Kael Campbell is the President of Red Seal Recruiting, based out of Vancouver, Canada. He is an entrepreneur, headhunter, and recruitment expert who helps companies drive revenue by getting the right talent in the right jobs. Red Seal Recruiting specializes in recruiting for clients in manufacturing, mining, and construction. Kael has over 20 years of experience in recruitment, running remote teams, and B2B sales/marketing through his YouTube channel, Hiring and Firing.
In this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, John Corcoran sits down with Kael Campbell, the President of Red Seal Recruiting, to talk about how to recruit and hire great talent. They also discuss the effects of technology and AI on the recruitment industry, how recruitment is similar to mining, and why Red Seal Recruiting specializes in the mining, construction, and manufacturing industries.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [01:28] Kael Campbell’s entrepreneurial background and the lessons he learned from his father
- [09:08] What inspired Kael to ride a bike through Cuba and South America?
- [10:25] Kael talks about starting a recruiting company and the effects of technology on recruitment
- [16:23] How Red Seal Recruiting helps candidates create audio file resumes
- [18:41] How recruitment is similar to mining
- [22:53] Kael explains why he specializes in the mining, construction, and manufacturing industries
- [24:54] How the pandemic impacted Red Seal Recruiting
- [27:44] The effects of AI on the mining, construction, and manufacturing industries
- [30:35] Kael’s YouTube marketing strategy
- [33:44] The peers who’ve had a significant impact on Kael
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
- Red Seal Recruiting
- Kael Campbell on LinkedIn
- Hiring and Firing on YouTube
- Dave Bacon on LinkedIn
- Steven Ziegler on LinkedIn
Sponsor: Rise25
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Episode Transcript
John Corcoran 0:00
Today we are talking about how to hire a great team, how to find great talent, how to recruit them, how to headhunt them and encourage them to join your company. My guest today is Kael Campbell. I’ll tell you more about them in a second. So stay tuned.
Chad Franzen 0:16
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now, let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran 0:33
Alright, welcome everyone. John Corcoran here. I’m the host of this show, you know, every week I get to talk with smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs in all kinds of companies, from Netflix to Kinkos, Grub Hub, LendingTree, you name it, go check out our archives, because we’ve got some great ones there. And if you’re interested in more on this topic, I’m sure you’ll find some for you. And of course, this episode is brought to you by Rise25, my company, where we help b2b businesses get clients, referrals, and strategic partnerships with done for you podcasts and content marketing.
And as I mentioned, my guest today, Kael Campbell, he is the President of Red Seal Recruiting, located up in the Vancouver, Canada area. He’s a father and he’s an entrepreneur. As I mentioned, he’s a recruiting and talent expert and headhunter. He helps other companies to drive revenue by getting the right people in the right jobs. They’re specialized in manufacturing, mining, and construction clients. And so we’re going to talk all about these sorts of strategies for your company. And first of all, Kael, it’s such a pleasure having you here today. And I love to ask people about how they were as a kid and the little entrepreneurial side hustles that they had. And you had an interesting combination, different ones, there was a bike shop, there was trading baseball cards, and there was of course, selling beer and marijuana. Those all naturally go together, especially under one roof. I imagine you had a corner shop, but tell us about those.
Kael Campbell 1:53
Yeah, I didn’t know if I envision the perfect bike shop, it probably would include those for a lot of people. But that’s absolutely. I’ve been on the silver train for the last six years since having kids. So I can’t, can’t say that is a great fallback plan for me. So, but yeah, when I was young, I, you know, I had loss of ideas. And, and yeah, I tried a lot of things. My parents were entrepreneurs. And, you know, I was part of their entrepreneurial journey and started mine early, but did go off and get jobs, but really was a neat thing, kind of seeing the value. Being able to brew beer and sell it, you know, I wasn’t quite of age, you know. But, yeah, really, really experimenting with things I’m still interested in, but haven’t decided to go down those road. I know, lots of friends who have breweries, and it’s a great business. We have clients who are some of the larger commercial marijuana growers in Canada. Not my business. I’m glad I’m not involved in that side of the business. But finding the talent to run those large growing operations is something I still do. And it’s nice to have a little bit of a background at it.
John Corcoran 3:04
Yeah, you know, enough to be dangerous, I guess. I want to hear about these parents that were entrepreneurial. I had a roommate in college just started brewing beer, stunk like hell, you know, it’s just a horrible smell in the house. And I remember like the first batch he did, the person who was mentoring him said, Okay, after about two weeks, it’ll start to have the carbonation in it. After about four weeks, you can start to drink it, maybe, but better to wait until six weeks. And this, this roommate of mine, had drank all the beer before the second week. So probably not the best lot of work for him to go into. But so both your parents were entrepreneurial, what kind of companies or businesses do they have?
Kael Campbell 3:46
Yeah, so my dad built log homes and was a kind of a bush pilot, mineral explorer, right? So he’s a geologist, professional engineer, but he had claims up in northern BC kind of close to the Yukon, and did some work in the in the South as well. And he had his his own company, so kind of a small stock mining company. And yeah, it was an amazing pilot, but also to develop properties which were then sold or had investments made by larger mining firms. So really got a small sense of that whole industry, which is one of the biggest in North America and in the world, the mining industry. And it was great to kind of go on journeys with him I was even packing rocks in the in a rucksack and using using an axe to do claim post something that nobody has done in 25 years but it was great as a kid you learned what real work was.
John Corcoran 4:46
That is probably imagine it’s sounds more glamorous than it actually is. But sounds like the most adventurous childhood of all town of all time, like flying with your dad and a plane out into the To backwoods and then trying to find diamonds and gold.
Kael Campbell 5:04
Yeah, no, it really was like, you look at what experiences you can give your kids. And that’s like something we pay for often, you know, growing up in city and stuff. But, you know, that was kind of what what we did land on a lake, you know, set up camp, and then head off into the bush. Right? And yeah, pretty cool. Like it was before there were any of these, you know, television shows that showed people panning for gold and having gold claims. It was something you’d only really read about Louis L’Amour, which a lot of people who you know, in our new generation won’t won’t even remember books like that. But we had a chance to explore and you know, I know enough just to be dangerous on the fly in front now.
John Corcoran 5:54
And what was the craziest experience? I’m thinking of like shows like alone, where people do that out in the wilderness. And there are mountain lions, and there are bears and grizzlies and stuff like that. What was the craziest experience you had through all that?
Kael Campbell 6:08
You know, I didn’t really with my dad was great. He was a little bit conservative, especially when flying and stuff. But no, when I finished and I kind of went out on my own, I did get into commercial fishing. And that was some of the craziest, I was out in a storm one night, and the boat was rocking and rolling off shore. And it was straight. Oh, the dangerous catch. And, you know, I wasn’t at the helm that night. But I’d been at the helm many nights. And I was so tired from doing all the hard work. I said to myself, well, I need a good night’s sleep. And if I die, I die. And I just rolled over and went back to sleep, even though it was the craziest storm. And you know that that is something that, you know, later on. And now I know I wasn’t in danger. But it was an adventure, like being offshore. Commercial fishing was one of the greatest experiences. And it also had risks, there was a lot more risk. My dad was was great. Like, there’s an expression, there’s only old and bold pilots, or there’s old or bold pilots who’s not both, right. So yeah, he would be conservative and decide not to fly where there was times when I was doing mineral exploration with other people flying in a helicopter and the visibility was so low. There’s so much fog, all you could see was the whitewater of a creek. And you couldn’t even see the trees on the side. But it was wider than the fog. And the pilot was still flying like conditions that I would never recommend anybody ever go into. Yeah, so I’ve had some good experiences. But fortunately, when I was young, those those were safe. We saw lots of bears, we saw moose, we saw elk, but we never had any near misses. That’s good.
John Corcoran 7:59
And how did that influence you in terms of knowing what you’d want to do when you get older? Did it seem like a given you know, like, I’m gonna go out and start a company one day,
Kael Campbell 8:11
I would say that a lot of the world is set up for people to have jobs, you know, university, and like, even entrepreneurial courses in university are not really set up and college is not really set up to actually push you and take that leap. And, you know, I had seen my dad kind of make that leap and strike out and change as well. So I don’t think he ever had that fear of, Oh, I gotta have a job. Right. And I think I think that really influenced me that, you know, I know I can start a new business, because I’ve seen him do it a few times. Right. So yeah, I think really influence how I think and you know, I do want to leave that for my kids. Because I don’t think there’s anything worse for somebody’s morale than saying I gotta stay in this job. I don’t want to be in. Right. And, you know, having that entrepreneurial option in your pocket, I think is good for anybody,
John Corcoran 9:07
which of course, relates to what you do now. But before we get to that, I want to ask about the next chapter I was going to cover, which seemed a little less adventurous given your childhood, but you actually rode a bike through Cuba and South America. So tell us about that.
Kael Campbell 9:23
Yeah, so I was in a little bit of a transition kind of in my mid 20s. And I was living in a big city and kind of being a part of the concrete jungle in the system. And you know, I said, I gotta take a break. You know, I’ve stopped smiling. I had an affinity for red wine, which I did kind of pick up and keep going in Argentina, but I basically said I’m gonna take a break, and I grabbed a mountain bike always had a passion for cycling and flew into Cuba. Mountain bike around the whole country. Got a chance said, learn a bit of salsa, learn the culture, understand about their version of communism, and then go on to South America. Afterwards, it was great. Like physically, it was a great experience and also learning about the people getting my Spanish better. It’s not where I’d like it to be now. But amazing chance to see different countries and really get to know people as well, and build some lifelong friendships too.
John Corcoran 10:26
And we were chatting before this, and you said that, in part inspired you to start your recruiting company, when you got back? unpack that a little bit for us? How did that? How did being off the grid like that going mountain biking, biking around Cuba and South America inspired you to start a recruiting company?