Indianapolis Woman-Owned Business: Leticia Snoddy’s 25-Year MSIL Staffing Journey

Anthony Codispoti (00:00)
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 Cotaspodi and today’s guest is Leticia Snoddy, the founder and owner of MSIL staffing and packaging. Founded in 2001, they are recognized as one of the fastest growing minority and women owned workforce solution providers.

Located in Indianapolis, MSIL specializes in manufacturing and warehousing, offering cost-effective labor management services. Leticia also founded Pro Talent Group in 2017, adding recruiting to her broad range of expertise. Now, under her leadership, MSIL has been listed among the Indianapolis Business Journal’s largest woman-owned businesses.

Leticia’s commitment to efficient operations, workplace safety, and building strong community partnerships have helped MSIL grow into a trusted name. By blending insightful leadership with a passion for creating job opportunities, Leticia has built a strong legacy in the staffing and logistics field. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits

Leticia Snoddy (00:59)
Okay. Okay. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (01:24)
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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. All right, back to our guest today, founder, owner of MSIL Staffing and Packaging, Leticia Snoddy. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Leticia Snoddy (01:57)
Well, thank you for having me. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (02:12)
Okay, so you had worked for many years in the staffing industry and there was this fateful moment where you found yourself as the single mother of two and somehow ready to roll the dice and start your own business. Can you describe what led to that moment?

Leticia Snoddy (02:28)
Yes, growing up, I’m the oldest of five. My mom and dad, my mother is probably my most inspirational person in my life. She worked so hard throughout raising us.

But we never had without was one thing is was her love, her compassion, her work ethic. ⁓ That’s what one of the things that really instilled in all of us. And ⁓ just with that being said, I just look at her for the inspiration that, you know, growing up and I just wanted to help people because she did that too. She helped people. I mean, she worked in factories, but

coming home and after a long day, she would work 10, 12 hour days and come home and take care of five kids. You know, now being the eldest, I was also the responsible one to be in charge of everything at home. And ⁓ as I grew up, I moved away from home and I started working for a manufacturing, automotive manufacturing company. And I always thought, man, there’s gotta be, I wanna do more.

And I kept learning and trying to advance and advance and advance. And I always thought, you know, I want to do more. And one thing, a conversation I had with mom, it’s been years ago, but she said, you know, you were seven years old and you said, mom, I’m going to take care of you one day and I’m going to buy you a house. And she brought this up at years later. And she said, I’m going to have, she said that I told her, I’m going to have a business and I want to take care of you. And one of the things that I did when I,

started the business, the first thing I did was bought my mama house. And without knowing that conversation, because I think I was, she said I was, I did not remember I said that. So I, and to this day, I, we, know, between all of us, we take care of her, but I bought her her house, her car, her, she has no struggles. She’s good.

Anthony Codispoti (04:18)
You didn’t remember you had said that.

far into the business were you before you were able to afford to buy our house?

Leticia Snoddy (04:37)
I think it was third, fourth year. Yeah. Yeah. We ran, we hit the ground running. Definitely.

Anthony Codispoti (04:39)
It’s pretty good. You found some success pretty early on.

So explain to me sort of the circumstances that led to this because you’re a single mother of two, maybe not the best time to be transitioning into starting a new business. Most businesses take a while before they’re actually cash flowing. What transpired here to sort of kick this all off?

Leticia Snoddy (05:04)
Right.

Well, we worked in the venues and let me go back a little bit because I did work for the manufacturing and automotive industry. But then I got an opportunity to work for this gentleman who had a staffing company. And in those six years, I learned everything from the front of the house to the back of the house, which means, you know, taking applications, ⁓ meeting customers or going out and doing sales, opening offices. So I opened six out of those nine offices that he had.

And I did work my way up to sales in those six years. And then from that, I got an opportunity to start my own business. And at the time I had a partner and together, you know, with his connections and my, my capabilities and my knowledge, we hit the ground running. We started working with the venues, all the venues. the sport venues, we worked for them for almost 20 years. ⁓ we worked.

Anthony Codispoti (06:05)
So you had clients

right out of the gate. Like, day one? Wow.

Leticia Snoddy (06:07)
We did, we did, day one, day one. And

part of that was because of my previous employment that I had, I already had relationships that I had built with other clientele. So being in the sales, I knew people already, you know? So they came to me also and I had other clients that started coming back to me and saying, look, we like the way you handled your, you and your team helped us.

That’s how that’s who we want to do business with because you guys care. One of the best compliments I ever got was during our business was a customer called and said, you know, I haven’t slept this well in a long time. He said, knowing you guys are here and you know that gentleman has passed since then. But that was probably one of our biggest compliments and I thought that’s what we need to do. We need to make sure that our

people are taking care of our customers and our clients and our people. So, right, that is. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (07:08)
Yeah, I mean, that’s really the ultimate testimonial, isn’t it? So how

quickly were you cash flow positive then?

Leticia Snoddy (07:16)
I think within a couple years, two to three years, we started making money right away. I mean, again, I hit the ground running. I’m a single mom. Where’s my next check coming from? Right? So I had to go out and find it. I had to know where I’m going to eat, how I’m going to eat, how I’m going to feed my kids. So there was no choice for me but to go out and get clients. So right off the bat, we worked with the venues.

Anthony Codispoti (07:19)
Okay.

Leticia Snoddy (07:46)
⁓ In the packaging industry, we worked in the packaging industry as well. What I mean by that is we provided people contract labor to those industries.

Anthony Codispoti (07:59)
So you had connections into some of the industries that you had already been working in. So that was a relatively easy foot in the door. But as you were servicing some of these other industries, how did you open up those doors?

Leticia Snoddy (08:07)
Let’s get started. ⁓

⁓

Word of mouth was really good for us back then. Social media wasn’t around then. You know, we’ve been in business. We’re going to celebrate 25 years. ⁓ so back then everything was through word of mouth and who you knew or our contacts. So excuse me. I talk a lot.

Anthony Codispoti (08:35)
Well, I think it’s a good time to point out here that doing this interview today is actually a little uncomfortable for you. You don’t really like the spotlight on yourself. Can you say more about that?

Leticia Snoddy (08:48)
I do not. I love when people ask me about the business. I like talking about the people who got us there. And there’s been many, many people, but I will tell you the initial seven that started with me are still here. So, and we’ve had a lot of people still here with have been with us 10 years, 15 years.

and growing. So it says a lot about how you treat people, you know, and how when you’re growing a business, it’s about those people and putting the emphasis on the trust, the trusting that they have the ability to do what they’re supposed to do. We don’t micromanage, you know. So I don’t like that word.

Anthony Codispoti (09:36)
Mmm.

Leticia Snoddy (09:40)
to micromanage people. want them to bring their strengths and their abilities to what they can do. And that’s basically what has grown this business. Everybody has a passion for what they’re doing and helping people. And that’s the people we try to find to make sure that that’s the same culture we have and grown.

Anthony Codispoti (10:00)
How do you filter for that during the ⁓ interviews, the recruiting, the hiring process? How do you narrow down that, this is going to be a good fit for us?

Leticia Snoddy (10:12)
You know, I know people don’t like me saying this, but it’s a gut feeling because it, I can give you a great resume, but until you put that person to work, you know, and see what they really can do and give them that opportunity, that’s that, that’s where you’re going to really know. But when you look at a resume, yes, it’s a great resume and you’re talking to that person, but it’s when you get to know that person and really say, okay, he’s got something.

or she’s got something, you know?

Anthony Codispoti (10:43)
Yeah. How

about, how do you handle that question? I think we were talking more specifically about your internal office staff. When thinking about sort of the frontline workers, the contract workers that you’re placing at your client locations, you’re doing that at a much bigger scale. How do you approach that sort of filtering process in those scenarios?

Leticia Snoddy (10:56)
Thank you.

And those scenarios, same way, same way. always tell people, it’s funny you brought this up because I always say to all our recruiters and people being in the front lines, it’s like, look, put yourself in those people’s shoes. They’re coming in through those doors. That’s uncomfortable to be asking for a job. You know, so put yourself in those shoes. And also you have to be ⁓

cognizant of where you’re going to put these people to and match the right client with that person and the person with that client. So you always have to ask them, is this somebody that I would let into my own home? Is this somebody I entrust to do the job?

Anthony Codispoti (11:53)
And it comes down to the gut feeling of the employees that you have, you’re empowering them.

Leticia Snoddy (11:55)
And it does a lot. ⁓ Yeah,

yes, absolutely. Every day.

Anthony Codispoti (12:02)
What does MSIL stand for?

Leticia Snoddy (12:04)
It stood for minority solutions for inspection and logistics. So that’s what it did. ⁓ In the past, we went down to Alabama when we spread out and we were in 13 states. And ⁓ we went to a minority ⁓ event. And there was a gentleman there and says, why do you call yourself minority solutions? And I said,

I don’t know, I guess because I’m a minority and somebody had brought the name to me and said, hey, you know, this might fit for who you guys are. And he’s like, well, I don’t think you should do that. And I thought, well, I never put in a thought that it might be uncomfortable or maybe not right or who knows. So we decided to just take the name off and just put MSIL.

which was a lot easier for people. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I love people and helping people. And, you know, I couldn’t see myself being a doctor or a nurse because, oh my God, that takes a different type of passion and mentality. Right. Wow. And I have a sister who’s a nurse and

Anthony Codispoti (13:04)
Okay, more palatable for some folks. But obviously creating a diverse and inclusive workforce has been important to you. Why?

Leticia Snoddy (13:31)
I applaud her every day and I the service people every day. But you have to find that one passion that you are good at. And for me, I always wanted to help people find an opportunity to better themselves and better their lives.

Anthony Codispoti (13:47)
So let’s talk more specifically about the services that you offer. You’re placing contract workers. Is this strictly a temporary roles? it temp to hire? Tell us about it.

Leticia Snoddy (14:00)
Yes, yes, it is both. is both. There’s a lot of companies that have, ⁓ they flex up and down throughout the year and they have their peak seasons. For a lot of them in the industry, especially e-commerce, their peak season is right now. So it’s Christmas, right? So quarter four is always their peak season. And that’s when we always see a climb in the customer’s needs. But my job or our job is to make sure that

Anthony Codispoti (14:16)
Thank you for.

Leticia Snoddy (14:30)
If we find people jobs, we also educate our customers and say, look, maybe they are, you only need them for this position right now, but there’s other openings that you might have. Let them show you what they can do and they can evolve and maybe grow into a full-time position. That is the best sales tactic for us to find a person is saying, hey, this customer wants to hire you full-time.

Anthony Codispoti (14:57)
Mm-hmm.

Leticia Snoddy (14:58)
So that is where we succeed is when we see somebody go not through us, not only through us, but getting a full-time job. That’s a success story.

Anthony Codispoti (15:09)
And that’s got to make the employee really excited. You know, most people, I’m assuming, tell me if I’m right here, most people are not looking for work for just six weeks. They want a job, they want a career, they want a steady paycheck. But right now, I’ll take what I can get kind of a thing. And so when there’s sort of that carrot of, listen, our end goal is, we’re going to get you this six week, eight week, 12 week position, show them what you can do, show up on time, be there, do your best work.

Leticia Snoddy (15:12)
Yes. Yes.

Right, right. Yes. Yes.

Yes, ⁓ yeah. Yep.

Anthony Codispoti (15:38)
this could lead into something else. They’re like, ⁓ okay, like I’m really motivated now.

Leticia Snoddy (15:41)
Yes, absolutely. And there is some people that come to us and say, look, I only want something part time, because I have a full time job, but I want that extra income. You know, who knows what they want it for, right? It could be for

for their children or Christmas or something like that and it works perfect. So for some people it works perfect for the peak season.

Anthony Codispoti (16:06)
⁓ And the industries that you serve are what?

Leticia Snoddy (16:11)
Oh, e-commerce is huge with us. We used to serve the venue, so we still do to some capacity. And then packaging, food manufacturing, automotive. So those are our big ones.

Anthony Codispoti (16:26)
And what geographies are you in now?

Leticia Snoddy (16:29)
So we are all Indiana, Kentucky. We were in Illinois and we go back and forth between other states. And we go anywhere there our customers need us. So if a customer, we have a great relationship, we’ve been working for them for years and they say, we have other facilities in other locations, you help us? Yes, and if it makes sense for both of us, yes.

Anthony Codispoti (16:55)
And you had to, if that were the case, if one of your clients in Indiana said, Hey, we’ve got some locations in Alabama. We want your help. You would physically open an office down there to be able to help recruit people and support the employer down there. Yeah. So at that point, had, like you saying, it has to make sense, economic sense. Like the job volume has to be enough.

Leticia Snoddy (16:59)
Okay. ⁓

Yes. Yes, yes, we do. Yes, economic for both.

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Anthony Codispoti (17:18)
Got it.

Okay. I know that you guys place a big emphasis on workplace safety and training. Can you think of a specific story where that focus on safety proved really crucial for either the team member or the client or both?

Leticia Snoddy (17:21)
Yes.

Yes, we had ⁓ OSHA is a big part of our business. So we have to be compliant in all avenues when it comes to OSHA training, constant training, yearly training. ⁓ So there was a couple of ⁓ issues that we had to come to ⁓ acknowledge that, hey,

maybe this isn’t the best safety or safe environment for our people. So we had to part ways and that’s okay, know, but you have to do those things and you have to otherwise your workers’ comp goes through the roof. And the safety of the people, you know, that’s first and foremost. So that’s important.

Anthony Codispoti (18:17)
Hmm.

It sounds like you’ve got your priorities in order and it’s not always an easy decision to make because you’re taking away business, right? And you’re taking away job opportunities for folks. But at end of the day, you want people to be safe. You don’t want people hurt. That creates a lot of bigger long-term issues.

Leticia Snoddy (18:26)
Right. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes, it does.

Anthony Codispoti (18:41)
Was there, I’m sure that there were, particular turning points or hurdles that you had to overcome over the last 20, I think you 25 years, in the growth of MSIL? Something that was particularly pivotal for you?

Leticia Snoddy (18:52)
I this is a idea.

that there’s a of people who are

for Yes, there was. Speaking of workers’ comp, one of the things that really came to fruition, workers’ comp is a huge cost for any company, especially with a lot of people. When you have thousands of people working for you, have to find ways of cutting costs and finding the best cost effective ways, right?

⁓ One of the things that we did, we, workers comp came to us and said, hey, this is going to increase about 50%. It’s like, what? That would have put us out of business. So internally we had to find ways. It’s like, okay, we have to do something about this. So we joined a captive program and it is ⁓ a captive program is about 150 other agencies. So they might be competitors.

Anthony Codispoti (19:34)
Wow.

Leticia Snoddy (19:54)
but they are also our partners because we hold each other accountable and we own our own workers’ So that’s where you asked me earlier, you know, what was that pivot moment of ⁓ why for us safety is so important, right? So that’s one of the reasons. And being a part of this CAPTN program really opened our eyes and saying, wow, okay, maybe this isn’t the right fit for us.

with this clientele, especially because of our people and their safety, we have to acknowledge that and we had to make that tough decision. But that was good. It also has opened a lot of other doors.

Anthony Codispoti (20:35)
Explain what kind of other doors have opened for you because of that.

Leticia Snoddy (20:38)
So it opened

other doors by when I said, you know, there’s other agencies out there that we are partners with. So maybe they weren’t at all the locations, but maybe we were in those locations. So we became partners in that customer to fulfill those needs. So that opened those doors. Yeah, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (20:57)
you can work together.

And so are all the groups that are in this ⁓ captive, they’re all other staffing firms.

Leticia Snoddy (21:06)
Mm-hmm.

They are. They are.

Anthony Codispoti (21:10)
Fascinating.

Leticia Snoddy (21:11)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (21:13)
So in 2017, you founded Pro Talent Group, a recruiting firm. So a little bit different. How does this complement what you’re doing at MSIO?

Leticia Snoddy (21:18)
Yes. Yes.

So on MSIO, we’re a light industrial. With Pro Talent Group, we provide whether it’s contract or it is direct hires. So customers can come to us and say, OK, it might be a C-level positions, so a Tupler level management positions that they need. So it’s more of a headhunting source for them, and especially

that we have the resources to do that. And it provides the current customers to come to us and say, hey, okay, you’re providing us the labor for these jobs over here, but let’s say we need an accounting or an HR manager or maintenance tech. So we need those positions filled. So we work in that area and fill those positions.

and they are all direct hire. So it makes it really nice for the people coming in and looking for positions.

Anthony Codispoti (22:29)
So with ⁓ Pro Talent Group, are you mostly servicing the same industries that you are with MSIL?

Leticia Snoddy (22:38)
Well, we are, but we’re also ⁓ in other industries now. So we are in pharmaceutical ⁓ companies as well. So it expands teachers. So teachers is another one. So it’s, mean, we’ve expanded our, our portfolio.

Anthony Codispoti (22:48)
And this is

That’s interesting. I’ve talked with a lot of ⁓ staffing firms, a lot of recruiting firms. ⁓ This might be the first one I’ve heard that does teachers. And so we’re talking teachers at elementary schools, high schools, or is this colleges and universities? OK.

Leticia Snoddy (23:06)
Yes. Yes. No,

it’s schools. It’s local public schools here in Indiana.

Anthony Codispoti (23:18)
And so I’m curious how that process works. Are you typically recruiting them from another state? Are they from maybe a nearby district? How does that typically unfold?

Leticia Snoddy (23:24)
Thank you.

So it’s people

who are usually moving or looking for another position. And a lot of them are positions for just temporary fill-in school teachers as well. So that helps, you know.

Anthony Codispoti (23:42)
But the executive level recruiting, I’m guessing that’s easier to do nationwide. You don’t need a physical office to fill a position in, say, L.A.

Leticia Snoddy (23:52)
Correct. Correct. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (23:55)
And so there

are some similarities between the two business models, but there clearly there are distinct differences. What’s the biggest difference between running each of these different types of operations that might surprise folks from the outside.

Leticia Snoddy (23:59)
Yes, yes.

I think the people, the people in the positions and also the qualifications. you know, hiring somebody for ⁓ to run a machine is different than somebody who’s going to run that whole area, you know, the whole plant. So that’s two different, completely two different ⁓ positions.

Anthony Codispoti (24:38)
So how do you, are you internally, I think this is my question, internally, are you hiring different types of folks to recruit for that CEO versus the type of person that you would ⁓ hire to recruit the factory worker?

Leticia Snoddy (24:52)
Yes.

Yes, there’s a lot of people out there, ⁓ recruiters or headhunters that have done this for years and that’s all they do. But that’s their positions, you know, and then you have others who concentrate on ⁓ supervisors, managers, forklift drivers, ⁓ people running machines, you know, it could be ⁓ any of those positions. That’s their specialty and then you have the skilled specialty.

people who are the experts in the higher level education.

Anthony Codispoti (25:34)
And they’ve got more contacts in those types of networks that are also easier for them to reach into as well, I would imagine. You know, I imagine in a business like yours that it would be much simpler from an operational standpoint to provide a one size fits all approach. But you guys have a lot of flexibility, as I understand. You you customize to what the client’s needs are. Can you illustrate that with a

Leticia Snoddy (25:38)
They do. They do. They do.

Anthony Codispoti (26:04)
specific story that shows your flexibility in being able to customize the offering to what the client needs.

Leticia Snoddy (26:11)
Absolutely. So you asked about when we started to see revenue coming in and we started right off the bat. So one of the ⁓ things that we were able to do

And it brings a smile to my face because it was hard, but it was also exciting. And ⁓ it was a growth moment for us and a pivotal moment because we could pivot. figured out, hey, we don’t have to just provide staffing, right? We don’t have to just provide people for organizations. We can also go in and be a true partner. ⁓ So ⁓ there was an automotive company here in town.

This was in the beginning in our first years. And they came to us and said, look, we have all these engines and we need help. We need people to come in and inspect these engines. And it’s like, ⁓ OK, all right. But can you do it offsite? It’s like, well, sure. my staff always says, you know, you can’t just say yes, we can do anything we want, right? And I’m like,

Anthony Codispoti (27:19)
hahahaha

Leticia Snoddy (27:22)
But that was my style, you know, I said, yes. It’s like, yes, and figure it out later. So one of the things that they did was, okay, we need to look at these motors and inspect them. It’s like, yeah, we can do that. So we hired a bunch of people. went into, you know, and we were very hands-on in the beginning. I was too. So you can’t expect other people to do something that you’ve never done. yes, I did it too.

Anthony Codispoti (27:23)
That’s classic entrepreneurs say yes and then figure out the practicalities later. Yeah.

So you went and were inspecting motors yourself. All right.

Leticia Snoddy (27:51)
I wanted to learn, you know? I could never change my ⁓ attire, but I knew how to change down to an injector. So we were given the opportunity when we talk about inspection services, and I’ll give you a true example, is you’re looking at an engine and there could be a part on there. And let’s say it’s this, you know, I’m holding up a pin, but it might be missing a part on here.

And that’s what we have to do. We had to go in and visualize. they took their engineers and their quality managers and took us under their arm and saw that we had the ability to passion, you know, to want to work and do things. And they said, once you guys want, we just start working with you guys. And this started to expand to the point where we started servicing all their suppliers, 200 of their suppliers. We started working with them.

So we had a growth within just one, that is an explosion. So that was ⁓ a true testament of when you say, you know, what was that pivot moment for you? That was it. It’s like, we’re not just a staffing company. We want to be your true partner. We want to know and show you what else we can do. You need other things done. You need to have those things. running out of space in your facility. Let’s

Anthony Codispoti (28:51)
That’s an explosion.

Leticia Snoddy (29:18)
Let’s think about this together and let’s move that into a facility that, I mean, oh wait, let us do that for you. While you concentrate on your growth, we start doing this over here for you.

Anthony Codispoti (29:25)
Yeah.

And what was the reason they wanted it off site? Because they just didn’t have any more space there?

Leticia Snoddy (29:34)
Yes, that was one of the reasons. There was also a union facility. So they took it off site and then we ended up getting our own facility because they called one day and they said, hey, can you move a lot of these engines over to another facility and put them under your, know, you do those there as well, as well as having another million square feet over here working with, we had over 250 people working at that time.

Anthony Codispoti (30:01)
So you just formed a whole new business. You’re not just staffing. You rented warehouse space. You’re providing a very specific engine inspection service that led to more similar type work from 200 of their suppliers.

Leticia Snoddy (30:05)
Yes, we did. We did.

Yeah, suppliers,

that’s right.

Anthony Codispoti (30:18)
fascinating. Because some people would have looked at that and said that is not our business model. No, thank you.

Leticia Snoddy (30:19)
it stands.

Why?

You know, I mean, why not? It was growth. It was an opportunity to do, it was exciting. And it was an opportunity to do more. we, till this day, we have that ability to do more. So we have not just Pro Talent Group and MSIO, but we also have CIS, which is Certified Inspection Services that we provide. And we’re doing that as well now. To this day.

Anthony Codispoti (30:27)
Why did you see it differently?

Yeah.

And so what kinds of inspections are

we talking about?

Leticia Snoddy (30:55)
So it’s also in the automotive industry, but there’s nothing to be said that we can’t go in. if Apple called today and said, hey, our boxes and our, you know how you have your phone and it comes in a really pretty box, but something could be missing in some of these because the machines faltered somewhere along the way. Can we bring these to you or can you come on site and do that? Absolutely. We have the people.

Anthony Codispoti (31:18)
Hmm.

So let’s hit pause and explore this a little bit because there’s sort of two schools of thought when it comes to moments like this. ⁓ And some people are more of the mind of you got to stay laser focused. Right. You and I are both entrepreneurs, Leticia, like shiny object syndrome. Right. It’s like, there’s another idea. There’s another idea. Like, and we can make ourselves and more importantly, our teens dizzy by chasing all these different ideas. Right.

Leticia Snoddy (31:33)
Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (31:48)
And so a lot of people, smart people, coaches, CEOs,

founders, and you got to stay laser focused on what your business model is. But this is a great example of a time where it made a ton of sense to throw that advice out the window. I’m going to guess there are other ideas that you’ve had that you’ve not pursued or maybe just tinkered with and then set aside. How do you, when you have a new idea, I think this is the question I’m trying to get to, Leticia, is when you have a new idea,

Leticia Snoddy (31:54)
Right. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (32:18)
How do you figure out which bucket to put it in? Like,

we’re gonna chase this versus that’s just noise and we need to say no.

Leticia Snoddy (32:26)
Okay, so one of the things that we had to do is, or I had to come to realization is all of us, it’s like, I can’t do all things, right? We can’t be all things to customers, but we are good at certain things. Now, one of the things that we are really good at is people and providing labor. And with that is, okay, we can take that labor and use it.

our people to help customers in other ways. But we can’t be everywhere at once. So one of the things that we started to do is when we hired ⁓ people to join our team, is we hired experts in those areas. So if there’s an opportunity that comes up in packaging, we have somebody for that. If there’s an opportunity that comes up in, and maybe automated or something,

in that industry or inspection services, we have that. So we have a great team.

Anthony Codispoti (33:29)
So let me see if I’m connecting the dots here. Maybe the first filter that you go through is, the size of this opportunity warrant the effort to put into it, right? If somebody said, hey, we need something that, you know, can be done by two people, you know, part time. It’s like, well, that’s, that’s probably not, you know, worth our effort to, kind of redirect. So maybe that’s the first filter. And then the second filter might be.

Leticia Snoddy (33:42)
Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (33:56)
⁓ Do we have access to the appropriate experts to lead that team?

Leticia Snoddy (34:01)
Right. That is perfectly said. Now we’ve said no as well, but we have connections. So if there’s a customer that comes to us and has said, hey, I had this huge project, but we’re not into

We don’t have a lot of machines, right? We don’t have the machines. We don’t do those things. So we have customers that do. So we have matched other clients with other clients. And we’ve given opportunities to other clientele and we get to service both.

So even though we said no, there’s still opportunity.

Anthony Codispoti (34:39)
Yeah. Any fun projects that you’re working on right now that, I don’t know, maybe you want to give some voice to?

Leticia Snoddy (34:48)
⁓ Let’s see. I think right now with the projects that we have going on, there’s a lot of opportunities coming our way right now. ⁓ Obviously COVID put a halt on a lot of industries, And insecurity of the unknown. I shouldn’t say insecurity, but the unknowns, right? ⁓ We had such a high peak during that because nobody wanted to hire direct.

And they said, okay, but we were just like the doctors and hospitals and other areas, we were an essential part of the industry. So we had to go to work, our people had to go to work, we had to help our customers. But we find that there was a growth there as well. And also, once people started going back to work and things started opening back up, we saw a decline.

and in the industry. So one of the things we did is, okay, boots on the ground, we got to go do the same thing we did before. We got to get in front of our customers now that they’re opening their doors, we got to see what opportunities there are there. And there’s opportunities now that have hit ⁓ our hands that we are working on. And ⁓ one of the things that we did, we switched technologies, we switched our ATS system.

which provides us a lot more technology to service not only our clients, and when I say clients, it could be our people that are working in our client locations, which are also our clients. So it’s, you know, the employees. And it allows us and them to better reach out to us and better for us to reach out to them. So not only do we have social media, we have ⁓ chat boxes, we have…

abilities to reach thousands of people at once. we used to 25 years ago, I’m sitting here going like this one person at a time, right? Or text messaging one person at a time all. So it’s totally different than it was back then.

Anthony Codispoti (36:56)
Calling them, yeah, one by one.

So the applicant tracking system that you’re using now, the ATS, is there layers of AI that are already incorporated into that that are adding to the efficiencies?

Leticia Snoddy (37:06)
Yes.

There is the

⁓ ability to, again, where we used to have to fill out an application on paper, it’s all automated and you can go in and fill everything out. ⁓ The ability for our customers when we have time ⁓ machines to keep ⁓ time, right, for our people when they go in and clock in, it’s a computer that’s really, you can press a thumb on there and they know who you are.

You can put a code on there and they know who you are. And it’s the ability for the customer to access their information on there too. And the people’s information is what far is their hours and how they work, how many hours they worked. Be able to access their invoicing. We never used to have that before. So technology has really, really changed. Changed to reality.

Anthony Codispoti (38:06)
Sounds like it’s making

things more convenient in, I don’t know, three levels, right? For your clients, the employees that you’re placing in the jobs, your clients, the employers that are looking for employees, as well as your own internal office staff who probably spent a lot of time doing things much more manually in the past. This is freeing up their time to spend more one-on-one, sort of the human interaction.

Leticia Snoddy (38:09)
more convenient streamlined. It’s streamlined. ⁓

One-on-ones.

Yes. Yes, that is so important. You know, that’s one thing that I see that AI, you cannot replace that one-on-one, that ability to get that gut feeling because AI doesn’t have that. Yes, they can go through everything, Find all the information they need and the experiences, the… ⁓

everything that you need to put that person into a location or match it up match with their the customer. But it really doesn’t take away from the human touch. You know that it takes away from the human touch, which you can’t replace that.

Anthony Codispoti (39:12)
Yeah. Beyond staffing and logistics, how do you see your companies contributing to the broader community and why is that so important for you, Leticia?

Leticia Snoddy (39:25)
I think just giving people the opportunity to prove what…

what they can and giving people the chance, right? That is important. And I think that’s the main reason why I started this business. Somebody gave that to me, right? I learned throughout my years, that was my education, is what I learned from the people put in my path. And I learned, a lot of times I just kept my mouth shut and I just kept, I was a sponge. You know, I wanted to learn more and

That’s what I want to do for other people is I want to give them the ability to come to us and say, you know what, I like working for them. They gave me the start, but here’s what I did and here’s where I got.

Anthony Codispoti (40:19)
Yeah, there’s so much purpose to be found in meaningful work. Obviously the paycheck is very important, but the purpose and ⁓ I think the camaraderie that you get with your coworkers is perhaps equally as important.

Leticia Snoddy (40:22)
And.

It is. is. ⁓ Every day, our culture is everything to us, right? And to any organization, I would hope so. ⁓ Because without the culture, mean, you don’t have anybody that has the same passion or the same drive that you do, and that’s what you look for. know, everybody that works on the same team as I do, right? As our team does, we all have

and that same drive. We’re all wanting to help people and give them and provide them a step to that ladder.

Anthony Codispoti (41:15)
You you’ve obviously seen a great deal of success with your companies, Leticia, but that success doesn’t come without hardships, challenges along the way. Whether it’s something personal that you had to overcome or something on the business side of things. What is a big challenge that you had to overcome? How did you get through that and what did you learn in the process?

Leticia Snoddy (41:28)
Right.

So.

We mentioned earlier that I had a partner, we had a business partner, and we decided to go our separate ways. Well, that was a pivotal moment in my life because either I walked away or I fought for what I built. that was, for me, that was

Anthony Codispoti (42:03)
Mm.

Leticia Snoddy (42:09)
the point and time to say, I can’t give this up. I work too hard and I have all these people who depend on me and I can’t just walk away from it. None of us can, you know? So I looked within, I had to, and I said, you know what, I’m gonna fight. I’m gonna fight for this. And what it took us, because that was back in, that was 15 years ago.

And there was a comment made that we wouldn’t be around after certain months. And I thought, you know what? Watch me.

Anthony Codispoti (42:49)
More fuel for the fire.

Leticia Snoddy (42:51)
more fuel for the fire. And what happened was what we built in those nine years, I got back in three.

So, and the original seven I spoke about came with me.

Anthony Codispoti (43:09)
Okay.

Leticia Snoddy (43:11)
So.

Anthony Codispoti (43:13)
Where did that strength

come from? I mean, you’re in this fork in the road and there’s gotta be a part of you that’s saying, it’s just easier to walk away, throw in the towel.

Leticia Snoddy (43:23)
That’s never been me. That’s never been me. I don’t care what it was or what hardship we’ve, we all go through hardships, right? And being in business, you know that you have to make a tough decision whether you are going to succeed or you sell or you’re going to have to walk away or something, right? Something happens. And you have to know in your heart whether

it’s something you want to continue or not. And for me, it’s always been there. It’s always been there.

Anthony Codispoti (43:58)
Is it a competitive spirit? Is it a stubbornness? How would you characterize it?

Leticia Snoddy (43:59)
I just, I just know there’s more.

Stop her.

Perseverance and I think our upbringing had a big part of it to do because my mother and my father and us, we struggled. Now as kids, you don’t know any better, right? You don’t know that a pair of shoes for Christmas is all you get. And for some people or for some ⁓ families, you think, my gosh, that’s so sad.

Well, for us, it’s like, wow, I got a pair of shoes, right? I got something. it’s the big difference of the way you were brought up or the way I was brought up is the not knowing, but also knowing that if you work hard enough for it and smart enough, because you can’t do everything, but if you have that passion, feed off that passion and other people feed off.

Anthony Codispoti (44:57)
Yeah.

Leticia Snoddy (45:03)
your passion.

Anthony Codispoti (45:06)
And it sounds like a lot of that came from your mother, both probably through the genetic chain as well as just observation, watching, learning how she carried herself.

Leticia Snoddy (45:10)
Yeah.

Yeah,

that’s the way we were brought up.

Anthony Codispoti (45:21)
⁓ I suspect this next question is going to be a little uncomfortable for you, but setting all ⁓ humility aside, what’s your superpower?

Leticia Snoddy (45:31)
People tell me it’s my ⁓ kindness, but I also feel sometimes that’s my weakness. ⁓ The superpower also is knowing people and giving people the benefit of the doubt.

So I think that’s probably it.

Anthony Codispoti (45:54)
How has your kindness felt like a weakness at times?

Leticia Snoddy (45:55)
enter.

I think, you know, and you know this, when you give somebody ⁓ the opportunity and they don’t take it, or you give somebody a chance to prove themselves and they just don’t, you know, but it’s okay. You know, you’re going to see those things and they’re not failures. To me, it’s an experience. It’s feeding your knowledge, right? Feeding your… ⁓

your wherewithal as far as, ⁓ okay, this is a growth moment for me. This is an experience and this is how I learn things. So especially how you fall or you got to get back up, right? You learn from those things and you just move on.

Anthony Codispoti (46:48)
What’s something fun you enjoy doing away from work?

Leticia Snoddy (46:53)
Exercise. I’ve done it. I did it through when I was pregnant with my children. I did it as a young child and I just kept doing it. It is important for me because if you can’t take care of yourself, how are you going to take care of others?

Anthony Codispoti (46:55)
Is that part of a daily routine for you?

How do you see the staffing industry evolving in the next couple of years? What do you think are some of the big changes that are coming?

Leticia Snoddy (47:18)
I think continued technology is going to increase and it’s going to be ⁓ AI. I think those are the avenues that are just going to continue to expand. And it’s going to expand with staffing. I mean, we saw ⁓ machines that are coming in and doing people’s jobs now. We saw that happening in the last several years and it’s

And I think it’s hurt the ability to give people the opportunity to do work, but it’s also helped because it gives people another avenue. like, okay, I might not be able to come in and do this job, but hey, I’m going to learn this and technology. mean, is one of the biggest ones for us and all our customers. Constant techs are needed.

Anthony Codispoti (48:15)
of some of the automation, some of the robots that are coming in, they still need serviced. And so for folks who can make that transition into a different type of role, this opens up a new opportunity.

Leticia Snoddy (48:19)
Yeah, they still need service. Yeah, learn. Yes.

Yeah, learn a new ⁓ skill. Learning new skills. And there’s so many ⁓ accessible companies and ⁓ non for profit organizations that are teaching kids coming out of high school or you know, there’s

the colleges, they’re teaching the kids, know as much as you can when you are out. And don’t just learn one. My advice would be to learn.

Anthony Codispoti (49:04)
Where can people go to learn more? Say they’re not in high school, they’re not in college, they’ve been out in the workforce for a while and they’re seeing things changing pretty quickly around them. What coaching would you offer up to somebody like that?

Leticia Snoddy (49:13)
and it’s a pretty quick theory. So, what changes do you see that?

Definitely, to learn a skilled trade, there’s skilled trade schools out there. There’s all types. You can go online, you can reach the commerce, all the schools will offer new skills as well, and they teach you, they have programs and…

There’s some great programs out there as well that also provide and then you know when we hire people we put it put them through our own teaching our own schooling. So when we hire somebody not only do we look at. What they come with and their education or maybe they don’t have that part, but they have that passion. We have the we have the wherewithal to teach so.

Anthony Codispoti (50:06)
You provide that. Is that pay training

or is that something they need to do prior to taking the job where they get paid? How does that work?

Leticia Snoddy (50:12)
⁓ no, no,

no, we teach it’s OJT on the job training. So, you know, when we bring people in, we teach them the way we do things, right? And we teach them our technology, we teach them how to. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (50:16)
wow.

Leticia Snoddy (50:29)
not only speak with people, also, you know, just get themselves involved in the community.

Anthony Codispoti (50:38)
You know, sometimes our mistakes and I’m using air quotes for that end up becoming our greatest teachers. Is there an earlier career moment that for you seemed like a setback at the time, but actually propelled you forward when you look back on it now?

Leticia Snoddy (50:47)
it.

Yes, I think it was that 15 year ago decision that I made. Yeah. Yeah. That’s right.

Anthony Codispoti (50:56)
Okay, not to throw in the towel. I’m gonna fight for what I think is right. I’m gonna fight for what I think is mine.

And then you, and because you had acquired so much experience and knowledge at that point, you were able to rebuild in a much shorter timeframe than what it took you the first time around.

Leticia Snoddy (51:06)
because I heard some friends who were at that point who had different background. Yes.

Yes. And it wasn’t just me. Again, you know, I commend all the people that work on our team because they are some wonderful people. They are great. They’re passionate. They are. When I say they. If you if I picked up this phone.

and called somebody, it didn’t matter if it was midnight or whatever, they are there. That’s who our team is.

Anthony Codispoti (51:46)
That’s great. That dependability of all ours is something that’s hard to find.

Leticia Snoddy (51:47)
⁓

I don’t expect them to, you know, I’m saying that’s who they are. are, yeah, that’s our culture. Yeah, and that’s our culture. That’s our family.

Anthony Codispoti (51:55)
In the event that it were needed, they are the type of people that would do that.

Let’s see, I’ve just got one more question for you, but before I ask it, I want to take care of a few things. First of all, anybody who wants to get in touch with Leticia’s companies, the easiest way to do that is to go to their website, which is super short and easy to remember ms-il.com. ms-il.com. One more time, ms-il.com. And we’ll put that in the show notes for folks.

Leticia Snoddy (52:05)
Thank

Thank you.

Yeah. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (52:28)
Also, just as a reminder, if you wanna get more employees access to benefits that won’t hurt them financially and carries a financial upside for the company, reach out to us at addbackbenefits.com. Finally, if you’ll take just a moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast

app, we will be forever grateful to you, thank you. So last question for you, Leticia, you and I reconnect one year from today and you are celebrating something big.

What’s that big thing that you hope to be celebrating one year from now?

Leticia Snoddy (53:03)
I would say another business path, another avenue to add to our growth.

Anthony Codispoti (53:13)
Is there something cooking that you want to give voice to?

Leticia Snoddy (53:16)
There is, but I’d rather let it come to fruition. For now. For now.

Anthony Codispoti (53:21)
Keep it under your hat for now, I can appreciate that. Well, Leticia

Sinati from MSIL Staffing. I wanna be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Leticia Snoddy (53:34)
Thank you, Anthony. I appreciate it.

Anthony Codispoti (53:36)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.

Leticia Snoddy (53:39)
Thank