What’s in a name?
When you think of the word hustle, how does it make you feel? As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a hustler and maybe that was instilled in me as a child, watching my dad the UPS driver, be successful at many different business endeavors while maintaining his blue collar, steady job, to ensure we had proper healthcare and could live a decent middle class life.
To me, being a hustler isn’t a bad thing. Quite the opposite, actually. To me, I hustle because I enjoy it. I enjoy the activity and movement. I enjoy the life I’ve created as a direct result of the amount of hustle I bring everyday. It’s not to say it’s easy or isn’t exhausting. There are days when I wish I could just relax and do “one thing” only, but that’s not the way I am wired and that’s not the way I was brought up.
Back in 2008–2009, I had a corporate recruiting job at Nestle. I loved my boss and my team. I was being paid well and I felt secure in a very insecure economy. But the commute was brutal. 2 hours a day, each way. Making each day a 12–14 hour work day. Commuting across 5 freeways in LA to get to work constantly had me on edge. I knew things wouldn’t last in the long run. One day, a former boss of mine called and asked me if I might consider a contract role, minimum of 6 months, but I would have to move to Florida to be closer to the client. It must of have been one of those bad commute days, because without even hesitating, I said yes. I quit the corporate, well paid, secure job, hopped on the next plane to Florida and didn’t think about what would happen next.
The economy was very volatile and unstable. Lots of big companies, iconic brands, were laying people off, banks were crumbling. It was rough. Candidates were without jobs for several months, even years, and you could hear the desperation in their voices when you talked to them. In my heart, I wanted to hire everyone. I never wanted to make those calls to close them out and tell them the company wasn’t moving forward. Often times when I did make those calls, the candidates would yell, or scream obscenities at me, and I would let them, because I knew how these tough economic times were taking a toll on everyone.
I arrived in Florida, found my temporary furnished apartment and kicked off the project with the client. Things were moving along and I was settling in nicely when I got a call from my boss in New York. “Dom, I have some bad news. The client cancelled the contract, so you need to cancel your apartment and go home. I don’t have the project work for you anymore”. My heart sank, my mind raced. I just quit my corporate, secure job, to take the risk on this contract role, and here I was. Two weeks into it, and the project was cut. I had nothing, or so I thought. Instead of going back to California, I showed up at my boss’ office in New York a few days later. I acknowledged that she didn’t have the same type of work for me, and her client work was slow because of the economic downturn, but she did have other work for me, and was willing to pay me $20/hr until things picked up. While that was a significant pay cut from where I was, I had no pride, and no ego, so I gladly took the work. After all, I had bills to pay, so I wasn’t in a position to be without work.
I stayed in New York for a few months and wanted to use the opportunity to re-invent myself and crack into the New York recruiting scene. I attended meetups, networking events, joined associations, applied for jobs, met with friends of friends, went on interviews. I did all the things I recommended my candidates do. It was really hard to break into an entirely new market. It was exhausting and at times, disheartening, seeing rejection emails roll into my inbox day after day.
At the same time, my Grandma Dorothy, took a turn for the worse and her cancer came back with a vengeance, so I decided to head back to California. My boss in New York graciously allowed me to work from California and even agreed to teach me a new skill, research. Research in recruiting, is similar to sourcing in today’s world, but a bit more involved. Shortly after I got back to California, my Grandma passed away. It truly felt like a dark cloud was over me. I went into a deep depression, so much so, that I literally moved back into my parents house, and friends were concerned. My Grandma, Dorothy (Dottie) Constance (Connie) Vigil, was my anchor and without her, I felt like I was just floating around in the dark sea aimlessly.
Through my grief, I started to see a therapist. I continued to learn research and work my part time job, while applying to other recruiting jobs in California. Towards the end of that year, my former boss from Nestle called me and asked me if I would be interested in coming back to the team, as a contract resource. He understood the commute was rough. He trusted me and said I could work from home. The hustle immediately set in. I could maintain my work from my NYC boss and work NYC hours, and take on the Nestle project work and work CA hours. Both bosses were supportive of that, as they knew I had enough grit and hustle to perform.
As I sat on my bed filling out the paperwork to set up my business, I had no idea what a good name would be, or how I could put into words what I do. I was going to use my initials, the most obvious choice, but it sounded bland and boring. I racked my brain for hours. And so, in loving memory of my Grandma, DotConnect was born (short for Dottie Connie Vigil). DotConnect. It had a nice ring to it, it was deeply meaningful and when I said it aloud, it perfectly described what I do. I connect the Dot’s. I connect talented people to opportunities. I connect companies to talented people. Maybe the universe always had a plan for Grandma Dottie and she always had a plan for me.
