2413 - Recruiting with AI While Prioritizing Culture and Global Talent with Vader-Rey's Darren Tompkins

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0:46Visit podverify.com if you'd like to be featured as a future guest. I'm Josh Elledge. Let's get into it. with us right now darren thompkins darren you are the founder ceo of vader ray companies you're found on the web at vader ray.com and vader ray recruiting.com well darren it's great to have you hey thanks for being here josh i'm uh thrilled about this uh me too because i'm looking in your background you got some cool stuff going on you got a couple of guitars back there and you've got this this framed artwork it it looks like it's like four by eight feet big and it's batman reading the newspaper batman just kind of chilling out man so this is actually a new edition uh my wife just bought it for me at a local art art show and again it's huge i'm actually going to have the office redone to kind of match the color scheme on and everything but it's always a great conversation starter you know we have our virtual backgrounds for the business stuff but when it comes to like man this guy might be cool or maybe this is this is what we need to lead in with more you know that's what they see you know rather than my awards or whatever you know generic stuff people typically have behind them what i love is it's it's in a huge kind of shabby chic uh frame as well like you know like obviously like a really ornate uh kind of frame so very very cool what's it's what's weird about it's metal it's a metal image oh no kidding i laser engrave thing but we thought it was cool, you know?

2:18Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Hey Darren, um, I did, you know, along with that, uh, you know, you and I were kind of geeking out on some pop culture, obviously the name of the company, uh, you know, is, uh, is inspired by Lord Vader himself. Um, but I'm curious, you know, as someone who appreciates, you know, great entertainment, great characters, great stories, uh, what, uh, what, what have you been into lately? way you know i i and we we talked about this about you know we would don't want to go into into like jim bro stuff but you know i did just complete my first high rocks competition and when i when i'm listening to a lot of his metal and motivational music but i'm really gotten back into like stephen king novels and um just listening because you can put one of his on and it'll go for 40 hours um and it just keeps the thought process going um you know along with that you know the movie scene is is pretty good right now i just took my kids to go see the new mario movie which i thought was pretty good even as even as an adult which movie was it the new mario movie mario world oh cool yeah nice nice well we like the last one the last one is really great too is a lot of fun so well it was the first time we took our kids where there's like a group of them in the theater these are four to eight year olds and there were five and it was absolute chaos i'm not gonna lie just trying to parent as well as watch it yeah there's been some really good i'd say you know kind of family movies coming out minecraft i thought really over performed for me with jack black i thought that was hilarious kind of a lot of napoleon dynamite humor in it yeah and i caught him on sardine i live this past past week it was great man yeah yeah yeah and of course it was nice having jack white and jack black there together so and i can tie that into my background because i have a replica of the uh the pick of destiny here from his movie, you know, my noir guitar.

4:12I love it. I love it. Well, Darren, you're a lot of fun. Your website, vaderray.com. Share with us a little bit about what you do. Yeah, so Vader Ray Companies is actually three entities kind of rolled up into one, and they work synergistic. We have Vader Ray Recruiting, which is where we started, which is recruiting for all levels of staffing, permanent and contract. Obviously, here at Houston, We deal with a lot of oil and gas. We deal with a lot of technology, a lot of construction, but we are worldwide. We do have clients worldwide in a variety of industries. In addition to that, we have VedaRay Engineering, which also ties into it, and that's that 1099 contract worker for whatever you need, whether it's people that are turning wrenches up to senior cost controllers and VPs of operations that you maybe just need for a project, like a build project.

5:01And then we have VedaRay Virtual, which is a virtual professional company. Most of my team is in the Philippines. It's how we keep costs down for our clients. And we do everything there from appointment setting, which is traditional stuff, all the way up through, you know, major marketing campaigns and build outs. So, Darren, you know, before we talk a little bit more about what you do with Veda Ray, I'm hoping this is what you do every day. And, you know, if you can help, you know, I'm just curious from your perspective, what you see going on in the staffing world. because there are a lot of things going on right now in that, you know, just take a look at the headlines.

5:43I mean, if it's not, you know, layoffs related to AI or experiments that are kind of coming and going, there's a lot of geopolitical issues going on right now that are causing a lot of chaos in certain industries. And unfortunately, you know, workers, you know, are kind of a commodity. And so there's some lot of movement there. Can you give me maybe your perspective or your read on where we are right now? Yeah, you know, I'm trying to remember what the old adage is, just like, you know, to think globally, look locally, or something similar to that, right? But it's all connected, you know, what's happening overseas is affecting here, for sure.

6:25You know, here in Texas, particularly Houston, we're an oil and gas centric state and town. You know, when the price of a barrel of crude is low, they're laying people off. They're halting technology projects, you know, that kind of thing to just pull more out of the ground. When it's high, you know, they're hiring. It comes up. And then, you know, they're investing more into new techniques and theoretical type stuff to help drive the business. But ultimately, it's all about profit and what's going to what the market, as we call it, is going to do. Now, what we're seeing here right now is obviously a huge flux, because even though the barrel prices are high right now, it's because of the geopolitical stuff that's happening overseas.

7:03And it's affecting everybody. You know, guys that are probably in Orlando or in California must think that we're still around$2 gas down here. No, hell no. We are way over$4 even here. It's just, it's all cyclic and it all interconnects. And, you know, people just don't think about, you know, certain things that are that are happening within any industry. If you got a sec, I'll give you a really a very hands on approach to that. And I'll use a we'll talk about a lot of hot sauce. Right. That's the other business that I'm in. You know, all of our bottles, almost every condiment bottle you've ever used comes from overseas.

7:37You know, where there's not a lot of glass making here in the States. You need to think about the supply line that's going to get you those products from here to there. Guess what? They all require energy oil to get here. you know, in some form, usually it's on boats. When you think about the plastic caps, when you think about the shrink wraps that go on it, the labels, you know, all of these things are made elsewhere and they have to get here to do. So it's really, it's a geopolitical problem, but everything in business staffing is a logistical problem because can you get everything you need so that you, Josh, I can hire you to do a job, you know, and that is a very, it's a very volatile time right now.

8:17I'm not going to lie. You know, some of our major clients are relying on stuff from overseas to settle down before they're willing to get their investors who are really sketchy right now to, you know, think further ahead. Yeah. So Darren, the role that you fill in regarding staffing, it seems as though you're fairly nimble. Do you mind talking about your approach to particularly someone that may have been working with a staffing agency previously, you know, kind of where you fit in often or your philosophy? Yeah, my philosophy is to do it faster and do it better. You know, that's what every business, you know, tries to do.

8:59Here at Vader Ray, we're set up. Vader Ray is a play on Star Wars. My daughters are Josie Vader Tompkins and Izzy Ray Tompkins. That's just what we named them. And it was my wife's idea to come up and name the company there. Right. You know, we are set up with VR, as we call it, but we also is an acronym for virtual recruiters. Nobody, you know, I don't have a main office building or anything like that. We all work remote. And what that does, it just cuts the overhead cost down so much where traditional staffing firms are doing hirings for, let's say, 25 to 35 % of, you know, the first year's compensation, which is again, traditional how it's worked.

9:37That's very high right now. We're doing it for 18 % for new clients. Why? Because we don't have a ton of overhead. Josh, I'm not having you come as a prospective client to my mid-rise office. I'm not introducing you to the director of recruiting. Here's all the recruiters. Here's the director of sales. Here's the admin. Check out our space of coffee machine. We cut all of that out. And so now we're performing the same function faster and better using AI to get you the top quality candidates for whatever it is you need to fill. How are you seeing, or is it a part of your function or how you've adapted regarding the appetite for AI fluent staffing?

10:18Is that something that's been coming up? Like if someone says, listen, you know, I need some people, but I need them to be able to use these newer tools. Like we just had to let go of people that just weren't able to adapt. I don't know if that's coming up for you? It is a bit, you know, again, we're an AI forward company. So we get the basics. And really, when you're talking about recruiters, you want people who are experts in whatever field you're trying to fill, right? But that's not always the case. You know, we're experts in finding people for you. Headhunting is traditionally called getting the right people based on the job description that are here, the hard bulleted things we need somebody to do.

10:52But there's also the cultural side of that, you know, you can have an AI expert that you've hired on as a janitor. You just don't know until you start talking to them. And, you know, do assessing your own company, keeping the lines of communication opens from top to bottom. But yeah, AI is, you got to learn it, man, and be able to figure out what's going on with it. Yeah. So Darren, share a little bit more about, we just have a couple minutes left, you know, to our friend that's been listening, who, what, what you mentioned on gas, you do some work in energy. Sounds as though you've got clients around the globe because you have virtual staffing that's around the globe.

11:33But, you know, to someone who's considering, you know, maybe filling a role or whatever, what would you recommend they do? I don't know if you have any resources on your website you'd lead them to. I would imagine normally maybe have a quick call with people, but explain that process. Yeah. You know, one of the things, again, the way that I've set the company up to run lean, I am always the point person for all new clients. I don't pass that off to anybody. You might come in as an intake from an email or something, but it's going to come to me. So you can reach out to me anytime, anywhere off the website or Darren at vaderay.com.

12:07And we do free consulting and all that because I want to make sure we have a long-term business relationship. Because as you know, the one-off stuff is all done. Everybody needs long-term strategic partnerships or you're never going to last. And that's what we're set up for. The buck stops here, as they used to say. And so your website and where folks go? Yep. Vaderray.com, Vaderrayrecruiting.com, where you can find me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty prevalent there. Even on WhatsApp, you can find us. So yeah. Yeah. Again, you're always going to reach me eventually because I don't pass off anything. Yeah.

12:44Excellent. All right. Again, Darren Tompkins, founder, CEO of Vader Ray Companies, your main website, Vader Ray, that's R-E-Y.com. Darren, it's been a great conversation. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks, Josh.

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