Her Story
About Mysti Dawn
I've been in staffing and recruiting for 14 years, and I'm proud to say I've never had to apply for a job - I've always been recruited. When you get out there, network, and make a good name for yourself, the numbers and the relationships speak for themselves. I'm currently in a national business development role with the Professional Employment Group of Colorado, a position I was recruited to at the beginning of this year. They wanted somebody with a local presence, and after years of living out of a suitcase in my previous national role, it was important to me to be home for my youngest who still has 2 years of high school left. My day-to-day involves account management, client prospecting, strategic planning, event planning, and networking. I focus primarily on skilled trades - daddy worked construction, so it just makes sense to me - though I also work in accounting, finance, and IT. I'm very consumed by my work, but in a good way, because I focus on the relationship side. I understand not everybody can respond within an hour to an email, so if it means opening my laptop when I get home, I'm perfectly okay with that. Reliability and dependability are really important to me. I always tell my clients I don't work 7 to 5, I work until the job's complete, so I'm always available. I prefer warm leads and having people welcome me to their offices instead of begging for visits. The landscape of staffing has changed dramatically - 14 years ago you could close a sale in 6 to 10 touches, now it's more like 14 to 28. The baby boomers are leaving and we can't train up the new guys fast enough, so it's been interesting to watch companies get strategic with apprenticeship programs to farm their own talent.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Mysti Dawn
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my faith. I'm a follower of Christ - I follow Judaism, Messianic Judaism - and I just believe that given any circumstance that I've walked through life, I wasn't always a professional, I wasn't always well-versed. I was the first to graduate high school and college in my family, so I really don't think I could have done it without that. My faith has been the foundation that carried me through every challenge and helped me become who I am today.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is 'all gas, no brakes.' I think that's probably one of the best pieces of advice, because a lot of professionals can easily slip into complacency by riding the wave - you know, things are going great, everything's good, and they think it's gonna last forever. The reality of anything in life is there's peaks and valleys to everything. So if you're not constantly selling new business, meeting new people, you won't see results. The work we do today, we probably won't see until 6 months out. Why is that? Because we don't eat the fruit the day that we plant the seed. It takes cultivation and time.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say, don't be afraid that it's still very much a male-dominated business. I would say have faith in yourself, do your research, and know your audience. And never lead with emotion. Feelings are okay to have, but I learned in the professional space, it's better to use logic. Young women need to understand that while emotions are valid, logic will serve them better in building credibility and success in this field.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say it's the landscape of the skilled trade space. As we know, the baby boomers are leaving, and we can't train up the new guys fast enough. So it's been really interesting to watch companies get strategic with their planning and start opening additional trainings, apprenticeship programs, and things like that, so they can basically farm their own talent, which makes it very difficult to contain. It's not the same industry it was 14 years ago. Fourteen years ago you could close a sale in 6 to 10 touches. Now it's more like 14 to 28. But I can't be mad at people for thinking outside of the box and taking an active role in constructing the new workforce - that's innovation at work.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Family and respect are the values most important to me. It's easy to say you want kindness and love, but I honestly believe that if you have respect, the others will follow. Respect is the foundation - when you have that, everything else falls into place naturally. And family grounds everything I do, which is why being present for my youngest during these final high school years was so important in my recent career decision.
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