to jail a person down from nine to five Monday through Friday, they get an hour lunch and they get you know, like that, like, that’s why the customer service industry is so like, it’s such a high turnover. Because, you know, one of the jumpers, you’re gonna really do offer customer service on because it’s like, you get a 10 minute you get a 10 minute break. And then if you have to go to the restroom, you hit a button and then you’ve got like, that is unimaginable to me. You mean to me at this point? Like if someone were to say like, we want you to come work for me and you know, but you have to tell me every place that you are and you have to tell me you get this amount of time off or an hour to go eat. I couldn’t imagine that now. Because I’m so free. And I think this is why the tech industry and the hedge funds are booming with people jumping ship to go work, because, and some of the creative because it gives you time to really value yourself and value the company. So I would say moving forward to like recent grads or things like that look for an environment that enables you to excel and that that way, you’re you would benefit the company better. You know, like, instead of like, calling me faking like you’re sick. You just told me you want to work from home today. And this will provide more a healthier work life balance, but it’s also going to provide a healthier workforce. Right, because if you look at it like in the last 10 years, mental illness has like skyrocketed. I remember having a roof And my psychology teacher. She we were just talking about the mental mental toll health issues that are now just escalating. And it comes a lot with you imagine not like you work nine hours a day, but it’s an hour to get there an hour to get home, especially if you live in New York City, you know, an hour to get there an hour to get home. And then so basically, you’re giving this company almost 60 hours per week. Yeah. 60 hours per week. And then you get like the time to be with your children. If you have children or your friends. You get like maybe 12 20 12 hours to be with that. Like, after a while your your mental capacity is at an all time low. So you don’t know how to decipher from work or enjoying yourself like it just becomes a routine. So I think in order for companies to really, really excel with their employees, they’re gonna have to change the way that we look at being an employee. You know, and look at it more of being a member of it of a family, because basically, that’s your family. Um, and so I think that nine to five needs to be scratched. You know, like 10 to four you may have like, you know, I just even think the word nine should be scratched. Like, why does everything happen started at nine like me, I wake up every day at 4:30 I start all my emails at 6:30 Why can I not start work 6:30 to one, right, so it’s just, it’s just something that’s set in stone but that that stone has to break. Eventually you want to see it break because of Generation Z. Is that what it’s called? Generation Z? Right? Yeah. Generation Z, they’re they are going to change the way that we live life. Yeah.

Zeke: Like so companies are doing four days a week and stuff like that, like testing them out. So…

Tamika Jeffrey: Yeah, a lot of companies they do like, not only I would go inside of the company, so a lot of the companies where you don’t have your own cubicle anymore, there’s not a set place where you sit, that changes mental health as well. Because imagine looking at the same four little cube walls, the same pictures the same, like you do everything the same. And in a lot of companies, what they’re doing is they don’t have a set seating arrangement. So it’s just like when you come in, you sit down and you start working. That helps as well too, because now sorry. Now you’re not be held accountable for this little space. Yeah, it just feels like the whole company is yours. So I think it, it needs to change like the time the work week. I think if you had it where you work less than a week, you’ll see a lot of people ready to log in on the Saturday. Because they have time on Wednesday, you know, to hang with their friends. And so like on Saturday, yeah, I’ll give you two, three hours. That’s no problem. But we do need to like, revamp the way our parents worked. And I think that that’s the only way that we’re going to have a healthy workforce. Yeah.

Zeke: With that how does somebody know that they’re making the right decision or like they just have to take a leap of faith?

Tamika Jeffrey: In, in what like in career wise?

Zeke: Probably career, life, just say I guess like that mindset you’re like a close, close, and you just don’t know which one the right path and you have to take that leap of faith.

Tamika Jeffrey: Yeah, see, well, that’s where it comes with, to me writing down your dreams and your goals. Right. So, I have a dream book. And it’s just things that I want to achieve. And it’s my strategic plan of life. Like it may not work out that way, right? Because I want $654 million. I mean, I get it. I just have this plan in life, like, I have a fear of going to jail. So I know I’m never gonna go to jail because-

Zeke: Yeah.

Tamika Jeffrey: But when you have a strategic plan of where you want to be, you your outlook of life is different. So when you meet someone Know that they’re not good for you, you’re like, No, that doesn’t sound like it’s going to be, you know, conducive to the plan I have. But then when you meet someone, and they’re telling you things and you’re like, oh my goodness, I wanted to build a studio now you met a person who’s talking about a studio. So it comes with, you know, the, into minutes of who you are. But if you don’t have it on paper, then it doesn’t really exist. I mean, that’s what we say in the business world. So I would tell anyone, start with creating what you want in your life, and those are things that tend to come. But if you don’t have a plan, then everything throws you off. Then, like we plan at 20. Right, like, you just you just don’t but because no one really tells you that they tell you like write down your to do list. What you need to do today and what you need to do tomorrow, but let’s take it a step farther. Say write down you know your lifeless you want to acquire maybe not today but what what is the things that you want to acquire and every day do this and then a hobby you know something for you to look back on to say yeah, I fired that and I did that Oh, I didn’t do that I’m still working on this. And I think that you know, there’s no real nice there’s no reason to walk a tightrope every day. Yeah, I don’t believe I think you just set in stone what the things that you want around you, and that’s what becomes it sounds easy. And is someone would have told me that when I was 20, I was like, listen, you need to keep floating on that ferry boat that you’re on but now like on the older me looking back at the younger me, I wish someone would have told me that at 20. Like, as of today, start writing down your drink thing. Do you want, where you want to go? Like start creating a list and start to follow that list because that list is coming from your heart. And I think that’s, that’s all individuals should do. It kind of gonna have ups and downs. But like, if you can, you know, if you can curate your life on paper and you can see it on paper, then the downs are not going to outweigh the ups. It’s what you’re creating in your life and the downs are just going to be teachable moments.

Zeke: Yeah. Yeah. So with that, would you say your biggest challenge as entrepreneurs?

Tamika Jeffrey: My biggest challenge is branding. Um, you know, because I just just told you I was at Cushman and Wakefield that’s a large brand, right. So I and then I, when I left Cushman and Wakefield, I went to another company where our phones rang daily because of the name of the company. Yeah. Right. So then I decided January 2020. I’m going to start my dream staffing agency. It’s like, why is my phone not ringing? You know, but um, it’s more of just getting out. What your brand stands for that is the hardest thing because I can source for anyone, like any company that needs my help. I can source for them, but that’s not my brand. My brand is making sure that I’m focusing on diversity recruitment, like I want to make a big splash and then diversity recruitment, the biases of diversity recruitment. So it’s hard To get that information out without sounding, you know, like, like it’s racial kind of like Oh, you’re you’re only focusing on one race to get them jobs. And that’s not what it is it’s more of trying to get the information out that this does exist. Yeah. meant bias, you know, in the diversity market exists. So I’m just brandy would be my biggest struggle. But it’s working. You continue to talk about it enough people get tired like, okay, okay, go about it. That’s my biggest hurdle, but everything else like I’ve already had clients. You know, my name is out there as far as some of the larger institution of placing some of the highest candidates and that intuition. So again, like getting clients is not really been a big thing. Just the branding of who you are. Yeah.

Zeke: And also, how do you like, especially somebody that everybody has their own like, event at their own pace in life?

Tamika Jeffrey: Everyone has their own pace. Yeah. I know, right? Because I’m 41 and I have friends at 27. They were like, Oh my goodness, how did you? Yeah, you know, like, What are you drinking and make you so smart like at 27. I still like wanting to be in the club. And you know, I couldn’t shake the club. It’s like, how but again, I think it comes with like everyone has a celebrator right. And you can either push it to the max and then burn out at 35 You can like slow roll it. And then, you know, cuz I, in our mind, we hope to pray that we’re going to be like at before we pass, right? Yeah. Are you telling me that you want everything by age 25? So what do you have to look forward to? So I would tell everyone that, again, we’re all made different but equal. So do things that make you feel good, even, even though we are equal, or we’re individuals and what feels good to me and what makes me happy. You know, taking trips, every two months may not make you happy, that makes me happy. So I want to do things that I can be happy that I can take these trips every two months. And I think that each person should stop comparing there. So that’s the only thing that I don’t like about social media is it makes Children and it makes people accelerate their dreams. So they see that you’re selling on a boat, you’re 22 and they’re 22. Now they feel like they haven’t done anything in life. Maybe they’re not sailing away on the boat at 22. So I think that each individual, the best thing that we can do is stay individualized in our dreaming. I can’t dream for you and I don’t want it for you. I only want to dream of what inspired you know, like, what is going to inspire to Mika and what’s going to make to make a smile. And if we do that, and we stop comparing ourselves, you know, social media is great, as far as like business and showing, like what you’ve done and what you accomplish. But when you take it in as um, you know, the negative downside of it is that like, I wish that was me with an end like that. You’re not you’ve gave them the power of dreaming for you. So I think that’s what it is. If we just focus in on what makes us happy, then we can make the world happy. Because if we’re miserable, then we’re not adding happiness to the world. I think that’s what it is. Just know that each one is separate. And your your rate is not my way. This is not a race, actually. It’s not a race. And if we think like that, I think we’ll be more happier.

Zeke: Yeah, for me, I’m 22 it as a rapper. He’s 23 is another guy who’s like 23 he owns his own business. It’s somebody who works at my mom’s job who is also like, 23 we all like three, like four different parts of our lives. Right? Um, so like, I guess beginning like, starting the podcast, starting things new. And then a person my mom’s coworker have on my wristband from my podcast on, tI listen to the rappers music, and then the person has his own business. He’s pretty much same as me. But had, graduated with 3 majors and everything. So I was like we all the same age we were all like at  different spots Yeah.

Tamika Jeffrey: At different times of your life like and I compared to the same way you just compared it, I can see all my as you were talking, I seen all my friends. Yeah, we’re all different. And we’re able to add a little sprinkle to each other’s dream. So like, I’m dreaming of something she’s already completed it she can kind of help me get to that level by giving me information and then someone else who didn’t even think about starting their company were the same a for now they see me now they want to start a company. So I think it enhances people dream, but it shouldn’t be a hindrance. Yeah, when you’re around someone else that is at a higher level than you It’s inevitable it’s going to happen. And, you know, it’s I don’t know, how many billion people in the world, but someone’s going to be higher than the next at all times. Yeah. I think that we should like, see them take it in, let that either like motivate us, you know, are slow us down because it’s like, you know, yeah, he’s 22 Yes, all these cars, but then he has so much stress and I don’t want to be there so that, you know, it’s like being in the Yang, it’s the good and the bad. It just, it helps us and motivates us. And sometimes it can scare us, but yeah, it should be all be teachable moments that, you know, your speed is just not my speed. I’m okay with that. You know, so I think that is what the world needs to hear. Is that You know, I don’t want to keep saying social media, but that social media is not. It’s not the end all. You know, it’s not like oh my goodness, if I didn’t make it to social media and I didn’t get like 27,000 views on this, that then that means I’m nothing. That’s not how we should see it. So, yeah, I just think we all should see ourselves as individuals that make up one great world. Yeah.

Zeke: So what time do you have to leave to keep track of time?

Tamika Jeffrey: 12:30 I don’t know what time it is.

Zeke: It’s 12 o,.

Tamika Jeffrey: Yeah.

Zeke: Cool. So with that we can, what are your  next steps after like right now like, like expanding or like diversifying and stuff like that?

Tamika Jeffrey: Yeah, so I’m expanding I I’m in New York City, but I’m from Ohio. 90 so I’m definitely going to open a location there, if not in 2020 then 2021 I’m in the middle of building my house in Ohio as well. And then I want to have another location in Miami. Another thing that I want to do is I’m like in the Senegalese world. Yeah. Oh, I definitely want to have a location if not location in some sorcerer’s and Senegal and the reason I I want to do all of this is because recruiting as I just told you that my mentor said no one wants to recruit. But this is a very beneficial industry. Yeah. I’m not able Are you able to like work remotely, but you provide the the, the next vision of a company so I’m telling you about diversity, and because of me, like adding these candidates that are just diverse, I’m changing the whole mission statement of companies. And so if we’re able to do that, like, you know, each one teach one for able to do that, then eventually we’re going to change how companies, it’s mandatory how companies interview us. It’s mandatory how companies select us. It’s not like they are now selecting us to make their quota. They’re selecting us without even having the biases of who we are. They’re selecting us because we’re a great candidate. So that is definitely what I want to do. I also give a career breakthrough seminar at Morgan Stanley. And that is for individuals that for every question that you just asked today that has these questions and are unable to really hone in to their career, and it’s because there’s a lot of aspects at play that you can’t receive in school. Again, unfortunately, our Student advisors or school career advisors, if they’re only making 55,000 they can only give you $55,000 worth of information. Right? So you if you are trying to exceed beyond that what what happens? Where do you go to get this information? So I created career breakthrough, because I was sourcing for a lot of salaries that are above 110 120,000. The individual could have attained that salary. It’s just a lot of different things were missing. So I teach you how to interview I teach you how to write your resume. I teach you how to sell yourself, I bring in stylists, and I teach you how to know your work. I bring in life coaches, because a lot of times we don’t know our word. We think we’re just an employee. And so I want to change that stigma behind you know, that’s why I created career breakthrough. So that we know that like they need us more than we need them as far as like candidates Companies need candidates more than candidates needs companies. So, um, and I want to take that everywhere too and make sure that in a lot of the inner cities, they don’t know this information that we know like as far as how to read a resume and you know, and how to present yourself a lot of this is not taught. So I can be the conduit conduit that initiates this talk. That’s what I want to do.

Zeke: So you say like biases stuff like that, what kind of biases are there in the higher? Um,

Tamika Jeffrey: And so there’s about 14 different biases I’ll just give you like two like, one is called the halo effect. And the halo effect and what that is, is that yeah, this is a great one because you graduated from a Baruch so I automatically love you. I haven’t even seen your resume, but I love you. So when you come in, I resonate with that. Yeah, right. So now you’re gonna make it through. He’s not off of That that’s one of the biases and, and the hardest thing is the Ivy League biases. So if you graduated from my Ivy League and no fault Cushman and Wakefield that I’m gonna say this, but they only wanted Ivy League students. So we would travel around to the Ivy League schools interview them, they will come in, we will interview them, and that’s who we will send out an offer letters to. I’ve never sent an offer letter to a person at Baruch without Cushman and Wakefield, you know, because they felt that these children we see the best education and so that’s why they wanted to acquire these students and that’s totally wrong. Like I keep saying Baruch because you get the best bang for your buck. All my teachers were from Ivy League schools like they pop great. Um, they had a great structure. A great student plan. So that is a bias right there that we need to overcome. And that’s because we read their resume. And we think we automatically know who they are based off of their resume. I can read your resume and see your last name, and then say, Oh, you know what? I don’t know, based off of your last name, like, you know, Matt is terrible to me, or like, I just had a client three weeks ago that wanted me to look at the LinkedIn profile picture of the person that left and compare my candidates to her picture. No, I’m not taking you as a client. Because right there, you’re letting me know that. You know, the discrimination that’s going to occur for every other resume that I send you. So I mean, it’s hard. There’s a lot The things that has to happen in our world per se for this to change, but there’s a lot of small things that we can do as far as giving the information to recruitment, in house recruitment, so you have in house recruitment, which is called HR, then you have staffing agencies like me, it’s best if the company outsource all of their hiring to companies like me. Because then what happens is the recruiters that are in house, what they tend to do is choose people that they think fit into the culture. So if you tell me you love volleyball on Saturdays, and this this dad and I were talking, I understand that you Yeah, you should work here because we all love. This is what we do. Like this is how, you know but if you have an outsourced company that is doing an interview for you, and only giving you the candidates that match the qualification, this is going to change a culture of your company. So those are some of the, you know, the biases that I think it’s never brought up. And that’s what I seen, it was a lot of like push it under the rug or just send them here send them a candidate like this. And that’s unfair to the majority of us who are very qualified to work there. So if we have that knowledge, maybe it starts to change.

Zeke: Oh you also say bring in stylist and stuff, so how do you leverage your Um, relationships to get like people that helping you. So you say bring in stylist and stuff right? So how do you leverage your relationships and stuff? That you made over the years to help you with your business?

Tamika Jeffrey: Oh, I’m, I’m a communicator, though. I like to be in the place like I do a lot of networking. I go to now Networking like maybe two or three times per week, just different networking events that happen. And then too, I do a lot of this like one on ones where I want to learn about you, I want you to learn about me. And then one day, my passion, you know, if we just keep that open communication, whether I talk to you once a month, or, you know, every other month right now, it’s kind of just flowing to me because I just open this firm and so I get a lot of like advice, and I take it, you know, and I appreciate it. And I think that’s what it is. You just have to be an individual that is open and willing to take advice. And people want to hang around people like that where they feel like they can help you and your reciprocal. Love it. Um, and that’s how, you know, I’m not again, I’m not from New York City. So none of these people are like, Oh, I grew up with her and I, you know, I don’t know. I just meet them along the way and just keep an open mind. communication with them of like how they were they are how they’re doing. You know, I air. So that’s how.

Zeke: Let me look at the time. Okay. Lost my train of thought. So if like staffing and everything it’s so understand, trying to think of a question. So how do you try to combat these biases that are in all um?

Tamika Jeffrey: I try to teach people about their resume. Right. So your resume says a lot about you. And it’s because when we were in school, we weren’t taught this is how you do your resume. And after you get out of school, like no one else teaches you how to update your resume.

Zeke: Yeah.

Tamika Jeffrey: So a lot of things are about your resume like number one, if you do know languages and your home language just you say Spanish and your last name is Rodriguez. Unfortunately, my bias says, okay, he has an accent. Right? And most of our clients when you talk to them, they don’t want to hear a personal accent. So, like that is a bias that just automatically happen. So what I would tell an individual is, English is your first language you are in America. That’s your first language even though if it’s not, that’s your language. So you don’t have to put language English that lets me know that English is not your first language. Right so I wouldn’t put language on their skills. I don’t. I tell everyone skills are only things that you can teach someone else. So for your skills don’t put like adaptable work on time. Like I don’t know what those skills are just put skills that you could teach someone that would be Microsoft Office Suite, Google Suite, you know, and what other other apps that you know, that pertains to this. When you’re writing your summary, don’t write a summary. It’s that easy. Don’t write a summary. Just really tell me what like you can put an objection, objective and on your objective is to acquire a such and such position in a corporate setting. That’s your only objective. Like it’s just minimal, lets me know because the more writing you put, the more I read it, I can tell you’re linguistic. And so that alone is a bias that I think that we can come back. Know take away the power from the recruiters from the HR It’s hard to tell you not to put your LinkedIn up there but because I love when a person puts their LinkedIn on their resume. Um, but the picture thing, I don’t love the picture thing. I don’t love the picture thing on LinkedIn I would love to see your profile just to make sure that your profile matches your your resume, once a picture like it just throws everyone off and if you’re going to have a picture up there, just please make sure that it’s as professional as possible so that they can’t make any like you know, suggestions based off your picture of why you would not fit in that culture. Um, but other than that, a my in how to combat biases is really you have to take the power away from in house. That’s the only way because as recruiters, we don’t see anyone that works at the company. I meet with the hiring manager or the CEO only. I’m not really like traveling. around through the company to meet each employee, I meet the CEO or the hiring manager, they tell me what they’re looking for. And I can send them qualified candidates, non candidates that that matches the culture and that way, change the culture.

Zeke: Cool. So for time, I’m cut a short really took about an hour.

Tamika Jeffrey: That’s great.

Zeke: Yes. So, just as a last segment, where did we say your name your origin story? Can you say one more time? Okay. Maybe the origin story one more time. Now what story origin story like the beginning of the first question. Okay. So what is the story again? You said, it earlier.

Tamika Jeffrey: The Power of Happiness.

Zeke: Yeah, The Power of Happiness.

Tamika Jeffrey: Yes. So why would I call it the power of happiness?

Zeke: Yeah.

Tamika Jeffrey: Um, when I was living I went to an all white school. I’m the seven of seven siblings. And so at home on the flat, I’m the youngest. So I was like, every day I would go to school and golf in this white world. And then my name is Tamika like, it just everything felt like my movie. My anime would just be this little girl making it through like this. See, like this? I don’t know see white birds. I don’t know, this little black bird. And I don’t know if I was the prettiest I now consider myself pretty. But I don’t know if I was the prettiest, you know that little in a sea of these white birds and I just felt like a black bird that was never gonna make it until I started to get my wings and like now I’m here where I’m equal. And yeah, I’m a black bird but, you know, all the way birds want to eat with me. So it just yeah. And it all came from just, I don’t know if I always knew my power, but I had to have some type of power. Yeah. In order to make it through what my black friends, I would be like, why are you talking like that? You know? And then my wife friends is like, why is your hair like that like, and it was just so uneven I believe but just that power of believing in myself and that power of happiness, like I stayed happy, everyone you talked to like, in my path and say she was always happy. I laugh at everything and I think the power of happiness happiness. Got me to this place right here. Okay.

Zeke: Thank you for coming on.

Tamika Jeffrey: Thank you. Thank you. I’m going to send you an invite for Thursday. I would love for you to come at 6:30 in Time Square at Morgan Stanley. Okay, and then, okay, share with your network would be great too. I’ll send you the flyer.

Zeke: Okay, thank you, then, for this video, I can show you a sample you have a one angle, if it is good, just make the intro outro and do that real quick.

Tamika Jeffrey: Sorry, I’m not in a rush to receive it, you can just know that whenever and whenever it’s done, I’ll receive it.

Zeke: Because the way I’m doing the interviews is that since only one person, I’m gonna do like 30 a year. So this would be like the first the second season. Okay, so like I said to you before, then you can we say January, June. June. Yeah, so earlier

Tamika Jeffrey: Now yesterday, me whenever it’s ready and wanted and make sure that I look cute like, Oh, there you go. Okay.

Zeke: Yeah, kind of like because I did the first season between last year and this year. So now we see that as it goes, it’s trying to get a for season two.

Tamika Jeffrey: That is great. Like whatever I can do to like offer support or get you followers or whatever. Like, let me know. Um, oh, every Tuesday I do Dream Tuesdays on LinkedIn. So if you you want to be a dream Tuesday. Okay. What?

Zeke: Huh? Wait, what does that mean what time cuz,

Tamika Jeffrey: No Dream Tuesdays is I just put a picture up on LinkedIn and I talked about your dream.

Zeke: Okay. So,

Tamika Jeffrey: Yeah, at least it’ll get you like followers on podcasts or whatever. there’s anything I can do let me know and I’m here to do it.

Zeke: Okay, we can reach into that. Thank you. Okay, that brings another episode of the Let’s Gather Podcast to a close. Again, you can go to mydreamstaffing.com to get more information. And for next week I have a great artist, named King Hi to talk about his journey with music. I hope you continue to have a nice day and hope to see you there.

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