From Ghosted to Onboarded: Cracking the 2025 Job Market - Terace Johnson joins the show

Staffing for your company as an employer and finding a job as an employee have changed quite about in the last several years.  You're competing with people, bots, AI, and so many other things that you don't even know about - yet.  

Terace Johnson was kind enough to join the show this week and lend her expertise to our audience.  Terace with the founder and CEO of Spotlight Staffing.

Spotlight Staffing is a national employment agency and executive search firm that offers tailored hiring solutions across multiple industries. Though headquartered in Minneapolis, they serve clients nationwide.

🔹 Services Offered:

• Direct Hire Recruitment
• Executive Search
• HR Consulting for Startups & Small Businesses
• Hiring Events & Campaigns
• Profile-Driven Sourcing (beyond job boards)

So, if you're looking to solve this modern job market, you might just find some answers with us this episode.

Transcript

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Jesse Stakes: Hey everybody, welcome to Making Sense of It All. I'm your host, Jesse Stakes, and I am very pleased to bring you Terrace Johnson. Thank you so much for joining me.

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Terace Johnson: Thank you for having me, I appreciate it, I'm excited!

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Jesse Stakes: So, I'm really excited to have you here today, because I have been trying to get somebody in the professional staffing world to join the show for a while, and I was very honored that you took me up on my invitation. I kind of spoiled your thunder there a little bit, but at a high level, tell the audience what you do.

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Terace Johnson: I own Spotlight Staffing, so I am a direct hire recruiter, but also an executive recruiter. I don't like to necessarily advertise the executive part, because I don't want

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Terace Johnson: People to get… overwhelmed by… by that portion. I really like to…

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Terace Johnson: talk and meet with everybody, because I think there's room for everybody. There's… there's a ton of room for everybody just, you know, to not be excluded just because they're not an executive.

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Jesse Stakes: No, 100%.

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Terace Johnson: I think it's.

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Jesse Stakes: I've always… I've been in sales my whole career, and I always… like, this is not to knock anybody or to say somebody is smaller than another, but I've always felt like if you're not hunting squirrels while you're… if you're not shooting squirrels while you're hunting for elephants, then you're making a mistake, because to me.

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Terace Johnson: Yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: like, for your own business, and for your own pipeline, as far as making sure that you have stuff constantly going on, if you're not… if you're not taking… taking clients of all shapes and sizes, then to me, I think that's a mistake.

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Terace Johnson: Yes. And we really… Kind of realized that in the very beginning, that…

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Terace Johnson: We really wanted to focus on the whole enchilada instead of, you know, just one

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Terace Johnson: one end of it. And it's really brought us a lot of success. We've heard

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Terace Johnson: it just… it helps me be a better recruiter, if I'm being honest with you. We hear a lot of the things happening in the workforce, and so being able to really take a look at recruiting from the standpoint of workforce development, and understanding how we can create things for

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Terace Johnson: the entry-level people, or mid-level people, senior direct… you know, not just executives. It has been really eye-opening, and it has made me such a better recruiter.

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Jesse Stakes: No doubt. Well, and I gotta imagine, I mean, if you're… it's… everything is a waterfall. It's like, if you…

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Jesse Stakes: have… I mean, if you're talking to executives, I mean, they've… they eventually have to hire those mid-level people and their entry-level people, so it's… it's one thing feeds the other as well. I've got to imagine that it… that it helps you develop far… far deeper relationships, not only with the executives that you end up recruiting, but also

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Jesse Stakes: with the business in total, because then you.

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Jesse Stakes: One-stop shop for somebody, rather than them having to go out and seek people at every level.

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Terace Johnson: Yeah, exactly. It is… It's… Incredible to see…

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Terace Johnson: Things kind of from the top down, on how… how they execute, or what they're looking for, how… how they plan on…

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Terace Johnson: you know, bringing in or hiring, approaching recruitment, from a budget standpoint, from KPIs, to all of it. It's…

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Terace Johnson: it's incredible to see, and then, you know, on the other side of it, you have… you have those executives… I'm doing an executive roundtable right after this, on just leaders wondering how they can get to a healthy point in their recruitment process.

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Terace Johnson: with less turnover and higher retention, and so we really try to focus on things like that, to really just make the company go round, and it's… it's incredible to see both sides of it all, and just dive right into it.

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Jesse Stakes: No doubt. Well, and a good… a very good mentor of mine early in my career once told me that the most expensive thing that an organization has is turnover.

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Terace Johnson: It's… it's challenging. Sorry, go ahead.

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Jesse Stakes: No, you're fine. No, you're totally good. I'd love to get into a little of your backstory. How in the world did you get into this? How did you end up starting Spotlight? Like, what was it, you know, I'd love to hear the journey that you went on to get here.

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Terace Johnson: Oh, it's… it's a… it's kind of a long, drawn-out story, but it's my favorite one to tell. During COVID, I…

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Terace Johnson: leading up to it, I had a previous business, we won't talk about that failed one. I had a previous business, I was… I'm really passionate about…

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Terace Johnson: This is gonna sound so stupid, but I'm so passionate about candles, and I made candles, I made air fresheners, I made just all of these things, designed them. It was amazing, but it was very expensive to maintain. Okay. And so…

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Terace Johnson: I had struggled with… what I really wanted to do with a career.

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Terace Johnson: During that time, I left my stable medical job, And when it's a construction.

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Terace Johnson: Because I wanted to be able to have that overtime build-up experience and have just…

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Terace Johnson: a nice chunk of money in my bank account so that I'm able to pay for that business.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes.

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Terace Johnson: I loved it. I ended up getting sick with COVID, and it kind of ruined my respiratory system, at the time, and so I couldn't go back to construction.

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Jesse Stakes: Understood.

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Terace Johnson: So, I got… I utilized the temp agency.

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Terace Johnson: And… wasn't just once, it was twice, but each time, it was a little different, and I didn't necessarily like the way things were…

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Terace Johnson: going. I didn't like what I was seeing, I didn't like how I felt.

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Terace Johnson: Going the temp route, and so…

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Terace Johnson: during that time, I just remember a lot of my family and friends were coming to me

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Terace Johnson: needing help contacting… I have a… I have a large network. I don't necessarily utilize it a lot, but a lot of them reached out and say, hey, you know this person, can you reach out to them? I applied for a job and I hadn't heard back.

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Terace Johnson: So I'd be calling these companies and these leaders and going, hey, so-and-so applied, they hadn't heard back, their background matches up well with

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Terace Johnson: your job description, And it would be, oh!

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Terace Johnson: Thanks for letting me know, and those people would start to get hired. And I had one gal who's like.

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Terace Johnson: We pay people to do this, so…

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Terace Johnson: Why aren't you getting paid? Why are you just voluntarily doing it?

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Terace Johnson: And I just…

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Terace Johnson: I kind of just sat there, and I was like, oh, maybe… maybe she's right. So I'm googling, like, okay, if we did this, how much does a recruiter make?

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Terace Johnson: And it was just random. If you can hear my cat, I am so sorry.

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Terace Johnson: I'm so sorry. But it was just, you know, how do… how do we make that work? What does it entail? How do I get contracts? You know, what… what does it…

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Terace Johnson: what does it mean? Sure. And so, I just remember being so excited to wake up the next day to do this. Like, to redo this all over again, and I just remember talking with my fiancee, going.

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Terace Johnson: this is where I'm supposed to be. This is the career I'm supposed to have. And so I just, on LinkedIn, I put out, like, an SOS, and I wanted to just talk with

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Terace Johnson: Recruiters or, you know, agency owners to just get an idea of what that's like.

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Jesse Stakes: Right. I….

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Terace Johnson: I did not get a warm welcome. I had.

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Jesse Stakes: It's a competitive business.

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Terace Johnson: Yes, yes, exactly. And I had one person, and I will model my career and how I approach people who want to get into this industry very differently, because I had one… I'm gonna say his name, Jason Steffens. …

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Terace Johnson: he was like, you call me with whatever questions you have. And I called him, and he told… he said exactly what you said. There's… there's room for everybody in this.

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Jesse Stakes: Right.

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Terace Johnson: There isn't enough recruiters to fill half of the positions that are open.

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Terace Johnson: So don't sell yourself short, and he walked me through every step, and I will never forget it, because it was the best mentor conversation I had ever had, and since that day, I have… anybody who's interested in this line of work, who wants to understand it.

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Terace Johnson: I am giving that information away, because it makes no sense for me to hoard it.

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Jesse Stakes: I think that's fantastic. Is there any type of… is there an industry that you specialize in? Are there people that you prefer to work with, as far as… I know you mentioned medical, you mentioned construction, but there's a ton of industries out there that people staff.

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Terace Johnson: Yeah.

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Terace Johnson: Yep, so I… I initially started in healthcare.

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Terace Johnson: because of my background. I knew healthcare like the back of my hand. I can tell you what your insurance copay's gonna be before you buy insurance. I… so it's like… I… I know healthcare like the back of my hand. So I started in there with, like, in the state of Minnesota, I had…

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Terace Johnson: a really high… caliber client, right off the bat.

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Terace Johnson: They trusted me, and to this day, we have such a bond, a good relationship, and I cherish that like there's no tomorrow.

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Terace Johnson: From that point on, all of their recruiters, including their director of recruitment, have referred me to

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Terace Johnson: a ton of other businesses that are not just in healthcare, but in construction, in water treatment, in public sector. So, whether it's schools, whether it's utilities, things, you know, working for the state,

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Terace Johnson: IT, accounting, so banking. We just got into banking, and I had a client who goes, why didn't we connect sooner? We didn't know that there's tailored services like this. Right.

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Terace Johnson: It's… it's amazing that those different industries welcome

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Terace Johnson: a newbie, such… you know, I haven't been doing recruiting for 30 years, like other companies have. So they've welcomed me, and they… the referral, the word of mouth has been amazing. We're just… I like to learn a lot about those industries before I start the recruitment.

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Terace Johnson: Because then it just helps me be better.

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Jesse Stakes: No doubt, no doubt. Well, and I think sometimes there's a value to not being a 30-year veteran on things sometimes.

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Jesse Stakes: Because people get jaded, or people kind of get stuck in the way things used to.

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Terace Johnson: Yeah!

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Jesse Stakes: And that really does bring me to what I wanted to get to with a lot of this conversation, is that there is so much that has changed. You brought up COVID and how it impacted you, but… but COVID and the last 5 years really have kind of… I mean, AI, there's so many things that we can point at, but there are so many things that have impacted the way that people search for jobs.

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Jesse Stakes: People go through the, you know, as far as the process with the companies that are looking to potentially hire them, the onboarding process, even their employment, things have changed dramatically.

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Jesse Stakes: you know, what do you see as far as… and I'm gonna ask you more specific questions.

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Terace Johnson: Yes.

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Jesse Stakes: Like, you know, the biggest difference that you see 5 years ago to now, what is the biggest difference in the industry that you see?

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Terace Johnson: I just had this conversation literally yesterday with my fiance. It is a lot more unstable, I will tell you that.

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Jesse Stakes: In what way?

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Terace Johnson: For example, I'm actually going to use…

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Terace Johnson: the HR industry. For example, I have never seen so much… turnover.

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Terace Johnson: HR, or, layoffs, or, you know, Kind of…

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Terace Johnson: what are they calling it today? It's, downsizing, or, you know, they're kind of getting rid of….

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Jesse Stakes: Creating efficient… creating efficiency within the business unit?

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Terace Johnson: Yeah, it's, … It's insane, but… Right. …looking at…

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Terace Johnson: And I'll go a little bit more in depth as well. So, not only is the turnover in HR or talent acquisition

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Terace Johnson: bigger than… than before COVID, but we're making

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Terace Johnson: And some people will not admit to this, but I'm going to admit to it. We're making more mistakes by

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Terace Johnson: utilizing AI for some of those Recruitment tactics that we… Had I not…

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Terace Johnson: just ask that gal… I know we spoke about this earlier, before the podcast started, but the gal that I initially rejected.

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Terace Johnson: Had I… and I… I put… I did put on a, … like a… Preferred or requirement.

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Terace Johnson: So, if they didn't meet those requirements, I don't want to see it.

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Terace Johnson: But something in me told me, okay, you know, you probably should go check

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Terace Johnson: that particular rejection. Go check those rejections. You have… you have 17 people in there. Go check those rejections. And she's in there, and I'm going.

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Terace Johnson: This is her second time applying.

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Terace Johnson: Let me ask…

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Terace Johnson: AI is not doing that for you. AI is not detecting… there's just a certain instinct, and don't get me wrong, I utilize AI for other things, but…

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Terace Johnson: It's not protecting and asking those questions, on…

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Terace Johnson: hey, should we… you know, they don't meet XYZ requirements, but should we have a conversation with them? They're not asking that.

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Terace Johnson: So it's… we're getting rid of all of these vital pieces of HR, and…

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Terace Johnson: we're… we're lacking. It's, … it's becoming a problem, and I think

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Terace Johnson: Eventually, we will start to see it. But in other worlds, I'll go back to healthcare. In other worlds, for example, in New Mexico.

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Terace Johnson: the… Fight for healthcare.

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Terace Johnson: Workers in rural areas.

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Terace Johnson: It is…

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Terace Johnson: It is insane to see the struggles that they're going through right now. They cannot, for the life of them, get nurses. They can't get… and because of their…

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Terace Johnson: Because of their, kind of, the compliance laws, or… …

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Terace Johnson: legal legalities, things of that nature. They are not able to maintain practitioners, physicians, things like that. So.

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Terace Johnson: I enjoy talking with a lot of them and hearing about the different struggles that they're going through in their respected region, because it… if I'm ever going to branch out further than what we've done now, I think we're in, like, 13 states, if I'm going to branch out even further, I want to know

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Terace Johnson: what that particular region, state, or anything like that is struggling with, so I could have a workforce development plan in place to be able to help.

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Jesse Stakes: I think that's… I think that's really well said, and it's very well thought out, and I don't think that it's things that people think about, just when they're looking for a job in a place, or when they're looking for the professional that they work with. Sometimes they just…

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Jesse Stakes: they hear somebody who says, hey, I've got this great opportunity that I'm staffing for, and they don't really look beyond that for the credentials of the human being that they're working.

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Terace Johnson: Yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: On the AI piece of things, I think it's, you know, just to bring the audience up to speed, the conversation that we were having prior to hitting the record button was about a person that had essentially applied for the job, they were automatically kicked out of the talent pool because they.

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Terace Johnson: I didn't mean.

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Jesse Stakes: the requirements. You posted the job a second time, they reapplied, and so it was something that caught your eye, but to your point of what you're saying, the actual system are the criteria that the…

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Jesse Stakes: the automation that you had installed into this potential, you know, job search, it was kicking this candidate out.

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Terace Johnson: And don't wrong, it's… go ahead, I'm sorry.

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Jesse Stakes: I was gonna say, lo and behold, though, as you told me, this ended up being the absolute best candidate for the job.

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Terace Johnson: the most, I mean, fantastic from… bottom up, I mean…

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Terace Johnson: having a conversation is the way to go. She got hired.

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Terace Johnson: She was the best, and… Part of me went, maybe this is the industry, or the, … the field

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Terace Johnson: that she actually wanted to be in, but no one's giving her a chance, right? And when I talked with her, that was the exact thing she said. She said, I just wanted somebody to actually see that, and then give me a chance to explain. And so…

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Terace Johnson: a teaching moment, then here, I go, okay, well, if you… if you… if you wanted that, we have to then tailor our resume, or update our resume to show that this is where you're headed. Because from the outside looking in, I'm going, you're just applying just to apply. But when you apply twice.

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Terace Johnson: that it sparks something in me to start asking more questions, and that's just something that, again, AI is not doing.

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Terace Johnson: But it's because of the requirements that I set.

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Jesse Stakes: 100%. Well, like, I think this is really important for people to hear, because, you know, tools like LinkedIn are now starting to install AI features on their.

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Terace Johnson: That's hot.

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Jesse Stakes: on the front side of when people look at jobs, or when a recruiter, like, sends something and asks somebody if they're interested in something, then it's asking them if they want to tailor their resume with LinkedIn's AI.

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Jesse Stakes: is that actually a good tool, or is it just a… is it something that, you know, LinkedIn is trying to create a, you know, a value add for the services that they sell, but it's so general, it's such a… it's, you know, people feel like, oh, this is a super easy way to make sure that my resume is tailored, but at the same time.

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Jesse Stakes: To your point that you're making, if you're not engaging with the actual content that it's creating.

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Terace Johnson: Yeah.

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Jesse Stakes: If AI is just spitting out a document, and if you're not, you know, essentially, you know, measuring twice, cutting once, what this was saying, is it actually valuable to that end user, or is it something to where now it's just the norm, everybody's got it, and you just see a bunch of LinkedIn resumes now going out?

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Terace Johnson: I… I feel like I have a… this is why I don't utilize AI for recruitment. I have a good eye for…

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Terace Johnson: Resumes that are tailored using AI.

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Jesse Stakes: Okay.

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Terace Johnson: I can… I can smell it and bile away. And… I don't necessarily… Not work with those candidates.

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Terace Johnson: I… I kind of go through my verification step. This is something I utilize, and I utilize it a lot, because it protects not… it protects my candidate.

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Terace Johnson: But it also really protects my client. I pride myself in having a very high retention rate with my clients. My candidates stay because I truly vet them to the best of my abilities to just protect everybody.

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Terace Johnson: So when I see that.

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Terace Johnson: I go through various steps of verifying, okay, the tailor on your resume, does it match your LinkedIn information? Does it match

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Terace Johnson: Does it match up well with what your profiles are telling me?

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Terace Johnson: That you've done in the past.

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Jesse Stakes: Right.

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Terace Johnson: if…

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Terace Johnson: If it's off by a couple of points, I'm giving this person a call. But if it's… if it's off to a point where titles are not even matching up with what you have on LinkedIn.

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Terace Johnson: Or your socials, or anything like that, what you're posting.

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Terace Johnson: Titles and job descriptions are not matching up.

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Terace Johnson: I'm… I'm gonna have a conversation and just go, where is this coming from?

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Terace Johnson: you know, give me more details, and usually those candidates never

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Terace Johnson: They don't talk to me, because they're going, oh, okay, she probably smelled this.

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Terace Johnson: But it's… If you utilize it the correct way.

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Terace Johnson: it is very good for candidates, especially if they don't know how to tailor. But if we're using it just to…

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Terace Johnson: I don't want to say this in such a harsh way, but if you're utilizing it for, I just need a chance, and I've never done this before, but I promise you, I can do… I can do this.

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Jesse Stakes: Right. Or, you know, it's….

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Terace Johnson: We have to go through proper steps to really make sure we're going up the ladder, and that you can do this.

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Terace Johnson: let me have a conversation with you, and I can show you how to tailor your resume. Let's talk about all the things you've been doing, but let's not utilize it to essentially

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Terace Johnson: Fabricate your resume.

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Jesse Stakes: Yeah, and what I'm hearing, and I think it's the same thing that I hear from a lot of people, is… is that AI is not a replacement for your creativity, for your knowledge, and for who you are. You cannot replace AI… you cannot replace yourself with whatever artificial intelligence gives you as an answer.

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Terace Johnson: Anyhow.

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Jesse Stakes: And it is a tool, like, I….

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Terace Johnson: Yes.

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Jesse Stakes: It is a tool, the same way that you would use a pen, or a hammer, or anything in a different profession, AI right now is a tool to help enhance what you do. It does not replace you.

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Jesse Stakes: And especially when you are trying to get hired as a human being to go to work for other human beings in an organization, they have to know who you are.

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Jesse Stakes: Yes. That's what a program says about you.

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Terace Johnson: Yes, and I enjoy… again, I enjoy the human aspect of recruitment, and unless…

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Terace Johnson: If you're… if you're not able to articulate

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Terace Johnson: some things within your resume, that's okay. I want… I want to see… I want to see that, because a year from now.

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Terace Johnson: I can't wait to talk to you about your growth. I can't wait to talk to you about, hey, remember when you were so worried about your resume not having this, and you didn't have it?

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Terace Johnson: Now look at you. You've got 5 other things, including that one thing that you didn't have. You're growing in ways that you never thought that you could grow.

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Terace Johnson: You don't have to check every single box.

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Terace Johnson: Some things can be taught.

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Jesse Stakes: 100%. Well, what I really love about what you have said is that, you know, you're recruiting from the top to the bottom for organizations, and that, you know, some of the people that you may even hire in the bottom or the middle are probably the people that are reaching out to you, saying, hey, I'm looking for those people to replace me now that I'm.

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Terace Johnson: Yay!

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Jesse Stakes: And I think that's….

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Terace Johnson: I've had it.

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Jesse Stakes: I think that's absolutely fantastic. I… I feel like we really… honestly, we've just kind of hit the tip of the.

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Terace Johnson: iceberg.

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Jesse Stakes: And there's… there's so many things, and there's so many… like, there's so many things that are hugely valuable for the audience and for learning, like, how to actually approach.

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Jesse Stakes: you know, whether they're looking for a new job, if they're looking to advance their career, if it's their first job, all of these things, I mean, I would… I would love the opportunity to have continued conversations with you.

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Terace Johnson: Oh, yeah. And to continue just to… just to share things with my audience, if you're in… if you're open to that… I'm so open to it. I love talking about recruitment. It's… it's the… it's so much fun.

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Jesse Stakes: That's fantastic. If the audience has heard you, they're interested in having a conversation, they would like to set something up, what is the absolute best way for them to get ahold of you?

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Terace Johnson: They can email info at spotlight-staffing.com, everything's spelled normal, or they can reach out to me on LinkedIn, TerraceJohnson, T-E-R-A-C-E.

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Terace Johnson: Otherwise, they can visit spotlight-staffing.com, take a look at everything that we do, some of the industries that we're in, and then hit that contact us button, and it goes right to me.

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Jesse Stakes: Fantastic. I will make sure that all of those links are attached to this when we put it out.

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Jesse Stakes: We'll put it out on all socials and everything, so we'll make sure that people have that, because I think that your service that you offer, and the personal touch is, honestly, that's the most important piece of this whole thing, is making sure that you're working with the type of people that you feel are the… are people that you want to work with, and people that can help you get where you're.

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Terace Johnson: Yeah!

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Jesse Stakes: Terra stand?

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Terace Johnson: what I do.

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Jesse Stakes: That's fantastic. That's the best thing that you could possibly.

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Terace Johnson: I don't think we….

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Jesse Stakes: I don't think we could end this any other way, so thank you very much for joining the show, and I look forward to catching you down the road real soon.

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Terace Johnson: Thank you so much, Jesse, I appreciate you. I look forward to connecting.