Let's begin by reviewing our four guidelines:

1.   Put On Your White Belt
2.  Build Your Plan
3.  Dedicate Yourself TO Your Plan
4.  Pick Up The Phone And Call

We will review these guidelines in each issue of this series, but as you can see, guideline #1 is highlighted, as that is our topic today.
 
It's tempting to push your memory back to your first day working at your first professional or adult job.  Obviously, you knew on that day that you really did NOT know what you were doing, and had so much to learn.  This is the meaning of putting on your White Belt.  It means to remember what it feels like to NOT know what you are doing.
 
But, that's not the most powerful memory to tap. Rather, go back further in time to when you had never held a boy- or girlfriend's hand; or perhaps more potently, before your very first kiss.  Were you as awkward as I was?  My first kiss came when I was seventeen, and I did such a lousy job I was amazed that my girlfriend allowed me a second kiss.  Lucky fellow that I was, though, she already knew that I'd never kissed a girl before and had decided to be my teacher.  All praise and gratitude to the teachers, no?
 
After that very first kiss there were other girls and other first kisses before I met my one and only.  Ah, but when I met The One, our first kiss moved the heavens and the earth.  In fact, I can still feel its reverberations ringing in my soul these decades later.  But, for all the power and passion of that kiss, I had no idea if I'd be able to steal or win her heart completely.  I promise you, I was very much wearing my White Belt, and I was very much aware of it.

How many times during your career as a recruiter do you speak to a new person?  Your first conversation with a new person is always a type of first kiss.  You don't know who this new person is, and the best thing you can do is put on your White Belt, and be aware, absolutely, that you're wearing it.
 
Thus, the first tactic of putting on your White Belt is to remember that you do not know new people before you speak to them.

Your each and every call requires the same relational presence, the same controlled yet compelling, irresistibly appealing, gentle aggression and the same humility and skills as your first kiss.  Building the true connection that opens up your candidates to share their hopes, aspirations, frustrations and reasons for change; or that compels your hiring managers to give you their most urgent job openings and the real story behind them, as well as the tested commitment to be your strong partner in filling these vital openings, requires the same inner sense of magical, mysterious possibility. 
 
But as a recruiter there is another kind of White Belt moment that is perhaps even more important.  This moment occurs during the hours of the morning, after you wake up but BEFORE you commence your very first working task of the day.  My strongest tactical counsel for this period of time is physical exercise.  As you work your body, your mind's task is to visualize putting on the White Belt of Recruiting for the coming day.
 
Be it the slow graceful movements of Tai Chi, running, a workout at the gym, or taking a good walk: I cannot too strongly recommend some form of physical exercise BEFORE you initiate your very first task, take or make your first phone call, check your e-mail or go online. 

If, by the moment you start working you haven't put on your White Belt for the day, you've lost your opportunity to do so. Contemplate the significance of that!
 
All your life you have been told that every day is a mystery.  How much do you believe this?
 
The meaning of mystery is simple.  It means you do not know what will happen.  But, after you have worked at any job for a few weeks, the tasks the job entails become routine.  The structure of your day normalizes. In recruiting, you make marketing and recruiting calls in the thousands upon thousands.  How could you possibly NOT know what is going to happen? How different is one call from any other?
 
This is where we discover one of the greatest blindnesses that affect so many recruiters.  Your 10,000th call will likely be the very first call that your candidate or hiring manager ever has with you!  We all know that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.  When you make thousands of calls, it is a great challenge to approach each one as if it were the first.  However, this is the very essence of White Belt Recruiting.
 
The enemy of the White Belt Recruiter is normalization.  Your very body feels it has the knowledge of what will happen before it occurs.  This illusion wipes out all sense of mystery.  With your expectations subconsciously solidified, boredom and even meaninglessness arise.  A bored recruiter is not a fun person to speak with!
 
Ah, but you can transform this horrible situation and tap into previously unavailable power for peak performance.  All that is required is for you to remember that you do NOT know who the new person is that you're calling.  You don't know what their special abilities or needs are.  It is your job, no different than Sherlock Holmes in solving a murder mystery, to find out who is who, and what they want and need.
 
What about people you already know, and possibly know well? No problem!  You do NOT know what has occurred since last time the two of you spoke!  You don't know how their life and world has shifted.  All of life and work is in constant motion.  Today is not the same as yesterday and no one has any clue what tomorrow will bring. We all know that we never step into the same river twice. The same is true in any relationship.  You never actually speak to the same person twice.
 
If each call is truly a mystery, how could an entire day be known in advance?
 
It is critical that you remember this BEFORE you engage in your first work activity.  And that brings me back to your morning's physical exercise.  As you work your body, your heart begins to pump, your lungs start pulling in greater amounts of oxygen and your body temperature rises.  Your mind, heart and soul, too, awaken.  We won't focus on heart or soul right now, but during your daily morning exercise, you must fully awaken and clear your mind.  As you do, your mind will naturally transition from the night's dull sluggishness so that you can focus with crisp, sharp, revitalized energy on performance for the coming day of work.
 
What is performance in recruiting?  It is nothing more than learning the wants and needs of candidates and hiring managers.  Certainly, you will also continuously introduce candidates and hiring managers.  But, if you put on your White Belt before each call, knowing it is your job to discover simple wants and needs in each person, then the introductions will be obvious to you.  That's right, when you do come to know the wants and needs of each party, determining who to introduce will become a natural act, graceful, easy and fun.
 
The White Belt mystery of relationship will start all over again when you make an introduction.  You truly do not know if friendship, job "romance," job offer and job acceptance will result.  This, too, is a great part of the joy and power of White Belt Recruiting.  The mysteries never cease!
 
Let's close our explorations today with a return to your morning task of putting on your White Belt for the day, each and every day.
 
But wouldn't the greatest recruiter in the world have a Black Belt, you ask?  Certainly.  No matter how perfectly black his or her Black Belt was, the greatest recruiter on earth would take that belt off each morning.  The greatest recruiter puts on the White Belt each morning.  The greatest recruiter knows that he or she must commence each day with all certainty cleared away, mindful of mystery and open to deep discovery in every contact, every call.