Homeless to Search Firm Owner: The Transformational Power of Recruiting with Pete Tomasko

Pete Tomasko [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.

Benjamin Mena [00:00:20]:
This is going to be a very powerful and deep episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast. But before we get started, a few quick announcements. Book of the month 177 mental toughness, secrets of the world class by Steve Siebold. And the recruiting growth Summit is coming back in about two, three weeks. We'll have some information for you, but we are bringing it back so that way you can finish this year strong to make sure that 2024 will be your best year yet. All right, let's dive in. I'm excited about this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast. The reason is my guest was homeless for over a decade, and recruiting is what helped change his life around.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:12]:
We talk about the power of recruiting constantly on this podcast. It is such an incredible opportunity. Pete Tomasko is a perfect example of that. Pete was homeless for over a decade. Jail, drugs, you name it. But recruiting is the vehicle that completely changed his life. Now he is a partner in a search firm, one of the fastest growing search firms that I've seen in a long time. In about 18 months, they've went from three to 15 people.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:43]:
I know it's growing, but I'm excited that he's here to share his story because I know the impact that his story is going to be. So, Pete, I want to welcome you to the podcast.

Pete Tomasko [00:01:52]:
Pete, thank you, Ben. I appreciate you having me.

Benjamin Mena [00:01:55]:
So, real quick for the listeners, what are you doing now? Talk about Titan placement Group. Like, what's going on at this current moment with you guys?

Pete Tomasko [00:02:04]:
Sure. So we are firm placement recruiting firm. Our specialty is we work almost exclusively with federally qualified health centers and community nonprofit across the board.

Benjamin Mena [00:02:16]:
Awesome. And we always get started. We're going to kind of do a little bit different. Like, we're going to talk about, like, how he got started in recruiting, how Pete Tomaska, we got started recruiting, and then how, like, taking a few steps back to the story of what happened before he got into the recruiting world. So, like, first of all, how did you end up in this wonderful world of recruiting?

Pete Tomasko [00:02:36]:
Yeah, sure. So it was, you know, two years post me coming off of the streets. I was painting houses for some here in Sarasota, and I had a couple of friends that I had made along the way were in the recruiting space, and they had been asking me, listen, we think you have the right temperament. We definitely think you have the right energy. You're always smiling. You're a super nice guy. Why don't you come in and think about recruiting? And I didn't know anything about recruiting. The only thing that I kept thinking about that I would not be a good fit was because it was in an office, sitting in a cubicle.

Pete Tomasko [00:03:14]:
And there, at that point in my life, there was no way that I can envision myself sitting in office in a cubicle. But they were persistent, right? And so I went. One day, we had lunch with the guys, went to the office that with them for like an hour, and I was hooked.

Benjamin Mena [00:03:33]:
So you jumped in there with no experience recruiting. Only experience was like painting houses. Like, how'd you go from there to being a top biller to now a partner of a search firm?

Pete Tomasko [00:03:45]:
Yeah, man, listen, it's been a journey for sure. Spent the first couple years with that, with that place, it kind of went sideways. The guy that owned the place was not a really cool dude. He was doing some really shady things with the money and then some, a couple. And we had a pretty full house. You know, we had 25 recruiters there. And then they slowly started to leave the company. I was kind of one of the last people that kind of just hung on until that, you know, I also was able to see the writing on the wall, you know? And so I left then.

Pete Tomasko [00:04:18]:
And then shortly after that, I took a year off from recruiting. I'm like, wow, this is crazy. I'm humbly not sure I want to get back into this. But it turned out that two of the other people that had left that company went and started their own company, right? And so they. And so I started getting calls from them, you know, and I was still. I said, I'm not going to do it. I'm not doing this. I don't want to go back.

Pete Tomasko [00:04:39]:
And then again, you know, I relented. You know, it took me up, took me out to a really nice, fancy lunch. You know, it didn't take much back then. And same thing. We had the talk of all the things that they. That they wanted and or willing to do for me, and so I gave recruiting another shot. And looking back now, thank God that I did. And so I stayed with that firm for four, almost four and a half years, and then the same thing started to happen.

Pete Tomasko [00:05:05]:
Management was going sideways. I could start to see the writing on the wall, and it was really not a good space. It became a really toxic work environment. And so what happened is, like, I, like, I know for me today, there's a couple things that I know to be really true. Like there are for most people, right? But for me, for sure, there are very few moments in windows of opportunity that come in life to take a genuine leap of faith, and that window may not come again. And so I. That window, it opened up for me, like, in one day, I was at work, and so I got with my but two business partners, that one of them, you know, now Justin, the other one being Gary, and I grabbed those guys and I pulled them aside and I said, listen, man, I said, we got to get out of here. Let's go do this thing on our own.

Pete Tomasko [00:06:01]:
Until we did, you know, and at that time, we were under the proverbial non compete, the hot topic right now. But, you know, at that time, they were trying to enforce it. We weren't trying to fight it, so we honored it, right? We went and we got. We sought legal help. We had a lawyer tell us the do's and the don't of this thing. And so we honored, you know, that six month non compete and that additional six month non solicit. And so for. We walked in on April 18, 2022.

Pete Tomasko [00:06:32]:
We all three resigned that day. And for the next six months, up until October 18, we did not work.

Benjamin Mena [00:06:39]:
Wait, so you guys didn't do any work for six months?

Pete Tomasko [00:06:42]:
No. No, we didn't. Then we. Like, we were honorable. Like, we didn't. We didn't take any clients. We didn't do any side work. We didn't do any side.

Pete Tomasko [00:06:51]:
We didn't. I think for myself and Gary and Justin, I think part of it was there was a little bit of fear based in it. We didn't get it. We didn't want to get tangled up in some legal cases, so we did. And we were. We were lucky enough that recruiting had provided us a lifestyle prior to that day that we walked in. Like, we had money in the bank, right?

Benjamin Mena [00:07:15]:
You guys had money in the bank. So you guys, like, built up a substantial cushion. You didn't spend everything that you guys got. And I got to ask you, like, we'll say four or five months in, when you're sitting there twiddling your thumbs, like, thinking about, like, was there any point in time that you were just like, oh, shit. Like, oh, crap.

Pete Tomasko [00:07:37]:
Yes, yes. But. But, yes. Many, many times. But I'll tell. I'll tell you what held us together and kept us strong is during that six months, what Gary, Justin, and I, we took turns rotating. It was on Tuesdays and Thursdays. What? They would either come to my house or we would go to Gary's or go to Justin's, and we would spend 2 hours and we were, we would plan and talk about what we thought title placement could be and would be right.

Pete Tomasko [00:08:06]:
And so we did a lot of back end planning and talking about and trying to come up with the name and the tools and the resources and you know, what our target clients would be. So there was a lot of conversation that kind of kept us in the loop, but nothing as far as reaching out to any client, nothing like that. We held six. We stuck to the non compete.

Benjamin Mena [00:08:28]:
So you sucked at the non compete. Six months and it's go time. What did you guys do?

Pete Tomasko [00:08:32]:
Oh, my gosh. You know, it's funny, looking back, it seems like it's been forever, but it's only been 18 months at this point. So we got a very small office space. It was just Gary, Justin and I. And then the plan was, is because we knew we had to build this thing from the ground up with, because part of the non compete, we had an additional six month non solicit. So we couldn't contact any of our own clients for essentially a year. Right. So we literally had to start with all brand new clients, people that had never heard of us before.

Pete Tomasko [00:09:05]:
So the first few months were just on the phones all day long, smiling, tiling, putting on a face, in spite of how we felt sometime. And we had to get new clients.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:20]:
And like, almost like you guys are pretty much starting a business from scratch.

Pete Tomasko [00:09:24]:
We absolutely sculpted from scratch.

Benjamin Mena [00:09:27]:
So the first, like, you know, few months, you guys trying to get new clients, what was working for you guys? Was it just literally smiling and dialing and having conversations?

Pete Tomasko [00:09:34]:
No, it was that too. But what we did to really bring this thing into focus is we, of course, you know, we put up a whiteboard. And so Gary, Judson and I, we would come in on Saturdays and we would write on a whiteboard all the names of all of the clients that we wanted to get right. And we would just. We. That whiteboard with hundreds and hundreds of company names on it was just our focal point. We would just. And it didn't matter.

Pete Tomasko [00:10:01]:
Yes, we weren't, Gary and Justin and I were not focused on which one of us was able to get the agreement signed. We just. That was the board, and we just focused on those companies until we got the person on the phone was able to convey our value and get an agreement signed.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:19]:
Okay, so you guys, for the listeners, you guys planned who you were going after. So that way, during the daytime, it sounds like you could just put in the work.

Pete Tomasko [00:10:29]:
Yes. Yeah, we did all the planning for that for the upcoming week on Saturdays.

Benjamin Mena [00:10:35]:
That's important thing. Definitely taking notes on that. So that's what I'm gonna be doing this week. But anyways, okay, so you guys are just growing fast. You guys are literally like, new recruiters are getting started constantly. I want to jump into what happened to you before you started recruiting homeless for a decade. Like, what's. How did you even get there? Before we start walking through, like, how you got out of it.

Pete Tomasko [00:11:03]:
Yeah, sure. So listen, couple things. Just. I think I worth pucking on three. You know, I had a crazy childhood when I was ten years old. My mom was married, some guy. Turns out this dude was a psychopath, right? And so he was abusing me for no reason whatsoever, every day. He was just.

Pete Tomasko [00:11:25]:
My mom at that time worked at Ford Motor company, so she was working the night shifts. So this guy was like, he was doing the nighttime shift, watching me and my sister. And for a really long period of time, he was beating me for nothing. And I never told anybody about this abuse because he wasn't hitting my sister. And my sister was a year younger than me. I remember at the time just thinking, as long as he's not touching my sister, I'm just going to weather this storm for as long as it takes. And then somewhere along the line, I don't know how it happened, even to this day, but my mom finally got wind of what was going on. And of course, you know, as soon as she heard about it, she immediately filed her divorce, and we moved out.

Pete Tomasko [00:12:15]:
And then what happened one day is my sister and I were at school. I was ten, she was nine. You know, we were on the front, you know, outside the school, waiting for her mom to come pick us up. She doesn't show. We don't know what's going on. Like, before you know it, all the buses are gone. There's no more kids outside, but my sister and I are still standing here waiting. And the next thing that I know is that the principal comes out and gets us and takes us back inside.

Pete Tomasko [00:12:42]:
And then what seemed like within seconds, my grandfather and my two uncles come walking in the front door, right? And so, like, I don't know what's going on. And they proceed to tell me that my mom has been killed. And what had happened was this guy, my stepdad, had waited for my mother about a mile from the school in this car, and when he saw her coming, he pulled out in front of her in the middle of the intersection. Blocked her off, got out of his car, walked over to her car and shot her and killed her right there on the spot. And the reason. A couple things to take away from that, right. And I think that carries into the story, right. And I think it's a very, very important part of the story.

Pete Tomasko [00:13:35]:
So what, you know, and so when you're deal. When you're at such a young age and something like losing parents has been stripped away from you, right, it leaves you in a place of complete emptiness where nothing seems real, right. There's no more stability. And you are now in this constant state of perpetual anxiety because everything that you knew to be wholesome and true has just been snatched away. And so what happened was, you know, I carried that, that looking for a place. Listen, and my grandparents thank God for my grandparents, because they immediately stepped in, right. And that how I ended up in Florida, because this talk took place in Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. Within six months, we moved to Florida to start a new life.

Pete Tomasko [00:14:37]:
And, you know, my grandparents were, God bless them, but they were getting ready to retire. You know, my dad had just. My grandfather had just retired from Ford Motor Company. My grandmother had just retired from Sears. They were supposed to come down here and play golf and play peanut oil with her friends. And now they were raising two kids all over again. And they did the very best that they could. But the problem with me is I was still reeling from that sudden loss of my mom, right.

Pete Tomasko [00:15:10]:
I could not find my place, even in our new home with my grandparents. No matter what I did, I just couldn't find my footing. I always felt that wasn't my home, even though they did everything that they could to provide, and they did. I had a very stable living environment, decent middle class upbringing with my grandparents, we never wanted. We never went without anything. But it didn't matter. Just visit the environment, right. It was what was happening on the inside of me.

Pete Tomasko [00:15:41]:
And so what happened is I, you know, I made it all the way up until 18 and then started experimenting with the drugs and the alcohol. Alcohol is the first thing. But I do remember something very. I could remember it like it was yesterday, Ben. Again, it was such a moment of clarity, the first time that I had alcohol, right? And I can still remember to this day as I took that stove. It was my grandfather's beer, right? I just knock it out of the refrigerator. And I remember drinking this beer. And I remember the feeling of warmth that started at my head and went all the way to my feet.

Pete Tomasko [00:16:20]:
And I remember thinking to myself, this is the way that I'm supposed to feel, not all of this anxiety filled, fear filled stuff that I've been carrying for so long. And so I chased that feeling of normalcy, which in reality, all it was doing. It was the alcohol that was temporarily removing all of the anxiety. And so that caused me to chase, like, okay, so now I know I can put the two things together. If I drink alcohol, it's going to make me feel normal. If I drink alcohol, I'm going to feel normal. So I continue to drink alcohol for a really long time. And then what happened is it got worse, right? Because I did.

Pete Tomasko [00:17:09]:
I left an addiction to it, and then the drinking led to drugs, and I kind of was. I was able to hold my life a little bit together. You know, I had. I had an okay job. I was. I worked at the Walmart distribution center. You know, I got promoted to supervisor, but still drinking a lot. Just managing day to day life.

Pete Tomasko [00:17:29]:
But. But still, I. It hadn't spun out of control yet. Very mundane life. Right. There was nothing exciting going on. My daughter had. My daughter was born in 2000, and, you know, and it's just, this is where the wheels fell off, right.

Pete Tomasko [00:17:45]:
So in early 2000, it really started to fall apart. I could no longer control the drinking. I could no longer control the drugs. And in November of 2000, I had created such havoc in my own life, right? I was no longer being at least nowhere near what I am today. Right. You know, a functioning father, a husband and a friend to anybody. And I felt like I had backed myself into a corner. And the only way in that moment, on that day in November, like, the only thing that made sense to me, because I did not know what direction to go was to leave and try to go fix myself, because if anything that I was trying, you know, in those early stages just wasn't working.

Pete Tomasko [00:18:39]:
There wasn't a lot of help. I didn't know anything about recovery and AA and Na and all these places that, all these hotlines that are pretty available today. But in that day, in November of 2000, I just thought to myself, I need to leave and go get myself together. And so I did. I packed my car full of stuff, pictures, clothes, heirlooms that I thought I would want, and I drove off in the middle of the night and I never went back.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:13]:
I totally. I mean, I definitely can't relate at all, but I understand that, like, the feeling of maybe as long as if I can get away, everything could be fixed.

Pete Tomasko [00:19:25]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:26]:
And I can come back as a new person.

Pete Tomasko [00:19:29]:
That was the plan.

Benjamin Mena [00:19:32]:
But, like, I know we were talking earlier, it went, you know, the one night or the one weekend ended up not turning into a one night, a two night kind of thing.

Pete Tomasko [00:19:45]:
No, it didn't been probably six months in. We, you know, at least I had the car to sleep in and live out of, but it didn't take long. The car broke down. I was in West Palm beach when it happened. Ended up having to leave the car in a hotel parking lot along with all of my family pictures, you know, pictures of me, pictures of my kid, family pictures, anything that I had, I had to leave in the car. And I was at that point in, on the street, you know, and it, it did not go anything like I thought that it was going to go. Not that I had a plan, but what ended up happening was, is like, nothing happens to you mentally. Like, when, when, when you realize, like I had to do for the first time shortly after I had to leave the car in the parking lot.

Pete Tomasko [00:20:39]:
There's something that happens to someone when you are left literally on the street and you have no form of shelter around you from a physical aspect. Like, at least when I was in the car, that, you know, being in a car provided some assemblage of shelter even though I was homeless. But when you don't even have that and you're on the street, it. It is, you become so vulnerable to the elements that it immediately puts you in a survival mode because you, you don't know where the attack is coming from. Right. And so what I did is I just continued to still can't even believe this happened. There. There's nowhere to get food, right, and there's nowhere to eat, right.

Pete Tomasko [00:21:35]:
And so you have to start finding the food where it is. And where the food was. Was in dumpsters, right. And leftover food that you. That I would find in garbage cans. It was crazy. And so what, one of the biggest things that I did not expect was the remorse and the guilt that I would, that I would start to feel or, you know, in my eye, abandoning not only my family, but my kid. Like, my daughter was ten years old when I left.

Pete Tomasko [00:22:07]:
And so these thoughts, you know, sometimes not all. Not daily, you know, but weekly for sure, this, I would think about my kid and, like, how am I going to get back there? And it was such, I was so overwhelmed by shame and guilt that I needed to mask that because I was not in a position to deal with those feelings living on the streets. So I would continue to drink and use drugs, and six months turned into a year, and I did this, and one year turned into two years, turned into three years, turned into four years. And I'm telling you, Ben, just in the blink of an eye, it was a decade later.

Benjamin Mena [00:22:54]:
Was one of the biggest things that kept you from coming back. Was it the guilt?

Pete Tomasko [00:23:02]:
100%. I. There was. I was there. I was in no frame of mind at that point, or I, as much as I wanted to, I was so paralyzed by the fear and the shame and the guilt that even the thought of going back, even after a year and having to talk to my ten year old kid and explain what had happened was. Was overwhelming. I did not have the courage. I did not have whatever it would have taken at that time till the turn.

Pete Tomasko [00:23:35]:
It was just. It was all consuming.

Benjamin Mena [00:23:39]:
How did you get out of this? Like, how did you know? How did, like, what happened that this didn't turn into two decades?

Pete Tomasko [00:23:49]:
Yeah, that's a great question, Ben. It's funny, I was just talking to a colleague that's got a relative that, you know, is out there right now, and he is. He is worried for his. For his family friend that. That he's not going to make his way back, you know, so I was able to share with him, you know, and listen, I wish. I wish I had a real answer, like something concrete. The best thing that I have been able to come up with, 13 now, twelve years removed from it, stroke of luck. Like a pure timing thing.

Pete Tomasko [00:24:30]:
I was ready right at that, you know, at that day and time, you know, when it all came to an end and I ended up on a bus back here to Sarasota. There's a variety of different things that I just think they all just came together at once. I was finished. Somebody answered the phone, there was a bus ticket waiting for me, and I was back here in Terrasota.

Benjamin Mena [00:24:54]:
Now that you were back in Sarasota, we spoke that you got a chance to talk to some family again. But how'd you stay away from falling back in some of the vices and the things pulling you that hold you down for a decade plus?

Pete Tomasko [00:25:11]:
Yeah, great question. What I did is I immediately just got into recovery, which is something that I had never done before, only because I didn't know about it. I didn't know those resources were out there. But there's, there, you know, the recovery community is large here in Sarasota, Florida. And so part of that, you know, I got lucky. Why Sarasota? I don't know. My sister lived here once before. I thought it'd be a great place to start over, even though I didn't know, I didn't have any plans or aspirations, anything.

Pete Tomasko [00:25:42]:
I got into recovery immediately. And something happened shortly after I got here that I know to be true. Today, that was the light bulb moment, the moment of clarity. And I'll tell you what it was. So I'm in Sarasota. I've been here for a couple months. I'm in a halfway house. I've reconnected with my sister.

Pete Tomasko [00:26:08]:
And my sister calls me one Saturday afternoon, and she says, I have somebody that wants to talk to you. And I remember in the moment, thinking to myself, you know, who could this be? Who knows I'm here? Who even knows that I'm alive? I've been gone for so long. But my sister said, she said, it's your daughter, blase. And, man, I'm telling you, Ben, I can remember it like it was yesterday. All of the feelings, the guilt, the shame, the remorse, you know, because now, at this time, at this point, she's 21, right? And. And I am in that moment, and I'll never forget it. I was standing out in the front yard, and this thought just crossed my mind, right, because did I. Did I want to run and not face this kid again? Sure.

Pete Tomasko [00:27:07]:
Absolutely. Damn, I couldn't run anymore, right? I was tired, right? I knew I was going to have to talk to her. And so I told Miss Ditcher, I said, okay, yeah, let's do it. Have her call me. And then, man, what seemed, what seemed like seconds, I'm sure it was, you know, maybe an hour, an hour and a half, my phone rings, you know, had a little cell phone, little metro flip phone. I picked up the phone and I said, hello, and I hear my daughter say, hey, dad. And I just, like, I lose it.

Benjamin Mena [00:27:47]:
And this, like, the first time you have talked to her since she was ten years old?

Pete Tomasko [00:27:51]:
Yes. Yep. Yeah. And. And, um. Listen, Ben, I'll tell you, as soon as I hear her say, hey, dad, like a decade of emotions just come flooding back. Like, in that moment, I can't run anymore. I can't hide.

Pete Tomasko [00:28:11]:
And the only thing that I know to say as I'm crying harder than I've ever cried in my entire life, is I just keep repeating, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and I'm sorry because it's the only thing that I could think to say. What else is there to say? Yeah. So, like, this is the moment, right? And, um. So when I'm finally able to compose myself, you know, catch my breath, you know, and wipe my eyes and, like, it was her cute, um. And her response to me was deaf. It's okay, dad. We all make mistakes. And I'm telling you, Ben, in that moment, it's.

Pete Tomasko [00:29:01]:
Something happened to me that I had never experienced before in my entire life. Not with the drugs, not with the alcohol, not with anything. When she said to me, it's okay, dad. We all make mistakes. It was as if some of your listeners had maybe experienced something like this before. It was as if somebody had lifted a four ton boulder off of my shoulders and threw it to the side. In that moment, I felt like for the first time in well over a decade, that I could take a deep breath.

Benjamin Mena [00:29:44]:
I mean, after a decade, she. There's a thousand different ways that she could have gone other than, it's okay. We all make mistakes.

Pete Tomasko [00:29:53]:
Yeah. You know, I'll tell you, Ben, we listen. We've talked about that, you know, many times. And she could have told me off, don't ever call me again. And it would have been justified, right? And I would have had to respect that. And even to hear her talk about it today, in that moment, on that first phone call, she just thought it was the right thing to do. Right? And what neither of us knew in that moment is not only did she set me free, but she also set herself free. Because what ended up happening after that is we started to put our relationship back together.

Pete Tomasko [00:30:36]:
And we have a relationship today that is just as. It's probably as good as can be expected given the circumstances. She's a mom with two wonderful daughters, my granddaughters. We all have a great relationship. We've been through a lot together. I would. Thanks to recruiting, right? Thank God. Thanks to recruiting.

Pete Tomasko [00:31:02]:
When COVID hit my daughter, like many people, lost her job, right. She was out of work. I was able to, because of the money that I had made and saved as a result of recruiting, I was able to step in for my daughter and help her financially for a really long time. But listen, in that moment, like, in that moment that we have that first conversation, if she. If for whatever reason, she chooses not to forgive, right. If she just runs with the whole, fuck you, don't ever call me again. There's an opportunity for me to be there for her financially doesn't happen. And then COVID hit.

Pete Tomasko [00:31:42]:
And then what happens to her then she's a single mom with two young kids. She doesn't have anybody else. And so now the affinity relationship that I have with my daughter today, and it's fantastic. And my grandkids, but I feel like at this point in the game, my daughter knows a couple things because it happened a few times. He knows that I'm here. He knows that I'm sorry for what happened. Right. And that I'm doing everything that I can to put my life back together, which has happened tenfold.

Pete Tomasko [00:32:20]:
Because all she's ever wanted for me was to stop using drugs and get off the street. That's all she ever wanted. But now, today, where I am, the most important part of her life is that she knows that I am here. Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:32:40]:
And that's something that she didn't have for well over a decade. And I mean, this. He's switching gears a little bit. There are so many people struggling. Like, deep struggling, like, to the. Maybe not to the level of the struggle that you had. Why did you make it out when others didn't?

Pete Tomasko [00:33:02]:
I had a lot of help then, and I think the most important part of that is in many people that suffer from any type of addiction, right? It can be. Listen, drugs and alcohol are not the only two things addiction related that absolutely destroy people's lives. There's many things out there that will crumble somebody's wife. But coming off the street after a decade, I was tired, and I wanted to get better, and I was willing to put in whatever work was gonna be required of me to put some assemblance of a normal life together. I could. I never imagined that it was going to evolve into this. I didn't. Ben, listen, I was just talking to a friend earlier that early on, it was just like, I'll tell you a quick story.

Pete Tomasko [00:33:56]:
I remember in my first year at Ben, in my first year off the streets, I was still riding a bicycle. I didn't have a driver's license yet, right. And I got caught in the rain. And I remember I was riding home from work painting houses. And I remember I got caught in the rain. And I remember I was literally singing in the rain and thinking to myself, if this. In this moment, painting houses, living in a halfway house, and riding a bicycle is as good as it ever gets, I'll be okay with that. I just didn't want to use anymore.

Pete Tomasko [00:34:36]:
Right. And living on the streets was horrible, and I didn't want to go back there. And I was. And I. And I was willing to do whatever it took just to make sure that I didn't go backwards.

Benjamin Mena [00:34:49]:
And you got a job as a recruiter because you got talked into it. No experience recruiting. Like, how did you really learn the skill set of recruiting that changed your life?

Pete Tomasko [00:35:01]:
Listen, it. It was hard. And I'll tell you why it was hard. Because of. Because of the things that I just mentioned, right? Um, because of my, um. What happened to my mom and then my grandparents raising me. Um, and then at 30. Listen, crazy.

Pete Tomasko [00:35:15]:
Even as I'm saying it now, it's mind boggling to me. Like, when. When I. When I decided on that night in November to leave. Like, I was 30 years old. I was 30 years old when I did that, but I had no computer skills, no communication skills, no skills of any sort. So when I first got into recruiting, it was, it was a long, long learning curve. It took me months.

Pete Tomasko [00:35:44]:
Nothing like it is today. I mean, these, these kids that we have today, like I said, fearless. Like, they just. All they want to do is just, like, give me a script and get me on the phone. That was not. That was not what happened to me. I had to learn basic computer skills, right? And thank God that the first company that I worked with, even though it was a pretty toxic environment, they were patient with me and let me work through all that.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:11]:
Jeff, like, I was just going to ask, like, I know a lot of places. If you're working for somebody, like, if you're not picking things up here, you're fired. You're gone. You're canned. Like, what. What kept you from. With all these struggles from getting fired?

Pete Tomasko [00:36:25]:
I. The only things that I. The only thing that I can think of that actually makes any kind of sense is they saw potential. I. Listen, I showed up, and I showed up to work every day, right? I was always there on time. I didn't. I, you know, I. When I was at work, I was there to work.

Pete Tomasko [00:36:43]:
I wasn't there. Wasn't laughing, having a good time, you know, the next stuff, like, I was serious about doing it. And so I think they saw the potential of what could possibly be is the reason that they kept me around.

Benjamin Mena [00:36:55]:
How long did it take for you to make your first placement?

Pete Tomasko [00:36:58]:
Oh, I'll never forget it. It was with, like, the name of the company right now because they've been since then been bought out in New Jersey. Riverside Medical group, the baker's delegate doctor Baker and his two kids. My first placement was the nurse practitioner. Ben listened. You want to talk about running around the office and high fiving everybody? Like, that was me. And then, so that, like, that's what I'm like, okay. Even though it's taken me a little bit longer than maybe your average bear, like, that is what lit the fire.

Pete Tomasko [00:37:35]:
I'm like, okay, so I did that. So I just need to repeat that over and over and over again.

Benjamin Mena [00:37:43]:
And so you made your first placement. You've learned the skillsets you've had to, like, I don't want to say like learn how to do more than most recruiters getting into the space because I mean, the, I mean, just even thinking about the technology difference between a decade and now or a decade, listen, you've.

Pete Tomasko [00:38:04]:
Edited it this long, right? And most of your listeners have. It's night and day. And I, and so the second company that I went to is where I really started to like hone my skills, right? Start to understand and start to really put some thought, some real processes into place, you know, because before that I was just doing, you know, maybe what your proverbial newcomer does, right? You just, you know, you're smiling and dialing, you know, and hoping that somebody answers the phone and hopefully you can screen them properly enough to actually get them to the, to the interview. And you hope that there an offer is extended and then you hold that they accept the offer, you know, but at the second place is where I really started to, you know, put those things into a process that was repeatable, right? Like I, you know, I had, you know, you know, my 50 client that I did business development with every single day. You know, you make those calls from nine to eleven and then from eleven to twelve, you know, check email, take a quick lunch and then from 01:00 to 05:00 like it's just all recruiting.

Benjamin Mena [00:39:15]:
That's a good breakdown. And one thing I have recognized with you over the time I've gotten to know you, you were a true student of the business.

Pete Tomasko [00:39:26]:
Yeah, listen, I've had to be Ben and I often tell my, you know, listen, we have three brand new people that started on Monday. And one of the things that I tell them and now because of, because of my struggles early on, like I'm trying to make sure that that doesn't happen with anybody else, right? So we are really intentional with training and immediately teaching the processes, right. So they don't have to figure out a process for themselves. We, like, we have our process dialed in. All they need to do, all they need to learn is like, I don't know if this is a plug for crelate or not. You know, that's our system. We love it. It works really well for us.

Pete Tomasko [00:40:15]:
So like that's, that's our main focus. Like in the first couple days, we give them dummy candidates, tell them how to put the candidates into play, move them through job, the job, move them show them how to move them through the screening process, you know, and then start to talk about how to look at a resume when you're screening a nurse or a doctor or, you know, whatever the case is.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:36]:
So, and I want to go back to you and the founders, like, one of the. Because I definitely know you guys, you know, you guys didn't do anything for six months.

Pete Tomasko [00:40:44]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:44]:
Like, you, I'd be, my wife would be freaking out, or maybe I'd be freaking out more than my wife knowing, knowing us. But you one, you also, we spoke about this before you had the support from your family for this job.

Pete Tomasko [00:40:57]:
Yes.

Benjamin Mena [00:40:58]:
Secondly, you guys spend a lot of time together outside of the office. Like, I see you guys doing some things and running and that kind of stuff. Do you think that's been, had a huge impact, huge impact on how you guys have been able to grow and scale in such a short amount of time?

Pete Tomasko [00:41:22]:
Again, you know, I attribute a lot of my success just being at the right place at the right time, you know, and putting in the work into my business partners, Justin and Gary. Yeah. So we, during that six month hiatus, as I mentioned earlier, you know, meeting two times a week, we also started running together because I had been running for years. Right. And they saw that and, like, they were willing to participate. And so that that has carried over, continued to carry over into present day. Right. And so, yeah, two days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, as part of our normal routine, the three of us meet at a local park here in Sarasota called Benderson.

Pete Tomasko [00:42:11]:
There's a four mile loop around this big lake, and we meet there every Tuesday and Thursday at 530 in the morning. And the three of us run together, and that's like. But here's even the cool part, Ben. It's like, now, one of our other recruiters, Hunter, right. For the last month has been, this kid's never run in his life. Right. He has participated. He's been running with us.

Pete Tomasko [00:42:40]:
Right. And so it is without a doubt. Without a doubt, it has been the bond that we have formed together during that six month hiatus. And what we have continued to do up until present day has been life changing. It is definitely something that holds us together and another reason that there has been such rapid growth in this company. And just briefly, I have a friend, you know, that started working here two months ago. He was at Publix, and Publix is a really stable job. Like, it's like for many people at the career path, and he was on that career path, but it was boring.

Pete Tomasko [00:43:28]:
And so this guy had been watching me, knew who I was, knew that I was doing all kinds of crazy things outside of work. He knew what was going on. Work with work. But he also knew that, you know, I was running, and I'm a pretty avid cold plunger. And so he was doing all. He had known I was doing all these things. So he came up to me, called me one day, and he said, hey, peter, are you guys hiring over there? And I was like, maybe. Why? What's up? And he said, listen.

Pete Tomasko [00:44:01]:
He goes, you know, I've been at publix for a long time. He goes, I see what you and Justin and Gary and are doing online, right? And he goes, I need to be around guys like you. He goes, I'm trying to level up. And I said, okay, man. He got. I said, why don't you come in, meet Gary, meet Justin, and we'll see where it goes in life. Like, my experience, like, if you want something more than you've ever had before in your life, it's usually going to require you to do something that you have never done before in your life. And for him, it was going to require him to step outside of his comfort zone.

Pete Tomasko [00:44:46]:
Right. And start something new with no safety net. And he did in, like, Ben, this kid, in two months, has boarded $60,000.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:03]:
That's great.

Pete Tomasko [00:45:04]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:04]:
First two months, I didn't do anything. My first two months.

Pete Tomasko [00:45:08]:
Listen, that's. Well, then that's why I said earlier, like, there. And he's. He is. I don't know his exact age. If I had to guess. I was gonna say. I'm gonna say he's 27.

Pete Tomasko [00:45:17]:
But there's definitely something different about some of the younger generation. Like, when they say that they're committed, like, they follow instruction, which is the number one thing in recruiting. If you're somebody new, like, you just have to, like, it doesn't matter where you are. Like, you just have to do what you're being told. And that's what he did. Like, he's not afraid to get on the phone. He's not afraid to make mistakes. He's willing to have the tough conversations.

Pete Tomasko [00:45:47]:
And so for those reasons, I'm excited to see where he takes this thing.

Benjamin Mena [00:45:53]:
Well, I want to jump gears a little bit before we just. Because I feel like we could talk forever. Pete?

Pete Tomasko [00:46:00]:
Yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:46:02]:
Before we jump to the quickfire questions, is there anything else that you want to talk about with your story and overcoming homelessness and addiction and all that stuff?

Pete Tomasko [00:46:15]:
Yeah, that's a good question. I appreciate you asking that? You know, the one thing that I do want to say for sure is because, like I mentioned earlier, there are many people out there, like. And it doesn't have to be the death of a parent or even the death of a loved one, right. But I do know because I'm heavily involved in the community. Like, there's a lot of people out there that are carrying things that they think that they can't talk about with anybody else, right? Whether it's. Whether they're being held back by fear or whatever it is. There's a million resources out there. There's websites, there's hotlines.

Pete Tomasko [00:46:59]:
If you're in that place where you think that you don't know where to turn, go online, look it up. Many of those numbers are anonymous. And listen, if. If you're listening to this podcast and you're in that position and you feel like there's nobody else to call, right, and you're looking for a place, like, you think somebody's going to judge you, like, you can call me, like, my phone number, my cell phone number is 941-328-2436 and I will listen to whatever it is that you have to say without judgment, right. And if I can be the one person that needs to just listen to whatever it is that you have to say, like, I'll be that person. And if you're looking for help, maybe just for somebody to point you in the right direction because you don't know where to turn, I'll help point you the right direction.

Benjamin Mena [00:47:58]:
And I feel like I don't know how to go to the quickfire questions after that.

Pete Tomasko [00:48:01]:
Sorry, Ben. Listen, let me. So here, like, for all the things that I've said, right. I'm sure, you know, we've, we've read some of the same books, right? You know, to be. To be in a space where, you know, you want. You want to feel like you're serving some type of purpose or some form of passion or whatever it is the word I'm looking for. Right. What your why is, the reality is a majority of the population will never know their why.

Pete Tomasko [00:48:41]:
But for me, the reason that we work almost exclusively with federally qualified health centers and community nonprofits is because of the services that they provide to the people that need it the most. Because I received some of those services when I was living on the street, though I understand one of the most poignant moments that happened to me when I was on the street. And I think this is worth sharing. I was in West Palm beach. If some of your listeners are in the West Paul beach area. I was in between West Palm and Riviera, and it was a typical day then, and a typical day would just look like it was 100 degrees outside. I don't have anywhere to go. I don't have two pennies in my pocket.

Pete Tomasko [00:49:37]:
And I was hungry. And so I just happened to ask somebody, another homeless guy, I'm sure, hey, man, where can we get some food? And so he pointed me to this place of near Riviera, and I somehow made it on one of the buses and went to this place. And turned out it was a community nonprofit that catered to the homeless people, right? The people that were really, really destitute and out there. And I walked into the front door and the girl that was standing behind on the counter took one look at me and she opened the little swing gate and she said, can you come with me and listen? Life, Ben. I'm barely walking. Like, I can barely walk. My feet are swelled up, my feet are bleeding. I've been walking in flip flops for three years.

Pete Tomasko [00:50:33]:
And they took me into the back room and this lady comes in and they sit me down and she looks down at me, and then she looks down at my feet and she says, hold on 1 second, I'll be right back. In like two minutes later, I think she comes back and I shit you not. Then she's got a bucket full of soapy water and a wash rag. And this lady proceed to wash my feet, wipe down my legs, right? And then go get a brand new pair of socks and put the socks on my feet. And I will never forget that. And I feel like that is the reason, maybe not to that degree, but that is like the reason that these steadily qualified health centers and these community nonprofits like that is those are the people that they're trying to help.

Benjamin Mena [00:51:35]:
And when people talk about finding a niche or niching funding you, the niche found you. And I know, before we jump over the quick fire questions, because of everything that you're doing in recruiting, you're also actively involved in the nonprofit space by giving board of directors. Can you talk about that real quick before we jump over to the quick fire?

Pete Tomasko [00:51:55]:
Yeah, sure. So, you know, great question. Thank you for asking. So I currently sit on the board of directors for Lite share Behavioral and wellness centers here in Sarasota, Florida. They do, they offer the same services that I needed when I was on the street, but I just didn't have access to, you know, people that are struggling with addiction. They can go and they can live there and help people get off drugs, get off whatever addiction that they're doing. The crazy thing about it is, Ben, is there was a, there was a moment in time b, when I first got off the street shortly after I got into recruiting, that I thought that because of my past, because of my background, right, that I would probably never do anything meaningful in my life, right. Because who's going to hire somebody like me with my past and my background? But it turns out that same path and same background has got me to where I am sitting today, including sitting on the board of that board of directors from that organization.

Pete Tomasko [00:53:02]:
Because when they came to me and they heard about my story, they asked me to sit on the board because of my path, because of my background. And what they told me was deaf. I went and had lunch with the CEO, right? And she asked me to share my story with her, and I did, because she had heard about me. And she said, we need somebody like you to sit on the board of directors of this organization. We need somebody with firsthand experience that can relate to what we're trying to do to help guide us towards the future of where we're taking this thing. So just be like, if you're out there, you're thinking like, you completely screwed your life up. I promise you, you've not. You have not.

Benjamin Mena [00:53:57]:
Jumping to the quickfire questions. This is hard. Now, after this conversation, we're going to lighten things up for a second. What advice would you give to a brand new recruiter just starting off in 2024?

Pete Tomasko [00:54:11]:
It's okay, Ben. I got this, man. Yeah. To a brand new recruiter, like, I would like. This is my advice, right? Recruiting can be a little bit tough. Like, if you've never done it before, it can seem a little bit overwhelming, right? Listen to your leaders. Do exactly what they are telling to, telling you to do. Learn all the processes and procedures.

Pete Tomasko [00:54:35]:
Right. The quicker that you can learn that stuff, I want to use the word easier because I don't know if this job ever gets easy, but it gets smoother for sure. And listen, don't be afraid. Listen, I don't know if this is controversial or not, but one thing that I do now that I wish I would have done early on is like, listen, don't be afraid to work from home. And I'm talking about from the learning aspect, right? Don't be afraid to jump on your computer at home and, you know, whatever training manual you have, like, spend some off hours learning, because if you try to learn, this is what, this was my experience. I tried to learn everything while I was only at work. Going backwards now, I would have went to work and then I would have dedicated whatever time I had available that my family, you know, that I could, you know, because you still got to spend time with your family and your kids and everything. But I would have definitely taken some time at home to study and learn.

Benjamin Mena [00:55:41]:
Great advice. I wish I would have done that too. Maybe I could have made a placement quicker. Anyway, same question, but for somebody that's been around the block for a while, like 510, 15. Heck, I'm at 20, almost 20 years now. What advice would you give to them?

Pete Tomasko [00:55:55]:
Yeah, the same. Listen, this advice that I just, I do for myself, Ben, I find this is what I tell myself. Find something outside of work that excites you and scares you both at the same time and then bring that energy of that something new and you bring that energy into the office. It will absolutely be a game changer. Like for me, I started, I think we had private conversations. Right. I've been cold plunging for a couple years now. Right.

Pete Tomasko [00:56:29]:
I still do it every single morning at 430 as soon as I get out of bed. Right. And it scares the shit out of me. Right. But even though it scares me to thought that I know I'm going to in about 2 seconds hop into 40 degree walk. 40. Yeah. 40 degree water for three minutes when I get out.

Pete Tomasko [00:56:46]:
It's exhilarating. And then on top of that, something that I just did recently and I am really looking forward to it, I hired a professional performance business coach.

Benjamin Mena [00:56:59]:
That's awesome.

Pete Tomasko [00:57:00]:
Yeah. Because here's what I know. This is one thing I know, everything that I've, everything that I know and that I've learned in my life and there's, there's a lot more that I want to do even at 55 years old. But everything that I know that I've learned has brought me this far. I only have this much knowledge now I am hiring somebody to take me and Justin and Gary and this company to the next level and I don't know what that's going to be because I only have so much information in my head.

Benjamin Mena [00:57:34]:
All right, so real quick for the listeners, what age did you start recruiting?

Pete Tomasko [00:57:39]:
Oh, gosh, that I was 40. I was, I got off the street at 43 and so I would have been 45 years old.

Benjamin Mena [00:57:49]:
So 45. You didn't start recruiting until the age of 45.

Pete Tomasko [00:57:54]:
Right.

Benjamin Mena [00:57:55]:
And fast forward, you're now partner of a search firm that's actively fastly growing. Talk about how much life can change in a short window anyways.

Pete Tomasko [00:58:06]:
Yeah, yeah.

Benjamin Mena [00:58:07]:
Back to. Back to recruiting. Favorite rec tech tool at the moment?

Pete Tomasko [00:58:10]:
It's this one. I said it earlier. It has to be hands down, freelay. And I'll tell you why. Because we. That platform has so many features, and we have started to dial in a BD process that has been an absolute game changer, and we didn't even know it even six months ago, because what happens is we don't. You know, you only know as much as you know, right, until you just do the basics. But what, you know, Justin.

Pete Tomasko [00:58:43]:
Justin's our it geek. You know, he likes to. He loves to explore. And so he has found a process within freelate with data enrichment that we just. We just download. The companies use a data enrichment key. It brings up the people that we want to talk to with all of their information. We plug them into a system, and then you want to talk about.

Pete Tomasko [00:59:12]:
You want to talk about an. A one follow up game we have. Crack the code.

Benjamin Mena [00:59:19]:
I might have to get just a private conversation with Justin. Like, how do I set that up with my crew aid?

Pete Tomasko [00:59:25]:
Listen, he. Listen, I. You know, one thing is that I just. From a place of humility, right. I do take, you know, some credit to where. To where I have managed to get myself to to this day. But. But I am not shy at all about just giving credit where credit is due.

Pete Tomasko [00:59:42]:
You know, it keeps me in a place of humility. Right. Um, and I always want to recognize the people that have been with me along this journey, and. And Justin and Gary could not be two better business partners.

Benjamin Mena [00:59:56]:
That's awesome. We're going to fast forward back to a little bit of, like, the. The more deeper questions. Again, what book has had a huge impact on your personal career?

Pete Tomasko [01:00:05]:
So I think for me personally, just given my background. Right. I just finished reading relentless by Tim Grover, and I just read the first chapter of your most recent buff for the book club. What is it? 177.

Benjamin Mena [01:00:22]:
Mental toughness of the world class performers.

Pete Tomasko [01:00:25]:
Yes, yes. And I'll tell you why. Because the first chapter of that book, which I read last night in relentless by Tim Grover, this is just for me personally, right? Is my default mechanism, whether it was past experiences or not, is always to seek the path of least resistance in any area of my life. Like, that's my default. Relentless reading. The book of relentless started to. Started to show me that there is much, much more. Now, this doesn't apply for everybody.

Pete Tomasko [01:01:00]:
This is only for the person that actually wants to do more and think they could do more, but just don't know they're capable of. That's what that book allowed me to see, because I do have that desire. I do believe I have more. I just don't know how to tap into it. And relentless showed me, yeah, you can actually do whatever you want. Right. It just means that you're going to have to work a little bit harder than your average bear.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:31]:
And real quick, for the listeners, it's 177 mental toughness. Secrets of the world class.

Pete Tomasko [01:01:37]:
That messed up that book. I can't wait to get home tonight.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:43]:
It's a good one.

Pete Tomasko [01:01:44]:
It is.

Benjamin Mena [01:01:46]:
What do you think? Like, I'm flipping gears a little bit on this question. Like, yeah, yeah. Like, the normal question is, like, why do. Why are you, like. You know, one of the reasons? What's driving your personal success? But, like, really, at the end of the day, like, yeah, you're driven, like, completely turned your life around. Why did you get out? Like. Like, just.

Pete Tomasko [01:02:09]:
Yeah, Ben, I. Listen, you know, we. I'm going to go back to what I keep saying. You know, I I. I don't know. Lucky. Lucky timing. I was done.

Pete Tomasko [01:02:21]:
I think I was capped out living on the streets. And so there was just, again, that window of opportunity that I talked about, you know, when we left the old company, the same thing applied when I was right off of the streets. I think I was just done. And I'll share something real quick with you. This was near the very end. I was. It was. West Palm beach was a law.

Pete Tomasko [01:02:43]:
I stayed there a long time, and I was. I was walking down Congress Avenue, and it was in the middle of summer, you know, and in Florida, it gets really hot here. And, you know, when you don't have anywhere to go, you just don't have anywhere to go. So you do a lot of walking. And I remember it was, like, 02:00 in the afternoon, and I just collapsed in the grass and went to sleep. And I remember when I got up, I remember thinking to myself, how. How the fuck did I get here? Like, how did it happen to me? And I remember thinking, in that moment, there has to be a way out. Like, there just has to be.

Pete Tomasko [01:03:27]:
And I think that was just, like, where my. My thoughts of wanting to get out but not knowing how or where to turn, like, aligned with the universe at the right time. Right. And then two days later, I was in jail. And then out of jail, I had the bus ticket back here to Sarasota. Right. There's just these, you know, I just didn't want to do anymore, Ben, and I just feel like the universe put the pieces of the puzzle of the ladder together. That's a good way to put it.

Pete Tomasko [01:04:06]:
Put the ladder in place for me to climb out. All it means is the ladder was there, and it was my job to climb out of it.

Benjamin Mena [01:04:18]:
What advice. If you have kids, everything that you went through now, if you had a chance to sit down with yourself before all this happened and give yourself advice, like you were able to, like, somehow tie a machine back and grab a cup of coffee with yourself, what would you tell yourself?

Pete Tomasko [01:04:35]:
That's an easy one. You know, I would. I would tell myself when I was starting to have those early struggles of feeling disconnected in my teenage years because of what happened to my mom. Right. Yeah. My wish. Yeah. I would tell myself or anybody that's listening, man.

Pete Tomasko [01:04:55]:
Talk to somebody. Don't be afraid. Don't. I think a lot of it comes from people. There's this perception that if they talk about these feelings that they're going through, that they're going to be judged. I would say, in spite of those feelings, find somebody to talk to. Keep talking. And if you can't find somebody that's willing to listen, keep finding people to talk to until somebody listens.

Pete Tomasko [01:05:23]:
Don't struggle alone. You don't have to struggle alone because there's people out here that can not only identify with what you're going through, but actually want to help.

Benjamin Mena [01:05:35]:
If you got a chance to sit down with yourself at the beginning of your recruiting career, with everything you know now, what would you tell yourself?

Pete Tomasko [01:05:43]:
I would. I would. This is just for me. I don't know if this is the most popular answer. I would say to put in the work. I would say I would have doubled down on the work that I actually did for a really long time. Recruiting has, for many people that I know, has been a catalystic, life changing opportunity. Right.

Pete Tomasko [01:06:12]:
And I think it can be that for everyone, but you have to put in the work. It requires a lot.

Benjamin Mena [01:06:20]:
It really does. Like, for. It's a high work, high reward business.

Pete Tomasko [01:06:25]:
Yeah. I think I've heard a couple people say that I love it, too, that the recruiting world is a personal development business, the size of the career, because if you think about it, Ben, and I know, I'm sure that you can relate. Right. It's. It just takes you in so many different areas of life that you have never thought about. It's certainly done that for me. Like, it's. It's wanted.

Pete Tomasko [01:06:53]:
It's. It's. It's the person that I am today. Like, it's changed the way that I talk, right. It's changed my mentality. It's. It's taught me to be more compassionate, especially when you're dealing with. When you're talking to people all day, you know, you have to be relatable, right? You have to learn to ask questions, and you surely is going to teach you how to listen really, really well to what people are actually saying.

Pete Tomasko [01:07:21]:
Not what you want to hear, but what they're really, really saying. It's just. It's just, it's. It's. Recruiting is absolutely the reason that I am sitting here today. Without a doubt. There's. There's no other.

Pete Tomasko [01:07:34]:
I can't think of another place, I can't think of another career that I could have gotten into that would have afforded me as many opportunities. The relationships that I've built, you know, our relationship together. You know, I've met people that without recruiting, I would have never met before, would have. Had not been in a relationship before, you know, being on the board of directors. Like, none of that happens without recruiting.

Benjamin Mena [01:08:05]:
Talk about powerful vehicle. Before I let you go, first of all, how can. How can. If somebody was to follow you, how can they follow you?

Pete Tomasko [01:08:13]:
Yeah, you can. Uh, our website, titanplacement groups.com, I'm not a big social media person. Definitely on LinkedIn. You can find me there, or you can call the office. 941269 1000.

Benjamin Mena [01:08:25]:
Awesome. And before I let you go, is there anything else that you want to share with the listeners?

Pete Tomasko [01:08:31]:
No, I do. But what I do want to say to you, Ben, we talk about your podcast almost daily. Surely every time a new episode comes out, it's either me or Justin or Hunter or somebody else comes into the office. Hey, did you listen to the new podcast? All of the guests that you have had, you want to talk about value. Every guest that you have ever had has brought an enormous amount of value into the recruiting world. And we listen to every single one and take another or two from every single speaker. Well, thank you for doing that, Ben. I really.

Pete Tomasko [01:09:11]:
We really appreciate it.

Benjamin Mena [01:09:13]:
Thank you for coming on and adding a few nuggets for somebody else.

Pete Tomasko [01:09:16]:
Yeah, man.

Benjamin Mena [01:09:18]:
Well, for the listeners, this has been a powerful conversation. I know there's some things that I personally have picked up from it. There is. But, man, wow. Talk about overcoming. Talk about the power of the recruiting industry and want 2024 to be your best year yet. Keep crushing it, guys.

Pete Tomasko [01:09:39]:
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Elite Recruiter podcast with Benjamin Mena. If you enjoyed, hit subscribe and leave a rating.