Toni Gimeno Solans,
Inbounding Recruiting, Trainer & Consultant

1. Do you remember a time when you were happiest as a child? Where were
you, who were you with and what were you doing?
I was born and raised in a small village in Catalonia in the middle of the country-side, so I had total freedom to spend my afternoon as I pleased, and the most common feeling that I remember was, meeting with my friends and our bicycles and start wondering around to find the adventure for that day, that went from building houses in trees, playing different sports, swimming in the river or breaking-in old houses and a long etc. Seeing it now, it was the most present thing ever, going without expectations to see what live would bring to us.

2. What seemed like an inconsequential decision at the time, but in hindsight turned out to fundamentally reshape your life?
Creating a recruitment software company, having no salary for more than 8 months and being just 24 years old. Back then, starting startups wasn’t such a thing like it is now, and my parents and friends couldn’t understand why I accepted to work for a company that wasn’t even mine, working really hard and not having no salary, after spending several years studying to have a degree and a master. I accepted to be part of that project, because I believed Inbound Marketing was the future of Digital Marketing. After a couple years, we were the 1st success case in Spain in Inbound Marketing by HubSpot and now I even created a Recruitment methodology called Inbound Recruiting inspired by it, and I created a new company around it.
3. What habit or behaviour or belief have you recently acquired? Why is it now in your life?
The habit of doing an exercise called “Wheel of life”.
I do my own version of it, where I list the 8 most importants areas of my life, and I list the most important elements of each area and I grade them based on the feeling of fulfilment or happiness with all of them. That lets me see in which areas I’m not fulfilling what I want, help me recenter to know what’s really important for me and what is not, and once I got all the grades for each area, I design a life plan for the next 3 months that help me go towards a happier life, prioritizing certain habits or activities or myself, and erasing bad habits or things that I was spending time on and they were not important. Doing this exercise every 3 months helps me design a better life and see and monitor my progress.


4. What are the three books that you would unhesitatingly recommend to others? Why?

4 hour Work Week, by Tim Ferris
It lets you see other ways of working rather than being an employee. It influenced me to become a solopreneur and encourages people that are really good at what they do and they don’t feel fulfilled, to start their own thing.

How to win friends and Influence people, by Dale Carnegie.
It’s a classic but it made such an impression on me the first time I read it, that changed the way I did marketing and also now, I apply several of his advices in my Inbound Recruiting trainings. Probably it’s the book I re-read more times.

Untethered Soul from M.Singer.
It’s more of a spiritual book about how our mind and lives work and how to detach from our thoughts. The first time I could only read half of it because it blew my mind so much that I had to stop in the middle to process it all. If you are new to this, I’d recommend the “Surrender Experiment” from the same author.
5. If you wrote a ‘user manual’ for how people should interact with you, what would be the top three things they should know?
In an honest and direct way, saying what they think, being as straightforward as they can, while having a good intention in any interaction. And also with a smile and wanting to have fun.
6. What personality trait has got you in the most trouble? What kind of trouble does it get you in?
Being a “rebel”. When I see things that people do just because it has been done in a certain way or because that’s what it’s expected, either in a job or in life, I do it my way. I think I become “unemployable” in certain ways, because in companies that are a lot of politics or there are no values or vision, I fight like it’s my own company to change it or improve it, and sometimes people feel I’m overstepping. But I always do it with the best of the intentions. I even quit my own company because I didn’t share the vision with the CEO, and I asked her to step away, and since she didn’t, I did.
7. Have you always had the same political beliefs? If so, why do you think you have held them so long? If not, what event caused you to change your view?
Being from Catalonia, a region in Spain that has a totally different culture than the rest of Spain, I always had the belief that we should be independent and I was quite emotional about it. Now I don’t care anymore. I understand that politics is a kind of theater where politicians are looking for the best outcome for their own party, and nobody looks after the country neither they have a long term vision about how a country should be managed. So now I believe that we have to be good people, that differences make a country more diverse and interesting, and now I feel that I’m a citizen of the world more than just a country or a region.

8. What is that thing which is OK to ask you about, but which other people are wary to do so?
About my feelings, my fears, my doubts about myself or how I deal with anything about my life. I think people are too afraid of being vulnerable and we fight a lot to be liked. I have no problem to talk about any topic and explain to you what I really think. I think if we all behave this way, we would become better people, we could learn more and also, by talking about what we really think or feel, we would learn a lot about ourselves. Just try it, you will see that nothing happens.
9. What’s the last image on your camera roll? Care to explain?
A picture of a drawing about a framework of the 6 De Bono’s thinking hats adapted to Inbound Recruiting. I’m creating different types of content to explain differently the Inbound Recruiting methodology and I’ve started working with someone that is helping me with ideas out of the box. The previous one is one in the middle of the mountain surrounded by snow. Not everything is “work”.
