Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Kurtis Tompkins

Curt Anderson  00:02

Daymond Kurtis how’s it going?

Kurtis Tompkins  00:08

Going? Alright.

Curt Anderson  00:10

Alright guys, happy Monday, man. Oh my goodness Damon about what a game last night was that? Yes, you got your money’s worth?

Damon Pistulka  00:18

Yes.

Curt Anderson  00:19

Congratulations to the Kansas City fans out there heartbreak heartbreak for the Philadelphia fans. So sending our hugs and warm wishes to our Philadelphia fans.

Damon Pistulka  00:30

You know, I’d read I wouldn’t be too upset if I was either side on that. Because it came down to a call and they didn’t have a choice. And and I think even if I remember right at the last play, they were still close enough that could have kicked the field goal from where they were at. So it’s, it helped and everything but yeah, yeah,

Curt Anderson  00:50

it was. Alright, so Super Bowl. So guys, we are here on Super Bowl post. Super Bowl, young day manufacturing Monday motivation and we are with the one the only Damon Are you sitting down?

Damon Pistulka  01:03

I am. And I’m ready for it.

Curt Anderson  01:04

Dude, we’ve got Kurtis Tompkins in the house. Curtis? Yes. Last name on the planet. How are you, my friend?

Kurtis Tompkins  01:12

I’m doing well. It’s good to be here with you guys today. feeling awesome about being here?

Curt Anderson  01:17

Absolutely. So Kurtis, longtime. I know you and Damon are longtime friends, you and I’ve been longtime connections here. And this is just so long overdue. I’ve been a fan admirer of your work from afar, you do amazing work your superpowers, you make the world a better place by helping folks just really tackle this whole daunting, intimidating, challenging, resume finding work. And just and we’re going to dig deep into what you do your superpowers. But before we go there, I have a little question for you. Now, to my understanding, you grew up in the Big Apple, your Queens Brooklyn guy, you’re all about New York, right? So as a little boy growing up in New York City, my question to you Curtis is Who was your hero? Who was your hero growing up in the Big Apple?

Kurtis Tompkins  02:08

Well, that’s a good question. There are three people. And there’s more that I can talk about what they really would that I would speak on, in regards to hero status. And that’s my mother, father, and uncle. Each of them had a profound impact on my life. And I want to do this, I want to choose one of many qualities that I love from each of them. So from my mom, it was a determination. From my father, I would say perseverance. And my uncle, I would say trailblazing. So those three people that I would speak of those qualities that may make them shine in my eyes.

Curt Anderson  02:59

So let’s go here for a minute if you so first off, thank you. Great answer. Yes. Love where you’re going here. If you don’t mind. We’ve got to take it one step further. First off my mom’s name. And could you share give us an example of mom’s determination? So mom’s name and mom’s determination. Give us one example.

Kurtis Tompkins  03:19

Okay, well, my mom is known by feel her determination. Oh my gosh, where do I start? I’ve seen her do so many amazing things from raising the family. Have a have a big family. I have from my mom, we only born from my mom. And I have six sisters. So from that’s from that’s from my mom. All together with my dad, I have a total of 10 others beside me. But that’s that’s, that’s that’s a different story. But it’s awesome. It’s wonderful. But my mom, I’ve seen her raised a family work, go to school, and she’s achieved so much my mom, she’s done with her master’s degree. He she just finished a couple a couple days ago. With that. She’s just excels. And whatever it is, we’ll have a conversation. We have a very good relationship. Thankfully, whatever she puts her mind to, believe me, he’s going to do it. Because he says, You know what? I’m going to do X, Y and Z. I’m going to do it. And that determination is shines. And she you may not if I don’t hear anything else about it. It’s a good time. It’s to complete it. Yep. is done. All right. Well, not surprised. So it’s a blessing.

Curt Anderson  04:55

That is awesome. Okay, how about the tour about dead

Kurtis Tompkins  04:59

oh, Oh Dad Oh my gosh I

Curt Anderson  05:02

bet you’ve got perseverance give us an example of dad dad’s name and dad’s perseverance.

Kurtis Tompkins  05:08

People look at me and they look at my work ethic. And they say, Oh, I love your work ethic. X y&z Which is cool. But my dad’s work ethic is that times 10. I would see my father growing up. We were in the same home, of course, and there will be weeks that I didn’t see my dad. It’s more like, Okay, well, you’re in the same home, I don’t you see your father. Well, when I would wake up, he’d be gone to work. When I would come in and finish doing everything I needed to do for the day, I come in, my dad was sleep, no matter what he would work to do what he was supposed to do to provide for the family. And we would have conversations and he will let us know and he gone. Nobody gonna give it to you. You have to give it you have to do what’s necessary to stand out in this world, no matter what challenges come or go. He had to be that example. So that I would follow. And I remember my, my, my uncle, his uncle. Before he left us, he would have conversations with me when I was a young boy. And I didn’t really understand everything. I think it was about seven, eight years old. And he would say to me, Curtis, you got to become that man, so that you can help your father and do X y&z And now that I’m older, and I see the direction things are going, I understand more. He my father, he personally and he continues to do so. And these things are just sit back and wait. Sometimes we look at stars and we look at different ones. And we appreciate their accomplishments, right? We appreciate what they do to come to the world. People like Steve Jobs like you see me post about anybody that innovate. But sometimes the ones who teach the greatest lessons, they right here. They right in front of us. We see them every day. Right? And I’m thankful. I’m thankful. I hope I’m not going to law

Curt Anderson  07:21

no do this this day with absolutely perfect. So let’s go Trailblazer, your uncle your uncle’s name and give us an example. Why do you consider your uncle a trailblazer?

Kurtis Tompkins  07:36

Well, okay, my uncle. This individuals name is George. And he’s a trailblazer. Because when it comes down to business ownership, he started his company back, I believe it was about the year 2000 by and me seeing that. And watching he had a mind that you know what, I’m going to walk away from the normal corporate database. He had a corporate role management, different locations and things of that nature. But due to different circumstances, he walked away from that, and he made a decision to say, You know what, I’m going to start this, this is what I’m going to do. And he was the one of the first examples, close examples that I saw that business ownership and I was with him some years after things started and he had a small office and I went it was Dan office with him and was seeing him doing his work and we were sitting there and he was falling asleep while we were sitting there talking I’m like that man is hot at work. But I got an opportunity to visit him some weeks ago that his own building that his own vehicles got all these things going on and to see this. You see things from the beginning you see the seed being planted and it being watered or being watered and you looking like okay, where’s the plant? I got to see the tree I see the tree he did it these examples right here in front of us. So yeah, so

Curt Anderson  09:17

good man. All right, what AZ what a great way to kick off the program. So alright guys, just anybody joining us right now please drop your drop. Let us know that you’re out there, drop your name in the chat box. Give Curtis some love. Give him a big hello here. We’ve got Curtis Tompkins. And we’ve got a lot to unpack here. But talking about inspiration we’re talking about Mom, Dad, Uncle George, and just a lot of exciting things. And it’s just really showing a credit to you know what we see with you. You know how you just show up everyday courtesy Tegrity relentless drive. It’s perfect Damon I usually save this I’m gonna you know, I’m gonna go here right now, dude, you know where I’m going? Go right there. Okay, If you’re gonna guys do yourself a favor you want to connect with Curtis and when you go on his LinkedIn profile, Damon these years I know you already know this, but these are some of the things that people are saying about Curtis. Curtis, you ready? And you sit down for this dude, are you ready? Are you sitting up sitting? People just it just gushing. All this admiration, respect and thanks and gratitude to Curtis on how he’s just helping tons of folks out there wholeheartedly recommend intellectual, detailed, easy to work with, recently connected with Curtis was one of the most amazing experiences that could have happened. professional, knowledgeable, understandable, creative, caring, aspirates s re questions, patient, he’s a great listener. I can’t say enough, and I can’t think Curtis enough, dude. And you just really kind of shared how this came about with mom, dad and uncle George. How just but you know what, we can have those role models, but like, Dude, you put it into play, like you bring it every day just talk about, like, how are you getting these types of results within? It’s not? These aren’t your words? These are what people say about you? How are you doing this on a daily basis?

Kurtis Tompkins  11:09

Well, to be honest with you, I can credit what I do. Well, this is the success that I have to four things. One is my faith in God. You know, everybody may not subscribe to I’m not talking religious, I’m talking spirituality now. Humility, being humble and knowing that, you know, it ain’t all about me. Because many people have it in their mind that is missed on that. I mean, I understand I do what I do. And I’m blessed with what I have. strategy. Strategy, as I see it often strategies, everything and treating people right. Those are, that’s how the results that we get. Those are the four points. Okay.

Curt Anderson  12:07

Then we’re gonna take a moment to savor that one for ya. All right, faith, humility, strategy, and just treating people the way that they should be treated with you know, that love and respect, Curtis? Dude, this is this is so good. Okay. Let’s dig into your superpowers. Okay, like how you’re making this world a better place. Dude, you are doing amazing job, you have job ready today, you do corporate training, public speaking, group coaching, individual training. Let’s go there. I’m gonna go back. So we talked about when you’re a little boy, you had this great, incredible role models, you’re very blessed. You’re talking about faith, as you like kicked off your career, young man, just kind of starting things out? What led you in this direction of like, Hey, I feel that I have a knack or a gift of helping people with careers. I know, like you’ve worked at Yahoo, the housing authority in New York, some great places that you’ve worked, talk a little bit about how this evolution came up to your entrepreneurial journey. And so just a little bit on your background, please.

Kurtis Tompkins  13:06

Wow, that’s, that’s a wonderful question. When it comes down to where I am now, I want to say that it happened out of the blue. But as we were talking just not too long ago, here for a reason. So how this all happened, going on 12 years ago, now, I got a call from my job developer. And for those who don’t know what that is, it’s like a recruiter, something like a recruiter. So I was in the market for a hardware technician role. Right? Because that’s, that’s what I do break and fix computers and all that good stuff. And he asked me, he said, Kurt, is he said, he said, Do you want to teach? And I had a confused look on my face. So that’s okay. You know, you go with the flow. So I got hired on as a consultant, and this is what the housing authority that you just talked about. And I was working in that position as the own site breaking fixed consultant. And there was also a portion where I was teaching. So along the journey, they’re not too long in. I had a conversation with my manager. And he told me, he said, Curtis, and this was not had nothing to do with it. She just told me, she said credit, she said, there’s an open role for an instructor. And she said, I think you’d be a great fit. And she said, I want to refer you. She said, You mind. I’m like, Okay, no, no problem. So she referred me I had an interview with the manager over there, and I started a role with the Research Foundation in the City University of New York. So what we did was we told My computer basics and we provided career readiness training. And something happened at the end of the first semester that stuck with me. My cohort, I think it was about 20 to 25 people somewhere around there. They had a graduation celebration. So it was wasn’t universal with everyone. It was just our particular cohort, that one would everybody came later. So at that graduation celebration, they set things up. And they talked about the impact that the program had on them. And while they were talking, you know, us men, when we get into a situation, sometimes, you know, sometimes we’d be trying to hold back, you know, we’re trying not to shed tears and things of that nature. I had to really hold it together. Because these people talking about, you know, Curtis, thankful, because you did this, you did that the class, this isn’t I’m sitting here like, oh my gosh, it was deep, deep stuff. And that’s stuck with me. And so much soul that that was the inspiration for me going into this line of business. So many people may see job ready today. And thank because we bought the hit six years next month, thankfully, time. But when it comes down to it, the things that I’m doing some of them at least withdraw ready today. It was being done back then. And that impact. That’s what made me say, You know what, yeah, this is it right here. So, hope I answered your question.

Curt Anderson  16:48

Yeah. Awesome. So, all right, dude, this is man. You know, Curtis, I had really high expectations for this. But man, like you’re just completely blown away. Hey, we got a few people. I want to give a shout out here. Yep. So am I saying this correctly, ale May? Maybe. So hey, happy Monday. We’ve got Karen, let’s live from Texas, Karen Happy Monday to you. I think you know, this person here. Right? You know. So Lynn, Happy Monday to you. Thank you for joining us. So again, guys, we’re here with Curtis Tompkins. And just you can tell just an absolute powerhouse. And what I want to get into is like, alright, so Dave and I, we it’s manufacturing ecommerce success. And we love talking about, you know, different things manufacturing. And what we want to dig into is like, how you know, that it’s not just about the job readiness, it’s about like life readiness, its relationship readiness, really, that’s what your resume is about. It’s like sharing your story in, you know, your superpowers, and like how you bring value to the table. So Curtis, I’m gonna, I’m gonna sit here for one second, then I’ve got a line of questions. I want to dig into your company. What you guys do, but talk Okay, so yeah, who Housing Authority? You’ve had this wonderful, illustrious career. You’re an entrepreneur. What was that? Like? Say? If there’s somebody out there that’s listening. They’re like, you don’t man, I would love to be an entrepreneur someday. Whether some people during COVID They were downsized or the accidental entrepreneur just shared, like, what was that like for you, tipping your tone into your entrepreneurial journey for the first time? Scary, exhilarating, what did that look like?

Kurtis Tompkins  18:22

So it was both scary and exciting at the same time. So coming from corporate, you know, we’re used to paycheck every week, paycheck every two weeks. We’re used to that stability that even if we are working on a project, and things are not going the way we want it to go, that we still can depend on getting paid X y&z time. But no, no, no. And when it comes to entrepreneurship, it’s on you. You have to put the process together, you have to make sure things are going right. You can’t just sit and think that oh, okay, it’s going to work itself out a lot. No, you got to work it out. Because if you don’t work it out, you don’t need us just that simple majority. So it was scary and exciting at the same time, and I realized that I had to do what was necessary and I had to do what was outside of the box to make things happen. So what I did and what I normally advise folks who I talked to, not only did I search online and do different things, to you know, learn and research hours and hours and hours of research, but I got out there footwork I said one at one day this is what I did. I say you know what? I said I’m going to go to some schools because some schools need this service that we offer so I’m gonna put in the GPS the closest colleges near me and whatever one come up with a GPS that’s what I’m going to put it in a GPS and I had three different ones that came up. First one I went to I walked in. I know they probably believe this guy coming from my Yes, yeah, my name is Curtis Tompkins on a job ready today, this is what we do. And I want to talk to the person who was the head of the Career Services Department. Lady looked at me and she said, Okay, she went and got the person, talk to the person. And the funny thing is, the instance that I’m talking about was the first opportunity that got through to business to showcase what we have to offer all by just getting out there and walking like I told you, I just picked up the phone and put it with GPS, you know, college is near me. Footwork, making it happen and noticing that a lot of the glitz and glamour that you see on social media, but entrepreneurship don’t don’t believe that you don’t have some hard times. You will have some of the some of the terms is going to be exciting. And some of the times are going to be hard. But if you want to get what you never had many times you’re going to need to do what you’ve never done

Damon Pistulka  21:09

I knew when we were have occurred Assad today, this is gonna be good. Thank you, my friend.

Kurtis Tompkins  21:18

Thank you. All right.

Curt Anderson  21:21

We’re, we’re both Eastern Time Zone. So it’s lunchtime. So we’d like to we’d like to take a moment of like just kind of savoring that just juicy just value bomb that you just dropped right there. Right. That was so priceless. Now, guys, again, if you’re just you’re meeting Curtis for the first time, you jump on Curtis’s LinkedIn profile he has he eats, breathes and sleeps. Career Readiness. I ate it for breakfast. I had it for dinner last night I even dreamt about it. Man, that is so good. So now Alright, so you know you’re a man of faith, your superpowers. What you were put on this earth to do is really driving impact inspiring, helping people. So let’s dig into somebody connects with you and your team and your company. Just walk us through that process. What does it look like? How are you helping them win today?

Kurtis Tompkins  22:15

Well, great question. So when he terms, when folks connect with us, there has to be an assessment done. And when I say in a session, I’m not talking about any type of paperwork or anything, we have to ask some probing questions. Because what I’ve found over the years is many people think they need one thing. And I’ve been chatting with them and tell them oh, no, that’s not what you need. Sometimes they might need it. Sometimes they think they need a resume, they don’t need a resume. Sometimes they think that their interview strategy is off. Some and I want to say this, because I believe this is important. We pride ourselves on not being that company that’s going to sell you something that you don’t need. That’s unethical. Why would you try giving someone something that they don’t need? When it comes down to it pointing people in the right direction and showing them what they do need is more than getting a couple of $100. Because I strongly believe and have experienced in my life, what goes around comes around. So we want to play games on that. And we got to always remember, you are accustomed to I don’t care how big your business gets you accustomed to. So guess what, you get somebody else who won’t get got. But anyway, when it comes down to it, we make sure that they get what it is that they need. Now, we find some times that some people they may not agree, they may think that okay, I need XYZ. And some of the same people sometime later on. They come back and they say x, y and z and the question that I have to x, did you go the direction that we talked about? And they told me know that they did not this is why XYZ so we make sure that people get on the path that they need by asking those right questions to ensure that they don’t do something or spend money on something that they don’t have to spend it on. So we started digging in. Okay. Tell me about your your, your results. Tell me about what what’s going on with this tell me was about what’s going on with that and it’s all tailored to that particular person because everybody’s situation is different. So I hope that answers your question.

Curt Anderson  24:38

Absolutely answers the question and it was a matter of fact, I want to pull up so we got a couple so Karen jobs a couple of comments here so yeah, keep dropping the knowledge Curtis can’t thank you enough for keeping it real. Diane. Happy Monday, Diane man. Great game last night. We’re so sorry. The Eagles are like that close but and then Karen asks a great question I didn’t get I didn’t read through it yet. But let’s go through this Curtis, I’m struggling in getting the message out to our young people, especially young ladies have many, many opportunities in manufacturing MFG is an option that many are not even considering. You know, let’s go there for a minute. So we were talking a little bit before we went live. One thing that we wanted to talk about, and we’ll just we’ll head at right now is as a manufacturer, and that’s who we primarily talk to here. And we’re going to St. Damien. I know, there was like, a rumor has been like a labor shortage, I believe, if I’m not mistaken. Right. It’s been a little bit a little bit tight here through labor market. It’s a little tight. So Curtis, for employers, not just manufacturers. But so let’s I want to kind of can we piggyback Karen’s question, and maybe it’s two different questions. But I would like to talk about like, what can companies do to kind of like, separate themselves or step up to track that quality talent? What are some of the things that you hear from your clients from people on like, you know, that company just didn’t get it? Or they’re just not doing a great job? Let’s go there. And then let’s then let’s segue back to Karen’s, I guess, I’m going to coin it into two questions. Let’s talk about the organization or the employer, what can they do a little bit to separate themselves attract high quality talent? And then we’re going to dig into Karen’s comment there?

Kurtis Tompkins  26:16

Well, when it comes down to what an employee can do, one of the biggest things that candidates that they’re talking about, what they experience with the hiring process is ghosting. That’s not all goes together. Yeah. So you have it were the candidates, they’re going through any new processes. I’ve had one recently that went to a few for one company. And at the end of the process, heard nothing back some initially heard nothing bad. And I want to understand, when it comes down to the feedback, some companies have a no feedback policy. And, and we kind of talked about that the other day on a post. And that’s, you know, to protect from legal risk, right. But when it comes down to giving feedback, even if you give the generic feedback, as it’s called, that is going to let the candidate know that at least we look into you know, your candidacy and determine that it was not a great fit at this time. You know, but that’s one of the top things that ghosting another thing is setting yourself apart. setting yourself apart as a company showing a candidate that this is a good place to come. It’s more than just anything, you see these things on social media of foosball table, or we want we want it we’re going to unlimited pizza, unlimited lunch and missing data, what have you, that stuff is fine, well and good. But I’ve been part of an organization that did those things that had the raffles that had this and had that, and guess what the culture was shocked culture, we have many witnesses that can tell you that, that all this stuff they did, the culture was still shocked. So when it comes down to making sure that, you know, you have these things in order for the candidate, and when the candidate comes to visit, because you know, something’s relaxing restrictions and things of that nature, people are coming in offices, when they come in, make sure they see what you portray online. You know, don’t don’t don’t fake things. Because here’s one thing, I advise candidates when they’re going to an interview, let them know, when it comes down to that phone and all that stuff. You put that away, you know, you know, deal with that it’s time for you to watch. Watch, see, listen, because you’re able to pick up things, you’re able to see what the culture is like there. Why is everybody walking around looking mad? Why is everybody upset? Why is it that the manager is talking to this one in that one that way? Why is it that this is going on? Oh, they said we had a dress code here, but it looks like you know, people do pretty much what they want. You know, what I’m saying, in a nutshell, is make sure that things are up to par and don’t put on a front end habit to look that way. And then when they get in there something definitely I’m not gonna go off on

Curt Anderson  29:29

going, that was a, you know, die in a like

Damon Pistulka  29:33

this or die,

Curt Anderson  29:34

or a bad culture with free pizza, right? can’t cover it. So I so let’s and I took a little side note there. So let’s come back to Karen here. So she’s talking about, you know, how do we preach? How do we get that message out? From your perspective? What advice would you have for Karen, where are folks in manufacturing? How do we get the young folks like really inspired and fired up on all the incredible opportunities in manufacturing anything that you would add to that comment there?

Kurtis Tompkins  30:00

as well as helping them to to understand now many times you look at different lines of business or careers, and I’m, I’m gonna come back, I’m gonna use technology, for example, when people look at Tech, some time ago, they would think, Oh, yes, that’s the guy. That’s not for girls, the girl is not going to open up a computer and do the breaking and fixing stuff, because she might chip in mail and things of that nature. That was a thought process. But I see many they’re great women in technology. So when it comes down to manufacturing, it will be the same thing we’re showing in it probably has to be and I don’t know, her background. But it has to be examples. Showing them that yeah, I’m in I’m in manufacturing, I’m doing this I’m succeeding. This is where I started. So some awesome lady, somebody that may have been in the industry for maybe 1215 years, as an example before them, showing them like, you know what, yeah, I started, I didn’t know anything about manufacturing, I thought, this is just what Gods did doing maintenance and things of that nature. But after getting into it, and seeing that, you know, opportunities were there, I was able to do X y&z So honestly, sometimes you need representation, showing you that you can do it. Yep. So female representation. That’s my take. Yeah,

Curt Anderson  31:31

I absolutely love that. And in, you know, we were talking a little bit before we went live, you know, the tech numbers are quite staggering of layoffs. You know, we’ve seen it at you know, now Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, I mean, right across the board. And these are significant numbers. So there are a lot of folks out there and you know, thrown out in our manufacturing cap, you know, there’s a ton of technology opportunity in manufacturing, there’s ERP systems, there’s automation, there’s, you know, mining, demons, world, e commerce, so there are enormous, you know, marketing, they, you know, manufacturers desperately need to stop being the best kept secret. And so there’s enormous amounts of opportunity in marketing, and, you know, HR, you know, right in your world, Curtis. So, I mean, there’s tons of opportunities out there for young folks. And I think there’s a lot of momentum going around. Damon, we’re seeing at the MEPs we’re seeing that SBDCs, the trade associations, a lot of folks on here, Megan, Andrew Crow, you know, like, There’s Chris Lukey there’s a lot of guys, Jay Cole, you know, a lot of guys are just going after it on on LinkedIn right here, like really promoting manufacturing and opportunities here, right. Yeah. Yeah. So in a wareness,

Damon Pistulka  32:41

awareness, representation, those are good ones, as you know, making making young people, young men and women aware of the opportunities because as as Kurt said, you know, a lot of people don’t understand that there it people doing really technical coding, there are there are people doing very complicated marketing and, and things like that, and all other I mean, from accounting to research happening in manufacturing, and they’re just, they’re there, but they don’t consider it.

Curt Anderson  33:15

Absolutely. So Alright, so let’s go here, I want to be mindful of everybody’s time again, top of the hour, I think we’re at the top of the hour, if you’re just joining us, we’re here with the one the only Curtis Tompkins, and as your boy, if you miss any of this, you’ve got to go back and hit the replay. Curtis, what I like to do is I think you have a phenomenal website, you and your team have put together some wonderful resources, great tools for your clients, you know, and these are folks that are in times of need. You know, typically if you’re looking for a job, something happened prior, that put me in this situation, I was downsize. I didn’t like this situation. I was in a toxic situation I’m looking for maybe it’s positive. I’m just looking, I’m being proactive, and I might a career trajectory, or a career change in your helping those folks with all those things. You’ve got to really talk about technology. You’ve got a really cool tool that I was just kind of checking you out before we went live, Curtis, and I love this tool. Can you talk a little bit but I’m going to pull it up. Can you just talk a little bit about this tool that we’re going to be taking a look at?

Kurtis Tompkins  34:13

Sure. Sure. See it on the screen here. And how about

Curt Anderson  34:27

There we go. How’s that?

Kurtis Tompkins  34:28

Oh, there it is. There it is. So, so I’ll talk about this tool called the resume optimizer. So many people are familiar with tools like Job scan, skill seeker and others that allow you to compare your resume well, your resume and job description you see your match score. We’re going to get into a little bit with this tool so I can tell you what’s going on here. So we designed this to help a job seeker to optimize as their resume for specific job applications, which allows those other tools that allow you to do the same thing as well, but the difference is, this one is 100%, free of charge. So he is what the jobs he will be able to do. So they would use a tool, they can paste their resume the entire resume in that box, paste the entire job description in that box. And when they compare it, it will give a match percentage. So it’ll say, you know, 54% 64%, whatever it is, to show them how their resume meets the requirements of that, that job description, and you’ll have the missing key words, they’ll come up right under there, and they’ll be able to add them into their resume. You know, if it’s a keyword that is not relevant, they can take it out to increase the match percentage, just to show them how their resume was aligned with that job description. And when it comes down to the applicant tracking system, the chances that it has, and it will be, you know, seen as a good match. So what happens is at the bottom here, you have these common questions, that helps the job seeker to understand what is keyword optimization on a resume, but does that mean? What should they be doing before they use this optimization tool? How do they know they have a good match percentage? Should they depend on a good match percentage alone, and I think that’s one of the all of these are important. I think that’s one of the most important because people use resume optimizing tools. And they see, okay, I have a 85% match, and they think everything is all good. But if someone with experience looked at looks at the document, they’ll see that, no, you pasted the job, the whole job description to your resume to make yourself get a good percentage. So just because you put it in the Okay, I got to 85 Let me go ahead and apply. No, that’s not how it works. You need to tailor your resume first, have to tailor your resume the right way, then you can put them into the systems. That’s my recommendation anyway, you can put it in these systems, and you can check where your match percentage is. So that’s a brief overview of what this tool does is it’s very, very beneficial to the job seeker, they’ll be able to, like I said, use it free of charge use it how many other times they want to, and we have no plans to add any type of price tag. This is just to make the job search easier. Okay,

Curt Anderson  37:26

there are multiple things that I want to unpack right there. So again, guys, you see the URL right here, I dropped it in the chat box. It’s job, job ready today. job ready today.com. And you get the resume optimizer right here in the tabs, we’ve got career advice, serve our services, bog us, he’s got testimonials on here. And again, if you check out Curtis’s LinkedIn profile, dozens and dozens a pile of just wonderful raving reviews on what it’s like to work with Curtis. And again, you’re just getting a little taste from here. So I’m going to come back to you guys. Combination things number one. So Damon, we’re big SEO geeks and Curtis music to our ears. You said keywords? You know, we’re constantly preaching to manufacturers, hey, how do you use those keywords for your services? We want to get found on Google. And you’re showing us how to use that exact same tactics and strategy on resume. Number one, number two, that dude, what a go giver. And we talked about almost there’s not a company that we can’t think of that couldn’t use some type of configurator if you will, it will Curtis what, what, what brilliants what he did, he took that configurator concept and turn it into the resume optimizer. And Curtis I’m sorry, I didn’t catch how much does that optimizer? What’s it cost somebody to use? Free

Kurtis Tompkins  38:47

99

Damon Pistulka  38:48

that free? Free 9999.

Curt Anderson  38:51

And so your takeaway there is, you know, go giver? Yeah, he’s teaching you how to use your keyword strategy. He’s using a tool like a configurator. So if your manufacturer, whatever service that you happen to be in, to offer that value tool, very inexpensive to put it on your website. It’s a 24 hour resource. It’s a 24 hour guide. It’s a 24 hour. Hey, you know what I know you’re struggling. I have your back little tool on your website. Curtis, where did you come up with this brilliant idea for the resume optimizer?

Kurtis Tompkins  39:27

Well, one day be able to tool that I like to use and as a couple of them out there. But it was a tool that I like to use in one day, I went to go and look at it. And it was offline. Like it was free. It was easy. I would recommend it to job seekers. Yeah, you should use this this will help and it wasn’t there. So I went around and I started looking for other alternatives. And when I looked at these alternatives, I wasn’t really finding what I was looking for. So I came across one one day I Mmm. And it was great. And I was looking at it and I say, You know what, I want to reach out to the people who own it. So I reached out to the people who own it. And I said, Can I use the code? And they say, Yeah, but after that I was trying to get it to come together. And it just wouldn’t come together the way I needed to. And in doing that, I had this vision that I would be teaching people how to tailor you know, the SEO, we talked about and get their resume in order and using our own resume optimizer. That’s what I saw. So like, you know what, I put it aside for a while. Then one day, I had access and found out a way that I would be able to do it. So I was working on it for some hours trying to see how I can do How can do it. Then, once I got the code together. I said, Okay, I need to go and make some alterations to the code and make it good for the website. I went in and made those alterations to the code. And once I put it down on a site and started testing it, and I started to see what you see now. I was like, here we go. So yeah, that’s how that came about.

Damon Pistulka  41:09

Awesome.

Curt Anderson  41:10

Look at that smile, man. Yeah, that smile, just, you know, little Hey, dude, give a little pat on the back there. Yeah, that was so good. I absolutely love it. And again, if you go to your website, maybe it was on your LinkedIn, you know, take that, see, take your job, search to heart and find your dream job faster. I think that’s one of your taglines. And I want to start I got I could talk with you all day. Curtis, I want to start winding down here and be respectful of everybody’s time. But you have for your mission statement. I’m going to talk about this for a minute. I’m a big mission statement guy, I love mission statements. You have changing lives, one job seeker at a time.

Kurtis Tompkins  41:49

Yes. Like, drop the

Curt Anderson  41:51

mic. Like, just I think that is so powerful. Damon, you know, you have you know, like the five sentence mission statement, and, you know, trust and integrity. And I don’t mean, you know, like, you know, I don’t mean, like shoot down that. But you know, Curtis, you have changing lives, one job seeker at a time. Talk about, like, how you came up with that mission statement. And any advice you have for folks that are kind of like just struggling? They just have like a five sentence mission statement? How did you just, I feel like you just nailed it. In just a matter of words. How did you do that? And how did that come? It sounds like it just came from the heart. Talk a little bit about your mission statement?

Kurtis Tompkins  42:28

Well, I believe in being powerful, and to the point. When it comes down to it to me, in many cases, it doesn’t take a lot to say what you’re intending on doing, right? So if you are intending on making a difference, tell me simply make I want to make a difference. You don’t have to give me a whole spiel. Now for some organizations, it may you know, they may have a longer, you know, mission statement for whatever reason that they have it. But when it comes down to this changing lives, one job seeker at a time, this is what we’re about, period, this is what we’re about. And if their lives aren’t being changed, then we know we’re doing something wrong. Because when it comes down to livelihood, that helps you to you know, take care of all the things you need to take care of and people who are on the unemployment line once they are able to get the job. Not only that a job, but the job that they’re looking for. That’s a change life. Yep. So that’s why that’s why I am

Curt Anderson  43:33

that, dude, you ate it for breakfast, you had it for dinner and you dreamt about it last night. I think that’s one of the best lines of all time. So Curtis as we wind down for today. First off, I want to thank you, thank you, you are such a gift and inspiration. Thank you for blessing us with your passion, experience, expertise. You are truly truly a gift to everybody. I caught this today. Just share any parting words of wisdom. Any we’re, I have your website so we know where we can find you. We want everybody to connect with you on LinkedIn, any parting thoughts, words of wisdom that you would like to leave folks with today?

Kurtis Tompkins  44:16

I’ll leave everyone with a call. It’s a call from me. Regret is a friend to the easiest decision one can make in times of adversity given up. What that means in a nutshell is not giving up is going to be easier said than done. Right. But here’s one interesting thing about why. Just when you are ready to throw in the towel, the tables may be about to turn in your favor. See? So it’s It’s best to hold on even when it you know, a little rocky some time and you feel like you know what I’m getting tired of this, I’m doing this, but sometimes we just gotta be like, Hi. I hold on for a little while longer. Because once the table turn, there’s a wisdom call, and I’m gonna be done. It goes like this hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when the desire comment, it is like a tree of life. It’ll come eventually. And guess what if you don’t go in the place that you think you’re supposed to go or achieve the goal you think you’re supposed to achieve? By building and doing what it is that you need to do, you can wind up where it is that you’re supposed to be, and achieve the goal that you are supposed to achieve. You may be looking to go here and saying, This is where I want to go. But your path is to go here. Alright, I’m gonna stop now. That’s that’s where it is.

Curt Anderson  46:09

You didn’t need to stop man. That was don’t stop for us. That was my, that was so good. Okay. All right. Let me collect myself. Curtis. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank everybody that joined us today. Thank you, anybody that’s catching this on a replay. Catch Curtis on LinkedIn. He has tons and tons of great information. Curtis I was enjoying when you put your videos out. I enjoy your post. I learned something new every time that I when I see you I always brings a smile to my face. You’re just you’re a man of integrity. You’re a man of respect a man of faith. I just Gosh, this was just so rewarding for me. Damon, any parting thoughts that you want to share for our friend Curtis today?

Damon Pistulka  46:52

Now just thanks, man. Thanks for being you. It’s so much so great to dyspnoea

Curt Anderson  46:58

Okay, I want to I’m going to close out on this quote by Curtis number one, Faith number two, humility. Number three strategy. And number four, just treating people the right way guys, man what this is manufacturing Monday motivation. This was just incredible motivation for you. What a gift from Curtis to all of us. Boy, just go out and be someone’s inspiration just like our friend Curtis Tompkins. Curtis, God bless you, brother. Appreciate you. We wish you monster success. We’re going to have you back. Hang out with us for one second. guys have an amazing, incredible dynamic, wonderful week. It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow. It doesn’t have to be a room somebody wrote in your romantic life. Just tell someone how much you appreciate them what they mean to you and how much you love them. Guys. I love you both. How’s that man? So have a Happy Valentine’s Day. And we’ll see you next time

Damon Pistulka  47:54

everyone