Lynn Harker: The Future of Recruitment

Justin Levinson (00:00.696)‍

Hey everybody, welcome to the Agency Side podcast. My name is Justin Levinson. I'm here today with Lynn Harker, who is the Director of Talent Acquisition at Imagine, a leading visual communications company that works with top brands to create innovative print and digital solutions. Thanks so much for being with us here today, Lynn.

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Lynn Harker (00:17.656)‍

Thanks for having me Justin glad to be here.

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Justin Levinson (00:20.258)‍

Yeah, I'm really excited to speak with somebody that's involved in talent acquisition, especially at such a great company. Maybe you can start just, you know, I guess the first thing I'd be curious is how you got into talent acquisition in the first place.

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Lynn Harker (00:36.622)‍

Sure. you know, IntelliNet Precision kind of found me. I was recruited long, long ago by a company called Monster. That was back in 2000. in 2000, Monster reached out to me. had, were just rolling. It was just really the beginning of, you know, internet passive recruiting.

So they reached out to me and I joined their team. And what we were doing at that time was passive recruiting. And passive recruiting in 2000 was way different than it was today. Monster and Career Builder were the only job boards out there. So sourcing was really digging into companies' profiles, scraping back URLs, digging into university groups. So it was really...

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Justin Levinson (01:04.419)‍

Yeah.

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Lynn Harker (01:33.856)‍

really entry level, you know, sourcing. So I started there and I worked for Monster for about 10 years. And then in 2008, there was a big downturn in recruiting, you know, across the country. Lots and lots of people lost their jobs then, including myself. Monster shut down that division of passive sourcing. So after that, I did some contract recruiting for a number of different companies. was

very lucky to be exposed to lots of different industries in my time at Monster. And then I kind of continued on that vein, recruiting for lots of different companies, anything from medical to aerospace. And I really enjoyed that. And that kind of just kept growing. I really liked the individual part of recruiting. love sourcing, that discovery. And then I started coaching teams.

and teaching other people how to do what I did, and then started building teams at other corporate entities throughout my career. And that has brought me to where I am at Imagine.

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Justin Levinson (02:44.248)‍

Yeah, that's really cool. And it's cool that you've been in a lot of different spaces. I'm excited to learn more about what you guys are doing at Imagine. But one thing I'm just curious, I wanted to double click on, was I wondering, now that you're sort of in a creative space, do you find that to be any different than when you were working in aerospace or some of those other parts of recruitment?

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Lynn Harker (03:05.518)‍

Yes and no. So, you know, I think I was way back in college, I was a sociology major. So I really am a reader of people. And I think, you know, it's what you look for, for different positions, whether it's an engineering job, you know, that personality type is, you know, different from, you know, a creative personality type from an aerospace engineer.

But it really all boils down for me to finding out what the hiring manager needs, what the business needs, and then matching the appropriate kind of person. So I think even though the talent is very different, I think the overall structure of talent acquisition is the same, is just learning the needs of the business and matching that to the appropriate talent.

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Justin Levinson (03:52.408)‍

Yeah, that's really interesting. I've always struggled to do recruitment outside of the creative space. I always find it really difficult. So it's kind of cool that you have multi-faceted abilities to recruit in different spaces. So I tip my hat to you. I'd love to know a little bit more about what you do and imagine. And maybe you can tell us a little bit about what the company does in general.

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Lynn Harker (04:16.664)‍

Sure. Imagine is a national printing and creative agency. Also do a lot of digital. So we design, produce, and deliver amazing print and digital solutions that really inspire consumer action. And that's what we deliver for our customers. So we've got end-to-end solutions all the way from agency-level creative

media, commercial print, store signage, specialty packing, permanent fixtures for use in retail environments, out of home, fulfillment and kidding, and including up to and including our own digital product called Dotti. And that's a platform that handles our customers in-store marketing programs and inventory.

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Justin Levinson (05:11.054)‍

Very cool. Awesome. what, you know, if you can, if you can tell us what, sort of clients do you guys service?

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Lynn Harker (05:18.456)‍

Sure, so pretty broad range of clients. We have a lot of national retailers, and that's anything from C stores all the way up to high-end luxury retail. We have a lot of quick serve restaurants as clients. In addition to signage, we do in-store graphics and experiential design for those customers. We have some...

entertainment clients. One of our locations is in Los Angeles and they deal with most of the major studios out there in LA.

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Justin Levinson (05:54.574)‍

That's really cool. And you yourself are based in Minneapolis?

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Lynn Harker (05:58.902)‍

I am. So here our main facilities in Shakopee, we've got about a million square feet here. So I always, when I'm bringing candidates on site for interviews, encourage them to wear comfortable shoes for that tour. So we've got about a million square feet here and a lot of people here. And then we also have locations in Charlotte, Chicago, and like I mentioned, Los Angeles, our office there is in Burbank.

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Justin Levinson (06:26.052)‍

That's really cool. And how many people-ish within the whole agency?

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Lynn Harker (06:32.415)‍

about 1300.

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Justin Levinson (06:34.18)‍

Wow, that's pretty great. Cool. so you say it's print and digital. Is there one that's more heavy than the other? how does that lean?

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Lynn Harker (06:45.826)‍

Yeah, our bread and butter is really print. So retail store signage is the biggest chunk of our business. But as things are changing, we are incorporating more digital into that print. So we've got large customers who have in-store signage or displays that have a digital component as well as a print component. So we're really bridging that gap. also have customers

in that restaurant area that have signage boards. there are boards and then we incorporate technology for different, they can change their prices or change their specials, that type of thing. So we're integrating both.

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Justin Levinson (07:32.11)‍

That's cool. And so do most of your clients come to you through like referrals or through, or is it sort of like, you guys sort of like have a strategic outbound process to win new clients or how does that sort of, how does the job sort of come in?

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Lynn Harker (07:49.932)‍

Yeah, well, keep in mind I'm doing the hiring, I'm not forward-facing, but I do hire our sales team. So it's a combination of both. So we've got an aggressive sales group that is out there winning business. A lot of our business comes from customers seeing our business in other locations. Some of it comes from, especially in the entertainment side, we've been very fortunate to win a number of awards. So when you win those awards, the Clio's people are...

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Justin Levinson (08:09.603)‍

Yeah.

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Lynn Harker (08:19.566)‍

come knocking for that, because they know what we can do.

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Justin Levinson (08:23.084)‍

Yeah, that's awesome. Kevin's awards is always a good sheepskin to have and bring in new business. What is, you know, I know that hiring is obviously your, you know, your niche. What does that look like for you in terms of attracting talent and, know, what's your process there?

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Lynn Harker (08:45.176)‍

Sure. So, you we attract a lot of different types of talent at Imagine. We hire everything from, you know, warehouse to kidding to inventory production. And then, you know, we've got the creative side. We've got the agency side, people, you know, that are hands on doing the work. So, you know, attracting the talent looks different for each of, you know, those different avenues. We also, of course, have the business side. So we've got our IT folks and our finance, our HR teams.

So it kind of depends on the area, but in general, I've got a great relationship with our marketing group. We try and stay relevant on social media. We have a LinkedIn presence that's out there. And then we've got a great HR and TA team. So we do a lot of our own passive sourcing, getting out there, getting to know candidates on a personal level, and drawing them in that way.

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Justin Levinson (09:36.132)‍

Yeah.

Yeah, I think I saw something that linked in that your HR team had been, was going to an event or something like that to meet. that for college or at a college campus maybe?

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Lynn Harker (09:49.164)‍

Yeah, so one of the things I've had the privilege of doing in my time here at Imagine is we've more than doubled the size of our internship program. So we had kind of a loose internship program at each of the locations. And as you know, the print industry, we have had a difficult time getting talent. We have a lot of our workforce that's an aging workforce. So we

just know that it's super important to start drawing, you know, young talent. So we have made a concerted effort, really organized effort to increase our internship program, make it more structured, make it easier for our hiring managers, because having an intern from a hiring manager's perspective, on one hand, you're thinking, great, I'm going to get an intern, they're going to get some projects done that maybe I don't have time for, maybe, you know, aren't at the scope I want to deal with. But on the other hand, training an intern takes time too.

and our management teams are busy. So we've put some things into place so that it makes it easier for them. We've got them getting project lists in advance so that they're ready to go when our interns come. We've got more of a presence at the universities that have our programs. And so we're meeting out there meeting new students. So I'm happy to say we've had a adaption across imagine for that program. And it's bringing in a lot of new talent for imagine.

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Justin Levinson (11:15.522)‍

Yeah, that's really cool. That seems like really innovative approach, really finding the up and coming folks out of college and getting them exposed to what you're doing. Have there been some real success stories with people that have come as interns and worked their way up to having full time positions over there?

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Lynn Harker (11:33.132)‍

Yep, absolutely. I think, trying to think, out of our last intern group, I think we had about 25 interns and I think we hired four of them full time. Additionally, two of them are coming back again. They were on the younger side and so they still haven't graduated. So they'll be doing an internship with us again this summer. So a lot of great success and

One of the things that we've done in the internship program that's been super successful is that we've been buddying our interns with an intern from another location. So they're getting to know people across the country and it allows them, even if they don't end up at Imagine, it allows them to further their network capabilities because you know as a recruiter, you know how important that is. So we're really giving these young students an advantage to start networking and meeting new people outside of their own sphere through the program.

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Justin Levinson (12:19.363)‍

What do I?

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Justin Levinson (12:28.164)‍

That's interesting. And have the people that you guys have been attracting, have they been, I guess, have they been typically studying in school? Have they come from sort of backgrounds in terms of what their studying is?

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Lynn Harker (12:43.5)‍

Yeah, just like the, you know, I laid out, you know, the different types of people that we hire, we're bringing in interns in all of those areas. So we might have a creative intern who is teamed up with a finance intern in the, in the buddy program. We're not always necessarily getting them teamed up with someone in their exact same area, just to increase, you know, their knowledge of the many different departments that we have at imagine. So.

We had interns in the creative space. had interns in finance, in production. Talent acquisition always has an intern. I never turned down the opportunity to have an intern in my department. Where else? Just really all our revenue group has an intern. Our marketing group has had some really successful interns. We've got one right now who's doing a great job laying out new things for us.

We really learn a lot from our interns. One of the things that attracted me to Imagine and that I really like about Imagine is that our leadership is really open-minded to ideas coming from anywhere. So we had some great ideas that came out of our interns last summer, and Imagine's not afraid to run with those ideas. I don't want to call them kids, but the students.

really have great ideas and they have a lot of value to them and Imagine recognizes that. And I really think it gives them a good experience.

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Justin Levinson (14:17.668)‍

That's terrific. Not every agency has that sort of collaborative open-mindedness to have everybody have a say at the table. So that's pretty cool. For selfish reasons, I'm just curious how you train an intern recruiter. What does that look like when you're training somebody? I want to know the secret sauce,

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Lynn Harker (14:35.672)‍

Sure. So we start off, we had a great intern last year. If anybody's looking for an early career TA person, I wish I was hiring. So we start off by giving them a broad view of all of the HR areas. So we had her do shadowing with TA, of course, and with each of our other groups. And then she starts out by reviewing resumes.

sits in on interviews with us. do video interviews as our screening, and we do really robust screening interviews that are fairly in-depth behavioral-based interviews. So she sits in with those until she was comfortable. Our intern last year was a very quick learner. So she went on quickly to start doing her own interview screenings. And like I mentioned, we had a video screening program. So her manager, one of my TA specialists,

would watch her interviews when she was on her own then and give her some coaching. So she did that. She did some extra projects for us. I mentioned we're expanding our internship program. So she did a lot of research for us on different universities that have the programs that we're looking for and giving us a database of places we could expand to when we're out doing that networking. So really a hands-on approach.

Some video training, of course, we've got some canned, you know, training on what you can and can't say on interviews. So some of that for the intern as well.

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Justin Levinson (16:08.26)‍

Yeah, that's cool. What program do you guys use for your video interviews?

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Lynn Harker (16:17.198)‍

That's kind of funny question. Well, it's not a funny question. That's kind of an unfortunate answer. Actually, we used a company who I shall not name. And the first of the year, the functionality was turned off. We weren't given any notice. So it was really unfortunate. We was a great platform and it was very affordable. So that was a great tool for us. It allowed us to make clips of the videos.

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Justin Levinson (16:26.884)‍

you

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Lynn Harker (16:47.202)‍

send them to our hiring managers. It was interesting when we started using the platform, we had some concern that it might reduce the number of people that our hiring managers wanted to move forward to next steps. And we found really the opposite was true. When they were able to see those clips that we were showing them of the candidates, they were more willing to interview a wider variety of candidates. So it was really very successful for us. This year, we...

Since we lost the system, we've just been doing it manually through Teams. It's not quite as robust, not as easy, but we're integrating a new ATS this year. And after that is complete, then we'll have the functionality again.

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Justin Levinson (17:29.006)‍

Yeah, do you have any tools that you enjoy using that are, I used say you're changing your ATS, do you know which one you guys might be interested in?

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Lynn Harker (17:42.572)‍

Well, I definitely know which one we're going because we're happy through our integration. Yeah, we're integrating into ISOMs.

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Justin Levinson (17:45.892)‍

Nice.

Oh, cool. Awesome. Yeah, I'm always a nerd about all the all the software and different tools and stuff that that happened recruitment. I recently started a new tool that maybe you've heard of it or maybe you haven't. It's called Fixer AI. And I've been using this in my email, which has been pretty cool. It's FiXR and it

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Lynn Harker (17:59.214)‍

Good

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Justin Levinson (18:15.318)‍

It learns my email style and how I respond and it gives me, and it learns the more I do it and it gives me responses so I don't have to actually manually type my emails, which is really good because I've busted my hand from typing so much on my computer. So yeah, I'm not sponsored by Fixer AI. This isn't by no means an endorsement, but it's just something that's been, I'm always looking for those little things that just like save a little bit of time and you know.

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Lynn Harker (18:36.619)‍

You

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Justin Levinson (18:44.13)‍

make the job more, to focus on the things that I'm sure you like as well, which is talking to people and engaging and being a high level consultant and the stuff that they pay us the big bucks for,

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Lynn Harker (18:57.132)‍

Yeah. Well, you know what? That's really interesting. get, you know, reach out from AI companies probably five a day. And because we're doing an integration now, I've kind of put a pin in that. But I like to hear that the AI is getting smarter on tone. You know, one of the drawbacks to AI, you know, we're using some AI now for reach outs. You LinkedIn's got a moderate AI function to make.

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Justin Levinson (19:22.392)‍

That's very kind of you, Salem.

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Lynn Harker (19:26.574)‍

Yeah, it's good for beginners, because it shows them the types of things you're looking for. It's obviously not robust. It's obviously not as smart as I'm sure that it will be someday. finding the right tone and when we're looking for candidates, we really have to stand out in the market that we've had in the last couple of years. Hiring is no picnic. And I know I'm preaching to the choir here. So really, those reach outs, know,

people have a short attention span. have a short amount of time, limited number of characters to reach out to people to really catch their attention. you know, that, and the AI functionality isn't always, you know, as personalized as I think you need it to be to really catch those candidates' attention.

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Justin Levinson (20:14.232)‍

Yeah, and especially because, you know, we're both in a creative space and I actually have a coach, a recruitment coach, and we were joking the other day because we were talking about how important copy is, you know, because everything is so, sometimes it's honestly it's over personalized because of the copy or it's just doesn't sound human. you know, I tell people like, I place a lot of copywriters during my years, I can't afford to.

have poor copy in, you know, has to sound genuine and human and has to, you know, has to sound like my voice and through the email, it can't just be a bunch of like variables and, you know, AI emojis. So yeah, I totally, yeah, I know what you're saying about that. I'm sure you get resumes that at times maybe that could be over AI possibly.

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Lynn Harker (21:07.117)‍

Yeah, we have seen a huge uptick in that, in the IT space for sure. And that just open the IT space, that's another whole can of worms with people doing interviews using AI while they're on camera with you. And we've had some experience with that, unfortunately, over the past year. But yeah, the resume.

It's a simple tool, and I think people are overthinking or they're getting lazy and using AI. And so a lot of times resumes don't make sense or they're targeted for the wrong employer. So yeah, we see it used in ways that it probably shouldn't be quite as much.

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Justin Levinson (21:52.484)‍

Yeah, yeah, that's, it's so interesting. And that makes more, it takes more effort and time for the recruiting to have to go through all that stuff and filter that out, which is, which can be kind of unfortunate. Yeah, it's a really, it's definitely a crazy world, crazy world that we're living in. In terms of like LinkedIn, do you typically like, you know, do you like LinkedIn Recruiter or what sort of, you know, what tool do you enjoy there?

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Lynn Harker (22:19.522)‍

Yep, we use LinkedIn Recruiter on a regular basis. And yeah, we've been using it for ages. We've seen an increase in the types of people that are in LinkedIn. Five years ago, 10 years ago, was really only professional staff on LinkedIn. And now we're seeing it's used more broadly across the industry. So that's really helpful. It's like anything.

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Justin Levinson (22:36.899)‍

Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (22:45.508)‍

Yeah.

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Lynn Harker (22:49.44)‍

are getting reached out to more on LinkedIn than they used to by recruiters. So again, it goes back to having a message be personal. Let them know you're really looking at their profile. You're not just spamming everyone who has the same title in the same area. And sharing something about your company that's going to get their attention. So it's a powerful tool, I think, if you use it properly.

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Justin Levinson (23:14.008)‍

Yeah, what do you typically, I guess just thinking about people who may be listening, who may be interested in being an employee, how would they get your attention? What stands out to you on the hiring side when you are bombarded with all these resumes and you see something that is like, I'd like to meet this person? What typically does that for you?

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Lynn Harker (23:43.352)‍

So starting from the application side, making sure that a resume is clean, succinct, and applicable to the job. We've got job boards like Indeed that make it very easy to apply for 50 jobs a day. So the number of resumes that we get that aren't in any way a job fit for the job description has increased tremendously over the last five years. So making sure you've really read the job description, making sure that it's a fit.

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Justin Levinson (23:51.94)‍

Mmm.

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Lynn Harker (24:13.602)‍

And by reading the job description, I don't necessarily mean that you have to have every single qualification that's on a job description. But making sure that if you're applying for an account manager position, that you are an account manager, and you meet 80 % of those things on the resume. And then after you've applied, don't stop there. Look for someone on LinkedIn that you know that works at that company. Look for...

somebody in their HR department and drop them a note. I respond to every person who reaches out to me on LinkedIn who has said that they've applied for a job with us. I find their application and I look at it. And that doesn't always necessarily happen. If we get 1,000 resumes, well, that doesn't happen very often anymore. But we do get a lot of resumes for certain positions. But if I get a personal note, then I'm always taking a look at them.

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Justin Levinson (25:04.42)‍

Yeah.

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Lynn Harker (25:10.496)‍

We, my team and I are very good at giving candidates feedback. So, you know, once you get the attention of someone at the company, you know, ask good questions, know what, you know, educate yourself, know what the company does. The first question I always ask on an interview is, you know, give me a level set. Tell me what you already know about the Imagine group. And if, and if candidates don't know what we do, that's a big red flag.

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Justin Levinson (25:23.619)‍

Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (25:32.014)‍

Yeah.

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Lynn Harker (25:36.68)‍

And it's really hard to think that they're going to put the effort into their job if they haven't put in any effort on the interview process. So, you know, I think education and being proactive are really the biggest keys.

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Justin Levinson (25:49.56)‍

Yeah. How important is it after an interview for a follow-up for you? Like a follow-up message that's like, hey, Lynn, thanks so much for your time. I really enjoyed this, et cetera, et cetera.

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Lynn Harker (26:03.214)‍

Yeah, that's interesting, Justin. I've seen a huge decrease in the number of thank you notes. bet 10 years ago, I probably got a thank you email from 90 % of the candidates that I interviewed. And I bet I get less than 20 % now. And it's easier than ever. We've been in contact. You have my contact information. It doesn't have to be the Declaration of Independence. A quick note.

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Justin Levinson (26:20.377)‍

Yeah.

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Lynn Harker (26:32.184)‍

Well, a quick note and maybe confirm a couple of things from the interview. Thank you. I was glad to learn this. Or I was glad I was able to share what this A, B, and C, these are the benefits for you to remember. Recruiters talk to so many people every day. So if you can send a note and say, hey, don't forget about me. Here's what was good about me. And thank you. That goes a long way to getting a candidate where they need to be.

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Justin Levinson (26:59.652)‍

Totally. I've noticed that too, so was curious to see if my thought was validated. I've had a lot of people that have lost offers because of not following up. Or there's two people that the client really likes and it's a draw, but one of them sent the follow-up and that's the winning ticket. So yeah, it's a shame to get so close to an offer and just miss a small

a small detail like that. So yeah, that's really interesting because it's like, you know, when you're in competition with lot of different people, have to, it has to be like a differentiator between yourself and the other people that are there and going the extra mile like that, I definitely think is important. And I don't think it's, you know, from my perspective, it's not even something that happens with somebody that's more junior. It's really can be.

any level. Like there are sometimes like very senior level people that they might not necessarily interview any better than somebody who's applying for the first job, maybe because they haven't applied to a job in a really long time and they're, you know, they're out of practice with it. But yeah, I think the I think that's just an interesting thing.

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Lynn Harker (28:20.386)‍

Yeah, Justin, I'd be curious, from your vantage point, the recruiting that you do is slightly different than what I do as recruiting for just one company. So do you encourage your candidates to do that?

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Justin Levinson (28:34.636)‍

I do. Yeah, I definitely, when I have folks that are on meetings, I usually try to do like a prep phone call, well, prep before the meeting and then a follow up after. So for me, when I'm prepping candidates before they're going in, I'm telling them actually kind of just what you had said, which also feels like I'm doing the right thing, which is good, which is check out the company, look at the campaigns and the work they do. So when you can go into the interview, you can offer some intelligent conversation.

So that's typically the first, the big one. I also typically encourage people to not talk about money and get into the weeds of that. I encourage folks to focus on the opportunity. And if everyone is high-fiving, we can get into the money part afterwards. Another big thing I like to coach candidates on is

interview for the job that you are interviewing for, meaning, you you don't want to go in for a, you know, for a print art director role and interview there. And then when Lynn Harker asks you, you know, what do you want to do for your, you know, in the end of your career, you say, well, I want to be an astronaut. You know what I mean? Like they want to know, like you want, you're okay. Well, you're, you're an art director here. You want to be a creative director next, right?

I want to have a senior seat at the table in an agency just like yours. I don't encourage people to be disingenuous and lie about something. But I also say you're probably not going to get this job if you're going to say that you want to do something completely different than what you're applying for.

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Lynn Harker (30:17.688)‍

That happens. I had that happen not too long ago. One of the questions I asked candidates often is, if you could write the perfect job description for yourself, what does that look like? And oftentimes it doesn't look anything like the job they've applied for.

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Justin Levinson (30:34.402)‍

Yeah, it's interesting. Like I said, it's all levels. I've seen different people lose opportunities from simple things, as simple as just how they dress for their interview. I had one gentleman who was very close to landing a great job and it was like dress down day at his company that day. So he wore like sweatpants and his hat backwards and he very relaxed.

But he also had an interview that day and showed up to the interview in that same outfit. And the client said, hey, Justin, we really liked the candidate. But I don't think based on the way he walked in and in his clothes, I don't know if he's going to be a cultural fit for what we're looking for. So perfect candidate, smart individual, completely qualified, didn't show up looking too great. And we're all out of luck.

So yeah, it's a wild industry and it's ever changing. And I'm always interested in folks who are working internally and kind of understanding what they're thinking and what they're seeing as well. yeah, I'm digging all these insights. How have things changed a lot since you have...

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Lynn Harker (31:38.574)‍

for sure.

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Justin Levinson (31:59.78)‍

start your recruiting recruitment. I'm curious, like you said in the beginning, it was a lot of like monster and a lot of some lot of that kind of stuff. Do you do you feel like it's the same business now? Is it essentially the same thing? Is it being you know? Or does it feel like a whole different beast since when you first got into it?

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Lynn Harker (32:17.59)‍

Yeah, some of both. So in terms of passive sourcing, and I've got a corporate internal talent acquisition team. So we do a lot of sourcing. Talent acquisition teams can be different from company to company. Some run more like an HR function where they're using external agencies and getting candidates from agencies. And they're the middleman between the hiring manager and the agencies.

But with the groups that I have built into place in my last three or four companies, we really have a sourcing TA group. So we are really digging in and doing passive sourcing and reaching out to find that talent because oftentimes the best talent are people who aren't really looking for jobs. So in terms of sourcing the change in the industry, I think on one hand, it's easier.

because I can go to LinkedIn and I can type in a job title and a location and I can put in some extra keywords for the types of software I need them to have or the kind of education I'd like them to have. And then I can find a list of candidates that I can reach out to. And 10, 15, 20 years ago, that didn't exist. So in those terms, it's easier to find candidates. On the other hand, because it's easier,

those candidates are getting more reach outs and kind of have that turn up. Just like we don't open junk mail that comes in the mailbox. We have spam filters. get things moved just to spam in their minds in their LinkedIn messages. So it's kind of a catch-22. And that's where I think if you have a really good solid company, you can talk about what your company is doing. You can meet people on a personal level and increase your networking.

You know, that's what makes a TA team successful. So yeah, I think we've seen changes, but it's still challenging, but that's why we like what we do, right? I'm sure, you you like that Hunter, you wouldn't be, you know, doing what you do. So it's changed, but yeah, for the better, just different.

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Justin Levinson (34:25.326)‍

Totally. I'm always interested in, you know, it's probably a buzzword, but like disrupting the ecosystem a bit. And so, yeah, a couple of things I have found to be successful with Reach Out, especially in the last year or so, is personalized video is something that I've been really having success with. And I'm not saying like just making a video and like having the AI change the name of the person.

but really having people on the team send out personal video. And the other thing I've found that I've really enjoyed is doing personalized voice messages through LinkedIn. Because, like you said, it's so overly saturated with, there's so much LinkedIn automation and multi-channel automation.

that you have to like, you know, have to like shake the computer screen to get somebody to answer you. So yeah, that kind of stuff has been, we've had some success with that as of late and it's kind of fun to do. So yeah, I just came to mind. There's always like a new trick to getting people to pay attention. It's ever changing.

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Lynn Harker (35:40.494)‍

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I'd like, after we finish our integration this year, I'd like to start dabbling in some video job postings because people are, they're watching videos, they're scrolling their social feed. That's the way people are connecting and paying attention to things. So I think that's really a big opportunity for the talent acquisition industry as we're moving ahead.

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Justin Levinson (36:06.114)‍

Yeah, I love it it's really personalized too and people can kind of just see it with their own eyes, which is great. Yeah, guess another thing I've been sort of interested in is, as far as, I'm curious, like, because I know midnight oil is part of Imagine. Maybe you can explain how, you know, the structure of that and how that fits into Imagine.

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Lynn Harker (36:30.808)‍

Sure. Imagine started in Minneapolis. And then we acquired the other three locations, like I mentioned, Charlotte, Chicago, and Burbank. Each had their own name. We changed the name of both Charlotte and Chicago to Imagine. But Midnight Oil kept their name for brand recognition. Like I said, the majority of their customers were in the entertainment industry. It's a small space. They were very well known, had a very good reputation.

so we just left, you know, their business name as Midnight Oil. but they're as much a part of the Imagine group as any of the locations. and we work closely with them. My team does all of the hiring for that group. I've been out there a couple of times to visit those teams. yeah, they get to do the, the stuff that's the flashiest. They get to do the stuff that's out there. I think people sometimes forget, you know, when they think about print, I know.

When I was recruited to imagine, thought, why would I go into the printing industry? Printing is dead. But when you really start thinking about print, print's everywhere. I was at Nickelodeon University yesterday, it's spring break here week for the kids. So I had my little one and I was with a friend at Nickelodeon Universe and looking at some of the signage and some of the big graphics. I pointed out, this is the type of work that my company does. So print.

you know, is everywhere. It's walking down the, you know, jetway to get on your plane and the posters are there, you know, that's stuff we do. When the Barbie movie was in theaters, those big Barbie boxes, that was stuff that, you know, we did. And so you really have to think about print in a much larger space than most people think about it. So our Midnight Oil Group does get to do a lot of really cool things. Recently, they did

the outside of the theater for the Saturday Night Live 50th. And yeah, so they really get to do fun flashy work. It's complex, right? It's a lot of installation, a lot of fabrication. They've got just amazing creatives that have been there a really long time. They're really fun group.

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Justin Levinson (38:44.098)‍

Yeah, and you like LA? You like being out in that neck of the woods?

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Lynn Harker (38:48.366)‍

Yes and no. So, you know being based in Minnesota, I like to see the sunshine there in LA. But I'm a Midwest girl at heart. So happy here. But yeah, I love to visit. But I'll keep myself planted here.

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Justin Levinson (39:07.14)‍

Yeah, I actually am located in Vermont. I used to live in Los Angeles for quite a long time, but my wife and I, we had kids and it seemed like it be a little bit of a more laid back spot. So I'm out here in the boonies, even though I work on LA hours for the most part. Curious in our last like five minutes or so, what do you like to do outside of work? What are some things that you enjoy on a personal note?

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Lynn Harker (39:31.48)‍

Sure. Well, like I said, being here from Minnesota, of course, we have a place up north. So what that just means, we have a cabin on a lake. So we spend lots of time there in the summertime with family and friends on the boat and having, you know, cooking competitions. We are a foodie family. We've got a wide age range of kids in our family. So cooking is something that kind of bridges the gap.

So we had some fun competitions last year on the Blackstone to see who could come up with the most creative meals while we're at the cabin. So yeah, we love to spend time up north, love to spend time in the kitchen. Right now, my husband and I are working on a remodel here in our house. So, you know, typical things that you do when you're away from work.

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Justin Levinson (40:24.132)‍

Cool.

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Justin Levinson (40:30.082)‍

Yeah, I love that. I before the call, I mentioned that we're doing some remodeling here too. And one thing that we're actually doing a kitchen remodel and we're doing like, our house is from like the late fifties. So we're trying to keep it, you know, we're trying to keep like this mid-century modern sort of style. So if you were going to get an idea of what my house is looking like, it's looking very much like the Brady Bunch house. If you're going to take a look at what's going on up there. My friends think,

We're crazy, but you know, that's just kind of our style. It's a little quirky, but yeah. In terms of, do you follow any Minnesota sports? Are you a twins fan or a Vikings fan? Or do you follow any of that stuff?

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Lynn Harker (41:12.054)‍

Yeah, for better or for worse, I'm a diehard Vikings fan. Yeah, yeah, this season is so close, but yet so far, which just could be the story of the Vikings, you know, career. Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (41:13.892)‍

I

Yeah.

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Justin Levinson (41:24.9)‍

I know it's in Tarkington, right? I happen to be a Vikings fan for no logical reason whatsoever, except that when I was a boy, I loved their football helmets with the purple, like the horn back there. back in the day, you used to be able to buy in the grocery stores, you put a quarter in and you'd get these plastic football helmets out of the machines. I wanted to get every single football helmet in there, but I couldn't wait to get the Vikings football helmet because I just, something about...

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Lynn Harker (41:37.23)‍

Yep.

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Justin Levinson (41:54.658)‍

that uniform just really got me excited and I was a fan ever since. And yes, I knew my family, they think I would be a Patriots fan or, you know, just anything that would be close to me and nope, diehard Vikings fan and that's just how it's always gonna be.

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Lynn Harker (42:11.554)‍

Well, we're happy to have you and you know, we've got a great coach. KLC is awesome. you know, if I, like any Vikings fan, I'm going to start out the next season again with high hopes.

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Justin Levinson (42:22.244)‍

Totally. Well, I JJ McCarthy, as long as he stays healthy, maybe he'll be the future of the franchise. I'm hoping that he does well. But awesome, and thank you so much for being here today and talking to me. It was really wonderful to learn about Imagine. I guess lastly, there any, if people are interested in learning more about Imagine Group, how can they find more about you?

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Lynn Harker (42:29.794)‍

We're sure hoping.

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Lynn Harker (42:48.11)‍

Sure, well first check in with our website, theimaginggroup.com. A lot of great information. Our marketing team's done a fantastic job with our website. Otherwise, connect with me on LinkedIn. Shoot me any questions. I'm always happy to connect with people in our industry. We hire creatives. We started Imagine Studio. We didn't talk a lot about that, but we started Imagine Studio two years ago to give a better end-to-end for our clients.

So we do have creative openings, you know, from time to time. So yeah, I'm happy to connect with anybody that wants to find out more.

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Justin Levinson (43:26.18)‍

Awesome, Lin. Well, really appreciate your time, and hopefully at some point we can get you back on to hear even more about Imagine Group and everything that you're doing. So yeah, have a great rest of your week, and take care. All right, bye.

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Lynn Harker (43:37.538)‍

Thanks, Justin.

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Justin Levinson (43:42.848)‍

Awesome, thank you so much, Lynn, appreciate it.

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