Clockout with Julia Arpag

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Episode Summary:

Season One | Episode 18

“Clockout with Julia Arpag” is a story about building something meaningful at work and at home. Julia shares how she turned her love for connecting people into a business rooted in purpose, faith, and high-performance recruiting. As founder of Aligned Recruitment, she’s proof that you can lead with heart, hire with intention, and still build world-class teams.

 Catch the full episode below and hear how Julia redefined what a career in recruiting can look like.

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Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (00:07)

recording in progress.

Desiree Goldey (00:07)

Well...

Well, hello everyone. Welcome to Clock Out with Talentless. Another great show we have for you today. We're the biggest names in talent and HR. Kick off their shoes and tell us their story and their journey. No real crappy buzzwords today. No HR speak. We're just going to dive in. And tonight I am so excited to be joined with Julia Arpag, who is the CEO and founder of Aligned Recruitment. And if you haven't heard about it, I don't know where you've been probably under

a rock. ⁓ She's doing great work. I think she just got named on some really big list of recruiting firms. I just saw that on LinkedIn today. So I am so excited to have you here. know Alliance started in 2023, I believe, ⁓ and she's already hit like seven figures. I mean, this is someone to talk to about how we do talent. Julia, welcome to Clock Out.

Julia Arpag (01:04)

Oh my

gosh, I feel like I should just leave. That was my favorite intro ever. What else is there to say? You did it. You said all the things. Bye. Bye. No, thank you Desiree. I loved it. Hi Ashley, good to be here. Thank you guys for having me. I so appreciate it.

Desiree Goldey (01:12)

You ⁓

Of

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (01:20)

Yeah, we're pumped.

Desiree Goldey (01:21)

course, we are pumped. Ashley, I'll let you ask the first question today. Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (01:25)

Well on that note, let me jump in. So Julia,

we are pumped for our listeners to really find out like, what is the story behind your talent journey and what has brought you to this point in your career?

Julia Arpag (01:42)

Yeah, it was random, like all people in TA, just to be totally transparent. So when I was in college, I studied English because I was like, I just like to read. That's really all I know about myself. And I don't really care about money at all, 0%. So I graduated and did a bunch of weird things. Like I worked at SoulCycle in Manhattan for six months, cause why not? So took a lot of spin classes. Made my way to recruitment actually via admissions. So I was a college recruiter for,

a handful of years, had a total blast. I love people. That's kind of the thread. So I love people. I'm a natural recruiter, which I found out now that I'm a recruiter, kind of how to put language to it. But I've always been the one who's like, OK, guys, like we're going out to this person's party or we're going out to this place for dinner. Like I've always been the recruiter of everything I've ever done in my personal life. So it was like seamless for me to be the person who's like, hey, you should do this to the students that I was chatting with. And then when I moved to Atlanta for my husband's job about 10 years

years ago, briefly worked in marketing, was comically terrible at it and hated it. So made my way back to recruitment via a corporate recruitment job. And I was like, this is what I've been looking for. This is it. So worked for a couple, worked in that one corporate recruitment stint and then made my way over to RPO and worked for a couple of different RPO agencies and then started the firm.

Desiree Goldey (03:04)

Yeah,

so I'm always interested in like the journey of entrepreneurs in this space because it's tough, right? But if you could kind of tell our listeners like when you decide when you decided to make this jump to do your own thing, right? What went through your head? How did you kind of get there? What was necessary for you to develop to even be like, all right, we're ready. That would be great to hear.

Julia Arpag (03:29)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you're

like asking for a friend. So no, I...

Desiree Goldey (03:32)

sure. ⁓

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (03:34)

Hahaha

Julia Arpag (03:36)

⁓

to ⁓

Desiree Goldey (04:00)

Yeah.

Right.

Julia Arpag (04:06)

terrifying, right? For all the same reasons a lot of people don't go out on their own. But then my CEO at the time laid me off five weeks postpartum. I had my sweet little baby and he was like, goodbye, farewell. So I had this amazing opportunity where I was like, my gosh, I wonder if I do this big scary thing I've been thinking about doing. At the same time, I got a couple of job offers from former clients of mine. And I was like, what if I could say yes to all of them? So it actually felt more scary.

to say yes to a W-2 where I only got to take that one salary versus saying yes to those. I had three former clients come and offer me jobs and instead I converted all three of them into my first three clients of the agency. So it was like, was immediate momentum right off the bat. So that really is what kind of got us off to the races. And then because my husband has been so financially savvy, we had this big personal safety net financially where I was like, okay, I'm gonna give it a year, worst case scenario I crashed

Desiree Goldey (04:39)

Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (04:47)

Heck yeah.

Desiree Goldey (04:48)

Wow.

Julia Arpag (05:06)

burn, okay, I'll go and get a regular person job. But we had that safety net that gave me the time to be able to at least try it and see if I could do it.

Desiree Goldey (05:16)

Nice, that's awesome.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (05:16)

Yeah, that's amazing.

A part of your story that I love that I think people don't think about is one, entrepreneurship is hard. Like it's so, so hard in general. And getting clients is hard. But it's interesting how many people I've seen move from talent, have excellent, excellent ties because of their work ethic and the product that they brought. And now they're thriving in their own business, pretty much referral based.

⁓ And so we've spoken with Erin Risca, very similar myself at DEI Labs, like really and truly that's how me and Desiree's relationship really flourished as well. ⁓ So I think that that's kind of in a weird way, such a beautiful call out for.

Julia Arpag (05:47)

Mm-hmm.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (05:59)

the entrepreneurship path for anyone that is in TA and is like, I don't know if I could, in a weird way, because of what we do, we're actually positioned in really great places to be able to start a business. We know people, we're connectors, we're just people people.

Julia Arpag (06:16)

Mm-hmm.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (06:20)

⁓ so in a weird way, I actually love how much that you share that and especially the, ⁓ referral based business launch, because that is something that I, I hope more people who do think I want to go out there and do that. ⁓ I think it's something we don't think about is like how, you know, we might actually be able to have a little bit of a cushier launch pad, maybe, I don't know, than some others just because. Yeah. If you're good, right.

Julia Arpag (06:20)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Desiree Goldey (06:29)

You

Yeah.

Julia Arpag (06:43)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ I was gonna say,

Desiree Goldey (06:43)

Well, if you're any good...

Julia Arpag (06:47)

if you're a bad recruiter, creating your own firm won't solve that problem, but...

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (06:52)

That is correct.

Julia Arpag (06:54)

But if you're

a good recruiter, yeah, like obviously your clients are gonna come to you and be like, you're the reason I liked working with your firm. So I will now just work with you at your new firm. So yeah, that is, you're 100 % right. It is a perfect profession that can pretty seamlessly launch into a solopreneur practice, whether you want a Scalart team or not, you can at least, you know, hang up a shingle and do it yourself if you have a good reputation in the market.

Desiree Goldey (07:01)

Yeah.

So you gave me the perfect entry to talk about scaling, right? And I know that you have people on your team. ⁓ And so how many people are on your team? How did you decide to scale? What was that like, okay, now I need bodies in the room. How did you get to that point?

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (07:30)

Yeah.

Julia Arpag (07:35)

So we actually

had the craziest. ⁓

intro to Scaling. So at the beginning, the reason I picked Aligns Recruitment as like the branding is because a friend of mine who I worked with years and years ago, she approached me and she was like, Hey, I you just got laid off. Will you come be a co founder? I have a name and like a really bad website. That's it. Do you want to just come do it? And the website was terrible for sure. But I loved the name. I was like, ⁓ I do believe in Aligns Recruitment. Like that's fantastic. Didn't have a single client. had to made a single dollar. But I was like, yeah, let's go for it. Let's

Desiree Goldey (07:55)

You

Julia Arpag (08:08)

let's do it. So we were quote unquote co-founders, ⁓ but quickly it was awkward. Like in our first year, ⁓ like you mentioned, we just hit seven figures after two years in business. So both years we've been around 500K in revenue. She literally brought in less than 1 % of that in our first year. And we were 50-50 partners. So at the end of that first year, so I say this to respond to your scaling question, because we started with a team of two. Like we were immediately like, not just me. ⁓

Desiree Goldey (08:19)

Yep.

Oof.

Oof.

Yeah.

Julia Arpag (08:38)

But because it had so quickly become so apparent that that was not an equitable partnership ⁓ I very respectfully approached her. I was like, hey, this is not working I'll buy you out like I'm not gonna take the company out from under you like I gave her an offer She accepted it we moved on but that kind of gave me a unique entrance point where I was like, okay I'm gonna be I like haphazardly said yes. I was like why not? So now I am so so careful about who I bring on my team. I have ⁓ right now a team

of three people on the delivery side. So I have a director of recruitment and I have two sources. And then we're currently working on bringing on another recruiter. And then I have two people on the operations side, kind of back end support. And that is the perfect size for right now. It's actually bigger than I even anticipated. ⁓ Cause we've been bootstrapped and profitable since day one. So we only buy things and pay people if we have money. Like I know a lot of people like credit cards. I don't like credit cards. Like I pay you.

Desiree Goldey (09:34)

Right.

you

Julia Arpag (09:38)

with the money I have in my bank account. ⁓ that was a very intentional decision that I made. And I think having that experience with my original co-founder made me so, so careful about scaling and really being very intentional. Yeah. Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (09:49)

Right, lesson learned, lesson learned. That's awesome.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (09:52)

Yeah,

Desiree Goldey (09:52)

That's awesome.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (09:52)

that's one of the things I will even say at DEI labs where it was been like, at what point do we actually turn it over to people because like we were profitable, but just by like an inch. And it was just enough work to like maybe need another person. But it is that thing of I don't like living off credit cards either. And if I'm about to ask someone to dedicate their life to my dream, I better already have your salary in a bucket lined up ready for you to go or else I'm not going to ask you to come. ⁓

Desiree Goldey (10:05)

You

Julia Arpag (10:05)

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

Exactly.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (10:21)

Yeah,

and so it is something that's so interesting as far as how do you keep taking on this workload or do you get a business law to like, it's just such a weird ⁓ dynamic and such a weird constellation of decisions. ⁓ Something I never thought of, but it is very much you're exactly right. If you're scaling with the wrong person, it's gonna be hard, very hard.

Julia Arpag (10:35)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It's gonna be brutal.

Desiree Goldey (10:43)

Yeah.

Julia Arpag (10:43)

And it was, like that first year, like I'm so grateful for all our success, but it was definitely messy. It was definitely messy behind the scenes. So the second year where I've gotten to make all the decisions, call all the shots, kind of set my own vision has been huge and so much freedom and I've absolutely loved it.

Desiree Goldey (10:49)

Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (10:58)

That's great.

Desiree Goldey (10:59)

Yeah, I know

that I just saw that and I mentioned the list in your intro, being successful like you are in such a short period of time, mean, it's astonishing to me that you've really truly done this in two years. What do you think is the, what's happened? What was that thing or the hot thing that's made you so successful? Is it your people, is it your process? Like, what is that thing? Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (11:07)

Mmm.

Yeah, what's your catalyst?

Julia Arpag (11:28)

I know.

Okay,

so remember when I told you I got an English degree because I didn't care about money. So it turns out if you know how to write, you can make money from that. Like people will pay you if you can communicate well. So I really think the catalyst for me was the fact that I have been very transparent on LinkedIn about our whole journey. Like the reason I got all those job offers is because I posted on LinkedIn. I was like, I was just laid off. Guys, what's up? Like who's available? So I think

Desiree Goldey (11:29)

Yes.

I

Heh.

Julia Arpag (11:59)

because I did that, I got all these people from different parts of my life who were like, my gosh, like you're available, like here's the job offer. let me choose you to this person. let me like make this happen for you. And so that set the tone. That's what we've done every single day at Aligned Recruitment as I post candidly. Like you mentioned today, I posted about, we just won the number one spot on Hoxos list for the top 100 most influential TA leaders for the second time this year because I'm just like.

Desiree Goldey (12:19)

Yep.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (12:22)

Come on.

Julia Arpag (12:26)

communicating. I'm just I'm just sharing what's happening, right? Like, like, beautiful things are happening at every recruitment agency right now. But they don't all have someone who's like shouting it from the rooftop. So I think that's been a massive catalyst for us is just that, you know, hilarious English degree I got putting putting being put to work basically is what's going on. And prior to starting the business, it really was the fact that I just am a good recruiter, like just to be totally honest, I I've been a top recruiter on every team I've ever worked

Desiree Goldey (12:27)

Right.

You

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Julia Arpag (12:55)

done, because I genuinely care about people. I'm actually insatiably curious. It kills me that I have to not ask all the illegal questions. I want to know, are you married? Do you have kids? Where do you live? I really want to know everything about you. on a coffee date, right? And I can't do that. So for me, recruitment is a very natural extension of who I am and what I value. But I actually do want to know about people. So I think that's what's driven the success.

Desiree Goldey (13:05)

Right? ⁓

That's awesome. That's awesome. That was a great answer and I know everybody probably can resonate with that one. All right, let's move to the second one. Ready? Question number two. Is there anything you would change or warn others about as they start their journey? Either, and I'm gonna give you, because you have the other thing. So in their journey on entrepreneurship, soul pernureship, recruiting or HR or any of the things that you're so involved in.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (13:33)

Lay it on us.

Julia Arpag (13:52)

Yeah. Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (13:52)

What's the one thing?

Julia Arpag (13:55)

So I'll give an answer both for if you're just starting out in recruitment and for if you're just starting out as entrepreneur. So if you're just starting out in recruitment, I would say do an energy audit. Like figure out what things actually bring you energy about TA slash HR and what things drain you. And the reason I say that is because where your energy go, like where your energy is, is draining you. That is, that is not your zone of genius. And if you keep spending time there, you're not going to be happy and you're not going to make as much

Desiree Goldey (14:00)

Perfect.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Julia Arpag (14:25)

money. But if you focus on the things you love and that bring you joy, maybe you don't have space to expand your role in your current position in doing that. But now you know what to look for for your next position or you know what kind of company you want to start. Like if you want your focus to be solely on there's HR is massive, right? There's so many aspects of TA and HR. So the more you understand what actually lights you up and what you actually enjoy, that's going to give you clarity that that's what you're going to pursue. So that's number one. ⁓ And then anyone who's a new entrepreneur or considering entrepreneur

Desiree Goldey (14:41)

Right.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (14:49)

I love them.

Desiree Goldey (14:50)

Thanks.

Julia Arpag (14:55)

I would just say, ⁓

get comically good at sales. Like you just have to learn how to sell. I didn't sell a thing to anyone a single day of my life prior to starting the business. And so that was the thing that scared me the most is I was like, I know how to recruit. Like I'm confident I can do that. But how do you get the clients that you then recruit for? Like once you're out of referrals, once you're out of clients that you already know that are coming to you, how do you create a sales engine? So that was the huge skillset that I had to gain and I'm still gaining. Like I'm absolutely nowhere near like, you know, check accomplished.

how to sell the things now, but I have really built that muscle and so that's the best advice I can give to anyone considering entrepreneurship.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (15:35)

You gonna tell her or I?

Desiree Goldey (15:36)

I know Ashley, Ashley has Ashley has,

Julia Arpag (15:36)

You

Is everyone okay?

Desiree Goldey (15:40)

I know it's so funny. There was like this long post Ashley has a thing about sales. And so she's like got PTSD from like trying to do that. Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (15:42)

So.

really do. Because you've nailed it. For me, and here's the thing,

same bucket. I was the best recruiter every single place that I've ever worked. And I do not speak for me. I let my work speak for me. So to sell myself was very awkward. ⁓ Because I'm a humble brag. I would rather show you with my product versus just be like, I can do this, this, and this, and I've done that. It's just a weird space for me. And I'm also, because I'm also teaching...

Julia Arpag (16:04)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (16:21)

essentially like ⁓ equity and inclusion and like things that should naturally, you know, within humanity and people business kind of be there. It was also like this weird spot of like, I don't know if I should be selling you me or am I selling you like good, like just being a good moral person? I don't like it was it was a weird thing to where I can tell you right now if it was not for Desiree, I don't think I would have done a single piece of business ever.

for my company because genuinely that is how much like even I would have people come to me and I'd be like, yeah, what do need? And they're like, well, we don't know with budget. And I'm like, okay, no biggie and like move on. And like, that's it. Like they'll circle back. Yeah, I was tabooed everything. Yeah, no, that's why, know, like luckily ⁓ fate brought me to Desiree Goldie who is just, hey, if you ever need, if you're like, we need sales, heavy hit this woman.

Julia Arpag (17:03)

They will not circle back Ashley.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (17:18)

She can get you in any room and let me tell you the significance of her. Sorry to have a girl crush moment on the podcast. Well, let me tell you this is why is because for three years I Again referral base pretty much was all my business because of this one But every time that I tried to sell it I came back and was like my product must not be good I must not be able to sell this it must not be a need it must be 50 other things and From the day that I met her

Desiree Goldey (17:23)

Ahahaha!

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (17:46)

I mean, we were in meetings after meetings, just tons of different people we could do, tons of different things we could do, just all these possibilities. And all of a sudden people were interested. And I remember just feeling like overwhelmed with gratitude, like literally crying because I was like, it wasn't the product. It wasn't everything that my brain has been building and working for. It was my complete inability to sell. And the fact that I found someone who not only...

just knows what they're doing, but just does it effortlessly. I mean, just in conversation, let me introduce you to, and it even reminds me of you, how you're talking about how you've built all these connections, but hey, if there's ever a time you need someone, that's your person. And for the rest of the world, this is your person. Killer.

Julia Arpag (18:15)

Mm-hmm. ⁓

I love it.

Desiree Goldey (18:30)

Here's the thing though, and I think going back to Julia's statement, and thank you so much Ashley, but I think this is what people don't think about when they're entrepreneurs, right? Or solpeneurs. They are like, I have this great idea, I'm passionate about this thing, and everybody else in the world should be passionate too, right? And then you realize no one cares unless you are able to deliver the message of why they should care and what they believe in. And I think, Julia, you've done that perfectly.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (18:47)

That was me, that was me.

No one gave a...

Julia Arpag (18:53)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (19:00)

And because how I even got aware of you was because of your brand image on LinkedIn. I spent a lot of time there. And so there was so much brand equity in what you did. ⁓ It sparked interest, right? And so that is the connection I don't think people build in companies. And Julia, we were talking about this before we even got on. The people that are stuck in the old ways of how to do business and not realizing how the future of work and sales and

Julia Arpag (19:17)

Mm-hmm.

Desiree Goldey (19:30)

business happens, happens differently now, they're going to struggle, right? And so I think the journey that you've been on, the way you've done it is just so outstanding. I honestly, I'm gonna say it again for our audience, it's seven figures in two years, folks. That's unheard of. I mean, it's unheard of. And in this space where talent seems like the non, everybody's hated enemy, like everybody's enemy, ⁓ nobody likes

Julia Arpag (19:31)

Yeah.

Yes. ⁓

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (19:48)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (19:59)

wants

to deal with it to do that in this space is, I mean, it's just phenomenal. So congratulations on that.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (20:42)

And we also just take

a pause and like, look at this call right now. It is three women who are like experts at what and I take caution to the term expert, but honestly in their fields, they're respected in their industries. Like this call alone holds how many figures like seven, eight, not like however many we have. Like, y'all, whenever we say Julia knows what she's talking about, we mean it. Like, look this call. Like just look at this call. ⁓ yeah.

Desiree Goldey (20:53)

Yeah.

Julia Arpag (20:59)

Amen. Y'all.

Desiree Goldey (21:01)

Yeah.

Julia Arpag (21:06)

Hahahaha

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (21:10)

Like, this space has needed

Julia Arpag (21:11)

You guys are the best.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (21:13)

not only women to come out here and say, not only can we make it and rock it, but we can do it on our damn selves, like on our own and excel. And I think that you are the perfect... That's why I was so excited to have you on Clock Out is because I remember being a woman in talent and thinking, I don't know that I can do this. And for all the different reasons that we would have. ⁓ And so whenever you get to see someone and you get to see that they've done it and they're doing it well...

Desiree Goldey (21:16)

Yeah.

Julia Arpag (21:19)

Yes.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (21:40)

I'm just excited for your presence. That's what I'm saying.

Desiree Goldey (21:44)

Yeah.

This brings up a good point though, because I think this is interesting to me and I'm going to ask Julia this, like, and I know we didn't prep you for this, but being a woman in this space and being an owner, a founder and owner, did you find the journey? Do you think different? Did you find it harder? Did you face more resistance or do you think it would have been the same if you were a man?

Julia Arpag (22:09)

That's hard for me to know. I guess that's hard, right? Like.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (22:09)

you

Desiree Goldey (22:09)

Right, I know, but I'm just saying, like,

you know, where there...

Julia Arpag (22:13)

I'm like trying to

picture going through the world as a man in general. Like, I don't know what that feels like, but I will say, like, I have been very fortunate to have a lot of incredible female leaders in my career. Like, I've worked for female founders and male founders. I've worked for female bosses and male bosses. I've had good female bosses and terrible female bosses, right? Like, I've really seen, I've kind of seen good and bad ways of doing it from all the sexes, right? So I've really gotten a good sense of what's possible. And honestly, I think this

Desiree Goldey (22:16)

Hahaha!

Okay, okay, there you go.

day.

Hey.

Julia Arpag (22:42)

single most impactful thing on me is that I'm the oldest of seven kids. And I think I just, from the moment my feet hit this earth, I was like, let's freaking go. Like I gotta be in charge of all the things. I think I just always been like this. I'm like, who cares if I'm a man or a woman? Like I'm just gonna go take charge of everyone and everything. Like that's just how I am.

Desiree Goldey (22:47)

wow.

HAHAHAHA!

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (23:01)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (23:02)

I'm telling you being the oldest versus the only is very different ⁓ But yeah, I do think it makes a difference and I do think especially the oldest of seven like that's Jesus ⁓

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (23:07)

Ooooo

Julia Arpag (23:07)

Was Ashley it only? ⁓ no.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (23:18)

God bless, yeah, that's a basketball team.

Julia Arpag (23:20)

No, y'all, now that I'm a mom, I have two children, y'all, and I'm dying. I'm dead, okay? So

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (23:26)

limit.

Julia Arpag (23:27)

my mother, I'm like, why? Like every time I talk to her now, my only question is why? Like literally why? So yeah, I agree with you. She's a lunatic, but here we are, here we are. It all worked out.

Desiree Goldey (23:29)

Ha ha!

⁓ I

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (23:39)

Wow.

Desiree Goldey (23:41)

love it. Question three, I will throw it to you, Ashley King.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (23:44)

Alright.

Hey, can I ask it the way I want? Okay, so simple. Julia, where could we catch you in five years?

Desiree Goldey (23:48)

you can ask whatever you want to do today.

Julia Arpag (23:54)

⁓ I love that that's the way you wanted to ask it. great question, but like, was it the tone? Was it the words? Yeah, like what was the other version?

Desiree Goldey (23:58)

I know!

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (23:58)

Exactly!

What was the other version? The other version is...this is the other

Desiree Goldey (24:04)

It was so many things. Don't get involved in this, Hooploom.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (24:08)

version. Where can I...hold

on. She does write it...she reads it specific. She's...you'll learn this. She's much better at everything than me. Like, literally, I'm the trash bag. I'm the trash bag that just shows up. ⁓ But I think the actual question is, ⁓ where do you want your entrepreneurial talent or influencer?

Desiree Goldey (24:15)

It's not true, but I

Julia Arpag (24:15)

Okay. The humble brag

the humble. my gosh.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (24:30)

path to go. See, see what I'm saying? Where can we catch you in five years, ma'am?

Desiree Goldey (24:31)

journey.

Julia Arpag (24:33)

So many words, so many words, ⁓ my

gosh. No, I love it. So I will continue to be the CEO and founder of Alliance Recruitment unless I've gotten a fabulous offer to buy it for a billion dollars, in which case I will say, yes, you may have it, goodbye.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (24:49)

Yeah, do you hey, do

you have a price? put a price on DEI Labs. I'm curious if you have your

Julia Arpag (24:54)

Do I have

a price right now today after just two years? my goodness. I'd have to crunch the Abita numbers. I don't know. I don't know. Sorry.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (24:57)

Yeah.

The Abita. always...my sellout in this moment

is like 8 mil. I'll sell you for 8 mil. I'll take it for 8 mil. But yeah, yeah, and I'll bounce. How did I get that number? That's an excellent question. So at the tender age of 20, I decided if I did the math...

Julia Arpag (25:09)

I love that girl. Take it. Take it and run. Retire. Go. Get out of here. How'd you land on that number? Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (25:26)

Eight million dollars I could live off the interest and then now I have two kids so I might need to skew it a little maybe go up to ten But eight million what had an absolutely nothing to do with EBITDA or like the product or anything that even made sense I just knew whenever I was 20 I wanted to make a lump sum of eight million dollars because I could live off the interest and I was like That's all I need. I need eight mil Yeah, you need

Julia Arpag (25:32)

Yeah.

Yeah.

I love that. I mean, the

fact that you've had DEI labs for two years and you're like, yeah, now's the time to sell for a figures. Like I love that confidence or for for a million. I love that confidence. That's amazing.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (25:51)

Yeah.

Honestly, the day it was just

an idea, I was like, can I sell it to someone now? I'll put it on a napkin. Like, it takes, but yeah, I, yeah.

Julia Arpag (26:02)

I love that for you. I love that

Desiree Goldey (26:05)

Hahaha!

Julia Arpag (26:05)

for you. I'm here for that. So, okay, wait, hold on. We got off track. I'm sorry. Sure, sure, sure.

Desiree Goldey (26:10)

Yes, but let me ask you this question to bring it back. you,

in five years, is there a staff of 20? Are you global? What is the plan and trajectory you would like to see? Yeah.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (26:20)

Yeah, what's the vision?

Julia Arpag (26:20)

God, I hope not. No.

What are we doing?

Yeah, what

are we even doing here? Yeah, no, that's a great question. So to be honest, I used to have revenue goals and now I don't because I found that it was taking my focus off keeping the main thing the main thing. And for me, the main thing is number one, I want to remain profitable. Number two, I want to operate in line with our company's values. I care deeply about values based recruitment and values based living. So I thought, for example, I'm a Christian.

Desiree Goldey (26:38)

Okay?

Mmm.

Julia Arpag (26:58)

candidly on my website about my faith and that's because when I built my own thing I was like I'm only gonna take this risk if I get to be completely authentically myself like I'm not gonna cut off two parts of myself to Present this like sanitized version. I'm going to be totally real So that is massively important to me. And then third I'm a mom first and then I'm a founder so I Worked about 30 hours a week and that's never gonna change so

So my goal, well, maybe when my kids are teenagers and they're like, leave me alone, go away. So who knows? Right, that's coming. Right now, right now they're two, they're two and four. So they're like obsessed with mom phase. So the thought of me walking into a room and not having them holding onto my shirt and screaming is like, oh my gosh. Anyway, all that being said, so right now my guiding principles are flexibility and freedom. Like that is what is guiding me in my business. So I really don't care about head count. I really don't care about revenue numbers.

Desiree Goldey (27:31)

Right, that's coming! Right.

Julia Arpag (27:58)

I really only care about lifestyle, like being able to provide an amazing life for myself and my family, being able to provide amazing outcomes for my clients and my candidates, and again, staying profitable. And that if I can check those three boxes, then I'm super happy.

Desiree Goldey (28:14)

That is amazing. I wish more people thought about that, about values and where they sit as priorities. Now, I have to ask this question because do you hold that true for your employees as well? Do they work a very flexible work schedule? I was just having this argument about flexible work, so I'm kind of into it right now. Yeah. ⁓

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (28:36)

She's hot and heavy on it.

Julia Arpag (28:38)

could talk about this for the rest of my life. So I'm so glad you brought this up. Yeah. So years ago,

I read this book called Results Only Work Environment, R-O-W-E. And the idea is exactly what it sounds like. We're not measuring butts in seats time. We're not measuring keyboard time. We are only looking at what are the KPIs of your role. So my director of recruitment, she started and in her first month, she hired four people. So I'm like, I don't care if that took you one hour. You did it. You did great.

Desiree Goldey (29:07)

Right.

Julia Arpag (29:08)

Like so yeah, a hundred percent. I don't care at all about how much you work, how many hours you work, what hours you work. We only have one weekly team call and I just ask that everyone's there for that one half an hour per week. And then I have one one-on-one with my two direct reports and then the two of them have one-on-ones with their teams. Outside of that, as long as you're doing what we agreed you would do when we hired you here, I'm thrilled. I'm super happy. So no, that very much applies to the entire team. I feel very, very strongly about

Desiree Goldey (29:35)

That's awesome.

Julia Arpag (29:38)

that.

Desiree Goldey (29:39)

That's

great. That's great. That's amazing. In this world that we live in and seeing so much return to office and all the craziness, which I, you know, I, I think I've voiced my opinion on this a lot, but I'm not a proponent of for so many reasons. That is awesome. And, and I really appreciate that you're doing that, that you live you, but you also do that for your employees is super, super, super, super authentic and will probably make people work for you forever. So that's great. That's awesome.

Julia Arpag (29:50)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

hope

so. They are geniuses. I'm like, literally my operations manager, I was like, if you're ever thinking about quitting, I need you to give me six months notice and then ultimately decide not to leave because I need you to stay. So yeah, that is that is my goal. That's my goal. Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (30:09)

Yeah

That is awesome. That is awesome. That

is fantastic. ⁓ Any last words, Julia, as we wrap up this ⁓ next version of this film? Any last words? my God, today's a Friday. Any last words, Julia, as we wrap up this episode?

Julia Arpag (30:42)

No, I think we covered it. Y'all have been an absolute blast. I really am like still blushing from all the kind words and I really loved ⁓ just like you said actually like getting to chat with like two genius women in this space. Like this was so so fun.

great news. I'm the only Julia Arpag on LinkedIn. So I am not to be hard for you to find. How cool is that? Yeah, it's so cool. It's so cool. ⁓ And then number two, our website is alignedrecruitment.com. So check us out on both of those.

Desiree Goldey (31:01)

That is cool.

Ashley K, Co-Host, Talentless (31:02)

Yeah.

Desiree Goldey (31:11)

you

so much and we enjoyed having you and honestly, this was a story I was waiting for. So thank you for clocking out with us today. If you liked what you heard, follow us and check us out at Clock Out with Talentless, wherever you get your podcast, but definitely at talentlesspodcast.com. You can find us on Blue Sky, the Work Defined Network, YouTube, Instagram. I mean, we're just everywhere. Clock in, clock out, whatever you wanna do. Until next time, we'll see ya.