Episode 063 - OOHTalent.com, finding a new home in Out of Home - start your career search here!

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And I remember being like, oh, it had come up a couple of times and out of home happy hours and nobody had ever done anything. So it came up and I was like, that is a good idea. I just pulled up like GoDaddy or whatever it is. And I just typed in a couple URLs, um, and they were available. And so I created like a side message with like Kevin and Andrea, and was like, Hey, by the way, these are available.

And then in that side chat while the happy is going on, We were like out-of-home talent and just like bought it for like 1 99 a month and not

right. So we're chilling. We're, we're talk on happy hour and we're like, Hey, we should start a job listings.

But it wasn't you, it wasn't like let's start a job listing site. There were a few folks on the happy hour who had just gotten terminated, right. Or they were getting close to being. I think some people were just like, this might be a good time to jump. And it was August. It was summer. Cause I was outside.

I kept saying like, it'd be nice if we had like one place that we could find these things from. And that was kind of the conversation that kept coming up. I think a lot of it too was that we felt like this was a very temporary downturn. So there was going to be, let go temporarily. And we didn't want them to leave the industry.

And then six months later we're looking for talent and they've all got sure, right. They found new homes and now we have to train all the new people. And yeah, that, that would be, it's a lot of like what I've noticed since we've even had this out. There's a lot of startups, um, in the, in the industry that might not have a big corporate site.

So this is like perfect for them to kind of piggyback off of, and it may be looking for one or two people, but. That Tom Shay, I guess is Amos. He called me right before our happy hour, last week and said, I heard you're like the matchmaker of, out of home and I like shit, but I guess there's no swearing on.

I can't swear. No, so-so so that's interesting. So it's okay. The FCC is not going to,

they don't even know. They don't even know that. But anyway, he, um, he was just hiring somebody for New York and I was like, you know, he's like, I don't even know where to begin. You know, a lot of people. And he goes, I found this site and it was our site. No kidding. No that we find it. I'm so excited here. He said, I found this site.

It must have looked scroll through our LinkedIn or something. Yeah.

All right. So it goes from happy hour and you know, our we're seeing, we're seeing our friends in the industry be displaced and what can we do to help solve for that? What if, what if we centralize. For companies looking to hire and talent looking to get hired within the industry. So the idea comes to be in August.

When did it really start to materialize? Was it, was it just that quick day on it? Like we bought the URL, we built a website the next day, or like, how how'd you figure out, like, how does it's about October when we finally got the website figured out? Cause we had a couple of calls and like RA. Well, now we've kind of got herself into this, so we have to actually do it.

Um, yeah, exactly. So it's was like, what does this look like? Um, and then from there we just kind of built a basic site that we figured would be a good launch point to at least, you know, just put some jobs out there. So that was in October, uh, is really, I think when we got the site up and running and then we just got flooded with like emails and tags and people seeing it and, and involving us jobs on there.

And, and, and, and Kim, this doesn't involve geo path or Carver ties or Andrea, it doesn't involve smart outdoor. This is just something that y'all got together and said like, this is, this is helpful. Like this would help people. Yeah. Help people then industry. I think the three of us have a huge, you know, net that we can cast out to a lot of people.

And we know a lot of people, and even when they get jobs description, First hand, I reached out to somebody that I know that's looking, I can pass it along. Would you be interested in this? So kind of like we get that first look too, but I think it's also forces me to be a little more organized. Like I was getting phone calls from people saying, Hey, I'm looking for a new job.

Do you know anybody who's looking for this? And I would get a call from a client going, Hey, I'm looking for someone who can. You know, keep straight all of the different pieces just to give it one central hub where all of those people could meet each other. I mean, during a time where it's really hard for people to meet each other.

Right. Which is like, I think why the happy hour has been so great to have it ended up being kind of a matchmaking happy hour. Even last week, people are like, oh, Hey, I'm in Madison, Wisconsin. I'm in Madison, Wisconsin. Let's get together. And. Yeah, that's been great. That's where, like, you know, you go to the conferences and you're just, there's, it's overwhelming.

There's so many people there and you don't get to see everybody. I like this intimate group that we have. It's great. Do we wanna mention, um, David pals health also saw what we were doing and he contacted me and he already had a site built. Um, which we can kill. Right. So we could add, um, you know, a social media, almost a social network for the industry where we, you know, it's a directory, all things that to out-of-home.

So I've talked to so many people that are just looking for led lights, who supplies them, all that kind of stuff. I know there's different directories out there, but I think if we consolidate it without content, Uh, for the most part, it'll be, you know, a resource for the industry. I've heard that so many times.

This is great. What you guys are doing. We need more of this. And I said, what do you think? I took a survey, even at 98% said, yes, we need a directory for our industry. Wow. Right. And I, like, I think of, I think of what rod Rackley and circle graphics and pop, like there's a lot of folks who are making an effort to like, all right, how am I going to organize the things that I do into a really easy way?

If there's one central place where all these things can tie in. That makes sense. So, so thinking about the timeline now, August, we've got this crazy idea, you know, October, we finally get launched, David's got some of this framework built out. You can see it starting to come together. When was like the first listing on the site, when was the first job posting?

I would know. Let me go back. Looks like October 24 was like the first email I got in. Yeah. So I mean, it, it happened pretty quick once we got the site built it, you know, and I remember like trying to build the site. I didn't have any jobs to list. I remember trying to go. So all these out-of-home companies and find their career pages.

And I was like, this is a hassle for me. Just even find a couple of listings to put on, can imagine, um, you know, somebody who's, who's needing to find work, having to go through this. Um, so yeah, I mean, it, it was pretty exciting once we got just a couple of things, put out, a lot of people reached out to us and that was really exciting to see traction, right.

Look at the site stats, but there's been a lot of things. Yeah, we have, I mean, it's, it's crazy. Even from like the UK, not just international, we have jobs for hive stack, I think in Europe, which if you can work from home anywhere, and which is kind of the new normal for now. You know, you can get any talent.

They don't have to be in your backyard. You can get them worldwide. Uh, I'm teaching this semester at the college here in town and, and that's like, that's my that's my pitch to them is why you're answering the most dynamic job market ever, which is scary in itself. However, it's the most exciting time because you have access to companies that you never would have because you were never going to move.

To, uh, you know, Tuscaloosa, you never going to move to Boston or move into the city. Like you can do those things now from anywhere in the world. What a great time. So what are like the types of roles that you're seeing be posted? Is it, is it a diverse mix? Is it like buyers, planners? Like w what's the mix of opportunity?

All of it. I see a lot of, uh, director of sales. And then I see a lot of buyers for sure. Media buyers are account, um, represent or account managers. I've seen that, but, um, w as we. We have it kind of split between like sales and agency and we're seeing a lot of sales roles right now. Um, so I think that's been really exciting, but also, you know, I mean, I just posted one for, you know, a couple agencies looking for client managers as well.

So we're seeing everything from, you know, a coordinator position to director of sales and managers. They're seeing everything in between. That's kind of like a nice barometer on it feels like the industry is really starting to. A very good, positive direction that people are trying to hire and gets held back into their teams that were past that, you know, gray area of the pandemic.

And moving back to scaling back up to full operations, which is exciting and not just seeing sales jobs, right. And there's never a shortage of sales jobs, but to see folks from the buy-side as well hiring, that's a good indicator of there being demand.

And data and programmatic and all of those things. There's been a lot of acquisitions during this time too. Um, companies buying up a lot of the independent billboard companies and they're getting ready to, I've got five or six listings that we're going to post for trail head media. Um, he, he bought, I think not it's up to nine billboard companies in the Southeast, so he needs everything and it's real estate.

You need sales, you need account managers, but there are going to be a big player. That's exciting and it's so scrappy and loose. Like Diana has done so much work. I can't even imagine like hearing it out and, you know, scraping LinkedIn and word of mouth, just kind of a fun, little healthy industry. Yeah.

And that's like the coolest part, right? Is it didn't exist this time last year. It wasn't a thing this time, last year we didn't, you know, think that we would be all working from home a year later for, at that, at this point 10 months. Right. So it's fun when you, when you have an idea that it didn't exist and now it does exist.

And now we're helping people to find their next home and out of home. And that's exciting. Has anybody gotten hired off the board yet? I know there's been some interviews, but I'm not sure. I know some of the job listings that were posted have been removed. Um, so obviously they've hired, but I don't know if it was a direct result of our site, but can't hurt.

Right? That's right. If I, if all it's doing is exposing the opportunities and creating conversations around those, then, then that's, you know, a job well done in itself. Does it cost anything to list the job on there? Is it free? Like how, how are you supporting. And just kind of our volunteer effort right now.

Um, I think if you want to list a job tag or message one of us on LinkedIn, or you can send the link to out of home O O H talent listings@gmail.com. Um, and we can get it listed there. Yeah. And the email is also on the website, so you can find it there, which is O H talent.com. Yeah, very cool. So we're just doing it to help out.

People reached out to us anyway for jobs, and now we have a place to direct them. I'm like, oh, here go to this site. Well, w w w while I, while I've got you all here, um, let's all make a prediction. It's still early enough in 2021. Don't worry. We're not going to go back and review this at the end of the year, but folks listening that they would probably love to hear some predictions.

Kim, what, what's your prediction for 2020. Predictions for 2021. I think it's going to be, um, a kick-butt year for out of home. Um, I think that people have been, um, not spending money, the same way that they were and that once, you know, vaccines take hold and people are able to go out, there's going to be a ton of travel.

I think people are going to take like dream trips. There's going to be a ton of cinema. People are going to be at restaurants. People are going to be a bars. I don't think that's like an outrageous prediction. But I think it's going to really benefit us. And I think there's also going to be a bit of a backpedaling away from zooms and online and TV.

And there's going to be more of an appetite to be in person, which is also going to. Yeah, benefit for our channel. I saw yesterday, uh, you know, it's particularly relevant to Kim and I, we live in New Jersey and we're just right down the road from each other. But I think that like 80% of the Jersey shore vacation rentals are already booked.

There was some staggering, some staggering numbers. I had a great conversation with Rick Robinson a couple weeks back. And then he mentioned the clubhouse, you know, a few weeks ago that like we own the word out and the world is about to be re-introduced to being outside. And that's exciting. That's really exciting time for, for Andrea too.

I think everyone's going to join a gym so we can fit back in our work clothes. Yeah. So, so I can't wear sweatpants and hoodies and beanies. Oh, my God, you can't outwork a bad diet though. That's my problem. I work out, but I like 30 gig, but at least I'm balancing it out. But I think the prediction too is everybody is looking for.

Information. Right. So where do you get it? Billboards messaging. We've spent so much time on social media and I think our direct, you know, once it's almost like the wizard of IES, when you see in color, again, we get to go outside of our houses and we see new messaging and there's going to be, you know, like Kim said, those dream trips, like what have we learned?

I learned how valuable friends and family are and seeing people that we took for granted. I just, can't wait to see people and spend time with them and travel. And I think that that's huge. Um, I think there's going to be a lot of new networks that come out of this as well. Um, maybe where we haven't seen it, the attention before let's stop there.

Let's, let's spit out on that. We don't have a supply shortage problem. What, what's the value of new networks coming online? What is the value? I think that, you know, we've seen heavy up on TV and digital, right? So we can definitely out-of-home is their best friends. So having that attention divert back to areas that, you know, I read that 80% of the ads reached 20% of the audience.

So it's oversaturated and we needed a first, they needed to diversify some of those revenues to. New places, right. Where we get in 75% of those are bought by group M. So group M if you're listening, you should definitely buy more out of home because we have plenty to sell you. Deanna, what's your production.

I think we'll see a more integration with experiential. Like, you know, we're so eager to leave the house. When we connect with brands, we want some sort of experienced some sort of story to come away from it. So I'll be excited to see kind of how everybody chooses to translate that and integrate it into, into the.

It's very cool. I was talking a couple of weeks back with Mr. Bob Johns at bold site, and obviously they are, they have the American dream mall here in New Jersey and some other very cool locations. And, and they're, they're seeing that a lot of the brands that are advertising they're taking advantage.

Creating that experience. So now it's, it's about going to the mall, right? It's going to the mall is the experience because Lego is doing an activation, has Lego men walking around and interactive screens and all sorts of cool stuff going on. So yeah, I think that's exciting. And just thinking, you know, as somebody with, uh, you know, a seven year old in the house, who's about sick and tired of being a lot of.

And there's not a whole ton in the way of a what to do. So I love the idea of brands adding a more air experiential elements to, uh, to things that maybe wouldn't have traditionally included experiential. Awesome. Any, any parting thoughts out of home talent? O H talent.com is the place to go. If you've got an opportunity to list or you're looking for a new home, I want to ask this question.

Here's the killer question. If I want to post my resume there. Can other people can, other people see it? Like, will my boss see it? Where could they see it? So I think right now we're brainstorming ways to kind of create an anonymous post, um, where you're able to post your, you know, qualifications and what you're looking for.

Um, so that is coming soon. So yeah, stay tuned. Be checking the site and we'll. And we had, we had years, Tim, so once.

We had your resume. So one screen won't see it.

The other reason I asked you about the new networks coming online, like that's a, that's a core focus of ours at one screen is how do we, how do we tell better stories about, about the supply and make it easier to buy? So I think. Moving in the, in the same direction everybody is, is adding their own piece of value to telling that story.

And it's a big story to tell, right? We've got lots of different formats and media owners and, and telling better stories is going to be that's my prediction for 2021, we get really good at telling a really good clean, crisp story about that. About out-of-home. So O H talent.com. You can check there for any listings.

You can, you can upload, you can stay in tune with the, what the opportunities are going inside. The out-of-home industry. Ladies, thanks so much for being here. See you next time. If you found this to be helpful, please share it with somebody else who can benefit. As always specialists said that the button over there, subscribes to smash, smash the subscribe button down there in the corner.