Recruiting Stateside
When you move your business to the States you’re going to need people to help you run it. So we tracked down Michael Molony, a high-level recruiter based in Austin, who works with the recruitment agency GQR.
Michael is originally from London but has made it big in the States and is absolutely loving it there. Me and Sebastian headed to his office, which looks out over Downtown Austin, to find out all about recruitment, work, and play in Texas!
He tells us how businesses are run differently in America compared to Europe, and how the way that they view failure is completely different too. Talking about change, we find out how the people can change, how his hobbies have changed, and most of all how his lifestyle has changed.
Telling us everything that makes Austin great, he also shares with us the downsides of the city, although to be honest, there’s really not that many...
“In America, the salaries are higher than in Europe, inherently through that, we see a higher reward from our endeavors.”
- Mike Molony
Time Stamps:
1:48 - What Michaels company does and how long it’s been running for.
2:43 - The reason that Michael moved to Texas.
5:23 - The difference in businesses in America compared to Europe.
8:22 - What the best lessons are that can be learned when doing business in America.
10:38 - How the definition of excellence is different in Texas compared to London.
13:00 - What it’s like dealing with American clients.
14:55 - The reality of failure, when if you fail you have no option but to go home.
17:54 - How well business in America pays.
19:16 - What the worst things are about living in Austin.
21:18 - How much the city is expanding and what this means for entrepreneurs.
23:01 - The new pastimes and hobbies that you can find in America.
26:06 - The everyday views from Mikes office.
27:47 - The best restaurant in Austin to go for a business lunch.
28:45 - If Mike sees a long term future for himself in Texas.
Resources:
Connect with Kevin Turley: Website
Connect with Sebastian Sauerborn: LinkedIn
Connect with Mike Molony: LinkedIn
Episode Transcript
Episode 7: Recruiting Stateside
In the United States, you can just go there and then with very little effort approach this massive market because it’s actually a lot easier to scale a business than it is in Europe.
We’ve probably doubled in size in the last ten years and you see the skyline- it’s kind of crazy that you have like fifteen cranes in town, it’s like, crazy
You’re listening to Move Your Business to the United States, with me your host, Kevin Turley.
Kevin: So, welcome to Move Your Business to the United States, with me, Kevin Turley and I’m here with Sebastian Sauerborn, CEO of Mount Bonnell Advisors, and with very special guest today, we have Michael Molony, who is VP of Technology at GQR Global Markets here in Austin. Welcome to this show, Mike
Michael: Thank you very much for having me on
Kevin: When you’re moving your business to the States, you’re going to need people to help you run it. So we tracked on a high level recruiter in Austin, Michael Molony. Michael is resident from London, but he’s made it big in the States, so we head it to his office looking out over downtown Austin to find out about recruitment, work and play in Texas today.
Kevin: You are of particular interest to us, because, judging by your accent, you’re not from Austin.
Michael: No, I’m not a native of here, I grew up in London initially, but moved off to the States about five or six years ago.
Kevin: So you’ve taken the great leap from Europe to the United States and moved professionally across the Atlantic, how do you find it?
Michael: It’s been a number of things, it’s been quite frightening, it’s been exciting, adventurous and I suppose, overall, a rewarding experience.
Kevin: Okay, tell us a little bit about your company and your role in it.
Michael: Okay, with GQR Global Markets, we help transition people from this oil industry, so anywhere from science, technology, engineering and math background, across a number of different schools, and help transition talent from I suppose different businesses within the US.
Kevin: And, you’ve been doing that for -?
Michael: Well, I suppose in the States for, since I’ve been with GQR previous to that I was two years in England before I moved out.
Kevin: Okay and am I right in thinking that Austin wasn’t your first point of entry in the United States?
Michael: It wasn’t, I came to Los Angeles, to start off with, so we started off in Westwood, sort of mid-city in Los Angeles, and then we moved down to Santa Monica for a number of years, before making the jump over to Texas.
Kevin: Why did your company open office here in Austin, in the first place?
Michael: I suppose multiple reasons, our business is big, of oil and gas sort of focused, as a company, one of the bigger departments is oil and gas and we would sort of be targeting Texas as a hub for first identifying talents in that region and working with clients, as it happened we did quite a lot of work with this, oil industries, so the massive take-off businesses within Austin, plus the infrastructure growth in Texas has been phenomenal over the last couple of years and it doesn’t seem to be slowing, by any means, I think it’s two hundred plus people a day moving to Austin, so across a number of different verticals it make sense to be in a city where there is so much growth, it has a number of different I suppose bonuses for companies, I suppose the state is looking for a little more talent and more businesses into Texas and Austin, sort of full front of, and then sort of additionally to that, there’s an enormous pool of talents here from different colleges for us to be able to grow our business, so-
Kevin: Mike would you say that, in your line of work, which is recruitment, that it’s a good barometer of the health of the economy of wherever you’re recruiting from and to -?
Michael: Yes certainly, I think that, I suppose the cool hubs of Silicon Valley were very, sort of relevant experience for me, Silicon Valley has always been this sort of core epicenter of technology in America, and over the last, probably ten years, but accelerated the last couple of years, we’ve seen cities like Austin picking up a lot of- the exciting businesses where sort of the cost of living in San Francisco or the Silicon Valley area is sort of- and the flow of talents and made building businesses very difficult whereas here there’s more opportunity and an increasing influx of people who are interested in transitioning from this sort of central hub for the traditionally have attracted top talents to looking at other areas across the States.
Kevin: Mike you’ve made the great leap across which we talked at the start but a lot of people listening to this are thinking about making that journey across the Atlantic and moving businesses from Europe to the United States. I mean even in my brief time here on this visit to the United States, the United States for all our consumption of American media, is very disorientating for anybody from Europe. That’s my sense of it. What was your sense when you first came to America and you started working in America, working with American businesses and American banking, American legal systems et cetera, was there a sort of barrier you had to go through before it started to make sense and fit together?
Michael: Good question, yeah, working in America is very different to working in Europe on a number of different avenues. I suppose that coming over here is just, sort of, open your mind up and shift your perception from what you know, to try to understand the difference and perception of how business is done.
One of the things that I really love about America and particularly working in America is sort of eternal optimism that’s here like people don’t see failures as failures, they see them as successes because you actually gave something a go, whereas a lot of, I suppose from what I experienced in Europe is, a failure is something to be ashamed about, whereas here is something that’s really embraced to something.
Sebastian: Yes, definitely, this is something that I have- I’ve met the same experience here, in fact I know a lot of American entrepreneurs who went through one bankruptcy, maybe a number of bankruptcies, and always came up on top of it, because they wanted to- they didn’t get this happened and they accepted to be very limited initially and had to start again, but they did it, and were supported by their environment.
Kevin: Would you both say that’s one of the key differences in business in the United States cause I’ve heard this before, that, to try a business here and to fail, is seen as a mark of endeavor, whereas in Europe, in England in particular, if you fail at a business, you disappear for a few years until your embarrassment wears off. Would you say that’s kind of a fair stereotype either side?
Michael: I think that’s from my experience a reason of understanding of it. People seem to embrace failure a lot more than I experienced in Europe.
Sebastian: I think you’re totally right, I’m not so sure even in England is the worst example for this, I think England is, from all European countries very similar to the US in that regard, but Germany for example particularly that so any failure there is a massive stigma and it’s very difficult to recuperate from that, you know, so yeah, I mean, but totally in the US is definitely easier.
Kevin: So Mike, back to you, going with this pm barrier, which I’m very interested in, so you’re talking about various interests in business, so you’re talking people with eternal optimism, which is very interesting, we kind of get that, we see America as a- Americans, even in my short trip here, all Americans seem so positive, you know, they wake up with a bright smile seemingly, every single morning.
When you’re working in a country, it’s very different from visiting it as a whole day or on a vacation, you know, and once you start getting down into business, I mean, how much does that optimism sort of, when you drill down how much is it still in there when the going gets tough?
Michael: One of the most beneficial lessons that I’ve learned from coming here is, that service industry is consistent with business from being in restaurants, from the tipping society to business. If you are very good at what you do and you’re focused on providing excellence and really strive to be at a full front of your industry and being able, your clients, be a businesses or customers, to see, sort of to distinguish, enhancement from your products when they do buy into it, but it’s very difficult to get there and there is an enormous amount of struggles to try to understand what excellence is and to try to map out and understand the preferences of your market. You can deliver a service but that means another level.
Kevin: Can we just look at that for a second because it’s interesting what you’ve said there, I mean, I get this idea and I sort of imagine that that was American business society striving for excellence to be the best because it is a society based on or a business culture based on, if you deliver, you get paid. But the definition of excellence is, now, you worked in London, right?
Michael: Um-hum.
Kevin: You worked in the city of London?
Michael: Um-hum.
Kevin: Was there a difference on the definition of excellence on that side of the Atlantic to what you’ve found on this side -?
Michael: It’s- good question, I think- no, from my experience I was very fortunate to be in a company in London that was very established. To having come over here and sort of to try to build company so my experience in London to be honest, was a training experience and coming to GQR in America has been a sort of, coming into a startup in America, failure is not an option because that’s going home after submitting failure, but for us failure is not an option. And so you have to achieve excellence from coming over here from a start, to make ourselves-
Kevin: I suppose what I’m asking though is the perimeter of excellence, were you clear of what they were when you started out on this adventure in the United States? Were you clear of, when I get to this level when I get to achieve this, when I’ve done this, then I’m into the excellence field.
Michael: No it wasn’t clear, it was a learning experience. We had to sort of, ab testing here, so you try, you try something out, you see how it’s received over market, and sort of, it’s raise again you come back to it, it’s a progressive endeavor. So no, excellence wasn’t necessarily clear when we came here, for me certainly, I’m not speaking for the company, for me I had no idea what we wanted to do, and my idea was very wrong coming out here, it’s started off and continuing to learn.
It is sort of got us there, and it’s been successful for us and I think the strife to get to excellence is the rewarding part of this, this sort of, the battle of having to wake up and try it again and again and again, where we’re not necessarily seeing any results in the short term, but we had a sort of adopted I suppose optimism of nation here, adopting that taking that to your work and that actually getting to sort of means eventually-
Business, what is business anyway? Business is everything we see along the street and much more. It is any enterprise which is organized to satisfy our wants for goods and services. Men and women established businesses in the hope of making a profit.
That means earning our livelihood by supplying goods and services which other desire. The world is so full of these goods and services that we take them for granted. Yet without them we can have almost none of the things that we have come to consider necessary for our comfort and safety. Just think what it would mean if all this would be taken away.
And we were suddenly required to produce our own food, make our own clothes, build our own homes, each of us would have to work single handedly to create the bare necessities of life. For it is business, organizing and collaborative people and creative of elaborative machinery and equipment, which is responsible for the comfortable life we live today.
Sebastian: And how did you find working with American clients, I mean, my experience is very positive you know with American clients, they are direct they say what they want, they deliver, they pay, they pay very well, you know, if you do well so it’s a very uncomplicated experience. Now I’m used to something similar to Germany, similar mentality, while often I find it in the UK, people tend to, you know, [smiling] around the issue, don’t say it clearly, they’re not exactly clear, when it’s bad, when it’s good, and when it’s very good, what’s your experience with American clients?
Michael: I think the regional diversity is also apparent whereas in California where people are more akin to potentially sort of walking around an issue and trying to present it in a nice capacity but if you talk to a client from New York, you’re going to get them in the air [smiling] so it’s- I wouldn’t blanket the whole of America as one particular, sort of, I suppose of methodology of approach. But yeah, I’ve found- in comparison to England I can find people to be much more upfront, when you do things right and even more upfront when you do things wrong, which is- [smiling]
Kevin: But it seems like, I mean, what you’re saying Sebastian and Mike you’re backing up here, that in some way business is more straightforward, you strive for excellence and you deliver it and you get rewarded. You strive for excellence, and you don’t deliver it, you don’t get rewarded and you probably begun to lose business eventually.
Michael: Indeed, and you can’t be mediocre here.
Kevin: Now you talked about something though, in terms of entrepreneurialism is key, now in some ways being an immigrant in the United States having come from your home country to the United States, the pressure is greater but also the sense of failure is greater if you’re on the flight back to Heathrow I guess, is this a case of the kind of classical entrepreneurial thing, we’ve burned the boats we gonna take the island -?
Michael: That’s a [smiling] but that idea haunted me, when I first moved here, and in particularly merely days where there was so much ambiguity is to whatever would work and uncertainty, but the idea of having to go back to my friends and family and say, I did this, but I’m back six months later, probably kept me in the office longer than any other idea that I could sort of imagine. So that sort of sense of having to go back with my tail between my legs and me and failure was probably more-
Kevin: That was that to it Mike, and again, that’s the most entrepreneurial experience, most entrepreneurs set out into the unknown, okay, that’s the difference between entrepreneur and employee, okay, someone will use its contract and knowing what they have to do, they’re going to get a paycheck at the end of the month, fine.
Most entrepreneurs, set out into the unknown, and there’s always going to be the naysayers, and those that support them, okay, maybe even reluctantly support them. Because you got to prove what you’re doing, okay, so there’s nothing you can- but you also hinted at something else which is a more positive spin on this. Which is, to be an entrepreneur, you’ve got to have what John Wayne used to call, true grit. You got to have staying in path now would you, can you identify that in your experience coming to America?
Michael: Yeah, it’s- I suppose my point of view as an employee, I’ve been very, very early employee of a company I suppose is two-fold, one is the personal, motivation and drive but then also a company if you got an inspirational leader or inspirational leaders, which I was fortunate to have and they have shared this in nation and grit they helped us striving through it as well.
So, it’s I think it’s a whole business methodology of everyone’s striving for the same result really is one of the key strengths to give that, cause you can turn around to your left and right and you know two people being the founder or sort of the founding member, is doing everything they can to make this successful, so, I suppose it’s two fold it’s based on the personal level and the people that you surround yourself with.
Kevin: Sebastian would you agree with that?
Sebastian: Yes, yes, I would totally agree with that, I mean leadership is an extremely important aspect, not only as an employee but also for any company that you have a leadership team, especially important when you want to get an investment, investors are always going to look primarily at the leadership team, because when things get difficult or even when things are very well, you know success can be overwhelming, you know, you need to have a good leadership in place, so I totally agree a leadership is key to motivate employees, to motivate everyone, to motivate clients.
Kevin: Success can be overwhelming, I presume success in the United States is different to success in London.
Michael: Oh I wouldn’t know, I didn’t have a huge amount of it [smiling]
Kevin: Does doing business in America pay well? When you’re doing it well and is going well, or there are material financial awards worth it?
Michael: Yeah, indeed-
Kevin: Cause you do long hours I guess?
Michael: Yeah, we work very-
Kevin: You work hard and you get paid well, yeah?
Michael: We work hard and we are rewarded accordingly for it, so with- our business is by nature on basically, we are paid on our successes as a sales business so what you put in the business is really what you get out of the business so, in America, the salary is higher than Europe, and numeration for our target, candidates is higher, but inherently we need to see a higher reward for our endeavors.
Hi, you’re listening to Move Your Business to the United States, just a quick word from our sponsors, Mount Bonnell Advisors. The people are being advising clients in moving stateside for years. For all your needs, both business and practical, head over to mtbonnell.com to find out more. Thanks for listening
Kevin: Okay so you’re selling it to me, now tell me, in all honesty, what are the worst things about Austin?
Michael: Worst things about Austin I mean-
Sebastian: A-35 [smiling]
Kevin: Yeah I’ve actually had experience with that even after our four days of visiting Austin I can honestly say when we were on the A-35 it’s a prelude to hell AC/DC should be playing full time, highway to hell, open down that road.
Michael: Yeah, indeed but the infrastructure here is not quite- it influences the people to be honest, highways are a bit of a pain. Fortunately, I’ve located myself very close to our work in the city and I don’t have to suffer it very much. I think from my own personal, waistline might be one of the ones that I’m a little bit worried about being here because portions are enormous and the food delightful.
But the worst things about Austin, I imagine when it heats 110 degrees in a fair day of metro which for Europe is about 40 degrees is kind of hot, it’s sweltering you’re living in a desert and it’s quite humid and that can be quite overbearing and then, I suppose, well Austin is one of the most centralized cities I’ve been to in America, sort of, with accessibility in downtown, Austin is very spread out, and to go from one place to another requires a car ride or a an Uber, or whatever it happens to be, there’s no public transport infrastructure really here it is I suppose different areas as opposed to one centralized hub, you have to commute quite a lot but really is sort of falls, compares to positives of living here.
Kevin: I mean you’ve hinted at something which even in my short few days here I’ve noticed, which is that the amount of construction and building, both downtown and some of the suburbs and gives an indication of city which is expanding rapidly. Is that the case?
Michael: Yeah, indeed, for me enough I’ve just been looking for an apartment or a house we just rented a lot harder, eighteen months ago when I moved here first, I think it is statistics, which you probably know better, somewhere around 200 people move here a day, for- increasingly from California or another tech company, or hubs Amazon are growing their footprint here or could have just opened up a 12 000 person office, just on the other side of town, so, I think that people- it’s growing, exponentially, but that, but I suppose for an expert who’s coming here is quite exciting.
Kevin: And I suppose for a lot of our listeners who are entrepreneurs, they are business people, they are looking for opportunities, they’re looking for business opportunities, and expanding and growing and affluent market is music to their ears?
Michael: Yes, indeed, it was certainly picked our attention and got to us move here and many other businesses so it is a hub for businesses to come and move to an office, a lot of lifestyle, so you asked earlier about the lifestyle facets, I think I complain about the temperature a second ago when it gets to hundred and ten degrees, but when you have 200 days of sunshine and sort of incredible beautiful open green spaces and rivers and what not to hang out it’s sort of, it negate some of the concerns of moving over.
Kevin: And just on that point because you work hard but you also have to have your leisure and to recreate one of the ways you do, how do you sort of discover new pastimes new hobbies, new sports since you arrived in Austin that you never have dreamed of that you would’ve done when you were living in London?
Michael: Yeah, I think, potentially more so in Los Angeles I took up surfing which wasn’t particularly available.
Kevin: Not a lot of surfing in London [smiling]
Michael: The Thames isn’t-
Kevin: Internet surfing is set aside-
Michael: [smiling] Yeah I was fortunate enough to be on the beach there in Santa Monica, I suppose here there’s such a massive amount of space here a lot of pastime, or my pastime with my girlfriend or friends is camping, sort of going out and hiking and discovering new outdoorsy places very different to my existence in London which is more of a city metropolis hub.
Kevin: I think that is sort of your experience, Sebastian, you arrived here and you bought a ranch.
Sebastian: I did buy a ranch exactly and that is what I asked, did you pick up some of the typical Texas hobbies like horse riding, hunting, these sorts of things -? [smiling]
Michael: I haven’t been out hunting, I’ve been out fishing I’ve bought myself a kayak but I’m not particularly stable in it, horse riding, we’ve been on a horse riding, she had a fun day of axe throwing on a ranch the other day [smiling] which was petrifying with my girlfriend out there a little bit worried, I’ve been- my girlfriend lives down, in south of Texas so sort of border of Mexico so this is more, very- is much more of a city in Austin whereas if you go an hour or two, south of any direction really, you get into the heart of Texas countryside which for me is kind of the most exciting just so sprawling and beautiful, just different, it’s quite an exciting place.
Kevin: So Mike, I’m assuming that on a Sunday night, you’re sending off an email or an Instagram or whatever, pictures to your elders in London of you axe throwing at a-
Michael: No, I don’t d- [smiling] you got me there, unfortunately they’ll kick me off after [smiling] yeah I do occasionally rub salt in a way at friends back home after a particularly dreary weekend in London and it’s nice for, or it’s nice here, but you brought the weather with you so unfortunately it is this Sunday is raining another day-
Kevin: Well I have to say by London standards, this is summer time [smiling] well we are about to close Mike and we are really grateful for your time. I have to say that we’re taping this in your 12th floor office in downtown Austin and the views are absolutely incredible. On the one side, just explain to the listeners, Mike, what we are seeing on that side?
Michael: So on one side where sunset coming down at the moment, we’ve got the Colorado river which is sort of like a lake within we are in Central Austin so we can see the 360 bridge and a beautiful sunset, then, if you spin around 90 degrees you- you’re looking at North Austin so, it’s the city-
Kevin: Which for the listeners is like quintessential American city, it’s skyscrapers built up, very sort of impressive obviously very corporate and then if we look over on this side it’s quite interesting because we’ve got some construction work going on, we’ve got some great hotels over this way, and as far as I can see, and then you’re heading off in that direction to- is that the East Texas over in that direction?
Michael: Yeah, you’re heading your way over towards this side- it’s actually it’s an incredible place, there are a lot of country bars over there and really good barbecue places, there’s swanky sushi bars and restaurants and sort of incredible cocktail places over there and then, you sort of outside to the countryside over there and a whole different world, whatever direction you turn, and you find sort of different-
Kevin: And it sounds like whatever you’re into, there’s a niche for it in Austin, Austin is a multi-faceted, multi layered place.
Michael: Yeah, indeed it’s not one dimensional, it’s an enormous amount of stuff to do, which is-
Kevin: Which was your experience too, Sebastian?
Sebastian: Yeah, I just wanted to ask you, give us a tip Mike for our listeners, what’s the best restaurant for a business lunch?
Michael: I’m getting in trouble here, there’s a steak house called Perry’s up on Six Street that’s-
Sebastian: I’ve been yeah, I can confirm it’s very nice
Michael: Yeah, it’s cool
Kevin: So Mike, just finally, you’ve got an apartment not very far from here downtown and you come out in the morning and you’re wandering through the sunshine to your 14th floor oh I’m sorry 14th floor office building looking out these amazing views around here, do you ever miss the rain, standing on a crowded underground of London looking out on the building sites somewhere on the city of London
Michael: I’m being perfectly honest, no [smiling] yeah it’s a well-played, no, I love it here it’s a fantastic place to be
Kevin: And one final question, cause you love it here, you’re a young man, you’re in your twenties, thirties?
Michael: Thirties.
Kevin: Okay, just probably, you’re looking younger but do you see a long term future for yourself in this city?
Michael: Yeah, indeed.
Kevin: And would you be happy with that?
Michael: Yeah, I’d be delighted, I’ve got an amazing girlfriend and friend base here, I can’t see why I wouldn’t spend the rest of my life here, really.
Next time on Move Your Business in the United States, so my approach is not about how many leads or how many new contacts can we get to your website, yeah, that’s part of it, but if you don’t understand how to nurture people on the back end, how to create a true experience with your brand and your company, then you’re not going to not only deliver the right results for your best and key clients you’re actually doing a disservice of your business because it’s not going to grow the way you want it to grow.
You’ve been listening to Move Your Business to the United States, with me, Kevin Turley. A huge thanks to my producer, Emmett Glynn, who produces this podcast for Mount Bonnell Media. To find out more, go to mtbonnell.com and remember !Dream big, dream America’
