Add Six-Figures To Your Recruiting Desk Using LinkedIn with Clark Willcox

Benjamin Mena [00:00:00]:
You are going to rock the year and we're going to help you do that. Here at the Elite Recruiter Podcast, we have the Rock the Year event, the recruiting Growth Summit, kicking off on March 10. It is going to be awesome. We're going to be focusing on mindset. We're going to be focusing on sourcing. We're going to be focusing on AI. We're going to be focusing on operations and high performance and BD and sales. Every single thing that you need as a recruiter to make sure that you can rock 2025 and make it the year of abundance.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:28]:
Make it the year that works for you. Make it the year that you crush every single one of your dreams. Let's go get it. Coming up on this episode of the Elite Recruiter Podcast. I think a lot of recruiters don't sit back and understand the value that they bring to the table as a recruiter, 100%.

Clark Willcox [00:00:49]:
It's the first thing I work on with anyone. Help people go from 120 to $120,000 desk to a $600,000 desk in a year. All from LinkedIn, inbound leads, plus a lot of other, you know, sales, coaching and everything else. Like, it's CR what you can do. Welcome to the Elite Recruiter Podcast with your host, Benjamin Mena, where we focus.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:09]:
On what it takes to win in the recruiting game.

Clark Willcox [00:01:12]:
We cover it all from sales, marketing, mindset, money, leadership, and placements.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:20]:
As a recruiter, you have the ability to craft your own story. You have the ability to set yourself up for success. You have the ability to make sure it's a story that you want to be the story that you want to have. And here's the thing, most people underestimate how much easier they can make their lives. One of the biggest thing is we overcomplicate so many things, especially us recruiters. We're thinking about this, we're doing this, we're doing that 50 different ways. We are in one of the industries where distractions are super heavy. But here's the thing.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:50]:
You can make 2025 the year of abundance for you by simplifying it and making life easier and focusing on what works. And I am so excited. I have actually one of my dear friends, Clark Wilcox, coming on back on the podcast. And here's the thing. He was one of the top 10 downloads for about a year ago for the Elite Recruiter Podcast because he impacted so many people and I am so excited to have him back. He's also speaking at a few of the summits and has spoken at a few of the summits. And he's ready to share, ready to give, to make sure 2025 is your year. So welcome back.

Clark Willcox [00:02:25]:
Thanks for having me, Ben, man, it's. It's an absolute pleasure. I'm excited for 2025. I'm excited to be back on here. Everything that you've done to support myself, digital recruiter, I can't thank you enough. I love being on this show. The amount of people I get messages every week still about the episode that we did a year and a half ago, I think now. And I can't wait to speak at the events and just to dive into.

Clark Willcox [00:02:46]:
I know we got a ton to cover today. Just ready to get after it, man.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:49]:
I know by the time this goes live, the business development and sales would be over. And I know one of the things that we're going to focus on today, especially for those that miss it, if you missed it, go back and check it out. But I think one of the keys in 2025 with all these AI tools and AI noise, is the art of authentic selling. What does that actually mean?

Clark Willcox [00:03:14]:
I think I'm still figuring out the definition. I think I got a week to do it, right? It's when I started Aerotech in 2013, I got promoted pretty quick at like eight, nine months. And then I got into selling recruiting. To me, it came easy. I had a great manager. You know, I had 10k. It spread in 5 months. Like I thought I was, I was, you know what? Right? Tough S H I t.

Clark Willcox [00:03:37]:
And I got my butt kicked that first year in sales and recruiting because I just, I felt like I was a robot. And like the go to is almost being transactional. I was like, I gotta hit my numbers and I gotta do all this. And I just, I was so like, just almost like physically, like even in meetings, kind of like a robot and just not myself. And I felt like I couldn't be myself when I was song. I felt I had to be someone else. I had to be what I thought a good salesperson was doing. And it wasn't me and it wasn't authentic.

Clark Willcox [00:04:12]:
And it was a struggle for so many different reasons, right? Sometimes you have to go through the reps. But I started shadowing different managers that really, that were successful in the common theme was just how relaxed they were and that they almost never asked for business in a meeting. I couldn't believe it. And that's what really got me to like, okay, how do I be authentic? How do I just be me in these Interactions and have it be more fun because people get pitched all the time. And that was 10 years ago. We get way more pitches now every single day. How do I just be me but still win and still sell? And being authentic, delivering the value and really investing what I was doing. And that not just myself, but investing like my market, the hiring managers, what are they going through? And then how do I merge me being me and the value and the service that I offer with where they at? And constantly working with that harmony, it define that intersection.

Clark Willcox [00:05:13]:
I hope that's not a bunch of word babble, but like, that's like the way I have it in my mind. It's like that's the intersection I'm looking for. Like, I can be me but still show value. And for the right people at the right time, they can see that and be like, okay, I can let my guard down and we can actually start to solve hiring problems, recruiting problems, whatever it is. And that's, that's how I look at.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:34]:
It and kind of like walk into like how we go about doing that or where we go in these conversations. But you know, one of the things as, as a recruiter, like before we even get there, how do you even start opening these doors? How do you even get to the point of the conversations? Because, like, it sounds like you were doing this thing. I know the company that you worked for. You follow the script, you went to training. Follow the script, follow the script, follow the script. And it wasn't working. And the scripts are super important. But how did you like, hit that point that, the inflection point, like, I need to do this change and make this my story.

Clark Willcox [00:06:08]:
I had turned it all about the client. I just became obsessed with, what do they need? Where are the pain points? I mean, really. And that's a common phrase thrown around, but it's true. You have to understand the pain points. Why is someone going to give you an 85% markup on a maintenance mechanic when they could get it from 40% right down the road from select staffing or something like that? Right. Why is someone going to pay you a $20,000 fee for a physical therapist or a $50,000 fee for maybe a VP of business development? You have to reverse engineer that process. What makes someone write that check? And we have the whole, I think the initial thought process people have when they get in recruiting and sales. It's like, oh my God, I can't believe someone would give me that much of money.

Clark Willcox [00:06:51]:
And then you evolve and you're like, well, of course they're going to give you 50k because they're going to make 5 million from it or 500,000. So you have to put yourself in your prospect shoes and reverse engineer. What's the value of signing that check, of paying that fee? What's the incentive? Right? And you have to figure out the pain point, the urgency. Where does this fit into the rest of the company and their goals? Right. It has to be all about them. You have to figure that piece out before it can really be about you.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:23]:
Well, I mean, I know one of the biggest things that we hear it all the time is just like, you know, reverse engineer, do this, do this like back plan, figure out the pain points. Like what does that give us? Some example, Pick an industry, give us an example and how that would impact that hiring manager.

Clark Willcox [00:07:37]:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's look at, I mean, physical therapist is a great one. I have a longtime client, that's what she was, physical therapist. She places a lot of them, a lot, you know, with, you know, SLPs and notes and all that as well. And she's been a client for almost two years now. One on one clients who are always talking about this exact thing. The pain point for her prospect, she gets all inbound leads through LinkedIn. She hasn't done one business development outreach campaign, especially on automation.

Clark Willcox [00:08:02]:
On LinkedIn, she got all inbound leads from the content approach and just really figuring out her market. And the issues with physical therapists right now are there's not enough of them. The inflation has really impacted the salary. The margins though, for companies are so tight on the physical therapist, it's really hard for them to approve more of a compensation. So it's easy to say we'll just pay them more. Well, great, a clinic could pay them more. But then they're losing money, like there's not enough hours and the business model can't actually support that. So you have some real challenges if the margins are super tight to get, you know, 20, 25, 30% placement fee, you know, whatever.

Clark Willcox [00:08:41]:
Everyone's like, oh, just charge 30%. Well, you literally can't do that with most of those placements in that industry because the margins won't support it. So what do you do that? Right? That's a, that's a real pain point. Right? So then it becomes, well, okay, then that business is worth it. Well, some of it can be worth it, some of it isn't worth it. So it's, it's figuring out the, the pain points and really trying to figure it out. Okay, maybe we can't bump up the salary. But what's the health insurance look like? Well, they only cover 50%.

Clark Willcox [00:09:06]:
Well, what if they cover 100%? Maybe that could actually cover more of the health insurance and maybe that's where they can allocate. Maybe that's a different part of the budget or whatever that looks like. And understanding the pain points but then starting to reveal and then it leads you to asking more questions. Right. And so I think that's what we have to look at. And that's what she has to look at is there's compensation, there's insurance, there's. What's the Canada pool look like? Are they using job boards? Are they doing proactive recruiting or reactive recruiting? Almost everyone's doing reactive recruiting. Right.

Clark Willcox [00:09:37]:
Post, spray and pray, post a job board and pray, you know, job opening and pray and no one's actually reaching out to people. What's the messaging that's happening? Right. Maybe a lot of these companies have no idea how to even message a. No, no. Find a candidate or message a candidate and maybe that's the value that you're adding as a third party recruiter. Right. And a lot of third partyers don't even realize that that is a value add that they have in the market because they're so worried about just trying to maybe get clients and, and get someone to sign an agreement for them. It's like, what is your actual value? Right.

Clark Willcox [00:10:04]:
And in terms of, you know, understand that with the pain point.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:07]:
Okay, so you've set the pain point, but you've also hit the sink about value.

Clark Willcox [00:10:12]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:12]:
And it's something that I love talking about. Like, I think a lot of recruiters don't sit back and understand the value that they bring to the table.

Clark Willcox [00:10:19]:
As a recruiter, 100%, it's the first thing I work on with anyone, whether they're a client or not a client, whether I'm on a sales call or discovery call, if they are a client. The first step in our program, the first thing anyone works on is the value prop. And some people can list it off the top of their head, most people can't. But that value prop and then working on your icp, either client or candidate profile, those are the first two things we work on. And well, I'm sure other coaching programs do as well and everyone should because you have to have the foundation, you have to know who you are to know who you can serve and who you can serve well. And so then they can have the clarity and the buy in because they don't Know who you are. And there's a lot of agencies competing out there. You have to be able to stand out.

Clark Willcox [00:11:06]:
You can't stand out if you don't know who you are. If you don't know where the value that you can add and have added for clients. And if that's not clear to the market. Most people that struggle with any sort of outreach or getting new clients or not having to rely on referrals is because they either don't know who they are, or maybe they do, but they're not displaying it anywhere. It's not clear to their market at all, like, who they are and why they can help them and why them. And that is how you get more out of automation, content, SEO, whatever else you want. That's how you start getting great clients when they're very clear that they're meant to work with you and vice versa.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:44]:
Here's a lot of things I think, like, recruiters are most of the time based in, like the 1980s, 1990s, just the thought process of how things are done. Like, you can be a great recruiter, but if nobody knows about you, guess what, nobody knows about you. I mean, you have your, what, three, five clients of the year that you're super happy with, when you could have way more. So, like, it's 2025 right now. Like, the world's changed. Like, how do you. We're gonna be talking about all these things, but first of all, like, how do you tell the world that you're good?

Clark Willcox [00:12:10]:
Well, we gotta fish where the fish are, and that's number one. You know, that's always kind of what's amazing to me. People spend all their money on their website and SEO. It's like, especially in recruiting. All your people are on LinkedIn now? Okay, yes. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. I started skilled trades, like industrial. If I tried to get candidates from LinkedIn, I was gonna struggle big time.

Clark Willcox [00:12:29]:
I was even on LinkedIn till 20, 27 years after I got into recruiting. So I get all that. Most people listening to this podcast, there's revenue for you on LinkedIn somewhere, whether it's clients or candidates or new market opportunity, whatever that looks like. If not, maybe it's Facebook, maybe it's X, maybe it's your own internal database. Right. But for most people, start with LinkedIn. Right? Fish where the fish are. Fix your profile.

Clark Willcox [00:12:54]:
Leverage the tools that are already on there. Right. Leverage some automation. Yes. There's a right and a wrong way to do it. Cover it. You know, I've covered it at length on the summit talks and everything else. Post the content, right? If you don't know what to post, if you don't know why you're posting or when to post or what's actually going to drain revenue, there's people like myself, there's other people out there that are doing a really good job and have gotten people results for themselves, but also their clients.

Clark Willcox [00:13:19]:
Right. You can easily study their pages and start to kind of pick up for free on some of the patterns. Right. Like do some of the work. But first is fish, where the fish are. And if you don't know what you're doing or where to start, just start studying it for free and start understanding your own behavior when it comes to what's capturing your attention. Because what's capturing your attention, if you can replicate, that's probably what's going to capture your market's attention.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:43]:
Okay, so I've actually had this question shot to me privately by numerous people.

Clark Willcox [00:13:47]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:47]:
Can you actually make money from a LinkedIn post and get clients from a LinkedIn post?

Clark Willcox [00:13:54]:
Yes. I mean, I'm living proof. It's built two businesses off just LinkedIn content just from. And just in the last three years, and I've been full time. I haven't been full time for three years, man. Like, it's been two and like really two and a half years. A little over two and a half years. Like April 2022 is when I went full time with this thing with digital Recruiter, started Digital Recruiter Talent Group, the agency.

Clark Willcox [00:14:16]:
A year after that, a week after my son was born, when I partnered up with Lauren D'Amato, one of my digital recruiter clients. And I met her through LinkedIn. I trained up her team at the time, you know, found them on LinkedIn. We found our clients and our split partnerships with Digital Recruiter, either through former clients that I found on LinkedIn or just partnerships I built through LinkedIn. It's a gold mine. It's easy to crap on LinkedIn. And do people pat themselves on the back and have too many exclamation marks and rocket emojis and all that stuff? Yes, and absolutely. LinkedIn can be the king of cringe, but it can also be the king of revenue.

Clark Willcox [00:14:50]:
And it does. Here's the thing, you don't have to be that polarizing, to be honest. It's a great way to get in front of your market daily. It's a sales touch point. Instead of being in the DMS and hitting them with email and the calls. Hey, are you hiring yet? Are you hiring yet just you get to share what you know about recruiting, because recruiting is not rocket science. The execution of recruiting almost feels like rocket science though, right? And so, and how many people screw up hiring everyone? That's why, like everyone's complaining about it and layoffs and the what the H1B1 visa debate on X right now. And like everyone's always complaining about hiring and labor and interview process or being mistreated.

Clark Willcox [00:15:27]:
Like it affects all of us in some way, shape or form. You don't have to give the chat gbt. Here's how to recruit. But you got to demonstrate that you're in the game, that you're showing that value. You do that and you can get, start getting inbound leads that you can automate and connect with your ecosystem day to day. And you can send the messages. You don't have to send the messages, but you can build that network while you're posting content that's relevant to them every single day. You're going to get inbound leads and you're going to get the opportunity to message people that are right there that might not message you, but you have maybe 10, 20, 50 people, 100 people maybe that have viewed your profile, liked your stuff or commented.

Clark Willcox [00:16:05]:
All you got to do is send one message and it opens up the conversation. People are doing it left and right. Myself, I put a hundred calls, hundreds of inbound calls. I've helped people help people go from 120 to $120,000 desk to a $600,000 desk in a year. All from LinkedIn inbound leads, plus a lot of other, you know, sales, coaching and everything else. Like, it's crazy what you can do. Longtime recruiters, 20 years, I've never posted on LinkedIn, make one post, get $150,000 pipeline and make a $50,000 placement all within 10 weeks. And that person just went through the hurricane in Asheville when he signed up.

Clark Willcox [00:16:38]:
He's using, he's using StarLink on our one on one calls, right? And he made one post and it activated a client he had an agreement with but never made a placement with and he got three senior level roles with them. Like it's crazy what you can do and it doesn't have to take a ton of time, right? It really just depends on your situation. But if you've been at it for a while and you have a network ready to activate, you could start getting results on that today.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:02]:
Well, let's talk about that in a second. Yeah, but you just mentioned the word a few times. Network. I Think that's one of the things a lot of recruiters, you know, might misunderstand what their network actually is and what it should be.

Clark Willcox [00:17:17]:
Let your network surprise you. That's what I've done. Like, I just set up the automation. I just, I don't even think about it anymore. I sent out my newsletter this morning and I got it. Dude, I think I spent less than five hours total last year on automation for my own profile. Like, and I got 3,300 new connections all within my ICP. Like, I barely spent any time.

Clark Willcox [00:17:39]:
Now, for a lot of people listening to this, you're gonna have to spend more time with your sourcing candidates or clients. Right. It was my wife's first year recruiting last year. She spent dozens of hours on automation. Right. It's just, it depends on your situation. But my point is when you have it really dialed in, it doesn't have to be that crazy or, but if it's constantly evolving, you could spend some time on it. But like, it just, it doesn't have to be that crazy to benefit and your network, I mean, you just don't know.

Clark Willcox [00:18:07]:
Like, hey, I've been seeing your stuff for a while. I get stuff from 2020, hey, I want to learn more. What are your offerings right now? Right. Or I get follow ups from sales calls. Maybe I didn't close right away. I got three messages just this morning. Hey, can you share with me your updated, like, program, you know, proposals or whatever that looks like, you know, I'm ready to enroll my person? Okay, great. And that all comes from just being out in front of the network because you don't know how they're always going to respond to you, but if they're always seeing you, you're giving them the chance to reach out to you.

Clark Willcox [00:18:36]:
That's fundamentally the mindset shift. I try to have everyone that I work with go through is give people the opportunity to work with you consistently. And if you can do that without badgering their inbox one by one and cold calling them ten times and all that, like, they're going to be a lot more receptive to it and they're going to feel like they're doing it on their terms. And if you know anything about buying behavior or empowerment, people want to feel like they're in control of the decision to work with someone or to buy you. Right. And so that's what you're allowing that to happen with marketing and building that network. And you don't necessarily have to activate the network, they'll activate themselves. If you get your messaging right.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:12]:
You know, looking at, you know, focusing on building the network for a recruiter that we'll just say has been on LinkedIn for ages. But I hate to say this, most of their network is other recruiters, but they're not recruiting other recruiters. So recruiting engineering, like engineers, how do you like really start focusing on actually building the network so that way the content can activate your network?

Clark Willcox [00:19:35]:
Yeah, I mean, number one, I would say don't worry about it, whatever, your network is compromised. I have people, oh, I deleted my connections and all that. I don't care. I wouldn't even waste, I don't tell people to waste time on doing that. Now if you're at 30,000 connections and you need to remove a few thousand to be able to add people, maybe In a new ICP or double down on an ICP, sure. But for most people, you know, if you're 4,000 connections or whatever, don't worry about scrubbing your connection. Actually let them help boost some of your stuff, right? I don't care about likes and all that stuff on LinkedIn content, but if you got a network that's going to like your stuff, like let them, right, Let them build up some of your authority and oh, this person's got 50 likes, 100, 200. No one's going to check to see where those are from, right? But then you have something in your featured section that has 100 likes or 200 likes, like, okay, that can kind of, that can look good for some LinkedIn cache and credibility.

Clark Willcox [00:20:22]:
So just keep building. But to fix your network, right, to really answer the question is figure out what do you want more of. I always tell people, like your strategy on LinkedIn should be what business do you want more of? Not what business have you closed the most of, right. I had a client just re up and he's like, well, we've place a ton of software engineers, but I don't want to deal with software managers. I'd rather deal with some of these other, okay, let's work on those other ones. So it's not necessarily where you made the most revenue, but where do you see the market going? Where do you want to be? Where do you be most fulfilled? And kind of that there's less friction, right? Figure that out. If your network is mostly recruiters, but you want to get more into construction, start connecting with more PMs and supers and C level people and like those hiring manager types, you can automate a ton of that stuff. You're going to build it over Time.

Clark Willcox [00:21:09]:
And if you're writing content that's relevant to them, sure, your recruiter network might like or comment, that's fine. Use that for engagement. But just keep at it. Never stop posting it. Over three months, six months, nine months, you're going to start to see the demographics change and to have more of an uptick into a construction audience. And that's what you want. So you got to take a step, you got to build the strategy. Right.

Clark Willcox [00:21:31]:
You got to actually have the system and then you just got to go. And you cannot stop and stop getting worried about one post or one day or one week. But start thinking about what can I get done in a year. Can I build a thousand new connections in the construction industry in a year and have a hundred posts that are related to the construction industry and hiring? Right. If you do that, you're going to have the only network you need to drive 6, 7 figures in additional new business.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:55]:
Okay, just say that again because I've seen you post about this multiple times.

Clark Willcox [00:21:58]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:59]:
In one year you can develop a brand new network or develop your network.

Clark Willcox [00:22:04]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:04]:
Do a hundred posts within that space and have six to seven figures in revenue.

Clark Willcox [00:22:09]:
I mean you could do that blindfolded. Walking backwards in recruiting. The margins are ridiculous. We all know some of those people. And all that's like I can't. I think one of the things I couldn't believe in recruiting is how much money people were making that had 5% of the training that I did going through the airtech pipeline. And what's that?

Benjamin Mena [00:22:26]:
Wait, real quick, what's that? What do you think separates like the people that are doing that versus than many other recruiters out there?

Clark Willcox [00:22:31]:
Look, because people are leveraging their strategic advantage. And now to be clear, I have no resentment to those people. Those people validate what I'm doing significantly. And God bless them for it. I love it. It's actually given me more realization of how much we could impact people doing 250, half a mil or close to seven figures that have actually no formal training or understanding of why they're so successful or how to double down on their network. So I love it. But there's something to be learned from there of the margins are so good that it doesn't take a crazy system.

Clark Willcox [00:23:02]:
It doesn't take all the tools or spending all the money. Those people understand the strategic advantage. Oh, I have a friend in private equity, so. And I have a connection I went to school with and so now I have my firm. Well, they're introduced me to 8 of their portfolio companies. Now I have clients and now I make good money. That happens over and over again. That's one example that I'm referring to.

Clark Willcox [00:23:23]:
And because recruiting isn't necessarily a rocket science, they can send a few hundred inmails and justify a recruiter's feet and boom, they've made some placements, right? They made maybe half a million dollars. That's great. That was a lot of people. In 2021, 2022, a lot of those people came to me the last two years. I'm like, help. I don't know how to make make money. I don't know how to have predictability. In my business, there's people that can make money, but a lot less people that have predictability.

Clark Willcox [00:23:45]:
And that's what AirTech coaches is a predictable system of doing your G2s, your interviews, your submittals, right? And so that's what you want to blend. And that's the powerhouse agencies. You've interviewed a lot of those owners as well, that mix their network with the systems and the trainings and they're doing 10 million, 40 million I saw for one, right. Like they're blending all of that together. Most people kind of get one dimensional, but you can make a lot of money being one dimensional and recruiting. Right. And so they get away with it until they don't get away with it. Right.

Clark Willcox [00:24:14]:
And then they typically come to me and I get that. But like that's where you can add the revenue that one post generated. 150,000. A new pipeline, Right. There's other posts that have generated more. If you're brand new to recruiting. I had a client brand new to recruiting his agriculture for 20 years. He built a pipeline just on his first few posts.

Clark Willcox [00:24:33]:
He has no recruiting background, no sales. No sales background, Right. He's a regional manager and he's already gone leads from just activating his network. Hey, we've been connected on LinkedIn. I saw your post. I need a few salespeople. He's got a call tomorrow. And that was in December, right? When everyone takes the break.

Clark Willcox [00:24:47]:
We built the system in December. It's just, just one post. Brand new to recruiting. He's got a pipeline now. He's got to get the reps. He's got a master, the sales call. It may or may not work out for him. Right.

Clark Willcox [00:24:57]:
But he's at that level. Our goal with him is to get more reps. One system, right? One post, he's already getting those reps. No cold call, no cold email, no nothing else. Right. So it's Just like that's what I mean. When you can build it's. And it just depends on what you already have.

Clark Willcox [00:25:14]:
And if you don't have a huge network, go build one. I went from 150 connections to 20,000 followers in four years. Just a little bit every single day. I. I know I'm rambling a little bit. I'm gonna stop.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:24]:
But yeah, I'm so excited. We're gonna be kicking off a AI and clay boot camp at the end of this month. I've actually partnered with Stephen from the Art of Sales Academy. You guys saw him talk at the last summit. But we are putting together a four week bootcamp because if you guys want a good laugh, some of these AI tools are complicated and I'm going to be sitting in the class learning along with you. But these AI tools, once you master them, they can have such a huge impact in your business. But the problem is learning the tools. So we're partnered up to put together a boot camp starting at the end of this month to help you master these tools so that way you can multiply what you have done for your recruiting business.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:03]:
And on top of that, I'm also going to add in a free VIP ticket for the Rock the Year summit. So that way you don't miss any of that. Also so excited. Join me for the bootcamp so that way we together can learn how to master these AI tools so that way it can work for you. Okay. So like we've literally just talked about how content and posting on LinkedIn can actually bring in real revenue. We talked about how like, you know, figuring out how to, you know, work with your market, work with your network. We've also talked about like, you know, when it comes to like investing in your network.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:41]:
Yeah, but I think one of the things that like might keep people from making 2025 the year that they want is self awareness. Yeah, you just laughed.

Clark Willcox [00:26:54]:
It's the key to all this, man. It really is. And look, I got a few things really figured out. I got way more things not figured out. You know, like it just that right there. I didn't realize how powerful it was to know that. It's really important. People get worried about posting.

Clark Willcox [00:27:12]:
What are people gonna think? Who cares? We got one life to live. I'm not gonna worry about what Becky or Tom, A second degree connection that has no idea who I am. If they make some ignorant post or comment on my post, I don't care. I can leverage that to and reply and make me and probably to my benefit to the rest of my network, right? Like, I just. Life is legitimately too short to actually care and to treat this like high school. Let other people do that. But I think the awareness that I had is I looked at who are the people that are winning with, the people that are winning with humility, with character, all that. And I realized that, number one, it was possible.

Clark Willcox [00:27:51]:
And what did I do to earn that right? When I first got into kind of coaching, consulting and Digital Marketing 2018, I tried an offer and tried a consulting, and I realized pretty quickly, like, I was full of crap. Like, I had no business running a coaching offer at that time, where I was at personally and all that. Like, I learned the system and I had the ability to write and to generate leads and all that, but I wasn't. I hadn't earned the right to bring people on as clients and quote, unquote, do high ticket and all that stuff. Like. And so I went back to the drawing board and it was just that awareness of, like, I'm not. I'm not there. I'm not that guy yet.

Clark Willcox [00:28:28]:
Like, it seemed on paper, it's great, I can make money online, right? Recruiting or coaching or whatever, but I hadn't earned the right to do it. And I had to get to the drawing board and I had to learn and I had to work. And it took me another year to hit rock bottom, to really, like, get there. But then I started working with Stephen Perchakoff and Art of Sales and you interviewed him a couple years ago. And I was an account manager and I just like, learned the digital stuff. But I learned from an owner that had already built something that I could impact him. Instead of trying to run my own thing, I wasn't ready to run my own thing. And I just learned everything I could.

Clark Willcox [00:29:03]:
And just having that awareness, I got paid to build out the network and add value to him. Like, it was just that. And I've just tried to keep that with me at every step of the way. So go ahead.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:14]:
You mentioned about hitting rock bottom.

Clark Willcox [00:29:16]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:17]:
Can you talk about that real quick? One of the biggest reasons for those listening, why I want you to talk about that, because I know this last year has not been absolutely stellar for every single person out there. I know there are people, like, looking at launching their own businesses that have gone under. I know recruiters have struggled. I know we share success stories, and the success stories are for you to help you win and get in the game. But I know people that have personally hit rock bottom. This year. You hit rock bottom. What happened and how did you climb out?

Clark Willcox [00:29:43]:
Yeah, I can't remember if I talked about this on the first episode, like the first time we recorded or not, but I left Aerotech the end of 2017. I just got burnt out from that model, from being in skill trades and like, it just wasn't a fit to how I wanted to recruit and something against them. They gave me my opportunity and all that and I left on good terms. I think I gave like a 3 week notice. My GBO kept me on for extra 3 weeks. Like it was all good. I just needed a different challenge and I got burnt out. So I kind of went away from recruiting and in that I was in la, but being in LA without a consistent schedule and I hit 31 and I was working through some, you know, the childhood stuff and did like a retreat, you know, because for those of you who don't know, like, I lost both my parents when I was age 5, like pretty, pretty close apart.

Clark Willcox [00:30:31]:
And so like, I was really going through this, like, oh, I gotta take care of me more. Well, that turned me into a huge prick, to be honest, for a year. And like, I got way too arrogant and blew all my savings and investing into like projects and companies that I shouldn't have. Like, oh, I'm going to be an entrepreneur and all that. I just made bad decisions and I think my intentions were. I shouldn't even say my intentions were that great. I just want to make a bunch of money. I think just to say that I made a bunch of money and being in la, being on a lot of stuff was like super superficial.

Clark Willcox [00:31:06]:
I just kind of went down that road a little bit and I just everything. And when, I mean, I hit rough, I hit it fast, dude. Like, it took me not a little over a year. We got to lose six figures in savings and everything else. Living out there in, in March, like right before I realized like I had no cash, like three weeks before, like, for me, my faith is important. It was like kind of God woke me up. It was just like, hey, all this stuff that you thought wasn't true, you grew up going to church. Actually it is true.

Clark Willcox [00:31:35]:
But here's kind of what you were missing. I was like, oh, I believe in this now. And that was awkward. And it was awkward to like embraced that. And his first test was, okay, now you have no money. I was like, do you still believe this? And I'm like, crap, I do, but I have no money. And I had a friend get me out from LA to Columbus, Ohio, and he basically sponsored my move out there. Like I wouldn't have been able.

Clark Willcox [00:31:57]:
I had to, you know, I paid him back over the next nine months and everything else, but like that's the rock bottom. Like I used up basically all my favorites. Like there's 31, 32 had hit rock bottom. I was like, what the hell is wrong with me? Like what am I doing? And I just, in that year of like finding my faith, it wasn't about, oh, I'm better than everyone else. I ate like a huge. I had a whole humble pie of like, wow. I thought I was well intentioned, but my actions have created a ton of collateral damage. Like I was lacking the self awareness.

Clark Willcox [00:32:29]:
Like I didn't realize that kind of a go lucky attitude or let's go out to this and do this and all that. Like I was having a negative impact way more than I realized. And my behavior, my actions were not lined up with who I thought I should be at all. And that's what kind of my faith woke me up to, was like how much of a not a great person I had been. And I wasn't malicious. I was trying to actively hurt people. But doesn't matter, right? The actions were one thing. So kind of had to pick myself from ground up and just getting that support, moving, getting out here, I was so grateful and I was like, I don't care.

Clark Willcox [00:33:09]:
And that year, I mean, I was making no money. I got a job remodeling for $12 an hour. I was so terrible at it. But those owners were so nice to me and they still gave me a bonus and all that just because I was a willing worker, even though I was an absolute meathead. And then I got a job, 15 an hour with a payment management company. And those owners all were so nice, just gave me opportunity. And all I did was just like, I had a humble approach. I just wanted to work hard and I had to have the self awareness of like, I got myself into this and one day at a time is how I'm going to get myself out.

Clark Willcox [00:33:39]:
And it was the most impactful year of my life, was when I was making no money, but I was on the road back to respectability and being like, I don't need this overnight. I'm going to work every single day. I got to make sure I build a system around my life where I'm not complacent and I have focus and I have direction. Otherwise I get myself into trouble. And I just had to know that about myself, man. And that wasn't the first time I kind of Hit rock bottom. But, God, I hope it's the last time, you know, God willing. And that's a little bit of the insight to it.

Clark Willcox [00:34:12]:
But, man, if it wasn't for, you know, the grace of God and put in some great people in my life, but also just being like, him telling me, like, man, you gotta just, like, you gotta be better, dude. And here's the playbook, right? It's not about being holier than now and all that, like, fix your own stuff, right? Take the splinter out of your own eye. And that's. That's a lifetime of work, man. That's a little bit of the story, man. Yeah, but it was. It was brutal. It was pretty bad.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:36]:
What's your advice for a recruiter listening? They've hit rock bottom. They know it's going to take one day at a time, but they want to look in the mirror and have that respectableness again.

Clark Willcox [00:34:49]:
Forgive yourself for however you got to that point. No one sets out to be a failure, right? I certainly didn't. Just because I didn't know how to win doesn't mean I was trying to lose. Just be like, all right, I'm here. Own it. But I can get out. Like, there's always a way out. There really is.

Clark Willcox [00:35:10]:
Now you can come up with a how about out of this situation? I don't know. You know, I'm not here to come up with all different scenarios, but I just like, okay, I'm here. Accept it, Own it. It's all good. And then you have to develop the attitude. And this is where I think, fake it till you make it comes from. But the healthy version of that is I just owned where I was at. I knew I was the one that screwed up, but I figured out a way to forgive myself and have an attitude and just be grateful for the fact that I had a chance to do something.

Clark Willcox [00:35:42]:
And I made myself very willing to just work and do the grunt jobs people needed to get done, right? I'm not saying no one else would do, but just, like, what do people need to do? Like, I'm willing to help anyway. Just have that willingness. Stop deflecting opportunities or being too good for opportunities when you're down and out, right? Because whatever got you there, clearly the way you were thinking about opportunities before was incorrect. And that's what I realized about myself. Like, the road to success is there's a lot of things sometimes you might not want to do and. But you don't have to do it forever, right? I'm not doing remodeling Now I'm not doing payment management now. Right. But I knew at the time it wasn't going to be my forever.

Clark Willcox [00:36:22]:
But in that moment, I treated it like it was the only thing I ever had going on. And that makes an impact on people.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:30]:
And in recruiting, you know, you took ownership like, this is the year. What you're saying is this is the year that you can make this the year of ownership.

Clark Willcox [00:36:39]:
Yeah, ownership and action.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:41]:
Yeah, ownership and action. So I know we've talked about a lot and I know you've talked a lot about the summits, but in the year of ownership and action, what is the grunt work in recruiting that is going to take you out of where you're at to where you want to.

Clark Willcox [00:36:55]:
Be if you're struggling right now, talk to everyone, figure out where you can add value. People like, well, I don't have any roles. Okay, well, candidates need help with their LinkedIn or their resume and all that. Right? Add value, right? Figure out who you want to serve and where you can add value from a candidate and a client side. Like get used to the free consulting and get used to it. I mean, sales is serving. I've given away more, quote, unquote, given away more value on sales calls. I think some people give away in a six month program and I think you get people that can vouch for that and like that's just get comfortable with it.

Clark Willcox [00:37:25]:
You're gonna lose money, you're gonna lose deals. Like, who cares? Like give. Let people know that you got something to offer and just give. Just be willing and give not to receive, man. Just like poor. Put it out there and make it happen. Right? As soon as I learned about automation, I was like, everyone's got to know about this. As soon as I learned about the impact of content, I was like, I want to teach everyone about this.

Clark Willcox [00:37:45]:
And there's different levels of that. Some people are going to be paying customers, some people won't be. I've had a ton of referrals for people that have never paid me a dime. I didn't expect that. I didn't know that was going to happen. But it just came because I was just like, I got to get out there and I got to let people know that I know this and I believe in it and I think they're missing some things and what if I could fill in the gap for them?

Benjamin Mena [00:38:05]:
How can a recruiter do that for their own story?

Clark Willcox [00:38:07]:
Yeah, well, I mean, you run the exercise. I mean, you can have ChatGPT help you. How do I define a Value prop. Okay, this is what I've done. How would you craft it for me? This is the type of clients I would work with. Like, create like an ideal candidate or client document for me. Right. Create a LinkedIn profile with that.

Clark Willcox [00:38:22]:
Like, I'm giving away the game here, but, like, you can do it yourself. Remove the rocket emojis, right? Just fix up your profile, make it, make it aware. I couldn't believe when I fixed my profile and started automation, ran automation campaigns, connect with more recruiters. Like, oh, you worked at Aerotech. You did that? Like, that's super cool. Like, I'm on the phone with you because you worked at Aerotech. Like, I respect them. I was like, oh, I had no idea how much value and pull that had in the market to me.

Clark Willcox [00:38:48]:
They were like, they just hired me and it was just what I did. And like, you know what I mean? Like, let the market almost surprise you, but put yourself out there, you know, and share your thoughts. Share whether it's value.

Benjamin Mena [00:38:57]:
As a perfect example, I'm in the government contracting space.

Clark Willcox [00:39:00]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:01]:
You know, I've probably been hiding under a rock for a long time like most government contract recruiters because we live in a cleared secret society. So you're saying that I need to be out there sitting there talking more and just being excited about all the different things and like, hey, guys, have you guys checked out this, like, new AI automation tools when it comes to getting government bids and RFPs out?

Clark Willcox [00:39:19]:
Yeah, but how many people don't know that?

Benjamin Mena [00:39:21]:
So this is the kind of stuff that I should be doing as a recruiter?

Clark Willcox [00:39:24]:
Absolutely. For me, it was. I was just talking about automation. I posted a couple times about it in the inbox and I had people look at my profile, my post, like, yo, what is this LinkedIn automation? This is when I was just starting digital recruiter and I was like, oh, you can do this, you can do that. And they're like, that's insane. And like, I'd find some, you know, common, you know, piece that we had. They're like, I love your post. And Matt, that was off, like, my first three or four posts doing this.

Clark Willcox [00:39:47]:
I was like, I've been using this automation tool. It's super cool. And I got on a phone and I talked to the owner and they were like, they, they just like, liked me and they were cool. And like, next thing I know, like, they, you know, pay me a few thousand dollars to like, get two of their people up and running on automation for a few weeks and all that. And then that we Made their candidate and their clients were a lot easier. And I was just like, they're like, wow, this really does work. Right? And I had to figure out, you know, the build the courses and everything else, but they were like, the value is there. I just shared with it and I just showed in the messaging.

Clark Willcox [00:40:18]:
I didn't really know how I was going to pitch them or what the offer was going to be, but I'm like, this is a really cool way. And their problem was they wanted more clients and they wanted to make Canada outreach also easier for some of their recruiters as well. I was like, I know I can do that for you. I've done that. And it's just like, then we got on the phone and we figured out I didn't have all the answers beforehand.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:37]:
So we need to literally move the rock out of the way and get over ourselves and go out there and post.

Clark Willcox [00:40:42]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:42]:
Like share what's the entire conversation.

Clark Willcox [00:40:45]:
Yeah. And to simplify it, I have full clients. Like, post the boring stuff. And what does that mean, the stuff to you, Ben? Like this automation tool that you've probably known about for a while now. Like the stuff that's like, wait, doesn't everyone know that that's what you should be posting? Because the shouldn't everyone know that means that you really know it in and out. But your ideal processing managers or clients don't because that's typically what you're doing. What? On a cold call, cold email, you're just trying to figure out like, who actually needs me. Right.

Clark Willcox [00:41:12]:
We're always looking for people that work with agencies. Right. Because that means that they've already paid agencies or signed, but they're maybe not happy with their current ones right now. Right. That's the whole thing. That's like, hey, there's a better solution. But maybe they weren't aware of that. Right? They weren't solution aware.

Clark Willcox [00:41:25]:
Like, that's what you're sharing. Because people. And just look at your own behavior. Who do you follow on social media that we all have those blogs that we go to, the creators that we follow. Like, think about why a lot of the times it's not people that are the most polarizing. It's just their value or their take on something that, you know, people don't follow a million health influencers. You probably have your one or two that you pay attention to. Why out of all the thousands of them.

Clark Willcox [00:41:52]:
Right. Like, and understand that it's probably because they're connect with you on like an authentic level and they, they feel relatable Right. And they're talking about information that you could find on Google or ChatGPT, but they're delivering it in a way that makes you, again, we talk about authentic sales that makes you drawn to them as the individual. So it's the way they're packaging the information that you're drawn to. It's the same thing with your market. Right. Especially with what you built with your podcast and everything. Ben, like, you start talking about those things, I guarantee you're gonna get way more leads and way more business people.

Clark Willcox [00:42:25]:
Like, yeah, we were just wondering about that. You know how that works. You've been through that well, can we just work with you? Because we don't know where to find that person that actually knows how to work with the system and go find the talent. That's it. That's a 200 word post a couple times a week. Like, that's it. That's all you know. I say I'm minimizing the effort.

Clark Willcox [00:42:43]:
I mean it takes. You got to get there. But compared to whatever else it would take to get that type of interest and urgency from a prospect, there's nothing that beats it.

Benjamin Mena [00:42:54]:
Okay. So we've literally covered from A to Z how you can take ownership of your and actually and absolutely change the story that you want to write yourself.

Clark Willcox [00:43:03]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:43:03]:
Before we jump to the quick fire questions, is there anything that you want to cover on those topics that we've just hammered through?

Clark Willcox [00:43:09]:
Good sales, good marketing is boring. Like when you're like, oh, I got to do this every. I'm just going to throw this post out there and all that. Like, yep, when you know what works, you get to double down on and guess what? Then you have time to figure out other stuff. Right. And. But your top of funnel as a recruiter in 2025 should almost feel like it's on autopilot. And if it's not, like you have to fix that because that's what's going to free up more time for that medium and bottle funnel activities.

Clark Willcox [00:43:34]:
Right. You interview, set up more placement and the ability to work on more roles at the same time, not rely on inmails and just tools. But like you yourself can make yourself more profitable. And it's through the boring stuff. It's not more tools, it's not, you know, everything else. It's just through getting more out of yourself and it's not that crazy to do it. And then when you get it done right, it's boring. Like you can just copy and paste your own content probably, or repurpose some of it on autopilot and you know it's going to get a few likes, a few thousand impressions and probably generate some leads or some lead opportunities like that is possible for every single recruiter in 2025.

Benjamin Mena [00:44:14]:
Love that. Well, let's just talk about this jumping into the quickfire question. Some of these questions I asked you previously a year and a half ago. Love to get your take on if things have changed but you got a recruiter that reaches out to you or something like that just recently happened. Has never been a recruiter before just getting started in this game. What advice would you tell them to win?

Clark Willcox [00:44:35]:
I have a Runway of at least one or two years of finances because that buys you the time to get the reps. You have to get the reps. You have to embrace not being good in the beginning. If you have no Runway. If you need money at three months, six months, I wouldn't do it. I would do something else where I would get some sort of full time job and build your agency on the side first. This particular person I talked to for two years before he made the jump and he is two years saved up and that's why I felt comfortable working with him. I don't work with people that have no Runway, that are brand new to recruiting unless it's a side hustle.

Clark Willcox [00:45:09]:
But if they're only relying on it because then you're going to be selling scared and that's, that's no way to win. So have a Runway number one. Because you have to respect how hard this is to get great business and great clients in the close stuff and not waste your time. What everyone does sign agreements. So I got all these roles, I'm going to fill them, but they haven't qualified them nearly well enough. And that's the second point I would say is your client and rec qualification process has to be so dialed in, you have to be obsessed with it. That's where most people need the most help. But their ego won't let them admit it because like, well, how hard can it be in the amount that I've helped even veteran recruiters get better at qualifying business in the roles.

Clark Willcox [00:45:52]:
And I'm not like, look, I just follow the process that works like crazy, like that's it. But sometimes we just need someone to check ourselves on that piece of it. So have a Runway and qualify like crazy. And then the third is set up your marketing system that's gonna build your network, build your brand awareness, especially if you're solo, that's gonna get your name out there every single day. And then by the end of the year, you could have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in your market that have seen your content. Most of those are going to be over and over again. Right? So have the Runway qualify like crazy. Get your marketing and your automation system rolling.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:31]:
I feel like that also covers experienced recruiters, but is there anything else that you want to say to, like, recruiters that have been in the game for a bit?

Clark Willcox [00:46:37]:
What are you waiting for? Right? If you want to make more money, if you want to work less and get more done. Right. Leverage your wins like you are sitting on a gold mine. If you figure out, like, how to post and the headlines and the call to actions and hashtags, like, you figure out the tactical stuff, you have all the wins. My favorite recruiters to work with, they have their foundation, they have a niche. Right. The vertical that they've owned. They've had success.

Clark Willcox [00:47:02]:
They just have never put themselves out there on LinkedIn. They must always see some sort of results within weeks, if not days of actually get putting themselves out there. Because once they open the door and get somebody opportunity, it's like, oh, wait, this is all I needed to do. I'm like, yeah. And then we have to figure out how to do it consistently. And you know, all that. But then there's a whole learning curve there. But then the light bulb comes on like, oh, like I don't have to rely on referrals anymore.

Clark Willcox [00:47:27]:
No. And the inbound leads are better than referrals. Yup. Because you're taking control. It's proactive. We talk about proactive recruiting. It's proactive selling, it's proactive marketing. Like, you're dictating, you're telling the market, hey, this is what my insights, my opinions, this is who I work with best.

Clark Willcox [00:47:44]:
This is who I help the best. If that's you, like, let's talk, right? Some of the people are gonna be like, yeah, I'm good. And some of the people are like, hell yeah, let's talk. Those are gonna be your best clients book.

Benjamin Mena [00:47:54]:
Is it still the same book that's had the biggest impact?

Clark Willcox [00:47:56]:
Or, I mean, Bibles? Yeah, for sure had the biggest impact on me. Did I read it enough in 2024? Absolutely not. And that is one of the things that I'm working on this year. You know, it's new family, one and a half year old, one on the way. Like business, it's one of the easy things to get away from for me. And then just getting back to that consistently no book has had a bigger impact on me. I have a couple books here. I have like the Elon Musk book that I got to start diving into.

Clark Willcox [00:48:21]:
I got to make more time for reading this year. I've been listening to kind of different podcasts. I got a lot into like more like the comedy podcast last year just to kind of like lighten the load a little bit from the seriousness of sometimes like the day to day and work. But I did start listening to the Sean Ryan podcast a little bit too. But then there was a whole crazy thing with him the last few days. So I don't know what's going on there, you know, because I thought that was interesting. So yeah, the book is still for me, the Bible. And then I got a laundry list of about 15 books that I haven't read that I need to open up one.

Clark Willcox [00:48:47]:
I'm like LeBron James who, you know, they take the picture of him reading his new book. He's always on page one. That's me right now.

Benjamin Mena [00:48:57]:
I'm hoping to get a little more reading in. I just found at the library a challenge for gabe, who's now 14 months.

Clark Willcox [00:49:03]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:04]:
1,000 books by the time he hits kindergarten. That's. I mean, but think of it. Most of the books feel like Hop on Pop.

Clark Willcox [00:49:10]:
Yeah. I mean we have Spot and Spot's dad go out for a picnic or whatever. We've been, we've been crushing that one recently. There's been a lot of Goodnight Moon. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:20]:
But I'll start adding in some of these business books. Like Gabe just got done reading the Psychology of Money.

Clark Willcox [00:49:25]:
Yeah. He could give you 10 points on his favorite on Psycho. What? Cybernetics or whatever. Right. Or whatever that is. Or four hour work week. You know, his plot is a summary on that.

Benjamin Mena [00:49:37]:
Well, anyways, jumping over to tech tool. Do you have a favorite tech tool of the moment?

Clark Willcox [00:49:42]:
All right, so the cool part about this answer, because you made me think about it is it's probably not going to be that much different from what I gave. The answer I gave almost a little over a year and a half ago. And that's a good thing. And I want to illustrate that. I've been using Sales Navigator and Tripify since that last show. Not much. My campaign hasn't changed. My list really hasn't changed.

Clark Willcox [00:50:01]:
It still works, you know, five, six thousand new connections since that last episode later. That's 199 bucks a month for a tech stack. And it's built. I'll be built my whole network on LinkedIn. I love it. I like using hemingwayapp.com it's free and I copy and paste my posts in there. It shows like the reading level that everything's at and you want to keep things typically around a grade 5 reading level for social media content that's going to get engagement and people are going to read and understand and want to reach out to you for yes, grade five. I know that might sound a little pathetic, but that's the truth.

Benjamin Mena [00:50:34]:
I'm just laughing at that because behind the scenes and I appreciate this, like this isn't anything bad to anybody. I can't tell you how many times per month people reach out to me about all my spelling errors on LinkedIn and I'm like, at least you know, it's actually me writing it.

Clark Willcox [00:50:48]:
And that's, that is the thing. It's. I actually don't mind spelling errors now. I'll keep a couple in there and my email stuff, my sequences and all that just so people know to me writing it.

Benjamin Mena [00:50:58]:
Sorry, I just. And I appreciate that because like, yeah, I actually like, I'm blind to spelling stuff. So I appreciate that. Now we've already, I know we kind of talked about like some of the other typical quickfire questions before, but I got a new one for you.

Clark Willcox [00:51:12]:
Let's go.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:13]:
You talk to a ton of recruiters. You have a lot of conversations with recruiters about all sorts of things and I'm sure most of them are tactical. What is the thing that you wish they would actually ask you? The question they would actually ask you and what's that answer?

Clark Willcox [00:51:25]:
I think I knew this was coming. I'm still stumped. No, I'm not stumped. There's like so many. How do I pick just one? I think it might go back to that self awareness of like, I don't even know if it's something they should ask me. If it's almost like how do I reverse engineer what I want? And so it's like asking me that, which sometimes we cover. But like I would say, and then I would ask like, well, why? Like what are you trying to get out of this? And so the question is, you know what I mean? Like, that's what I want them to think about. And whatever they ask me that, it's like, what do you think? Or like what's the quickest path? Or like you've heard my story, like what should I do given the roadmap and actually like listen, right? I think so many people over complicate things and.

Clark Willcox [00:52:12]:
Yeah, go ahead.

Benjamin Mena [00:52:13]:
I think getting out of this. You want people to figure out what they want.

Clark Willcox [00:52:17]:
Yeah. How do I simplify my day?

Benjamin Mena [00:52:20]:
Oh, that's another good one. But let's focus on figuring out what you want and then we'll do the simplify the day. When you're sitting there talking with somebody, a recruiter, how many times or how many questions do you have to ask to get to the actual root of what they want?

Clark Willcox [00:52:35]:
It's a great question, actually working with a sales coach on that, that worked with before to kind of really dive into kind of the numbers on it. Sometimes it could be the first question. Sometimes they'll tell me right away. I just have to, you know, typically they just tell me what they're looking for and just ask them why. This is what I want to get done. Okay, great. Some people want a lifestyle business. Some people want to scale to $10 million.

Clark Willcox [00:52:55]:
I'm saying, why? What does that do for you? Okay, well, let's figure that out. That's what we're here for. There is a little bit kind of the start with why. Right? The Simon Sinek we can do whatever. We can create a lifestyle business. We can figure out a roadmap to scale to eight figures doing that. It's a whole nother question. But the roadmaps aren't crazy to figure out.

Clark Willcox [00:53:15]:
But why? What's going to keep you going when this becomes really hard? What's going to keep you going? Why are you going to stick with it? And I could tell pretty. I could usually tell if someone's going to stick with number one, recruiting or not, or they're going to even bother to listen if they want to just validate what they've already come up with on their head. If they're actually willing to figure this out and get better and improve.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:36]:
And you also just mentioned, like talking about the day, like, why that too.

Clark Willcox [00:53:40]:
Because it's so easy to fill our day up with nonsense and to be busy but not productive, you know, so coming up with a plan is one step of it, actually staying with it. Actionable consistency is a whole other thing. But just simplify your day, you know, that's why I love tools like Dripify and LinkedIn content, because it simplifies my day. I never have to worry if I'm putting myself out there and I've got outreach going. I haven't had to worry about it in four plus years. I worry about that every day at Aerotech. Every single day. I was like, I'm not doing enough outreach.

Clark Willcox [00:54:10]:
I'm not doing it because I wasn't because I wasn't on digital. I was on LinkedIn. I had to train my recruiters, I had to fill the current roles. I had a cold call. I had to do meetings in person. I could do all the things that was always something got left out. Typically for me it was new outreach because I was so into current clients and my team and that fulfillment and all that stuff. And so just how do I simplify my day and what are the, you know, what are the non negotiables maybe for my day as well? You can't get on that roller coaster.

Clark Willcox [00:54:40]:
Well, I couldn't do business development because I was recruiting. I couldn't do recruiting because I was doing business development. There's no excuse not to do both every single day in probably less time than you're doing one right now.

Benjamin Mena [00:54:52]:
Oh, Clark, this is once again always a fun interview with you, but it's also cool like you know, just over the past few years, the friendship that we've had.

Clark Willcox [00:54:59]:
Absolutely.

Benjamin Mena [00:55:00]:
But for the listeners out there listening to this right now, if they want to go follow you, how do they go about and do that?

Clark Willcox [00:55:05]:
Yeah, check me out. LinkedIn Clark Wilcox 2 Wilson Wilcox. Website is digitalrecruiter IO but connect with me on LinkedIn. Shoot me a message. Especially if anything here resonated with you. I'd love to hear. I also getting feedback on what people actually care about learning and what's helpful. That's how I get better.

Clark Willcox [00:55:21]:
And everything I do to get better, I try to give back to the community. Hey, here's what I'm learning and figuring out and really trying to link arms with the digital recruiter community and build each other up. And I look at this as almost just the beginning. I don't have any plans of ever stopping this. So I don't know, in many ways we're just kind of getting going even three years in almost. So connect with me, shoot me a message. I'd love to hear what kind of what you're working on, what you're thinking about in terms of automation, content, you know, the digital recruiter challenge of making a thousand new connections. 100 posts this year.

Clark Willcox [00:55:52]:
You know, if you want to get in and really partner up on working with that, you know, hit me up. We got some, you know, great community and some different options on how you can, how you can get involved and invest in yourself. And they're pretty reasonable. We have stuff at every different price point. So we'll, you know, kind of figure out where it kind of meet you, where you're at. See how we can support you or your team. And even sometimes that might just be liking each other's content. Right.

Clark Willcox [00:56:13]:
Or just being connected. So just reach out and any of this resonates with you. Reach out, send me a message and we'll go from there.

Benjamin Mena [00:56:20]:
Awesome. And so we, we covered a lot.

Clark Willcox [00:56:23]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:56:24]:
But I think the most important thing is the self awareness that you have to craft the story and create the year that you want.

Clark Willcox [00:56:31]:
Be patient with yourself when you have that. You know, the whole Rome wasn't built in a day, you know, just it's always going to take a little longer.

Benjamin Mena [00:56:38]:
Than you think before I let you go. Is there anything else that you want to share with people?

Clark Willcox [00:56:41]:
Listening, self awareness, patience. Have fun with it. Right. Have a smile when you're on your sales calls. Have fun with your sales calls. The prospects with candidates like to enjoy the ride, like no matter where you're at and sometimes in the middle of the biggest challenges, that's where you can have the most fun. So just remember that recruiting is enough of a grind. There's no point having a bad attitude with it as well.

Clark Willcox [00:57:06]:
It's no fun for anyone. So, you know, have fun with it where you can. Right.

Benjamin Mena [00:57:12]:
Awesome. Well, Clark, I just want to say thank you so much for jumping on, hopping on here again. And I know typically at the summits, you're one of the favorite talks every single time, just up leveling the entire community. So cannot wait for. I know this is going live after the BDN sales conference, but you are also going to be part of Rock the Year in March. So it is going to be set up coming out of Q1 into Q2. You know, you've been putting in the work and it's one of those things that I know that I've seen from the sales conferences at places like Aerotech. There's a reason why they have the big conferences.

Benjamin Mena [00:57:44]:
As your energy's doing this, the conference lifts you back up to go for the next quarter. And that's what we're here, here to do. And Clark, I'm so excited that you're part of it. But man, let's make 2025 the year of abundance. Let's make 2025 the year that works for you.

Clark Willcox [00:57:57]:
Thanks, brother. Thanks for having me.