From Fired to Launching His Own Firm with Weston Dowis

Intro [00:00:01]:
Welcome to the Elite Recruiter podcast with your host Benjamin Menna, where we focus on what it takes to win in the recruiting game. We cover it all from sales, marketing, mindset, money, leadership and placements.

Weston Dowis [00:00:20]:
Announcements.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:20]:
Before we dive into this episode, first of all, book of the month. Never split the difference.

Intro [00:00:26]:
Make sure to pick that up, read it, share it.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:28]:
Secondly, there's something I love from Trisha Tampia. Do one rack today. And what a rack is a random act of kindness. Pick somebody, pick something and do one random act of kindness today and then pass it on. All right, let's dive in. I'm excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast. The reason why is because getting fired or getting laid off is devastating. It's life changing.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:54]:
But how do you take that life changing, devastating thing and turn it into one of the biggest opportunities that you can have in your life? And I'm so excited. My special guest, Weston Dallas did exactly that when he got fired, he took that opportunity and started his own business. So I am so excited to have him on the podcast to talk about sharing, launching and building. So welcome to the podcast, Wesson.

Weston Dowis [00:01:20]:
Hey, thank you so much for having me on. I've been looking forward to this. I know both of our schedules have been pretty crazy lately, so I'm glad we set some time. Massive finally to connect.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:30]:
Awesome, awesome. So let's, let's just jump right in. First of all, how did you even get started in the recruiting business? And like, let's hold off the getting fired story first.

Weston Dowis [00:01:41]:
Yeah, I think like a lot of people I got starting recruiting by happenstance. I don't think people grow up as a young kid saying I want to be a recruiter when I grow up. But I applied to a job posting from my college's job connection network and allegiance group had a recruiting position. The technical recruiter specifically posted on the website back in my hometown and being a borough of college graduate, moving back in with my parents for a little while seemed like the most ideal situation. So I applied to the job, I got the interview and ultimately got the offer. So that's how my journey started as a agency recruiter.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:21]:
Nice. And you did great there. What kind of like got the bug in you to maybe go looking at doing something on your own?

Weston Dowis [00:02:29]:
Certainly, yeah. I don't think the bug was something I developed while working there. It's maybe something I've had since I've been a young kid. My dad always used to still say that he knew I'd run a business. He just didn't know what? But luckily, I got put into a great industry that had low barriers to entry and lower startup costs to essentially get started in business. As long as you have the drive and the hustle, you can be pretty successful in this industry. But probably three to six months in the business, I was looking at the numbers and how much money I was generating for the business, and I was, like, really pretty mind boggling. And me being an opportunistic individual, I was, uh, you know, we scheme it up ways that I could potentially utilize this business for self growth as well.

Weston Dowis [00:03:13]:
So I think about six months in, I realized that, you know, I was going on meetings and helping run meetings, and I was doing the candidate recruitment cycle and getting exposure to essentially the entire lifecycle of the recruiting process. And somewhere along lines, determined that I'd be able to do it on my own.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:31]:
And because I actually worked for the same company but much, much longer ago. And, like, I remember, like, when I was there, I was like, this is such a big machine. Like, I don't know if I could ever duplicate that. I know technology and information has completely changed since then, but I think it was maybe like a year and a half when I was just like, what I'm making for them versus what I'm taking home, there's a huge disconnect, and you hit, you saw that in like six months.

Weston Dowis [00:03:56]:
Yeah, it's pretty insane. I mean, the training that elitist group offers gives them the ability to pay lower salary, I think, because training is training super expensive to train employees, especially sales and things like that. So they have obviously a whole internal proprietary training program. So I think they utilize a lot of recent grads to get them on their feet and teach them lifecycle sales business, which is obviously invaluable. Uh, but I'll obviously command a lower pay rate too. But, um, yeah, like you said, I was seeing the money that I was bringing home and kind of the commission structure, and was a little bit awed by it when I was bringing in almost $10,000 per week for the company.

Benjamin Mena [00:04:39]:
So, like, let's walk through the story of, like, how you got fired. Like, what, what happened?

Weston Dowis [00:04:45]:
Certainly, um, well, me being an opportunistic person, like I said, I started to essentially set myself up to ultimately quit. My job was a legislative group and go out on my own. I kind of methodically went through setting up the business, the LLC, the website, getting everything in the background set up, so ultimately I could hit the ground running and being excited about venturing off on my own, I probably can find this information the wrong person. Which ultimately led back to my boss catching wind of what was going on. And I could tell one day when she came out of her office and told me to come into her office, the tone in her voice and look on her face, I was like, oh, this is probably not very good.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:26]:
And did they just, like, walk you out that day?

Weston Dowis [00:05:28]:
Oh, yeah, essentially. They essentially asked me to stop and fully work for them full time and not pursue anything on the side, which I guess I had my mind made up, wasn't an option for me, so we parted ways. Unfortunately, it couldn't been on better terms, which was completely my fault. I'm also glad that it happened because I had everything set up and I was ready to quit. But I just, uh, I guess was a little bit nervous to throw myself in the deep end. So I forcefully was thrown in the deep end. That was kind of the best, best thing that ever happened to me.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:02]:
And, like, here's a thought before we go to the next part of the story. You know, I feel like so many companies, like recruiting companies, end up creating their own competition because of whether low commissions or whatever. Was there anything that Aerotech or Aegis group could have done to actually keep a high performer like you?

Weston Dowis [00:06:24]:
Yeah, I think honestly, when you're in a sales driven environment, money is the disturbing factor of why you stay or continue to work in an industry or for a company. Obviously, I'm not a software developer, and I'm super passionate about it and monies and everything, but you work for a living, right. I think having a more competitive now commission structure definitely would have made me more intrigued to stay, especially looking at some of the other recruiting companies in the market, offering much more favorable splits and not as ridiculous spread to make commissions. That certainly would have enticed me to stay, probably.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:00]:
Okay. I was mostly curious about it because a lot of companies. How many aerotech competitors has Aerotech created? Because they're just like, I can go get, make more money myself. But, yeah, let's go. Let's jump into launching your company. Like, how'd you get off the ground?

Weston Dowis [00:07:17]:
Well, definitely humble. And make for beginnings, for sure. I think, like anybody starting out from the beginning, I didn't even have a CRM system. I'm storing all my resumes just on a file on my computer desktop. Didn't have really any business intelligence tools. Obviously, tools are expensive, so I was utilizing resources as most efficiently as possible. And obviously, I think that starts out with reaching out to your close network of people you actually know. So I was able to generate some business in terms of people that I know from family, friends and things like that.

Weston Dowis [00:07:51]:
And then as I started to make a little bit money, started to branch out and do more whole business development and work our way up from there.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:59]:
Okay. And during that process, I heard the company that you work for sent you a nice little letter in the mail.

Weston Dowis [00:08:07]:
Yeah, I believe we talked about this and you may have gotten a similar thing in the mail, which is a little bit of a jump scare for sure. But yeah, I got a cease and desist letter in the mail which obviously I was already nervous about starting my own business, making money, being successful, and then getting a letter in the mail said cease and desist and big letters. I was like, oh God. But luckily I consulted a lawyer and he told me all is not to worry. As long as I wasn't stealing proprietary data and information, then that would be good, which I was not. I was unclear.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:38]:
Awesome. And okay, so you got the season desist letter, a little bit of like a scare, then back to building your company, like what was the best ways? And there's a lot of people that are listening that are kind of in a situation where they've been let go, they let off, they're like, I got to go chase my own dream. What were the top three ways that you picked up new clients for your new business? Like full on steps?

Weston Dowis [00:09:06]:
Yeah. Like I mentioned from the beginning, it was definitely a warm network reach out. So reaching out to people that I knew in the industry, in high tech because IM in the high tech vertical and starting a business in Colorado Springs, its a heavy DoD market. So reaching out to anyone that I knew that was previous military, now working for a tech company, working in the clear environment, maybe on base, things like that. I think your personal network is always the best way to sell and start generating a baseline of business no matter what business you're in, I think because people closest to you are I think, most willing to support you and if they're not, then maybe they're willing to tell you why not and you can learn a valuable lesson. But once I had kind of utilized my personal network and it ran dry, I was like, okay, I got to adapt so I can grow and thrive, otherwise I won't make it. So ultimately I had to sign up for business intelligence platform which I think everybody uses, sales navigator. So I could start generating clientele data and information and utilize NPC processes, cold calling, things like that.

Weston Dowis [00:10:13]:
And quickly figured out that it's a numbers game so I had to put my notes to the crime stuff.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:18]:
And when you talk about numbers game for the listeners, what kind of work ethic were you doing during that time?

Weston Dowis [00:10:23]:
Yeah, I think when I obviously didn't have a big book of business with repeat clients coming to me all the time, I was making at least 30 to 50 goal calls a day. Just kind of dependent upon how calls went and how my automated emails were going, things like that. I think a lot of recruiters focus on spending their time what's closest to the money. So if you sign a new client, why are you going to continue doing BD when you just sign a client? Why not try and close that deal? So, so if I didn't have any clients on the boards, I was, I was hitting the phones hard for sure.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:55]:
Okay, nice. And like, is there like, those are the tough things to do for like business development, but on the business side, because like, you know, when you are on your own, you. There are many things you have to do outside of like business development. Of course. What were the top three things that you didn't realize you needed to do when you actually first started your business, but you ended up having to do, well, something.

Weston Dowis [00:11:16]:
I didnt realize how depth it was. It was probably financials for sure. I think a lot of people get themselves in a bad situation if they start making a lot of money and dont realize how much money they need to set aside from taxes. So luckily I took my dads advice and hired a CPA because accounting was not my best class in college. Thats for sure. Handling all that in terms of expenses and write offs and keeping your financials in order. This is super important, especially for your filings because you dont want to have problems with the IR's. I didn't realize how intensive it was.

Weston Dowis [00:11:45]:
Luckily I was able to delegate that to a CPA though.

Benjamin Mena [00:11:47]:
Okay. And I know like when people first start on their own, it's like you get this like awesome, like, you know, $30,000 check. Not realizing. I think some people don't realize you gotta like put that money in a separate account to save it for the.

Weston Dowis [00:12:00]:
Government, not go blow it all out of the car.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:04]:
I've seen that happen like way too many times in some of these Facebook groups. They're like, what am I supposed to do with the IR's? I'm like, if you're supposed to set aside part of every single check that comes in. Simple as that.

Weston Dowis [00:12:13]:
Absolutely. Yeah. I ultimately was setting aside 35% of the income, which is more than enough, but that helped me out long term. So at the end of the year, when I paid taxes, I still had extra cash to spend on the business, write off, things like that. So I think setting myself up early from a financial perspective has been super helpful for long term growth.

Benjamin Mena [00:12:31]:
Okay. And you're also very, very tech heavy. You're in the tech space, but you yourself are super heavy tech heavy. What are you doing on a productivity wise and what tools are you using for business development to be efficient?

Weston Dowis [00:12:44]:
Absolutely. I think there's so many tools on the market, it's almost overwhelming at this point in time. But I think utilizing tools to optimize your efficiency is super important. Helps you close more deals, get in front of more people and just, you know, generate more FaceTime. But I'm always trying out new tools. But a couple tools that I'm using right now is some, some automation tools in terms of messaging, reaching out to my network on LinkedIn, things like that, emails, just peeing and touching base with previous clients, making sure they know im still thinking about them automatedly set up three to six months out, however often I want to bother them. But instead of doing all that tedious work by hand, its nice to just have automated tools pinging your clients so you dont have to go through and do it by hand all the time. That saves how it was time that I can be making cold calls because at the end of the day I think cold calls is the best way to generate business, getting people on the phone, whether you want to do it or not.

Benjamin Mena [00:13:41]:
Okay. And you're also building your own tech too. Talk about that real quick.

Weston Dowis [00:13:46]:
Yeah, absolutely. I quickly realized as the business started to scale, I had more income. I was like, I probably need to start utilizing more software tools myself to optimize efficiency. And I quickly realized that paying for business intelligence software was very expensive. Paying for B two b contact databases, things like Zoom info, things like that. Super expensive. Getting a resume database. So if you get a rec from a client that you signed locally, but they're like, hey, we have a position across the US, you obviously don't have a warm pipeline candidate, so you got to utilize something to reach out to candidates.

Weston Dowis [00:14:24]:
So paying for a resume database, paying for email marketing, all these things started to add up really quickly. And there's obviously a bunch of different CRM ATS systems on the market. And I realized, why isn't there a system with multiple built in tools that is not only an efficient place to store your data and client information, but also help generate new business as well as five candidates when you get new requisitions in the door.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:50]:
So you're literally like, you know, using your recruiting money, building a tech tool on top of that. Like how's that? Like are you coding it yourself? Did you hire a team? Like what's going on there?

Weston Dowis [00:15:00]:
Yeah, I might be it focused, but I'm not a developer. That dream died when I was in computer science in college and had to transfer out because I wasn't doing so hot. But yeah, I worked with a developer for about three years, essentially bootstrapping development development myself. And for those of you who don't know what bootstrapping is, essentially paying out of pocket for a tool, not getting funding or anything like that. Ultimately probably wasn't the right decision working with that developer just due to some legal things that came up that I handled, but it was a learning experience and ultimately I got in contact with the right developer who's building out and finishing my tool. The way that I have developed it is I built wireframes, the workflow and how all the buttons and the software functions and then these are connecting the front end looks to the backend interface and how the software actually performs and works. And then I'm doing the testing so I don't have to hire a whole team of developers. So when you're bootstrapping it yourself, you definitely want to be as cost effective as possible.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:03]:
Then that kind of goes into another question I have. How are you framing your schedule between building a recruiting company, building a new tech tool while still supporting clients? How are you doing this?

Weston Dowis [00:16:17]:
Certainly. Yeah, thats something I definitely struggle with is time management and something ive worked on a lot. So time blocking has been huge for me. Putting something on your calendar for a specific item, business item, whether that be cold calls or whatever, and then not to negotiate with yourself and sticking to it is super helpful. So during regular business hours im doing staffing and reaching out to clientele. And luckily my developer works odd hours like myself. So when he puts out a new backend commit I can do the testing and get back to him after hours and then he can do development during the day on the backend. So obviously generating money from the recruiting business is still my main priority.

Weston Dowis [00:16:57]:
And then after hours I'm handling the development of the tool.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:02]:
And for people that might want to test the tool, how do they reach, how do they follow you or reach out to you?

Weston Dowis [00:17:08]:
Yeah absolutely. The tool is being finished up as we speak. So about one to two weeks out, the backend is being connected to the front end and I have a landing page that's perpetual automated.com, where you can sign up with your email. And as soon as the tool launches, I'll be sending out free trial information as well as database of information on how to use the tool and all the robust features that it comes with.

Benjamin Mena [00:17:35]:
Okay. And I'll have that in the show notes. So if you're like one interested, just like scrolling down, check it out there. Awesome. Well, going back to you building the company, you building a tech tool. Before we jump over to kind of like the quick fire questions, is there anything else that you love to share about, like all that?

Weston Dowis [00:17:58]:
Oh, I guess something, maybe some insight or personal experience or what in particular?

Benjamin Mena [00:18:05]:
I mean, like something that, like, whatever it would be that's on your mind, especially on the personal experience side of the house.

Weston Dowis [00:18:12]:
Yeah, um, I kind of mentioned it a little bit earlier, but it's definitely a numbers game. And I, I feel like recruiters have a bad rep a lot of times. So just to get used to know and hopefully let it motivate you, because some days, you know, when you're on that 40 of cold calling, you've heard nothing but no, all day. Um, it can be a little bit disheartening. So it's worth it. At the end of the day, when you lean that one call, that one client that you establish a great relationship with and get long term business, it's rewarding. So you definitely have to be vigilant and have a lot of perseverance. And then I think another piece of advice is, even with COVID and everybody being remote, I always try and do in person meetings or establish legitimate relationships.

Weston Dowis [00:18:57]:
I don't think you really get to know somebody looking at them through a computer screen. Some of my best clients who are not only clients, but friends of mine, you know, I started with a lunch meeting and just learning about them, their family outside of business life. So you really get to know these people. Thats how you generate long lasting, repeatable book of business, I think.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:17]:
So youre visiting people in person whenever possible.

Weston Dowis [00:19:21]:
I mean, I always ask for an in person meeting. Obviously thats not always possible or some people are not uncomfortable with it. But, um, yeah, whatever possible. I definitely try and do that. I pretty much stick to the Colorado area for my business, which isn't always the case, especially in tech. But just having a repeatable pipeline of candidates to working within the Colorado regions is the best repeatable way to generate new clients from me as well.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:45]:
Okay, so you were like niche, kind of in like a location niche too. Not just tech.

Weston Dowis [00:19:50]:
Yeah, I. Obviously everything's so remote nowadays that if people are working all over the US, if not the world, I still like to maintain my book of business in Colorado so I can give those in person meetings and generate those legitimate relationships. But some of my best clients I have been working with since the very beginning of my business, and I know them and their wives and things like that now.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:15]:
Awesome. It's been actually kind of a recurring theme on some of the guests recently, is like the differentiator is in person, especially in this virtual world. Awesome.

Weston Dowis [00:20:26]:
Yeah. I don't have to appreciate acquired, but you know, sales is, if your tool is great, it probably sells itself, but you're selling you at the end of the day, if a potential client likes you as a person a lot more than somebody else, even if their tools a little bit better, they're probably going to buy from you. Right? So sales is so relationally based, in my opinion.

Benjamin Mena [00:20:46]:
Yeah, that's perfect. That's awesome. Well, on to the quick fire questions. What advice would you give to a brand new recruiter that's actually just getting started off in the recruiting world this year?

Weston Dowis [00:20:57]:
Like I mentioned, definitely perseverance. Stick with it because this industry is not for the weak world, I don't think. And in terms of starting out, generating income and business, definitely minimize your expenses. Don't think that you need to go out and spend thousand dollars a month for all these tools to be successful. If you are resourceful and you do your research, you can get a lot of good information for cheap, it might take a little bit more time, but you know, that's what it's going to take to build the business is a lot of time and effort, working smarter and at the beginning, especially harder too.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:32]:
Perfect. And same question, but for people that have been around the block 510 15 2025 years, what advice would you give them to? Like, stay successful in the game?

Weston Dowis [00:21:42]:
Yeah, I don't even know if I could really be in a position to give advice to some of the most seasoned veterans because they'd probably kill me on all metrics in terms of cold call, closing rates, things like that. But I think probably utilizing tools. A lot of people are probably stuck in their old ways or just using their same old CRM ATS system, but using tools to help delegate your time to maximize your efficiency. It might be a little bit scary and daunting, but there's some great tools out there on the market that really increases your efficiency. Things like, you know, voice to text. When I'm writing a long email or something like that. I'm usually never typing that out. I'm speaking it.

Weston Dowis [00:22:21]:
And things like automated email reach out with red campaign so they know when you're opening your email, then you can follow up with cold calls. Just maximizing your efficiency, I think is huge. And there's a lot of great software out, out there to help you do that.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:35]:
Awesome. There. And what's your favorite software outside of what you're building at the moment?

Weston Dowis [00:22:42]:
I would say probably phone burner at the moment so you can set up a call list. And personally I get very distracted, especially with cold calls because I don't, like, love doing cold calls. I don't think anyone really does. But if you just get focused and get in your zone, then you can generate a lot of success. And phone burner, essentially you can upload a list from CSV or other ways and it'll just start ringing for you. So you don't really have any options to negotiate yourself out of making that next call. So things like that. Super helpful voice to text.

Weston Dowis [00:23:18]:
Super helpful too. I'll be writing an email while looking at something else, which they say humans aren't very good at multitasking, but I'd like to differ.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:26]:
Awesome. Has there been any books that have had a huge impact on your career?

Weston Dowis [00:23:32]:
Yeah, absolutely. I'm more of an audiobook person. Usually I think I just retain information better that way for my learning style. But one actual physical book that I've read that's great, that a lot of people are familiar with is think and grow rich. That's a great book from just a mentality perspective and putting yourself in a position for success and growth. And then the second book is. It's by Jeb Blau. He owns sales gravy.

Weston Dowis [00:23:58]:
Top of my head right now.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:59]:
Fanatical prospecting.

Weston Dowis [00:24:01]:
Yeah, fanatical prospecting. Yes. That book's great. It's essentially Jeb goes over pointing out the obvious, like, your pipeline is dry right now because you weren't doing the hard work two to three months ago. You were negotiating with yourself, thought your current clientele would never run out, but it's dry right now because you weren't doing the hard work. So essentially always generating new business and doing the tedious day to day is to continue growing. Your sales pipeline is necessary for long term growth.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:32]:
Perfect. Yeah, we were looking at adding that book later on in a few months for the recruiting book club. So that's on the list for the listeners to share.

Weston Dowis [00:24:40]:
Yeah, and Jeb has a great audcast too. This is not a faith sponsor either, but hes got a lot of good sales tools and I love his mentality of just not negotiating with yourself and doing the hard work that creates success.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:53]:
Trey, so what do you, what do you think has been a huge part of your own success? Personally?

Weston Dowis [00:24:59]:
To be honest with you, I attribute most of my success to my parents and my family life. I dont know where I would be without such supportive parents. After I got fired, I think it was on a Tuesday, my dad realized that I'd been home for two or three days and he was like, are you not working over there anymore? I was like, no. He's like, all right, well, good luck. As I think he knew I was already going off of my own venture. So just having a supportive family has been huge for me in terms of my mentality and having you can do it type of attitude.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:34]:
Do you think you would have made that jump if you didn't have that supportive environment?

Weston Dowis [00:25:39]:
Gosh. I mean, honestly, like I mentioned earlier, I was nervous to quit. So getting fired was the best thing that happened without that support group from my parents, living at home, having minimal expenses. If I was, you know, paying $2,000 in rent in downtown big city, I would have been a lot more hesitant for sure. So I know having a safety net was definitely a huge factor for me making the move. But if there's a time to take a risk, it's when you're young and your expenses are minimal and you don't have is relying on you and things like that.

Benjamin Mena [00:26:12]:
So when it kind of goes like in the next question, if somebody reached out to you, they just got laid off through a riff or something of that nature, what advice? What would you tell them, like, for advice wise, to go start on their own?

Weston Dowis [00:26:29]:
Certainly, as you mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, it could be daunting and upsetting to get laid off. But, you know, if you're the type of individual that's had that idea in the back of your head of going off on your own, you have to look at it as an opportunity, right? Not a negative thing. I believe life is all about reframing negative situations and turning into a positive. I think that's the mentality of a lot of successful people. So yeah, you're going to be down on yourself a little bit after getting fired, but you should pick yourself up by your bootstraps and think, how can I turn this into a positive and go out on my own and let it generate motivation for you?

Benjamin Mena [00:27:06]:
It's definitely scary. I know I got laid off on my first vacation in like two years or something of that nature. We were in France and got a call saying you're like a really good recruiter, but you're just collateral damage. And unfortunately we got to let you go. And my wife kind of looked over and she was just like, is that what happened? I'm like, yeah. And she's like, all right, let's start our own thing. Let's go.

Weston Dowis [00:27:27]:
See, that's that support system right there. You know, your wife believes in you, so it's, it's always good to have people backing you, so.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:34]:
But yeah, it was mostly like, I know not everybody has that support system or not everybody has that wiggle room to do it. But there's what I've learned because of this podcast. There's a thousand ways to create some sort of income for your recruiting business, whether it's, you know, chasing new prospects, you know, everything from split deals to fractional. There's just our industry has so many ways of and opportunities to make money. It just blows my mind out of it.

Weston Dowis [00:28:01]:
Yeah. So one industry where you can have eggs in multiple baskets even though you're only working in one industry, it's pretty wild. And talk about the low barriers to entry to great industry to get into with low startup costs. You're not creating a product that you have to spend hundreds of $1,000 on manufacturing, you know?

Benjamin Mena [00:28:19]:
Mm hmm. Well, and this kind of goes into, I'm going to ask this two ways. The first way is going to be like your first week at Allegis Group. If you had the chance right now to sit down with yourself and give yourself advice, what would you tell yourself?

Weston Dowis [00:28:33]:
I would say ingest as much information as you can because although I didn't enjoy working there, it was an invaluable experience. I learned a lot. I learned how to make calls, how to interact with people in a professional business setting, and how to overall just develop a business and maintain relationships. So I think I really did ingest as much as possible working there. But yeah, just always be learning as much as you can, Robert.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:05]:
And the same question again, but lets take it back to your first few weeks of after you got a lot go, you started your own business. If you got a chance to sit down with yourself, then what would you say to you?

Weston Dowis [00:29:17]:
I would say youre going to get really lucky and close your first deal within about two weeks of starting the business. But then you're not going to make any more money for six months, so be vigilant. And don't get down on yourself, because when that second check hits and it's a big one, it'll be. It'll be very sweet.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:33]:
So, like, you close something fast, and then it took another six months to close.

Weston Dowis [00:29:39]:
Yeah. I was obviously trial and error figuring out how to generate business and work.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:43]:
With the clients on month four, month five. Like, what? What were you telling yourself? Was like, hey, do I need to keep, like, were you, was there a little, like, person sitting on your shoulder saying that, why not just go get another recruiting job? What kept you going on that six month dry spell?

Weston Dowis [00:29:58]:
Absolutely. There was a little guy whispering in my ear saying, you can't do it. Um, and then you start to believe yourself. But I think when you're at that weight, then you're probably on the precipice of something great because it's yourself telling yourself to give up. But if you work just that extra mile or that extra inch, then you might be able to accomplish something great and not give up on yourself. So I think that you got to push through the last step when you're most doubting yourself.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:25]:
Okay, nice. Solid. And for the listeners, how can they follow you? What's the best place to follow you about?

Weston Dowis [00:30:34]:
Yeah, I'm always very active on LinkedIn. Super great tool. I have a staffing community as well, which I will send you the link if anyone wants to join. I share good information in terms of new tools I'm using for b two b info, things like that. But they can always connect me on email, too. I always love to collaborate with other individuals in the industry. My email is wdaoisterpetualsourcing.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:59]:
Okay, awesome. And before I let you go, is there anything else that you would love to share with the listeners or leave with the listeners?

Weston Dowis [00:31:06]:
I would say that time is your most valuable asset because it's the only asset you can't get more of. So always be thinking about waking up every day and what you can do with your time to. To be great. Awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:19]:
Well, for the listeners, like I said when we first started off, like, getting fired, getting let go, getting laid off is, I mean, it's life changing. It's devastating. But I've seen it time and time again. People that have taken that opportunity or taken that. That lemon made lemonade. And, yeah, I know that's like. I know that's like a crappy saying when you're sitting in it, but, like, it is, it's that one chance sometimes. It's that one time that it really pushes you to go, do something great.

Weston Dowis [00:31:48]:
So the make or break moment, I think every successful person's probably had that crossroads, and there's two paths, and they make a choice and. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:58]:
And thank you for coming on and sharing and just, you know, a lot of these people that have been like, oh, they're. They're good at their job. They're great. They're great recruiters. And this is probably the best opportunity due to the way that technology works that you can bet on yourself. So make 2024 your best year yet. Thank you, guys.

Weston Dowis [00:32:16]:
Hey, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it.

Intro [00:32:19]:
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