How to Generate Top Applicants for Your Business - EntreLeadership

Summary

Podcast Summary: The EntreLeadership Podcast – “How to Generate Top Applicants for Your Business”
Host: Ramsey Network
Guests: John Felkins (Entree Leadership), Armando Lopez (Sr. Executive Director of HR, Ramsey Solutions)
Date: March 30, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode tackles the ongoing challenge business owners face in attracting and hiring top talent, even for high-profile companies like Ramsey Solutions. John Felkins interviews Armando Lopez, who oversees all HR at Ramsey, to unpack the strategies that have evolved over recent years and are crucial for generating a flow of high-quality applicants in today’s competitive market.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Changing Recruitment Landscape

Even companies with broad reach (24,000 applicants YTD at Ramsey) struggle to find the right candidates for each role.
- “We have some positions with zero applicants and we have to go generate applicants. So, we go to market and we find people.” (Armando, 01:51)
Traditional approaches—simply posting jobs and hoping for applicants—are no longer sufficient.
- “I'm going to post everywhere and do some active things... that has gone by the wayside. That is no longer the way that business operates.” (Armando, 08:41)

2. Creative Strategies for Generating Applicants

a. Leveraging Everyday Touchpoints

Encourage employees to wear branded “Now Hiring” T-shirts when attending local events (e.g., fairs, car shows).
- “What would it cost you to give all your team members T-shirts that say ‘now hiring’ on them?” (Armando, 02:46)
Use business materials—back of business cards, invoices—with QR codes or prompts to “Join our team.”
- “Every invoice that we send out should have something...say, come work here. Join our team.” (Armando, 03:10)

b. Marketing Mindset in Recruiting

Think like a marketer to promote open roles: sponsor local events your target applicants attend, and advertise your company as a great place to work.
- “If that's my audience and I know that's what they're doing... why wouldn't I sponsor it? And then also have my ‘great place to work’ or ‘now hiring’ or ‘join our team’ or something?” (Armando, 09:07/09:14)

c. Employee Referral Programs

Referrals are the strongest source of quality candidates—Ramsey pays $500 per referral/$2,000 for in-demand roles like tech when referrals stay 90 days.
- “If you're my friend, I'm going to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly about where I work... referrals tend to be the first and best source of hire.” (Armando, 05:49)
Publicly recognize and award bonuses to staff at team meetings to reinforce referral culture.
- “We stand up from stage... and we literally count it out to the entire team. It's a reminder... Oh, I can get that too if I refer people and they make it 90 days.” (Armando, 06:55)

3. The Importance of Choice in Hiring

Having a choice among multiple qualified candidates is the only way to make the best hire.
- “The only way you're going to end up with the right hire or the best hire is if you have a choice between candidates.” (Armando, 04:42)
- “If all I have is below what I need, then I'm just picking the best of someone that one day I'm going to need to let go. And that's not good.” (Armando, 03:34)

4. Candidate Experience: Pre-Boarding and Impression

The candidate experience doesn’t stop at offer acceptance—personal calls, team texts, and proactive engagement before Day 1 help reduce new hire dropout and elevate your company's reputation.
- “There should be a phone call...just say, ‘Welcome to the team, I'm so looking forward to seeing you Monday.’” (Armando, 09:46)
Treat every interview as an opportunity for positive word-of-mouth, knowing each applicant will recount their experience to friends/family.
- “All of us have someone that's going to ask us at the end of the day, ‘How did that go?’...you want that to be, ‘It was better than I thought. It was better than I expected.’” (Armando, 10:25/11:23)

5. Active vs. Passive Recruiting

Active: Go out into the market, network, approach people, attend local events, personally recruit.
Passive: Job postings, signage, branded trucks—anything requiring the applicant to make the first move.
- “There's active sourcing and then there's passive sourcing, which is you just post and pray.” (Armando, 11:52)
- “Those days [of just posting help wanted] are long gone... Best outcome is when we do a combination of both.” (Armando, 12:19/12:40)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On choice:
- “The only way you're going to end up with the right hire or the best hire is if you have a choice between candidates.” (Armando, 04:42)
On marketing recruitment:
- “Everything we do is generating an applicant... Every business card on the back of it should have a QR code... Every invoice should have something like that.” (Armando, 02:47/03:10)
On referral programs:
- “Referrals tend to be the first and best source of hire.” (Armando, 05:49)
- “We stand up from stage... And to that end, it makes all the other people cognizant and aware. It's a reminder...” (Armando, 06:55)
On candidate experience:
- “All of us have someone that's going to ask us at the end of the day, how did that go? ...You want that to be, ‘It was better than I expected.’” (Armando, 10:25/11:23)
On passive vs. active:
- “There's active sourcing and then there's passive sourcing, which is you just post and pray.” (Armando, 11:52)

Key Timestamps

00:04–01:43 – The challenge of finding top talent, even at Ramsey; market changes
02:30–03:16 – Creative grassroots recruitment ideas (T-shirts, business cards, invoices, vans)
04:34–05:57 – The necessity of choice; risks of desperation hiring; referral program fundamentals
06:55–07:28 – Referral recognition and its impact
08:41–09:26 – Modern recruitment is active/marketing-driven, not passive
09:35–10:04 – The critical role of pre-boarding communication
10:13–11:23 – Treating candidates as future word-of-mouth ambassadors
11:37–12:40 – Active vs. passive recruiting strategies and their complementarity

Takeaways for Leaders

Recruiting today requires creativity, active marketing, and a focus on candidate experience.
Build applicant flow through integrated marketing, referral programs, and community engagement.
Recognize, reward, and publicize referral successes to perpetuate quality candidate pipelines.
Make every candidate touchpoint memorable—because every applicant will share their story.

For more on actionable hiring and leadership strategies, subscribe to The EntreLeadership Podcast.

Transcript

A (0:04)

One of the biggest challenges we hear from business owners is how do I find good people to work for me, it's tough to attract great talent these days, and even here at Ramsey, we've had to rethink how we do it. On this episode, Entree Leadership's John Felkins sits down with Ramsey's senior executive director of hr, Armando Lopez, to talk about what's changed in our hiring process and, and how to find and attract the right people for your team. Let's jump in.

B (0:35)

Hey, everybody. I'm here with Armando Lopez. Armando, you lead all of HR for Ramsey, isn't that right?

C (0:41)

That's right.

B (0:42)

You know, one of the biggest challenges we hear from our customers is how do I find good people? It's really tough to get good folks.

C (0:50)

It is. It is actually one of the more common questions I get when I attend entree events or in Q and A panels.

B (0:58)

Is everybody's face with it?

C (0:59)

Yeah, it's a hard thing to, to think about. Right. Because how do you find great people? Starts with, well, how do I get great people to apply?

B (1:08)

Right.

C (1:08)

Otherwise you just have a choice of whoever applied, right? So not everyone, John, has the benefit of having a radio show with 15 million listeners. And not everyone has the benefit of being a public facing company. And so I brought some stats not because I want to make people jealous, right. But because I want you to understand how the market has changed and that even a company like us that has the benefit of a ton of applicants has had to change in how we go about generating applications. So we're not doing the same things we did five years ago. Yeah.

B (1:43)

These numbers are crazy.

C (1:45)

They are so year to date. So far, we've had 24,000 people apply.

B (1:50)

That's a ton.

C (1:51)

That is a ton. And so you may say, well, you have no problem finding people, right? Well, we don't have 24,000 applicants that fit every position. We have some positions have zero applicants and we have to go generate applicants. And so we, we go to market and we find people. And so for. For our entree clients who are listening and who are saying, okay, but how do I go about doing it? Right? I placed an ad, I put now hiring on my windows. I put it on my vans that are driving around town. How do I. I've done everything I know how to do. And so the first thing I would say is, ask your team members what they do for fun.