May 17, 2023 • 34 mins
Mickey Shimp is the President of Mix Talent, a Best Places to Work winner in Central Ohio for each of their 4 years of eligibility. Founded and run on a unique set of values known as the Mix O/S – Care, Solve, Deliver, and Win-Win – Mix has delivered results for over 100 clients, placing more than 2,000 people in life science companies in areas such as Cancer, Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, Sickle Cell, and Rare Diseases, and ultimately impacting millions of patients.
Shimp has over 25 years experience with service providers in the pharmaceutical and life science space. Beginning his career in the consumer products sector with clients such as Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and Nabisco, Shimp joined healthcare and life sciences recruiter Taylor Strategy Partners (TSP) in 1993 and was promoted to President in 2008. As President of TSP, he was instrumental in the development of clinical and commercial businesses and built long-term strategic partnerships with leading pharmaceutical clients. TSP was sold to Syneos Health in 2017 and Shimp joined Mix Talent in 2020.
Shimp has over 25 years experience with service providers in the pharmaceutical and life science space. Beginning his career in the consumer products sector with clients such as Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and Nabisco, Shimp joined healthcare and life sciences recruiter Taylor Strategy Partners (TSP) in 1993 and was promoted to President in 2008. As President of TSP, he was instrumental in the development of clinical and commercial businesses and built long-term strategic partnerships with leading pharmaceutical clients. TSP was sold to Syneos Health in 2017 and Shimp joined Mix Talent in 2020.
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(00:00):
Columbus and Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How did they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome does CEOs You Should Know andIhart Media Columbus Podcast. Welcome back
(00:20):
to another fine episode of CEOs YouShould Know and I Heart Media Columbus Podcast.
I'm your host boxer. This week, we're taking you into the world
of and Mickey's gonna tell me ifI'm wrong on this. In the world
of recruitment, finding the best ofthe best for different companies that are out
there finding those most talented people.I'm talking about Mixed Talent, and I'm
(00:42):
talking about Mickey Shim who is thepresident of Mixed Talent. Mickey, Welcome
to the podcast this week. Thankyou for having me on here. It's
a pleasure. We have a lotto get to. I want to hear
about your journey because I'm just kindof curious how does one land in the
world of an organization that deal withrecruiting and talent. And I should also
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be very specific when it comes tomixed talent. You are very specific,
you know, when you think recruitingagencies, talent agencies for so many years,
I think they were very broad.But you specialize in life sciences,
right correct. Yeah, we arevery fortunate to be in this space.
It's an exciting paid space for patientsand just to have a piece of the
(01:26):
action in that space is incredible.A lot of advances going on in technology.
Yeah, Mickey, let's start withyou first, before you got to
this level of president at Mixed Talent, Where are you from? Where did
you grow up? So? Igrew up in Gahanna and have been here
since I went up to High Wesleyan, went to school up there and played
a little basketball and just have beenin Columbus ever since. So what you're
(01:47):
saying is you're you're pretty decent atbasketball. We could play one on one
horse, pig something like that.Maybe there's no more playing basketball. If
you want to go shoot free throws, I'll give you your money's earth,
but we're not going up and downthe court anymore. No, you're not
doing that now. I bring thatout because side note, my wife actually
wanted to break up with me becauseI was so bad at basketball at one
(02:08):
point, so so you you youstill play. Though, on the side,
I've always wondered that when you're whenyou play a sport or do something
like that in college, does itstay with you. You wish you could,
but you start getting hurt, soyour ACL's go. You're Achilles ghosts
and it's just not not worth itanymore. So everybody wants to go hit
a golf ball, which I canabsolutely not do, but I could.
(02:30):
I could shoot free throws if youwant to do that. So see,
that's why you never see chess playerscomplain at all. You know, they're
never injured. It's never injured atall. You know, chess maybe fencing,
but fencing is a little bit dangeroustoo. So. Mickey Shrimp is
the president of Mixed Talent. He'sthis week's guest on CEOs. You should
(02:51):
know. So you grew up inGhannah, which, by the way,
that's where I live. Um,what did you want to do or what
did you think about as far asdreams when you were growing up? Where
where did you want to go?I mean it was pretty simple. From
an early stage, I thought Iwas going to be a professional basketball player,
and then I quickly figured out atfive foot seven, one hundred and
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ten pounds in high school that thatthat's not happening. So, you know,
I just enjoyed being around sports,and I thought I wanted to be
a coach someday maybe Yeah, Anduh then just kind of let into ll
you know, I'm not sure Iwant to do that either, and uh
kind of led into the entrepreneurial businessworld. So that's I find myself.
So and that's one thing I readabout you with your bio Mickey, is
(03:37):
you you're very inspired in the entrepreneurarena. Tell us more about that.
Yeah, I mean I I alwaysenjoyed um, challenges, um, and
that was kind of how sports kindof got into my blood and really get
that competitive nature. And I thought, you know what, there's nothing more
challenging and tougher than starting up abusiness. And it takes curridge, it
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takes grit, and you got tohave all those pieces put together and then
you play into the leadership piece andthe coaching piece, and it just seemed
like a perfect fit. I workedat a larger company called Accelogistics right out
of school and had a great experience, great training. They're now DHL.
But I just really had that passionto kind of do something entrepreneurial and build
something. You know, I've alwayswondered too when it and maybe it depends
(04:24):
on the background of the person youknow, for you when it comes to
be an entrepreneurial, did you havesomething specific you wanted to zero in on
product industry? I really kind offell into this business. My dad was
in the business for a number ofyears and he had partners and he was
getting out of the business. Thatnepotism thing always kind of bothered me.
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But I had a couple of partnersthat were kind of like family, and
I enjoy people, yea, andthat was kind of natural for me,
and so that's kind of I gotand I got into the recruiting business with
these two partners and we started upour companies would And by the way,
if I could back up, whenwhen you said your dad was in the
business, were you talking recruiting orthe logistics when you got he was in
he was in the recruiting business.He was an inspiration to me. And
(05:09):
the fact that he came from nothing, I mean, he had no college
degree from Cambridge, Ohio, hadcame from a great family, but but
no means. And so I watchedhim, um struggle. I think they
went through a couple of bankruptcies.They it was, it was, it
was a battle. And so youlearn how to work, you learn how
to show up, you learn howto fight, you learn all those skills.
(05:30):
Um, And at eighteen years old, you don't. You don't appreciate
that, right, You just hemade it safe for us to grow and
develop. But yeah, man,as I get older, you look back
and you go, holy cow,is he going through some stuff? And
um, that journey is kind ofI think in me a little bit in
terms of why do you learn fromthat? And you watch him go through
something like that. Mickey Shimp isthe president of Mixed Talent, all about
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recruiting and talent specifically in the LifeSciences Arena. We're gonna get more about
a Mixed Talent just a second.I'm thinking about your dad, and you're
right, at eighteen, you don'treally you know, even my sons who
are way younger than that, youknow, ten and seven, and they
have no idea some of the thingsI you know, you have to deal
with on a daily basis, andyou know what they're kids. They shouldn't
(06:15):
have to anyway. But when youlook back now, Mickey and you you
look at what your dad did andnot going to college, pretty impressive.
What kind of things did he tellyou growing up or vice wise? Yeah,
I mean the one thing he tellsmy brother and I and sister talk
about all the time when we wereyounger. He'd say, you know,
it's not it's not rocket science.To be successful is There's four There's four
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things. He'd say, show up, show up on time, work,
and do your job, not somebodyelse's job. And I thought, oh,
what in the world that is.That sounds like the dumbest thing I've
ever heard, Like that's so simple. But as you get older and you
look around and you watch your kids, and you watch you work lots of
(07:00):
people we were, We work withlots of companies you were, and it
really is that simple. And thenhe said, well, if you want
to be above, if you wantto be excellent, if you want to
be above successful, then show upfifteen minutes early. Yeah. And you
know that kind of rings true towhat I try to focus on, because
you can get there's lots of waysyou can go, there's lots of ways
to do it, but those basicfour things were kind of instilled in us
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from a young age. Mickey,if I could ask on that fourth one
with your dad, yeah, doyou do your job not someone else's.
Could you elaborate on that specifically?What did he mean by that? Yeah?
I think he meant to stay focused, stay in your lane. You're
part of a team. You've gotyour job to do. Somebody else has
their job to do. Trust thatperson to do their job. And if
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you start jumping in other people's lanesand start critiquing other people and getting out
of your lane, how does thatmake them feel? Yeah, you know,
they feel like you. You don'ttrust me, you don't think I
can do my job, And andand in small business, one of the
biggest mute is wasting time. Youjust you you got to divide and conquer.
(08:05):
We have I have six partners,and we spend a lot of time
defining our roles and dividing and conqueringbecause you don't have time for everybody to
be focused on one thing. There'sso much to do with so limited resources.
And so I think that's what hemeant by you know, do your
job, not somebody else's job.Mackey, You seem like a pretty thoughtful,
open gentleman who is willing to listento other ideas. But clearly there
(08:28):
must be times, especially with multiplefounders, where you don't always agree on
everything. So how do you howdo you squash that? How do you
how do you get to the nextlevel with disagreements? Yeah, I think
it's actually I think it's healthy.I think the more diversity you have in
thought and ideas um, the betteryour company is. And we bat ideas
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around and sometimes we go with somebody'sideas, sometimes we go with somebody else's
idea. It's just you've got tothink about the other person and appreciate where
they're coming from. And then atthe end of the day, somebody's got
to make a decision. And weget in a room and we bat things
around, not just the partners,but all the leadership team and anybody in
our company. Yeah, I meaneven the folks that are doing the job.
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That's who you really want to hearabout because they're in the trenches.
They know what's going on every day. So if you can get those ideas
together, then you got to makea decision and live with it. And
then you got to be quick enoughto react and change and go different directions.
Because it's entrepreneurial. You don't havetime to sit there and ride it
out for a year. So canI ask why is it that when a
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company gets so big, I feellike they don't have that same philosophy anymore.
Clearly they had to start off thatway, but all of a sudden
they get so big with so manyresources, and I'll just say it so
fat that is it? Can't theyhave those same values and attitude or is
(09:52):
it? Is it too difficult whenyou become so big. I think the
successful companies hang onto that as withtheir culture. They create that culture and
those values and they just drive thoseall the way through the organization. So
there are some large organizations that behavelike smaller companies, and then there's smaller
(10:13):
companies that sometimes behave like larger organizations. So it's all about the culture and
the people and the leaders. Ithink that determine that type of behavior.
But at the end of the day, it's like anything in life. If
there's you and I just sitting herehaving a conversation, goes fairly well.
You add my wife, you hadyour wife, you add a bunch of
(10:35):
other people when you get up toa hundred, next thing, you know,
you're a thousand, and it's it'sit's it's overwhelming to kind of manage
that type of volume. So youdo have to have some structures in place
that small business maybe doesn't necessarily haveto have. You get to it a
lot quicker because you're not moving toTitanic. Mickey, would you know there's
red tape always with you know,the bigger the company. I think maybe
(10:56):
it depends, but is it isit harder for when a decision is made?
Is it harder for a bigger companyto turn that around faster? Yeah?
I think so, Yeah, yeah, I think just in general,
And there's good reason. UM,in our space, UM, it's very
regulated. You know, the lifesciences industry. The FDA UM is heavily
involved in approving therapies and medicines andso for good reason. There's there's reasons
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that you have to have checks andbalances for safety and efficacy and all those
types of things. So, uh, and Mickey Shemp is with us from
Mixed Talent. So you came togetherwith with how many other people to form
Mixed Talent? How did that work? So there were six of us that
we had sold our last company thatwas in the similar business, Taylor Strategy
Partners and UH and then started upMixed Talent the six well seven total,
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but six partners. When you okay, let me back up. When you
started in this recruitment business. Whyrecruiting? Like why? Like how does
one even get into that? Informsomething? I think it's one of the
most rewarding jobs you could ever have. If you think about people, um
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having a job sometimes is the centerof who they are. It's how you
feed your family. Yeah, it'show you find um worth. And so
it is very cool to know thatyou play a small part in helping somebody
find that next career move that isso satisfying for them and their family and
they can go to kids can goto college, and they can pay for
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it. It's just that's rewarding tome. In this niche of life sciences
where you are finding medicines and therapiesthat that change that help people's lives in
some cases save their lives. Islike the the the super Bowl. Yeah,
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because there's an example of that.We have a client, a friend
of mine is the CEO of anautistic company. They have a drug or
a medicine for autism, and thisis severe autism, and these are kids
that are just it's terrible what theygo through and their family go through.
And we help them find their chiefmedical officer. That person is centered to
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all clinical development companies for research anddevelopment regulatory If they don't have that key
person who's a doctor in autism inCalifornia, that company's probably not going to
make it. And so we playa little part in that. Off the
tangent here, But why I dowhat we do is because of that and
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because we're have a small piece ofhelp and patients and helping candidates find that
next opportunity. Mackey, are thetalent are they coming to you? Are
you seeking out them? And whatabout the vetting process because clearly your reputation
is at stake, so you wantto make sure that I'm assuming you have
the very best candidate for companies A, B and C. Yeah, the
process is intense. We do reachout to a number of our candidates that
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are doing well in their careers andare more proactive. But with LinkedIn and
technology nowadays, everybody has access toeverybody, right, you know where everybody
is and so where where the magicis is in that the art of screening
and listening and interviewing and finding thatright fit, not for just the company
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because people think, oh, it'sjust for the No. No, you
want to have a good fit forthe candidate too, because that marriage.
You want that to work. Youwant them to go there and be successful.
You want the client or the companythat's hiring to be successful, and
you want the candidate to be successful. And we're in the middle making sure
that's a good fit. And ourfolks that we have at MIX, our
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average recruiters have over five years ofexperience, so we've got people who are
experts not only at doing that,but also doing that in this space.
Mickey, when did the idea comealong that your company should be very strategic,
very focused on one element, ifyou will, And that's and and
(15:01):
I'm not trying to say it's onedimensional life science. This is very broad,
but you know, instead of youknow, you could be there's media,
there's a there's manufacturing, there's allsorts of different industries, but you
decided to focus on life sciences.How did that come about? I?
Um, you know, we gotwe were very fortunate to have some mentors
um that got us in that spaceand it's a it's a it's a billion
(15:24):
dollar marketplace. And knowing that businessvery well is what's our special sauce.
Knowing how drugs get developed, Understandingall of that science side of things,
UM, is part of what makesus special. And you know, well
we expand we've done some work intechnology. UM, you know med device,
med tech is taken off. Sothere's there's things that tie into healthcare.
(15:48):
We may look at getting into thehealthcare space hospitals. But I learned
from a really good friend and amentor mind blame Walter years ago, just
just stay focused. UM. Somany times entrepreneurs can chase the new shiny
thing. I do that I haveadult ADHD, I think, and so
I can go running into different differentareas, but try to really stay focused
on what you're really good at.It's like my father in law. My
(16:11):
father in law tells me stick withwhat you know something along that line.
That's right. Yeah, I justhave to ask because I'm just curious.
Just to be completely transparent with you, mickey, how do you make money?
What's the business model? So thebusiness model is is that our clients
pay us to go find talent andthat comes in a lot of different ways.
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It can come from executive search typesof work. It can come from
what we call builds where they're buildingout a high volume of positions, whether
it's quality or sales, or metafairs where they're doing hundreds and hundreds of
hires at a time. We alsohave a consulting practice that goes into these
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companies and helps them set up theright systems from a talent acquisition standpoint and
an interviewing standpoint, and a processstandpoint. What's your workforce plan, what's
your executive package look like? Howdo you get data and information around that.
We help them from that perspective too, to make sure we are successful
once we go out and find candidates. So it's it's really when you think
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of a comprehensive talent solution offering.You talked earlier about how do you know
if you have the right people.We have PhD Industrial organizational psychologist who help
us screen and put people through thepaces around is this the right fit for
them from a competency standpoint, Andit's a study around how people perform at
(17:38):
work, And so you have thescience side of it with the kind of
recruiter side of things. But amazing. Yeah, I feel like in my
field, they'll take anyone, clearly, you know, clearly, they'll just
take anyone. How did I landhere again? Ah, that's another podcast
for another day. But but toyour point, Mickey, that's that's amazing.
(18:03):
That's amazing, the the vetting process. I have a whole new respect
for what you do. Yeah,it's it's it's the art of it.
Right. People think, you know, how hard is it? You get
a roll of quarters and a payphone and I'm a recruiter, you know,
and it's it's it's much more complexthan that. At the end of
the day. We're in the peoplebusiness. Yeah, we don't lose sight
(18:23):
of that, um, but thereis a lot of art to to finding
and attracting and selling and making thatperfect fit. Um, Because if you
get the wrong fit, that's that'snot good. And I'm sure you've had
folks that you may have hired orworked with it came in and very quickly
didn't work out, and it justcreates chaos for for the company and for
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the person. Um. Now they'vegot to go do this again and find
find another job. It's just um, really spending that time up front pays
off down the long run. Yeah, Mickey, I cannot relate because media
is perfect. I mean everyone thatcomes in is just amazing. No,
I need to stop. But youknow, Mickey, I'm thinking about those
that your your constituents, those thatyou work with, that are under you,
(19:11):
that you know, work every singleday with you, do do each
of you. I'm trying to thinkabout getting educated in life sciences. I
mean, there there must be alot of vast knowledge with your employees that
they've got to have or at leaststudy up on when it comes to the
field that you're recruiting for, right, Yeah, it's it's it's very complex,
(19:32):
um. And we hire folks typicallythat have come from that industry.
Okay, So you know, oneof the golden rules I learned early from
one of my mentors is hire peoplebetter than yourself. I like. And
if you keep doing that over andover and over and over again, if
you're the person that started that chain, you become the weak link. Yeah.
Right. And so the people thatwork at MIX are unbelievably talented at
(19:56):
the art of ta talent acquisition,but they're even more knowledgeable around this very
complex world of life sciences. Ithink we all got a taste of that
in a in a kind of openthe box of how drug development came with
COVID. People became very interested innow, hold on a second, here,
what's what's this what's this drug doingfor for fiser? And what's learn
(20:21):
all about something? And where arewe in the drug development face? I
mean, because it was right atour doorstep, and that takes seven years
to develop a drug and there isso much science involved in that I have
I am clueless as it relates tothe science side of things. And I
tell people that right out of blocks. They said, look, I am
not a PhD, I am notan MD. I'm in the people business.
But um, we've got some reallysmart people at MIX that understand how
(20:45):
that all ties together. Yeah,Mickey, how did COVID affect you and
Mix? Um? You know,it was like all businesses, it was
a challenge. UM. You know, we were sitting in our office UM
when we got the note from ourclient up in Austin, m at the
time. It was a client thatthe break, the outbreak came from,
and we had we had people thatwere at the meetings UM where the UM
(21:07):
where the outbreak came from in Boston. Wow. And so we were I
mean we we we we literally werehaving to think about our own employees that
were at these meetings, and sowe got very concerned for our people.
Number one and then number two,just get out, everybody, go home.
This career we have we can doit from home because it's a phone
(21:29):
and a computer. UM. Andso we just were very conservative about making
sure people were safe. UM.But the industry was buzzing, you know,
because they there was work to bedone UM from a drug development standpoint.
Lots of companies are in that spaceand they were hustling very hard to
UM to find a solution, whichthank goodness, they they they seek that
they have. I guess how postpandemic now, Bicky, how is it
(21:53):
worth the workplace if? UM,do you have any rules on because you
know a lot of the some ofthe bigger companies are now saying, okay,
you got to be back at leastthree four days a week. It's
important to be back. Now.The synergy between employees, we need that.
Again, how is it for youroffice? And by the way,
how many people work at MIX?So we have over a hundred people and
fifty some of them are here inColumbus. The other fifty are spread out
(22:17):
across the country, like thirty fivestates, mostly where life sciences in biotech
house, the East coast, Westcoast, and we've got folks spread across
the middle two. But for us, we want to create a place where
people want to come back to work. Okay, right, we would love
to have people at work. Wedo feel there's value with training and learning
(22:41):
and just building culture. Culture isso important at MIX. I don't know.
I tell people all the time,I don't know how we have culture
if nobody ever meets with each other. So we kind of need to get
together, right. But we don'thave a policy that says you got to
be in three days or two days. Every business is different, different levers
that you put. Some people haveto be in there because they're doing development
(23:02):
work. Some people need to bethere because they're leading a big team of
people. Yeah, we would Ourgoal is to have people come back to
work more. We're moving to somereally cool space over in the tech center
over there off a lane Avenue.I don't know if you've seen that.
Yeah, the softball fields used tobe that's gonna be That's a huge initiative
by the State of Ohio Ohio Stateand Children's Hospital, where they're rolling out
(23:25):
some of their therapies and doing alot of drug development over there and tech
development. So we're very excited tobe over there in that space. Wait
a minute, Okay, you're gonnamake fun of me. But isn't that
the building that's is right across theroad. Isn't it Tommy's Pizza right across
the road, and that's that's wherewe are. Yeah, yep, we're
gonna be filling up on Tommy's.Yeah, we gotta exactly. We're excited.
(23:48):
Yeah, the heck with the buildingTommy's base side across the road.
Yep. Anyway, Mackey from mixtellit is with us and this week's guest
on CEOs. You should know heis a very kind man. I've come
to know, just met him today. UM, I'm curious. Have you
ever had a candidate just not workout with the company, a talent that
(24:11):
that you've, you know, broughtto them, and it has that happened?
Sure? Yeah, sure, it'sthe people business, right. Um.
Nothing's perfect. Um, And asmuch as you can try on everybody's
sides to make it work, butjust sometimes things don't work. So Mickey
set this up for us. Doesa does a company when that's happened?
(24:32):
Does a company call you back andgo thanks a lot, Mickey, guy's
worthless? Or what happens? Ihope not. I hope our clients aren't
like that, but maybe maybe theyhave over the years. Um. You
know, I think we stay engagedin the process after the deal is quote
unquote done because we want to ensuresuccess. Um. So we we most
(24:56):
likely know that it's not going well. So if you you if you came
to work here and we placed youhere at iHeart, and we'd be falling
up with you weekly or monthly.How's it going Boxer? Um? Is
it what you thought it was?Um? Did we articulate things correctly?
No, Mick, I'm having challengeswith this or that. Um we talked
to the client. How's it workingout with Boxer? Yeah, you know,
well he's he's a little bit crazy. Well we knew that in the
(25:18):
process, so you know, butbut be true so so so we which
hopefully it's not a surprise. Um, And then we try to get involved.
You know, we have a groupof coaches that we have on our
team. That you know, maybethere's some coaching that can be done.
Are there things that proactively can cancan be done to make it work?
(25:40):
Because anybody that thinks that they're goingto go into a job and know everything
and be absolutely perfect is delusional.Nobody's perfect. So there's always things that
you're working on, UM and there'salways things the companies working on. Can
we help get that communication going tosee if it can work? And then
if it can't work, then howdo we how are we involved to help
(26:03):
that transition out, to give supportto both the client and the candidates,
to make sure that we're taking careof the people. Yeah, I mean
one of our core values at mixescare and I think we live that every
day in these because when tough timescome, that's when they learn if you
really care. Right, So,Mickey, you know, we're seeing a
lot of new companies come in here, maybe decide maybe from Silicon Valley,
(26:27):
decide well, this is this iswhere it's at, where we're going to
plant roots here now here in Columbus. I would imagine you're you're starting to
see a lot of that, butyou've also stayed and I know you were
raised here, But why the importanceof mixed Talent being based here in Columbus.
You know, I think it's UM. It's you know, you can
you can draw really great solid peopleUM to Columbus. UM, and we
(26:52):
we just love the vibe in Columbus. It's a it's it's easy to live
here at the cost of living isgood. It's easy to get to both
coasts. You're somewhat in the middle. UM to get to Boston it's an
hour and fifteen minutes New Jersey anhour, you know, so you're kind
of centrally located that way. UMand UH, and we've built our team
here and UM to move it wouldit just doesn't wouldn't make a lot of
(27:15):
sense in our business. I mean, some of our clients are in Columbus,
but most of them are on theEast Coast or West coast. That's
life science corridors. What's what's thegoal for the future of mixed talent,
Mickey Is. I mean, clearlyyou've already been expanding. What what's next?
You know, I don't think alot about I think about UM doing
(27:38):
great work and having a hell ofa lot of fun doing it, and
hiring great people and helping companies growand then the growth just kind of comes.
And I'm not one of those folksthat sit down and measures five year
plans. Yeah, like like measures. If we don't get to a thousand
people, it's a failure, it'snot. I mean, if we had
(28:00):
thirty people that were committed and wewere taking care of them and they were
part of the Mixed family and itis a family, UM, I'd be
happy with that. And it keepsgrowing and that's great too. There's other
areas that we're going to expand intoand get into UM strategically because our clients
are asking us for those types ofservices. But as it relates to to
(28:22):
Mix, I love, I lovebeing there. I love I love the
people. I love the business thatwe're in. And if somebody comes in
and wants to try something and growsomething else, let's let's go. You
know. It's being entrepreneurial and beingoptimistic mickey. If there's someone listening that
is either wanting to get into lifesciences that industry or feels like man,
(28:42):
I feel like I'm not getting anyheadway just sending my resume out. Can
can an individual come to you atMixed Talent? How does that work?
Yeah? I mean I think weUM, we get folks that come and
say, look, I'd like toexplore opportunities in that space, and we
we put get people on our databaseand and make sure we're aware of them.
(29:04):
UM. A lot of times ourclients come to us and go,
look, I need somebody with fifteenyears of regulatory experience, or I need
somebody that comes from the oncology worldand understands, UM, you know prostate
cancer. You know, like soit can get kind of technical. UM.
But if somebody wanted to get intothat space. I think researching those
companies on LinkedIn, they post alltheir jobs on LinkedIn. UM, there's
(29:27):
some UM. If you're in Columbus, there's a lot of activity around gene
therapy UM that's coming out of Children'sand OSUM with companies like Adelin and Forge
and um Amgen's coming to town UMout in that new development area where Intel's
coming. So there there's a lotof opportunities UM just here locally that you
(29:48):
could get your just get your footin the door and then expand from there.
Macky, here's something I just thoughtof. Does does a company that
you already represent or work with ormaybe not ever come to you you and
say, hey, can you wehave some resumes here, but we don't
have the time to vet these people. Can can you hear you? You
guys do them? Yeah, that'spart of UM. When they outsource,
(30:10):
UM, they're staffing to us.We do that for sure, and typically
that's how the process works. Um. You know, HR has a lot
of things to do between um,you know, employee relations and benefits and
compliance. I mean they wear aton of hats and so we become their
arms and legs in exactly what yousaid, that process of screening folks.
(30:34):
And I mean if you have youknow, if you have one opening,
you may have ten ten candidates,you may have one hundred resumes per opening.
Well, if you're building a salesforcefor a pharmaceutical biotech company and they
have three hundred openings, I meanyou're going through thousands of resumes right,
um, and they just don't havethe resources to do that. So we
(30:55):
become an extension of HR and helpthem through what exactly what you're talking about,
Boy Mickey, that makes more sensenow when you when you think about
that process of hiring. Oh,you know after two weeks people complain,
Oh I haven't heard anything yet,but now it all makes sense. One
you're competing against hundreds or as yousaid, thousands of others. It just
(31:15):
takes time. And it's also clearthat HR, the world of HR has
changed. Yeah, absolutely. Imean companies are focused on their culture and
their and and what their messages inthe marketplace, what's their brand on social
media? I mean it's so complexaround what HR has to deal with these
days. The UM. We havea podcast that goes through a lot of
(31:37):
those UM those challenges, and wehave guests that come on there and talk
about how about the virtual workplace?How does that work? Do you have
to make people come in twice?What if they don't come in twice a
week? Yeah, you know,how does that all work? And so
UM they don't typically give HR enoughresources UM to do what they have to
do UM And if you talk toany you've talked a lot of CEOs and
(32:00):
a lot of senior level folks,they would say, our people our most
important asset. Most companies say that, Okay, well, HR is a
direct relationship with that UM and it'sa lot of times just under understaffed.
And so that's where we can jumpin and help them be that arms and
legs and talk to them about employment, branding. What message you're talking to
(32:22):
the marketplace? What message do youwant to send to them? Yeah,
as an organization, and how isthat in line with your branding? Mackey,
I'm sure you're very busy. Guys. We start to wrap up with
mixed talent. What's family life like? What do you what do you like
to do when you're not working?So? I uh, I'm I'm an
almost a full empty nester. I'vegot two boys ones two year graduate of
(32:45):
ZA if you're the other ones atou UM, so we're getting close.
Um. You know, I loveUM to work, I love UM to
coach basketball. So I'm an assistantcoach up at Olan Tangi High School.
Help out up there and still getthat get to go in the gym and
and really all those life lessons thatare learned through sports, all those great
(33:07):
life lessons I learned. I hopeI can help the kids that are coming
up through not only at all onTangent, but other kids that I come
in contact with share some of thoselife lessons that I that I got yea
from a sport that was really greatto me. Mickey shimp He is the
president of Mixed talent Um. What'syour website in case someone wants to get
to know more about you the company, or play one on one basketball with
(33:30):
you. Www dot mix hyphen Talentdot com, Mix hyphen Talent dot com.
M I x m I x Mickey. It's been a real pleasure.
You've been a lot of fun.Thanks for being our guest this week.
I appreciate it. Thank you forhaving me. I feel like I've gotten
to spend some time with a locallegend. Oh my god, and we're
(33:52):
gonna stop right there. CEO asYou Should Know, is hosted and produced
by Brandy Boxer, a production ofI Media Columbus
Columbus and Central Ohio have a richhistory of companies being headquartered here, everything
from technology, manufacturing, retail,insurance, and more. But what about
the leaders behind these companies? Whatmakes them tick? How did they get
their start? This is where youget to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome does CEOs You Should Know andIhart Media Columbus Podcast. Welcome back
(00:20):
to another fine episode of CEOs YouShould Know and I Heart Media Columbus Podcast.
I'm your host boxer. This week, we're taking you into the world
of and Mickey's gonna tell me ifI'm wrong on this. In the world
of recruitment, finding the best ofthe best for different companies that are out
there finding those most talented people.I'm talking about Mixed Talent, and I'm
(00:42):
talking about Mickey Shim who is thepresident of Mixed Talent. Mickey, Welcome
to the podcast this week. Thankyou for having me on here. It's
a pleasure. We have a lotto get to. I want to hear
about your journey because I'm just kindof curious how does one land in the
world of an organization that deal withrecruiting and talent. And I should also
(01:03):
be very specific when it comes tomixed talent. You are very specific,
you know, when you think recruitingagencies, talent agencies for so many years,
I think they were very broad.But you specialize in life sciences,
right correct. Yeah, we arevery fortunate to be in this space.
It's an exciting paid space for patientsand just to have a piece of the
(01:26):
action in that space is incredible.A lot of advances going on in technology.
Yeah, Mickey, let's start withyou first, before you got to
this level of president at Mixed Talent, Where are you from? Where did
you grow up? So? Igrew up in Gahanna and have been here
since I went up to High Wesleyan, went to school up there and played
a little basketball and just have beenin Columbus ever since. So what you're
(01:47):
saying is you're you're pretty decent atbasketball. We could play one on one
horse, pig something like that.Maybe there's no more playing basketball. If
you want to go shoot free throws, I'll give you your money's earth,
but we're not going up and downthe court anymore. No, you're not
doing that now. I bring thatout because side note, my wife actually
wanted to break up with me becauseI was so bad at basketball at one
(02:08):
point, so so you you youstill play. Though, on the side,
I've always wondered that when you're whenyou play a sport or do something
like that in college, does itstay with you. You wish you could,
but you start getting hurt, soyour ACL's go. You're Achilles ghosts
and it's just not not worth itanymore. So everybody wants to go hit
a golf ball, which I canabsolutely not do, but I could.
(02:30):
I could shoot free throws if youwant to do that. So see,
that's why you never see chess playerscomplain at all. You know, they're
never injured. It's never injured atall. You know, chess maybe fencing,
but fencing is a little bit dangeroustoo. So. Mickey Shrimp is
the president of Mixed Talent. He'sthis week's guest on CEOs. You should
(02:51):
know. So you grew up inGhannah, which, by the way,
that's where I live. Um,what did you want to do or what
did you think about as far asdreams when you were growing up? Where
where did you want to go?I mean it was pretty simple. From
an early stage, I thought Iwas going to be a professional basketball player,
and then I quickly figured out atfive foot seven, one hundred and
(03:14):
ten pounds in high school that thatthat's not happening. So, you know,
I just enjoyed being around sports,and I thought I wanted to be
a coach someday maybe Yeah, Anduh then just kind of let into ll
you know, I'm not sure Iwant to do that either, and uh
kind of led into the entrepreneurial businessworld. So that's I find myself.
So and that's one thing I readabout you with your bio Mickey, is
(03:37):
you you're very inspired in the entrepreneurarena. Tell us more about that.
Yeah, I mean I I alwaysenjoyed um, challenges, um, and
that was kind of how sports kindof got into my blood and really get
that competitive nature. And I thought, you know what, there's nothing more
challenging and tougher than starting up abusiness. And it takes curridge, it
(04:00):
takes grit, and you got tohave all those pieces put together and then
you play into the leadership piece andthe coaching piece, and it just seemed
like a perfect fit. I workedat a larger company called Accelogistics right out
of school and had a great experience, great training. They're now DHL.
But I just really had that passionto kind of do something entrepreneurial and build
something. You know, I've alwayswondered too when it and maybe it depends
(04:24):
on the background of the person youknow, for you when it comes to
be an entrepreneurial, did you havesomething specific you wanted to zero in on
product industry? I really kind offell into this business. My dad was
in the business for a number ofyears and he had partners and he was
getting out of the business. Thatnepotism thing always kind of bothered me.
(04:46):
But I had a couple of partnersthat were kind of like family, and
I enjoy people, yea, andthat was kind of natural for me,
and so that's kind of I gotand I got into the recruiting business with
these two partners and we started upour companies would And by the way,
if I could back up, whenwhen you said your dad was in the
business, were you talking recruiting orthe logistics when you got he was in
he was in the recruiting business.He was an inspiration to me. And
(05:09):
the fact that he came from nothing, I mean, he had no college
degree from Cambridge, Ohio, hadcame from a great family, but but
no means. And so I watchedhim, um struggle. I think they
went through a couple of bankruptcies.They it was, it was, it
was a battle. And so youlearn how to work, you learn how
to show up, you learn howto fight, you learn all those skills.
(05:30):
Um, And at eighteen years old, you don't. You don't appreciate
that, right, You just hemade it safe for us to grow and
develop. But yeah, man,as I get older, you look back
and you go, holy cow,is he going through some stuff? And
um, that journey is kind ofI think in me a little bit in
terms of why do you learn fromthat? And you watch him go through
something like that. Mickey Shimp isthe president of Mixed Talent, all about
(05:54):
recruiting and talent specifically in the LifeSciences Arena. We're gonna get more about
a Mixed Talent just a second.I'm thinking about your dad, and you're
right, at eighteen, you don'treally you know, even my sons who
are way younger than that, youknow, ten and seven, and they
have no idea some of the thingsI you know, you have to deal
with on a daily basis, andyou know what they're kids. They shouldn't
(06:15):
have to anyway. But when youlook back now, Mickey and you you
look at what your dad did andnot going to college, pretty impressive.
What kind of things did he tellyou growing up or vice wise? Yeah,
I mean the one thing he tellsmy brother and I and sister talk
about all the time when we wereyounger. He'd say, you know,
it's not it's not rocket science.To be successful is There's four There's four
(06:38):
things. He'd say, show up, show up on time, work,
and do your job, not somebodyelse's job. And I thought, oh,
what in the world that is.That sounds like the dumbest thing I've
ever heard, Like that's so simple. But as you get older and you
look around and you watch your kids, and you watch you work lots of
(07:00):
people we were, We work withlots of companies you were, and it
really is that simple. And thenhe said, well, if you want
to be above, if you wantto be excellent, if you want to
be above successful, then show upfifteen minutes early. Yeah. And you
know that kind of rings true towhat I try to focus on, because
you can get there's lots of waysyou can go, there's lots of ways
to do it, but those basicfour things were kind of instilled in us
(07:24):
from a young age. Mickey,if I could ask on that fourth one
with your dad, yeah, doyou do your job not someone else's.
Could you elaborate on that specifically?What did he mean by that? Yeah?
I think he meant to stay focused, stay in your lane. You're
part of a team. You've gotyour job to do. Somebody else has
their job to do. Trust thatperson to do their job. And if
(07:45):
you start jumping in other people's lanesand start critiquing other people and getting out
of your lane, how does thatmake them feel? Yeah, you know,
they feel like you. You don'ttrust me, you don't think I
can do my job, And andand in small business, one of the
biggest mute is wasting time. Youjust you you got to divide and conquer.
(08:05):
We have I have six partners,and we spend a lot of time
defining our roles and dividing and conqueringbecause you don't have time for everybody to
be focused on one thing. There'sso much to do with so limited resources.
And so I think that's what hemeant by you know, do your
job, not somebody else's job.Mackey, You seem like a pretty thoughtful,
open gentleman who is willing to listento other ideas. But clearly there
(08:28):
must be times, especially with multiplefounders, where you don't always agree on
everything. So how do you howdo you squash that? How do you
how do you get to the nextlevel with disagreements? Yeah, I think
it's actually I think it's healthy.I think the more diversity you have in
thought and ideas um, the betteryour company is. And we bat ideas
(08:48):
around and sometimes we go with somebody'sideas, sometimes we go with somebody else's
idea. It's just you've got tothink about the other person and appreciate where
they're coming from. And then atthe end of the day, somebody's got
to make a decision. And weget in a room and we bat things
around, not just the partners,but all the leadership team and anybody in
our company. Yeah, I meaneven the folks that are doing the job.
(09:09):
That's who you really want to hearabout because they're in the trenches.
They know what's going on every day. So if you can get those ideas
together, then you got to makea decision and live with it. And
then you got to be quick enoughto react and change and go different directions.
Because it's entrepreneurial. You don't havetime to sit there and ride it
out for a year. So canI ask why is it that when a
(09:31):
company gets so big, I feellike they don't have that same philosophy anymore.
Clearly they had to start off thatway, but all of a sudden
they get so big with so manyresources, and I'll just say it so
fat that is it? Can't theyhave those same values and attitude or is
(09:52):
it? Is it too difficult whenyou become so big. I think the
successful companies hang onto that as withtheir culture. They create that culture and
those values and they just drive thoseall the way through the organization. So
there are some large organizations that behavelike smaller companies, and then there's smaller
(10:13):
companies that sometimes behave like larger organizations. So it's all about the culture and
the people and the leaders. Ithink that determine that type of behavior.
But at the end of the day, it's like anything in life. If
there's you and I just sitting herehaving a conversation, goes fairly well.
You add my wife, you hadyour wife, you add a bunch of
(10:35):
other people when you get up toa hundred, next thing, you know,
you're a thousand, and it's it'sit's it's overwhelming to kind of manage
that type of volume. So youdo have to have some structures in place
that small business maybe doesn't necessarily haveto have. You get to it a
lot quicker because you're not moving toTitanic. Mickey, would you know there's
red tape always with you know,the bigger the company. I think maybe
(10:56):
it depends, but is it isit harder for when a decision is made?
Is it harder for a bigger companyto turn that around faster? Yeah?
I think so, Yeah, yeah, I think just in general,
And there's good reason. UM,in our space, UM, it's very
regulated. You know, the lifesciences industry. The FDA UM is heavily
involved in approving therapies and medicines andso for good reason. There's there's reasons
(11:20):
that you have to have checks andbalances for safety and efficacy and all those
types of things. So, uh, and Mickey Shemp is with us from
Mixed Talent. So you came togetherwith with how many other people to form
Mixed Talent? How did that work? So there were six of us that
we had sold our last company thatwas in the similar business, Taylor Strategy
Partners and UH and then started upMixed Talent the six well seven total,
(11:43):
but six partners. When you okay, let me back up. When you
started in this recruitment business. Whyrecruiting? Like why? Like how does
one even get into that? Informsomething? I think it's one of the
most rewarding jobs you could ever have. If you think about people, um
(12:05):
having a job sometimes is the centerof who they are. It's how you
feed your family. Yeah, it'show you find um worth. And so
it is very cool to know thatyou play a small part in helping somebody
find that next career move that isso satisfying for them and their family and
they can go to kids can goto college, and they can pay for
(12:26):
it. It's just that's rewarding tome. In this niche of life sciences
where you are finding medicines and therapiesthat that change that help people's lives in
some cases save their lives. Islike the the the super Bowl. Yeah,
(12:48):
because there's an example of that.We have a client, a friend
of mine is the CEO of anautistic company. They have a drug or
a medicine for autism, and thisis severe autism, and these are kids
that are just it's terrible what theygo through and their family go through.
And we help them find their chiefmedical officer. That person is centered to
(13:09):
all clinical development companies for research anddevelopment regulatory If they don't have that key
person who's a doctor in autism inCalifornia, that company's probably not going to
make it. And so we playa little part in that. Off the
tangent here, But why I dowhat we do is because of that and
(13:30):
because we're have a small piece ofhelp and patients and helping candidates find that
next opportunity. Mackey, are thetalent are they coming to you? Are
you seeking out them? And whatabout the vetting process because clearly your reputation
is at stake, so you wantto make sure that I'm assuming you have
the very best candidate for companies A, B and C. Yeah, the
process is intense. We do reachout to a number of our candidates that
(13:56):
are doing well in their careers andare more proactive. But with LinkedIn and
technology nowadays, everybody has access toeverybody, right, you know where everybody
is and so where where the magicis is in that the art of screening
and listening and interviewing and finding thatright fit, not for just the company
(14:18):
because people think, oh, it'sjust for the No. No, you
want to have a good fit forthe candidate too, because that marriage.
You want that to work. Youwant them to go there and be successful.
You want the client or the companythat's hiring to be successful, and
you want the candidate to be successful. And we're in the middle making sure
that's a good fit. And ourfolks that we have at MIX, our
(14:39):
average recruiters have over five years ofexperience, so we've got people who are
experts not only at doing that,but also doing that in this space.
Mickey, when did the idea comealong that your company should be very strategic,
very focused on one element, ifyou will, And that's and and
(15:01):
I'm not trying to say it's onedimensional life science. This is very broad,
but you know, instead of youknow, you could be there's media,
there's a there's manufacturing, there's allsorts of different industries, but you
decided to focus on life sciences.How did that come about? I?
Um, you know, we gotwe were very fortunate to have some mentors
um that got us in that spaceand it's a it's a it's a billion
(15:24):
dollar marketplace. And knowing that businessvery well is what's our special sauce.
Knowing how drugs get developed, Understandingall of that science side of things,
UM, is part of what makesus special. And you know, well
we expand we've done some work intechnology. UM, you know med device,
med tech is taken off. Sothere's there's things that tie into healthcare.
(15:48):
We may look at getting into thehealthcare space hospitals. But I learned
from a really good friend and amentor mind blame Walter years ago, just
just stay focused. UM. Somany times entrepreneurs can chase the new shiny
thing. I do that I haveadult ADHD, I think, and so
I can go running into different differentareas, but try to really stay focused
on what you're really good at.It's like my father in law. My
(16:11):
father in law tells me stick withwhat you know something along that line.
That's right. Yeah, I justhave to ask because I'm just curious.
Just to be completely transparent with you, mickey, how do you make money?
What's the business model? So thebusiness model is is that our clients
pay us to go find talent andthat comes in a lot of different ways.
(16:33):
It can come from executive search typesof work. It can come from
what we call builds where they're buildingout a high volume of positions, whether
it's quality or sales, or metafairs where they're doing hundreds and hundreds of
hires at a time. We alsohave a consulting practice that goes into these
(16:53):
companies and helps them set up theright systems from a talent acquisition standpoint and
an interviewing standpoint, and a processstandpoint. What's your workforce plan, what's
your executive package look like? Howdo you get data and information around that.
We help them from that perspective too, to make sure we are successful
once we go out and find candidates. So it's it's really when you think
(17:15):
of a comprehensive talent solution offering.You talked earlier about how do you know
if you have the right people.We have PhD Industrial organizational psychologist who help
us screen and put people through thepaces around is this the right fit for
them from a competency standpoint, Andit's a study around how people perform at
(17:38):
work, And so you have thescience side of it with the kind of
recruiter side of things. But amazing. Yeah, I feel like in my
field, they'll take anyone, clearly, you know, clearly, they'll just
take anyone. How did I landhere again? Ah, that's another podcast
for another day. But but toyour point, Mickey, that's that's amazing.
(18:03):
That's amazing, the the vetting process. I have a whole new respect
for what you do. Yeah,it's it's it's the art of it.
Right. People think, you know, how hard is it? You get
a roll of quarters and a payphone and I'm a recruiter, you know,
and it's it's it's much more complexthan that. At the end of
the day. We're in the peoplebusiness. Yeah, we don't lose sight
(18:23):
of that, um, but thereis a lot of art to to finding
and attracting and selling and making thatperfect fit. Um, Because if you
get the wrong fit, that's that'snot good. And I'm sure you've had
folks that you may have hired orworked with it came in and very quickly
didn't work out, and it justcreates chaos for for the company and for
(18:48):
the person. Um. Now they'vegot to go do this again and find
find another job. It's just um, really spending that time up front pays
off down the long run. Yeah, Mickey, I cannot relate because media
is perfect. I mean everyone thatcomes in is just amazing. No,
I need to stop. But youknow, Mickey, I'm thinking about those
that your your constituents, those thatyou work with, that are under you,
(19:11):
that you know, work every singleday with you, do do each
of you. I'm trying to thinkabout getting educated in life sciences. I
mean, there there must be alot of vast knowledge with your employees that
they've got to have or at leaststudy up on when it comes to the
field that you're recruiting for, right, Yeah, it's it's it's very complex,
(19:32):
um. And we hire folks typicallythat have come from that industry.
Okay, So you know, oneof the golden rules I learned early from
one of my mentors is hire peoplebetter than yourself. I like. And
if you keep doing that over andover and over and over again, if
you're the person that started that chain, you become the weak link. Yeah.
Right. And so the people thatwork at MIX are unbelievably talented at
(19:56):
the art of ta talent acquisition,but they're even more knowledgeable around this very
complex world of life sciences. Ithink we all got a taste of that
in a in a kind of openthe box of how drug development came with
COVID. People became very interested innow, hold on a second, here,
what's what's this what's this drug doingfor for fiser? And what's learn
(20:21):
all about something? And where arewe in the drug development face? I
mean, because it was right atour doorstep, and that takes seven years
to develop a drug and there isso much science involved in that I have
I am clueless as it relates tothe science side of things. And I
tell people that right out of blocks. They said, look, I am
not a PhD, I am notan MD. I'm in the people business.
But um, we've got some reallysmart people at MIX that understand how
(20:45):
that all ties together. Yeah,Mickey, how did COVID affect you and
Mix? Um? You know,it was like all businesses, it was
a challenge. UM. You know, we were sitting in our office UM
when we got the note from ourclient up in Austin, m at the
time. It was a client thatthe break, the outbreak came from,
and we had we had people thatwere at the meetings UM where the UM
(21:07):
where the outbreak came from in Boston. Wow. And so we were I
mean we we we we literally werehaving to think about our own employees that
were at these meetings, and sowe got very concerned for our people.
Number one and then number two,just get out, everybody, go home.
This career we have we can doit from home because it's a phone
(21:29):
and a computer. UM. Andso we just were very conservative about making
sure people were safe. UM.But the industry was buzzing, you know,
because they there was work to bedone UM from a drug development standpoint.
Lots of companies are in that spaceand they were hustling very hard to
UM to find a solution, whichthank goodness, they they they seek that
they have. I guess how postpandemic now, Bicky, how is it
(21:53):
worth the workplace if? UM,do you have any rules on because you
know a lot of the some ofthe bigger companies are now saying, okay,
you got to be back at leastthree four days a week. It's
important to be back. Now.The synergy between employees, we need that.
Again, how is it for youroffice? And by the way,
how many people work at MIX?So we have over a hundred people and
fifty some of them are here inColumbus. The other fifty are spread out
(22:17):
across the country, like thirty fivestates, mostly where life sciences in biotech
house, the East coast, Westcoast, and we've got folks spread across
the middle two. But for us, we want to create a place where
people want to come back to work. Okay, right, we would love
to have people at work. Wedo feel there's value with training and learning
(22:41):
and just building culture. Culture isso important at MIX. I don't know.
I tell people all the time,I don't know how we have culture
if nobody ever meets with each other. So we kind of need to get
together, right. But we don'thave a policy that says you got to
be in three days or two days. Every business is different, different levers
that you put. Some people haveto be in there because they're doing development
(23:02):
work. Some people need to bethere because they're leading a big team of
people. Yeah, we would Ourgoal is to have people come back to
work more. We're moving to somereally cool space over in the tech center
over there off a lane Avenue.I don't know if you've seen that.
Yeah, the softball fields used tobe that's gonna be That's a huge initiative
by the State of Ohio Ohio Stateand Children's Hospital, where they're rolling out
(23:25):
some of their therapies and doing alot of drug development over there and tech
development. So we're very excited tobe over there in that space. Wait
a minute, Okay, you're gonnamake fun of me. But isn't that
the building that's is right across theroad. Isn't it Tommy's Pizza right across
the road, and that's that's wherewe are. Yeah, yep, we're
gonna be filling up on Tommy's.Yeah, we gotta exactly. We're excited.
(23:48):
Yeah, the heck with the buildingTommy's base side across the road.
Yep. Anyway, Mackey from mixtellit is with us and this week's guest
on CEOs. You should know heis a very kind man. I've come
to know, just met him today. UM, I'm curious. Have you
ever had a candidate just not workout with the company, a talent that
(24:11):
that you've, you know, broughtto them, and it has that happened?
Sure? Yeah, sure, it'sthe people business, right. Um.
Nothing's perfect. Um, And asmuch as you can try on everybody's
sides to make it work, butjust sometimes things don't work. So Mickey
set this up for us. Doesa does a company when that's happened?
(24:32):
Does a company call you back andgo thanks a lot, Mickey, guy's
worthless? Or what happens? Ihope not. I hope our clients aren't
like that, but maybe maybe theyhave over the years. Um. You
know, I think we stay engagedin the process after the deal is quote
unquote done because we want to ensuresuccess. Um. So we we most
(24:56):
likely know that it's not going well. So if you you if you came
to work here and we placed youhere at iHeart, and we'd be falling
up with you weekly or monthly.How's it going Boxer? Um? Is
it what you thought it was?Um? Did we articulate things correctly?
No, Mick, I'm having challengeswith this or that. Um we talked
to the client. How's it workingout with Boxer? Yeah, you know,
well he's he's a little bit crazy. Well we knew that in the
(25:18):
process, so you know, butbut be true so so so we which
hopefully it's not a surprise. Um, And then we try to get involved.
You know, we have a groupof coaches that we have on our
team. That you know, maybethere's some coaching that can be done.
Are there things that proactively can cancan be done to make it work?
(25:40):
Because anybody that thinks that they're goingto go into a job and know everything
and be absolutely perfect is delusional.Nobody's perfect. So there's always things that
you're working on, UM and there'salways things the companies working on. Can
we help get that communication going tosee if it can work? And then
if it can't work, then howdo we how are we involved to help
(26:03):
that transition out, to give supportto both the client and the candidates,
to make sure that we're taking careof the people. Yeah, I mean
one of our core values at mixescare and I think we live that every
day in these because when tough timescome, that's when they learn if you
really care. Right, So,Mickey, you know, we're seeing a
lot of new companies come in here, maybe decide maybe from Silicon Valley,
(26:27):
decide well, this is this iswhere it's at, where we're going to
plant roots here now here in Columbus. I would imagine you're you're starting to
see a lot of that, butyou've also stayed and I know you were
raised here, But why the importanceof mixed Talent being based here in Columbus.
You know, I think it's UM. It's you know, you can
you can draw really great solid peopleUM to Columbus. UM, and we
(26:52):
we just love the vibe in Columbus. It's a it's it's easy to live
here at the cost of living isgood. It's easy to get to both
coasts. You're somewhat in the middle. UM to get to Boston it's an
hour and fifteen minutes New Jersey anhour, you know, so you're kind
of centrally located that way. UMand UH, and we've built our team
here and UM to move it wouldit just doesn't wouldn't make a lot of
(27:15):
sense in our business. I mean, some of our clients are in Columbus,
but most of them are on theEast Coast or West coast. That's
life science corridors. What's what's thegoal for the future of mixed talent,
Mickey Is. I mean, clearlyyou've already been expanding. What what's next?
You know, I don't think alot about I think about UM doing
(27:38):
great work and having a hell ofa lot of fun doing it, and
hiring great people and helping companies growand then the growth just kind of comes.
And I'm not one of those folksthat sit down and measures five year
plans. Yeah, like like measures. If we don't get to a thousand
people, it's a failure, it'snot. I mean, if we had
(28:00):
thirty people that were committed and wewere taking care of them and they were
part of the Mixed family and itis a family, UM, I'd be
happy with that. And it keepsgrowing and that's great too. There's other
areas that we're going to expand intoand get into UM strategically because our clients
are asking us for those types ofservices. But as it relates to to
(28:22):
Mix, I love, I lovebeing there. I love I love the
people. I love the business thatwe're in. And if somebody comes in
and wants to try something and growsomething else, let's let's go. You
know. It's being entrepreneurial and beingoptimistic mickey. If there's someone listening that
is either wanting to get into lifesciences that industry or feels like man,
(28:42):
I feel like I'm not getting anyheadway just sending my resume out. Can
can an individual come to you atMixed Talent? How does that work?
Yeah? I mean I think weUM, we get folks that come and
say, look, I'd like toexplore opportunities in that space, and we
we put get people on our databaseand and make sure we're aware of them.
(29:04):
UM. A lot of times ourclients come to us and go,
look, I need somebody with fifteenyears of regulatory experience, or I need
somebody that comes from the oncology worldand understands, UM, you know prostate
cancer. You know, like soit can get kind of technical. UM.
But if somebody wanted to get intothat space. I think researching those
companies on LinkedIn, they post alltheir jobs on LinkedIn. UM, there's
(29:27):
some UM. If you're in Columbus, there's a lot of activity around gene
therapy UM that's coming out of Children'sand OSUM with companies like Adelin and Forge
and um Amgen's coming to town UMout in that new development area where Intel's
coming. So there there's a lotof opportunities UM just here locally that you
(29:48):
could get your just get your footin the door and then expand from there.
Macky, here's something I just thoughtof. Does does a company that
you already represent or work with ormaybe not ever come to you you and
say, hey, can you wehave some resumes here, but we don't
have the time to vet these people. Can can you hear you? You
guys do them? Yeah, that'spart of UM. When they outsource,
(30:10):
UM, they're staffing to us.We do that for sure, and typically
that's how the process works. Um. You know, HR has a lot
of things to do between um,you know, employee relations and benefits and
compliance. I mean they wear aton of hats and so we become their
arms and legs in exactly what yousaid, that process of screening folks.
(30:34):
And I mean if you have youknow, if you have one opening,
you may have ten ten candidates,you may have one hundred resumes per opening.
Well, if you're building a salesforcefor a pharmaceutical biotech company and they
have three hundred openings, I meanyou're going through thousands of resumes right,
um, and they just don't havethe resources to do that. So we
(30:55):
become an extension of HR and helpthem through what exactly what you're talking about,
Boy Mickey, that makes more sensenow when you when you think about
that process of hiring. Oh,you know after two weeks people complain,
Oh I haven't heard anything yet,but now it all makes sense. One
you're competing against hundreds or as yousaid, thousands of others. It just
(31:15):
takes time. And it's also clearthat HR, the world of HR has
changed. Yeah, absolutely. Imean companies are focused on their culture and
their and and what their messages inthe marketplace, what's their brand on social
media? I mean it's so complexaround what HR has to deal with these
days. The UM. We havea podcast that goes through a lot of
(31:37):
those UM those challenges, and wehave guests that come on there and talk
about how about the virtual workplace?How does that work? Do you have
to make people come in twice?What if they don't come in twice a
week? Yeah, you know,how does that all work? And so
UM they don't typically give HR enoughresources UM to do what they have to
do UM And if you talk toany you've talked a lot of CEOs and
(32:00):
a lot of senior level folks,they would say, our people our most
important asset. Most companies say that, Okay, well, HR is a
direct relationship with that UM and it'sa lot of times just under understaffed.
And so that's where we can jumpin and help them be that arms and
legs and talk to them about employment, branding. What message you're talking to
(32:22):
the marketplace? What message do youwant to send to them? Yeah,
as an organization, and how isthat in line with your branding? Mackey,
I'm sure you're very busy. Guys. We start to wrap up with
mixed talent. What's family life like? What do you what do you like
to do when you're not working?So? I uh, I'm I'm an
almost a full empty nester. I'vegot two boys ones two year graduate of
(32:45):
ZA if you're the other ones atou UM, so we're getting close.
Um. You know, I loveUM to work, I love UM to
coach basketball. So I'm an assistantcoach up at Olan Tangi High School.
Help out up there and still getthat get to go in the gym and
and really all those life lessons thatare learned through sports, all those great
(33:07):
life lessons I learned. I hopeI can help the kids that are coming
up through not only at all onTangent, but other kids that I come
in contact with share some of thoselife lessons that I that I got yea
from a sport that was really greatto me. Mickey shimp He is the
president of Mixed talent Um. What'syour website in case someone wants to get
to know more about you the company, or play one on one basketball with
(33:30):
you. Www dot mix hyphen Talentdot com, Mix hyphen Talent dot com.
M I x m I x Mickey. It's been a real pleasure.
You've been a lot of fun.Thanks for being our guest this week.
I appreciate it. Thank you forhaving me. I feel like I've gotten
to spend some time with a locallegend. Oh my god, and we're
(33:52):
gonna stop right there. CEO asYou Should Know, is hosted and produced
by Brandy Boxer, a production ofI Media Columbus
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