How Bob Reddy’s Near-Death Experience Created an Unstoppable Leader

Anthony Codispoti : Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codispoti and today’s guest is Bob Reddy, owner and strategic partner at Pride Staff Carlsbad. They are a staffing and employment agency that specializes in matching top talent with the right employers in industries like manufacturing, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. Their mission is to consistently provide client experiences focused on what they value most while their employee engagement program helps to build strong relationships.

Now over the past 26 years, Pride Staff Carlsbad has earned notable recognitions including the 212 degree award for Superior Performance and 13 Presidents Circle awards for Outstanding Growth and Profitability. Bob is a former Navy recruiter, served in a variety of staffing leadership roles including as a Commodore, overseeing all Navy talent acquisition efforts for the Eastern Hemisphere. He also holds an NBA and manpower systems analysis from the Naval Postgraduate School and is currently certified as a senior professional in human resources. With a strong background in solving organizational challenges, Bob brings a wealth of knowledge to our conversation today. Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our innovative programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. Alright back to our guest today, owner and strategic partner of Pride Staff Carlsbad. Bob, ready, I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Bob Reddy : I appreciate you having me on Anthony, it’s a pleasure and privilege to be here.

Anthony Codispoti : Alright so Bob, I want to start by going way back before you were running your own staffing firm. You actually enlisted in the Navy right out of high school, is that correct?

Bob Reddy : That’s correct. So actually I think before I could even get into that I probably need to start a little bit before that to talk a little bit about my first job which was actually selling newspaper subscriptions. It was for the Baltimore Sun and it was not the best job, it was my first job and it was definitely a learning experience and I also probably should give you some background. I’m first generation son of an immigrant, my mom unfortunately passed away when I was two and so I think the things, the two main lessons that my dad imparted on me very early on is that life’s not fair and it doesn’t know you anything, you’ve got to work for what you want out of life and so with that mindset I had approached this job and found out I’m pretty terrible at sales.

So bad that so we’d go out into neighborhoods in a van, canvass the neighborhood and I’ll come back with our sales slips, meet and up with very many and so our team leader would pull me aside and kind of go through everything, go through my sales and started asking so what’s the interaction like with the customer and he said do you give up after you get the first no and I usually said yes if they tell me no I don’t push it any further, he’s like well you’re not doing your job right unless you get three no’s and so he would push me out again and encourage me to get three no’s from every customer before giving up on the sale. This factors in trust me here and so I also happened to be kind of a little bit of a weird kid, I think most kids their senior year if they find out they only have a couple classes to graduate they would have a cake senior year and take it easy. I had an older sister that kind of paid the path for me on this but I figured with those two classes I could just go to college year early and take those as 100 classes, get college credit as well as high school credit so that’s what I did, started college at age 16 and it was in about a little year and a half in to college right before I graduated from high school a Navy recruiter started reaching out to me and again my mindset from that previous sales experience is he’s not going to leave me alone until I give him three no’s so I’m gonna go into the office, I’m gonna give him three no’s and he’ll leave me alone. Well that didn’t quite go the way that I thought as he started asking about what I was doing in college I told him I was on the pre-med track and he asked how that was going and then he said have you done the math on this you realize that you still have to complete another two to three years of college before you can apply to medical school that’s going to be another four years and then additional time it’s going to be quite some time before you can actually practice medical care start seeing patients I have an opportunity for you that can have you providing medical care in about six months and we also talked about some of the financial challenges having skipped my senior year of high school I was constantly trying to make sure that I remain scholarship eligible so I spent a lot of time in the library with books and a few other friends of mine that were in the same situation but I also had this the set of friends where mom and dad were paying for college and they were kind of on the eight-year program going to parties every single weekend and I figured there’s there’s got to be some balance where I can have some life experiences and not have to to worry about the finance of college and so this Navy recruiter very astutely picked up on that as a need as well and basically told me by joining the Navy I could have college taken care of financially as well as get me fast-tracked towards medical care and so I enlisted as a hospital corpsman and it was actually a little different than what the recruiter said and that it wasn’t six months it was closer to three to four months so he was definitely true to his word and it was it was a blast

Anthony Codispoti : so what does a hospital corpsman do

Bob Reddy : hospital corpsman provides basic medical care and so it’s it’s closest to probably an LPN a nurse

Anthony Codispoti : okay and so you’re learning this you’re providing this service and at the same time are you taking college courses or does that come later so

Bob Reddy : I by the time I enlisted I enlisted with about a year and a half of college credits when I enlisted at 17 at my very first command I don’t want to spend this entire interview sharing C stories or sharing too many stories about my background but there’s there’s a much longer story that got me to Bethesda Naval Medical Center but is known as the President’s Hospital and while I was there in the Navy the most senior enlisted folks that manage you are called Navy Chiefs and my chief knew that I had pretty close to an associate’s degree and so kept bugging me to go back to college to finish that as I shared with you before I was excited to be out of the library be out from behind books and actually being able to get my hands dirty with work so that was kind of the lowest priority or the least thing I had on my mind okay that’s actually what led me to the Naval Academy I got approved for tuition assistance and was thinking I’m gonna be smart about this and I’m using quotes here here quotes I thought I slow roll this by taking one college course on the weekend and it just so happened I kept getting assigned for watch those same times that I was approved for college that one college class my department head at the time full full bird Navy captain ended up making a four strike phone call to the watch bill coordinator to deconflict it and resulted in me getting all the worst watches holiday watches after that but he pulled me into his office later and he says okay I helped you out in the short term what’s your long-term plan and I told him just keep taking college classes and finish off my associates and he was like wrong answer he split across two brochures one was for Navy ROTC and one was for the Naval Academy and he said pick one pick both I don’t want to see an application by the end of the week and really started starting an application because it is a much longer arduous process than that having grown up in Maryland I figured I’ll show him I’ll apply to the Naval Academy I won’t get in and he’ll leave me alone and that’ll be the end of it well as it turns out I got in

Anthony Codispoti : so you got in you end up you know earning your commission through the academy and from there you know kind of looking at your background here it looks like a pretty remarkable career climb within the Navy recruiting manpower strategy you served in Iraq leading some of the Navy’s most critical HR operations but if I understand correctly you know there was the early recruiting role in Minneapolis that I think you know you kind of developed a passion for solving manpower challenges what what was that experience why did that click for you why was it so meaningful

Bob Reddy : so um that actually was supposed to be a a footnote that was not supposed to be part of a continuing career so what’s not in my bio what’s not in my LinkedIn profile is well I chose I specifically chose FDNF Japan the USS Cushing which is a sprints class destroyer no longer in service I chose that to get as far away from the east coast as I could as you probably saw I went to boot camp in Orlando went to hospital Corman school hospital Corman a school in Great Lakes Illinois and back to Annapolis the Naval Academy really wasn’t much of a join the Navy see the world experience at that point and so I wanted to get as far away as I could to start experiencing that that life I kind of craved but also I knew it was going to be heavy operational and I knew it was going to be a challenge but I also thought it would better way to immerse myself as a surface warfare officer in training and so that was the plan what I wasn’t really prepared for so I left the Naval Academy about 150 pounds on this frame I’m about 511 and I went on board the ship just like any nuance and got seasick didn’t really think much about it I kept this up for a while and I was told don’t worry it’ll be fine and just go away throughout my career I kind of had it impressed on me that I’m not a Corman anymore and so I need to focus on being a surface warfare officer and so I kind of turned that side of my brain off and just kind of trusted when it went along with whatever was presented to me and so I just figured I would you know get sick over the side and then go back to doing what I’m supposed to do and at the end of the night go see doc you pop a lactated ringers IV and I get rehydrated and do it all over again well this is not sustainable and so it got to the point where I lost about 25 pounds in 20 days and I was told to go get checked out by a medical doctor on shore the recommendation at the time was you need to stay behind and gain some weight back you’re about down to 3% body fat if you lose anymore you’re going to be risking brain damage and the exo on the ship again thought he was trying to help me out found a doctor that would clear me allowed me to get underway the new doctor wasn’t talking to the Corman on the ship they prescribed contraindicating medications and in July of 1999 I briefly died on board crushing I was told that well they spent about 30 minutes trying to revive me and I was met a backed off the cool thing was I got to ride the bullet train I didn’t really get to see many of the sites in Japan because I was 85% of the time but from there I was stashed at CNFJ and they were trying to figure out what to do with me and rightfully so because SWO Ensign’s young surface warfare officers belong at sea so there aren’t too many shore opportunities for you the two options that were presented to me was Navy recruiting Minneapolis and MEPPS Indianapolis so the military entrance processing station that everybody goes through when they join that was an Indianapolis one of those was an Indianapolis and that was one of the options the Navy recruiting district Minneapolis opportunity wasn’t really an opportunity per say because it was an 03 billet a lieutenant billet I was only an ensign I was an 01 and so to detail me into a position two grades higher than what I’m supposed to be in would require permission from the chain of command and so I was told you need to call and do an interview from Japan with the executive officer and if they like you and want to take risk on you and put you into that job they you just need to impress them in the interview and apparently I did they decided to take a chance on me and that’s how I got to Minneapolis

Anthony Codispoti : wow that’s quite a path so briefly died that’s the part I’m going to have to go back to there and so was this because basically you’re just you’re not able to retain anything you’re just you’re getting sick all the time probably throwing off your electrolyte levels passed out your body just shuts off what like like the heart stopped like you weren’t breathing

Bob Reddy : definitely a downward spiral and my body just couldn’t keep up

Anthony Codispoti : and so what was that process like to revive you do obviously people have told you stories about clearly you don’t you don’t know you you don’t you know you weren’t aware conscious at the moment but what what stories do people relate to you

Bob Reddy : I would pretty much so the the exo actually same ethnicity as me asian indian and also mariland native so and also went to the naval academy so again really kind of saw him as somebody that that I wanted to be eventually he I think immediately had regretted his decision to get me underway and I was told that uh is about as white as the the pullover that you’re wearing he he was pretty relieved when when I was revived and they were able to get me off the ship as quickly as possible

Anthony Codispoti : do you think sort of that feeling bad had something to do with hey let’s you know make this opportunity available for you to kind of like climb a couple of levels

Bob Reddy : now so he he pretty much he felt bad about the situation but he uh he just said you know they probably should have screened this sooner or he he thought that it should have been caught earlier but now I genuinely think he thought if something ended up in my medical record about not being able to get underway that that would harm my career and so I think he thought he was doing the right thing but I guess

Anthony Codispoti : it was playing with fire now looking in the rear view mirror so um you still you had to you know they set up this interview for you they you know kind opened up the door but you you still had to hit this out of the park you know you you’ve got to impress these folks what what do you think you did in that interview that really caused them to sit up and take notice it’s

Bob Reddy : it’s hard to say because again uh looking back I was an ensign I don’t know that I had much to offer other than that what I found out after getting there is the bill that I went into I’ve been gapped for at least a couple of years Minnesota is one of those places if you’re not from there most people don’t want to go there it’s it’s a pretty harsh winter and a pretty long lasting winter period and so it’s it’s definitely a hard place to to recruit but it’s also a hard place to to be outside and and so the quality of life I think first perceived by some people isn’t a good one but um I was pleasantly surprised when I got there about how much uh it it’s definitely a great family atmosphere and definitely a great place it was a place um where both of my my daughters were born and uh definitely a great place that I’m happy to have been part of

Anthony Codispoti : do you feel like that I don’t do you call it a near-death experience or do you call it a death experience because the way you put it you’re like I actually died for a little bit did does it has it changed you know like do you look back at that point in your life and like was there like a flip of a switch like you view life differently now kind of a saying yes um so

Bob Reddy : I had been told very early on in um my naval care by by chiefs don’t don’t be a lifer don’t plan on making this a career do it till it’s no longer any fun and it seemingly got advice at first but essentially the the advice was don’t be so focused on getting good performance evaluations or fitness reports to the point that you’re not focused on doing a good job and um and I thought that was great advice but because of the death experience or near-death experience um it definitely taught me nothing’s to not take anything for granted nothing is is promised and um much like my dad had advised me you’re gonna have to work for for everything that you want um it was um it was it was looking back it’s still I think a challenging experience but it definitely shaped who I am I think it also gave me a fire to not take any opportunity for for granted I think the easy thing when you consider um the odds there there aren’t too many people who go from being enlisted to going into the naval academy um there aren’t too many people who um can get into the naval academy and then graduate from the naval academy and so I think at this point in my career I’m not gonna lie I felt a little high on myself I felt a little invincible I felt like I can do anything and I think this uh really uh was a humbling experience but also was a recentering experience um I I hope I don’t offend anybody any of the listeners by talking about this but faith definitely played a huge role in in the way forward you say more about that

Anthony Codispoti : I’m gonna hear more about your faith and how it’s helped you

Bob Reddy : well I mean I think when when you do come close to realizing there’s there’s no way forward um and and even after uh being revived after being medivacked um realizing how lucky I am to to still be alive um feeling how lucky I was to to get to Minneapolis um it was pretty sobering to think um this is this is an opportunity to um somewhat get back on my feet but that wasn’t the plan that wasn’t the Navy’s plan for me um and quite frankly there were there really wasn’t a way forward what I mean was that the Navy’s plan was we’re gonna send you to this recruiting billet and you’re gonna finish out your obligations to the Navy and and then then we’re done we’ll part ways you separate from the Navy that was the plan um I I did impress the XO who later fleetered up to be the CO and I encountered a lot of other officers that would pull me aside and say hey Bob we would really like you to stay Navy have you ever thought about a lateral transition to another community and even more so I’m gonna help you out and each of these officers would then come back to me and say hey Bob I looked into this and if if we if you can’t go to sea you’re not going to see past 03 you’re not going to be able to make it past lieutenant there’s really not much of a way forward and so when you go out recruiting make sure you take your resume with you you really need to think about your civilian options and so um and um I probably shouldn’t mention this as well um a few a few months before July and in May of 99 I’d gotten married and um and so um my new bride new to the Navy uh new Navy spouse uh is enduring this whole experience with me and um when we get sent to Minneapolis she’s from Michigan and so she’s thrilled about the location but she’s still trying to wrap her head around okay so the organization that nearly killed my husband now wants him to go out and sell this organization um it’s it’s a daunting prospect when you think about it um but for me going back to faith I think um my mind was really focused on being grateful but also being very prayerful about the way I had because I couldn’t see um I my first daughter was on her way and uh so um to know that I had a child on the way to know that I don’t have prospects to continue in a career that I’ve known since I was 17 turned 18 in boot camp um was was pretty scary um it was a scary time

Anthony Codispoti : but obviously you know you do decide to stay in the Navy and you have I’m going to use the word meteoric meteoric rise um to the ranks I think we said in the intro that you were in charge of um all recruiting for the entire East Coast um so clearly you know I’m going to put words in your mouth so tell me if I’m right or wrong here you you found a passion you enjoyed um kind of this uh I don’t know HR aspect of the the Navy that you had discovered am I right

Bob Reddy : uh eventually yes when when I was um when the opportunity presented itself uh in 2001 the Navy stood up a human resources community so this path didn’t even exist um prior to me getting stationed in Minneapolis and again that’s where I can’t see that as anything but a god thing um it’s definitely not something I could have planned on um but even when that opportunity presented itself and I was heavily encouraged to apply I wanted nothing to do with it um I pretty much told my superior officers um if I’m going to do human resources I think I’d rather do that on the outside than um in the Navy and um you know go to the Naval Academy to become a human resources officer it was my mindset you’re you’re supposed to be a war fighter and um at least that that was my mindset at the time but I really didn’t think through at the time that I know now is um there’s so much that hangs on the behind the scenes work um something that that I going back to being a hospital corpsman uh something that I found was a talent of mine was vena puncture um and that wasn’t a talent I think I was necessarily born with it’s one that I acquired when you go through hospital corpsman a school you you practice on each other as as adults for blood draws and things like that but I got assigned to pediatrics and um to draw blood on a three-day-old baby whose veins are just developing um it was it was pretty challenging at first but once I got the hang of it it was pretty easy to draw blood on adults and that’s the sort of thing I think uh you don’t really think about as a life-saving skill most people think about like triage, patient care or responding to a code all the exciting things you’re never going to see a poster you know highlighting vena puncture for a medic for a medical field that’s just something I think we all take for granted human resources is one of those things as well that’s behind the scenes if you do it right nobody’s ever going to take notice you’re never going to see a well maybe you’ll never see I doubt you’ll ever see a navy poster highlighting navy HR officers behind the scenes and it’s a language that most warfighters don’t speak but when they realize especially the more senior they get how important and power and manning are it’s an invaluable skill

Anthony Codispoti : and so at what point did you make the decision that you were ready to transition from the navy into civilian life

Bob Reddy : so that last tour that I did as Commodore it was pretty grueling time uh it was I think it was around 2022 when the services except for the Marine Corps were in the newspapers or the headlines for not being able to make their recruiting goals that was about the time that I got tapped to to be Commodore unlike most other Commodores I went straight into the job most other Commodores you start out as the deputy and you fleet up and I was afforded the opportunity because of my extensive recruiting background and experience but it was a it was a tough tough job at the time and still is a tough job

Anthony Codispoti : but tough job because you guys weren’t making the numbers that you needed to make or something else yes tough job

Bob Reddy : because we weren’t making the numbers we weren’t making there’s a lot of scrutiny on navy recruiting and it was it was it’s I think in the same way that infection winning can be infectious I think losing also can be infectious and so it was a tough spot to to wrap our our minds around of being able to be successful I think a lot of folks were focused on all the reasons we couldn’t instead of the ways that we could but I I’ve been there and done that when I went to Minneapolis back then there were 31 recruiting districts and we were 31 of 31 and happy to say that by the time I was by the time I had left we were consistently in the the top 10 top five and so wow what

Anthony Codispoti : were some of the big levers that you pulled to affect that kind of rise I

Bob Reddy : really think it boils down to to teamwork I I strongly believe that if you break down the the stove pipes and you leverage teamwork I think there’s a lot more that you can accomplish so specifically when I was on the officer recruiting side many of the officer recruiters wouldn’t share information share leads with the enlisted recruiters and I can say from my my own experience I think typically when you talk to a lot of military recruiters they’re going to talk from their experience and very few of them have been enlisted and officer so they can’t talk to you about both sides of the fence when I was put in charge of officer recruiting at Minneapolis that was that was another thing I was the most junior guy at the command and it was a huge less lesson in positional leadership to be in charge of more senior officers as a junior officer but I was later put in charge of enlisted recruiting simultaneously so I still managed officer recruiting in enlisted recruiting and I really worked to try and break down those barriers to make sure that we were sharing information across lines and uh I think, I don’t know if you’ve heard of anybody having this experience, but unfortunately it can be a common one where an enlisted recruiter talks to you about joining the military with a college degree and doesn’t even talk to you about officer programs. That unfortunately was fairly commonplace until I was put in charge and we really tried to make sure that that didn’t happen. And now it’s the least in the Navy, it’s policy that you’re supposed to be talking to about officer programs if you have a college degree.

Anthony Codispoti : Make sure that people know all their options that are available to them. Yeah, it’s good to have that transparency. And so how did the opportunity to acquire, because I want to get to kind of more present-day stuff, how did that opportunity to acquire the Pride staff franchise in Carlsbad, California come about?

Bob Reddy : So it was definitely not a straightforward opportunity. I swore after the Commodore job and after retiring from the Navy, I had told myself and my family that I wasn’t going to do anything HR, wasn’t going to do anything staffing related, was going to do something completely different. And I really tried to make good on that. I did explore a lot of other opportunities and really didn’t resonate with any of them.

It was doing some exploration with franchises and then more specifically with Pride staff. When I came home and told my wife Sally about it, she said, you really need to pursue that. And I told her, well, I thought we agreed we’re not doing anything in staffing. She said, you really need to look at this because this is the first time I’ve seen your face light up with an opportunity to get brought home. So spouses know they can see it. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti : They can see it in your eyes. Yeah, go ahead. Let’s hear more about that.

Bob Reddy : I really have to credit Sarah Brown. She works with Petrapreneur, a really great organization. And ultimately she has led me to the Pride staff resale. But an unexpected person in my life, somebody I had served with at Energy San Diego, one of my former senior chiefs, John Nasseta, was really a true mentor and friend.

He actually owns a rival franchise, a staffing franchise. And yet he was so gracious throughout the process to kind of walk me through things. I definitely think without my wife’s Alley support, I wouldn’t have taken the leap of faith with it. But there’s also lots of prayer involved. No.

Anthony Codispoti : And so let’s see, we’re recording this in June of 25. You acquired the franchise in the fall, September of 24. So just under a year, kind of under your belt, how’s that transition been? Obviously, you gained a tremendous amount of HR recruiting experience in the Navy. But got to be some big differences between that and sort of the private sector. Is that right?

Bob Reddy : Yes. Huge differences. And challenging in some ways and less challenging in others. I feel like commencing an individual or even their parents to allow their son or daughter into go in the harm’s way is a much different prospect than what I deal with at Pride Staff.

In fact, I think quite the opposite. I’m usually trying to look out for the welfare of my temporary associates or direct hires and really trying to work with companies that are not cutting corners, that are very looking at mitigating workers’ comp issues and that sort of thing that are ocean compliant. And so definitely different perspectives and different approaches to take. There’s a lot of similarities in that while I was with the Navy and Navy recruiting, the same exact sales system is the same exact sales system that Pride Staff uses currently.

But they also use CRMs and so there’s different CRMs that Pride Staff uses than the Navy uses Salesforce and like a lot of companies do, Pride Staff uses Bullhorn. And it’s just a matter of just learning the differences. It’s been great to have a scoped down responsibility instead of having to worry about 6,000 folks. It’s now just three additional folks and it’s also great to have a lot more autonomy. There’s very few things that have to go to the franchise or there’s a lot of autonomy that I have on my own.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, that’s a big difference from the Navy, right? There’s a chain of command, there’s sort of a way of doing things. That’s a red tape to kind of do things a little bit off script there. Right.

Bob Reddy : I also appreciate, so it’s both ends. In the Navy, it was really the Navy’s the customer that I was trying to staff and source for. On this end, I’m trying to recruit and retain the best talent, but for companies, I’m also looking to seek out good clients to align these opportunities with. And it’s been gratifying because usually with the Navy, it’s 18 months to two years is the longest you’re spending in one spot and then it’s time to move on. I’m excited to be in North County, San Diego and being able to make connections with the local business community and being able to help folks out.

Anthony Codispoti : I have to imagine, even with all that recruiting and staffing experience that you had, that coming into the private sector and it’s a business model, different business model now and different approach and different software tools, that you have to rely on some of the team that’s in place to kind of help you kind of get coached up to a place where you can be an effective leader. Can you say more about the team that you’re working with there?

Bob Reddy : Sure. So, I mean, in the intro, you highlighted several different accolades. The office is one and I really have to give all the credit to the team. Lailani is my branch manager and she’s been with the office for almost six years. She hails from Oceanside and previous construction management background. Lailani has a really unique way of connecting with a variety of job seekers and clients. There aren’t too many folks that can talk to a variety of folks from different professions, but she’s very well versed and she genuinely cares about improving your circumstances. I also think from experiences I’ve had with her, she’s an out-of-the-box thinker and she often comes up with creative solutions to motivate the team.

While maintaining accountability, she also always tries to get to yes for both the associates and the clients. And so, I’ve really appreciated having her as the branch manager. Miriam, she recently stepped into my staff and consultant role and she’s been with the office for over 10 years. She hails from Vista and she came to us from UEI and happens to also be bilingual. When I first took over, Miriam was kind of a fairly reserved recruiter assistant, but since then she’s really blossomed, taken on more and more responsibilities and challenges. I think because of her years of experience and her positive attitude, she handles all sorts of complex tasks and makes it look easy. Payroll is one of those things that you have to get right.

Anthony Codispoti : Oh yeah, absolutely. You don’t get people paid on time. You make mistakes in their checks. The relationship is going to sour pretty fast. Say more about the role that the Pride staff franchise war has kind of played in helping you kind of get up to speed and feel comfortable about the business. What value were they providing?

Bob Reddy : I’m sorry. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Edith. She’s the newest member of the team. She just joined last month. She hails from Vista as well and she’s also quickly learning that you recruit her assistant role.

She’s also bilingual and has been a great addition of the team. But getting back to your question on the franchise war, I think one of the things that I did prior to Pride staff is I did look into HR consulting just on my own. Aside from the experience of being able to talk to the folks, being able to help them, there’s a lot of doing everything on your own and figuring things out on your own. Coming up with your own business plan and while that’s freeing, it’s also kind of daunting.

Doing my homework on the different competing franchise staffs, staffing agencies. Pride staff was one that really spoke to me. It really presents us a family environment.

And they were really great about letting me actually go out to Fresno to the headquarters, getting to kind of talk with all of the upper management. And on a daily basis, like I said before, there’s not a whole lot that I have to constantly ask for permission on on a daily basis. But when there are authority workmen’s comp issues or other things like that, they’re in the background to support. So they’ve been a ready resource.

Anthony Codispoti : That’s terrific. So I didn’t realize you kind of shopped around. It wasn’t like it was just the Pride staff opportunity fell in your lap. You’re like, oh, okay, this is where we go.

It’s like, no, you did your research. You did your due diligence to look into the different franchise systems. And Pride staff was the one that really felt comfortable to you.

Bob Reddy : It is. I think it certainly helps that when when I am doing my due diligence, looking at the different franchises, I wanted to go to one that actually values my background and my service. And about a month after I purchased my pride staff location, pride staff was ranked by entrepreneur magazine as the top franchise for veterans for its seventh consecutive year. And so that was definitely a determining factor.

When you look at the amount of awards, so the my office is one consistently a number of awards, but the pride staff franchise has been awarded clearly rated best of staffing for all three possible areas, client, employee and talent set talent satisfaction. That spoke a lot to me as well. I wanted to work with a company where I wouldn’t definitely be working from the. I wanted to work from the ground up, but I didn’t want to have to build a brand on my own. And pride staff is one of those brands that is fairly recognized and awarded for it.

Anthony Codispoti : So tell us Bob about the services that you provide. I don’t know if you’re doing, you know, temporary, temp to hire, direct hire, like what specific industries are you serving, what size companies kind of paint a picture for us here. Okay.

Bob Reddy : So we offer the full spectrum of staffing solutions. We do temporary, we do temp to hire, we also do direct hire. It really depends on what the client’s needs are. And as you mentioned, our mission is to consistently provide clients with what they value most.

And so we really start from the client’s perspective. Again, this is, this is where given my own experience in recruiting, I think I told you that I didn’t really have the best start with sales when I first started out. I don’t think I mentioned this, but when I went through Navy Recruiting School before going to Minneapolis, they actually gave us a personality profile and the Myers-Briggs test. And I tested it out as an introvert. And I got pulled aside in class and was told, sorry, you’re really going to struggle with this because you’re an introvert and you know, the best salespeople are extroverts. And so, sorry about that. Just be, be aware of it.

And you’re going to need to make sure that you work extra hard on this. So knowing that I was terrible at sales and that I’m an introvert, I was really excited going into Minneapolis. The funny thing is the tour after that, after really recognizing it was a sink or swim opportunity where I just had to figure out how to make it happen.

The tour after that, I went to the Naval Postgraduate School where I got my MBA. They tested, they gave me the Myers-Briggs as well. And I tested it out as an extrovert.

And before you start thinking that my personality widely swings, I was a borderline introvert and I tested it as a borderline extrovert. And so I think what I learned from that whole opportunity is that if you give yourself over to the process, there’s opportunities for growth, there’s opportunities for change. And I think if I can do it, anybody can do it. But getting back to Pride staff, I think

Anthony Codispoti : what we’re really sorry, before we get back to Pride staff for a moment, Bob, sorry to cut you off, because this is a really important point. And I want to celebrate this a bit because I think as human beings, sometimes we get stuck in sort of this fixed mindset of, right, I’m terrible at sales, I’m always going to be terrible at sales.

I’m an introvert, introverts are not going to be good at and you could insert sort of different descriptors here, you know, oh, I’m not good at sports, oh, I’m not good at math, I’m not, you know, I’m not a people, whatever it is, you can sort of put yourself into a box and say, well, that’s just how I’m always going to be, because that’s the way that I am now. And I think what your story really highlights is we’re malleable, right? When we put the effort forward, when we put ourselves into these more uncomfortable situations, that’s where we really allow for growth to take place. And that’s, you know, your story is emblematic of that. Absolutely.

Bob Reddy : I found that I learned the sales process, I learned the scripts, but none of those really were me. And so where I found the most success in recruiting and Navy recruiting and and also with pride staff is starting with listening, building a relationship. And I found the more that I listened to the people I’m genuinely trying to help, the better the outcome would be. So instead of trying to do the typical sales hard sell, taking a round peg, trying to jam it into a square hole, where, you know, it’s not necessarily what the applicant or the client wants, but it’s what what the organization needs to make happen.

That’s just building in turnover and transition. And so I’d rather enter with the right starting point of trying to figure out what is it that you find most valuable? What is it that you want the most out of this opportunity?

And that’s exactly how pride staff is geared. And so I think from that perspective, it’s just been gratifying to be able to work with lots of you had asked about the profile of the customers that we serve. We work with a lot of small to medium businesses. We do work with some larger businesses as well. But I think it’s typically the small to medium customers that really value their personnel. Because they’re smaller, they can’t afford to spend a lot on turnover and friction. Because they’re smaller, there’s also not a whole lot of room to hide mediocrity. So they want to make sure that they’re getting the full value of their employees.

And they just don’t want to be in a cycle of higher and higher. They want to have the greatest compliments, but also one of the biggest challenges that I have because my office has been around for over 26 years. When I visit old dormant clients, they’ll usually tell me, I’ve heard this repeatedly, we love pride staff, you guys do such a phenomenal job. In fact, the person that you sent us three years ago, they’re still on board our team. And thank you, you’ll be the first call when we need somebody. But sorry, I think you did too good of a job, honestly.

Anthony Codispoti : So yeah, it’s very, if somebody’s not going to give you an order for, you know, some personnel, that’s the reason that you want to hear is last time we hired you guys, it worked out so well, we’re not having that turnover.

Yeah, that’s great. So, been at this 10 months, obviously, you know, you did your due diligence sort of getting into before making the decision to proceed. Anything that surprised you in particular after you acquired the franchise and sort of got in there and looked under the hood?

Bob Reddy : So I will say, when I first took over in October, I was hearing a lot from clients of, well, there’s a lot of uncertainty, depending on what happens with the election, we’ll be in touch. But there are a lot of folks kind of hedging their bets, that has morphed into, there’s a lot of uncertainty with tariffs and other things.

And so there are folks that are uncertain and kind of hedging their bets. I guess what has surprised me is just how resilient my team has been, but also how determined and focused they can be. And I think a lot of the clients that have stuck with this as well have really gotten to get full value out of our relationship.

There have been ones we’ve really tried to work hard to make sure that it’s a mutually beneficial relationship, trying to phrase this appropriately. But I guess in taking over from the previous owner, I was just looking over contracts and just looking at where we were at. I guess a regular annual contract review wasn’t a thing. And so that’s something that I had to work with each client to let them know, look, we haven’t, over the past five years, we haven’t adjusted anything for inflation.

We haven’t adjusted for FUDDA and SUDA. And so there’s just costs that do go up. And I think there’s definitely a relationship that you want to maintain, but at the end of the day it is a business and you need to be able to stay in business. And so I think just being able to kind of add some discipline and rigor to some of the processes.

Anthony Codispoti : Were those some hard conversations to have with customers? If they’ve sort of gotten comfortable with their rates being where they were for the last five years and now here comes the new guy and he’s saying, yeah, we got to revisit this.

Bob Reddy : Yes. There were definitely some difficult conversations. And yet there were some really great clients that I even had some clients that came back and said, wow, this is really fair. You could really hype things on us, but I appreciate your transparency. I appreciate where you’re at and those clients are still with us. There are some that I think we’re thinking that just because of the years that we’ve had a relationship that somehow I can magically offer some kind of discount for that. And at the end of the day, I just need to keep a solvent.

Anthony Codispoti : I’m sure that kind of introducing some of those new processes and turning the dials. Obviously, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel because it’s been a very successful franchise for a number of years. I’m kind of curious maybe from a growth perspective, if in the time that you’ve been there, you’ve had ideas that you want to implement or you’ve been able to start introducing some new ideas on, hey, how can we do more work with our existing customers or go and find new customers and kind of get our name out there a little bit more? Yes.

Bob Reddy : So I think something that was often overlooked and still until we start talking about it is I think there are a lot of businesses that see the cost or the expense associated with using a staffing agency but don’t realize the cost benefits to using a staffing agency in times of uncertainty like now is one of the best times to use a staffing agency. When it has a business owner, I think I’m constantly mindful of unemployment, insurance, and the hikes that happen when you have lots of turnover. If you’re a business that’s either growing or shrinking and you use a staffing company, then you don’t have to take that hit. And so that’s where companies like mine can come in and help you grow or scale appropriately. I think that just making folks more aware. So I shared the feedback that I had gotten about some of our dormant clients not utilizing us because we did too good of a job filling their need before. That’s not widely known, I think. And so just trying to get that out there to a lot of folks, I think, just creating more awareness, I think.

Anthony Codispoti : Bob, how would you characterize your superpower?

Bob Reddy : I would, it’s funny when I ask other folks, I’m frequently told that I’m unflappable. There are few folks that have seen me kind of get riled up about a lot of things. And I attribute that to a variety of factors. I definitely think faith, again, comes into it. But I think having a difficult situation growing up without some other challenges, I think, in List of Boot Camp, I think going through the Naval Academy, I think a little over a year long tour in Iraq, I think all of those things help shape what’s worth getting excited about or changing perspectives on things. And definitely the experience on board cushing.

Anthony Codispoti : I have to imagine losing your mother at the age of two. I mean, that just has rippling effects throughout your life. Where there, obviously, you mentioned your dad a couple of times. He was a big force in your life. Were there other family members, extended family members around who were able to kind of step in and help out with things?

Bob Reddy : Unfortunately for my oldest sister, Geetha, she pretty much had to kind of take on a lot greater responsibilities. We had an aunt that looked with us and took care of us for several years. But ultimately, I think it was a lot of growing up quicker than probably most kids should. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti : Are there any daily habits or practices, maybe even rituals that Bobby, they helped to get you started in the day, helped keep you on track as you’re going along?

Bob Reddy : I would say both faith and fitness. So I definitely like taking the morning, taking time out of each day to get centered and to get my mind right. But then it’s also important to especially as I get older to keep my body in shape as well. I feel like when I don’t do those things, there have been times with the previous job has come where I was traveling quite a bit and it was hard to be disciplined about making time for either one of those things. And I feel like the day just doesn’t, I feel like these are a little off when I don’t make time for those things.

Anthony Codispoti : How about recommendations for our listeners in terms of a resource that’s been helpful to you? Maybe it’s a book, a podcast, a network, a course, something that’s very helpful in sort of your personal or professional development

Bob Reddy : that other than this podcast, I would recommend. There’s a book by Brett Crozier called A Surf When You Can and it’s an excellent book on leadership, but it’s also a master class in professionalism. You may recognize the name. He was a former Theta Roosevelt Carrier CEO during COVID and ended up in the news with some really tumultuous impacts on his career and he’s just an amazing individual to have served with but also just to read about.

Anthony Codispoti : Bob, what’s one thing you wish more people understood about the staffing industry?

Bob Reddy : I think I’ve had on this before, but I think investing in the right talent, if you don’t invest in the right talent, I think a lot of people see it as a huge expense in the short term, but over the long term, I think it far outweighs the cost of mediocrity and turnover. I think people get stuck in this mindset of, well, I want to hire people that don’t have other options, so they’ll stay with me for a long period of time and maybe they don’t have all the best skills, but at least they’re not leaving me. Instead of going for somebody who might have other options and could leave for the next best thing, but stays with you because you’ve made it a great place to work. I think it was Bill Gates that said, take our 20 best people away and I’ll tell you that Microsoft will become an unimportant company. I found that to be true in my Navy career and in this career. I think if you invest in the right people, that really makes or breaks your team.

Anthony Codispoti : Yeah, I’m trying to remember who gave me a similar piece of advice early on in my career because I had the same sort of thing. I would find some good folks.

I would help to develop them, invest in their education, their learning, and then get nervous that they were going to leave. All of that time invested in the great relationship that we have is going to go to waste. Somebody kind of helped me reframe it. It was like, that should be like your proud dad day, that you have helped that person move along in their personal development, in their career development. Now, this is a type of graduation. If you’ve treated them well and you’ve been good to them, this isn’t a time for sad reflection. It’s happy reflection.

It’s, the next chapter of your life. Stay in touch. Let me know how I can be helpful.

This sort of that abundance mindset I found was really helpful in flipping the script for me. Bob, I’ve just got one more question for you. Before I ask it, I want to do two things. First of all, everyone listening today, go ahead and hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app.

We’ve had a great interview here today with Bob Reddy, who owns the Pride Staff, Carlsbad, California franchise location. I got to hear a lot about his meteoric rise through the Navy and his near-death experience. I want you to continue to get more great stories like this. Bob, I also want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you directly or to continue following your story. What would that be?

Bob Reddy : Aside from LinkedIn, I can reach out to our public phone number, 760-438-0161.

Anthony Codispoti : We’ll put that information in the show notes. Bob, we’ve had a great conversation today. I hope you and I stay in touch. A year from now, we’re sitting down and you’re celebrating something. What is that something? What’s that one thing that you’re excited about?

Bob Reddy : I’m happy to say, and hopefully, Katie don’t kill me for this. My oldest daughter, Katie, is expecting in September. And so I’m hoping to be celebrating her first grandchild’s birthday. My wife, Sally Reddy, just recently took a leap of faith in helping my business, but also stepping out on her own. She has launched her own solo law practice. And so I’m hoping to be able to celebrate her first year of successful practice. And then for my team, I’m really hoping to be able to celebrate another president’s circle win. I love it.

Anthony Codispoti : Bob Reddy from Pride Staff Carl’s Batta. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Bob Reddy : Thank you so much for having me. It’s really been a pleasure.

Anthony Codispoti : Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.