The Power of Faith: Carrie Charles’ Business Blueprint

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti (10:04.152)
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 Cotuspoti and today’s guest is Kerry Charles, CEO of Broadstaff, which is a full-service national staffing firm specialized in providing workforce solutions for telecommunications and information technology and growing into the energy sector as we speak.

Founded in 2015, Broadstaff is a private, woman-owned, and veteran-owned small business with a team of industry-trained recruiters and leadership with over 30 years’ experience in wireless, OSP, and IT. They know the industry. They know people. They understand their clients’ needs, and they invest in their people. And they have innovative models that reduce churn, capital outlay, boost employee retention, and lower fee losses.

Their AI platform gives clients access to millions of skilled candidates, some that are never seen in resume databases. Carrie herself is a U S Marine Corps bet. She was Tampa Bay CEO of the year in 2021, Tampa Bay business woman of the year. She’s the host of 5G talent talk podcast and an industry keynote speaker. 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 cashflow by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency.com. All right, now back to our guest today, the CEO of Broad Staff Global.

Kerry, I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Carrie Charles (12:02.325)
Hi, Anthony. Thank you for having me on the show. I’m super excited.

Anthony Codispoti (12:06.222)
So, Kerry, first of all, a happy belated Veterans Day to you as we’re recording on November 13th, just a couple of days after the holiday.

Carrie Charles (12:14.303)
Thank you. Thank you. And the Marine Corps birthday. Yes.

Anthony Codispoti (12:17.474)
Is that right? One in the same. All right. Tell me a little bit about your experience in the military.

Carrie Charles (12:23.711)
Boy, that’s a long story, but I’ll make it really short. And a lot of people ask me about this. It’s interesting because I joined the Marine Corps on a dare when I was younger. It’s crazy, I know. I dropped out of college because my father passed away and it really just sent me into a major depression and I was lost. And so I got involved with the wrong crowd.

and just going in the wrong direction, dropped out of college. And I was in a parking lot one day and a Marine Corps recruiter came up to me and my friends, I was there with some friends, and you know all dressed up and he talked to us and he said, you know, talked to us about the Marine Corps and wanted us to come over and learn more. And my friend looked at me and she’s like, you could never do that. And I said, really?

Anthony Codispoti (13:17.198)
Hahaha.

Carrie Charles (13:18.697)
will watch me, I’m gonna do it right now. And I really just walked over and joined the Marine Corps right then and there. It was crazy. I went and I had really long hair and I got all my hair cut off. Like that day I called my mom and I said, I just joined the Marine Corps and it was really something that saved my life though. It really, really was.

Anthony Codispoti (13:38.264)
Wow, that’s quite an endorsement of the experience. How long were you in the service?

Carrie Charles (13:43.027)
I was in about a little under three years, and that’s a whole other story too. And I did get out a little early because I was a witness and a court martial.

Anthony Codispoti (13:53.336)
Okay, and so is this by your choice or not?

Carrie Charles (13:56.167)
it was kind of by my choice. Yes, it was, it was, because I was a witness, I asked that, that I, said, okay, I’m ready to go, got an honorable discharge and moved on with my life. So.

Anthony Codispoti (13:58.263)
to exit early, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (14:07.16)
Mmm.

So what did you notice differently about yourself coming out of the service as opposed to when you first went in?

Carrie Charles (14:16.483)
my goodness, unbelievable the changes. I did not have a lot of discipline when I was younger. just from the way I was, my life as a young person, just, I don’t know. I was just very, very different than I am now. So when I came out of the service, I had incredible discipline. It gave me…

I mean, the ability to accomplish things I never was able to accomplish before. The other thing is, you know, do the best with what you have. And so no matter where I am or, you know, what I have at my disposal, I can pretty much figure it out, right? So I’m probably one of those people that could be dropped on an island somewhere and learn how to live and build a house and fish and, know. But the other thing is, is about team and working as a team and leadership.

I learned a lot about that as well. the Marine Corps gave me a lot, mostly it was just knowing that I can pretty much do anything and get through anything that life hands my way.

Anthony Codispoti (15:26.756)
showed you that you’re strong and courageous, maybe in a way that you didn’t realize going in.

Carrie Charles (15:29.033)
Yes, for sure.

Yes, definitely.

Anthony Codispoti (15:34.284)
So what’s the path that got you to starting Broad Staff? Did you have a background in the staffing space before you started your own company?

Carrie Charles (15:42.943)
You know, I didn’t. It’s interesting because in the Marine Corps, I chose telecommunications as an MOS. And so I had a little bit of telecom background. when I got into staffing, I’d never been in staffing before. I really had never been in technology before or telecom. It was all brand new for me. And what happened is one of our investors

He brought the opportunity to me. And at the time I was working in another role and I had my own company, but he brought the opportunity to me and he said, you know, one of me and one of my partners just started this company called Broad Staff. And was a few months after it started, just a few short months. And he said, why don’t you join us and help us grow it? And I thought to myself, gosh, I don’t know anything about telecom, really not technology, those industries, nothing about staffing, but I was getting ready to be an empty nest. I was 49.

And I thought, you know, why not just go do something totally different at this new chapter of your life, right? And so I said, yes, I’ll do it. And soon after that, we bought out one of our partners. And so now it is just me and my investor that owns the company. But since I guess we’ve been in business for nine years now,

and we have been on the Inc 5000. I believe this was our fifth appearance on the Inc 5000 and it’s just been an incredible, incredible ride.

Anthony Codispoti (17:10.862)
Wow.

Anthony Codispoti (17:15.886)
So I want to hear about what’s been so instrumental to your success. And I gave sort of the fancy introduction of what you guys do, but kind of break it down for me in just plain language. Like, tell me what Broad Staff does.

Carrie Charles (17:29.651)
Yeah, so Broadstaff is a traditional staffing and recruiting company. so we have three different services that we provide. One is contract staffing. And that’s essentially where we employ the people. And then they are contractors or consultants with our customers. So let’s just use, for an example, let’s say Verizon, right? So we have employees that are RW2 employees, but they work

as contractors for Verizon on projects. And so that’s one of our models is contract. The other model is contract to hire. And it’s basically same as temp to hire, try before you buy, where our clients will bring on the employees as contractors to them, their employees to us. And it’s for a limited amount of time so they can just see, they a fit for the culture? Are they doing a great job? And if so, they hire them on permanently. And then the third service we provide,

is a direct hire model where we just find the talent for the company and then they hire them full time.

Anthony Codispoti (18:35.588)
Okay, so why have you been so successful at growing? mean, what did you say, five times on the Inc 5000 list? It’s not like you had one good year and just hit it out of the park once. I mean, this is like boom, boom, boom, like this is a habit.

Carrie Charles (18:43.963)
Yeah, so, you when I get asked…

Carrie Charles (18:52.465)
It really has been so exciting. I think there’s one reason that stands above everything. And I can tell a little story too that comes with that. Broadstaff is a faith-based company. And ever since that I started, just walked in the door of Broadstaff and started working at Broadstaff,

You know, I have run that company based on, you know, faith and data. And so faith is a huge part of how I make decisions. And, you know, prayer is a business strategy. I say that all the time. And I truly believe that because I feel like that we as leaders or executives, we don’t really understand the power of prayer.

and our spiritual practices and that connection and business. And so that’s a huge, huge part because I actually will ask questions, I get information, I get in quiet time. That’s my number one secret of success is that spiritual connection and also bringing that to the company and having a higher purpose, if you will. That’s actually our tagline is we have a higher purpose, H-I-R-E.

But really, it’s that higher purpose of making a difference and impact and having something bigger than ourselves that we are reaching for and making a bigger impact. The other thing, there’s a few other reasons why we have grown to such success. And I will just, again, tell a story. There was one year where we grew from 12 million to 30 million in revenue in a single year. Yeah, it was crazy. was…

Anthony Codispoti (20:43.074)
in a single year?

Carrie Charles (20:46.891)
It was just amazing. the story, it was actually an ink magazine that the whole story was there. And we met as a whole team and met in person and we created a goal together of what we wanted to achieve the next year. And we had done 12 million that year. And so I, you know, I asked the team, said, well, what do you think we should do? You know, I’m thinking, okay, maybe 17, 15, 17, something like that. And

I told the team a story about my son who is a cancer survivor, pediatric cancer survivor. And he had cancer when he was 11. And that once he was a baseball player, and once he was out of the hospital and his cancer was gone, he got to choose his number on his baseball uniform and he chose the number 33.

And is one because three is my favorite number and the other was because of, you know, the Holy Trinity. And so I told them the story about how threes are so meaningful to me and they’re so special for so many reasons and that’s one of them. And then my literally people on the team were like 33 million, let’s do 33 million. And I remember just like stopping and thinking to myself, that’s crazy. how should I really like encourage

Anthony Codispoti (22:00.952)
Hahaha

Anthony Codispoti (22:07.416)
Yeah.

Carrie Charles (22:11.101)
that kind of goal? Like is it unrealistic? What a

Anthony Codispoti (22:13.048)
Yeah, because clearly you can’t make that right. You’re not going to go from 12 to 30. You won’t even come close. Like you’ll just feel like like he failed.

Carrie Charles (22:18.599)
Yeah, yeah, so I thought I really thought about it. And then again, you know, I’m very focused on my faith and connection. And I sat there for a minute and I, I felt like I got to go for it. I said, you know, you got to do it. You got to, you got to do it. So what we did is we had everyone enrolled in that vision of 33 million. And, you know, everyone was that was texting and sending pictures of 33s or

know, threes they would see on the road at gas stations. If their phones had 333, they would send a picture. I mean, everyone for the entire year was engaged around threes. And it was the most incredible experience of having an entire team so passionate about one goal and one mission. And I remember that we, I mean, we were just, we were so close and

I knew we were gonna come in less than 33 million and I was thinking, please just let there be a three in it somewhere. Okay, God, let there be a three. And so we came in at 30 million for the year and I’ll take it, right? I’ll take it. It was an amazing experience and one that I’ll never forget. So we still duplicate that within our culture. And we all are aligned toward common goals and…

the excitement around a mission and what we’re trying to accomplish. So we’re not just a staffing company. It’s not just, come to work and do your job and do this. It’s like we’ve got these bigger, higher purposes that we constantly talk about, you know, making a difference. We have a program called Get a Job, Save a Life, where we give a portion of every placement to, you know, to charities or to people who need it or employees who need it. And so everything has this greater purpose.

in our culture and we still stick to that to this day.

Anthony Codispoti (24:14.068)
A couple of follow ups here.

wonder if it’s okay if we talk about who’s in your home right now. Because I think the, what you just shared, wow, that sounds amazing. You guys have a higher purpose, get a job, save a life. And sometimes I think people hear those stories and they’re they’re kind of rolling their eyes a little bit like, yeah, like what is she given? Like $30 a year to some cause, you know? But what you were telling me before we started recording,

you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you had the storms that came through earlier this year. Do you mind sharing? Okay, because I think this is like a real, tangible story that highlights the kind of person that you are.

Carrie Charles (24:53.258)
Yes.

Carrie Charles (25:01.097)
Yes, and the type of company that we are for sure. so, yeah, after the hurricanes, we got hit by two, one after the other. And with the first hurricane, we had three employees that lost their homes. I mean, really lost their homes. And so what we did, one thing that we did at Broadstaff is we created a fund for the people who were affected and gave them cash to help them.

But the other thing that we did is one of our employees just really needed a place to go that was near their children’s school. And her and her husband, they were just struggling and finding how are we gonna make this work for the next, let’s say, few weeks or however long we need to be able to get through this difficult time, because they literally had nowhere to live, they had no home.

everything had been affected. And so I said, stay with me, stay at my house. And then they fought it for a while and thought, no, there’s no way we can’t do that. You know, we’ve got pets and kids. And I said, I don’t care, just move in, bring everything with you and stay at my house because I do travel a lot. But I said, when I’m there, you know, we’ll all stay together and it’s fine. And it’s just been, you know, it’s been wonderful because

They’re there, and I feel so good about that. When we go on virtual calls and I see her at my house working from my desk, it just feels so good to me knowing that they’re in a safe place and that they’ve got time to figure it out and find a place for their family to be. again, that’s the company, that’s the people that we have in our team.

And that’s really, like I said, the heart of the company.

Anthony Codispoti (27:00.716)
I love that story. I want to talk a little bit more about how faith is such a big part of running your company. Faith and data, that’s what I heard you say. And as you were talking about the faith component of it, I think I heard you say that I get answers. Is that right? So walk me through that. You’re in prayer, you’re talking to God, you’re… What’s happening?

Carrie Charles (27:09.504)
Yes.

Carrie Charles (27:18.314)
Yes.

Carrie Charles (27:28.455)
Yeah, and you know, this is something that I think confuses people a lot. know, do you hear an audible voice? You know, how do I hear? How do I know what to do? But from a very young age, I would sit quietly a lot. Like in a meditation, just really very, very quiet. And

Over the years, I learned about my voices. Like I’ve got multiple voices in my head, right? I’ve got voices that sometimes will say things that are negative to me, you know, you can’t do that, or you’re not qualified for that. And then I’ve got other voices that more positive. But there’s this one voice that I’ve learned to discern. And I call that God’s voice to me.

And I’ve tested it over the years. I’m 57 years old. Okay, so I’ve got a lot of time to test this voice that I’m hearing. Again, it’s not audible. you know, it’s in my mind, just like that inner voice that we have. But so I sit quietly a lot. So I’ll sit quietly in the morning, and I’ll sit quietly in the evening. In the morning, I have about 45 minutes where I’m in prayer and I read the Bible.

And in that quiet time, I’ll actually ask questions like I say, God’s the chairman of my board. So I will literally ask questions very specifically about my company and about decisions I’m making. And then in that quiet time, I will hear, I’ll hear some of these answers. And then I test those answers out to see if they make sense, right?

with some of the data and some of the company, some of the physical parts of the company. And then other times they don’t make sense. And I do it anyway, right? And I follow it because I feel so strongly that that’s what I needed to do. it is really just spending, and it’s so hard to sit in silence. It’s so hard. But spending that quiet time with yourself, with…

Anthony Codispoti (29:36.717)
Hmm.

Carrie Charles (29:44.735)
those spiritual moments where you’re just listening and people call it different things. Okay, I believe in God and I know that that’s God. I know, right? But everyone has their own beliefs and I honor that. So that’s really, and that’s fine. Yeah, and I honor that. I respect everyone’s beliefs. But with it, know, with, I’ve gotten some very, very specific direction and guidance that has been

Anthony Codispoti (29:58.018)
Some people think it’s just their own inner voice, right? Yeah.

Carrie Charles (30:14.139)
unbelievable with business and decisions that I’ve made and where we’ve gotten to. mean, certain contracts that we’ve gotten that we should have never gotten and things that have happened that are literally miraculous in the company that should have never happened, right?

Anthony Codispoti (30:30.67)
Can you give a specific example? Is there one story you can remember that you’re comfortable sharing?

Carrie Charles (30:34.571)
Yeah, so there’s one, it’s very interesting. So there’s one company that, it’s a really large company, Fortune 500, had not, they accepted a new staffing vendor for years and years and years. I mean, it was impossible to be, and if you’re listening and you have any experience in staffing, you know how hard it is to get a contract, especially with a big company like that. So they had just not accepted any staffing vendors in so many years.

And I worked on it for three years. It was probably three years between the time that I started working on it and the time that I actually got the contract. what I decided to do is I decided to really take it to a very serious place of prayer and fasting. And I was told by everyone, you’re not getting in, you’re not getting in, you’re not getting in. There’s no way. We’ve tried, and it’s impossible. So.

I said, okay, I am gonna fast, which means I’m gonna not have something. I’m gonna give something up that I love so much. And I’m not gonna touch that thing until I get this contract signed. So I gave up sugar. I love chocolate, love chocolate. Like I’m obsessed with it, right? And I love sugar too. So I gave up sugar. Now I didn’t just give up sweets. I read labels. If there was one gram of sugar in almond milk, I could not drink it.

If there was a gram of sugar in a protein bar, I could not eat it. It’s crazy. Yeah. And you never know. You don’t know until you actually do that. How much sugar is in every single thing that we eat, right? So I was, I was just committed. I was absolutely committed. And I remember it was probably about eight months of that. And then we got it. We got the contract and I couldn’t, I was just

Anthony Codispoti (32:05.282)
You went full Atkins Keto hardcore.

Carrie Charles (32:30.729)
I was so, I wasn’t shocked because I knew it worked, but at the same time, you know, it was, was a little bit surprising. I was sitting there with a piece of chocolate and I’ve got a picture. My team is standing around me. got a piece of chocolate waiting for when I sign it and then I ate it it was, it was really cool. But, but that’s one example of, you know, a type of a, a miracle. And, and there’s, know, there’s many others that I just know there’s no way that

This has to be 100 % God. There’s no other way, no other explanation.

Anthony Codispoti (33:06.724)
So when you go into prayer and are you asking for help? Are you, I don’t know, sort of laying out an outline of what you would like to see? Do I want this particular contract or I want to reach this number? Like, how does that dialogue happen?

Carrie Charles (33:22.887)
Yeah, you know, that’s a great question because I know we all pray differently, but I have typically I do have a list and I have a list of who I pray for and then the things that I pray for but again, I’m not necessarily certain that I’m going to get them. But yes, I do. I will go through some of those things on list and I will ask for help in those areas. And if there’s something specific that I’m praying for like a decision that needs to be made or a problem, right? So just to give you an example.

This has been a really tough year. Okay, it’s been a tough year. I know it’s been rough across staffing in general, right? And we’re slowly rebounding in staffing and it’s challenging. It’s been a very tough year. So there’s been times where I have just sat down in my prayer, in my quiet time with God and I’ve said, look, I…

Anthony Codispoti (33:56.734)
Cross-staffing in general, right?

Carrie Charles (34:18.725)
I need help with this decision. I need help because I don’t know how to get from here to here. And I need just ideas and strategies and open doors or find, help me to find areas of opportunity or to increase this profitability or very specifically I ask for very, like I said, very specific help. And.

It’s interesting because I literally just did this this morning at 4 a.m. So I get up between 4 and 5 a.m. So I just did this this morning at 4 because I was struggling with a big decision and a challenge. And so I got up this morning, I sat and I asked God and I said, I need, I need help here. I need clarity. Help me. Please help me with these things. And so then I just started, things started coming to me.

Anthony Codispoti (35:15.34)
Mmm.

Carrie Charles (35:15.367)
And I started just having these realizations and then, know how sometimes when you’re in flow state, things just start coming together. And then it was like almost like connecting, totally, totally. And it was like somebody pulled back the curtains and said, here’s the problem. Or maybe a surgeon cut me open and cut the company open and said, there’s the tumor right there. And I started seeing things so clearly.

Anthony Codispoti (35:23.544)
connecting dots in ways that seem obvious now, but were not just a minute ago.

Carrie Charles (35:43.561)
And I was just writing and writing and writing and I got so excited and then I called my team and I said, okay, I think I found some of the solution to what we’re dealing with. And the team said, yes, that’s it, I got it, my gosh, that’s great. So it’s unbelievable really what can be accomplished in prayer when you really truly believe not just in God but in the process.

Anthony Codispoti (36:09.494)
Is there a follow-up to that? Is there like a gratitude sort of session afterwards?

Carrie Charles (36:14.353)
Yes, lots of gratitude. Lots and lots of gratitude, for sure. Yeah, I live in that state, I think all day long.

Anthony Codispoti (36:23.086)
So I always like to ask the question, what sets you apart from others in your industry? Clearly, this is a huge component. I I interview lots of founders, lots of owners and C-suite folks. And a lot of them, faith is very important to them. But I’ve never gotten this exact answer before. Faith and data, that’s what drives your company. What else, though? Aside from that and kind of how you drive decisions for, you know,

either somebody who’s looking to come work for you or maybe a potential client, like what would you tell them? Here’s what’s different about the experience that you get with Broadstaff.

Carrie Charles (37:01.663)
Yeah, so I think one thing that’s very different with our experience is our team, our people, and I know a lot of companies say that, right? Our team, our team, our team, that we’re so people focused. But our people really, they care from deep inside their hearts. They care. They care about that customer. They put that customer first above all else.

that candidate, they care about that person. there’s a true heart connection there, a love. We talk about love all the time at work and never apologize for it, right? I tell my team, I love you. I tell my clients, I love them, right? I mean, I don’t ever apologize for love because it’s something I think that we need to admit that is part of business. It really is. I mean, it’s not just business.

you know, to me, to us, these are real people with real problems to solve and real families and real conditions. I mean, there’s people out there that, you know, there’s somebody out there that needs a job so bad because their son needs a special surgery to, you know, to heal them of some disease or cancer and they need a job. And so we’re there to give them that so they can

you know, heal their son. I mean, it’s like, so what we bring that’s different to the customer is one thing is we care so, so much and so deeply about doing well and bringing the results. And then the second thing is, is we’re highly specialized. And we decided that right off the bat. And I remember in the very beginning of the company, my ex partner, you know, he said, let’s, let’s get into this. Let’s go into healthcare. Let’s go here. Let’s go there. And I said, no, no, no.

Anthony Codispoti (38:41.784)
Mm.

Carrie Charles (38:54.387)
let’s just stay really hyper focused in what we’re doing, right? Telecommunications, technology is part of telecom and it’s converging. I mean, it’s a huge part of telecom and energy as well because you’ve got data centers, you’ve got power, know, EV charging, everything is converging. So those three verticals are just closely connected. So we’re not, you know, we’re experts.

in those areas and we really understand the industries. So that way we can vet and we know when, you know, when a candidate is good, when it’s not good. And so our quality is much higher because we understand the industries. And I think those two things come to mind as really what makes us unique.

Anthony Codispoti (39:40.418)
Tell me about your innovative models that reduce churn, boost retention, lower fee losses.

Carrie Charles (39:47.325)
Yes, I’m so excited that you brought this up. I, for years, you know, I’m a very creative person. I like thinking outside the box. That’s why, you know, I started a podcast. I like to do things, everything, you know, everything different. And so I thought about this for years. I thought this is so weird in staffing because I don’t come from staffing. And I thought this is so strange that we place people and that’s what we do. We just run around placing people. What if they don’t stay?

I mean, I know we have guarantees, but how long is the guarantee and is that even that valuable if they, let’s say we have a six month guarantee and they leave in the seventh month or, what about retention? Are we really doing 100 % of our jobs if we don’t place people who stay with the company? So what I wanted to do is I wanted to create some sort of structure or process that allowed people

to stay with the companies that we place them in. And so what we did is we created a company that’s a sister company to Broadstaff, and it’s called Retention Partners. And Retention Partners, my partner within that company is Dr. Kent Wessinger. He’s a PhD. He has a massive research project on the younger generation and the younger workforce, millennials and gen Zs, how to attract, engage, and retain them.

So I joined forces with him for this sister company to Broad Staff. And we created this company that helps not just our clients, but companies all over the country. And soon we’re going to be going global with it. And helps companies to attract, retain, and engage the younger workforce. Now why just the younger workforce? Well, because between millennials and Gen Zs, soon it’s going to make up probably 75 % of our workforce.

Anthony Codispoti (41:41.987)
Yeah.

Carrie Charles (41:42.483)
It’s a very large portion right now. And the other reason why there’s generational conflict in the workforce right now, where the older generations like me don’t really understand some of the younger generations. So we decided to focus there. So our methodology helps companies retain their workforce and their talent. So it’s almost like coming full circle with staffing. So we offer that service in addition to the services I mentioned with staffing.

Anthony Codispoti (42:12.27)
But aren’t you cannibalizing some of your sales? mean, don’t you earn more money when you’re employed, when these contract workers turn over?

Carrie Charles (42:15.051)
you

Carrie Charles (42:19.827)
You would think so, but that again, our clients love it because they, we have a high conversion rate and many times, you know, they’re going to want to hire them permanently. And yes, they come out of our, you know, they, don’t have them anymore. We can’t place them anymore, but I will say I subscribe to when you do the right thing, you know, you’re going to be blessed. And that’s what we focus on is just constantly doing the right thing for other people.

Anthony Codispoti (42:47.918)
So I talk with a lot of business leaders and I hear a lot of people complain about the younger generation. They don’t want to work. They’ve got a different viewpoint on responsibility and work. And I always wonder like how much of that is actually true and how much of that is just us as old people saying the same thing that our parents and grandparents said about, know, their generations that were younger than them. So from the research that’s being done inside of retention partners,

can you tell us? What have you learned?

Carrie Charles (43:18.939)
Yes, the generations, know, the Gen X and baby boomers, you the older generations, they look at the younger folks and they say, what do they say about them? What do you think? What are a couple of ways that they describe them? They’re, yeah, I’m asking you, like, what have you heard?

Anthony Codispoti (43:38.562)
You’re asking me? No, not rhetorically. lazy. They just don’t want to work. They don’t have the same level of responsibility. They don’t see jobs through to the end.

Carrie Charles (43:49.577)
Yeah, all that, And entitled, they’re so entitled. Who are they to come in here and think that they can just, you know, do this and do that? And they don’t want to work, you know, the work ethic, right? All of those things. It’s the way, the lens that the older generation is seeing the younger generation. Now, with the research from Dr. Kent Wessinger, research shows how millennials and Gen Z’s see themselves. And it’s the opposite.

Anthony Codispoti (44:16.452)
Okay?

Carrie Charles (44:18.611)
It is the opposite. In fact, millennials and Gen Zs, they want to learn from the wisdom of the older generations. They want that mentorship so bad. And part of our solution to businesses is we have a full mentorship program. And it’s actually phenomenal the way that it’s set up because it’s set up in groups. But the way that the millennials and the Gen Zs are seeing themselves is very different. So they see themselves as creative.

Carrie Charles (44:46.695)
willing to work with a good work ethic, but they have purpose and meaning. They want purpose. They want meaning in their roles. In fact, they would rather have purpose and meaning sometimes than more pay. It’s very important to them. Mentorship is important. And the other thing that’s, I think, one of the most important things for the younger generation now, and it’s one way that you can really, it’ll really help you to retain them, is they want to have a voice.

Now, being the older generation may say, what do you mean have a voice? You’re telling me that this kid who just graduated from college is going to come and tell me how to run my company? Are you kidding me? But they’re really, really smart. They want to be heard right. And they have talents. They want to be part of the conversation. Now, you don’t necessarily have to implement every single idea, which we wouldn’t. That just wouldn’t be smart.

Anthony Codispoti (45:34.02)
They want to be heard. They want to see it at the table. They want to be part of the conversation.

Carrie Charles (45:46.571)
to do, but they want to be heard and they want to know that their voice matters. So it’s important to set up some structures where people feel heard and they feel like that if they have an idea that they could potentially, it could potentially be implemented. I mean, we have a program we call create and elevate where it’s kind of a little bit like shark tank on steroids, where we break the teams up and the employee teams up into groups.

And then the groups will create a business idea for improvement, efficiencies, something for the company, right? And then there’s a contest between the groups. And then there’s the judges or the leaders of the company. And it’s like a whole day thing. We just really hype it up and promote it. And so each team presents their idea to the leadership. And then the team that wins gets like a prize of some sort, a really big prize. But I’m telling you, these

teams and these winners in our experience have created multi multi million dollar ideas for these companies. And there was one company that actually gave away vehicles as prizes to the winning team because it saved the company so much money. So the brilliance of your team many times is you’re not seeing it because you’re just not open to the idea that it could be somebody that is

27 years old, right? Or someone who doesn’t have that experience. So that’s, it’s very, very important to allow them to have a voice and to feel like that what they’re doing is meaningful and that they matter.

Anthony Codispoti (47:31.876)
So if you had to guess, what would you attribute this disconnect to? The older generation seeing the younger generation and seeing them in this negative light, but the younger generation, they see themselves very differently. Is it just a generational thing that happens over and over again? We’re just, as we get old, we’re just wired to look at young people and say, you know, like crusty old people.

Carrie Charles (47:56.843)
that’s across the old people. I think that there’s a difference between the generations. Because I know when I look at even myself and my generation and the difference between Gen Zs or even millennials, there’s a big difference. There’s a gap. And I think the gap is so much bigger than, let’s say, from the baby boomers to X. The gap from X to millennial and X to Z.

is so much bigger than the gap was from Baby Boomer to X. So I think that’s why it’s so much more noticeable, right? And if we really look at it, it’s a conversation that has taken over our world. It started to have a life of its own. You know, when things take on a life of its own, right?

The great resignation. mean, somebody created those words. And before you knew it, there were 50,000 articles about it and everybody was talking about it, but it came from somewhere. So I think these massive conversations get started and then we hear about them over and over and then we become them. And I think that’s part of it as well. So we need to really make conscious choices to behave differently and become something different in order to make our companies profitable.

and to produce the results that we need with the younger generation because that’s where our success lies. If you can nail this and you can get this right, you are gonna soar, really.

Anthony Codispoti (49:37.218)
I like that. Terry, let’s talk about the use of technology in your business and more specifically, AI. You know, there people in the staffing world that are afraid of it. It’s going to take our jobs. It’s going to make us redundant. There are some that are very excited. There are some in the middle who are taking kind of a wait and see approach. How would you categorize the approach that broad staff is taking?

Carrie Charles (50:00.677)
So we have software that utilizes AI in our sourcing software. And it’s very successful. And we also have created a proprietary software platform. My COO, Mike Day, actually created it with a group of developers. And so we are so bullish on technology. And the way we use AI is we also use various models. We use Chat GPT.

I use it almost every day, all day long. So we have designated one person in our company that is the AI leader, if you will. Now, he doesn’t know anything. He didn’t know anything about AI. wasn’t an expert in AI. But we said, OK, you’re going to be the one who’s going to lead these initiatives. You’re going to figure this out. And you’re going to figure out how we can become more efficient as a company using AI. The key to all of this, though, I believe, with Broadstaff is that

the leadership has been involved. And I truly believe that if leaders delegate AI or the implementation of AI or this transition transformation, I just don’t think it’s as effective. I think the leadership has to be involved in this and has to be committed and in the game. so I took a…

Anthony Codispoti (51:01.028)
Yeah.

Carrie Charles (51:23.787)
Through YPO, I did an AI course in Denver. It was 11 hours in a chair in a room and just really studied AI because I said, I need to figure this out. I need to understand this because it’s here, it’s happening, and I want to not only be able to use it to become more efficient in our business for our customers, but looking at how I can help other people as well.

know, it looks, talking about, when we look at, is it, do we see that it’s taking jobs? Do we see that that is happening? As much as I want to say that AI is gonna create more jobs than it’s going to eliminate, I don’t believe that. I truly don’t believe that. I believe that there are gonna be many jobs that are going to be eliminated. And so I also believe,

Anthony Codispoti (52:10.776)
Okay.

Carrie Charles (52:21.725)
that it is a urgent message, a cry out for everyone to learn about AI. Don’t be afraid of it, understand it, up level your skills. And if you can be a person who is savvy with technology and you understand where we’re going and you’re up leveling yourself, you’re educating yourself, you’re

probably gonna be more likely to be able to be repositioned somewhere else or reskilled somewhere else. But if you’re sitting still, rejecting technology, rejecting AI, and you are in a skill set or a role that could potentially be eliminated by it, then that’s probably gonna happen.

Anthony Codispoti (53:12.77)
What kinds of positions do you think are most at risk if people don’t level up into the new AR?

Carrie Charles (53:21.713)
I just think there’s most positions, I mean, most positions are even leadership roles, but I think that field positions, actually being in the field and being hands-on, I think a lot of those positions are going to still be needed, but maybe less of them because there’s gonna be more, there’s gonna be more technology that’s gonna make it more efficient. But I truly believe that

almost every position could be replaced. And let me tell you why. Not every, I mean, there are gonna be some, but I I feel that when I did this class, okay, so this is so interesting. I built bots and I built a team of bots and the bots were leaders and they were leaders in my company. So I think we built a whole team of, it was HR is what we did and we did it all together as a group.

Anthony Codispoti (53:53.62)
Mm. Okay.

Carrie Charles (54:18.943)
But we literally had an HR team, HR leaders, and I built the whole thing. And then I would have meetings with my bots and ask them questions and then they would answer and I would get all this information based on this new virtual leadership team that I created. And it blew my mind. Blew my mind. So I do feel that the people that are going to really thrive and survive in this are the people

Anthony Codispoti (54:39.128)
Okay.

Carrie Charles (54:49.141)
who embrace it versus reject it. And I do think that there’s the roles, anyone who has a job where you do repetitive tasks, I mean, we’ve heard this over and over again, it’s happening very fast. we’re looking at every day, I read the Wall Street Journal and I read all these publications, layoffs continue, huge layoffs. Are those people gonna be replaced? Are they not? Are they replaced by technology? We don’t know.

So it is crucial, absolutely crucial again, that we all take responsibility for our own upleveling and our own training and education like I did. And I sat in that 11 hour class and paid for it myself.

Anthony Codispoti (55:32.516)
Yeah, I listened to another interesting podcast that talked about how people in the field hands on job skilled skilled trades They’re probably the safest ones right now because the field of robotics is so much further behind the than the field of AI so we don’t have robotics that are as nimble and dexterous as you human hands are and so hopefully because you know, I also talked to people in the trades and they’re like

young people aren’t coming in. Like I don’t know who the next generation of plumbers and electricians are gonna be. So I don’t know, hopefully people listening to this, young people are like, yeah, maybe that’s a safe career path where you can make good money.

Carrie Charles (56:17.363)
Yes, I agree with that. people who use, like you said, use their hands in the field, but there will be technology that will disrupt and…

create more efficiencies where we may not need as many people in the field, possibly, right? Right now there’s a massive shortage. Like you said, young people are just not entering, they’re not becoming field technicians and fiber technicians and tower climbers and it’s just not high on their list after they graduate high school. So right now we do have a major, major shortage. But because of that, anytime there’s a shortage,

then companies are starting to look at where else, how can I solve this problem? Can I solve this problem with technology? Do I need to hire or can I solve it through technology? Right? And I think that’s a big question in everyone’s, every leader’s mind right now is how can I solve these issues, remain profitable without hiring the headcount that we need? I mean, I’m hearing it all the time and especially in staffing because they have pulled back quite a bit.

Anthony Codispoti (57:22.67)
Kerry, shifting gears, what’s a serious challenge that you’ve had to overcome either in your business or personal life and what did you learn from that experience?

Carrie Charles (57:32.679)
gosh, I’ve just, there’s hundreds of them as we all have so many challenges, but I would say that this last year has been, from a business perspective, has been a very big challenge for us and for me because, you know, we…

We built the infrastructure, we grew, grew, grew, we grew so fast and we had this amazing infrastructure for this company that was doing 30 million in revenue. And then there were slowdowns and pullbacks. And what we had to do is we had to make changes and we had to scramble and cut expenses and figure out a way that we could still be successful.

in an, in let’s say an industry where the faucet just got turned off, right? Where we went from having, you know, like a flood of requisitions to zero in an industry. And how, what do we do? Where do we pivot? Where do we go? How do we fix this? And now we’ve got all of these expenses and infrastructure that we built that was

So good, we you know, we loved it. We did a great job with it and now we’re sitting here But the revenue is not there and the infrastructure is there. So what do you do? So we have had a year of of challenge you know figuring out how do we make this happen and so what I What we decided to do and I say we because my gosh my team is everything it’s not I mean I have the most amazing team and So what we decided to do

is really focus on making our company healthier, right? Because when you grow so fast, there’s just things you just don’t build, right? I mean, we didn’t have the right performance review model in place. There were so many SOPs we didn’t have, and we were just growing like crazy and just drinking from a garden hose. So we decided to pull back, be leaner, and develop this really, really strong foundation.

Carrie Charles (59:48.395)
and become a healthier, stronger company and grow mindfully. And so that’s what we chose to do. Now, I will say the toughest part has been mentally, because when there is, you know, that, you you, you, you, you’re at this place and then you move backwards. Boy, it’s hard mentally. It’s deflating, you know, every day you get up and it’s like, is today the day where we’re going to have the hockey stick again? Nope.

Anthony Codispoti (01:00:09.568)
Hmm, that’s deflating.

Carrie Charles (01:00:18.935)
Today is not the day. So you’ve got to stay motivated and inspired and also more than anything else inspire and motivate your team without being too positive, right? Be transparent, tell the truth, but keep your team motivated and inspired. And that has been a huge challenge for me is I have to keep my head in the right place. And how have I done that over this past year? You know, we,

We are out of the woods. We’re busier than we’ve been all year and literally the past two months. And it looks like we made it, right? So I mean, we’re coming out of this. But I will tell you, I I am a health fanatic. I exercise seven days a week. I eat very healthy. I still maintain my low sugar. I still have chocolate sometimes. But very, very healthy with a

managing things like, you know, just making sure my energy levels are high and I can get up every day and I can be 100%. I get my sleep. So I have to keep myself operating physically and mentally at a certain place so I can be that person that my company needs.

Anthony Codispoti (01:01:34.158)
So diet, exercise, faith, anything else that helps you on that?

Carrie Charles (01:01:40.871)
Gosh, I mean I look at everything I look at my relationships and I want to make sure my relationships are healthy and so communication and you know staying in touch with my kids my kids are grown but staying in touch with my kids and maintaining a healthy relationship maintaining a healthy relationship a love relationship making sure that relationship is very strong as well and You know also, I think it’s important to be healthy financially

And so I look at all the areas of life. I was a life coach for years. And so I would focus on all areas of life as a life coach, everything from spirituality to relationships to health, fitness, career, finances, everything. And so what I do is I look at my life as a whole. And let’s say that each portion is a piece of this pie. And I want to make sure that each piece is healthy. Now, it’s not going to be perfect. It’s not going to be balanced perfectly.

but I wanna make sure that each piece is healthy. So if for some reason, let’s say I haven’t forgiven someone for something and it’s really bothering me and I’m holding it inside and it’s getting in my way, I will call them and apologize and give them, just make up because I don’t want this in my space anymore. So that’s one example. So I would say that, looking at all the areas of life, because if one area is out of really

Anthony Codispoti (01:02:54.851)
Hmm

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:00.419)
Yeah.

Carrie Charles (01:03:09.799)
out of balance. Let’s say a relationship, it affects everything.

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:14.988)
Yeah. So that aside, looking at the business part of it that’s turned around in the last couple of months, why do you think that’s happened? Is it the economy’s coming back? Is it some of the other levers that you were pulling during the year to make yourselves more efficient? Did you go in a new direction?

Carrie Charles (01:03:31.785)
Yeah, so we did a little bit of all of that, right? So we focused, went in a new direction. So we really focused on some other, you know, another vertical. We doubled down on a vertical that was really busy in our industry. We created just enormous efficiencies. But I think the thing that helped us the most is that we just went back to basics.

good old fashioned sales, pick up the phone, call people, really just sales. And we had to work harder at sales than we ever have. I mean, our phone was ringing off the hook for years because we’re specialized. There’s not a lot of people that do what we do and we’re good at it. But it wasn’t ringing anymore this year. So we had to look at each other in the eye and say, okay, we gotta just get back to basics and we’ve got to grind so hard, even though

Anthony Codispoti (01:04:20.889)
Yeah.

Carrie Charles (01:04:31.369)
You know, we haven’t done that in a while. We have to get out there and we’ve got to go. We’ve got to attend events and we’ve got to, we’ve got to just roll up our sleeves and I got to get back to when, you know, I was in my twenties and thirties and I was out door to door, you know, knocking on doors and, and, know, that’s, that’s really, I think a big part of how we’ve generated so much just in the last two months.

Anthony Codispoti (01:04:55.118)
Kerry, I’ve got one more question for you, but before I ask it, I want to do two things. Those listening today, if you like today’s content, please hit the like, share, subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. Kerry, I also want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you. What would that be?

Carrie Charles (01:05:08.425)
Yes, so our website is broadstaffglobal.com and you can always reach me on LinkedIn as well, Carrie Charles, C-A-R-R-I-E, C-H-A-R-L-E-S.

Anthony Codispoti (01:05:20.022)
We’ll have those links in the show notes, folks. Last question for you, Kerry. I’m curious, what do you see the big changes are coming to your industry in the next couple of years?

Carrie Charles (01:05:30.219)
Yeah, there’s huge changes. The Biden administration has infrastructure, a large amount of infrastructure funding coming to our industry, and we call it BID funding. So it’s in the 40 to, you know, $45 million, a billion dollar range. So there’s enormous funding coming to our industry to build fiber infrastructure.

for people who don’t have internet. Millions of people do not have internet in our country, millions. And there’s kids who can’t have virtual school. There’s people who can’t work virtually. They can’t work remote. having access to internet and the ability to, it just opens up a whole new world for people, right? So all of those, that funding is gonna be going to the states.

and then the companies in the states are going to be doing the work and building the broadband, fiber broadband, we staff that. So that’s something that’s important for our industry is we’re going to be staffing for those projects. there’s also just enormous opportunity in data center right now. AI is driving the data center growth, the hyperscalers. I mean, it’s massive.

So that’s another opportunity that’s in our industry. The other opportunity is in power, because there’s a shortage of electricians. Data centers need power. They need to be cool. So there’s a lot of opportunity there as well. So I think AI is going to be driving a lot of growth in the data center arena.

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:15.598)
Kerry Charles, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Carrie Charles (01:07:21.609)
Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Anthony. This has been wonderful. Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:25.4)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.