How To Travel The World as A Recruiter/Digital Nomad with Matt Gorgolinski

Speaker A [00:00:00]:

Welcome to the elite recruiter podcast with your host Benjamin Mena, 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.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:19]:

This episode of the elite recruiter podcast is going to be awesome. I have my special guest. Matt Gorgelwinski to talk about how to be a digital nomad recruiter and travel the world. I just like probably many of you have thought, like, you know, when I was sitting at a desk, back in the agency days, how do you travel? How do you do this? How do you see the world? And Matt has mastered setting up the systems to still be a successful recruiting firm owner, a successful recruiter. And still, I think the other day when I was chatting with you, you just got done surfing, like, somewhere on on a Caribbean Island. Costa Rica. Yep. I was over in Costa Rica for quite a while. See, there we go. But, Matt, I'm excited to bring you on the podcast just to share some of your your insight, some your ideas, some things that other recruiters could do to to honestly go pick up and travel the world. So welcome to podcast, Matt. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. So before we get started, I know you are the CEO of Big League talent co, which is a staffing firm in the construction space. Yes, sir. How did you even get started in recruiting?

Matt Gorgolinski [00:01:22]:

So for me, personally, of course, everyone thinks their own story is interesting. I think it's a kind of an interesting way that I got into recruit So prior to recruiting, if you look at my LinkedIn profile, you see I did a good amount of things. I'm twenty eight years old. My goal in my twenties, once I finished playing baseball in college, was like, how can I build as much value in myself and learn as much as possible to build the future that I want for my life, for my family, all that good stuff. So I learned a lot from a lot of different mentors along the way. I was running a marketing agency. I did real estate agency. I did a little bit of wholesaling. I sold software. I worked at a growth consulting company called scaling with systems where we help start up scale their systems processes, hired VAs. There's a ton that I did before recruiting, but I did not recruit. Also, I sold windows and doors, which is kinda how I got into recruit early construction side of recruiting. But basically, I was I just moved to Los Angeles one day. I was currently a real estate agent, but I realized there wasn't enough lifestyle flexibility at being a real estate agent. I was making good money, but I just wasn't, like, able to do things I wanted. I was always working with clients, driving the car around, showing homes, and It just wasn't the lifestyle that I wanted for myself, although the money was good. And so I had just moved to SoCal. I was still running my marketing company where I did, like, demand Jen for construction companies, lead generation, online ads, and stuff like that. And I moved down there because I had a pretty big client at the time down there. And I was just sitting in my room one night quite honestly. And and, you know, sometimes you'll ignore YouTube ads, but then I was brushing my teeth from the other room while I heard the bad running in the other room, and I'd skip this ad, like, twenty times. But this time, I didn't skip it because I was in the other room. And in the background, it's like, hey. Did you know that if you build a recruiting company and you just introduce candidates to companies, you can make on average 20,000 for every person you refer. And you kinda got into, like, with the systems it took start a recruitment company like using LinkedIn, sell selling, marketing your company. And I'm like, this is everything I do. This seems like it's perfect for me. So, basically, I just in 1 night after I heard that, I was currently working on a real estate business with my buddy, and it was I wasn't really we didn't love it. Right? And so, basically, I was like, you know what? This could be something interesting. So that night, I built the website. I made the company name. I built the logo pretty much the whole brand. And I just said, I'll put this on the shelf, and we'll see where this goes. I don't know if I'm gonna do it, but I can whip up these things pretty fast because I've done it a lot for other people. And so I was just like, okay. We'll we'll see where it goes. About a week later, me and my buddy were like, alright. Let's get out of real let's get into recruiting. I'm like, dude, we have to get into recruiting. It's gonna be awesome. Right? I I I'm super optimistic about these type of things. I'm like, we're gonna do awesome. We're gonna smash it. But then lo and behold, you get into recruiting, and I realized I had actually never really recruited before. So I I'm like, okay. I actually have a lot to learn. We could get clients. Like, the thing is I could always have the ability to get clients for recruiting. The selling part wasn't necessarily the most challenging for me. it was really piecing everything together, figuring out what to focus on and what order to focus on it, and then being able to learn the recruiting side much better. Like, how do I create a great candidate experience how do I deliver these candidates to my clients and have clients actually want to come back and work with me and tell their friends about me? And, like, that was the biggest learning curve for me. And then also how to have more consultative sales approach versus, like, yeah, I'll take the job order. Sounds good. Like, you know, it's I was so excited in the beginning to take on job orders, but we've come a long way. I've learned from a ton of awesome mentors, and I I've always prided myself on learning from people who are the best of the best in any space I've met him. And now we're here about two and a half years later, maybe give or take. And, basically, that's where I wanna be for the next 10, 20 years. I love recruiting. I think it's such an awesome space to be in. and I get to talk to cool people like YouTube. So it it it really is a good space. I I'm just, like, honestly, just blown away.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:06]:

you started in those space because of a YouTube ad that was just pulling. And you're like, I could do it. Exactly.

Matt Gorgolinski [00:05:13]:

Phenomenal. You never know what could come and look at YouTube ad.

Benjamin Mena [00:05:16]:

man, I didn't didn't even think about YouTube ads. I love that. because I know you've actually, like, some of the companies that you worked with when I as soon as I saw your LinkedIn profile, I was like, oh, those are some reputable growth companies that really bring in like, really good sales systems, all that kind of stuff. So I love that you've taken that background and mirrored it with the recruiting space. to really just master it. So jumping to being a digital nomad, what are some of the awesome places that you've traveled while working? Yeah. Exactly.

Matt Gorgolinski [00:05:43]:

I would say when it comes to places, I've pretty much I I I feel grateful that I have the opportunity to work from wherever I want, really, like and as a recruiter, I think that's as long as you own your own firm and you don't work for somebody else where you're tied down to a location, generally speaking, you can do that. I mean, like, yeah, you have a home office, but if you make money and you have the ability to have people on your team who can help you, you can travel. And, like, just as an example, to kinda touch on, like, places. I've been literally working from the beach many times. Like, literally sitting on the beach with my hot spot, have some cell phone service, and I could work from the beach. I spend about half a year in Costa Rica typically. Long story short, not to get too much into I was traveling actually working remote about a year and a half ago, and that was with my buddy. And at the time, I never expected I would date a girl from another country ever. It was like, I'm I'm like, no way I'm gonna go to Costa Rica and find a girlfriend. But lo behold, I go to Costa Rica when I'm traveling there. I meet this girl. I fall in love with her. We're still dating today. So, basically, she's a Costa Rica citizen. I'm in the US. So we spent, like, the last year and a half or so going back and forth between the US and Costa Rica Visiting Tamarindo, visiting Guanacaste, you know, going to San Jose, which is the capital there. It's more like a like a city field versus the other 2, which are more like beach towns. And, really, we just mix it up. We if we wanna go to the beach, we'll go to the beach. If we wanna stay in the city, we'll stay in the city. Yes. I'm trying to think if I gone anywhere else other than Costa Rica in the US. I maybe Europe was in that time period. I don't think it might have been actually a little bit before. But my point is, you can travel as you want when you're a recruiter, if you're doing a good job and you're making good money, you can work from anywhere. Right? It's like you can work from cafes, you can work from an Airbnb. And that's something I love about recruiting that I just didn't have in real estate. And, interestingly enough, I kind of think about real estate, it has so many parallels to recruiting. it it's so similar as an industry in a model being a real estate agent and being a recruiter, except as a real estate agent, you need to be in person to show these people homes. And in recruiting, you could do it anywhere. So kind of off topic. But, yeah, the the digital nomad aspect of being able to travel is just awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:07:48]:

And I think that's how we originally got connected. I ran across your digital nomad recruiting group, and I think it was lifestyle recruiters. where everybody's like, you know, either traveling or planning on traveling and just, you know, having a good time while at the same time helping people with major life decisions of their career. So when you're traveling, like, Like, how do you have your systems set up to be able to just pick up and go?

Matt Gorgolinski [00:08:12]:

So I would say that the systems are important and being more focused and being diligent about the work that you need to do, I would say, is also really important. Like, yes, the systems are great. I have a team of, like, I think 4. We just added a 5th virtual assistant to our team to handle sourcing, research, like scraping contact data, putting prospects on the client side into business development campaigns in LinkedIn and email. Like, they do all that stuff that I really hate doing. Honestly, it's so brutal for me to have to, like, copy paste someone's information and decree late, which is the CRM we use. But at the end of the day, like, as a recruiter in we have a team of 3 other recruiters, my cofounder, Brent, and also recruits. Interestingly enough, like, when it comes to the systems, like, when we first started, I would argue that we did it backwards. like, we went to hire as soon as we could. We brought on recruiters as soon as we could. After we made a fee placements, we found success, we're like, alright. Let's blow this thing up. That's that was our thought process. Little did I know, hindsight 2020, I had a lot to learn. Right? Like, you don't know what you don't know. And the more you know, the more you realize that you can learn more. Right? So basically, it's like we didn't do as much hands on recruiting in the beginning as we're doing now. Brenton and I right now are folks done working mainly retained searches for clients. And that's our main goal. We also have a team of recruiters who work, some retained, but also mostly contingent possessions. And the systems really are we have a team who helps deliver for us. So our recruiters make placements. We have virtual assistants who do a lot of the admin, the data scraping, but I still truly enjoy recruiting. Like, honestly, for me, I like recruiting. Like, the feeling of getting on the phone, cold calling the candidate, and converting them over to my client who says, Matt, oh my god. I can't believe that you just sent me this person. I never thought you'd sent me them, and I already know them, but I wanna pay you anyway. like, I love the aspect of recruiting. It's like a thrill to me. So, yes, I have systems, but I actually like work. Like, I'm not the type of person who doesn't like work. So I'll still work even if I necessarily might have a team who's doing stuff. I still really enjoy it. But the systems definitely help take a lot of the mundane burden of admin and just all that good stuff off of my plate.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:21]:

So one of the things that I've learned a few times about between bouncing back and forth from Europe is being very focused with the time that you are actually working versus the time that you're, you know, for you probably hanging out at the beach or doing other things. Can you talk about Focusing your energy.

Matt Gorgolinski [00:10:38]:

It's everything. It's so important. Like, I mean, it's also important to know what to focus your energy on. Like, what you focus on is almost just as important as focusing on something. Right? because you could be focusing on the wrong thing, and it could take you down the wrong direction. You could waste months and years of your life even just by focusing on the wrong thing. So I would say focusing on the right things and then being really intentful about that being able to for example, like, this is my office space. I really need somewhere where I can focus. I don't have a million distractions around me. There's not a people coming in and talking to me. I just like to be able to get in and do my work and get done when I need to get done. So the focus aspect is is crucial and learning on what to focus on, I would say, is even more crucial because I think the focus and, like, work ethic kinda go hand in hand. It's like being able to put in the work that you know you need to put in to be consistent. But then, like, what are you consistent on is is a really important question for me. And I've gotten I I believe I've refined that over time as I've been a recruit. Like, I've learned a lot from a lot of the mentors. Looking back on it, I also wasted a lot of time in the beginning focusing on the wrong thing. So I would say That's kind of my long winded answer

Benjamin Mena [00:11:50]:

on focus. Okay. And you said your team works with a bunch of VA's. How did you first of all, you know, find these VAs, and 2, like, how did you train them on your systems?

Matt Gorgolinski [00:11:59]:

So going back to one of my first jobs, I worked with a software development company out of Silicon Valley. It was actually my buddy's dad, and he brought me on. He's like, hey. You wanna learn to get into the software space, do some business development in sales. I was so green at the time. I knew pretty much nothing, right, about anything business wise. I played college sports my whole life. I graduated, and I'm like, alright. Time to learn in business, like, whatever that means. Right? And so long story short, I started working for him, and he outsourced a lot of his software development to the Philippines. and he had a lot of virtual assistants who worked in the Philippines. So that's where I first had the idea of using or leveraging or working with virtual assist And then it came to be I met some really great people as it happened when I was running my marketing agency. I needed to start delegating some lead generation and some prospecting type of stuff. And I met a girl named Jerry, and I've also worked with a lot of other great VAs. But Jerry was, like, the one main VIA who I worked with in the beginning. And we actually still talk to this day. She still refers me talent to this day. I refer her clients to this day. And, basically, she was, like, the main staple that really got me rolling with building a virtual assistant team. And then when I worked went to scaling with systems, one of the reasons that I went to them in the first place is, like, yeah. I wanna build good systems. process is level up my sales gaining level up my branding, like, all of that good stuff that comes with working with this team. But one thing that they told me they would do is train my virtual assistant on their systems and process. So, like, that was part of, like, the investment. It's like they're actually gonna train up by VA. And so they did that. And then, essentially, they also placed the VA into my business So that was, like, kind of like a 2 for one there. And then from there, I've always just found them extremely valuable. I work with people mostly from the Philippines. I've worked with people in other countries as well, but I just found that there's some of the best team members you'll ever have extremely loyal generally speaking, as a culture, they're very religious faith based. So, I mean, there are people who are loyal. They want to be a partner. They they genuinely appreciate the relationship that we build. Like, I I've helped a couple of BAs buy houses. Like, they're they're buying houses off the the 2 to $4 an hour that them to be our virtual assistant. It's actually pretty amazing that that that can happen. But, yeah, they're they're awesome team members and I typically don't even need to look anywhere else other than Jerry. She knows almost I feel like she knows every meeting in the Philippines, to be quite honest. So she just refers to people. I'm like, Jerry, do you know someone who can make calls? Jerry, do you know someone who can do the admin work? She's just like, yeah. If you're just five people that you can look at, And so she's always been a great plug for virtual assistance. And other than that, I mean, yeah, I have I have done a little headhunting in, like, very assume situations. It's just like recruiting. Right? You could head hunt. You could find people on LinkedIn. You could send them email, send them notes. That's work too. but I don't really need to. It was kinda just like I was looking for a specific skill and the people that Jerry sent weren't, like, the ideal fit for what I was looking for. And It was it was worth it. But, basically, the gist of it is, I don't really need to look anywhere else than Jerry.

Benjamin Mena [00:14:54]:

Phenomenal. Great person to have in your pocket. Hey, man. Now one of the the things I think is awesome that what you do for business development, I've been telling so many people over the years that a podcast is such a

Matt Gorgolinski [00:15:08]:

a secret business development technique that I think people need to understand and learn and you host the construction hall of fame podcast. Can you talk about that? I will say it's been such a game changer for me. and not only because of business development. It's helped me become more well rounded in my space. Like, here here's what I mean by that. So, yes, We've signed some awesome clients from the podcast. Even when I call a decision maker to come on the podcast, they they're kinda, like, in the back of their head, part of them are sometimes thinking like, oh, this is like a sales tax but I really like it. Like, they literally told me I've never had someone approach me with this. This is so cool, but I kind of understand what you're trying to do. And I'm like, to be honest, I'm not even really trying to do anything. Like, if you wanna become a client and you have a need and we can help you, that's phenomenal. But at the end of the day, really, what I'm finding is when I have high level leaders on my show, like, I I don't I don't know how to build a building. Like, I I don't know, like, the ins and outs of Although I come from construction, I sold home improvement. Like, my niche is a lot more than selling windows and doors to families. Right? There's a lot more that goes into And when I have these people on the show, I learned so much. They teach me so much about the industry. So when I ask questions, they help me level up my acumen in the industry. And They helped me speak better to prospects the next time I'm on the phone with the client. They helped me speak better to candidates the next time I'm on the phone with the candidate. So Maybe more well rounded. It's also been great for business development. We've made some lucrative placements with people we've had on the podcast. And, arguably, those are accounts that I probably would not have gotten into if I didn't have that on the podcast. And so I would just say, yeah. Great forbizdev. Also, if you keep a growth mindset, it's great to help you as a recruiter are all speak for myself, me as a recruiter, to get better at my job.

Benjamin Mena [00:16:50]:

I I found it to be a a win win. I I absolutely love that. I did a MVP of a web 3 podcast, and I think like, by episode 4, I had hiring managers reaching out to me asking for help. And I was just like, oh, you know, it's podcast. I I still have no clue how people even find this podcast. It's I I post a new episode, like, at, like, one like on on LinkedIn, but then I hop online, and it's like, oh, 8000 downloads this month. I'm like, alright. Cool. Awesome. There's awesome. But it's like it is just a you know,

Matt Gorgolinski [00:17:20]:

I believe, like, a podcast or an industry focused podcast is a a secret way to get indoors that you probably would have never gotten before. And if I was to do it over, I would have mitched down even further. because because recently, like, in the year, we've started on focusing on ditching down even further past just construction. I would have I would have done it to be something about luxury builders, like, luxury residential builders. We're like, how have you been more of a niche cast because that would even help me attract more guests that are in the niche and build more notoriety in the niche. Like, you put web 3.0. That's what inspired me to say that is, like, that's a niche podcasts we're talking about. Yeah. Mine's niche. It's not about a protruding all over the place. But I would say for anyone listening to this, do you wanna start over and do it better than I did it? go even deeper in the niche, and that would probably be beneficial. Awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:05]:

So wanna kinda flip over to our our quick fire questions. One of my favorite questions. And you if you're sitting there talking to a recruiter that's just getting started in in this industry in 2023, what advice would you give them to set themselves up to be successful and win? Good question.

Matt Gorgolinski [00:18:19]:

Learn from the best of the best. Be ready to work your ass off. Focus on building systems and processes as you document the journey as you level up as a recruiter. Leverage help where you can. Virtual assistance are great. And just in general, just keep pushing forward. You might find ups. You might find downs. That's recruiting. That's really any business at the end of the day, but just push forward because it's a super rewarding industry.

Benjamin Mena [00:18:44]:

Awesome. Same question, but for experienced recruiters, people that have been in the game for a while, like, what advice would you give them to level up and be successful?

Matt Gorgolinski [00:18:53]:

Some things we're talking about. Start a podcast if you don't have one and if you have the time, leverage virtual assistance, Again, systems processes. I find some recruiters are really great at recruiting they've been in the game for a while, but they might not be as great. I like the technical side, the system side, the delegation side. And I I think that could be an area where some really great recruiters can produce more than they're producing right now if they're focused on some of those things. Awesome. Is there a book that has had a huge impact on your career? Definitely. So I'll go in recruiting, and then I'll go more like personal development. So I I'm a big book reader. I love books, first of all, and I could list a ton. But I would say on the personal side, think and grow rich was probably the first one that really hit me, and I'm sure that's a classic book you get talked about on this podcast. And then on the recruiting side, there's two books that I'd say have stood out to me. 1 was higher with your head by Lou Adler. I thought that was phenomenal, and the second was hiring greatness by David Perry. I thought both of those were awesome.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:52]:

Awesome. And, actually, let me kind of ask this question because you you found the recruiting space off of YouTube. Do you have any other, like, favorite places like outside books that you are learning from? Yeah. All the time. Like, we're always investing in mentors and coaches and people who have the ability to solve specific problems that we're looking to solve or get better out in our business.

Matt Gorgolinski [00:20:11]:

I mean, just recently, we went through David Stephan Patterson's program, and he helped us. And he's awesome. He's a great guy to learn from. I would also say be careful that your head from too many people because then again, it can skew your focus. Like, a lot of people on YouTube have advice. Right? There's a lot of people who are, I guess, Gurus as you would put it on YouTube. and it's funny because one message will be total totally counterintuitive to the next message. And if you listen to everyone, there's shiny object syndrome you can get hit with. So maybe be careful about who you listen to, but find someone you trust and who is where you wanna be is what I would say and and stick with that. Awesome. Do you have any, like, favorite tech tools at the moment that you love? Sure. Optics is great. Go high level is great. And we're currently using this platform. We literally just got started on called. It's a it's a UK based company. They do, like, personality assessments, like, some things to help us sell retained search better as well. And ever since I started using them just really recently, I've I've been a big fan. Awesome. And you've seen you've seen, like, a little bit of the world of recruiting, but you're also, like, really forefront of the technology in the systems.

Benjamin Mena [00:21:13]:

What do you see in the future of recruiting as a whole for an industry? Love it.

Matt Gorgolinski [00:21:18]:

So, basically, I don't think I'm Nostradamus. Like, I don't think I can predict the future, first of all. So just to press this. Like, people keep saying, chat GPT can't take this, chat GPT can't take that. And it starts taking the things that people say it can't take. So I literally don't know what the future looks like. But what I do know is right now, from a sourcing perspective, I'm seeing some really cool tools come out that can take a ton of time off the sourcing process. Like, AI. They can look at a candidate's profile or resume and then say, okay. Here's 25 more candidates that look just like this person, or here's 25 companies that look just like this. We're using chat GTT a ton in our recruiting business right now, writing job descriptions, sending follow-up emails to clients after a meeting, like building lists of similar companies who we just started a head hunt were like, tell me 25 more luxury builders in Nashville, Tennessee who do X Y Z type of work. there's so much that you can do with AI right now. And I like I said, I don't know, but I could foresee the human side of it. Like, Yeah. I just like in my opinion is, like, you could send email campaigns and LinkedIn campaigns all day. But to really recruit top talent in my opinion, of times, they're not even gonna respond to that email. They're not gonna respond to that length of message. But when you get them on the phone and you can have a real human to human conversation with them, that's the area right now that I see is, like, least replaceable. Like, I would say least because I don't know if it could be eventually, but I would say, like, that human aspect is he is is probably gonna be here to stay for some time in the foreseeable future. And other than that, I mean, sourcing is becoming out to or source to AI. There's a lot that's going to AI that that's gonna be helpful. But, yeah, what an interesting topic. One of the things that I just don't laugh. I just upgraded from, like, chat GPT to chat chat GPT pro. Oh my god. It's like a black and white difference. Like, why did I not do this sooner? No kidding. I don't even know if I'm using the free version, to be honest. I don't even what's the difference?

Benjamin Mena [00:23:11]:

It's a so the free version's 3.5. The 4 version or the the $20 a month version is, like, it's 4, but it's now also, I think, this week integrating with about 80 different, like, web apps and stuff like that. But, yeah, in a lot more detail. I've asked both of them the exact same questions and at, like, the 4.0 where the the pro, it's, like, more nuance, explains things better, Actually, it makes things even more SEO friendly. It's it's wicked. No kidding. I'm gonna go buy that right after this. Well, kind of flipping over to the next question.

Matt Gorgolinski [00:23:43]:

What do you think it takes to be a top top top level recruiter? A lot of the things we talked about in this show, focus focus on the right things, Have a solid work ethic. Be consistent. Do things that are right by your client and your candidate. Make sure you're having win win situations. You're not just doing things to make a quick buck and get out. leverage systems and processes, outsource where you can, find ways to make yourself more efficient, build a brand in the space, like we're talking about creating niche content has been awesome. We've acquired clients. We've acquired candidates just from putting out content on LinkedIn and our podcasts and all that. these are a lot of ways that I believe can help someone be excellent, and not always just keeping the growth mindset. Like, it's more you know, I I believe, the more you realize that you don't know. And so by being able to learn from awesome people and just 1% tweak here, 1% tweak there, it can mean 4, 5, 6 more placements in a year, maybe if you find the right tweak. So that's a that's a good amount of income for most people. So, yeah, that would be that would be my thoughts. So the next question, because you've been in the recruiting space for a short amount of time, I'm actually gonna ask it two different ways. The first way the question I'm gonna ask is, know, everything that you've learned now, recruiting space, sales, business, all that stuff, if you could go talk to yourself when you're getting out of college and going into the business world with advice that you give yourself. focus is is one thing I would definitely say. Like, for from time to time, I maybe start at something and then didn't see it through as much as I should have and, like, maybe, like, bouncing around a little bit. So, like, give things a chance. Like, give recruiting a chance when you get into recruiting. And I would also say just invest in something as soon as possible to help you level up and to to have a mentor, to have someone to be by your side, to coach you, to help you avoid problems ahead of time, to, you know, like, see the pitfalls that you won't see. For me, investing in mentors like, I've invested in easy six figures in mentorship, and for me, it's been the game changer for my career. Nothing else I can say, yes. Put in the work. Yes. All of that's great. But in reality, when you can learn from someone who can just say, here's the straight line to success. You don't need a zigzag. That's been, for me, the the biggest proponent I think of of our success and what will continue to be. I mean, I'm always looking to learn from great people and It helps me every time.

Benjamin Mena [00:25:55]:

Coaches are such a and here's the one thing. I like, what sports program did you play in college? Baseball. Baseball. Okay. So you studied baseball and probably played school because that's what I did on the cross country side of the house. But, like, it's one of those things, I think a lot of people that didn't play sports, like, we had a coach, like, pretty much telling like, I don't wanna say, like, baseball, but told us, like, what to do. Here's how to train. Here's how to do this. And, like, When you go from that structured college world to the business world, you have to go find that for yourself, and you have to go pay for it. Mhmm. Just to help you, like, see that success

Matt Gorgolinski [00:26:29]:

and see that growth and all that all that awesome stuff. So I absolutely love one that you you've really invested in coaches in the last 2 years, and 2, you've been an ex college athlete. Absolutely. And to your point, I mean, I would say do it as soon as possible even if it's uncomfortable. Like, as an example, the first time that I invested in a program was someone named Billy Jean is marketing. I was probably, like, 6 months out of college, and I I knew I wanted to make money online. I was selling home improvement for my dad's company, which was awesome experience, by the way. But basically, I had, like, I don't know, $5 in the bank, and I gave Billy Jean, like, 35100 of it. I'm like, dude, let's just go. What else do I have to lose? I have 5 grand. What is having $0 gonna do? Like, let's just go to broke. Right? And so, basically, I I I would just say that experience and learning from those type of people, even Alex or Mozzi talks about it. He talks about, like, what would you do if you didn't have all the money you had and you had, you know, a a want to grow. And he's like, just reinvest all the things you make into more skills until you acquire enough skills to be where you wanna be. And so that hits home for me for sure because I I feel like that's a big amount of what I've done in the last, like, 7 years or so.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:39]:

Awesome. So this I'm gonna ask this question again about it, Jake. More focused on recruiting. So everything that you know now about the recruiting space, if you can go back to the day that you guys started bickling talent, what would you tell yourself for advice?

Matt Gorgolinski [00:27:51]:

Get into a niche. Get into a niche and work that niche as hard as possible. So in the beginning, we were more generalist. We were super generalist when we first started, like, we were sending tech clients, legal clients, construction clients, you name it, we probably cited the client. And the problem was it's like we didn't have it's like jack of all master of none. Right? And that that was what we found. And we had such a learning curve every time we take on a new position, like, yeah, we could sign the contract, fulfilling the role and making sure we had, like, the right knowledge around that role, just made it harder to be really great at our job. And then we started to mitch down in construction, and then they made it a better situation. So it wasn't ideal, but it was much better. And then we niche down, like, for example, one of the main niches I work is luxury Builders in San Francisco on the residential side. So once I've done that, then I start to get to know pretty much all the candidates in the niche. I can MPC way better. I can have a better sales pitch when I MPC. My clients start to learn about me because they understand this is a space that I really do work consistently in. And I would say just do that soon. It it could be daunting like, to have to think about, oh, there's only x amount of clients and x amount of candidates. But if you pick the niche right, it's better to do that in my opinion than to be that generalist. And, look, both can work. Both can definitely work, but I would say if you wanna have the most success as soon as possible, then you would pick a niche and make it a hyper niche as soon as possible. And that would probably be my number one advice. Other than the other stuff we talked about, be willing to work, learn from great mentors, don't give up when things get hard, build systems and processes, outsource as soon as you can, but the niche is is my opinion pretty important.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:26]:

So your niche, did you fall into it, or is this something that you decided to chase down?

Matt Gorgolinski [00:29:31]:

I fell into it and decided to chase down kind of. So, like, I had it one client. we ended up signing. And I'm also from the Bay Area. Like, that's where I was born and raised, and I did construction in one way or another in the Bay Area. So it just made sense And I also like the luxury residential market because it's kinda recession proof in some ways. It's like the some construction companies on the commercial side are getting hit. Others aren't with that said, but The the luxury residential market does a pretty good job when times get tough. Rich people still tend to have enough money to build homes when things get tough. So that's Kind of a a mixed answer.

Benjamin Mena [00:30:06]:

Awesome. Do you have any last pieces of advice to anybody that would love to be a digital nomad?

Matt Gorgolinski [00:30:13]:

Just go for it as soon as you can. Like, one of the most successful students I've ever helped in my program, his name's Ryan, and and basically, he went from working 10 to 15 hours a week while he was graduating college to making $30 plus a month as a recruiter moving around literally traveling the country, going wherever he wants with his girlfriend. Like, he had never recruited a day in his life. Most people would have argued that shouldn't have joined our program, shouldn't have started recruiting when EST did because he was graduating college. But on the flip side, if you if you listen to a video I made with him about experience, he said he would suggest someone get started sooner than later. And whether no matter what if you work with our program or anything, I wish they'd get started because the first the first step is typically the hardest. to take the first step even if it means doing what I do and just building your business and your logos on your website, picking a niche, one night, and then taking some toward it. Yeah. You might have a full time job. Yeah. You might have a family. But if you nail this, it can change your life forever. Right? And then we'll change the life of your family, of your future forever. So I would just say take the uncomfortable action. Most people I think that's the hardest part for them is actually just getting started or a leading agency life. Just as an example, I What if finding good clients? What if this? Well, what if you do? What if it works? What if what if this works better than you ever thought it could? And what's the worst scenario if if if you find out you don't wanna do it? what? You tried something. You gave your dreams a shot, and it didn't work. That that's my perspective. But on the flip side, if you get into it and you crush it, it can change your life forever. So I would just say just take that uncomfortable action.

Benjamin Mena [00:31:44]:

Awesome. Now before I let you go, is there anything else you'd love to share with the listeners?

Matt Gorgolinski [00:31:48]:

We're recruiting such a beautiful space. I think that if you've never recruited a day in your life, it does not matter genuinely. It does not matter. I never recruited at all before I got into recruiting. hear other people about you who had been in the recruiting space for a while before doing it. I would say regardless of whether you're recruiting, you're not and you're hearing this podcast, Think about this. All you need to do is refer one candidate to a company that make 20, 30, 40, 50 gram. I literally just signed a retainer yesterday with a 15 k deposit with a 45 k estimated fee. And, listen, I didn't know anything about recruitment when I started. Literally, I just knew I was hungry. wanted to learn from great people, and I was gonna make it happen. Sam Evans had a quote that was, like, I believe in my ability to figure it out. If you know Sam Evans, he's an Internet marketing game. And if you just believe in yourself and you're willing to put in the work and you're willing to realize that you have a lots to learn and that you're just gonna learn and you're gonna put in the work to make it happen, It's just such a beautiful space to be in. I don't know if many litter better. So that would be my final word. It's like, just just get started. Why not?

Benjamin Mena [00:32:48]:

Awesome. Well, Matt, thank you so much for coming on the pod podcast. Thank you for sharing and talking about travel in the world. And also, like, a lot of the really awesome nuggets that you gave for absolutely phenomenal. So, definitely, thank you so much for sharing in the podcast and for the listeners at Kodak's time, guys. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, it's subscribe and leave a rating.