Episode 21 - Brian Herczeg - Learning From Mistakes

Not only is this guest my boss, but he's also brilliant, fun, teaches me new things, and has a management style all his own that is not only forward-thinking but creates a place that people want to be a part of. 

Leighann Lovely  0:15 

Let's talk HR is a place for HR professionals, business owners and employees to come together and share experiences and talk about what's working and what's not. How we can improve best practices so that companies can better attract, train and retain all generations of workers. We all know that there has been a huge shift in what people want. generations are coming together more than ever, on what's important. Mental health has been brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Let's humanize these conversations. Let's talk about how the economy has been impacted, and what needs to happen to find a balance. I'm your host, Leighann Lovely. So let's get this conversation started. And remember, if you enjoyed this episode, follow us like us, and share us.

 

Welcome to another episode, I am thrilled that today, I have the opportunity to interview Brian Herczeg with Vaco. It is a rare opportunity that you get to interview your boss. So I'd like to introduce Brian after a short time in local news, Brian spent 13 years helping a small family business, double its client reach and improve its operations since 2013. He has been working with companies in Wisconsin, finding them the talent they need to grow as the managing partner of vaco. In Wisconsin, he has had the opportunity to take his team's surgically effective approach and use it to assist clients in both the Greater Milwaukee and Madison Area. Brian, thank you so much for being here today. I'm really excited. This is a rare opportunity because I actually get to interview my boss. I mean, how could that be? Any more exciting, right. So thanks for being here.

 

Brian Herczeg  2:09 

Thanks for having me, Leanne. And that that introduction was fantastic. I will try not to let you down.

 

Leighann Lovely  2:16 

Perfect, thank you. So you are the managing partner of Vaco in Wisconsin, which stake their flag here not too long ago. Tell me a little bit about that.

 

Brian Herczeg  2:27 

So this is going to be a story of ridiculously horrible time. So I accepted a role to open up this office with Bayko, back in 2019. And I had a years long non compete with my former company. So I couldn't actually open the office or do my job here in Wisconsin. So I basically was, was sitting on the bench for you. So if you picture what happened between 2019 and 2020, we launched this office, just as the entire world was shutting down April of 2020. And I was just Oh, I was praying God, please don't let vaco change their mind about opening this office. Oh, my goodness, what are we going to do, but it ended up it worked out perfectly. vaco never even thought twice about opening up the office, I got to plant the flag here at a really great partner with me to do the recruiting as I tried to make sure clients still remembered who I was after a year. And I guess it taught me Lian and I think people should understand this, play the hand you're dealt, played as well as you can, like, there are no excuses, and then just see what happens. And that's, that's what happened when we planted the flag in April of 2020.

 

Leighann Lovely  3:41 

It's such an amazing story, because I think there were so many of us who are in the same boat of oh my gosh, are our clients gonna remember our customers gonna remember that? You know, at one time we, we did business, right? We did. We all came back strong. And I think that everybody was raring to get back in contact with each other. And now you have you've really built a pretty amazing team. You know, and here I'm boasting about this amazing team. I'm part of it. So of course, I'm going to be biased on this pretty amazing team because I'm, you know, I'm awesome. I'm part of the No Okay, anyways.

 

Brian Herczeg  4:22 

We became awesome.

 

Leighann Lovely  4:25 

Right? Okay, I'm pretty sure you are awesome way before I joined the team, but so you know, how did you I mean, you you obviously have an awesome background. You you started, you know, well, you spent some time in local news and how did you find your path to be at Bayko?

 

Brian Herczeg  4:45 

So the way I found my path was a very rocky bumpy way to find my path. It was not a straight line. Like you alluded to i i graduated from college and I was I was a news reporter. I did the news in small markets. You're in the state of Wisconsin. And then back 22,000 Oh my gosh, it's been 20 years. So back in 2000, I left the news. And I moved back to Phoenix. I worked for my family's business. So I worked for a small business. You work for a small business, Leanne, you were a lot of different hats, you sweep the floors, you sign the checks, whatever you need to do to get get the job done. There, I learned quite a bit, you know, you're working for your family's business, you're in charge of sales, you're in charge of payroll, all of these things. But I also was shielded from from the outside world, because working for my family's business. So I had this false sense of confidence. Leaving my family's business, I thought, nothing could go wrong, simply because nothing had gone wrong. And then I opened up another business. And that that's where I learned the school of hard knocks, where I wasn't destined for success just because I've had so you've constantly got to rethink how you're doing things constantly be learning, and I, I lost that. And so the business that I started, it didn't go well. And so that business closed, and I'm married, I have a baby on the way and a baby already born, I'm looking at my wife thinking, what are we going to do. And I had the opportunity to work for Robert Half here in Wisconsin. And no one wakes up or no one is born saying, Gosh, I want to get into staffing. That doesn't happen. We usually find ourselves drawn to it because we knew people in the business. And that's where I was, I knew somebody, my cousin who was my best friend used to work for Robert Half introduced me to some people there. And it just organically grew. And that's how I ended up finding my way into this business. And thank God, it's been a really good decision. What I learned Leanne is, when you're down, and you failed, success is only a couple of good decisions away, you don't have to have a streak of awesomeness, you just need to take a couple right steps and things will start to go in your direction.

 

Leighann Lovely  7:16 

You said some some pretty profound things in there. It's only a couple of steps away. If you take the right steps. And right now, during what we've experienced, we are seeing so many businesses thrive. And so many businesses fail. Because we are at the threshold of a major cultural shift. And people want more from their, from their employers, they want more from their life. And you have managed to create a culture vaco has managed to create a culture where employees want to be. So that really brings me to my next question. Through your life experience. You have. I mean, I've only been with vaco a short period of time, I've only been working with you for a short period of time. But there has never been an organization or a company that I have joined. And it was almost immediate from the first conversation that you and I had. There was a mutual respect. In that conversation. You there was no arrogance in Hey, I'm interviewing you, and you need to give me this, it was a mutual respect. And hey, this is what we want from our employees. This is what will give to our employees if they're successful. How you know, from your life experience, how have you developed that managerial style, the philosophy that you bring to the company and and and again, how has vaco raised you up to be able to offer that type of culture that you offer to your employees?

 

Brian Herczeg  9:04 

Those are some really good questions. So I'll start with the last one. I do not know it's perfect. So So vaco means to free yourself. It's Latin means to free yourself. And what vaco is looking for, and employees very often are people that play this staffing game the way that the founders of the company played it. And what I mean by that is we don't just say that we value relationships, we actually do value relationships. So I told you when I interviewed you when we talked about working here, I said are you know you're good at your job. I can see it by looking at your resume. I can understand it by talking to you, but you'll earn my trust. When I see you take a deal to preserve a relationship when you back away from a payday because you recognize it's not the right fit on both sides. That's the freedom vaco offers you Yes, we have to put up numbers. Yes, we have to close deals. But if you look at everything on a long continuum, a long timeline, and everything, that timeline is a relationship, transactions happen throughout that timeline, it's not a one thing, and then it's done. If you look at it, like that takes some of the pressure off, and it puts things in perspective. So that's a vehicle elevates, you know, they offer it means to free yourself. And then they mean that. As far as my managerial style, I have a philosophy on life, I have philosophies on multiple things, and I probably bore all of you with quite a bit of them, but it's just managerial style knows, a lot of people say things like, life begins outside your comfort zone. I don't buy that. That doesn't sound like a comfortable life. Life begins for me, in my view, when you can be your authentic self, no matter where you are, at home, at work out with friends, at church, at your kids school, wherever you are, you don't have to remember how to act, you can be you. And so when I'm trying to bring people into my, my work in my office, I recognize that I want to know the person bring their whole selves to work, and realize that my success, and his or her success are intrinsically tied together. So if we're not comfortable in that relationship, it's going to fail, or it's going to end. I want it never to end, I want people to retire with me here. So that's why come with bring your authentic self, try to be yourself wherever you are. That way work doesn't feel like this massive shift from go from being weakened. Lian, to work, Lian. You're the same, it doesn't feel that drastic of a change from Sunday nights to Monday morning. That's important to me. And I hope that answers your question.

 

Leighann Lovely  11:58 

It absolutely does. And it's so you know, and this is something that I obviously, throughout my, throughout the entire time that every time I talk with somebody, I'm always talking about the idea that people are incapable, or I shouldn't say even capable, people shouldn't have to walk into their business, drop their baggage at the door, and then go and do their jobs. And if you ask them to continuously do this every day, eventually they're going to fail, or eventually they are going to suffer from some type of mental health issue or they're, they're just not going to be able to, to function at a high level for a long period of time. It's not sustainable. And I talked about this nonstop. And for me to, to stumble into a role where I have a manager, you know, who has the identical philosophy of being able to be your authentic self all the time. And again, when I first joined, you know, vago and I first I was nervous of, okay, this is what he says he is. Now let's see if it really is, and I came to you and I said, Here's my podcast, I'm gonna launch this and you listened to the my little five minute promo, and I said, Okay, what are your thoughts on this? And you were like, This is awesome. I'm, I'm, I'm so proud of you. And I'm like, wow, you're you are, you're Yeah, okay, great. You're gonna support me on this. And, of course, it's nerve racking for somebody who I lived my entire life, pretending that I didn't have, you know, a mental health disorder, pretending that, and again, I don't think that, you know, I'm a scary person. I don't struggle the way that I used to, you know, but you were 100% onboard and supportive. And I went, Oh, okay. Well, that was easy, that there's no scary bear here. You know, I'm he, he's completely supportive and the entire vaco I've never had anybody go, Oh, should we not have her? I mean, do we want vaco to be attached to somebody who's going to talk about these kinds of things? Yep. There are employers out there who would say, Nope, you can't have these conversations. We don't want to have that attached to our name. What if one of our clients doesn't agree with it? I mean, if you don't like me, don't do business with me. There is plenty of other business out there to be done. And that I think needs to be that that needs to be the way that things are now because people can't pretend to be something they're not. And it's very clear that that you not only say that, that's how you are you stand for that. Have you always had this philosophy? When was that moment where you said So, I'm going to, I'm going to run my office like this.

 

Brian Herczeg  15:04 

Yeah, Leighann knows what I joined Vaco, what I Vaco and I started dating basically six months before I accepted the job who was offered the job. And in the very beginning, I was I was very happy where I was at a great job. I worked for a great company, good people on my team as happy. So when vago first knocked on my door, I didn't, I didn't answer it took a while. But about a month later, they knocked again. And so I responded, and I knew some people who worked here at vago someone very dear to me, heads up the Arizona office. So I called him and asked his advice. And he told me about the opportunity and some of the great opportunities was, and so I still trepidatiously, I went along and started talking to them some more a little more depth about what they wanted to do here in Wisconsin a little bit more about what vehicle is all about. And then I think it was five months after we first started talking, I finally went down to Nashville to interview with all of the the C suite all the people that at the mothership that make they go run. And by the time I left that meeting, I was pleading in my head, I was pleading with God, please hire me, I want this job so badly. I wanted so badly to join Baker. What they opened my eyes to was the way I was doing things before. I didn't have to always do them that way. There are different ways to do this job. There are different ways to engage in commerce, there are different ways to open up your business world and serve your clients. And I wanted to I wanted to part of it. So they the Bayko culture, the Bayko Montra. It, it empowered me to be able to look for people that play this game the way I do you, Mike, Kelly, Amy, bring you all in and just let you go, be free to go do what you need to do. One of the things we say around your land is work hard and stay free. If you understand that, you don't need a manager, what you need is someone that can solve problems with you as they arise. There was something you said that was really it's enlightening. And it's I think we should talk about it a bit. When you met me. After we talked at first we first started Bayko you said all right, he said these things. But did he mean them? Is he going to back them up? And isn't that how all relationships start? Isn't that how it always is? People chat? Are they full of it? Is it real? What's sincere? What's authentic? What's real. If you're coming from your authentic place, you're being the best version of yourself. You're being who you are. You never have to remember what you said, you never have to remember how you act in front of somebody. I'm not saying you don't change the way you deliver a message to different audiences. But what I'm saying is the message should still be the same. That that makes sense, right?

 

Leighann Lovely  18:09 

It's not difficult to remember what you've said, or because there's no there's no lie in there. Right? Because you are you're, you're telling everybody the same thing all the time. It's when you have people who it's yeah, it's that ball of yarn of Oh, are we going to unravel that next lie? Are we going to unravel? Where's that? You're right, absolutely. And you find that unfortunately, in too many places, where you go through the interview, you're like, Wow, this is going to be a great opportunity. I'm so excited. And then all of a sudden, you start pulling up that thread and you're like, Wait a second. They they bamboozled me, they said that I was going to get to do this and I was going to get to do that. And I was that's not what this is. I wasn't told that I was going to have the responsibility of cleaning the toilets. Okay, a little extreme. But you know, and all of a sudden, you're in a job that you had no idea what it was all about. You and I what I think what we talked for the first time we spoke we talked for over an hour, but over an hour. I remember it clearly I was sitting in my before I had an office in my my own space. I was sitting in my husband's office. We talked and then all of a sudden it went to talking about our children. I won't go into the specifics of that. We started talking about our children, I learned that you had four four children, and I was like oh my god, this you know, wow. Okay, well, I have one. So obviously, you know you have responsibilities that that are going to pull you away occasionally because, hey, with one kid I'm like, How do I balance How do I balance work? How do I balance? And you do you you have, you know what, just the other day you're, you're like, Well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna head out, I'm gonna go to a play. See my my son like that? That is awesome, because most employers would be like, Nope, sorry, you have to you have to take a half day, you know, and take your vacation time to do things like that. That I mean, that's ridiculous. It's it's almost a punishment to have to go and participates in your children's lives. For what? Because the employer wants to make sure that they're not what getting screwed out of an hour of of your work. This is the shift. This is the the employees are finally standing up and saying, No, we're not we're not. The negative thing is that you and I are in staffing. And employees now hold all of the cards. Let's talk about that.

 

Brian Herczeg  21:11 

Where do you want to start?

 

Leighann Lovely  21:12 

Oh, yes. So you know, having a cultural environment, having a an amazing place to work is is one thing. And offering that, and now employees are getting smart. You know, I left a company where it's not a bad company, I will not ever bash an employer. And, you know, it's not a bad company, but some of the culture, some of the processes there were still behind the times. And I chose to move to something that was more comfortable for my situation. There are employees, there are a ton of people out there who are doing the same. And we work with clients. That on a daily basis, we have to coach, it's a regular thing in our world, right? Clients who say only on site, we do not offer remote work. We do not offer hybrid, or, yeah, a hybrid work environment. And employees will just flat out say, Nope, I want remote. Or I want hybrid. I mean, these are real things. So and then you have the employees who you know, go from being $20 an hour to I want 30. So it's definitely a struggle. Right.

 

Brian Herczeg  22:39 

Right. Absolutely. So what I'll tell you is, I can't predict the future. I don't think many people can. But I know what the present is. So I don't know if remote work is here to stay. I know it's here now. I'll tell you as far as salary goes, pay goes, we've seen a drastic increase over the last 18 months in an increase that is like a hockey stick on a graph. I've never seen this before. It's been 10 years in this business 20 plus years in business. I've never seen salaries go up at this kind of a rate. I don't know if it's going to be like that forever. But I do know this life swings back and forth to pendulum and right now the pendulum is pegged about as far over as it can go in the candidates corner. And so companies and employers are trying to figure out how to make it work for them to the pendulum will swing back. Come back. far back. I don't know when but it will come back a little bit. It's so important for all of us in this business, to convey that message to our clients and our candidates that no matter how many cards you hold today. It's going to change. Treat people right now. Don't be don't overplay your hand. Because if you ask for too much money, the second that that pendulum swings back, you're the first person they're cutting.

 

Leighann Lovely  24:11 

Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree and and as much as you and I try to coach candidates on that. It falls on deaf ears, doesn't it?

 

Brian Herczeg  24:24 

And yeah, it can't. But it's not our job to turn a no into a yes or to make people agree with everything we say. It's our job to give the best advice that we can and try to get to the parties to meet and come to an agreement. So some people may hear us and some people won't try to put yourself in other person's shoes. If you had the chance to, you know, make 30% more this year, and you've got a family to feed and you've got bills to pay. You're gonna probably explore that option and do everything you can to make it happen no matter what a couple of people at vaco are telling you try.

 

Leighann Lovely  24:59 

Yes I completely agree with that. However, I'm the long game. That's, that's always the way I've been if I had the opportunity to make 30% more for just a year at one company, or make 10% more and another, or 5% More at another company for the next 10 years. I'm gonna go for the 5% more and stay for 10.

 

Brian Herczeg  25:29 

That is exactly why I'm so happy you're on my team. Because you do you play the long game, you're looking at it pragmatically, realistically, and you've got a long term goal in mind. I wish No, I shouldn't say I wish not everyone's like that. That's not it's not the way it is. And the thing about the remote work and the hybrid work and looking for more money is it is out there. And it is it's attainable for people. But it's still work, you still have to produce, it's not a God given right to remote work and, and higher pay every year, you have to go earn it, earn it, it should come to you. The good thing about the market now is if you go earn it and it doesn't come to you, you have options, you can leave that employer, if your employer isn't recognizing your worth, doesn't realize you're a grown up and you can go leave to go watch your fourth four year old have a play without docking you for PTO. And you're good at what you do. Call me, I'll figure out another place for you. Because that's no one needs to be there. But if you're somebody who wants to remote work so you can hide, or so you don't have to necessarily produce because you don't want to get off the couch and work we'll find you to, you know, reality catches up to you. You can't you have to produce. This is an economy. This is a world where you have to constantly show your worth just did something great two years ago doesn't mean anything right now, every year, every day, you got to give it all you've got. And you should get the spoils for that work. And right now that includes higher pay, and remote and hybrid flexibility. Those are on the table. And for many people, they're non negotiable.

 

Leighann Lovely  27:16 

So something you said Vaco has the pillars

 

Brian Herczeg  27:19 

The core business tenants,

 

Leighann Lovely  27:21 

I'm sorry, core business tenants, and you kind of you brought one of them up, it's you know, playing till the whistle. And that's really something that we all, at least in our office very much are very driven individuals. I don't know that any one of us. I think we all play until the whistle. And then, you know, the whole team has gone home, and we're sitting on the field by ourselves still playing and going, Why isn't anybody around? I mean, so you you brought that up? And it's just it's, we have a very interesting. Again, I just I had to bring that up, because I think that that is starting to fade away in some of there is a large generation of people out there that don't have that discipline. Yet, it seems that there is a younger generation coming in that if given an opportunity could be that great. And I bring this up because I talk a great deal about the generational changes and and this goes along with the cultural shift is we have Millennials constantly seem to be dodging responsibility, but want more money, more opportunity. But then we have this new generation coming in, that's really want to be able to be great and work hard. But we often find that employers are not giving them the opportunities that they deserve. What are your thoughts on that?

 

Brian Herczeg  29:13 

It's tough, because there's a lot to use the phrase on pack there's a lot of unpack there. When you're talking about generations of people, there are characteristics and traits I think that we can observe. But it's dangerous snatching. Is it dangerous? That's a little dramatic. It's, it's it's tough to paint them all with a big wide brush. Yeah, so there. There are people that come in that are hard workers there that are millennials, there are leakers, that are millennials, but there are a lot of baby boomers that shied away from responsibilities as well. I'm a Gen X there. And I'm telling you if I could have made a living sitting on my couch and drinking beer, I'd have done that, you know, I unfortunate that wasn't in the cards. I tried. It didn't work. So my thoughts on it any Buddy listening out there, you are not owed an opportunity for anything. You're not owed anything, no one is going to give you a shot, you got to go earn it and you've got to go prove it. If you're new to the workforce, you may not get the shiniest project to do, you may not have as big of a voice at the kitchen table, guess what you didn't deserve, you don't deserve it, you didn't earn it, go get it. If you don't get that voice over time, then you're in the wrong company. If you're putting if you're playing to the whistle, every single day, you are working hard, you are adding value, you're making the people around you better. That's important, making the people around you better. You should get your voice heard at the table, you should get the shiny projects. That's when you realize if you're in the right place or not walking through the door. Come on. It's a new relationship, you're both trying to figure out if you're full of it, or if you're telling the truth, you don't know yet. You've hired a lot of people in your in your time doing staffing, when you're never quite sure how that's gonna go. Until after the first couple of weeks. The person's they're doing work, and you're getting feedback. Right? It's, it's tough, it's a tough question to answer when you're talking about opportunities and what people want. Because everyone's got a different point of view on that. My point of view is always the same. You don't deserve anything, you are things,

Leighann Lovely  31:19

Right? It's,

 

Brian Herczeg  31:21

It's tough, it's a tough question to answer when you're talking about opportunities and what people want. Because everyone's got a different point of view on that. My point of view is always the same. You don't deserve anything, you are things,

 

Leighann Lovely  31:35

You know, and you said something that was really, it was, I found fascinating. If you are helping the people around you look good, you're raising them up. That was I think my turning point in my career, when I stopped focusing on how I looked. And I started focusing on the people around me and how they looked and how I made and helped them. Look. I think that we all as a younger person, we all focus too much on oh my god, am I going to look bad in this situation. As soon as you stop being selfish, and you start going wait a second, if I can make my manager look really good. If I can make my co workers look really good. That is going to make me look really good. And as soon as you get that you are you're good to go. Your your your career is going to start to launch. But that concept for the younger generation coming in, they don't quite get that yet. That's that's the that's when Careers start to launch is when they start to let go of the that selfishness and you start to realize, oh, it's not about me. But it's that's a human nature thing. Like, and that's a growth thing of oh, okay, it's not it's not all about me. What do you mean, I thought I was the most important person in the room. You know, we all you know, you're a kid you grow up, you're still a kid, your parents make you feel like you're the most special person in the room. Okay, guess what, you're now in the real world. You are not the most important person in that room.

 

Brian Herczeg  33:20

When Mike and I, Mike Schmidt is the recruiter, you know, and we've worked together since we started this office, he and I used to try to and this is a good exercise for people. This is tough to do. When you're having a conversation with someone, see if you can avoid using the word AI. Throughout the entire conversation. I challenge people to try to do that. It is exceptionally difficult. You do that though. You realize that when you put the conversations focus on the person you're talking with, they have a better experience, they will remember you fondly because you made them feel important. You made them seen you made them feel heard. And when that happens, doors start to open for you. Because people want to be around you. And people want to be around you. You're going to end up being in the right room at the right time for the right opportunity. It just it's it's a very it's a cool thing, but it's a difficult thing to to try to do.

 

Leighann Lovely  34:24

And there's Dale Carnegie, How to make friends and influence people using people's names, making people or influencing people to talk about themselves and tell their stories versus walking into a room and saying, Hey, let me tell you about me. People inherently want to talk about themselves. They feel good when they get to tell you how they're doing. If you walk into a conference room and the person you're meeting with does 75 I've percent of the talking, they will walk out of that room feeling amazing. I used to, especially when the pandemic hit. After we started meeting in person again, for a while I would walk out, it would be a two hour meeting, and I'd walk out and go, Oh my gosh, I think I've become a counselor. Because, and again, I'm not picking on, I'm not picking on anybody, but nobody was having in person meetings, right? So you would go and meet with an HR person. And they would just, oh, oh, my gosh, I have to tell you what's going on. And they would tell you, everything that's happened at the company, everything, they had to do everything, you know, all of the responsibility that got laid on them because of the pandemic and furloughing people and have to negate the benefits and all of that stuff organized. And you realize that two hours have gone two hours have gone by, you barely said a word. You know everything about this person, everything about their life, everything that's going on at the company. And they're saying so can you at least give me like 1520 people by the end of next week? And you're like, Yeah, sure, yeah, I can do that. And you're like, I didn't even ask for the business. I just walked in and just listen to him talk.

 

Brian Herczeg  36:21

You can ask insightful questions for people and try to make them feel like what they're saying is important. Everything, everything tends to go your way. There was a saying? No idea who said it. I like to repeat it and pretend I made it up. But it goes something like this. A wise person once said, nothing. Yeah. That's it. Don't always have to be the one talking. Listen, listen more than you're talking. You just might learn something.

 

Leighann Lovely  36:57

Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's funny, I had, I had a rough go of it when I was younger, because one, bipolar disorder, when you're manic, you have a tendency to say every single thing that's in your brain at the moment, it's in your brain. And because you're basically has, you know, being bombarded constantly with every, like, thoughts at hyperspeed. It's hard to even make sense sometimes. And I remember my parents would be like, I would walk into their house and I would literally just word vomit on them. And they'd be like, Oh my god, like, you know, and eventually it would get to the point where they'd go, okay, okay, it's quiet time. Now, you need to stop. And I'm just like, what, what do you mean with it? And it just rambling on? And my parents were just like, like, you've been here for an hour, and you've literally not stopped speaking? And I'm like, oh, yeah, yeah, well, you know, I've got a lot to say, need to catch up. And it's like, Yeah, but you're not even like, you're not even having a conversation. You're just talking.

 

Brian Herczeg  38:07

Overcome so much. That's a that's something like Gosling, I just hearing you saying, what you've overcome. That's an inspiring story to tell. And that's it. People have to recognize you don't learn when things are going well, you learned during the hard times. That's that's been life's truths kind of smack you in the face. And you shared something that that was that was very, very powerful.

 

Leighann Lovely  38:31

Well, and that's it. And that's the reality. We all we all learn. We all have the capacity and the ability to learn something new every day. But we need to shut our mouths. And listen, because we're not going to learn something if we're the ones talking, right. And here I am saying, Hey, shut your mouth and listen, and I'm the podcast host. Right? But that is the reality is that the only way we learn something is if we, if we listen. And I love the saying, if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. I absolutely love that saying. So I love to surround myself with smarter people. I want to soak up as much knowledge as I possibly can every single day and that is my goal. Because it'll help raise me up. It'll help connect me to the right people. It'll help. Just continue to and it's not even about launching my career. It's it's more about self awareness, growth. And from there, if you're continuing to do that, everything else falls in place. Your business, your life, your family.

 

Brian Herczeg  39:48

Yeah, when you do that, which is what you said that's so true. When you're learning when you're looking to learn. What it causes you to do is to be present in the moment. It causes you to give up We think you've got the person you're talking to at the time, you're listening to them, you're engaged with them. I think when you're our presence like that, where you're actively participating in your life moment to moment, it slows time down. by so fast, you're not just a passenger on the training, you're actually engaged with what's going on. And that's something that I'm still learning how to do it. It's it's, it's a hard thing, because you have thoughts, you have things you want to say you have an agenda, you've got things you need to get done. And focusing on being present in the moment, is something I struggle with, but it's something I'm working on, because I know it's going to, it's going to increase my happiness quotient. I say if we can, we can all do that in our home lives and our work lives with our clients, whatever it might be, I think we'd all be a whole lot happier.

 

Leighann Lovely  40:56

Okay, so here, I'm gonna throw that in, throw you for a loop here. You say, you know, time goes by so fast. All right, well spend a weekend with just you and your kids, tell your wife to go, I guarantee that will be the longest weekend of your life.

 

Brian Herczeg  41:15

For sure. You want the weekend to go by really, really wipe off for a spa vacation. For Kids.

 

Leighann Lovely  41:26

My, I said, My brother says to me, and it's so true. days are long, but yours are short. And it's totally totally true. When when you're a parent, there are some that I love my daughter, she is the most amazing thing. In the entire world.

 

Brian Herczeg  41:46

She is She is a doll Yeah, she's adorable

 

Leighann Lovely  41:48

She's but man, she, every single day, there is a moment where I have to walk out of the room and self talk of you're gonna be fine, you're gonna get through this, you're not gonna, you're not gonna throw her out the door, you're not gonna, you're not gonna lock her in a closet, so that you can go and do a shot of whiskey, or you're gonna get through this Leanna because kids, they they definitely, if you're not an adults, and you want to start adulting go babies, you know, go babysit somebody's child for a weekends. You know, like, they will push every button that you possibly have, and they will push you to the limit. And I have one, you have four. And so what four, seven.

 

Brian Herczeg  42:43

So you have the ages, I've got my three oldest are all boys, my sons are 10. In fourth grade, I have an eight year old, he's in second grade. I have a four year old who's in 4k. See how that works. He's one that dress like a lion in the play yesterday. And then my wife and I thank God had a daughter. So she's not outnumbered quite so bad anymore. And our daughter is eight months old. Yeah, that. And I'm 10 years old. So it's very hard to have a young, young baby at home,

 

Leighann Lovely  43:17

you're insane. I just want to

 

Brian Herczeg  43:19

I have to say I have a very good partner my wife is she's like Wonder Woman and every superhero rolled into one. And that's, that's how we get by.

 

Leighann Lovely  43:35

And that's, that's awesome. And that's part of the reason that you and I connected so well when we first talk because I wanted to work with somebody who understood real life. And and you do you understand that life happens? And you? Yeah, you just you get it, you get that we don't come to work, because we want to work, or we want to Yeah, live to work, we come to work because we want to be able to live. But you also create an environment that is fun, that we can be proud of the team that we're part of. And that's awesome. So thank you for that. And that brings me to my final question the question of the season. If you could pinpoint a time period in your career that made a huge difference in your life or career path. When would that be and why?

 

Brian Herczeg  44:39

And I've been thinking about that since you pose that question because it's a thought provoking question. It's fantastic. And for me, it is at the point of my biggest failure is when my business failed, because when I was it was 2012 and I had a business. I had employees and It failed, I could not make it work, I had to close the store, I could not keep my people employed. And that taught me so much. And in the moment it was held. I, I wanted it to go away. I just wanted it to be fixed. But it taught me to be very conservative in what I promise. And in what I promise, make sure I can deliver. It taught me that success is not guaranteed, you're not owed anything. Even if you worked really, really hard, and tried really, really hard. You still aren't guaranteed success. I never thought of it that way before. That, well, if I work hard and do things, right, it's gonna all work out. That's true eventually, but it's not true every time. I didn't know that before 2020 2012. And we had I mean, I was in my 30s. At that point, I was a 30 year old man with a business that still had so much more to learn. that failure is what set me on the path to being here with you today, I never would have moved back to Wisconsin and worked there, Robert Half, Baker never would have knocked on my door. If I wasn't heading up at a Robert half's biggest offices in Milwaukee. All of these things happen. But in the moment, it was hell. But once you walk through it, you realize all the different things you learned, if you're going through hell, once you're out, you better make sure you inventory all the things you learn otherwise was a complete waste of time.

 

Leighann Lovely  46:38

Wow, you couldn't have said that better? And you would you made a comment just just a little while ago that it is the hard times when we learn the most. And that's absolutely true. It's not that we can't learn during the great times. But it is definitely during the times when we are struggling. And if we're not learning from that you're right, it's a complete waste of time. And it would be devastating to not learn from that. And to do it and make that same mistake. And that's you know why as parents, we're it's so painful to watch our children fall and not be able to tell them, hey, don't do that you're going to hurt yourself. But sometimes you have to let them fall in order to truly learn. We have to experience life in order to truly learn the hard lessons. So that we become who we are now, you had to experience that in order to become who you are now and to manage the way that you manage now, which is it's amazing. My, my dad retired, and just really quickly, my dad retired. And when he did retire, he was it was during the pandemic, and everybody's like, you're not going to have a party and my dad's like, No, instead of that, I want everybody to send me a card and write me a letter. He gave me those letters to read. I at times was crying. I realized in that moment that being a manager to people is one of the greatest gifts, being a good manager to people's was one of the greatest gifts that you can possibly have. Because in those letters, not only was he managing them in a job, he was a dad, to hundreds of people throughout his career. He was being thanked for saving people, you know, people's homes, you brought my mother in and she made a career here, you know, son went into the business. Those are the types of things that have an impact that last a lifetime. Or meet your dad. I have met people who've known him who refer to him as a legend. But it wasn't until I was in my upper 30s 40s that I realized the kind of impact that he had on the people he knew. I will introduce you one day if you like. I like that very much. So Brian, if somebody wants to get in contact with you, or vaco how would they go about doing that?

 

Brian Herczeg  49:32

You know, probably the easiest way would maybe go on to Vagos website bayko.com. And then look up our Milwaukee office, click on our pictures. We're all we're all there. That way you can also get the spelling of my last name and find me on LinkedIn. And then my email address is my first initial last name@bayko.com If you can figure all that out, hit me up and I'll I'll always answer

 

Leighann Lovely  49:59

you And that'll be in the show notes. So if you can't figure it out, it's it's pretty sad. Brian, thank you so much. This has been an awesome conversation. I really appreciate your time today.

 

Brian Herczeg  50:14

Thank you for having me, man. You're doing great work and you're really really good at this. I'm just so I'm grateful that you're on my team because I love you every day. And this is this is one of those times. So thanks for this opportunity.

 

Leighann Lovely  50:25

Thank you. Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible so don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode, to follow us, like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

 

Brian Herczeg

Linikedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianherczeg/

Vaco - https://www.vaco.com/locations/milwaukee-wisconsin/?

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