Habits and Hustle
Episode 443: Colleen Pelly: The Secret Quality That Makes You More Hireable Than Technical Skills
Tue, 22 Apr 2025
Ever wonder what really makes someone stand out in today's competitive job market? In this Habits and Hustle podcast episode, I am joined by Colleen Pelly, CEO and founder of Linchpin, to discuss the traits that make candidates truly hireable beyond just technical skills. We dive into why self-awareness and emotional intelligence matter more than talent alone in the hiring process. We also explore the changing workplace landscape post-COVID, why flexibility has become non-negotiable for many workers, and which overlooked career paths offer surprising financial rewards without requiring extensive education. Colleen Pelly is the founder and CEO of Linchpin, a purpose-driven recruitment agency that helps match companies and talent across multiple industries. With experience spanning retail, tech, automotive, and cannabis sectors, she has held key recruitment roles at major brands including Tesla and lululemon, where she developed expertise in full-cycle recruitment from entry-level to executive positions. What We Discuss: (01:00) The Importance of Self-Awareness in Hiring (10:39) Building Corporate Culture Through Hiring (16:09) Navigating the Recruitment Industry (24:10) Essential Skills for Recruiters and Entrepreneurs (31:36) The Impact of Flexibility on Employment (43:31) Navigating Generational Changes in Hiring (55:05) Discover Linchpin Co on Social Media …and more! Thank you to our sponsors: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off TruNiagen: Head over to truniagen.com and use code HUSTLE20 to get $20 off any purchase over $100. Magic Mind: Head over to www.magicmind.com/jen and use code Jen at checkout. Air Doctor: Go to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HUSTLE for up to $300 off and a 3-year warranty on air purifiers. Bio.me: Link to daily prebiotic fiber here, code Jennifer20 for 20% off. Momentous: Shop this link and use code Jen for 20% off Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagement Find more from Colleen Pelly: Website: https://www.thelinchpinco.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelinchpinco
Chapter 1: Who is Colleen Pelly and what is Linchpin's mission?
And how to, you know, be hireable, you know, like, so I thought today we're going to, I thought today would be a great time to have Colleen Pellion, who is the CEO founder of a company called Linchpin, which is basically a recruitment agency. She, you, you help people find jobs, you find companies, you know, get employees from all levels, right? From entry all the way up to C-level.
Yeah, that's right.
Right? Yeah. So who better to ask than you, right? So thank you for coming on the show.
Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
I'm really excited to talk to you and have this conversation because I think now more than ever, it's in the zeitgeist of what's happening. I guess my first question for you is, I guess when you're hiring, what is the number one trait that makes somebody hireable?
Oh, great question. Yeah. And it feels so simple, but I think when you think about self-awareness or like a high emotional intelligence or a high ability to be self-aware for me feels like one of the most important parts.
And I think a lot of it is we talk about a lot of interviews sometimes talk about like what went wrong or like what's an error you made or a mistake you made and being able to be self-aware and hold yourself accountable to what went wrong. And also talk about what you learn and how do we move forward is like that's a beautiful skill to have.
And just being able to articulate what you've done well and metrics and data. So I think there's like a self-awareness piece, what I would say is a really important and really useful part to have.
So it's funny because I think that self-awareness is key for all walks of life, right? And it's not so common, right? It's something that we, I guess, some of us, I do feel in your opinion, is it something that someone can work on or is it something that's more innate?
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Chapter 2: What is the most important trait that makes someone hireable beyond technical skills?
Exactly. I think that's very common. What I also find interesting that in all my dealings in life and business, that I feel that talent is very overrated. And talent definitely gets you through the door. But if you don't have these other micro skills…
like you said, like self-awareness or a higher EQ or reading the room or all these other things, work ethic, it really does dampen the importance of talent.
Do you agree? Yeah, 100%. And I think if you take that into what hiring looks like or the recruitment process, we focus so much on a technical requirement for roles. So you're hiring a software engineer, like, What's their coding experience? But if you're ignoring, I love how to read a room. That's one of my favorite ones.
If you're ignoring that and you're ignoring your ability to regulate emotion and have clear conversations and give and receive feedback, they're not going to be successful in the role regardless if they can do the technical skill or not.
I mean, listen, I think I should tell you, I don't know if you know this, you probably don't, but many, many years ago, yeah, many, like 25 years ago, when I was in between jobs and career, I got a job at a recruitment agency. Amazing, I did not know that. No, I didn't think you would know this.
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Chapter 3: How does self-awareness and emotional intelligence influence hiring success?
And what I found was I was working on, I got hired to like help with like technology people, like people to do like It was like graphic design. It was like coding. It was computer talent. And what I found, even with my own like very minimal experience, the people who got the job or I recommended were the people that were the most likable, that I just like to be around.
And like, it is my opinion in general, I think that likability is a way bigger indicator of someone's success and overall higher ability than any talent that you can ever have.
Yeah, and it's tricky because there's a bias that can come into play where we like, we want to hire people like us.
Yeah.
So if you're vibing with someone when you're interviewing them, it's so easy to be like, this is amazing. I could absolutely hang out with this person. Yeah. But it's less about like the likability or it's not like, like I think a few years ago, like Google, it would be like, oh, can I have a beer with this person? And it's like, it's not that.
Because you may not necessarily like them as a friend, but do I like their energy and their vibe and their ability to, like, hold a conversation with me? And can I see myself partnering with them? So likability in that way, 100%. And I think part of that, too, is, like, if you're a clear communicator, that likability comes through. So, like, if you're, like…
And I've talked about this before, but I think it's like if there's two people who are the exact same and they have the exact same experience and they bring the exact same energy, but somebody is a better communicator or they have like a higher sense of urgency in the way they communicate, I'm going to pick them every time because they're going to perform better for you.
Well, that's another one, like a sense of urgency.
Probably my most, I mean, I think I have actually do it to a fault. Like I'm so quick in the way I communicate. I almost think I have expectations of everyone. And I'm like, what do you mean you haven't responded in seven minutes? I'm the same way. And people think I'm crazy.
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Chapter 4: How does corporate culture affect recruitment and employee success?
It's still so crazy to think about.
Oh, it's still. And by the way, yeah. But now they were the first of its kind. Now there's a million of them, right?
Yeah, and there's so many. But yeah, I think that- They were the pioneer. The collective mindset, I guess, is the best way to put it, would be like goal setting and always wanting to better yourself. So there's like a personal development piece that I feel like everyone we hired sort of had in common. And it was sort of like never settling for less and- there's always more you can do.
And there's always, there's a continuous learning piece and there's just like a hunger to be better. A hunger. It was part of the consistency.
I also found everyone very friendly when they walked in. Yeah. And everybody, not just friendly, but like overly like happy. Yeah. Yeah.
So at the store level, that's where I started. I started in the stores as a sales associate and they're called educators. And the front people at the time, this was years ago, but they were called DOFI, which is director of first impressions. And you had to greet someone within six seconds of them coming in. I love this.
And so like you can't, if you're coming in the door, I can't let you get past me essentially without like... morning. You're welcome. Like, thanks so much. So there's definitely a peppy energy. You're not, you're not wrong about that.
Right. Yeah. But like, but like it works, right? Yep. Yeah. Because I'm now talking about it like years later because they obviously set a standard that they would hire for.
Yeah.
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Chapter 5: How does Linchpin approach recruitment across industries and skill transferability?
But right, how do you find your people? Do you poach from other companies? Do you go on LinkedIn? Like how do you find people that you could even interview for these job opportunities?
LinkedIn's definitely a big one. There's like alumni job boards, like, you know, or like if you're in design, you're looking on Behance, like you're kind of picking specific job boards for the type of industry you're hiring in. But honestly, LinkedIn is a ton of it. And then just like who you've The secret sauce to recruitment is just keeping in touch with people. So like really just networks.
Like I think the strongest recruiters just have like years and years of these strong networks. And so a lot of the time we'll get a new role. I don't know. We get accountants a lot. So like we need another accountant. It's like, oh, great. I can think of 15 people to reach out to before I even have to go on LinkedIn. But if you're thinking about platforms, I'd say LinkedIn's are like our most used.
So like if someone's looking for, so you kind of just keep like a Rolodex or like a database of people that you've known over the years that kind of left an impression.
Yeah. Or that you've placed somewhere else. Or we've placed, yeah, because you keep in contact with someone and then in six years they might want a new job, whatever that looks like, or two more recently. But we also have sort of open forums. Like a lot of people will reach out, as you said, and be like, I need help. It's like, great, here's a link. Can you fill this out? And it has like,
what's your name? What's your contact information? What type of job are you looking for? Do you want to be remote? Where do you live? What's your compensation expectation? Can you list some metrics on like why you've been successful, et cetera. And then we're also like, do you want to be anonymous, whatever it looks like. And then I've sort of have a pipeline from that.
And when I have a new role, I can run it through that and see like who matches. So it's, it's really selfishly, it really builds my pipeline quickly so I can hire people faster for companies. But also we get to, we get to help people too, which is nice.
So what's the percentage that you actually go after, like poach through other people? Like you call people who have jobs already versus people who don't have a job. I would say more often than not, they are employed. They are employed. Because it's one of my big theories in life. It's always easier to get a job when you have a job.
It's easier to find a boy or a boyfriend or a girlfriend when you have a relationship. But it's like the law of like Murphy's Law, right? Like when you have it, all these opportunities are available. When you have nothing, nothing.
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Chapter 6: What was Colleen's experience building recruitment at Tesla and Lululemon?
Yeah.
These are all the things that people are actually doing. But there's a whole variety and array of jobs out there and careers, I should call it, not just jobs, that people don't know about because they just don't know what they don't know. So the way I want to frame this question is different. I want you to tell us
some careers or career paths or industries or areas that would be very lucrative for people to maybe explore.
Yeah. I think just starting from the world I know really well is I think recruiting is such an interesting space because you don't need a formal education. If you have one, that's great, but you don't need it, right? Like, recruiting. There's no designation.
You mean to be a recruiter. Yeah.
There's no designation you need. And, you know, I have people in my life who like have all these letters after their name and they went to school for 15 years. And it's like, I make significantly more. Like, I mean that in a, it's coming across as not humble, but also. Don't be humble on this show. I want you to tell us the truth. Yeah.
So it's like, I, if, especially in, um, agency recruitment, because a lot of it's commission based. So if you're confident and you're great at what you do and it's uncapped commission, you're just going to keep earning. But the other side, like this is like a less conventional path, but I feel like so many trades roles are ignored.
Like being an electrician or a plumber or those pieces, they're making a significant amount of money and you're able to get educated or the requirements you need in a much faster timeframe. And so I think that's something that's kind of ignored and also needed. So we work with influencers all the time. We hire for them all the time. At some point, that's not going to be a job anymore.
And you know, what's always going to be needed is those like essential. So like what's essential that's going to be needed all the time?
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Chapter 7: How do recruitment agencies find candidates and what role does networking play?
If not, it doesn't even like, it's like no, it's like- But you're confident too, which I think takes, that's a skill. But you know what? Confidence comes from being competent. And I feel like I've built that muscle of competence because I've tried and practiced and practiced so much that the more you practice, you get better and better. And so now I feel like I'm really competent at failing.
So now it's like, okay, that's my superpower. I don't care when I fail. So like if I try to do something or I ask for something and I don't get it, well, okay, well, at least I feel better about myself that at least I made the shot. You tried. Yeah. Like, and I think that rejection is always better than regret. I never, right?
I never want to look back at something and be like, you know, what, what if? I wish I did. Yeah. Or what if, what if I tried that? Or like, what if that happened? Like on your deathbed, you're not thinking about all the things that you did. You think about all the things you did not do. Yeah. You know, like, oh, if I only apologize to this person. Right. Or spend more time with this or did this.
Yes. So regret, like I find regret to be a really horrible gutter, gutter, like gutterly bad feeling. Yeah. That's a word. Yeah. So I'll get rejected all day long. I don't care.
Well, I think anyone who starts a small business... And it was all about rejection.
Right. So like you're so like this is why I like you because you are you are an entrepreneur because you started this business. You're a recruiter, which in itself, it's like a double whammy.
It's a lot of no in your face.
It's a lot of like being a recruiter right away. Super difficult to start your own business. And then a recruitment business, which is all all eat what you kill, period. End of story. Right. And it's a really saturated market. It's is it?
Yeah. Like there are I don't know. I can't remember. But you like you could throw a stone and hit like 20 different agencies just within my like area where I live. And I think it's so it's consistently something is somebody told me like a competitor who's a friend of mine told me when I first started my business, there's more than enough work for all of us. You just have to find your lane.
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Chapter 8: Which industries and career paths offer lucrative opportunities without extensive education?
Which I feel, from all the research and data I've seen, I've seen people and companies actually plummet. They're not staying plateau. They're not actually like staying... They're not thriving, let's put it that way.
Yeah, I think there's definitely a... Mindfulness? I don't know what the right word is. That wasn't there before in a certain way. I don't think mindfulness is the right word.
Wokeness is another word.
Yeah, I'm trying to think of the right word.
That's the word I'm thinking.
But what I will say, I agree and I disagree with you. I think like the piece, you can still set, I need XXXXX accomplished by this time. It just… How you get there, like it doesn't… Right.
There should be parameters in place you're saying. Yeah.
I think like, you know, if you can't work on Friday because of what your life looks like, but you're still going to hit your deadline, then I don't really care. So I do think… I kind of think I'm a balance of how you're feeling and how I like… Yeah.
And sort of what's more mine. It's like… I'm not where you are, right? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I'm not an office person, so I know better to get a job, an office job.
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