Hiring Happy Hour

Transformation rarely happens in perfect conditions. Sometimes it happens during executive departures, a rocky return, and a phone call on your birthday telling you that you're now the CEO.

In part two of this conversation, Rebecca Carr, CEO of SmartRecruiters, an SAP company, joins Hiring Happy Hour for a candid look at one of the most defining chapters in company history: rebuilding momentum internally, pivoting SmartRecruiters into an AI-first organization, and navigating the company’s acquisition by SAP, all at the same time.

What follows goes far beyond strategy decks and vision statements. At a moment when many companies slow down under the weight of acquisition and organizational change, Rebecca shares how SmartRecruiters accelerated, launching Winston into a market that was not fully ready and driving adoption to nearly 60% of all jobs running through the platform, a remarkable number at a time when most AI products struggle to achieve sustained enterprise usage.

But this conversation is about more than AI. It is about what innovation actually looks like inside a global enterprise: moving quickly without losing trust, creating clarity during uncertainty, and building a culture willing to execute before every answer is fully known. From rebuilding organizational confidence to navigating acquisition, Rebecca shares an honest look at what transformation demands from modern leaders: conviction, adaptability, and the courage to keep moving while the future is still taking shape.

Takeaways:
  • Ship the vision before the market catches up. Waiting for industry consensus before moving on AI is how organizations fall behind. SmartRecruiters launched and drove adoption of Winston, the platform’s AI interface, while competitors were still debating the concept — and built a separation that's now measurable.
  • Adoption is the real proof point, not the product itself. A strong launch means nothing if people don't use it.Nearly 60% of all jobs flowing through SmartRecruiters now use Winston — in an environment where the industry average for AI product adoption sits around 15%. Getting there required change management, internal champions, and a rollout strategy that's as deliberate as the product itself.
  • Enterprise transformation and innovation can coexist if you're intentional. Navigating a major acquisition while simultaneously evolving your product vision is only possible when leaders are radically transparent about where the business is and what it needs to do next. Rebecca held both in motion by keeping the team informed, focused, and moving.
  • Create conditions for bold thinking, then actually act on what comes out. The best strategic ideas rarely emerge from structured planning sessions. When Rebecca asked her team at a company offsite to bring back the craziest ideas on the planet, she got a product roadmap. Some of those ideas are still in flight today.
  • Speed is a strategic asset, not a byproduct. In a crowded market, the organization that moves with both conviction and urgency creates its own differentiation. From launching Winston to closing an acquisition with one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world, pace itself became part of SmartRecruiters’ value proposition. 
  • Confidence shown to the market is its own signal. Rebecca's "dance floor" analogy captures something every TA leader navigating a competitive landscape needs to hear: confidence shown to the market, even imperfect confidence, projects readiness and attracts the right partners before the window closes.
  • Change management is an innovation problem, not just a people problem. Getting an enterprise to adopt new technology at scale means solving for trust, clarity, and momentum, not just capability. Treat rollout as a strategic challenge equal to the product build itself. 
Quote of the Show:
  • “If you have a goal, and you have passion behind it, you have to believe in it as a leader” - Rebecca Carr
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Creators and Guests

Host
Nicole Hammond
Producer
Erica Weser

What is Hiring Happy Hour?

Welcome to Hiring Happy Hour, where we celebrate the human side of hiring. Join host, Nicole Hammond, and as she pulls back the curtain on the people shaping the future of work- the innovators, dreamers, and change makers behind today’s hiring technology experience.

Nicole Hammond: [00:00:00] All right, team. I wish there was, like, Rocky sound right now because you-- if you're watching, you're probably asking, "What the heck is Nicole wearing?" And there is a story behind this light-up jacket, um, and it is a story of sweet success, um, and it has to do with this amazing individual that's on the other side of this frame.

So again, let me tell you a little bit about her. She is a forward-thinking, product-obsessed people leader in the HR tech space. She is someone who is actively reshaping how companies hire. A champion of AI, our favorite topic, and automation to help enterprises recruit faster and smarter at a time when most talent acquisition technology hasn't caught up, up to the demands of modern organization.

This is very true world. She's leading this approach at global scale, turning future of work ideas into real execution, and execution [00:01:00] matters. She built her career across HR and tech, leading product teams at Jobvite, BranchOut, and Plaidem before spending a decade at SmartRecruiters across SVP of Growth, VP of Product, and VP of Solutions Consulting, with a stint at Checkr as GM of Checkr Pay and a chief of staff to the CEO in between.

Today, she is shepherding SmartRecruiters through its acquisition by SAP, a major, major milestone that she describes as building the future of work together, all while keeping the entire team intact and the product vision laser-focused on AI-powered recruiting. CEO at SmartRecruiters, please join me in welcoming Rebecca Carr for round two.

Rebecca Carr: There you were with such a good introduction again.

Nicole Hammond: gonna take this off.

Rebecca Carr: You hot? I've worn that jacket, folks. It is warm. It lights

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: So it's like emanating

Nicole Hammond: Yes. This is how much I love you. I sent you a video when I bought it, and I had my daughter wearing it, and she would call out a [00:02:00] color, and Rebecca's first question was, "Is that AI?"

Rebecca Carr: But I also... Uh, so we have our company kickoff every single year, and I do a flash mob, or I, like, started this trend of doing a flash mob. Guys, I love flash mobs. It's like I, I will, I will find myself... I do

Nicole Hammond: Look

Rebecca Carr: really do socials a

Nicole Hammond: out,

Rebecca Carr: but

Nicole Hammond: SAP.

Rebecca Carr: I do, like I'm sitting in an airport l- like, club, and I, like, desperately need, like, something that's not work to distract me, I find myself on Instagram, and I will spiral into full-blown flash mobs.

Nicole Hammond: Oh my gosh.

Rebecca Carr: so I, so I like to do this, and this last year I wore the jacket in the flash mob.

Nicole Hammond: Yes, you did.

Rebecca Carr: Have I overheated so quickly. I just, like, I was just... It was very warm

Nicole Hammond: You also wore it at HR Tech right after the acquisition was announced with your new friend Dan Beck. And I feel like

Rebecca Carr: stage. Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: One of the best impressions for all of SAP and [00:03:00] SR family coming together, seeing this awesome, cool, hip CEO wearing a light-up jacket.

Rebecca Carr: Yeah, that was

Nicole Hammond: A light-up jacket.

Rebecca Carr: remember that. That was

Nicole Hammond: but we're here. We're here to talk about happy hours, right? We'll talk about both kinds. Um, but first let's get into this. So for those of you just joining us, there is a part one, and there is a part one where the amazing Rebecca Carr talks about her early career, and belief is the theme, and Bosch is the theme, and just like a pivotal moment, um, inflection point that SmartRecruiters had, uh, to take it to the next level.

And now here we are, um, months, months, months after acquisition, still in the thick of it, um, but doing our amazing things, and we're gonna reflect on some of this. So Rebecca, let's talk about this second hiring happy hour. So for those of you, again, that haven't listened to the first, please go listen to it.

But now we're gonna talk about what are you proud of?

Rebecca Carr: [00:04:00] Well, I think we're all very proud of what just happened. Um, I mean, being through an acquisition... This is actually not my first acquisition. Um, and it was my first acquisition as a leader.

Nicole Hammond: Okay.

Rebecca Carr: I'll, I'll say, uh, people talk about, like, the acquisition moment, and even prior to the acquisition, I remember, like, being in employee office hours and talking about, like, what I was, what I was after, after and how important it was for us to, you know, either grow and become this massive public company or to find, like, that strategic buyer that was gonna just allow us to accelerate our vision at exceptional scale.

And people would ask me about what an acquisition would feel like and otherwise, and I, I always remembered the first acquisition I was a part of. I, I had, uh, I started my career in recruiting in banking. The market crashed.

Lost my job, along with, like, a lot of people. And I was in my 20s, and I needed money to live in [00:05:00] San Francisco.

And so I applied to every job I possibly could, and I found this little startup that I swear- was in like an attic. was, it was not, it w-

Nicole Hammond: Oh my gosh

Rebecca Carr: very legitimate, but like I remember walking in the first day and they had all these engineers and they were in, like, you know those like airport massage chairs that

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: Yeah. So they were sitting in the massage chairs coding. and and I was like, "Oh, wow, okay. So this is a company. This is not a bank. This is a com- like this is a company." And they were making like tens of millions of dollars on these games that they were

Nicole Hammond: Wow.

Rebecca Carr: for Facebook. And I was like a catchall. I ordered Safeway, I was HR, I paid the bills.

I like was office security. I was just like anything 'cause I needed a job. And I ended up... That's how I learned how to be a product manager, and I worked my tail off at this

Nicole Hammond: Wow.

Rebecca Carr: for 18 months, and I [00:06:00] was like very early on, I was like employee number 20-something.

Nicole Hammond: Okay.

Rebecca Carr: um, months later, we were over 800 people,

Nicole Hammond: Whoa!

Rebecca Carr: were acquired by Disney in this like massive transaction. And I remember the day that it was announced, I

Nicole Hammond: Dang.

Rebecca Carr: of the company was on CNN, and he was talk- he was like, "Congratulations, John," like, "You've just sold the company for 800 and something, $50 million," or something like that. 856 million, it was actually, that was

Nicole Hammond: Okay. Oh.

Rebecca Carr: of you." And I remember walking outside, sitting next to my car in the parking lot in Mountain View, and I just started weeping. Like weeping. I was so proud of myself. I was like, "Oh my gosh, we just built something from nothing." And then [00:07:00] like the, the, the CEO of Disney is like sitting here talking about how great it is and just paid us hundreds of millions of dollars, which was like mind-boggling at the time

Nicole Hammond: Of course.

Rebecca Carr: And I got, I got a paycheck. I got like a huge e- I got like a p- an equity pay. It wasn't huge, by the way. It was like, to me, in my 20s, like my

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: my like $20,000 or something was like the biggest thing that had

Nicole Hammond: Your life is amazing. Yeah,

Rebecca Carr: life.

Nicole Hammond: course.

Rebecca Carr: uh, then California taxes hit me, but I, it was, it was there. And I was like so proud of myself. P- like paid off my little Honda Fit. Was

Nicole Hammond: Oh my

Rebecca Carr: was so excited. And but it became an addiction I like wanted to feel what it felt like in that moment sitting on that curb again.

Nicole Hammond: God.

Rebecca Carr: into this moment. So when we came to SmartRecruiters and I saw the potential of like what could become...

We were not- I, [00:08:00] I wouldn't necessarily say that SmartRecruiters, in the moment that I inherited the CEO seat, in a position of high leverage or power. There had just been a lot of change. The executive team had turned over. There'd been, like, a lot of disruption in the product

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: the corporate strategy. Um, and I saw this, like, David and Goliath moment that I saw... The, the, the same thing I saw in that moment when I walked in and saw those people in massage chairs, I wanted it again. And I knew we could get there, and I knew, I knew exactly, like, I could have painted the golden road of, like, exactly what I wanted to do to get us there. had the opportunity to do it now as a CEO. So when the moment came, I was like, "Holy I did it again." Like, I was like, "This is great." And, and I-- and my team did it again. And I-- like, you feel so much [00:09:00] connection to the people around you. You s- feel so much pride for what you built. I mean, you obviously were there with me in this one. It's, uh, it tears you up a little bit, because it's, it is, it is a journey, like a really, really incredible personal journey, professional journey, that, uh, yeah. I, I... Now I wanna do it again. Now I gotta d-do it again, Nicole, somewhere

Nicole Hammond: Oh, man. Okay. I, I believe you, right? Like the Iron Man in you is now crossing over to this addiction of,

Rebecca Carr: Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: and I, I see it, I feel it, I feel it. I want us to talk about more this moment because you're right, there were a lot of tears, a lot of tears of like pride and, "Holy shit, you did it. We did it."

Like, and I say this to you, I say this to others, I have conversations with my husband going through this whole experience, right? Like, I've been here 11 years from the beginning,

Rebecca Carr: Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: nobody else could've done it, and I mean that sincerely, right? Your vision and how [00:10:00] quickly you turned things around from that time that you entered, um, as interim CEO was a rocky time.

And I remember, you know, there was a possibility of acquisition and it was such a low number, and all of us were like upset. We're like, "We've worked so hard," like, "No, no, no," and it fell through, and all of us were like, "Okay, great." And then we come to this one where we're not involved as early. And, and yet there's moments where I look back and you were sitting down with John and Nick, our husbands, and you said, "Hey, if I talk to you about this and I presented, you know, this story, how, how would you respond to it?"

And you were already prepping for conversations you were having with SAP execs, and I was like, "Oh.

Rebecca Carr: I know.

Nicole Hammond: Oh."

Rebecca Carr: was like literally like walking off to-- By the way, she's-- Nicole's referencing like we were at President's Club together, and, I was literally talking to SAP in my hotel room at, at night. Um, so I was like very hypothet-hypothetical,

Nicole Hammond: Yes. I had no clue. I had [00:11:00] no clue. And then you flew us all together to Europe and talked about Bosch and talked about that inflection point

Rebecca Carr: Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: the irony of a man asking if you were the CEO at the time of Bosch.

Rebecca Carr: He did. Yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: And then you surprised us all with the announcement of, "We are being acquired, uh, by SAP."

And I'll tell you, there were tears in that room. There were so many feelings in that room.

Rebecca Carr: Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: and we couldn't have done it without you.

Rebecca Carr: Uh, well, I couldn't have done it without everybody. I mean, the... I think there's something really special, like we talk about belief and obviously the theme of, uh, this podcast, and the first one, certainly part one was belief. There's, there's our hat again. Um, I, I think this moment like really helped me to realize at its like core, [00:12:00] core, core that you have a goal, if you have passion around it, you have to believe it as a leader.

Like you can't have hesita- there can be no imposter syndrome or hesitation or otherwise. You have to believe in your heart of heart it is possible. And you can articulate that really well, uh, and you can get a group of people to rally around that same concept with the same energy and passion. My God, can you move mountains. Um, and it is, it, it, it's hard to do because... But the fir- the hardest part is the first step. And I think the reason why I had so much conviction around it was 'cause I, one, generally, genuinely believed in my product strategy and the platform that we had created and the customer relationships. Uh, you know, see part one, Bosch.

Like I believed in [00:13:00] what we had done there, but I really believed in the people around me. I didn't like- I didn't want to be the micromanager CEO. I wanted to be the person that was like, "You know what, Nicole? You do you. Go do this now. I'm gonna go do this now. you're gonna go do this now. Allison, you're gonna go do this now.

Sharon, you're gonna go do this now. Michal, you're gonna do this. And you know what? We are gonna come back together and we're gonna stay aligned, and together we will get this done." And, um, that we did it really fast, but we did it with so much certainty and so much energy and so much love of what we were doing, um, that I think that half of the acquisition was our product and our, and all, but a very big piece of it was that the market saw that

Nicole Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah

Rebecca Carr: saw that and was impressed by it.

It's not an easy thing to replicate, um, but it is, uh, it is something I knew to be [00:14:00] true when I became the CEO and, um, really knew I had a window to capitalize on it. Um, and that's what we did. We definitely

Nicole Hammond: Yep.

Rebecca Carr: Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: So tell us more about that time, and we're gonna take our listeners, our watchers through the chapters of this because I think they're important, and I do agree with you, there were trials and tribulations. And when you came back to SmartRecruiters, tell us about that time, because it wasn't a great time.

Rebecca Carr: it wasn't a-- I mean, I got a text message, uh, from a former employee of SmartRecruiters, and he was great. He was good, very-- he remains a very good friend of mine. And, uh, he said, "You know what? I think you should come back. I think you should be the product leader." And I was shocked. I was like, "Wait, nah, nah."

I was already like very deeply settled in Checkr. he's like, "You know what? We need to reset the vision. We need to reset the product [00:15:00] strategy. We've got something to do here. I think you can do it." And I'd always-- I remember when I left SmartRecruiters the first time, I left very willingly. I knew I needed to take the next step in my career.

I wanted to learn something different. I wanted to be a chief of staff. and I had gotten in that, that opportunity, and my God, Checkr was an amazing experience for me. But I remember in the months le- after I left, I felt an un- like the word John, my husband, would use to describe it is like incredible grief, sadness.

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: I'd lost a group of people that I like really genuinely had clicked with and was building something special with. So then when I got that text, it's like the text when you're in a breakup where they like reopen the door, like where you're like, "Oh," like, "Oh my gosh. the, it's coming back.

It's flooding all back in. It's flooding all back in."

Nicole Hammond: All the moment.

Rebecca Carr: maybe I can do something special. So I came back, at the [00:16:00] time, the new CEO hadn't been named there, so there wasn't a CEO in

Nicole Hammond: Nope.

Rebecca Carr: they called. And, um, So then I emotionally bought in, and then as they were about to take my offer to the board, now this was to be the chief product officer, not the CEO. Um, they called me and said, "No, uh, you have to wait. We're hiring a new CEO." And so I actually already like emotionally made the decision, and

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: I had to wait.

Nicole Hammond: Another breakup.

Rebecca Carr: I start-- I met the CEO, but by that time I'd already bought in and like my head was in the game. Um, so I took the job, and I think what we realized when the new CEO came into the business was like that the change was really hard.

And frankly, inc- building an executive organization that was going to have the same energy and [00:17:00] passion and customer relationships was gonna be really hard, and that was hard for the new

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: And, uh, I think we went through six or seven months where we just like lost our mojo. And I remember saying to John like, "Shoot, did I just like make a big mistake right now?" Like, and I, I didn't say that in the context of the people. I said it in the context of like how the business was operating and trying to figure out its next step. And we went through this, uh, like investor moment like, uh, you had mentioned. There was like a lot of discussion around, you know, should we try to sell the business or not? Um, and it culminated in a mass departure of executives from

Nicole Hammond: Yep.

Rebecca Carr: Um, CRO, CCO, CFO, CEO, like all departed. CMO is... Like all departed within like a three-month window.

Nicole Hammond: Yep.

Rebecca Carr: I wasn't even a year back and I was like, "Oh,

Nicole Hammond: [00:18:00] Welcome back, Rebecca. Welcome back.

Rebecca Carr: And remember it was my birthday and we were in Boston at an exec offsite, and I got a phone call from the board they said, "We are gonna make you the interim CEO." And I said, "Okay." they said, "And there's this guy, there's this guy who's here in Boston, um, and he's gonna be the interim CFO." And if you've ever been a CEO or a CFO, you will know that like that relationship is really important.

Nicole Hammond: Very.

Rebecca Carr: like su-- like you, you guys have to be like totally like lockstep,

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: in order to get it right. And I was like, "Okay. Okay." And e-e-enter Tom. Enter Tom. [00:19:00] Um, and came downstairs and I told the team, and the team had already been very supportive of the choice. But I'll tell you, it was, it was a little uncomfortable.

I mean, the, the board continued to interview other candidates. Uh, I interviewed a number of different candidates. I remained the interim CEO. The company received it really well,

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: so lovely. Like, that

Nicole Hammond: All of that

Rebecca Carr: just, like, meant everything to me. Uh, but I would get a question in every single meeting, like, "Are you gonna become the permanent?

Are you gonna be the..." And I was like, "No, I'm just..." Like, you have to play that game. Uh, but I knew in my mind, like, "Just give me the job. I know what we have to do right now." Like I, I had gotten close enough then to the people around me. We promoted a lot of, um, uh, internal people to be leaders, to take over big functions. So to our conversations in part one about potential, like [00:20:00] we

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: in potential because my God, I was the ultimate potential story here. Like, I've never been a CEO before, so like why not lean into the concept?

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: like Tom had never been a CFO before. Um, so like this was-- Or not in this, uh, in this concept, in this construct. and so we leaned into it and, uh, we got bold and me becoming... I remember the day they made, they called me and said, "You're gonna become the permanent," was probably like one of the biggest moments for me as,

Nicole Hammond: Of course.

Rebecca Carr: as a leader. Um, I... It was not a big deal for my company. I remember like all of you just going like, "Yeah, good.

Great. Move on." Uh,

Nicole Hammond: what we wondered. Okay, now we know what we're

Rebecca Carr: like, "Oh my God, I conquered the beast that is a board, and they believe in me, and they're, they're leaning into it." that was really special, and [00:21:00] it gave me the-- It empowered me to then execute against the strategy that was Winston and to move forward the way we did. Uh, but yeah, it was, that was what? Oh, 14 months after I started. So those first f- 14 months were crazy. Very odd. Very odd.

Nicole Hammond: I just want to take a moment because I don't think you do this enough, and give yourself another kudos, right?

Rebecca Carr: Yeah. Oh, I

Nicole Hammond: so many things, such a wild ride in short of two years of interim CEO to permanent CEO, to changing to an AI organization, to getting acquired and now building on top of that as a small fish in a big pond, right?

Like, you have had so many impactful moments in the last two years, and you should really be proud of yourself because yes, it is all of us, but like, it is to your [00:22:00] belief. It is to like believing and saying what we're gonna do and going do it.

Rebecca Carr: Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: I will never forget the moment that you're like, "Okay guys, we're transitioning to an AI company and we're launching Winston in six months."

And I'm like

Rebecca Carr: Well, 'cause we all sat... Remember we all went on that offsite to Rome, and I was like, "Okay, we're all gonna go into breakouts, and I want you to come back with the craziest ideas on the planet." And like, you all came back, like product ideas, like ways that we could lean into the moment. some of the ideas, by the way, not gonna, not gonna spill the beans, but some of the ideas I actually think are, like, still in flight

Nicole Hammond: Future forward, yeah.

Rebecca Carr: theoretically a piece of our ongoing product strategy. But, um, we dreamed that up together. Uh, I was still the interim when we did that. So then when I became the permanent, it was almost like, "Well, here we go. Decision

Nicole Hammond: speed.

Rebecca Carr: [00:23:00] Now they can't stop us. Like, we're gonna go do it."

Nicole Hammond: Yep.

Rebecca Carr: and it was, it was good. But it took, uh, a lot of... It took, took a lot of great minds, um, and, uh, a lot of energy.

But to my, my first, my first point, like I, I genuinely believed. I think if there's my biggest fear, if I look forward into the future of my career, is that I won't be able to replicate that and it will have an impact on my ability to be successful. I've become so s- it's become so important to me that I have that with my people and my team, that now it's funny when I think about this next chapter when I engage with SAP, some of the things I'm eval- I'm evaluating at the, the highest degree are how well I can work with people, how well I can trust them, what types of i- how, how well they're, they can push a boundary, how high they hold their bar. And they have, uh, it's, uh, uh... They have a l- [00:24:00] th- they, they, they've, they have a suc- a, a predecessor, uh, in SmartRecruiters that has done a pretty amazing job. And so, um, I... We'll see. It's, it's fun. I've been, we've been keeping it up, but yeah, it's, uh, it, it's a big piece of the journey.

Nicole Hammond: It's not easy, and yes, it is a lot. And for those of you listening, I mean, Winston became real real quick, and now 60% of the jobs where Winston is part of an organization are using him and successfully, right? Like quality of hire is up, uh, just-

Rebecca Carr: You know. It's, it's, it's 60%, almost 60% of all SmartRecruiters jobs. Like

Nicole Hammond: Okay.

Rebecca Carr: across every customer, like every job that travels through SmartRecruiters

Nicole Hammond: That is

Rebecca Carr: I

Nicole Hammond: epic.

Rebecca Carr: It's crazy. Like that is-- That-- Considering only 15% of all AI products are actually adopted,

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: proud of that.

Nicole Hammond: That is a [00:25:00] huge stat.

Rebecca Carr: Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: I will fix my knowledge on that one. Um, that's incredible. I mean, yeah, and what a wild ride. So, okay, acquired by SAP and now- Again, we didn't talk about this, but I think it's a fun point. The way you described it in the theme or the secret name of the project was Red Panda.

Rebecca Carr: Hell

Nicole Hammond: Share with our audience why it was called Red Panda.

Rebecca Carr: Well, it's called Red Panda because my kids, um... And, uh, my kids are, like, really into Disney movies, and they're, like, two strong, like, beautiful girls. And I had watched this movie a million times, and it was, uh, like, it is all about, like, coming into your own,

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: into this moment. like, that just-- It resonated with me as, like, a,

Nicole Hammond: my

Rebecca Carr: a good analogy to what was happening to SmartRecruiters.

Like, we had been growing up and growing up and growing up, and, like, [00:26:00] finding

Nicole Hammond: God,

Rebecca Carr: and being really

Nicole Hammond: I love it.

Rebecca Carr: uh, it resulted in an amazing outcome. Uh, and now we can kind of live into our, our biggest dream as being part of SAP. But I called it Project Red Panda after, uh, after the Disney movie.

And actually, um, um, Turning Red, the Disney movie. I love Legos, and Tom gave me a Lego red panda when we closed the deal . And I love it. It's so cool. Just to remind me that it's, uh, it's not the code name that SAP gave it, but

Nicole Hammond: No.

Rebecca Carr: be Project Red Panda to me.

Nicole Hammond: Yes. And the reminder you gave to all of us as we were going through this, because again, you think like little fish in a big pond is to remain the prettiest girl on the dance floor. So share that analogy within this.

Rebecca Carr: Yeah. So I, um, I talked a lot about-- [00:27:00] Uh, one of the things that I believe in as a leader is just, like, incredible transparency, and especially in moments of disruption and change like this. The best thing that I think you can do for your people is just be wa- like extremely honest about where your business is and what you need to do in order to get to an outcome.

And I remember I stood on stage at, um, uh, our company kickoff that same year. And I made the comment like, "Hey, this is our valuation. This is why it's here. This is where we need to be. This is where you should all wanna be as owners of, uh, equity and stock in this business, and here's what it's gonna take to get there." And I talked about the fact that it was highly likely that we would be acquired, acquisition was gonna be our future. We talked about IPO and all these things in the past, and that the reality of this moment was that our path

Nicole Hammond: Yeah. Yeah

Rebecca Carr: acquisition and hopefully strategic acquisition. [00:28:00] And so I talked about how strategic acquisitions would drive more value and we'd get more money out of the business if we were able to go in that direction. I talked a lot about the dance and so I used, uh, uh, like a middle school dance as the analogy that like the ATS market was, um, uh, a bunch of students at a middle school dance and we were all standing around the dance floor and we all wanted to dance with each other.

So SAP and Workday and Paradox and, and U- UKG and Oracle and iCIMS and Greenhouse and like all of these vendors were

Nicole Hammond: Yep.

Rebecca Carr: at this dance. And they all wanna dance with each

Nicole Hammond: Yep, in that circle.

Rebecca Carr: because

Nicole Hammond: Yep.

Rebecca Carr: they all know something about themselves that is fundamentally true that they have like...

that they're like holding themselves to this like level of judgment. Like they might have like not be able-- They might have like a couple stray hairs while they're trying to dr- like grow a mus- mustache or they might have acne and that [00:29:00] could equate to, you know, they have a profitability problem or they're not growing as fast as they wanted or something like that.

And so they're afraid to go ask the other person if they can dance. And I said, "So our job is to show up with unbelievable confidence and be proud and pretty and go and just groove there." And eventually someone will go, "You know what? She, she's not perfect. Like she still has got a piece of toilet paper attached to her foot from the girls' restroom, but you know what? Like she's, she's living into it. She's loving

Nicole Hammond: We own it.

Rebecca Carr: and dance.

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: um, in the movie "Turning Red," they have a, they have dances and they talk about concerts and like being afraid of boys and things like that. So it again all connected.

Nicole Hammond: coming together.

Rebecca Carr: uh, that's what I was. I was like you're not gonna feel it always inside, you need to show it to the market and just let it go because y- when that [00:30:00] dance is over, don't wanna be the last one standing that regrets not dancing on that dance floor. Um, and that's exactly what we are. And oh my gosh, my children are home from school. You get, you get to be a part of, uh, a podcast apparently. I'm on a podcast.

Nicole Hammond: come on over.

Rebecca Carr: enter, enter Kat- Kate, my, my, my seven-year-old Kate.

Nicole Hammond: Kate the Great. Hi, Kate.

Rebecca Carr: Kate the

Nicole Hammond: Hi, sweetheart. How are you?

Rebecca Carr: loves it. I'm n- I'm named after the queen of London.

Nicole Hammond: I love that.

Rebecca Carr: She's

Nicole Hammond: We call you...

Rebecca Carr: Yeah. She's, I... Kate Middleton might have been inspiration for this moment. But yes, are my other loves and, uh, loves.

Nicole Hammond: And, and that prompts us easily to what your happy hour outside of work is, which

Rebecca Carr: My

Nicole Hammond: just showed up. Yes.

Rebecca Carr: my kids. I... You just met Kate. Kate's seven. I have Josephine. Uh, she's five. Oh my gosh, they're like the [00:31:00] bestest. I mean, kids are... And they're in like the, the prime age where like now you don't have to have them in a stroller. Like they actually walk places with you, and they can ride bikes and they can, uh, you know, like go on hikes and they can get on- they can feed themselves, they can clothe

Nicole Hammond: Shower?

Rebecca Carr: whole like showers.

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: They c-

Nicole Hammond: It's

Rebecca Carr: and

Nicole Hammond: unchanging.

Rebecca Carr: they have like such... I mean, Kate's the best. Like, she's like, "I wanna watch a movie." And I'm like, "No, you're not gonna watch a movie right now." And she's like, "No, I think I'm gonna watch a movie." I'm like, "No, no, I..." Like, "No, seriously, you're gonna go do your homework right now.

You're not gonna, you're not gonna watch a movie." She's like, "Mom, I'm gonna watch a movie." And I'm I'm like, "No, we talked about this. We're not... End of conversation. Walk away." And she's like, "Okay, Mom. Yeah, I'm just gonna watch a movie. Just you stay calm. You stay calm." And then I

Nicole Hammond: Is

Rebecca Carr: I'm not the CEO

Nicole Hammond: that... Yeah. And no means yes.

Rebecca Carr: I am not the CEO anymore. In fact, maybe she is sometimes. I don't [00:32:00] know.

Nicole Hammond: that is a good life trait for when she's older. You, you don't wanna take that away. Ours is bribery this morning, 'cause I'm solo, and I said, "Okay, first one to brush your teeth and wash your face and get downstairs gets $5." And it was, like, instant.

Rebecca Carr: Oh, I know. Like, you ca- I mean, bribing does work. I, I, I'd say, um, I t- like quality time has ended up being like a big piece of bribery. Like they really... I realized how important it is to get like one-on-one time with them all.

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: And John and I a while ago had said, we're gonna do a rotation, like once a month we're each

Nicole Hammond: Oh.

Rebecca Carr: kids on a date

Nicole Hammond: Smart.

Rebecca Carr: And so

Nicole Hammond: Okay.

Rebecca Carr: two dates a month where they get time with us.

Nicole Hammond: Hey, why not?

Rebecca Carr: and that, the thought of losing said date just is the biggest motivator of all. They, they like really

Nicole Hammond: Oh.

Rebecca Carr: wanna get to know us, um, and learn all about.

Nicole Hammond: Okay.

Rebecca Carr: so proud of the fact that my daughter at school is like, "What do you wanna be [00:33:00] when you grow up?"

She's like, "I wanna be a spy and a CEO." And I'm

Nicole Hammond: Okay.

Rebecca Carr: like, I'm

Nicole Hammond: Totally doable. I'm sure there's some out there, too.

Rebecca Carr: th- but like that's... She talks, y- I... 'Cause I like spy movies and I'm a CEO, and like that, like f-

Nicole Hammond: I love that.

Rebecca Carr: they see me working really hard and they wanna replicate that, that in themselves. It validates all the time that I maybe don't spend with them.

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: a, like a really, really good, um, good role model for them to, to, to follow onto. So yeah.

Nicole Hammond: And you said it, right? Quality, right? Like, just being there isn't enough. It's being present. And so I think that that is Fascinating, and I love that you guys do that. I might take that. I might take the date thing and then use it as bribery. Right now, my biggest-- I'm more of threats than bribery, and I'm like, "I'm gonna send you to boarding school."

So...

Rebecca Carr: I know. Well, we come from boarding school family, like John did that. And so he talks about it all the time as if it's nothing, and I'm like, "We haven't decided that [00:34:00] yet."

Nicole Hammond: See, and I use it as more like they're going away from home and they're like, "Ooh, I don't know if I want that."

Rebecca Carr: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Nicole Hammond: All right. Final part. We're gonna do this or that.

Um, this is more about you. So again, for those of you listening, the first one was more about industry. This is more about you as the CEO, the accumulation to you becoming the CEO, and all of the amazingness that comes with it.

So we'll jump right into it. Um, recruiting software or reinventing hiring?

Rebecca Carr: Reinventing hiring.

Nicole Hammond: Proving yourself or believing in yourself?

Rebecca Carr: Ooh, believing in yourself.

Nicole Hammond: Early career lessons or executive leadership wisdom?

Rebecca Carr: I mean, I don't think you have wisdom without lessons.

Nicole Hammond: There you go. There you go. See? It can be or. Kate would do it that way.

Rebecca Carr: Exactly.

Nicole Hammond: Uh, fear of failure or fear of regret?

Rebecca Carr: Oh, fear of [00:35:00] regret.

Nicole Hammond: Leading with answers or leading with curiosity?

Rebecca Carr: Leading with curiosity, for sure. Mm-hmm.

Nicole Hammond: Comfortable growth or courageous transformation?

Rebecca Carr: Courageous transformation.

Nicole Hammond: Yeah. Um, being underestimated or becoming undeniable?

Rebecca Carr: I mean, that's hard. I, I think that s- like I get a lot of energy from people underestimating me, 'cause I like to prove people wrong.

Nicole Hammond: Yeah. Project

Rebecca Carr: a

Nicole Hammond: Pivot.

Rebecca Carr: have. But I believe in, believe in making your mark, making your mark doesn't have to be in a wildly public way. I think would make me just as proud for someone that works for me to say, "Wow," like undeniably, "I Like, I got the, the most out of her as a leader that I'd [00:36:00] gotten out of anybody.

Like, that, that would make me very proud. But I, I-- they should expect that from a leader. I wouldn't expect them to underestimate my leadership skills. I would expect them to just feel that way. So it, it's a, it's a... It depends on the context.

Nicole Hammond: Okay. Um,

Rebecca Carr: Mm-hmm.

Nicole Hammond: being on a podcast or being on stage?

Rebecca Carr: Oh, being on a podcast. E-everybody-- By the way, that's like a one question... I get that question all the time.

Nicole Hammond: Really?

Rebecca Carr: are you nervous on stage? you ner--" Like, not in podcasts, but, "Are you nervous when you get up on stage?" And I'm like, "Yes." And, and, and everybody always says, "Are you-- Like, do you think it gets easier?"

And I... This is actually when I first got, like, speaking coaches and things like that. I remember, um, saying to the woman, "Does it get easier, like, the big- the bigger and more senior

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: And she's like, "Oh, absolutely not. It gets worse."

Nicole Hammond: Oh.

Rebecca Carr: " This is not a good way to start this moment,

Nicole Hammond: Yeah, you're like, "You shouldn't have left that [00:37:00] second part out." The funny thing is w- I was listening to your, um, Sapphire, um, speaking on stage, and I've been with you a long time. Like, the first few minutes always I'm like, "Ugh, Rebecca's nervous." But then you find, you find that ease, right? Like, I think it's more of like a, always the first few minutes.

Rebecca Carr: Yeah. The first,

Nicole Hammond: leaders never find it.

Rebecca Carr: You can-- And if you know me well, you can sense it, for

Nicole Hammond: Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: it's just, it's the... I, I, worry about messing up. I wanna, like, make sure that I'm

Nicole Hammond: Who doesn't?

Rebecca Carr: am impressing and I am,

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: um, I'm giving people valuable information that they care about.

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: I will say I've realized that my

Nicole Hammond: Totally.

Rebecca Carr: on stage, like, my ability to crack a joke or, like, something like that is actually what makes me more comfortable and makes me more me and makes me a better speaker. And so I've tried to embrace that a little [00:38:00] bit more, but it's definitely a bit uncommon in settings like that, that are so, like, prim and proper.

Nicole Hammond: Yeah, but you,

Rebecca Carr: That was it. That was it.

Nicole Hammond: or ocean?

Rebecca Carr: Oh, boy. I love them both, but right now, ocean.

Nicole Hammond: Okay. All right. Come on over. Uh, early morning hustle or slow morning coffee?

Rebecca Carr: Oh, I'm an early morning hustle. I'm a m- huge morning person.

Nicole Hammond: Love it. Um, cozy night in or last-minute adventure?

Rebecca Carr: Oh. Is it a Monday or a Friday?

Nicole Hammond: I'm gonna let you choose that adventure.

Rebecca Carr: I-- Like, I don't mind Just heading out and doing something fun weekend. I would say, uh, most of the time though, I would not mind watching a movie with a b- with a bowl of popcorn and my kiddos in the cuddle chair that I

Nicole Hammond: [00:39:00] Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: recently.

Nicole Hammond: preach. I can live for that one. Um, okay, this one I threw in 'cause I'm curious. West Coast or East Coast?

Rebecca Carr: She asked that question, everyone, 'cause I spent half of my life on the West Coast and half of my life on the East Coast. Literally, exactly this year,

Nicole Hammond: Really?

Rebecca Carr: 50/50. Yeah. Um, I live on the East Coast now, but I spent like literally 21 years in California and 21 years this

Nicole Hammond: Wow.

Rebecca Carr: in, um, in Massachusetts.

Nicole Hammond: Okay, so are you avoiding the question?

Rebecca Carr: I absolutely 1,000% East Coast.

Nicole Hammond: Ugh. I'm on the West Coast, so my heart breaks, but I get

Rebecca Carr: just, I... You

Nicole Hammond: it.

Rebecca Carr: take E- the East Coast New Englander out of me. I swear the, the, one of the most comforting sensations ever is getting off the plane at Logan Airport, walking into that terminal and smelling the burnt Dunkin' Donuts [00:40:00] coffee. Ugh. It's

Nicole Hammond: milk

Rebecca Carr: I literally am like, "I'm home.

Nicole Hammond: with coffee? Got it.

Rebecca Carr: Burnt

Nicole Hammond: it.

Rebecca Carr: E, walk out right there by international arrivals. You will never wanna leave. It's the best.

Nicole Hammond: Oh my gosh. I do appreciate your homage. You have sweatshirts for both coasts, so I'll take that.

Rebecca Carr: do. I wear California, I wear Massachusetts, I wear Nantucket,

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: all these... Yeah,

Nicole Hammond: Yeah.

Rebecca Carr: that comf- that's a really comfy sweatshirt that has a funny story behind it because John and I actually went to Disneyland with my best friends, uh, not with our children. Because

Nicole Hammond: I think I remember this.

Rebecca Carr: to go on every ride without having to like

Nicole Hammond: Fair enough.

Rebecca Carr: standing there that like needed to go to the bathroom or something like that.

Nicole Hammond: I

Rebecca Carr: or

Nicole Hammond: wasn't tall enough.

Rebecca Carr: So we were like, "We just wanna do Disneyland." But John didn't bring a sweatshirt, and it was March and it got freezing. And so he bought that sweatshirt and then gave it to me, and it is the most comfortable thing. I probably spent like [00:41:00] $120 at Disneyland on that stupid thing.

Nicole Hammond: But you're getting your use out of it.

Rebecca Carr: exactly. I'm getting tons of use out of it.

Nicole Hammond: Um, all right, final one, and this is just not an inside joke, but kind of. Um, a Negroni or Aviator?

Rebecca Carr: Ah. It's definitely an inside joke. I, uh, I'm a Negroni gal. I l- I, I like aviators. Um, but, and they're purple, which is always fun. Who doesn't like a purple drink? But, uh, Negronis and, uh, I'll like nod to my best friend H- Leslie, but she makes them, um, it usually Negronis are one, one, one, like one

Nicole Hammond: Yes.

Rebecca Carr: I do two parts gin

Nicole Hammond: Oh.

Rebecca Carr: and they are Yeah.

Nicole Hammond: Spot on. You and I are Negroni lovers.

Rebecca Carr: big time.

Nicole Hammond: Okay.

Rebecca Carr: plenty about the,

Nicole Hammond: I do. I do.

Rebecca Carr: the

Nicole Hammond: The Aviator story cracks me up, though, of your husband making these.

Rebecca Carr: My, my husband once [00:42:00] got Nic-- uh, we hosted Nick and Nicole at one point in our house, and aviators were on the menu, and they, it, they... Let's just say we all had a great time.

Nicole Hammond: Yeah. Yeah. True story. True story. Um, thanks, Rebecca. This has been so fun. I'm grinning ear to ear. Uh, I hope our audience enjoyed this. I think you see Rebecca on stage a lot. You hear a lot of podcasts around the world of work, the TA space, a- and more related to SAP and SmartRecruiters. But this is Rebecca.

This is the real deal. This is where you get to see, uh, just everything that kind of drives her, what she's about, and I hope you've enjoyed it. And I hope if any of you come face to face with her or reach out to her, you make it personal based on what you've heard, what you've learned, um, or how she's inspired you.

So thank you, Rebecca, for all of this. Um, I look forward to another chapter down the line.

Rebecca Carr: Thank you. This was fun. This was fun.