We were lucky to catch up with Geneva Taylor recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Geneva, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
My business is Tellis Executive Search. I like to jokingly tell people, “I couldn’t put the business in my ex-husband’s name”. But honestly, I chose my maiden name to honor my family, my parents in particular, as we came from really humble beginnings, from a blue-collar, lower class suburb of Chicago. I want to leave a legacy through my business with our family name to inspire my daughter, nieces and nephews to see that they too can own their own business and be successful and that they don’t have to just work for someone else their entire lives.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Drawing on more than 25 years of experience with Fortune 500 companies, such as Rolls-Royce, Rockwell, Navistar and Caterpillar, I am now owner of Tellis Executive Search (TES), a WBE, MBE, WOSB certified recruiting firm focused on leadership and contract staffing roles. As a recognized expert in the purchasing arena, I have established myself as an experienced negotiator and strategist. I hold an electrical engineering degree from Northwestern University, an MBA from the University of Indianapolis, CPSM from the Institute of Supply Management and I am also certified as a Diverse Sourcing Professional.
I like to tell my clients and candidates that I am NOT an HR person but a hiring manager with years of experience hiring people for the jobs I now recruit for. I treat each search as if I’m hiring someone for myself as I know what it feels like to receive a bunch a resumes and not know why they don’t fit with what I want. So instead of sending 10 resumes to a client, we search and match over 90% of the requirements with a screened, select few candidates and that they will understand why we sent them.
In our 6 years in business, 67% of our placements have been in engineering and senior leadership and 1/3rd of our placements have been diverse candidates. The fact that we can attract and place diverse talent AND that we care in the efficiency and accuracy of meeting our client’s needs is what makes us different from other recruiters in the market.
We also genuinely care for our candidates that are willing to work with us and take our input. We want anyone that works with us to be in a better place than they were when we found them, whether we place them or not. As such some of the leadership people we’ve helped and prepped, come back to work with us to hire their employees even if we didn’t place the leader directly. This is why we also use in our brand “Search Consultants Who Care”.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
My first year or so in business, I was stricken with a hard case of “imposter syndrome” and something I call “corporate guilt”.
I think many women go through “imposter syndrome” thinking they have to excel or meet expectations that really aren’t their own. Starting a business in recruiting was the first time in my over 30 year corporate career, that I can really say I learned something new. I turned this feeling of being an “imposter” to a strength in my conversations and explored why being uniquely myself was my superpower. I like to tell people “I’m an engineer that never did a day of it in my life”. It gives people a chuckle, but it also lets them know that anything can be possible in their careers too. It truly has helped me feel free to share my approach, perception, knowledge and experience with confidence.
Now “corporate guilt” is still something I struggle with day to day. Running a company and having your livelihood as well as others dependent upon the success of your business decisions can make you feel overwhelmed at times. I call what I feel “corporate guilt” because I often feel that if I need to take time off or take a vacation, that a boss somewhere is going to tell me I’m leaving my work unfinished. I have to always remind myself, I’m the boss, I’m not letting myself or my team down, I’m taking time away for a while to rejuvenate and re-energize myself. And this is just as necessary as getting “work” done.
How I still manage my business, in the face of ongoing uncertainty is being true to myself and my favorite reminder is a quote by Maya Angelou- “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them FEEL”
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
In 2016, when I left corporate America, the stock market was diving and so were my retirement funds. I had heard of a way to use your 401k/IRA to fund your own business through a process called ROBS- roll-over as a business startup. So I invested my retirement into my own business because I felt if I could “bet” on anything, I should bet on myself.
Now this required me to become a C-corp and to be an employee of my business. I have a board of directors, basically myself and my parents and this solidified the “why” of my business using my maiden name because it is my family name.
This formation has its pros and cons and I know it is not for everyone, but if you don’t feel you have the capital to invest in a business or buy a franchise it is a good starting point if you look at your business as your retirement investment and the limitless potential of your business as that kind of asset.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tellissearch.com
- Instagram: @tellistalkscareers
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tellissearch
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tellis-executive-search
- Twitter: @tellissearch
- Youtube: @tellistalkscareers5858