Born an Entrepreneur
Self-sufficiency, determination, and goal setting—these are just a few of the entrepreneurial values that shaped me from an early age. I was raised in a family business; my parents owned a window, door, and siding construction company. At just 12 years old, I began working alongside my father during the summers, eventually joining full time right after graduating high school.
At 19, I had my first real taste of entrepreneurship. After my parents relocated to northern Michigan, I purchased a cube truck from them and officially went into business for myself. It was an exciting time—until, three years later, the truck was stolen, and with it, the business. Faced with a crossroads, I chose to pivot. Using the insurance money, I enrolled in college with the goal of becoming a CPA. Looking back, the theft of that truck turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It pushed me to pursue a different path—one that ultimately set the foundation for everything that followed.
The drive and independence I developed early in life stayed with me. Throughout college, I worked multiple jobs to support myself and my growing family. From working in factories by day to bartending on school nights, I balanced it all while adjusting to fatherhood for the first time.
My goal to become a CPA never wavered, and I knew public accounting was the next step in my journey. Immediately after graduating from Walsh College in January 2010, I began my career in public accounting with Plante Moran. I spent four busy seasons in their tax department before I started to feel that something was missing. I had been promoted within just 18 months, and I worked alongside some truly incredible people. In retrospect, it was the variety of clients and the opportunity to collaborate with different individuals that kept me engaged. At the time, I couldn’t quite pinpoint what was missing, but with our second son on the way, my wife expressed her desire to stay home with him. I needed to find a role that could help supplement our income but wouldn’t be as demanding during those intense four months of tax season. That led me to a Senior Tax Analyst position in corporate America with a publicly traded company—but I was miserable and only lasted six months. The company and the people were great; the issue was me. I quickly realized I didn’t belong in that environment.
When I was exploring opportunities outside of public accounting, I worked with several recruiters—an experience I shared in a previous blog post, “Working with a Recruiter: From the Candidate’s Perspective.” Only one recruiter asked to meet me in person: Jeff Sokolowski. While Jeff didn’t ultimately place me in a role, he changed the course of my life. After hearing my story, he looked me in the eye and asked, “Have you ever considered being a recruiter?” I laughed and told him it was too risky at that stage of my life to take on a 100% commission-based role.
Six months later, I called Jeff and asked if the opportunity was still available. When he said yes, I immediately knew it was the right move. Without even interviewing, I gave my two-week notice—my employer sent me home that day but paid me for the full two weeks. I told my wife, “I quit my job, I’m going to be a recruiter, and we’re going to Disney next week because we won’t be taking a vacation in year one” (We had been planning and saving for that trip for two years). Looking back, I often wonder what must have gone through her mind at that moment.
I got the call confirming I had landed the job at Robert Half while standing in Animal Kingdom, staring at a live tiger. That memory still brings a smile to my face. I’ve always let my heart guide my biggest decisions. I often tell my oldest child, “Use your brain to follow your heart.” Now I understand why recruiting worked for me—because from the very beginning, my heart was in it.
Being a recruiter was fun, exciting, and incredibly challenging—not so much in a technical sense, but in terms of entrepreneurial drive and psychological resilience. The real question became: how was I going to get in front of both clients and candidates? Fortunately, connecting the dots with accounting and finance professionals came naturally, thanks to my technical background. I knew that in my first year, I’d be moving backward financially, especially with my wife still at home. I was so committed to making it work that I refinanced our house just to get through those first six months. I knew that failure was simply not an option.
Fortunately, after taking a leap of faith, I didn’t fail. I knew almost immediately that this career offered not only a chance to succeed, but to truly thrive. Within three years, I was promoted to Director, leading a team of 3–5 recruiters and taking responsibility for their onboarding, training, performance reviews, and professional development. The failure rate for new recruiters is high—this is a demanding and often stressful career that’s not for everyone. You quickly learn that the only things within your control are your own actions. After all, a recruiter’s “inventory” isn’t a widget. It’s a living, thinking human being with goals, needs, and a career path of their own.
I had an incredible run at Robert Half, but deep down, I knew it wasn’t forever. I had found my passion in recruiting, but I also began to feel the weight of limitations and unnecessary pressure that can come with a large corporate environment. My goals started to diverge from the company’s goals. So, in January 2019, I told my wife, “I don’t know when, but I’m going to start my own recruiting firm… eventually.” As that year progressed, I became increasingly unhappy. I stepped down from my Director role to focus on personal growth—but in hindsight, that move was shortsighted. I wasn’t ready to walk away from something that was still great, so I tried everything I could think of to make it work.
In the end, the story unfolded much like it had before, only this time, I was smarter and more experienced. My heart was telling me it was time to move on, and I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Conversations began to take shape, and after months of thoughtful discussions with trusted people, I took another leap.
Back to the Driver’s Seat
The launch of my recruiting firm has mirrored the twists and turns of my overall career journey. From starting the business in January 2020 (the very year the world was upended by COVID) to navigating a failed business partnership and weathering the unpredictability of a hot-and-cold economy, the trials of adversity have certainly tested my limits. But looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve grown stronger through each challenge, and today, I’m more grateful than ever. I’m also proud to say that the team I work with now is the best I’ve ever had the privilege to be part of.
From the beginning, my aspiration was not just to build something from the ground up, but to create a place where people are genuinely excited to come to work every day.
As for my role at The Clark Agency Recruiters, it’s all-encompassing and without limits. I serve as an operations leader, a strategic visionary, a player-coach, and both a mentor and a lifelong student. When you’re building a business from scratch, no task is too big or too small—and that’s exactly what I love about it.
Learn more about The Clark Agency & our team: https://theclarkagency-us.com/
