Winning Mindset in Staffing

Leadership Lessons to Turn Setbacks Into Growth Opportunities

I spend a good amount of mental energy looking for leadership inspiration in books, podcasts, YouTube videos, and interviews. Sometimes, though, inspiration sneaks up on you 30 minutes into a binge scroll on TikTok. Recently, I came across a clip narrated by Alex Hormozi, who said:

“The difference between winners and losers is simple; winners define themselves by what they make happen, and losers define themselves by what happens to them.”

In the staffing industry, especially over the last five years, this couldn’t be more true.

Everyone can point to something that “happened” to them that would be a perfectly acceptable excuse for failure- the declining market, macroeconomic factors, political shifts, technological disruption....the list is endless. But what they all share is this: they remove the onus from the individual. They allow us to say, “don’t judge me, judge that.”

COVID was one of those defining moments. So much so that we rarely even talk about “pre-COVID” anymore (especially in staffing). Instead, we focus on the boom of 2022 and then the decline in 2023 and 2024.

But here’s the bigger picture: the staffing industry hit a record 153bb in revenue in 2019 (I did go back and find the SIA report on this one). By 2024, revenue was 189bb, a 24% increase.

So why do we obsess over the “decline” when, in reality, the industry is up nearly 40bb over the last six years?

When I reflect on Hormozi’s quote, a story from early in my career comes to mind. My first CEO loved to remind us:

“Your best customer this year won’t be your best customer next year.”

As a new salesperson, I heard it but didn’t take it seriously. My main telecom customer in St. Louis was booming, and I couldn’t imagine they wouldn’t be my best customer forever. Until they weren’t.

Around the holidays, they went on a hiring freeze for 6 months. Suddenly, I had a choice: sit back and wait or go find new customers. Thankfully, I had leaders who pushed me to build a new book of business. I didn’t want to, but I had to. Six months later, my telecom customer started hiring again. By then, I not only had them back, I also had an entirely new set of customers I had acquired over the last 6 months. My opportunity to grow had more than doubled.

It would have been easy to shrug and say, “Welp, my customer isn’t hiring, there’s nothing I could do.” Instead, that setback became a huge win early in my career.

The Lesson: Don’t waste a crisis.

Bad things happen in staffing every day - lost accounts, key decision-maker changes, mass layoffs, contractor furloughs, etc. But every “bad” event can be reframed:

Contractor layoff or furlough

Losing mindset: This is not fair. I can’t do anything about it.

Winning mindset: How can I reassign these people to another client?

Lost account

Losing mindset: Nothing I can do; they consolidated vendors. Winning mindset: What did I learn? Where should I reallocate my time to land another account quickly?

Key Decision Maker change

Losing mindset: This new person doesn’t like me.

Winning mindset: Can I follow this KDM to their next company? How do I build trust with the new one?

A stoic mindset says there’s no such thing as good or bad—only the event itself. It’s our perception and response that makes the difference.

At the end of the day, winning is a mindset- but mindset alone isn’t enough. It has to be backed by the right skills in leadership, sales, and account management to consistently turn challenges into opportunities. That’s where Butler Street comes in. Our programs are designed to help professionals and organizations build the capabilities needed to win in any market. If you’re ready to strengthen your mindset and your skillset, explore our website or contact us to get started!