"The phone is bigger than any other medium." - Joel Cheesman

Joel Cheesman is the first to tell you that he fell into the whole Cheeshead thing accidentally. Sounds like a nice mistake, huh? Joel, the Head Cheese, is an avid blogger on recruitment issues and has a considerable following. He is a huge advocate of using the internet and technology and how the recruitment industry can benefit from close involvement. "As I blogged, I got more business. Clients would call me and say, I'd like to retain your services." Instead of making a bunch of calls, Joel was taking them.

In 2005, Joel followed through on his interest in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and utilizing his entrepreneurial nature, learned enough about it to garner business through its consistent use. He started his blog, "I thought it was a cool, progressive thing to do." Yes, it was Joel and we are sure glad you did. He liked to blog and he was good at it. As a matter of fact, two guys you may have heard of, Jason Davis and John Sumser, sat up and noticed what Joel was writing. How to monetize this worthy endeavor? He made a few calls and was able to bring in a featured sponsor or two.

2008 brought new challenges. "It got to a point where too much news was coming in too quickly. I could either stop blogging or get some help. " Joel made the right choice and took an office, hired some great folks and now, here he is today, "ready to make a mobile play." Taking advantage of recruiting's flexible nature, Joel and some developers created a new app for the iPhone called mJob - Mobile Recruiting Solutions. This news is hot and exciting. He describes this path as "growing intelligently."

The idea of a computer in your pocket? How cool is that? Joel is an early adopter, owning his first palm in 2002. The smart phone is here to stay as evidenced by the iPhone and others like it. This rapidly emerging tech that has taken off like mad in just a year's time triggered something in Joel's mind. Understanding that the SEO game in mobile is different, Joel knew he had to get educated about it and fast. "I have always felt kind of bitter about missing the first 2.0 wave. And now, mobile - it's taking us back to 1996." Yep, the innovation curve has started over again. Joel continues, "I think we will see new brands, new businesses. And I thought, let's start a business where we power the backbone. There will be a day when every job will have mobile component and I wanted to help companies build that."

Joel is a system's thinker - he sees the forest and it is green. His words, "All the things that are going on, how can we attract candidates like never before? How we grow, how we engage? I am looking ahead five, ten, twenty years down the road." The B2B angle is already live, a whitepaper has been released, and consumer play/private data is set to launch any day now.

What difference does Joel hope to make in recruiting? Joel brings a voice that's never been here. He hopes to connect recruiters with what's going on through mobile and then connect recruiters to candidates in the consumer play. Twitter and facebook are really talking about mJob. "Proximity marketing plays into this, an instantaneous introduction. This introduces a lot of new ways to do this job. I.5 billion people around the world are online, but 4 billion have a phone. There are twice as many phones as televisions. The sheer volume, the sheer reach is staggering."

Yep, the phone is bigger.