In this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers, host Marcus Edwardes interviews Patrick Sirmeyer, the CEO of Luxus Plus, a multi-vertical recruitment firm based in Florida, and co-founder of Privy, a career coaching platform for employers and employees. Patrick discusses the specialties and multiple offerings of his firm and the state of competition in the Orlando area. He also shares insights on the job market and the use of chat GPT in recruitment.

Timestamps

[00:02:04] Remote work before the pandemic.

[00:03:29] Working remotely vs in-office.

[00:06:51] Remote work best practices.

[00:12:21] Recruiting in the digital age.

[00:14:20] Personal branding on LinkedIn.

[00:17:02] Response rates in recruitment.

[00:22:29] Hire for attitude over skills.

[00:24:38] Defining "superstar" talent.

[00:28:44] Chat GPT and AI in recruiting.

[00:31:11] Recruitment: Contingency vs. Contained vs. Retained.

[00:34:32] Contingent recruitment ethics.

[00:37:39] The Contingency vs Retained Game.

Quotes

 00:16:27 - "The whole point of your LinkedIn feed is to try and stay top of mind with everybody that you've bothered to connect with."

00:31:28 - "I would love to see the rise of agency recruiters just start to put contingent to the side and say we're no longer offering it."

00:34:32 - "Because once, you know, they've written you that check, they want to hire from you."

Keywords

recruitment, remote work, competition, multi-vertical, Florida,remote work, shared workspace, hybrid, recruitment, pandemic.,camaraderie, remote work, efficient work, managing people, online training,project based work, measurable tools, activity KPIs, back end KPIs, prospecting,cold calling, recruiters, software developers, voicemail drop, communication skills,recruitment, branding, LinkedIn, social interaction, growth,leader, post, audience, data, interaction,referrals, messaging, response rate, success stories, failures,recruiting, posturing, consulting, relationships, attitude,clients, proof, flexibility, compensation, attitude,client, benchmarking, candidates, evaluation, calibration calls,recruiting process, automation, chat GPT, AI, personalized.,LinkedIn, human, contingency recruitment, contained recruitment, retained.,recruitment agencies, A team, skin in the game, retained recruiter, contingent recruiter,recruiting agencies, contract, payment, quality, consent,Sorry, there are no keywords in the given transcript. It seems to be a short conversation between two people.

Summary

In this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers, host Marcus Edwardes interviews Andrew Lewis, Head of Talent for Worldly, a sustainability insights platform for consumer goods industries. They discuss Andrew's philosophy and LinkedIn posts as well as news stories related to talent acquisition. The episode is sponsored by Great Recruiters, an online reputation management platform for recruiters.

Timestamps

[00:00:43] The importance of online reviews.

[00:03:49] Developing skills beyond direct hiring.

[00:08:07] Targeted job seeking strategies.

[00:10:37] Always be ready philosophy.

[00:13:47] Personal branding for recruiters.

[00:17:03] Brand ambassadorship.

[00:22:43] AI in recruitment.

[00:25:18] Recruitment and relationship building.

[00:28:01] Overabundance of candidates.

[00:30:52] Creating Consistency in Recruitment.

[00:34:38] Internal vs. Agency Recruitment.

[00:40:00] AI-generated recruiter messages.

[00:41:47] AI in recruiting.

[00:45:20] Recruiting art of conversation.

Detailed Synopsis

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss the significance of building relationships in recruiting and how taking a long-term approach can be advantageous. They emphasize that the best outcomes in recruiting usually occur over a period of months or even years and that it's crucial to manage relationships and conversations with candidates and hiring managers. 

The episode also delves into the significance of personal branding and having a presence on platforms like LinkedIn for success in recruiting. The guest speaker emphasizes that becoming a brand ambassador for a company can make a recruiter invaluable, leading to job security and potential marketing initiatives. The guest also suggests that recruiters invest time and resources into building their personal brand and network. Additionally, the episode touches on the idea that recruiters should have skills beyond direct sourcing and recruiting, such as contributing to employer branding, in order to stand out in job interviews. 

Quotes

 00:03:02 - "But sometimes, you know, hard reset can really help because you can start to visualize the problem through different lenses and you can start to prepare systems and processes that are going to allow you to do and to execute the hiring, you know, and learning and development in different ways and more efficient ways as well."

00:08:54 - "This is how we operate, building relationships over transactions."

00:12:38 - "the things that are worth doing are often the most difficult to do."

00:16:22 - "if a recruiter can become the face or become a relevant voice that represents a brand on a place like LinkedIn, that makes you really, really invaluable."

00:19:51 - "it's never been as important as it is today to profoundly understand, you know, the change that the business wants to make, the value that the business is looking to bring in by hiring talent.

00:24:45 - "How you treat the 99 is just as important as how you treat the one."

00:25:49 - "Recruitment is 99% rejection or 99% conversations or relationships that you won't be able to do anything with."

00:43:24 - "I actually think it's slightly unethical to send somebody an AI-written message and pretend that it was written by a person."

Connect with Marcus:

Website: https://recruitingtrailblazers.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Connect with Great Recruiters and get 2 months free:

Link:            Great Recruiters

In this era of rapid digital transformation, we are witnessing the remarkable power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in unlocking the potential of recruiters. By seamlessly integrating AI into the recruitment process, we empower recruiters with valuable tools and insights to make informed decisions and find the perfect fit for organizations and candidates alike. With AI, recruiters enhance candidate experiences and, ultimately, build stronger, more diverse, and inclusive teams.

In this episode, we are joined by Vanessa Raath, who is a global talent-sourcing trainer, an international keynote speaker, and a budding wildlife photographer, to share more about the exciting world of AI and its impact on the recruiting industry. Discussing the role of AI in recruitment to exploring the differences between PeopleGPT and ChatGPT, Vanessa shares her invaluable insights. Discover how to harness GPT tools, build your personal brand, and engineer compelling prompts for better outcomes. With a focus on integrating ChatGPT into the internet and optimizing outreach, Vanessa guides recruiters toward greater success.

Timestamps

[02:33] How AI fits into the recruiting industry

[04:43] Vanessa’s opinions on how we should use AI

[08:59] How Vanessa became an AI expert

[09:53] The difference between PeopleGPT and ChatGPT

[11:08] GPT tools

[12:54] Building yourself as a recruiter in this massive and improved AI content

[14:46] Vanessa’s first course: Helping People Build Their Brand

[15:36] Tips on prompt engineering

[19:21] The biggest advantages of ChatGPT to recruiters

[22:43] How to integrate ChatGPT into the internet

[24:16] How recruiters can get a better response from outreaching

[26:15] How to use ChatGPT to write a personal outreach from a profile

[28:20] The dangers of ChatGPT

[29:19] Other AI tools and how they are helpful

[30:55] About Vanessa’s course: The Intricate Science of Getting Passive Talent To Respond to You

[32:30] How Vanessa helps recruiters

Notable Quotes:

●      “ChatGPT is there, it’s not going to disappear, we may as well use it to help us be better recruiters.”

●      “The most important thing to remember about AI is that it can’t do the relationship development piece.”

●      “No one in the world is truly an AI expert.”

●      “The recruiters who have taken their time to get to know people, are going to be the ones who will win.”

●      “The more information you give it, almost like you are writing it yourself, it will come back to you and make it sound better”

●      “Don’t be just the piece of text that ChatGPT could generate, be a human being.”

●      “If you do things a little bit differently, it generally will get people’s attention.”

 Connect with Vanessa Raath:
Website: vanessaraath.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vanessaraath

Twitter: Van_Raath

Connect with me:

Website: https://recruitingtrailblazers.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Connect with Great Recruiters and get 2 months free:

Link:            Great Recruiters

As a recruiter, relying solely on cold outreach to find and attract talent can be a challenging and time-consuming process. Fortunately, social media has revolutionized the recruitment landscape, providing recruiters a powerful platform to connect with potential candidates, build their brand, and establish relationships with active and passive job seekers. By leveraging the right social media platforms and strategies, recruiters can go beyond traditional cold outreach methods and establish themselves as thought leaders and industry experts in their respective fields, leading to a stronger employer brand and a more efficient and effective recruitment process.

In this episode, we are joined by Joel Lalgee, the Realest Recruiter, who teaches recruitment teams how to win on social media, to talk about building successful recruiting brands on social media. Joel shares how he built a successful brand in a few years, tips for growing your recruiting brand on LinkedIn and TikTok, and the non-negotiables for successful recruiters. He talks about the simplest strategies recruiters can adopt when building a successful brand and the right way to advertise a job vacancy on social media. 

[01:26] Joel Lalgee’s background information

[04:00] How Joel has managed to build his brand successfully over the last few years

[06:50] Growing your recruiting brand, both on LinkedIn and TikTok

[10:50] The biggest challenges that recruiters are facing in the current economy

[12:51] Advice to recruiters who are not getting the response rate they used to get

[16:41] The non-negotiables for successful recruiters

[21:00] The recruitment tools that are being sold to recruiters

[24:33] Tips to start building a presence on social media as a recruiter

[26:33] Convincing agency recruiters to consistently create content on social media

[29:14] Creating content that will reach your target audience on social media

[32:27] The simplest strategy that recruiters can adopt when it comes to building their brands

[44:07] The right way to advertise a job vacancy on social media

[47:01] How Joel finds time to respond to every candidate

[49:54] The course that Joel has recently published

Notable quotes:

●      “Consistency is massive in building a brand. You have to give people a promise that you are going to be there for them. Once they are used to seeing you and hearing you on a regular basis, they can really settle in and become true fans.”

●      “If you are not looking or figuring out where to be contentwise, and how to produce content consistently and adding that into your strategy, you are going to remain behind.”

●      “Just because it’s shiny and costs a monthly fee, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for you because recruiters are consistently being sold to.”

●      “If you are being consistent for three to six months, you can start to recycle and re-purpose content and the workload gets less.”

Connect with Joel Lalgee:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joellalgee/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_realest_recruiter

Connect with Marcus:
Website: https://recruitingtrailblazers.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Connect with Great Recruiters and get 2 months free:

Link:            Great Recruiters

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Chris Allaire, Co-Founder and COO of Averity. Chris is also an entrepreneur, pilot, avid golfer, pretty awesome cook, crab cake connoisseur, guitar player, and a proud husband and father.

Listen in as Chris shares the best time to recruit people, what it takes to start a successful recruiting agency, and the importance of relationships.

Chris addresses the usefulness of AI tools in the industry, the power of personalization, the post-pandemic market, and learning lessons from the downtimes.

What You’ll Learn In this Episode:

• [02:19] Chris’s thoughts on golf.
• [06:38] Starting Averity.
• [09:44] The industry before Averity.
• [13:05] Building relationships.
• [15:43] The future of AI tools.
• [20:25] Averity’s biggest obstacle.
• [25:12] Personalizing outreach.
• [36:19] Own your craft.
• [39:28] Adapting to the post-pandemic market.
• [45:22] Keeping the team collected throughout these times.

Key Quotes:

• “You can’t assume that people are comfortable just because they’re successful.”
• “Relationships are everything.”
• “It takes a long time to get rich quick.”
• “The hard times are what made you what you currently are.”

Connect with Chris Allaire

Website:             www.averityteam.com.

LinkedIn:            Chris Allaire.

 Connect with Marcus Edwardes

Website:             recruitingtrailblazers.com.

LinkedIn:            Marcus Edwardes

Connect with Great Recruiters and get 2 months free:

Link:            Great Recruiters

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Scott Whiteford, Director of Leadership Analytics at Talent Plus. Scott also serves as a Sociology of Leadership Instructor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, an Algebra e-Leadership MBA Lecturer, and as an advisor for Upheaval.

Listen in as Scott shares the best and worse approaches to retention, the true value of experience, and how organizations can evaluate their employees’ strengths.

Scott addresses interview biases, the worst interview question he has ever heard, and how organizations can address and incorporate strength-based diversity.

What You’ll Learn In this Episode:

• [03:14] The typical retention approach.
• [05:34] Driving change in organizations.
• [06:45] Strength management.
• [10:45] Balancing strengths with organizational demands.
• [12:53] The right and wrong sets of skills for leadership.
• [18:26] Helping clients realize that talent is more important.
• [20:34] Where to start.
• [22:35] Minimizing interview biases.
• [24:35] The worst interview question.
• [26:25] Strength identification and development.
• [27:48] What a diverse organization should look like.
• [30:18] Shifting company cultures.
• [32:10] Have we reached the tipping point?
• [34:25] What’s coming up for Scott?

Key Quotes:

• “All leaders have areas of strength, and all leaders have areas of weakness.”
• “There are few jobs where knowledge, skills, and experience really matter.”
• “If you’re focusing on your strengths, you’re going to be happier.”
• “We’re all different. Let’s celebrate those differences.”’
• “There isn’t a right or wrong type of individual.”
• “The diversity of thought is important.”
• “Great leaders promote great ideas.”

Connect with Scott Whiteford

Website:             talentplus.com.

LinkedIn:            Scott Whiteford.

Connect with Marcus Edwardes

Website:             recruitingtrailblazers.com.

LinkedIn:            Marcus Edwardes.

Marcus and Julie ask ChatGPT to recommend the top 10 film that Recruiters should watch - and then they discuss them!

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Adam Conrad, Founder of Great Recruiters. Adam has over 24 years of experience in the staffing industry. Adam is passionate about helping people reach their full potential, both professionally and personally.

Listen in as Adam shares his experience at the Staffing Industry Analysts Conference, using automation in recruiting, and the importance of building relationships.

Adam addresses ChatGPT and AI personalization, elevating candidate experience, embracing negative feedback, and the future of the industry.

What You’ll Learn In this Episode:

• [01:28] The Staffing Industry Analysts Conference.
• [05:02] Automation.
• [12:48] AI recruiting.
• [20:00] ChatGPT and personalization.
• [24:26] Surviving a downturn.
• [26:06] The candidate’s experience.
• [29:40] Feedback and reviews.
• [38:15] Great Recruiters looking forward.

Key Quotes:

• “If you’re not modernizing your firm, you’re probably going to be left behind.”
• “Great recruiters don’t sell opportunities. Great recruiters understand who their candidates are and then they reconcile opportunities that match that.”
• “The best way to cut through the noise is referrals.”

Connect with Adam Conrad

Website:             www.greatrecruiters.com.

LinkedIn:            Adam Conrad.      

Connect with Marcus Edwardes

Website:             recruitingtrailblazers.com.

LinkedIn:            Marcus Edwardes.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Khang Nguyen, VP of Sales and Operations at CTP Consulting. He brings over 20 years of experience in the technology staffing and consulting space, including over 14 in a leadership capacity. His experience spans from small, start-up environments, to large enterprise, publicly traded organizations.

Khang and his family back the No Kid Hungry campaign and the Nephrotic Syndrome Foundation (NSF), two non-profits battling hunger and poverty worldwide and supporting those with Nephrotic Syndrome, respectively.

Listen in as Khang shares about remote communication and engagement, being a leader today, and how he helps his team members get through this tough period.

Khang addresses the changing work environments, as technology and remote work take the place of in-person offices and teamworking environments, the importance of the human element that provides more value than AI could, and building valuable networks.

What You’ll Learn In this Episode:

• [01:07] About Khang.
• [02:06] What’s going on in the industry?
• [04:05] What’s going to happen next?
• [06:12] How our communication has changed.
• [08:55] Dealing with rejection.
• [13:17] The learning process.
• [17:34] AI and automating recruiting.
• [22:37] Building networks.
• [24:17] Remote communication adjustments.
• [31:01] Being a leader today.
• [34:02] Helping team members get through this period.
• [34:44] Khang’s tips.
• [35:53] Khang’s words of wisdom.

Key Quotes:

• “A company needs to earn the loyalty of the employee just as much as the other way around.”
• “AI cannot replace that human element.”
• “The employer-employee relationship should be all about engagement.”
• “Stay committed to the process.”

Connect with Khang Nguyen

Website:             www.ctpconsulting.com.

LinkedIn:            Khang Nguyen.

Connect with Marcus Edwardes

Website:             recruitingtrailblazers.com.

LinkedIn:            Marcus Edwardes.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Ryan Musselman, who began his career as a recruiter for a regional credit union. For the past 16 years, he has been building content businesses across the digital realm as a senior executive.

As the Founder of Parade Studio, he creates full-service content programs for executives, recruiters, and sellers who don’t have the time to post on LinkedIn, but who do want to build a very strong personal brand with tons of original content.

Listen in as Ryan shares why working on your personal brand as a recruiter is the best way to break out of the perpetual demands of “outbound mode” and how to prep candidates for the interview in advance through a well-thought-out content strategy on LinkedIn.

Ryan stresses the importance of tailoring content around your specific customer, the secret to “stealing like an artist”, and how to use powerful tools like ChatGPT the right way to give you an edge in the market.

To Ryan, anyone can create a strong personal brand by offering snackable content on a consistent basis and engaging regularly with followers. He explains how to establish industry authority and candidate trust by creating educational content for the specific category of job seeker the recruiter is targeting.

Ryan addresses the common hurdle most recruiters face at the beginning of their brand-building journey: the intimidating thought of having to play the “long game”. He also discusses how introverts can get over the fear of putting themselves out there, and offers practical steps to putting together a powerful content strategy today.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:55] Why recruiters should care about building a personal brand

●      [05:56] Tailoring content around your ideal customer

●      [09:43] Using ChatGPT effectively for content creation

●      [10:53] Ryan’s content ideation process

●      [13:25] The three components of a strong personal brand

●      [17:18] Nailing your job seeker persona

●      [21:06] The biggest content mistakes recruiters make on LinkedIn

●      [27:45] Staying top-of-mind

●      [30:23] Getting over the intimidating thought of playing the “long game”

●      [39:19] Strengthening your outbound efforts

●      [44:46] Write more powerful hooks using fear rather than desire

●      [48:38] Ryan’s advice to introverts

●      [53:23] The first three steps to creating content on LinkedIn today

Key quotes:

●      “Plagiarism is copy-and-paste. Inspiration is taking ideas from a piece of content and rewriting it in your own words.”

●      “You can gain followers simply by commenting really well. A comment can serve as a post.”

●      “90% of your content should be give. 10% should be ask.”

●      “Your outbound is strengthened when your personal brand has influence.”

This week Marcus laments the biggest missed opportunity in Recruiting and how to adopt a 2-step strategy to resolve and emerge victorious with a robust referral, recommendation, and information network.

Marcus chats with Brian FInk about the impact of psychological safety in the workplace.

Marcus opines on why he thinks tenure is so overrated as a measure of reliability, steadfastness, and loyalty. Bottom line - Hiring managers are missing out big time on some of the best candidates available if they only consider candidates with a history of long tenure at previous employers!

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Hannah Jane. She has over 17 years in talent acquisition leadership and people operations.

She’s a Talent Business Partner for Team Union, which specializes not only in recruiting for startups, but also in creating processes, best practices, and policy to help companies succeed in the entire recruiting and hiring process.

Listen in as Hannah discusses the intake call and strategy, the interview process and how to coach your clients to perform effective and successful interviews, and outreach best practices.

Hannah shares how Team Union puts the saying “hire for attitude, train for skills” into practice at the first interaction between recruiter and candidate.

For her, it all comes down to an eagerness to ask questions that go beyond the superficial, with a genuine curiosity to understand the candidate’s personality and potential over simply their resumé.

She also breaks down Team Union’s recruiting template and how they educate their clients on avoiding redundancy and bias throughout the interview process.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:07] What Team Union offers as a fractional recruiting and HR partner

●      [03:47] Key objectives for the intake call

●      [08:59] Hiring for attitude, training for skills

●      [13:26] Getting clear on the growth trajectory of the candidate

●      [16:18] Team Union’s recruiting template

●      [19:01] Educating recruiters on often-overlooked goals for the interview

●      [21:04] The importance of transparency

●      [23:41] Tactical tentpoles to avoid duplication and bias

Key quotes:

●      “Let’s hire for ‘stickitivity’. Let’s find a way to match core wants, desires, and goals.”

●      “My approach is how it would be for any other relationship: This is a two-way street. Don’t give it just 50%. Give it 100%.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Jared Watts, Director of Talent at Vantaca, a community-managed performance software company based in North Carolina.

Previously, Jared worked on the agency side in executive search and spent five years playing professional soccer in the MLS. He played for both the Colorado Rapids and the Houston Dynamo, and was the 33rd overall pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft.

He captained the Under 17 World Cup team in Nigeria and he won the 2018 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup when he was playing at Houston. He was also finishing his MBA during his soccer career!

Listen in as Jared talks about his storied career as an athlete and his transition into the world of recruiting. He explains why recruiting might just be the perfect job for ex-athletes and how sports psychology can profoundly help in the business of recruiting. Finally, he talks about the life of an agency recruiter versus an in-house one.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:15] What led Jared into soccer

●      [07:50] Lessons learned from playing professional soccer in the MLS

●      [11:39] Managing stress and anxiety as a professional athlete

●      [13:26] Getting clear on the growth trajectory of the candidate

●      [15:14] Applying the power of visualization to recruiting

●      [18:44] Focusing on daily wins

●      [23:50] Mindfulness practices

●      [27:57] Dealing with loss and failure

●      [30:43] Why the recruiting industry has a high turnover rate

●      [33:02] How to develop a winning mindset

●      [36:06] How recruiting for a software company is like recruiting for a D1 college sport

●      [39:54] Jared’s approach to the interview process

●      [42:20] Why recruiters always need the “agency mindset”

Key quotes:

●      “[In professional sports,] you’re only as good as your last performance. There are no days in which you can take shortcuts.”

●      “Just like in sports, recruiting is so much a mentality and the way that you react to situations that arise, whether that’s the pressures of performing or the ability to solve problems on the go, and solve them quickly.”

●      “Visualization is everything. You’ve got to be able to see yourself succeeding, whether in sports or in the business world.”

●      “It’s not about the recruiter. It’s about who you’re reaching out to and why they should be interested.”

●      “The sign of a great recruiter is how many people come back to you that you haven’t placed, and want to work with you again.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Robin Choy, CEO of HireSweet, a talent acquisition platform built to empower outbound data-driven recruiting teams. He is the host of the A-Players podcast.

Robin wrote an excellent guide for recruiters called The Definitive Guide to Sourcing in Recruiting (https://content.hiresweet.com/the-sourcing-guide/), which breaks down the process into four key steps: preparation, sourcing, contact, and closing.

Listen in as Robin does a deep dive into all things sourcing as well as how ChatGPT can become a valuable tool for recruiters. He shares the importance of ascertaining your candidates’ unique value proposition via the intake call, and thinking of outreach like a funnel.

Robin gives his thoughts on finding the right balance between personalization and automation and what’s working today (and what’s no longer working) with regards to outreach.

Finally, Robin explains how recruiters can best use ChatGPT as a powerful tool in their kit.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:17] How to maximize your preparation as a recruiter

●      [07:59] Outreach best practices

●      [11:14] How to go about salary transparency

●      [16:58] Cold emailing versus InMail

●      [17:31] Considerations around personalization

●      [20:12] Automating connection requests and personalizing invites

●      [25:10] The importance of culture

●      [29:30] Crafting a great subject line

●      [33:57] The impact of ChatGPT in recruiting

●      [35:58] How to use HireSweet

Key quotes:
●      “Preparation is key to productivity. If you don’t look for the right person, you can be the best sourcer in the world and shortlist candidates, but they won’t be the right fit for the hiring manager because you didn’t spend enough time in the preparation phase.”

●      “If you send an email to someone, you should always send an invitation to connect as well.”

●      “ChatGPT won’t replace recruiters. But recruiters who know how to use ChatGPT will replace recruiters that don’t.”

In this episode - Marcus presents a few very good reasons why Recruiters find In House recruiting so rewarding before he gives a few excellent reasons why you might consider a move back to Agency Recruitment!

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes once again speaks with Vanessa Raath, a freelance sourcer, a global talent sourcing trainer, an international keynote speaker, and a wildlife photographer. She recently founded the online educational platform, Vanessa Raath Academy.

Listen in as Vanessa shares what sourcers can do to be steps ahead of the competition once the economy regains its momentum.

She talks about automation tools that have risen in popularity in today’s market, and how to use them effectively without neglecting the human element in recruitment.

Vanessa says that while there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to tools and platforms, agencies must be willing to “skill up and start embracing HR tech” or risk being left behind.

She gives us her thoughts on the ChatGPT phenomenon and why she isn’t worried about AI taking her job. She also talks about the art of writing Boolean strings and why she believes that becoming proficient in Boolean is a must-have skill for every recruiter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:44] How to stand out in today’s sourcing landscape

●      [05:17] How sourcing has become both harder and easier

●      [06:58] Go-to automation tools

●      [09:41] Personalization versus mass outreach

●      [11:39] About Vanessa’s free online academy

●      [16:05] How ChatGPT may impact the recruitment industry

●      [21:26] The art of writing Boolean strings

●      [24:20] How long it takes to learn Boolean from scratch

Key quotes:

●      “Focus on your pipeline and building communities so that, as soon as hiring starts again, you will be able to take the best talent into your organization.”

●      “Pick a niche and start building a network in that space, because that’s what’s going to set you up for success.”

●      “I don’t think there is one tool that is going to solve all of your issues. It’s the responsibility of the recruiter’s agency and internal to skill up and really start embracing HR tech, because if they don’t you’re going to be left behind.”

●      “ChatGPT is not going to get rid of recruiters and solve all of our world problems. But, it’s going to help us from a time perspective.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Maddie Loomis, the Founder of Advanced Scope Talent. The company matches clinicians to great practices. Maddie describes herself as a “talent guru” and “a laughable CrossFit athlete”!

Listen in as Maddie discusses what it takes to start your own agency, drawing from her own experience establishing Advanced Scope Talent in 2021.

She breaks down the whole process, from establishing an LLC to finding leads by incorporating LinkedIn into your system (as well as LinkedIn’s limitations as an agency tool).

Maddie shares the tools and platforms that she uses for lead generation and outreach, and how she strikes that all-important balance between automation and personalization.

Finally, Maddie speaks to those who have been laid off, offering her best advice on staying motivated as a recruiter and why right now might actually be the perfect time to start your own agency!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:54] Maddie’s career before founding Advanced Scope Talent

●      [04:35] Making the jump from employee to agency owner

●      [09:22] Why you can still start a business without all the skills in place

●      [12:36] Getting the business set up

●      [15:29] Finding and nurturing leads

●      [17:34] Maddie’s business development strategy

●      [18:55] Advanced Scope Talent’s value proposition

●      [22:58] Maddie’s biggest challenge when she started the business

●      [26:10] Staying confident in your professional skills following a layoff

●      [31:36] How Maddie reaches out to potential clients

●      [35:26] The power of consistency

Key quotes:

●      “I want to remain a trusted recruiter in this industry because it’s a small world despite how many recruiters there are.”

●      “I don’t just think about who we want to go after, but who we want to represent and who we are: How are we sending the message from an employer branding standpoint?”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with returning Mark White, The LinkedIn Professional. He specializes in helping you unlock the value in LinkedIn—something he has been doing since 2009.

Mark delivers customized training to students across the globe, from workshops to virtual classes to 1-to-1 coaching sessions.

Listen in as Mark discusses how LinkedIn fared in 2022 and why he believes that LinkedIn’s recruiter platform should coexist with an agency ATS. He also discusses the limitations of relying purely on LinkedIn filters compared to the level of specificity granted by Boolean strings.

Likewise, Mark talks best practices regarding automation on LinkedIn, and where personalization always beats out taking shortcuts. Faced with more savvy users on LinkedIn 2023, he also shares how recruiters can stand above the noise and maximize their chances of getting InMail responses.

Finally, Mark speaks on personal branding on LinkedIn and how to complemen your unique strengths and personality as an individual with those of the company you represent.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:39] How LinkedIn fared in 2022

●      [05:36] Why LinkedIn isn’t the “perfect” solution

●      [09:40] Filters versus Boolean strings

●      [14:12] Using automation effectively on LinkedIn

●      [22:52] Creating a cleverer outreach strategy

●      [27:05] The power of voice messages

●      [29:30] The secret to getting a response on InMail

●      [36:10] Avoiding LinkedIn scams

●      [40:00] Personal branding on LinkedIn

●      [46:23] What to expect from Mark’s training programs

Key quotes:

●      “If you’re working for a company, always remember that the brand you’re putting out shouldn’t just be your own. Personal branding has to go hand-in-hand with your position within an organization.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Billy Davis, known on LinkedIn as The Staffing Automation Guy! He’s an AI and automation product manager at Herefish by Bullhorn, where he helps recruiters increase revenue and efficiency by embracing automation.

Listen in as Billy defines staffing automation and how it differs from—but can be complemented by—AI. He breaks down what he calls the “three pillars of automation”: data health, self-service, and the ability to use information to fill knowledge gaps.

He gives his thoughts on the ChatGPT phenomenon and what the latest breakthroughs in the AI space could mean for the recruiting industry.

Finally, Billy explains why he encourages all agencies big and small to go for a “half-robot, half-human” approach to automation, in which there is a huge opportunity to scale without sacrificing the human element.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:46] Defining “staffing automation”

●      [05:26] Applying automation to different parts of the recruiting life cycle

●      [08:46] Why both big and small agencies need an automation strategy

●      [11:56] Why you can’t automate relationship development

●      [12:43] The biggest myth about automation and recruiting

●      [14:20] How to talk to agencies about employing automation

●      [17:51] How to use automation for sourcing

●      [19:19] Billy’s thoughts on ChatGPT and using AI for recruitment

●      [24:50] Billy’s favorite recruiting automation tools

●      [29:28] Herefish’s three-pronged mission

●      [32:04] Scaling with automation without losing the human touch

●      [36:51] Where LinkedIn fits into all of this

Key quotes:

●      “Staffing automation is an ‘if this, then that’ functionality. That unlocks a near-limitless amount of potential.”

●      “If you’re fully-automated, that’s not going to work. You can’t fully replicate or replace the consultative impact of a great recruiter.”

●      “Automation isn’t here to replace the recruiter. Automation is here to optimize and amplify the recruiter.”

●      “When you have confidence in your own data, then that’s the first place you look to source from.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with James Ellis, Principal at Chicago-based Employer Brand Labs. He’s an author, keynote speaker, practitioner, and podcaster with a wealth of experience across multiple industries for almost a decade.

James wrote Talent Chooses You: Hire Better with Employer Branding. The book has been called “the Bible of employer branding”. He also manages the number one employer brand newsletter in the world, Employer Brand Headlines, which helps companies globally establish their brands and develop their ability to hire talent.

Listen in as James explains how to use employer branding to create the desire to be a part of the company among your ideal recruits, and why the best recruiters hire for attitude and ambition over merely skills.

James breaks down the keys to identifying your perfect candidate persona and improving the employee experience. With regards to building an employer brand, he discusses the art of putting together your unique Employer Value Proposition (EVP), the most important aspects about your brand that you need to highlight, and why it’s important to “localize” the company culture to your ideal recruit.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:54] What is employer branding and what is its purpose?

●      [05:41] Identifying your perfect candidate persona

●      [08:01] Improving the current experience of your employees

●      [14:41] Beyond Glassdoor

●      [16:58] How to better describe the employer experience online

●      [21:16] The aspect of the employer brand you need to highlight

●      [30:06] Localizing your employer brand

●      [33:44] What makes a “good candidate experience”?

Key quotes:

●      “Individuals have a perception of what it must be like to work there. That perception comes from touchpoints of experiences.”

●      “The purpose of employer branding is to create desire among the target audience: the people you’re trying to hire.”

●      “Offering a white glove candidate experience works wonders in certain situations, but it’s not the end-all, be-all. A good candidate experience reflects the culture—the experience of working there.”

A quick message from Marcus in lieu of an interview or solo podcast. Happy New Year!

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Andrew Flowers, a labor economist at Appcast, a global leader in recruitment advertising technology.

In 2020, Andrew ran for State Representative of the 8th Norfolk District in Massachusetts. He narrowly lost the Democratic primary, winning 48.2% of the vote. Prior to running for office, he was an economist with Indeed.com, a data journalist at FiveThirtyEight.com, and an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Listen in as Andrew unpacks the top seven recruiting industry trends he foresees for 2023:

●      Despite economic uncertainty, there will be no major pullback in hiring.

●      Pay transparency laws will continue to change the rules of the game.

●      The pendulum is swinging back to center on work location, but remote work is here to stay.

●      Job boards will increasingly force good stewardship over the job seeker experience.

●      Moving beyond job boards to an automated, multichannel approach will be critical.

●      Hiring organizations will focus less on spend and more on the metrics that matter most.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:35] The growing disconnect between economic signals and the talent landscape

●      [04:19] Why there will be no major pullback in hiring in spite of economic turbulence

●      [07:25] How fear is affecting the job market

●      [12:54] How pay transparency laws are changing the rules of the game

●      [19:20] Why remote work is here to stay

●      [23:09] Why it’s a great time to be a tech recruiter today

●      [27:14] Why job boards will increasingly force good stewardship over the job seeker experience

●      [32:01] How many degrees are truly vocational, anyway?

●      [35:52] Moving beyond job boards to an automated multichannel approach

●      [42:16] Why hiring organizations will focus less on spend and more on the metrics that matter most

Key quotes:

●      “In 2023, the labor market will still be what economists call ‘tight’, which means an excess of demand over supply.”

●      “Job boards, led by Indeed, realized that their real asset is not necessarily the employers and recruiters and make up their revenue. Their real asset is job seekers.”

●      “It is a huge part of the job seeker experience right now to research the employer. That means employer brand, ethics, and reputation.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with John Boyd, Founder of Cirrus Group Consulting, a search firm specializing in providing top Cloud computing talent to companies who need those skills.

According to Jim’s LinkedIn headline: “We provide the industry’s most ridiculously capable Cloud techies.”

Listen in as Jim explains why it pays to home in on a specific niche in the recruiting industry, build a system around that specialization, and go all-in on that niche. He illustrates his own success in applying this lesson through Cirrus Group’s focus on Cloud technologies.

Jim breaks down the Cirrus approach to harnessing systems and automations to scale a recruiting business, using a playbook followed by both offshore resources and internal staff. He covers the process from beginning to end, from his go-to automation tools, to the initial outreach, to his system for tracking applicants, all the way to the onboarding stage.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:35] Putting a strong system in place for your business

●      [06:20] Jim’s vision for Cirrus Group

●      [12:00] The benefits of requiring everyone at Cirrus to be Cloud-certified

●      [15:00] Business development at Cirrus

●      [21:36] Cirrus’ go-to automation and email contact-finding tools

●      [26:15] How Cirrus conducts intake calls

●      [29:54] Sourcing candidates at Cirrus

●      [41:01] Cirrus’ applicant tracking system

●      [45:09] How automation has impacted Cirrus

●      [49:56] The candidate interview

Key quotes:

●      “75% or so of franchises are successful while 75% or so of non-franchise small businesses are not successful. Why? Franchises have systematized their businesses and built playbooks. They’ve tweaked, attempted, tried, and learned.”

●      “One of the top things that people look for when they buy a company is a system, a structure, a playbook, so that you, the owner, can be kicked out and the business does not take a hit.”

Marcus speaks with Richard Cho, a Senior Recruiting Executive who has led Recruiting at companies such at Facebook, Dropbox , Chan Zuckerberg initiative and Robinhood and most recently Gem where he is an advisor. Up for discussion are the cornerstones of building an effective Talent Strategy and infrastructure to compete for talent in today's markets.

Anil Dharni is the CEO and Founder of Sense, San Francisco, Calif. - the market leader in AI-driven talent engagement and communication solutions for enterprise recruiting.

 He recently commissioned a study, “An Inside Look: What Today’s Candidates Really Want” which polled over 1,000 U.S. based candidates who have applied for a job within the past six months, which provides some very interesting data for Recruiters.

• When asked what the top two non-negotiables are when considering a new job, salary/benefits (57%) and career advancement/upskilling opportunities (32%) were ranked highest followed by work from home opportunities (29%), stronger leadership (18%) and DEI programs (16%).  
• The overwhelming majority of candidates (76%) are looking to change careers/industries.
• Faster response time from recruiters was ranked as the top way for companies to improve the candidate experience, cited by 80% of respondents. 
• Slow response time from recruiters is the top reason candidates quit applying for a job. Only 19% of candidates report hearing back from recruiters within 24 hours of applying to a job.
• 27% of candidates said the job search/application process has become more complicated.

Marcus and Anil discuss the results and have an extremely lively conversation including the following topics:

• How candidates looking at the whole benefits package these days - not just salary
• Why companies are asking candidates to come back to the office
• How companies need to do a better job meeting candidate's needs - it's a two-way street
• How great candidates are always in need
• The correction we are seeing as a reaction to over-hiring
• The importance of "delightful, magical" candidate experiences
• Is there really a power shift moving back from the employee to the employer?
• What do you do with a candidate who applies for the wrong job?
• How Sense technology can effectively automate the candidate screening process and start building relationships at scale
• How Sense can set Recruiters up for success by scheduling meaningful conversations with relevant and qualified candidates 
• Using Sense technology to expedite the complete hiring process
• Redefining and enhancing both the recruiter and hiring manager experience
• The dangers of over-automation and the importance of the human touch
• It's not all about email anymore! texting, whatsapp, chatbots - you've got to skate to where the puck is going to be!

You can reach Anil at anil@sensehq.com or directly on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/anildharni/

Thanks to everyone who has participated and listened to the podcast this year!

Ann-Marie is the Founder and President of The West Source, an executive search firm that supports staffing agencies across the country, primarily in the IT & Professional Services space. She launched The West Source in March of 2020 after having spent 10 years as a founder and managing partner at Satori Source in a similar capacity.

Marcus speaks with Steven Perchikov about outreach tactics and how automation - when executed correctly- can help you achieve some degree of scale, without necessarily sacrificing quality.

Marcus speaks with James Parker about building and implementing a successful in-house talent strategy and some of the recruiting challenges he's encountered in his 8+ years of experience as a Head of Talent.

In the podcast, James shares his mindset around TA, which falls into 3 separate buckets:

1. Storytelling - the perception you are creating around the company - all things "employer branding" related

2. Systems - the infrastructure around the entire recruiting funnel, to ensure that there is a structured process that produces consistent and equitable hiring results

3. Strategy - Getting it done. Sourcing, inbound, referrals - getting the balance right.

James reiterates how important getting the system piece right is:

You have to 

- Understand your needs

- Understand what attributes you are looking for

- Know what kind of answers you are looking for

- Know how to score card every candidate in a uniform manner

- Create consistency across the entire interview panel

- Be mindful of recruiting biases, such as overscoring charisma.

James reveals how each interviewer is pre-armed with a specific list of questions around a given set of desirable attributes whilst being mindful of not bombarding candidates with duplicate interviewing experiences.

Also, James points out how cognizant they are at Tropic of the need to provide a stellar candidate experience from top to bottom - from the minute they get their first piece of correspondence, such as an acknowledgment of application note - right through to the final offer.

From a strategy perspective, James breaks down the top of the funnel into 3 more buckets - referrals, inbound, and sourcing and maintains that world-class recruiting teams absolutely own the sourcing piece of the TA puzzle. And in fact, as a team, they have better conversion ratios for sourced candidates than any inbound or referrals.

He shares how important it is to split test messages - and try different tactics, ranging from playful to short/direct, and maybe some different touch points as well.

Finally - James shares his thoughts on the rejection process and how they like to give mid-stage candidates the choice of communication - if they want to discuss on the phone - that option is open to them. James believes that it is critical to give the best possible brand experience and even try to help set rejected candidates up for success in the future. 

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Maury Hanigan, CEO at SparcStart, an innovative recruiting platform which uses video, social media, and mobile capabilities to differentiate jobs and overall make recruiting much more productive.

Maury is a recognized industry expert and has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, The Economist, ABC World News, amongst many other prestigious media outlets. She was also named on HR Tech’s list of the 100 Most Influential Talent Acquisition Thought Leaders and Top 30 Influential Women Leaders.

Listen in as Maury unpacks her best strategies for using video to build a powerful employer brand, alongside a stronger candidate pipeline in the outreach and recruiting process. By incorporating video into the application process, a company can attract not only more applicants, but better-quality applicants.

Maury also addresses common roadblocks to standardizing the use of short videos in an organization’s approach to job advertising, including video-phobia, privacy issues, and deciding on how to structure one’s message in videos directed at candidates.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:18] The current state of the job advertisement market

●      [05:40] Making your job advertisement stand out

●      [10:14] Why show candidates video of the hiring manager in the application process

●      [15:00] Overcome video-phobia and roadblocks to incorporating video

●      [21:24] Tailoring your video’s message to your candidate

●      [28:27] Potential security issues with video

●      [30:09] Why videos fail

●      [33:46] The kind of story candidates want to hear in videos

●      [38:23] The benefits of using the SparcStart platform to host your videos

Key quotes:

●      “When a recruiter includes a hiring manager in their outreach, their response rate is eight times what it is when you only include a job description.”

●      “We don’t advertise products by telling consumers what they must have in order to purchase our product—we tell them what benefit the product gives them. And yet, in recruitment marketing, people are still doing laundry lists of requirements of what you must have to be considered for the role; then they wonder why people aren’t attracted to their roles.”

●      “The video that the candidates are most interested in seeing is of the hiring manager: They want to meet their boss.”

●      “The biggest challenge is to have to have employer brand and TA leaders understand that the content has to be what the candidate wants to hear rather than what the company wants to say.”

There might not be a better profession to prepare you for a career in Recruiting - than Teaching!
This week, Marcus speaks with Aurora Kitko who spent 8 years as a teacher of English, Spanish and Mathematics, both in the USA and abroad.
Listen to here describe the similarities, differences, wins and challenges as she discusses with Marcus, her very first year in Recruiting.

Show notes to follow!

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Chris Ciulla, President of U.S. and Cross Border Operations at Comrise, a 450-person global recruiting company with expertise in many verticals, including information technology, finance, media, and legal, just to name a few.

Chris has over 20 years in the business, with stints at big players like Ajilon, Robert Half, and Modis.

Listen in as Chris illustrates the common thread between recruitment and sales, and the foundation that binds them together—culture. He discusses his approach to defining your core values and how to get your employees to buy into your vision-mission as a company.

Chris also speaks on the importance of hiring for core values before experience, and leading a work environment based on trust and human-to-human relationships before all else

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:29] From paperboy to president of a global recruiting company

●      [04:19] The relationship between recruitment and sales

●      [06:26] Defining “culture” and the difference between culture and core values

●      [09:16] Embodying your core values

●      [15:32] Motivating the right person

●      [19:45] Interviewing for core values

●      [24:01] Core competencies versus skills and experience

●      [27:08] How Chris has grown as a leader over the past few years

●      [31:34] Leading a “trust first” environment

●      [33:17] Agreeing on an outcome-related goal

●      [35:35] Chris’s favorite questions to ask employees

●      [38:06] How to differentiate yourself as a recruiter in today’s market

Key quotes:

●      “Polite and consistent persistence is how you build relationships with your customers.”

●      “If you’re a recruiter, you’re a sales professional.”

●      “Our mission statement: We get people better jobs than they had before they met us.”

●      “You can teach skills all day. You can’t teach core values.”

●      “Trust and connection make up the foundation for culture.”

●      “Relationships are cradle-to-grave in our business.”

One thing is for sure - you are going to completely revaluate your relationship with Boolean after hearing this episode!
Gabi is made for podcasts - she's energetic, funny and drops so many value-bombs you are going to wonder why you're not paying to listen to this one!
Listen carefully - this one could be a real game-changer for you in a recruiting world where differentiation is absolutely critical - and Boolean might just be the key! 

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Gabi Preston-Phypers, Co-Founder of Tooled Up Raccoons, a one stop shop of all things Boolean.

A self-proclaimed "Boolean Addict", Gabi shares her point-of-view with her trademark enthusiasm and encourages us to reevaluate our relationship with Boolean!

Listen in as Gabi speaks against overreliance on automation and shortcuts as a recruiter, and that human-to-human connection beats AI any day of the week. She speaks in particular on the limitations of the LinkedIn filter, which does not factor in the creativity of the individual—especially stellar candidates.

Gabi then explains the ease of making use of Boolean over power filters—along the way smashing fears and misconceptions around writing an 8000-word string. She makes the case that, with the right strategy and tools, anyone can become a Boolean expert in as little as a week!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:20] Gabi’s love for Boolean

●      [06:10] The problem with LinkedIn filters

●      [10:14] Other platforms on which you can use Boolean

●      [15:44] Why Boolean is better than power filters

●      [20:45] Thinking like a candidate instead of as a recruiter

●      [25:55] Addressing the main objections against Boolean

●      [29:46] The story behind Tooled Up Raccoons and how to become an expert in Boolean

●      [34:14] How Boolean can lead to more productive intake calls

●      [38:06] Why there are no valid arguments against Boolean

Key quotes:

●      “Boolean has a place and filter has a place. It’s not about using one or the other. It’s about using the functionality you have available at your fingertips.”

●      “People are creative. As soon as you allow them to be creative, they no longer conform to individual buzzwords that live on a job description, which means they no longer fit within the filter criteria that all of these platforms have designed. That means the only way to find them is to cut through that, create some beautiful Boolean strings that accommodate those variations in creativity, and only then will you find those candidates that live below the filter. You’re not going to find them any other way.”

●      “If you’re not using that qualification call to add value to your hunt, you should stop.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Justin Dixon. With 15 years of experience in the recruitment industry, Justin is the Founder and CEO of Hire Tomorrow, which he established at the onset of the pandemic in January 2020.

Listen in as Justin shares how he and his team were able to find success as a new agency while steering the ups and downs of the Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years.

He talks about his timeless, personalized approach to outreach and how he has built a business primarily off of referrals and repeat clients. To Justin, building relationships for the long-term, even if it means little-to-no immediate ROI, literally does pay off.

Finally, Justin gives his thoughts on the looming recession and how, in spite of fears in the market, he is confident that he will be able to keep up the level of success that he has enjoyed in spite of the many hurdles he has faced since establishing Hire Tomorrow.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:38] Starting a recruitment agency right before the pandemic started

●      [11:21] How Justin reaches out to clients

●      [16:16] Building a business via referrals

●      [18:43] Justin’s early mistakes as an agency Founder and CEO

●      [23:39] Justin’s outreach process

●      [27:57] Building relationships with candidates

●      [30:50] Focusing on candidate desires in the conversation

●      [34:00] How Justin uses LinkedIn

●      [36:44] Navigating fears of a looming recession

●      [40:03] Justin’s plans for the business for the remainder of the year

Key quotes:

●      “If you can weather the storm of a pandemic or some type of a recession, it definitely gives your business the ability to pick up steam once the dust settles.”

●      “I believe that any recruiter, given the right requirements and the right target, can find almost any position with a certain level of efficiency.”

●      “I am a firm believer in personalization: I serve and reach out to my network directly.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Jonathan Langley, Executive Vice President & Chief Talent and Technology Officer at NextGen Global Resources, which is a part of KELLY’s SETT (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Telecom) Business Unit.

He’s got over 20 years in tech staffing, and he’s an experienced Recruiting Leader who’s built world-class sales and recruiting teams to serve global wireless and telecoms clients

And when he’s not doing all of that - you’ll find him outside in the garden  - looking after his chickens and ducks!

Listen in as Jonathan discusses the role of technology in the recruiting process. He explains that, while the most successful recruiters are also among the most technologically savvy, they still rely upon the fundamentals.

He discusses why he believes that understanding candidates is paramount to where we go as an industry, and that it is impossible to automate relationship development.

Jonathan encourages recruiters to look beyond LinkedIn profiles that check all the widely accepted boxes, and even beyond LinkedIn Recruiter itself, in order to find amazing candidates that they would not have found otherwise.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:45] The limitations of technology in recruitment

●      [09:14] Standing out by asking the questions that other recruiters don’t

●      [14:38] The best way to utilize technology as a recruiter

●      [20:50] Setting expectations with candidates and educating the hiring manager

●      [24:58] Demonstrating your expertise as a recruiter

●      [27:52] Hiring for attitude, training for skills

●      [32:36] Building a strong relationship with your candidate

●      [35:55] Beyond LinkedIn Recruiter

●      [42:48] Reading between the lines when looking at a LinkedIn profile 

●      [45:07] The dangers of automation for outreach

Key quotes:

●      “There is an element of ‘transactional’ that has come into recruiting; but, if you’re the recruiter that takes a bit more time and understands why someone would want to do something, you’ve got a leg up on your competitors.”

●      “You have to ask the questions that other recruiters don’t want to ask because they might get the answer that they don’t want, which is that they won’t take the position for x or y reason. You should know that before anyone else.”

●      “Technology does help but, ultimately, it’s a people business for people.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Robyn Thornton, Director of Talent Acquisition at SeekOut.

Robyn has over 20 years of TA experience. She was previously the Director of Talent Acquisition at Big Fish Games, and has managed recruiting teams at Nordstrom.

Listen in as Robyn discusses her unique experiences transitioning between in-house and agency roles through her career. She shares her best lessons learned when it comes to building a great company culture, and how to continue doing so in a world where remote work has become more commonplace.

Robyn speaks on the importance of brand recognition in the recruitment world and how to enhance the candidate experience and forge a long-term relationship even when telling candidates that they are not right for the job.

Finally, Robyn talks about SeekOut’s unique platform for sourcing clients outside the LinkedIn ecosystem.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:38] Transitioning from in-house to agency and back again

●      [07:02] The importance of company culture

●      [11:44] Building a culture remotely

●      [18:12] Maximizing candidate experience

●      [24:39] Leaving a great lasting impression even when giving a rejection

●      [29:12] SeekOut’s mission

●      [30:48] Sourcing outside LinkedIn

●      [33:42] Rapid-fire questions

Key quotes:

●      “Company culture is about how you treat people internally. How do you value them? How do you show compassion and empathy, and make sure that people can bring their best selves to work?”

●      “A company that does it right is one which embraces the fact that anyone, regardless of where they are, is part of the same team.”

●      “Candidate experience is everything. It’s king.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Matt Heard, an executive search leader for purpose-driven organizations.

He is the VP of Operations for FireSeeds, a search firm in Birmingham, Alabama. Matt has been with the company for nine years and has worked on over 900 retained searches.

Listen in as Matt talks about the importance of understanding your clients’ culture at a deep level in order to do your best job as a recruiter.

He stresses the importance of being able to communicate your client’s story effectively, no matter their industry. Matt also gives his best advice on explaining to particularly picky clients that the “perfect candidate” does not exist.

Finally, Matt goes through his candidate placement process and why he believes in maintaining relationships with everyone he touches in the process.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:15] What it means to do recruitment for “purpose-driven” organizations

●      [04:56] Putting together a prospect list of companies with a clear mission or purpose

●      [08:55] Finding companies that care about their people

●      [10:42] Getting to the bottom of your clients’ culture

●      [17:07] The benefits of meeting your clients in person

●      [19:38] Communicating your client’s story

●      [23:45] Working with clients in various industries

●      [28:46] Addressing the “perfect candidate” problem

●      [37:23] Matt’s candidate experience process

Key quotes:

●      “We are dealing in communities that need companies that care. We’re looking for the heart behind the business.”

●      “A big part of how we think about search is communicating clients’ stories.”

●      “We have a lot of work to do as a company to make the person who finished second feel like they have finished first.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Adam Gordon, a 20-year veteran of the recruiting industry about how recruitment marketing automation helps recruiters succeed.

He is the Co-Founder of Candidate.ID®, a recruitment marketing automation company. It was launched in January 2017 and was acquired by iCIMS in March 2022.. Adam is also the Founder of Social Media Search, which was acquired by Norman Broadbent in 2012.

Listen in as Adam describes the benefits of recruiting marketing automation and how a company can go about implementing their own system in a few weeks’ time.

He also talks about finding the right balance between automation and the human element, and how the right use of automation tools allows your recruiters to use their time and energy more wisely.

Finally, Adam explains how to prove the ROI of automation and specifically how to sell the idea to agencies.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:43] The current automation landscape

●      [08:05] How recruitment marketing automation takes a more holistic view of the hiring process

●      [11:39] The biggest benefits to recruiters from implementing a recruitment marketing automation solution

●      [16:11] The top-of-the-funnel for recruitment marketing automation

●      [19:24] Where automation ends and human-to-human interactions begin

●      [27:41] Proving the ROI when it comes to automation

●      [32:53] Selling recruitment marketing automation to agencies

●      [35:06] How long it takes to implement recruiting marketing automation

Key quotes:

●      “What marketing automation is about is building workflows which trigger next best actions based on each candidate’s click. The intention here is to be able to serve up the most personalized experiences for each candidate, at scale, on a programmatic basis.”

●      “Fill up the recruiter’s valuable human time with warm leads, and they will be more successful for your business.”

●      “The most sophisticated organizations brought together the talent sourcing group and the recruitment marketing group into one unit.”

This week on RT - Marcus expands on his methodology and reasoning behind making the switch from a Transactional to a Relationship-Driven Recruiting Mindset.
Detailing both the strategy and the tactics required - there is a ton of actionable advice in this episode if you want to spend a lot less time on thankless cold candidate outreach.

• The biggest problem facing Recruiters today
• The need to rise above the expected norms of a recruiter
• Changing the lens through which candidates are viewed
• The missed opportunity for Recruiters
• From one-to-one to a one-to-many approach - building an engaged audience
• Why nobody wants to be “sold to” anymore
• Transforming from the “hopeful recruiter” to the “informed recruiter” and hence from “selling” to “solving”
• The conversation strategy and tactics framework to become a Trusted Advisor after every call

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Tricia Bailey, Director Executive Recruiting at Chime, a high-growth fintech startup in San Francisco.

Tricia has been in the recruiting industry for 20 years. She has held a variety of in-house and search firm roles at established firms which include Heidrick & Struggles, Kaiser Permanente, and Caldwell Partners, before going on to lead Global Head of Executive Search at Twitter.

Listen in as Tricia describes the differences between agency and in-house recruiters and the unique strengths that individuals in either profession need to possess to succeed. She also explains why she believes the contingency model to be flawed and not an ideal long-term path for many in the recruiting industry.

Tricia also speaks on the value of service-oriented leadership, through which every member of the recruiting team is empowered to make their own decisions and step into a variety of sometimes unforeseen tasks when needed, through their own initiative.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:54] From law to recruitment

●      [08:58] Why the contingency model is broken

●      [13:12] From agency to in-house recruitment

●      [19:48] Advice to agency recruiters looking to transition to in-house

●      [23:58] The Chime difference

●      [27:42] Building a successful team of recruiters

●      [34:52] Tricia’s leadership style

●      [43:45] The importance of flexibility among a recruiting team

Key quotes:

●      “I’ve always questioned the logic behind some of the contingency models in that, not only have you not won anything—you’re generally being paid less on a percentage basis than you are at the retained level.”

●      “We do a lot of research on the front end to partner with our hiring leaders to have a very nuanced and realistic sense of what talent is out there and what the role would offer those individuals, so that we can be very targeted in the reach-out we do.”

●      “If you focus on the quality of the work and having a motivated team, the metrics take care of themselves.”

●      “Any recruiter on the team should be able to step in for another person to run an interview debrief.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Tara Kochis, President of Wolf Hill Group, a Slone Partners Company. She is also President of DEI Strategies, which is Wolf Hill’s diversity, equity, and inclusion arm.

Slone Partners and its companies have been virtual for 22 years, allowing them to grow to 96 people strong across the country, and they specialize in life sciences, healthcare, and cybersecurity companies who are growing rapidly.

Listen in as Tara discusses how Slone brings its core values to life through the empowerment of the team that makes up the company. She explains why feeling a real connection to one’s work is the best way to make a difference in both the organization and the people they serve.

Going further, Tara talks about the importance of building a strong relationship with the candidate to the point where you as the recruiter are able to tell their story with the same level of passion as themselves. In other words, Slone’s goal is to understand their clients’ mission, vision, and culture and be a true extension of them in the marketplace.

Finally, Tara speaks on the keys to leading teams of recruiters virtually, as well as her best advice on thriving in a down market.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:32] An introduction to Wolf Hill Group and Slone Partners

●      [03:27] Tara and Slone’s mission since she joined the company in 2004

●      [08:08] The goal of every Slone recruiter

●      [19:03] Three questions to answer when working with any candidate

●      [22:20] Interview best practices

●      [26:38] Leading a team of recruiters virtually

●      [32:22] Getting into work mode when working from home

●      [36:52] Adapting to a down market

●      [40:36] Promoting and implementing DEI

Key quotes:

●      “We are intentional about Slone’s culture, and I think the cornerstone of that is our core values. Those are quality, ownership, passion, respect, trust and diversity.”

●      “Our purpose—our why—is to make a difference: to one another, to our client partners, and our candidates by providing that amazing experience.”

●      “Our goal is to understand our clients’ mission, vision, and culture and be a true extension of them in the marketplace—to be able to tell their story with the same passion they would tell it with.”

●      “In a down market, we’ve learned that connecting with our audience—being valuable outside of a search—increases our opportunity to get another search or the first search.”

This week, Marcus answers a question from recruiter/listener Leo Pulcher - 
"What's the most essential thing that most recruiters should do to help their clients but aren't?"
It's a short mid-summer episode  - some cracking advice though on how to set yourself and you client up for success on your recruiting journey.

In this very special episode of Recruiting Trailblazers - Marcus chats with Eryn McHugh and plays 5 of her fabulous songs! 
We talk about moving from agency to internal, what she misses, what it takes, candidate experience - and how she is tackling build a Recruiting Engine from scratch at Thunder.

Here's a link to Eryn's Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6p3YnAsixFvxOBkfRP5DzJ?si=c0qDWxY1Q62bWZN5Hjdcog

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Ashley Pereira, a branding and marketing consultant who specializes in recruiting. She helps brands and individuals establish their identity, figure out their market, and develop big-picture strategies to help them reach their goals.

Ashley is also the founder of Free Skin Co, which sells a range of organic vegan and U.S.-made skincare products. The company donates 5% of all purchases to bettering the mental health of those affected by child abuse, trauma, and PTSD.

Listen in as Ashley discusses the building blocks and first steps that aspiring recruiters should keep in mind when starting their branding and content marketing journey.

She emphasizes the importance of publishing value-driven content aimed at a specific audience, and reveals the keys to creating meaningful and engaging posts on LinkedIn.

Finally, Ashley speaks on overcoming the fear of putting yourself out there on social media, and offers practical baby steps to starting your personal branding journey today.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:25] Why recruiters need to build their personal brand for success

●      [07:34] Overcoming fear of getting started in publishing content

●      [09:17] The importance of developing your communication skills

●      [10:49] Defining your “why” and target audience

●      [15:22] Establishing a value-driven brand on social media

●      [17:29] Building your network

●      [22:52] Creating a meaningful and engaging post

●      [25:14] Two approaches to content creation and scheduling

●      [27:15] Optimizing your profile

●      [28:34] Maximizing the very first line of your LinkedIn message

●      [30:27] The elements of a viral post

●      [32:33] What counts as “engagement”

●      [34:35] Starting today

●      [37:11] Avoiding the comparison trap on your content creation journey

Key quotes:

●      “One of the greatest skills that recruiters need is communication.”

●      “The more you can pinpoint and be focused on the individual you’re trying to help, the easier it will be to create the content you need.”

●      “Branding is all about allowing the audience to go through an emotional decision-making process through resonating with the content.”

●      “Engagement doesn’t always mean likes or reach or impressions or comments. My end goal whenever I post anything is to have a real conversation, whether it’s with one person in the comments, in my DMs, on a Zoom call, or over the phone.”

Marcus chats with Michael Boitnott about brand building online and how important it is to take a one-to-many approach in order to exponentially increase your relationship-building cadence.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Brent Orsuga, the top-rated logistics and supply chain recruiter, seven-figure entrepreneur, and founder of the award-winning advisory firm Pinnacle Growth Advisors.

Listen in as Brent discusses the art of reverse-engineering success as you define it. He talks about the importance of seeing your role as that of being a “talent advisor” or “subject matter expert”—beyond being simply a “recruiter”—in order to be seen as a valued partner in your candidates’ eyes.

Brent explains how to become known as the go-to expert on your space by homing in on a specific niche, and how he was able (and continues) to build his well-known brand as a recruiter without actually ever posting new jobs.

Finally, Brent talks about using “shoot-from-the-hip” video content creation as a business development tool, why he prefers contingent over retained search, and how he has been able to achieve massive success by seeing recruitment as a “high-touch, high-contact sport”.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:11] The benefits of doing a self-assessment at halfway through the year

●      [05:43] How to be seen as a partner to candidates, as opposed to a vendor

●      [07:25] The mindset that recruiters should adopt to thrive in today’s market

●      [19:14] Defining “retained recruitment”

●      [10:25] Company culture versus company identity

●      [15:47] The importance of staying true to your niche

●      [18:28] Building your brand via content creation

●      [23:16] How Brent invests in himself

●      [26:14] Why Brent only does contingency recruiting

●      [28:58] Contingency versus retained search

●      [31:46] Differentiating yourself as a recruiter

●      [33:40] Standardizing every message

●      [35:50] Why be transparent about compensation upfront

●      [38:08] How to be a successful recruiter today

Key quotes:

●      “As a recruiter, you’re either going to be viewed as a partner or a vendor.”

●      “Confidence comes from competence.”

●      “Culture is something you have to see and feel and almost hear yourself. You cannot show me a YouTube video or a static website and tell me about your culture.”

●      “The ultimate sign of respect is when people give you their time—especially at their house or their office.”

●      “You have to give value. LinkedIn and content cannot be self-serving.”

●      “The reason people get emotional about recruiting is because they simply don’t have enough cooking. I tell our team: ‘You want to have ten people in process at all times.’”

●      “Sales and recruiting are nothing more than exchanges of energy.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Louise Archer, Founder of Retrained Search.

She has worked on the front line of recruitment for 20 years, having been a contingent recruiter before transitioning to retained. Her mission is to help recruiters transition to retained and secure more forecastable revenue.

Listen in as Louise shares what she believes to be the three main problems with contingency recruitment and how this model differs from that of retained search. She describes the mindset and skillset needed to fulfill the consultative role of the retained recruiter successfully.

Finally, Louise breaks down her company’s training program, which was created to help contingent recruiters cross the bridge to the world of retained search, just as she herself has done.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:01] Defining “contingency recruitment” and why it is a broken model

●      [10:29] Why contingency recruitment results in no commitment from the client nor the agency

●      [13:42] Advantages of contingency recruitment for certain types of candidates

●      [19:14] Defining “retained recruitment”

●      [23:12] The benefits of retained search

●      [31:06] The downsides of retained search

●      [33:21] Setting expectations with candidates as a retained recruiter

●      [37:48] Forging a consultative relationship with candidates

●      [40:37] Louise’s course to help recruiters transition to retained search

Key quotes:

●      “The recruiters which I find are well-suited to the contingent model are those who don’t like commitment, don’t like to be held accountable, and when things get tough they want to bail.”

●      “It’s good to remind ourselves, when we’re working on a contingent basis, that they haven’t bought anything. What they’ve actually done is allow you to send CVs for free.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Steven Rothberg, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer at College Recruiter. As of now, the website has tens of thousands of employers advertising about 2 million jobs, and they are on pace to help almost 7 million candidates find new jobs this year.

A self-proclaimed “fully recovered lawyer”, Steven has received numerous accolades which include being named by Mashable as one of the 20 top people for job seekers to follow on Twitter, and by Fast Company magazine as a "Top 50 online influencer".

Steven is also the co-host of the Job Board Geek Podcast.

Listen in as Steven speaks on social media content creation as a form of community-building, finding organic connections on LinkedIn, the importance of disclosing compensation upfront, and the art and craft of job advertising.

He also discusses the inspiration behind his fundraiser, Medical and other humanitarian aid for Ukrainians, which you can donate to on GoFundMe at https://www.gofundme.com/f/medical-and-other-humanitarian-aid-for-ukrainians.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [01:45] Steven’s philosophy on content creation
• [05:41] Providing content to drive community
• [07:03] Finding connections on LinkedIn
• [13:21] How College Recruiter’s approach differs from that of most other third-party recruitment firms
• [19:32] Why disclose compensation upfront
• [23:59] Whether recruiters should advertise jobs
• [29:14] Job ad writing as an art
• [33:14] The technicalities of job advertising
• [39:03] Steven’s fundraiser, “Medical and other humanitarian aid for Ukrainians”

Key quotes:

• “[Social media] is not about touching the most number of people if what you’re doing is annoying them. What it’s really about is trying to add value to that moment.”
• “It’s not that hard to hire people. It’s not that hard to hire good people.”
• “Advertising is really great when going after candidates who are low-hanging fruit.”
• “Job ad writing is an art. I bet 95% of job posting ads out there are largely copy-and-paste.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Andrew Lewis, Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition for Higg, a sustainability insights platform for consumer goods industries.

Andrew describes himself as a “strategic thinker”, an innovator, a leader, and a teacher, who sees life through an entrepreneurial lens.

Listen in as Andrew shares why the best recruiters challenge norms and think out of the box and how to fight outdated yet ever-present practices in the recruitment industry.

He also describes his personal brand strategy on LinkedIn and how to find your own voice in order to differentiate yourself on the platform.

Andrew addresses the continuing need for greater emphasis on relationship-building in the industry and why the biggest opportunity in modern recruiting is simply honest communication.

Finally, Andrew explains how to grab a candidate’s attention beyond the job description and why automation can never replace personal touch in the candidate experience.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:30] The mindset of the most successful recruiters

●      [05:41] Providing content to drive community

●      [08:15] Explaining the ROI of content creation to hiring managers

●      [12:26] Workforce planning best practices

●      [15:56] Fighting outdated practices in recruiting

●      [18:49] Building a brand on LinkedIn

●      [27:03] Skills that are important to master as a recruiter

●      [30:59] The value of building relationships

●      [35:55] Why regularly touch base with candidates in your pipeline

●      [41:47] Captivating candidates’ attention beyond the job description

●      [44:10] Why not to automate the candidate experience

Key quotes:

●      “Content and community are two outliers that are going to come to the forefront for recruiting in the next few years.”

●      “Hiring really starts 6-to-12 months before you actually start recruiting for a role.”

●      “In recruiting, we’re always fighting against outdated practices.”

●      “Recruiters, in this day and age, have to look at becoming great marketers.”

●      “Recruiters have this opportunity to capture people via storytelling especially if they have a strong mission.”

●      “We can’t automate relationships.”

This week Marcus opines on the winning mindset for Recruiters in 2022. Relationship development, building referral networks, handling rejection, and achieving a flow state are all addressed.

Episode 100! Marcus Edwardes speaks with Simon Mullins, Chief Facilitator at Executive Search Information Exchange (ESIX), the world’s leading independent information source for corporate executive recruiting leaders.

Simon has managed executive search from the outside at Korn/Ferry, and from the inside at Microsoft, where he led one of the most advanced internal executive recruiting functions as well as its largest experienced Staffing Group.

He recently published a book on strategy, tactics, and tools for hiring organizations called Leadership Recruiting with co-author David Lord.

Listen in as David shares his best practices for establishing a foolproof internal recruiting function and streamlining your process in order to get your team on the same page.

He gives his take on minimizing subjectivity during the interview process and how best to go about painting the most vivid picture of your candidate by going beyond the actual interview—focusing the conversation on reference checks in particular.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:12] The case for managing search activity

●      [09:21] How the internal recruiting landscape looks today

●      [12:32] What to expect as a member of ESIX

●      [19:16] Culture differences between internal and external recruiting

●      [24:05] What to avoid when building an internal function

●      [27:40] Standardizing your internal recruiting function

●      [30:24] Reducing subjectivity during the interview process

●      [35:14] Beyond the interview

●      [37:14] Considerations regarding reference checks

●      [47:25] About the recruiter’s bizarre love triangle

●      [50:09] How a recruiter can position themselves as a trusted advisor

Key quotes:

●      “Across the board, recruiting functions are now being built everywhere in the world.”

●      “A lot of senior leaders are now looking at talent as a key, critical business challenge. [...] Without the lifeblood, the organization cannot move forward.”

●      “It’s not just about recruiting quickly. It’s about thinking about the bigger and broader picture. It’s about having all sorts of different leadership perspectives when we’re having these conversations.”



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In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Nate Guggia, Co-Founder of Before You Apply, a content platform and creative studio that specializes in helping companies give candidates an insider’s look into their teams and culture.

Recruiters who utilize the platform are experiencing up to 3X in responses from outreach to prospective candidates.

Before You Apply has special expertise in creating content for highly technical audiences in extremely competitive markets that helps companies and talent teams hire fast.

Listen in as Nate discusses why he dislikes the idea behind Employer Value Propositions and why he feels marketing your culture externally is largely a waste of time. He then explains why it pays in the long term to focus on consumer marketing instead.

Nate shares how Before You Apply distances itself from the traditional corporate approach to branding. He reveals his favorite tough questions to ask company leaders he consults with in order to unearth their unique story, and why it’s essential for recruiters to produce and distribute content.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:20] The traditional approach to employer branding

●      [06:32] The inherent problems with this traditional approach

●      [09:28] How culture attracts people to companies

●      [13:50] Consumer marketing best practices

●      [19:45] Why employer branding does not work for recruiters

●      [22:18] What Before You Apply does differently

●      [27:53] Why it’s not Nate’s job to make companies look good (and what he does instead)

●      [31:47] The ROI of the content produced by Before You Apply

●      [37:29] Why recruiters need to produce and distribute content

●      [45:22] How to create content that resonates and invites conversation

Key quotes:

●      “I don’t think culture attracts. I think culture closes.”

●      “Content and the distribution of information is everything. It’s just a matter of what that information is and where you put it, because you want to create as close to a consumer buying experience as you possibly can.”

●      “When it comes to employer branding, companies like to share the information that they think is important. They’re not separating themselves and going, ‘What is important to the audience that I’m trying to market to?’”

●      “Our job is to help companies tell the right story, and by telling the right story, they will inevitably look better than other companies who don’t do so.”

Connect with Nate Guggia: 

o   Website: https://www.nateislearning.com/

o   Twitter: https://twitter.com/nateguggia

o   LinkedIn: https://twitter.com/nateguggia 

Connect with Marcus Edwardes

o   LinkedIn

o   https://recruitingtrailblazers.com/

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Adrienne Dinkelacker, Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Atlas Group, a boutique tech recruitment firm that she runs with her sister Loreen.

Adrienne has over 15 years of recruitment experience, working in agency and in-house. When she’s not at her desk, she’s dancing the night away—preferably salsa or kizomba!

Listen in as Adrienne discusses what it means to “sell without selling”. That is, she stresses the importance of nurturing strong relationships with clients and candidates, thinking long-term as opposed to keeping a transactional, short-term mindset.

Adrienne also invites recruiters to focus on ensuring that the candidate is a “culture add” over simply being a “culture fit”. She says that the greats in the industry make it a point to turn the interview into a conversation, and are masters at tapping into the power of storytelling and other behavioral interviewing techniques when communicating with candidates.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:21] About The Atlas Group

●      [05:43] The importance of building relationships with clients/candidates

●      [07:22] The Atlas Group as a niche player in the market

●      [10:40] Adrienne’s early business mistakes

●      [14:25] How leaders can build resilience in their team

●      [18:51] The Atlas Group’s go-to tech stack

●      [20:22] Adrienne’s candidate philosophy

●      [24:20] Common mistakes recruiters make when conducting interviews

●      [30:34] Powerful behavioral interviewing techniques

●      [35:11] How to answer: “What’s your biggest weakness?”

●      [38:28] How to answer: “Why do you want to work here?”

Key quotes:

●      “The relationships that we build, whether they’re clients or candidates, are so important. You never know what opportunities will come from them.”

●      “I’m not selling anything as a recruiter. I’m just facilitating.”

●      “If you have an arsenal of stories during the interview process, it helps so much.”

●      “The interview is a process of people connecting with each other. It’s not one above the other because, at the end of the day, we’re seeing if this is a good fit for both parties.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Ginnette Harvey, Founder and CEO of Harper & Gray, a talent solutions company that focuses on Executive Search with a focus on leadership and specialist roles within the STEM space.

In 2020, Ginnette was named by Staffing Industry Analysts as one of the Top 100 influential leaders in staffing. She led one of the largest Life Science recruitment companies in North America, Real Staffing, and sat on the board at Sthree.

Listen in as Ginnette discusses how the demands of recruitment companies and recruiters themselves have changed over the past two years and the mindset that executive recruiters should adopt in order to thrive in today’s market.

She explains why she is adamantly against metrics-driven, ROI-focused strategies, instead swearing by the long-term value of building a strong friendship with candidates, characterized by value-focused conversations.

Ginnette also shares how to empower your team to power through disappointment and setbacks, particularly by “depersonalizing rejection” and setting expectations right at the beginning with new recruiters.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [03:14] The mindset that executive recruiters need to succeed in today’s industry
• [05:50] How to build a productive relationship with a candidate
• [09:21] Why it is important to become a friend to candidates
• [12:21] Why activity metrics are dangerous
• [19:40] Finding the right balance between structure and spontaneity
• [23:01] Creating psychological safety for your staff
• [26:43] Dealing with disappointment and rejection
• [30:36] Building resilience in your new staff
• [36:18] Setting expectations as a recruiter
• [39:47] Ginnete’s best advice on personal branding

Key quotes:

• “Build relationships and authentically care”
• “It is really important, considering our jobs as leaders, to set people up for success and then allow them to flourish—to empower them and grow as they gain tenure, seniority, and their own relationships in the industry.”
• “People are not rejecting you. They’re rejecting the service that you’re offering.”
• “Building communities is about providing value. [...] You don’t build a personal or professional brand with the intention of walking away with something at the end of each day.”
• “If you don’t embrace the ideas of community building and social selling, you’ll be left behind.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Scott MacGregor, Founder and CEO of SomethingNew LLC and Talent Champions Council. He is the four-time author of the Standing O! series of books, and a record seven-time winner of the American Business Award for Innovation.

Listen in as Scott explains why the best recruiters seek to find alignment between client and candidate and why he sees those in talent acquisition as consultants rather than as salespeople. He also shares why he tends to shun metrics and quotas and focuses instead on allowing recruiters to set their own goals.

Scott then discusses why talent strategy is the number one thing that any leader needs to focus on. He lays out the common misconceptions around creating a great company culture, cautioning businesses to avoid relying solely on what he calls “cultural Febreze”.

He reiterates that putting metrics front and center of any strategy is not going to lead to optimal results in the long run. Instead, the quality of the people—employees, clients, and candidates—needs the most attention if any company wants to thrive.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:26] Why Scott named his agency “SomethingNew”

●      [03:47] The mindset that recruiters need to succeed in today’s industry

●      [09:42] Helping recruiters achieve their goals

●      [13:03] How the pandemic has forced companies to change their approach to evaluating employees

●      [17:27] Why culture is often misunderstood and how to create a great one

●      [22:34] Creating advocates instead of adversaries

●      [29:12] Three questions to ask if profitability is an issue

●      [31:40] Having a strong brand as an insurance policy

●      [34:59] Focusing on the end result rather than KPIs

●      [38:26] Why SomethingNew does everything differently

●      [44:47] About the Talent Champions Council

Key quotes:

●      “We seek one thing and one thing alone: alignment. It’s not rocket science: We’re looking for alignment between what our client wants and what our candidate wants.”

●      “I don’t care how many emails they send out. I don’t care how many phone calls they make. I don’t care how many candidates they interview. I care about the candidate experience and the client experience being exceptional.”

●      “The number one predictor of success or failure for any company is the teams they build. Talent strategy always was and always will be the number one thing that any leader should be focused on.”

●      “Every day, you have an opportunity to either create advocates or adversaries.”

●      “The end result is twofold: Are candidates having a phenomenal candidate experience, and is our customer having a phenomenal customer experience? If the answer is ‘yes’, we’ve won.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with David “Daredevil” AuClair, a Senior Acquisition Specialist at CohnReznick. He started his career at Robert Half.

Listen in as David discusses the value of “upstream thinking” for any recruiter looking for an effective way to solve recurring issues that come with the role. Additionally, he speaks on rejection and failure, saying that it pays to own your mistakes in order to extract the lessons you need to move forward.

David also gives his best outreach practices, which include making use of the 60-second audio message feature offered by LinkedIn. At the core of his various strategies is a firm determination to stay authentic with every message and piece of content you put out there.

He preaches getting to know candidates and helping them figure out what they want to do with their lives. This, says David, is a powerful way to build relationships (and potentially bring in referrals) in the long run.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:19] Why “Daredevil”?: The role of courage in recruitment

●      [08:03] Personalizing 80% of your messages to candidates

●      [10:17] All about the reticular activating system

●      [14:02] How recruiters can deal with rejection and failure

●      [18:49] Life as a recruiter in a startup versus a larger firm

●      [24:05] Winning outreach practices

●      [29:48] Adapting to a tougher market as a recruiter

●      [33:00] Distinguishing yourself with candidates

●      [36:33] The importance of personal branding for recruiters

●      [40:42] Why utilize audio messages on LinkedIn

Key quotes:

●      “I like to think that, at this point in my life, fear is no longer the thing in the seat of the car driving all of my decisions.”

●      “The solution that I found in the last six months has been consistency, staying organized, and reaching out to these candidates in every way possible.”

●      “There’s something to be said for someone seeing your posts on LinkedIn. It gives you credibility.”

●      “When LinkedIn allowed you to send 60-second audio messages, that’s how I’ve been getting some of my greatest successes.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Ashley Pereira, Director of Marketing for the two recruitment firms Protis Global and ace Talent Curators.

Listen in as Ashley discusses the importance of establishing yourself as a subject matter expert and why you don’t have to be an extrovert to build a successful personal brand. She explains why authenticity, consistency in messaging across all platforms, and a willingness to be “controversial” are all keys to a strong online presence.

Ashley also preaches “writing like you speak and keeping it simple”, being unafraid to experiment with different categories of content, and keeping your posts value-driven at least 90% of the time before going for the ask.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:01] Why recruiters need to work on developing their personal brand

●      [06:16] Preparing for the market of the future

●      [07:50] Why you should not be afraid of “controversy”

●      [11:42] The first question to ask when defining your personal brand

●      [16:15] Optimizing your LinkedIn profile

●      [18:59] Being intentional about building your personal brand

●      [22:17] Writing like you speak and keeping it simple

●      [26:05] Getting over the hump and finally starting your branding journey

●      [30:27] Categories of content to focus on

●      [33:00] Whether or not to “stay in your lane”

●      [37:34] How to go viral on LinkedIn

●      [39:38] Tools and other tips to support your brand-building efforts

Key quotes:

●      “Regardless of who you’re working for, your personal brand will be there forever.”

●      “Homing in on the why behind any conversation or any movement that someone is trying to do is the first step to setting up any type of strategy.”

●      “Stop talking at people and start having conversations with people. Provide solutions on how they’re going to get the outcomes that they want, instead of telling them how great you are or why they need to change or all the bad things that you might have opinions about. It’s really about helping others.”

●      “The point is to be a solution provider and to help as many people as you can. If you’re asking, how are you helping?”

●      “When you get really personal, you attract people to open up to you and to listen to you.”

●      “Anyone who tells you they have rules and tips and tricks to go viral is a complete fraud.”

Marcus describes how he generated over 200,000 views from a single post - plus the importance of quality content - and the reason why this particular post resonated so loudly in the Recruiter community.
Here's the post - Quality Before KPIs

Marcus speaks with Jason Liu - who is currently recruiting at Apple, about a spectrum of topics from "Recruiters as entertainers", content creation, sourcing and outreach.
Show notes to follow.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Michael Boitnott. A relative newcomer to the recruitment industry, Michael is currently a G&A recruiter at Credit Karma and RPO recruiter at Bali Staffing.

Listen in as Michael talks about the lessons learned after a year into his current role and how he posts content that demonstrates a level of credibility and leadership that demonstrates wisdom and experience beyond his years.

In other words, Michael shares his best tips and tricks for being seen as an authority in the recruitment world regardless of how long one has been in the industry.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [04:26] Connecting with individuals in a noisy digital environment

●      [06:43] Why that first conversation is so vital

●      [10:00] Focusing on the candidate’s needs over your own

●      [15:56] AB testing in recruitment

●      [18:59] The value of slowing down the recruitment process

●      [20:46] Michael’s go-to tools

●      [24:48] Content development best practices

●      [28:12] Michael’s favorite content creators

●      [29:29] Michael’s highest-performing posts

●      [31:32] The importance of commenting on other people’s posts

●      [33:99] Hiring for attitude and training for skills

●      [34:55] Why summarizing an article is better than just sharing it

●      [36:18] Creating content that resonates

Key quotes:

●      “I try to get down to the core of why that person would want to come to this role. It’s more than just the benefits or the salary or whether the company is growing. It’s more about what [the person] would be attracted to.

●      “If you want to be a successful content creator, at least in the beginning, you have to drop the idea of, ‘What am I going to get from this?’ Those lead to less authentic posts.”

This week, Marcus Edwardes discusses his mindset and methodology around metrics and KPIs.
Instead of mandating KPIs - he describes how to achieve total buy-in from an activity standpoint - by helping recruiters set their very own, meaningful activity targets - that reconcile accurately with their quarterly revenue goals.
 
If you like what you hear - and you are interested in implementing this methodology - reach out to Marcus on LinkedIn to set up an intro call.

In this episode -  Marcus Edwardes shares his own conversational framework for having the first conversation with a candidate or prospect - using the acronym REACT to define the steps you need to take to prioritize relationship over role.
REACT is: Rapport, Explore, Acknowledge, Confirm, That's Right.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Zack Gallinger, President at Talent Hero, a recruitment marketing agency. He helps recruiters with strategies that help them find new clients and new candidates without cold calling, attending networking events, or simply sitting around and waiting for a word-of-mouth referral.

Listen in as Zack discusses how the ability to scale has completely transformed the recruitment industry, and how a smaller agency can stand above this incredibly noisy market by becoming a subject matter expert.

Zack discusses the importance of being a well-branded recruiter, and shares some tips on speaking your audience’s language, getting to know the persona you are communicating to, and improving the quality of your recruiter website.

He then dives into his best practices for creating an effective SEO strategy and finding the right balance between personalization and automation when employing an email marketing strategy.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:42] How recruiting has changed from a marketing perspective

●      [05:12] Questions to ask before creating a digital marketing strategy

●      [08:30] Opportunities for well-branded recruiters

●      [13:45] The main problem with most recruiter websites

●      [16:16] The point of inbound websites

●      [21:16] Where to publish content other than your website

●      [22:41] Best practices when writing LinkedIn articles

●      [25:51] Typical results to expect from having a SEO strategy

●      [30:42] Who benefits from Talent Hero’s SEO strategies

●      [32:17] Using email marketing to drive candidate and client traffic to your business

●      [38:19] Outreach messaging tips

●      [41:35] Recommended SEO research and email outreach tools

Key quotes:

●      “The opportunities for a well-branded recruiter are actually quite significant, and the reason is that most players in the recruiting industry are not thinking about brand, even at a basic level. So, simply by doing the bare minimum, you’re often outcompeting.”

●      “In 2022, we’ve all seen thousands of websites in our lives. We have an ability to look at a website for one second and make a decision as to, ‘Is this a professional company, or is this amateur hour?’”

●      “The more you personalize, the fewer emails you can send out.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Kelli Schutrop, VP of Sales at Parqa Digital Marketing Agency, where she helps staffing industry clients optimize and scale their organizations by implementing world-class marketing, technology, and automation strategies.

Listen in as Kelli discusses how Parqa works with staffing and recruiting agency leaders in growing their businesses by increasing brand credibility, online visibility, and lead generation.

Probably the most important step that these leaders can take is that of promoting transparency and collaboration within their organizations. In this new digital transformation area, a company cannot separate specialists into silos. While it still greatly helps to have distinct experts in different areas, there also needs to be oversight that leads to greater efficiency.

Kelli also explains how, through automation and branding, a firm can stand out and build a more authentic relationship and experience with clients, as well as how metrics-driven recruiters can cross the bridge to become a marketing-driven recruiter.

Among the strategies she recommends is creating a visual representation of the application process using a journey workflow. Through a strong personal brand combined with the use of the right automation tools, recruiters can easily make twice as many placements in half the time.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:44] Executive search versus staffing common practices today

●      [02:37] How Parqa frames is value proposition with new clients

●      [05:27] Educating metrics-driven staffing professionals to take a longer-term view

●      [08:42] Why revisit your tech stack

●      [10:02] Communicating the most desirable outcome to staffing firms

●      [11:48] Common objections by medium-to-large staffing firms

●      [14:00] Improving brand credibility and visibility

●      [16:55] Putting together a content strategy

●      [20:20] Making sure your marketing and technology strategy aligns

●      [22:35] What it really means to know your target audience

●      [26:29] Building a personal brand as a recruiter

●      [30:57] Elevating the candidate experience using marketing automation

●      [45:04] The limits of automation

●      [48:07] How smaller firms and independent recruiters can embrace automation tools

●      [50:32] What recruiters can look forward to beyond 2022

Key quotes:

●      “We move from strategy all the way through the implementation, because when you jump straight to implementation, you have a lot of good activities in the market, but they may not ultimately lead to what you’re trying to accomplish.”

●      “It’s not having technology that makes you stand out anymore. It’s having a cohesive experience that gives everybody a high-touch approach while creating better efficiencies for the staffing firm.”

●      “Everybody can look nice online, but if you sound like a generic robot, you’re not going to stand out.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Vanessa Raath, a global sourcing trainer and international keynote speaker based in South Africa.

Listen in as Vanessa explains how sourcers may navigate today’s incredibly noisy market and some of the most common issues that outbound recruiters, specifically, are now facing.

Vanessa also gives her tips on becoming the go-to recruiter in today’s  candidate-driven market. She speaks on the unique challenges that agency recruiters face and why it’s so much more imperative that these professionals focus on the relationships they build with clients.

She discusses why sourcers today need to stand out and how to best build a personal brand that gives them that credibility they need to earn clients’ attention from the get-go and, later, trust. Equally important is the ability to tailor your messaging to the individuals you reach out to give that personal touch that is sorely lacking today.

Finally, Vanessa talks about the long-term benefits of nurturing relationships early and how every organization needs a Community Manager.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:42] Regional differences in how Vanessa trains clients

●      [05:04] Navigating an incredibly noisy market

●      [07:11] Common problems that outbound recruiters are facing

●      [11:18] Strengthening the relationship between agency and client

●      [13:36] Why solely using LinkedIn Recruiter severely limits reach

●      [16:14] Vanessa’s definition of a “sourcer”

●      [17:15] The key skills Vanessa is equipping her students

●      [22:51] Platforms that Vanessa recommends outside of LinkedIn Recruiter

●      [27:41] Email outreach best practices

●      [30:10] Why it pays to nurture relationships early

●      [32:58] Whether or not it helps to automate relationships

Key quotes:

●      “The recruiters that are going to be really successful in this market are the ones who build outstanding relationships with their candidates.”

●      “As a sourcer, you need to realize that you’ve got the whole internet at your fingertips.”

●      “A good sourcer of talent needs to start developing a good online brand, online kudos, and credibility. And the reason for that is, when you reach out to candidates, you need to look like someone who knows what they’re talking about, because you’re going to be cross-referenced.”

●      “The more that you are active on social media and the more you have a presence, the more people are going to be approaching you. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s hard work sourcing from scratch all the time.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Sam Brenner, Founder and CEO of CRB Workforce, a recruitment agency headquartered in L.A.

Listen in as Sam looks back on his decision to start his own business three years prior, and gives his encouragement and advice to those looking to start their own agencies. One of the main factors that drove him was his own mission, which is simply to change the industry.

As opposed to those agencies that prioritize KPIs and raw numbers above all else, Sam wants CRB Workforce to put the client and the candidate first in everything they do. In other words, they seek to be an agency that is “high-touch, low-volume.”

He goes on to discuss the attributes that differentiate CRB, their go-to outreach and measuring tools, and what drives their people at a cultural level.

Sam lists autonomy, collaboration, entrepreneurship, attitude, and effort as the traits he looks for in every new hire, and he makes sure to empower employees to become leaders in their own right—to make many of their own important decisions in their day-to-day work.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:00] Why Sam decided to start his own recruitment agency

●      [04:30] How Sam differentiated himself in the marketplace

●      [07:26] Which type of client is considered a good match for CRB Workforce

●      [13:59] Why CRB focuses on the long-term

●      [17:14] CRB’s go-to tools

●      [22:31] Nurturing CRB’s culture

●      [28:00] Hiring for attitude, training for skills

●      [30:56] Leadership in a work-from-home culture

●      [34:15] Finding the right employees

●      [38:01] How Sam measures employee productivity

●      [43:32] What keeps Sam up at night regarding this business

Key quotes:

●      “When we look at clients, it’s all about the match. Are they a good match for us? Do they fit into our process? Do we fit into their process? When we’re talking to candidates, it’s all about the match: ‘What are you looking for?’ ‘What’s the right job?’ We rarely, if ever, sell a candidate on the role. The role ends up selling itself because it’s a good match.”

●      “We’re high-touch, low-volume.”

●      “What’s keeping me up at night is growth. We’re at an inflection point where we’re ready to go to the next step. I think we’ve been playing in the gig leagues and we’re wearing Little League uniforms. We’ve been hustling.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Bert Miller, Chairman of Protis Global and ace Talent Curators, and President and CEO of MRINetwork, a network-centric recruitment organization that offers consulting, training, contract staffing, and community building to over 325 search firms worldwide.

Bert is an active speaker, mentor, advisor, and investor. He hosts the MRINetwork Podcast and his new video podcast series, Beyond the Bottom Line, on which he interviews CEOs and leaders from across categories on issues impacting the World of Work.

Listen in as Bert discusses the many lessons and paradigm shifts that came his way over the last two years. He speaks on making use of MRINetwork’s personal, professional, financial scorecard and how to “stack credibility blocks” in order to become a trusted advisor to candidates.

Bert also makes the point that it is not a choice between old-school phone calls and using digital tools. Rather, the best in the business understand the value of incorporating both into your recruitment toolkit. Additionally, building a brand and creating multiple touch points is a must for long-term success in this industry.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [04:03] The mindset of a successful recruiter

●      [08:19] Becoming a trusted advisor to your candidates

●      [13:04] Applying personal, professional, financial scorecard across the entire MRINetwork

●      [15:23] Taking advantage of today’s digital tools and platforms

●      [21:10] Outreach best practices

●      [22:55] Recruitment agencies vs internal recruiters

●      [24:14] Driving goodwill to every candidate you speak to, including those who do not get the role

●      [31:56] What’s working for recruitment agencies in the candidate-driven market of the 2020s

●      [37:24] Adjusting to today’s reality of the need to build a brand and creating multiple touchpoints

●      [44:10] How Bert’s leadership has evolved

●      [48:37] Why join MRINetwork?

Key quotes:

●      “The one thing that I think is really interesting around the mindset of a recruiter today versus 10, 15 years ago—we have to keep in mind that the power has really shifted in the industry tremendously: The power has shifted to the individual; less so about the companies.”

●      “The opportunity that recruiters have today is these digital tools. They have the ability to create videos and write copy on LinkedIn—one of the best educational platforms for what we do for information, education, aspiration, and inspiration. They start to build a voice in this space.”

●      “Every engagement and everybody you talk to is a different experience. Every individual has their own tolerance for how quickly they want to engage or get to know somebody or how they build the relationship. You have to really gauge that.”

●      “In the last two-and-a-half years I have never seen anything more unique—and I’ve been in MRINetwork now for 27 years—than the power of the community. It’s always existed. I’ve just never realized the power of it.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Jesse Tinsley, a serial entrepreneur who got his start in tech at the age of 15. In 2012, he dropped out of college to found Job Mobz to provide on-demand recruiting for technology companies.

He is a regular contributor to Forbes and SourceCon, and he hosts The People Podcast, where he interviews HR, recruiting leaders, and tech founders on the latest trends.

Listen in as Jesse discusses Job Mobz’ Recruitment as a Service (RaaS) business model, the approach his team takes towards recruitment as opposed to that of traditional agency or internal teams, and why the company ultimately abides by the ethos: The outcome is what matters, not the path we took to get there.

Jesse talks about the fundamental importance of building a brand that naturally attracts ideal clients, which he believes trumps any sort of outreach campaign. He says that the key to cultivating a powerful brand is to consistently create authentic, engaging, informative content.

Finally, Jesse reacts to a few of his most provocative social media posts.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:52] About Job Mobz’ Recruitment as a Service (RaaS) business model

●      [06:45] Training from the ground-up

●      [10:53] Common areas noticed by Jesse in which clients can improve upon

●      [13:38] The power of building a brand

●      [16:46] Jesse’s content strategy and how to “make time” for it

●      [20:26] Engaging with niche communities

●      [24:26] Forging long-term relationships with clients

●      [25:49] Jesse reacts to his best social media posts

Key quotes:

●      “The first thing that we screen for when we hire recruiters is communications, both written and verbal. And the reason is because I think a lot of recruiting comes down to communication for internal hiring.”

●      “We’ll take somebody who is ambitious and has strong communications versus has worse comms and a lot of experience, because a lot of it comes down not only to stakeholder management, but also candidate experience.”

●      “We care about outcomes, not how we get there.”

●      “The number one candidate channel in 2022 and beyond is none of the above. It’s creating a brand, and having that brand funnel you candidates.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Rich Rosen, an executive recruiter in the software sales industry with over 20 years experience. He is the Founder and Owner of Cornerstone Search, and for the past two years has been named by Forbes as a Top 20 Executive Recruiter in America.

Listen in as Rich discusses his typical day-in-the-life as a practitioner in the software sales niche and how he does business with startup CEOs and other gatekeepers in this space. He also discusses why it’s vital for recruiters to become specialists instead of generalists if they have any ambition for great success in this space.

He then shares his process for ensuring that each client he takes on is worth his time and why it literally pays to have confidence every step of the way when interacting with those clients, particularly when working with them on a container basis.

Finally, Rich dives into the tools of his trade. He explains why he has a lean tech stack, sticks to the free version of LinkedIn, has no aversion to automation, and swears by the phone.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:56] Rich’s billing success since 2020

●      [04:25] Doing business in the software sales niche

●      [08:31] Rich’s mindset going into 2022

●      [11:51] How Rich decides whether or not a client will be worth the time

●      [18:04] Helping clients see the value of working with Rich on a container basis

●      [20:53] The type of people who “make it” in the recruitment agency world

●      [24:05] Rich’s tech stack

●      [27:46] The limitations of LinkedIn and the continued value of phone calls

●      [31:05] Rich’s thoughts on automation

●      [36:54] How Rich approaches his phone calls for the day

●      [40:05] Keys to a successful phone call

●      [46:16] Attributes of a successful recruiter

Key quotes:

●      “My days are jam-packed and every call I make, I can send someone three, four, or five roles. If I’m a generalist, these are one-offs I may never use again. It’s a waste of my time. It’s very challenging to make a lot of money as a generalist.”

●      “Confidence is absolutely everything in this business. If you sound confident, clients will do what you want.”

●      “Recruiters are always trying to find the ‘shortcut’. There are no shortcuts in this business. You may get lucky, but it will catch up with you eventually.”

Nicole Thomsen Hirsch: Creativity, Business Acumen, and Resilience in Recruiting

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Nicole Thomsen Hirsch, an internal recruiting leader with a specialization in sales, who began her career at Aerotek in 2008. Via Segment—which was recently acquired by Twilio—she now works at Lattice as a Recruiting Manager.

Listen in as Nicole discusses the evolution of the recruiting industry over the last two turbulent years, with one of the biggest shifts being that candidates and employees have more influence in the hiring process as well as their work environment.

She says that, today, recruiting should never be an afterthought, but a top consideration. If companies seek to grow in 2022 and beyond, talent acquisition must be at the forefront. Recruiters themselves have an edge in today’s market if they focus on developing empathy, creativity, resilience, adaptability, and business acumen.

In the latter half of the conversation, Nicole speaks on the importance of cultivating culture at every stage of the employee experience, and communication both between recruiters and candidates and between internal stakeholders.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:26] How the industry has changed in the last two years

●      [06:19] Ways in which companies can invest in recruiters and the TA function as a whole

●      [14:05] Top skills recruiters need in today’s market

●      [20:40] Maximizing the follow-up

●      [24:18] Culture from the point of view of recruiters

●      [28:50] How recruiters should consider retention

●      [31:46] How companies can do a better job at engaging and retaining employees

●      [34:40] The importance of internal communication

●      [39:43] How internal recruiters can differentiate themselves

Key quotes:

●      “Recruiting needs to be culture squared.”

●      “I have very strong feelings that recruiters should have the opportunity to specialize. It shouldn’t only ever be focused on one specific area. Some cross-pollination seeds greater understanding.”

●      “I don’t think [the first conversation] is the most important thing. I think the most important thing is the ongoing follow-up.”

●      “I think engaging and retaining employees is [about] setting expectations and writing it down.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Chris Wunder, CRO of Leap, a hospitality recruitment company, where he spends most of his time driving revenue operations, managing sales and recruiting teams, and driving innovation.

Chris is also the founder of Million Dollar Recruiter, an online training program for recruiting professionals, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and future millionaires.

Listen in as Chris does a deep dive into the mindset of a winner. A no-nonsense recruiter and entrepreneur, Chris doesn’t shy away from encouraging fellow business owners to strive to become millionaires. At the same time, he stresses that if one’s motivation doesn’t go beyond money, it’s impossible to thrive in the long term.

Chris gives his thoughts on the recruitment landscape in 2022, drawing from his own experiences throughout the past two years since the onset of the pandemic. He offers his advice regarding technology, automation, brand building, and nurturing relationships in the new year.

Finally, Chris discusses what recruiting professionals, entrepreneurs, and salespeople will get out of his course, Million Dollar Recruiter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:53] Chris’s mindset as a recruiter going into 2022

●      [04:44] How Leap was able to thrive in 2020 and 2021 in spite of COVID-19

●      [08:30] Seeing recruitment as “transforming businesses”

●      [10:59] How tactics and strategies have changed since 2020

●      [14:22] Chris’s relationship-building philosophy

●      [21:55] Chris’s recruiting methodology

●      [29:03] About Chris’s course, Million Dollar Recruiter

●      [36:06] Why recruiters need to have more consistency, intentionality, and urgency in 2022

Key quotes:

●      “We don’t want our name to be mixed up with some of these crap recruiters out there—the ones that are transactional. We’re trying to create an experience on both sides that is pleasant and memorable for everyone.”

●      “We don’t want to be called ‘recruiters’. We’re advisors. We’re consultants. Yes, our bread and butter is recruiting, but we can provide so much more value beyond that.”

●      “Consistency, intentional, and urgency are the three things that you need to put into your core every single day.”

Happy New Year!
This week we are re-visiting 2021's most popular podcast - Marcus's interview with Brianna Rooney - founder of Techees and Talentperch.

Happy Holidays - new episodes of Recruiting Trailblazers begin on January 6th, 2022.

Enjoy clips from Marcus’s conversations with Adam Conrad, Hung Lee, Jamie Beaumont, Joel Lalgee, Mitch Sullivan, Will Staney, Laurie Ruettimann, Vanessa Raath, Jonathan Kidder, Mike Myatt, John Randolph, Mike “Batman” Cohen, and Henna Pryor.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:08] Adam Conrad on the impression you leave with every candidate

●      [03:04] Hung Lee on the future of the workplace

●      [04:14] Jamie Beaumont on getting engagement on your social media posts

●      [05:11] Joel Lalgee on how content on LinkedIn can lead to more exposure

●      [06:24] Mitch Sullivan on telling your readers what’s in it for them

●      [07:10] Will Staney on employer branding

●      [08:38] Laurie Ruettimann on the four keys to taking control of your career

●      [09:53] Vanessa Raath on the top three skills of a competitive sourcer

●      [11:14] Jonathan Kidder on tools for automating your outreach

●      [12:22] Mike Myatt on the importance of thinking about business outcomes during the search process

●      [13:38] John Randolph on Benaiah Consulting’s mission

●      [14:43] Mike “Batman” Cohen the importance of authenticity in your emails

●      [15:42] Henna Pryor on writing insanely effective emails

This week, Marcus shares a few ideas to help Recruiters drive a better response to candidate outreach.

This week, Marcus shares a few of his favorite Stoic Philosophies as they apply to Recruiters.

A very short "thank you" this week from Marcus to all the listeners of the podcast!

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Stephanie Benesh, Practice Leader for Talent Effectiveness at Recruiter.com.

Drawing on 20 years of leadership experience, Stephanie partners with organizations to create custom leadership programs and coaching solutions. She also leads the talent insight center where she partners with recruiters and clients to hire and develop top talent. She maintains certifications in multiple behavioral assessment programs.

Listen in as Stephanie describes the missed opportunities that arise as a result of the traditionally interrogative approach to the candidate interview process, and how to move beyond this approach and conduct more productive interviews.

She also gives her thoughts on the adage: “Hire for attitude; train for skills.”, why she doesn’t believe that hiring based on chemistry alone will not get the job done, and how to be less subjective and more definitive as an interviewer.

Stephanie then explains why hiring an “up-and-comer” for their potential can be beneficial, as well as how to give candidates a taste of your company culture even through Zoom.

Finally, Stephanie speaks on using behavioral assessments to determine, scientifically, whether or not a candidate has what it takes to be successful in your company.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:58] Stephanie’s take on the traditional, interrogative interview process

●      [06:18] Going beyond the resumé and the technical skillset as an interviewer

●      [10:52] Creating a great candidate experience and hiring experience

●      [16:37] The limitations of hiring based on “likeability”

●      [22:09] Reducing subjectivity in the interview and making the process more definitive

●      [24:32] Whether we should ever hire for potential or always stick to those with experience

●      [26:49] Coaching hiring managers to personalize the interview process

●      [32:25] Showcasing company culture via Zoom

●      [37:55] The benefits of using behavioral assessments in the interview process

Key quotes:

●      “Humanizing the interview process is really important—maintaining a connectedness, whether it’s with the recruiter and the candidate or the candidate and the hiring manager of the organization. People need to feel connected. When we enter that space with that interrogative process, we really lose a lot of what we could learn from an individual.”

●      “What gets them in the door is not what’s going to keep them in the seat.”

●      “If we can focus on the needs of the role and not the needs of me, I think that we can get there and have that nice balance of subjectivity and objectivity.”

●      “Historically, we’ve often listened for what the candidate doesn't have. We should be listening for: ‘What do they have?’ What are the strengths that they can bring to the table, that we may not have at the time, or that we have but we can use more of?”

This week's episode includes clips from Marcus’s conversations with Julie Coucoules, Casey Jacox, Adriaan Kolff, Jeff Wald, Joel Lalgee, Natasha Katoni, Andrew Trout, Bruce Morton, Roopesh Panchasra, and Marcus Sawyerr.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:53] Julie Coucoules on partnering with recruiting agencies

●      [04:09] Casey Jacox on the importance of grit and resilience

●      [05:04] Adriaan Kolff on the key principles of success for job seekers

●      [06:14] Jeff Wald on how little one really knows when rolling out a new product or service

●      [07:25] Natasha Katoni on creating an excellent candidate experience

●      [08:20] Joel Leege on hiring great recruiters

●      [09:33] Andrew Trout on standing by your team amid crisis

●      [10:49] Bruce Morton on buying into your company’s mission

●      [13:11] Roopesh Panchasra on building a candidate pipeline

●      [14:55] Marcus Sawyerr on the purpose of building a diverse organization

Key quotes:

●      “What I always believed that agency recruiters should have is a value-add.” ~Julie Coucoules

●      “The elite sellers I’ve worked with were positive, had a plan, had clear direction with what they were trying to do, and they were resilient and gritty.” ~Casey Jacox

●      “It is a full-time job to find a new role, especially in this market.” ~Adriaan Kolff

●      “As smart as everybody is, we really don’t know a darn thing because we’re an audience of one; we’re a data set of one. Until you put something in front of a bunch of people, until you have a bunch of people touching it and interacting with it, you don’t really know how they’re going to use it.” ~Jeff Wald

●      “I would never go to bed until I made sure that I followed up with every single candidate. I hold myself to a 24-hour turnaround.” ~Natasha Katoni

●      “Try to hire the people that you feel have that desire to win.” ~Joel Leege

●      “[When making business decisions,] we’re thinking long-term and we constantly remind ourselves that this is a marathon, not a sprint.” ~Andrew Trout

●      “Studies have shown that if you have a diverse organization you, by far, outperform organizations who lack diversity.” ~Marcus Sawyerr

Resources Mentioned:

●      WIN the RELATIONSHIP, not the DEAL by Casey Jacox

●      The Ultimate Guide to Finding a New Job Fast & Efficiently by Adriaan Kolff

In this week's episode  - Marcus puts on his Stoic hat once more and shares some top tips and quotes to help you finish Q4 off strong! On planning, focus, objections, adversity, confidence, strategy, accountability -  there's something in it for everyone.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Becca Menhart who, until recently, was an account manager at one of the big box recruitment companies. She then decided to change course from her agency career to seek out an internal recruiting role with a company and a brand that she could really get behind.

Becca succeeded. Today, she’s thrilled to work as a recruiter at everyone’s favorite food delivery company, DoorDash.

She reflects on her journey in making the transition from agency to corporate, saying she had decided that the largely metrics-driven environment of the big box recruitment world ultimately wasn’t for her.

Becca explains how she was hired thanks to the power of LinkedIn, and why she believes that it is better to apply for a handful of roles and take the time to craft personalized messages when reaching out, rather than blasting something more generic to as many companies as possible.

Finally, Becca speaks on the differences between the agency world and internal corporate recruitment, the challenges she’s eager to face in her new role, and what the future holds for her.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:39] From agency account manager to internal recruiter

●      [05:25] What Becca thinks of the metrics-driven environment of a big box recruitment company

●      [10:56] The biggest hurdles that Becca knew she had to overcome in order to make the leap into internal recruitment

●      [14:24] How to reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn

●      [20:44] Becca’s candidate experience from the various companies she applied for

●      [23:25] What Becca would do differently

●      [25:12] Key differences between agency work and internal corporate recruitment

●      [29:50] How candidate sourcing has changed in today’s market

●      [32:59] What the future holds for Becca

Key quotes:

●      “With agency life, they give you the great experience that you need. If you can put your nose to the grindstone for however long, you really come out of there learning quite a bit about yourself, how far you can push yourself, how hard you can work, and how resilient you can be, especially at the beginning—you do get beat up quite a bit.”

●      “The old advice says to apply to as many jobs as you can; but, now a lot of us are realizing that it isn’t true because you can’t possibly be excited about that many companies and fields. If you take the time to share why you’re excited about their company, that is the message that recruiters will respond to. Recruiters want to know that you think their job is exciting. Genuine excitement always comes through.”

●      “Luck and hard work, together—that’s where the good stuff happens.”

●      “It comes back to passion. If you guys can align on that, between candidate and recruiter, that’s where the magic happens.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Mark White, a LinkedIn professional who helps companies unlock the value of LinkedIn. Mark basically trains people to use LinkedIn to better achieve their business goals, including business development, targeted marketing, and recruitment strategies. 

He talks about the evolution of LinkedIn, how to leverage LinkedIn’s transactional and social sides, and how to create meaningful conversations on the platform. Plus - some advice on the topic of automation!

 Timestamps

[00:34] About Mark White

[01:30] The evolution of LinkedIn

[02:38] LinkedIn’s major source of revenue

[04:03] We’re LinkedIn’s product

[05:47] Leveraging the platform’s transactional side

[10:23] Having meaningful conversions on the platform

[12:06] Using LinkedIn recruiter platform

[14:39] The problem with the LinkedIn recruiter and the way out

[16:16] Better ways to grab people’s attention on the platform

[20:51] Connection requests vs InMail

[24:35] Mistakes people make when first contacting people

[28:10] Personalizing your outreach

[30:30] Leveraging the platform’s social side

[33:25] Mixing emotional and social element

[34:59] What content resonates more today?

[37:48] Drawing a line between LinkedIn and Facebook’s posts

[39:34] Other marketing strategies on LinkedIn

[43:22] Automation and Data scrapping: Opportunities and risks.

[48:21] Connect with Mark White

Notable Mark White Quotes From The Episode

●      The more we’re asked to do things, the more we’re contacted, then the more we tend to push back.

●      We have to stand out in a way that’s going to make people want to talk to us.

●      If I’m honest a bit that LinkedIn could do a lot better at is in the outreach.

●      If we’re doing a cold outreach using InMail’s, then we tend to make them longer. And generally, that’s not what people want.

●      You ultimately want people to remember you for the specialist that you are.

●      If you can mix the emotional and the work element, then storytelling and the call to action become good content and will actually resonate.

●      LinkedIn is relatively clear on automation: anybody (or anything) who accesses your account on your behalf – is against terms of usage. (and could you banned).

Connect With Mark White

Mark White | LinkedIn

This week, Marcus invokes the Stoics once more and takes a look at the concept of deep work avoidance and recruiter procrastination. Marcus posits that most recruiters are drawn to the activities that yield the most immediate reward and seemingly the most urgent - but sometimes to the detriment of the work that is most important, but less rewarding in the short term.
Marcus suggests a framework for setting yourself up for success as a recruiter and embracing all the work that needs to be done, by executing in a consistent and systematic way.

This week Marcus delivers another solo episode of The Stoic Recruiter - and ties together a number of Stoic principles in an effort to create the ultimate problem-solving mental arsenal.
From figuring out whether it's a problem that needs your attention - to embracing the reality of it, re-evaluating its importance, and then taking positive action - this podcast gives you a strategy for managing all the recruiting curveballs you are thrown on a daily basis!

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Mirtes Lobaito, Founder and CEO of AGM Tech Solutions, an IT staffing and consulting company based in New York. AGM is a certified minority- and women-owned business. Founded in 2018, AGM grew to be a $25 million company within only three years.

The Brazilian-born Mirtes shares how she was able to achieve the American Dream and accomplish so much in such a short space of time in an industry that, in her own words, she “fell into by accident”.

Asked how Mirtes was able to stand above the crowd in an incredibly competitive space, she simply states that the differentiating factor is you. You break through the noise when you are intentional about how you serve your clients, when you act as their consultant, and when you are the first to act and go above and beyond when things go wrong.

Mirtes also explains the attributes of great account managers and business developers. She says that, before adopting the role of “trusted advisor” with their clients, the first and most important step is to nurture an unusual level of rapport with the human being they are speaking with.

Finally, Mirtes touches on the intangibles that lead to uncommon success in the industry, including the power of embracing failure and authenticity, and cultivating a winning team culture.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:44] Why Mirtes decided to start AGM Tech Solutions

●      [05:56] How Mirtes stood out from the crowd in such a competitive space

●      [08:18] How Mirtes was able to compete with the big IT staffing services

●      [12:55] How Mirtes landed that first client

●      [16:43] The mindset you need to be a successful account manager today

●      [19:29] What makes a great business developer?

●      [28:16] Why teams need to focus on strategy first before metrics

●      [33:41] The qualities that Mirtes looks for in a new hire

●      [37:41] Embracing failure and authenticity

●      [40:55] How Mirtes was able to put together her winning team

Key quotes:

●      “I wanted to impact clients. Every time we help a client—a hiring manager—we’re not just providing a body. We’re not just providing someone to fill that role. We are truly solving business problems from the beginning until the end. We also impact lives by providing jobs to these people.”

●      “Are you really intentional about how you’re serving your clients? Are you investing your time in getting to know those clients? Are you being consultative with them? Are you going above and beyond when a candidate doesn’t show up? When something goes wrong, are you the first one to take the initiative and address those issues?”

●      “You have to underpromise and overdeliver. Trust is built on delivery. Trust is built on results. Your clients and your business will grow because of the results that you’ve been able to produce.”

●      “The people who are going to succeed in this industry—they have to be a people person.”

●      “There are so many companies who get caught up on what you didn’t do today versus what results you produced today. It’s all about results.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Mirtes Lobaito on LinkedIn

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Heike Hiss, Senior Director of Global Executive Recruiting and G&A Recruiting at Box.  Heike previously served  at Juniper Networks, Heidrick & Struggles, and Apple.

Having transitioned from executive search, Heike shares the challenges she faced in acclimating to her in-house role. She describes the search firm mindset as more “entrepreneurial” and short-term, while internal recruitment constantly has to have the bigger picture in mind when leading candidates through the process.

She then speaks on the value of considering company culture when evaluating candidates and why this factor is more important than looking at level of skill. She also explains why she thinks that culture continues to be undervalued among many companies.

Asked about the future workplace, Heike believes that choosing whether to work at the office or remotely should be an option, as flexibility brings out the best in every member of the team.

Finally, Heike speaks on why she and her team are “obsessed” with candidate experience and her dos and don’ts when it comes to communicating with candidates.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:21] Heike’s experience in executive search at Heidrick & Struggles

●      [02:45] The challenges of switching from executive to internal

●      [05:14] Differences between the search firm mindset and in-house mindset

●      [12:24] The importance of fostering a positive and empowering culture

●      [14:48] The downsides of a remote working culture

●      [19:29] Teaching and promoting the language of appreciation to your team

●      [20:28] Why Zoom has ironically brought teams closer

●      [22:47] Should showing up at the office become mandatory or optional?

●      [27:46] Why Heike and her team are “obsessed” with candidate experience

●      [35:22] Heike’s process when she worked in executive search

●      [39:01] Dos and don’ts when it comes to candidate experience

Key quotes:

●      “[Executive search] is more of an art than it is a science [...] and you learn it best from other people who do it well.”

●      “It probably took me almost a year to land fully in my in-house role because I realized that search, at a search firm, is search in its purest form: You’re really focusing on the research and candidate development piece and client management. But it’s somewhat isolated: You are not collaborating with compensation or the finance team or the onboarding team or the legal team. Learning how to collaborate cross-functionally and, frankly, learning business practices—how a company actually runs—is one of the biggest surprises.”

●      “The cultural and value component weighs heavier than any technical skill. They have to have the basics, of course; but, where we make our decision is typically based on culture, and we often reject candidates because they might be brilliant technically but they are missing the connection to our values and culture.”

●      “I personally think that optional hybrid is the only way to go, especially if you want to keep your top talent and you want to attract your top talent.”

●      “You can never communicate too much with your candidates.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Heike Hiss on LinkedIn

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Sarah Taylor, a Senior Technical Recruiter at a mid-stage healthcare startup. She previously held positions as an internal recruiter at Amazon, PG&E, and Mercedes Benz.

Listen in as Sarah shares her experience with her current WFH setup and why she prefers a hybrid WFH model in the future where team members also have the option to choose whether to go to the office or work remotely.

She offers her best advice for creating a positive candidate experience, including how to showcase your company culture when you’re limited to digital means, and why talking to candidates directly instead of relying solely on their resumé often leads to the best matches.

Sarah then describes her approach to building rapport over email and personalizing the initial outreach by categorizing candidates and applying modifiers in her messages as needed. She also gives her opinion on sequenced versus 1-1 emails and using Gem in particular.

Finally, Sarah speaks on how recruiters can effectively communicate company culture through the interview process and how to get the rest of the internal recruiting team on the same page with regard to her approach.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:39] Sarah’s experience with her new role so far

●      [02:22] How Sarah overcomes challenges in the WFH environment

●      [06:24] Does being away from the office impact performance?

●      [10:03] The need to increase productivity with a WFH setup

●      [12:01] Sarah’s thoughts on companies paying remote employees differently depending on which part of the country they currently reside in

●      [16:53] How Sarah goes about the initial outreach to maximize candidate experience

●      [21:30] Reclaiming the human component of engaging with candidates

●      [23:53] The advantage of sequenced emails over 1-to-1 emails

●      [31:15] Showcasing company culture through the interview process

●      [34:52] How Sarah imparts her approach to candidate experience to the internal recruiting team

Key quotes:

●      “I do have four children. Their ages range from middle to elementary school; so, if I did not utilize my calendar, I would be crazy (or crazier than I already am). If I’m not organized, I can’t keep either straight.”

●      “I think there are days when Zoom is great because there is so much on the calendar that there would be no way for me to run around to different meeting rooms and be effective and have my head in the game. [...] But, I also think that when you’re able to head down the hall and pop into your hiring manager’s office and talk about what’s working and what’s not working, their opinion, or getting approvals—that’s also a very effective way to build trust. I see both as productive and meaningful.”

●      “My mindset when I’m reaching out to a candidate is to be personalized and be engaging and to share a blurb. Whether I’m working for a famed company or, now, a startup, sharing the blurbs and the links that will help them do their own research might excite them to reach back out to me.”

●      “When you recruit not as a horse with blinders but you look at the bigger picture, the world is your oyster: You're going to not only give the candidate you’re talking to a great experience, but they’re going to go talk [...] and word-of-mouth starts happening and you start getting networking referrals. So many other doors open up.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Sarah Taylor on LinkedIn

Marcus apologizes to those listeners who were expecting an interview today  - but he had 2 postponements this week. He is pondering whether to continue with the interviews and considers turning this into a solo podcast.
This week - he talks about the Stoic concept "Don't suffer imagined troubles" and delivers an amazing quote from Seneca who tackles this subject head-on.
Marcus continues to say that this bears real relevance to recruiters, who after all, spend most of the time fighting fires and dealing with uncertain outcomes!

Seneca says:
"It is likely that some troubles will befall us; but it is not a present fact. How often has the unexpected happened! How often has the expected never come to pass! And even though it is ordained to be, what does it avail to run out to meet your suffering? You will suffer soon enough, when it arrives; so look forward meanwhile to better things. What shall you gain by doing this? Time. There will be many happenings meanwhile which will serve to postpone, or end, or pass on to another person, the trials which are near or even in your very presence. A fire has opened the way to flight. Men have been let down softly by a catastrophe. Sometimes the sword has been checked even at the victim’s throat. Men have survived their own executioners. Even bad fortune is fickle. Perhaps it will come, perhaps not; in the meantime it is not. So look forward to better things."

This week, Marcus talks about Stoicism as it pertains to Recruitment and how the key concept of understanding what is in your control and what is not - defines your ability to access Resilience - a characteristic that Marcus claims will immeasurably improve your performance in this profession.

Great quote at the end from Marcus Aurelius:

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”

This week, Marcus reviews the traditional KPI/Metrics model that many Agencies have used for decades - and promotes the idea of a more empowering, quality-driven model.

8.5 minutes of great content - and next week we'll be back on the interview train with a TA professional from inside the business.

This week - Marcus iterates upon his recent podcast "How to Have Your First Conversation With a Candidate" by looking a little more closely at the steps you need to take along the relationship development journey in order to build a rock-solid relationship from scratch- by demonstrating your vulnerability and empathy and ensuring you have a "human" moment, to differentiate yourself from the crowd.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Lindsey Day, Assistant Director of Talent Acquisition and Development at Infotech, a Florida-based company that provides software solutions for the road construction industry.

She is also a career coach and one of the first members of the Forbes Coaches Council and a board member at startGNV, a nonprofit focused on raising awareness around local startups in Gainesville, Florida.

Listen in as Lindsey shares her best advice for creating a positive candidate experience, including how to showcase your company culture when you’re limited to digital means, and why talking to candidates directly instead of relying solely on their resumé often leads to the best matches.

She also gives some tips on maximizing that very first interview with a candidate so that recruiters can have meaningful conversations that go beyond qualifications and salary.

Finally, Lindsey speaks on how Infotech helps companies be seen as employers of choice—even through rejecting candidates.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:18] An introduction to Infotech

●      [02:00] Key recruiting challenges in today’s market

●      [04:56] How to showcase company culture digitally

●      [06:09] Where a positive candidate experience starts

●      [09:06] The limitations of the resumé

●      [11:07] The first conversation with the candidate

●      [16:14] Why recruiters and candidates should stay in touch

●      [19:00] How to help candidates be as successful as possible at the interview

●      [21:30] How Infotech ensures a consistent and meaningful candidate experience throughout the interview process

●      [25:17] How to balance selling and buying at the interview stage

●      [28:37] How to distinguish yourself as an employer by giving insightful feedback

●      [29:59] Lindsey’s work at the nonprofit startGNV

Key quotes:

●      “We are facing a lot of the challenges that a lot of companies our size are facing. That is, we are now competing nationally when we used to compete regionally thanks to the remote work movement.”

●      “The first conversation is about determining fit. So, does this individual have, not only the skillset, but are they going to be a fit in this work environment?”

●      “One of the biggest compliments that I can get as a recruiter is: ‘That was the best rejection I ever got.’ That means [...] I’ve been an advocate for the company and I’ve been an advocate for the candidate.”

●      “A candidate can really feel when you do care about their best interests. A candidate really appreciates that personal trust.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Infotech

●      startGNV

●      Lindsey Day on LinkedIn

This week, Marcus shares his strategy for the all-important internal interview - or the first time a Recruiter speaks with a candidate.  
Marcus reveals his list of priorities on each candidate call along with the workflow and typical questions he asks each person.
Lots of value here for both internal and agency Recruiters - particularly the notion that the #1 objective of each  "1st Convo" is to kickstart a longer-term relationship that may yield wins for both parties in the future, rather than just simply screening the person in, or out, for the role at hand.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Kristina Finseth, Director of Growth Marketing at Interseller, a prospecting and outreach platform for recruiters and sellers.

Listen in as Kristina offers her top tips and recommendations for leveraging and harnessing cold email for recruitment success. She describes the value of Interseller specifically as a platform for outbound-driven teams.

Kristina preaches a low-volume, high-quality approach when it comes to any email outreach campaign, with a focus on niching down and building momentum through sheer consistency. She dives deep into how to write personalized emails that seize your prospects’ attention and touches on the metric she prefers to track instead of open rates.

Finally, Kristina gives her recommendations for reaching out to companies that have recently received funding. She introduces her newly-released course, Outbound FIRE Framework.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:11] An introduction to Interseller

●      [03:50] Using Interseller’s platform in conjunction with LinkedIn’s tools

●      [05:16] Email versus InMail

●      [07:51] The pillars of a successful outreach campaign

●      [15:50] How Interseller finds email addresses on LinkedIn

●      [18:29] Grabbing your prospect’s attention with great subject lines

●      [22:33] Keeping your prospect’s attention after they open the email

●      [28:32] Why personalized emails save more time in the long-run

●      [37:02] Using segmentation effectively

●      [39:33] Funding as a trigger for outreach

●      [43:16] About the Outbound FIRE Framework course

Key quotes:

●      “We're always preaching a low-volume, high-quality approach. That’s the philosophy we take on email outreach as a whole.”

●      “As far as best practices go for following up, three-to-four emails in your initial sequence is all that you need.”

●      “I personally don’t care about open rates. It’s not the first thing I care about. I always work from the desired result, backwards. I care about booked meetings.”

●      “True personalization isn’t just using industry, company name, first name, etc. True personalization is crafting an entire two sentences that are just for you.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Interseller

●      Outbound FIRE Framework

●      Kristina Finseth on LinkedIn

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Rory Maddocks, Managing Partner at Talisman Advisory Partners, a brand new recruitment services business based in Los Angeles.

Rory previously served as Head of West Coast Business at GQR Global Markets for six years, leading a division of cross-functional specialists teams in renewable energy, commercial construction, aerospace, cybersecurity, and T&D.

Listen in as Rory explains why having a strong internal talent acquisition strategy is key to the success of any recruitment-as-a-service business and multi-year retainers versus contingent search and the problems with the latter. He specifically touches on why contingent search may be more beneficial to the recruiter than it is to the actual client.

Rory then speaks on why engagement is vital in an industry shaped by the democratisation of data and how building long-term relationships online starts with a great content strategy.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:32] An introduction to Talisman Advisory Partners

●      [04:41] What sets Talisman apart

●      [06:10] Defining “recruitment-as-a-service” and its pricing model

●      [09:52] How to charge different recruitment-as-a-service clients

●      [14:28] The limitations of the contingency paradigm

●      [17:06] Rory’s thoughts on the contained model

●      [20:50] The importance of niche marketing today and how narrow Talisman is going

●      [21:27] The importance of storytelling in your content marketing

●      [24:50] How to nurture online relationships as a recruitment business

●      [29:44] Active versus passive candidates and finding their motivators

●      [33:55] How Talisman is faring so far

●      [36:01] Rory’s goals for the rest of the year

Key quotes:

●      “What’s good for the recruiter in a contingent model isn’t necessarily what’s good for the client.”

●      “Data is becoming democratised. Data is so accessible now. [...] A lot of recruitment businesses are going to have similar databases; but, it’s the quality of that engagement [that counts].”

●      “As a recruitment consultant, you’re not hired to find jobs for people. You’re hired to find people for jobs.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Talisman Advisory Partners

●      Rory Maddocks on LinkedIn

This week on Recruiting Trailblazers, Marcus delivers a short episode on his interview preparation strategy for candidates.
Marcus explains the importance of the Interview Prep call - from both a relationship-building/cementing and a strategic point of view.
Quite simply - it revolves around 3 keywords - Vision, Culture, and Role.  Marcus gives examples of the types of questions that candidates need to ask early on in the interview to build rapport - and understand the interviewer's "hot buttons".
Marcus states that it's only after you have defined what's most important to your interviewer (qualities, attributes, mindset, skills, experience, and accomplishments) - that you are able to accurately reconcile answers that really hit home - along with a dialog that resonates impactfully.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with The Recruiter Coach, Lyndsey Meredith. She is a personal branding, startup, and success coach for recruiters.

With over 15 years of experience in the recruiting space under her belt, Lyndsey shares just how critical it is for recruiters to get clear on their personal brand, and offers her best advice on cutting through the noise in the industry today.

Listen in as Lyndsey explains how personal branding saves you a tremendous amount of time and is why it is surprisingly easy to start building your brand today—particularly on LinkedIn—if you know the right steps.

She dives deep into her four pillars of personal branding on LinkedIn, the two different types of content you should be putting out consistently, what it means to be “authentic” on a professional platform, and how to improve your storytelling and messaging.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:33] Why is personal branding so important for today’s recruiters?

●      [03:05] How to write an eye-catching headline on LinkedIn

●      [06:54] Navigating LinkedIn’s limitations around connection requests

●      [08:38] How to write an “About” section on LinkedIn that gets visitors to take action

●      [11:09] The perfect LinkedIn profile photo and banner

●      [14:17] Daily habits to adopt for your LinkedIn strategy

●      [16:42] How to create authentic content consistently

●      [21:27] The importance of storytelling in your content marketing

●      [26:02] Maximizing your potential on LinkedIn

●      [28:48] Determining which platforms your audience hangs out on

●      [30:28] Knowing whether you may need to use Sales Navigator

●      [31:50] Dialing in your messaging

●      [34:20] How to build your authority on LinkedIn

Key quotes:

●      “Personal branding is really important for a recruiter because it’s scalable.”

●      “Personal branding is all about authenticity.”

●      “The worst thing you can do is to be what they expect. Do what you can to stand out on LinkedIn.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Meredith Consultancy Services

●      Lyndsey Meredith on LinkedIn

Marcus is taking the week off interviewing for July 4th - but has recorded a short 5 minute message to listeners of the podcast - if you are an Agency Recruiter - well worth a listen!

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the podcast, Marcus Edwardes speaks with two amazing guests: Vanessa Raath, a global sourcing trainer and international keynote speaker based in South Africa; and James Hornick, partner at Hirewell, a 70-person recruitment agency in Chicago. James is also known as the publisher for the Talent Rants and Sarcasm newsletter.

Listen in as Vanessa and James give their thoughts on how market conditions have changed over the past year-and-a-half and how the roles of the sourcer and recruiter have evolved as a result.

Vanessa shares how attitudes have shifted with regard to remote working and how this has led to the rise of the hybrid workplace, why sourcers and recruiters need to optimize their online brand if they want to stand out in today’s market, and where to recruit and follow-up aside from LinkedIn Recruiter.

James explains the art of the counteroffer, why tenure is not a measure of good or bad decisions made by the recruiter, and the disconnect between what companies advertise and what job seekers really want.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:19] How the sourcing an role has changed in the last several months

●      [08:38] The rising importance of the recruiter’s online brand

●      [11:56] Recruiting for big versus small brands and automating your process

●      [14:42] Finding and following up with candidates beyond LinkedIn Recruiter

●      [17:21] Considerations around personalization

●      [20:04] Vanessa’s top advice for struggling sourcers and recruiters

●      [23:30] How Hirewell is differentiating itself in today’s market

●      [26:40] How unique, relevant content and teamwork keep Hirewell top-of-mind with candidates

●      [30:39] The art of the counteroffer

●      [37:19] Preparing candidates to deal with counteroffers from their employer

●      [40:11] Why ping-pong tables, beer taps, and the like are no longer in vogue

●      [41:36] How hybrid models will continue to develop in the coming months

●      [43:26] What engineers are really looking for in their new roles

 Key quotes:

●      “The demand for sourcers and recruiters, from a global perspective, has literally gone through the roof.” ~Vanessa

●      “The beauty of your online brand is that it all comes down to you and how hard you want to work at it.” ~Vanessa

●      “If you’re a company in the employee perks industry, you have to be getting killed right now, because nobody cares about this stuff. All they care about is more money and to be able to work from home if they feel like it. Those are your two levers, and nothing else is really resonating right now.” ~James

●      “Companies have such company-focused language. They think they know what’s cool about their company that they want to sell, but it’s not in line with what job seekers want to hear about, typically.” ~James

Resources Mentioned:

●      Vanessa Raath

●      James Hornick on LinkedIn

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes chats with Riece Keck, the founder, and CEO of Vault Recruiting, a boutique agency specializing in recruiting for recruiters as well as embedded recruiting services. Vault Recruiting Agency’s primary market is the technology startups and has built out engineering, finance and accounting, customer success, and sales teams at some of the Bay Area’s leading startups. 

Riece Keck is also a podcaster, founder, and CEO of The Vault Academy, an end-to-end platform for new and experienced recruiters to learn the ropes and outlevel their skills. 

Tune in to listen to our guest talking about his content development, the changing work and recruitment demography, and the best recruitment models that can work best for companies.

Timestamps

[02:38] Thoughts on content development

[03:50] The changing work and recruitment demography

[07:28] Shift in how people think about work

[10:47] Force or offer Hybrid model?

[12:21] What’s lost in agency recruiting

[13:02] Working from home vs working in an office

[16:24] What remote agency recruiter is missing on training

[19:37] Crafting LinkedIn content

[21:00] Current situation of the agency market

[24:42] How can your business flex?

[27:17] Internal vs agency recruiting

[30:38] Figuring out a workable interview strategy

[33:28] Doubling down on niche marketing strategy

[36:33] Reason to be ‘niche’

[38:53] Engaging successfully with clients

[39:38] Best advice to recruiters on the container model

[42:18] Competition with internal recruiters

Notable Quotes

●      What the next generation of recruiting professionals needs to get good at is learning to build an audience online and learn how to generate an inbound stream of clients and candidates.

●      I think what’s lost a little bit from an agency perspective when you’re remote is when you’re new.

●      You have to be able to make the content you’re creating relevant to the audience and the niche you have chosen to engage.

●      When the market is really tight, it becomes harder to find good candidates.

●      There’s no reason not to be niche. You know the market better. You know your audience better, and you have a deeper network of clients and candidates.

●      If a good candidate is referred to a company, they should hire them.

Connect with Riece

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/riecekeck/

Vault Recruiting Website: https://vaultrecruiting.com/

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Robin Walters, Founder and CEO of Rogue Recruitment, the “anti-staffing, staffing agency”, as well as Rogue Response, a nonprofit organization committed to enhancing her community.

She also serves on the board with Counseling & Recovery Services of Oklahoma. In addition, she is a writer of fiction books and blog posts.

Listen in as Robin explains how she conceptualized Rogue Recruitment to be “radically different” from every other staffing agency out there by focusing on candidates’ goals instead of their impact on the company’s bottom line.

She reflects on her lessons learned during the first six months trying to get Rogue off the ground, as well as how her personal experience with declining mental health during her lowest points as a business owner inspired Robin to further promote a team culture of transparency and vulnerability.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:46] An introduction to Rogue Recruitment and “anti-staffing, staffing”

●      [06:01] Why Robin started Rogue Response

●      [07:00] How Rogue Recruitment is different from other staffing agencies

●      [10:17] What big staffing agencies need to do to change

●      [14:31] Where quality over quantity begins at Rogue Recruitment

●      [17:21] How Rogue Recruitment communicates with their clients

●      [20:20] Getting Rogue off the ground in the first six months

●      [24:41] What Robin has learned about hiring the right people

●      [27:36] How Robin recovered from a period of declining mental health

●      [31:35] Robin’s advice to those struggling with their mental health at work

●      [34:57] Robin’s advice to a new entrepreneur just getting their agency off the ground

●      [37:47] Robin’s content strategy for Rogue

Key quotes:

●      “The staffing industry is very broken, and if you just go by what’s normal in staffing, you’re never going to make that difference and disrupt it.”

●      “One of the ways that I want to radically transform the industry is by having staffing agencies who are very committed to the community and in giving back.”

●      “When you place somebody at a new job, you are literally changing their life. You have a major impact on them, because how they’re doing professionally is going to seep into their personal life; so, it’s a huge, huge responsibility. When the big companies turn it down to, ‘What’s your gross margin off of this person?’ you lose the entire point of recruitment, and it’s about helping people find positions to better themselves.”

●      “The negative emphasis on metrics has occurred because it’s easier for people to understand numbers versus relationships.”

●      “It’s not a sign of failure to admit that you’re struggling; to need time off. It’s a sign of immense strength when you can reach out and ask for help.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Rogue Recruitment

●      Robin Walters on LinkedIn

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks to Tom Case. Tom is the head of Talent at Cerebras Systems, a computer systems company, building a new type of computer optimized for AI work,  hosting contains the world’s largest computer chip.

Tom has an Executive search background that began in an agency, went to Facebook, and worked at Intel Capital as Talent Partner before joining Cerebras.

Tune in to listen to Tom sharing his passion for Start-Up recruiting and the nuances that make it such a giant leap from his Talent Partner role, where he was serving start-ups on a much more ad-hoc basis. Tom shares experiences working in different roles and how to establish a working recruitment team that benefits both the company and the employees. He also gives tips on building a talent strategy, how to bring in a new team, why diversity and inclusion are important for startups, and other informative topics.

[02:01] What Tom is most passionate about as a recruiter

[04:54] Working as a Talent Partner

[05:55] Should companies pay more attention to a working talent strategy?

[06:57] Perception on talent strategy as a roadmap

[11:25] Establishing a recruiting team

[16:30] Recruiting process and organization’s culture

[21:18] Appreciating employees

[23:25] Flat structure vs. Management structure

[24:26] How management helps people improve

[25:21] Diversity and inclusion for startups

[29:30] Key challenges when raiding the number of employees

[32:55] Bringing in new people into the organization

[38:08] Figuring out what to take to the market as recruiters

 Notable Quotes

• Startups don’t have many resources. They need to double down to the single one or two things that move the company forward
• If you build a recruiting team, you have to get the right people to do that.
• If you are bringing in managers, you gonna make sure you’re bringing the right ones. And you gonna make sure that people see the value in going from flat to management structure.
• The more diversity you have, the more diversity you recruit.
• Sometimes, it’s like we only hire the most exceptional people. But it’s not true. There are not many exceptional people, and when you get one, they move your company 10x more than anybody else.

Connect with Tom

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-case-81b8504/

Cerebras Systems Website https://cerebras.net/

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Brad Wolff, of PeopleMax, a business expert and advisor with over 25 years of experience in the recruitment industry.  

Tune in to listen to Brad speaking about how recruiters can deal with scaling problems through systems, processes, and technology, especially content outreach on LinkedIn and email outreach. He also shares his insights on the best cold calls tips, minimizing defensiveness and resistance in getting clients, and how agency owners or recruiters should embrace metrics to help them move forward. Be sure to also get great tips on job orders and managing clients. 

[02:12] Brad’s experience in the recruitment industry 

[03:06] What are the key problems that Brad is able to help agencies resolve

[05:04] Scaling and examples of businesses that Brad has worked with to help them scale

[06:51] Systems, processes, and technology in a recruitment agency

[13:38] Content outreach on LinkedIn and email outreach

[15:15] Things that don’t work anymore in business developments

[18:50] Cold calls tips

[21:52] Minimizing defensiveness and resistance in getting clients

[24:42] Recommended tools for outreach

[26:14] Business metrics and how agency owners or recruiters should embrace metrics to help them move forward

[29:32] Production metrics, candidate first interviews, client meetings, and reverse engineering

[32:50] Job orders with clients

Notable Quotes

●      There are always many new things to learn, especially today when the industry seems to be accelerating in different directions. 

●      Scaling has to do with how you grow and do more without you personally having to do more.

●      Defensiveness is the enemy of being able to build relationships and get clients.

●      You want something that feels and syncs with who you are.

●      Nothing works for everyone. At the end of the day, we are just working with human psychology.

●      Defensiveness is the resistance that keeps you from getting clients. Minimize resistance!

●      Nothing that works now will continue to work indefinitely. Everything has its time; the system is constantly changing.

●      Sales to me is simply as soon as the process moves to the actual human-to-human conversation. That’s when you’ve crossed over from marketing into sales.

●      If you can get the key things you need with a three metrics, don’t use more than three. More is not better with the metrics.

●      You want metrics that are very simple to understand and measure, as much as possible.

●      The metrics should be designed as a roadmap to help people stay focused on the most important things instead of a punishment.

●      Teach recruiters to understand how a metrics can impact their performance. 

●      You can do anything in your life if you know how to do it.

●      No today does not mean No tomorrow.

Connect With Brad on LinkedIn 

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Brianna Rooney, the CEO of TalentPerch, an on-demand strategic hiring solution for engineering teams. Brianna is also the founder of Techees, a recruitment agency that finds engineers the best possible career while making the companies they work with equally satisfied. She is also the creator of themillionairerecruiter.com, a training platform for new and experienced recruiters.

Brianna, the “ultimate matchmaker”, does more than just connecting engineers to companies. She solves tough vacancy issues and other employment problems at some of the biggest tech firms in the industry.

 Tune in to listen to  Brianna sharing insights on RPO and Contingency recruitment models, their differences, and inadequacies in the contingency model. She also talks about firing clients, sourcing maps, knowing what candidates want by doing things differently from others in the marketplace.

Timestamps

[02:29] Brianna’s great day. What’s going on so well?

[03:28] How big are TalentPerch and Techees?

[05:32] Why Brianna started TalentPerch and the problems she was looking to solve

[07:02] Differentiating RPO and Contingency recruitment models when first having a conversation with the client

[09:00] Is RPO Model replacing the contingency model?

[12:30] Inadequacies of the contingency recruitment model.

[16:11] Who’s better? External or internal recruiter?

[22:13] Overseeing first conversations with clients

[24:53] How do you fire a client

[28:24] Some awkward experiences when firing a client

[29:58] Sourcing Maps

[34:40] The Millionaire Recruiter course

[37:40] Resilience and work ethic

[40:23] Tips and tricks to stay on top of the candidate marketplace

[47:30] Humanizing recruiter outreach

Notable Quotes

●      There should be no war between any recruiters, internal or external, whatever we are.

●      If we have three people go onsite for the same role with the same client, if one of them isn’t given an offer, it’s a bad client.

●      I wanted to show you can be a millionaire from an industry that requires zero education and zero-knowledge.

●      Always stay on top of what’s the new new.

●       I don’t have to know what you do, but I know what a client needs, and I know what you need. So we can just match it up together.

●      You need to figure out how to make money on every single touch.

Connect With Brianna

LinkedIn

YouTube Channel

 Websites

Techees 

TalentPerch

The Millionaire Recruiter

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with career coach Amy Bracht, who “helps mid-life professionals transition from stuck to a career they love.” She also helps to slay the limiting beliefs that hold people back.

Sitting on the periphery of life and career coaching, Amy speaks to us about how she helps people who have decided to make a career switch.

Listen in as Amy explains why many of even the most successful professionals feel hollow or unsatisfied with their careers, why self-awareness is the first step to solving that problem, how to overcome limiting beliefs in our ability to succeed in any given venture, and what it really takes to have a career in the space you’re passionate about.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:40] Amy discusses her mission and the services she offers

●      [04:55] Why some successful professionals continue to feel “hollow”

●      [07:01] The importance of self-awareness for career satisfaction

●      [07:37] The power of reframing how you see your work

●      [12:03] Typical reasons why people feel “off” on their current career path

●      [15:57] What are limiting beliefs and how can we mitigate them?

●      [20:53] How slaying limiting beliefs can help with handling rejection in the recruitment industry

●      [22:55] How Amy guides her clients based on their expectations

●      [29:09] Is it possible for everybody to be doing the thing they love?

●      [32:28] The questions we should be asking ourselves if we’re considering a big change in our lives

Key quotes:

●      “I firmly believe that we are called, as human beings, to live very abundant lives. That abundance can take on many different forms; but, for most people, they really want to experience that abundance, that joy, and that passion in their career.”

●      “We make decisions when we’re 18 about how we’re going to spend the rest of our lives with a very limited point-of-view of what that could look like. You’re deciding that before you’ve had experiences of even living away from your family.”

●      “Limiting beliefs are the stories we tell ourselves that we don’t need anymore.”

●      “People can be very extreme until they’re listened to.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Amy Bracht: A Better You Is Possible

●      Amy Bracht on LinkedIn

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Tom Rope, Vice President of US Markets at Engage PSG, a national search firm headquartered out of the UK.

Tom focuses on connecting RegTech and FinTech industries with world-class people, taking “an advisory-first, recruitment-second approach,” according to him.

Listen in as Tom offers his advice on niche marketing based on over seven years working in the RegTech space. He talks about “managing the overspill” that came as a result of the pandemic, especially with regard to fraud prevention. He also explains why verticalization works extremely well in the recruitment industry today and why partnership models are the way forward for recruiting high-caliber professionals. Finally, Tom shares how candidates can best prepare for that first interview.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:18] A primer on the RegTech space

●      [05:49] Opportunities that have emerged in the recruiting space since 2020

●      [11:14] Challenges that have come out of the pandemic

●      [13:59] The benefits of vertical specialization as a recruiter

●      [16:58] How Tom distinguishes himself as a niche recruiter

●      [20:01] Tom’s first goal during the initial conversation with the candidate

●      [25:53] Retained versus contingency business

●      [32:29] Why partnership models are the way forward for getting top talent

●      [40:44] Preparing candidates for their first interview

Key quotes:

●      “The RegTech space has significantly contributed towards the prevention of online fraud. That’s what the RegTech space is all about: to stop innocent people getting hacked, account takeovers, having their identity stolen.”

●      “When you’re speaking with anyone, behind the mask of business, you’ve got an individual there who has hopes, dreams, goals—a life outside of work. It’s all about drawing up all those dots and fully understanding who somebody is, what they want out of life, and how you can help them move up to that next step.”

●      “[Candidates] need to own the room. The reason you’re in that seat is because you’re special. You have almost everything that the person speaking with you today needs—not wants, needs. Now is your chance to demonstrate that and make a significant impact.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Engage PSG

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Scot McCallum, Senior Vice President of Western Markets at Artech, a global technology staffing and consulting company. He has previously held senior leadership positions at both Kforce and Ajilon.

Listen in as Scot opens the conversation by discussing the challenges he has had to face as a leader at Artech during the pandemic, and his observations around how his colleagues were able to cope throughout 2020 in such a socially-driven industry.

He then does a deep dive into the secrets to building rapport with candidates and the understated importance of building trust in that first conversation instead of simply pitching your proposal.

Finally, Scot gives his thoughts on recruiting metrics and the only reason a recruiter should be looking at them, as well as whether cold-calling is officially dead in the staffing industry.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:25] Challenges that Scot had to overcome as a leader at Artech in 2020

●      [05:00] The pros and cons of working exclusively from home

●      [10:50] The challenges of hiring remotely

●      [12:38] Dealing with the unexpectedly uptick in business during COVID-19

●      [16:04] The importance of honesty and staying in your lane as a recruiter

●      [17:41] How to win strategic accounts today

●      [20:48] Attributes of a great recruiter

●      [23:50] Keys to rapport building

●      [29:02] Getting the candidate to talk more during the conversation than you

●      [35:30] Scot’s philosophy on recruiting metrics

●      [43:20] Is cold-calling dead in the agency recruiting business?

Key quotes:

●      “The one thing you can control is your level of effort.”

●      “This is a relationship business. Make no mistake. It always has been and it always will be no matter how much technology is involved.”

●      “The mindset that works in our industry is essentially a high sense of urgency [...] and an inquisitive nature.”

●      “The most successful salespeople and recruiters have a common skill: They’re able to build good rapport with their candidates and clients in a very short period of time—usually in one meeting.”

●      “Staying focused on open-ended questions really gets the conversation flowing with the person you’re engaged with.”

●      “You have to be able to take the interactions you’re having and focus on the other person. Make it about them. You want to learn about them. Through that process, you’ll have your opportunity to share, too.”

●      “You should look at metrics for one sole purpose: to help coach people and to understand where and when they’re struggling.”

●      “The key activity that generates results is getting client interviews.”

●      “It’s about your messaging as much as it’s about reaching out to people.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Artech

●      Scot McCallum on LinkedIn

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Joe Mullings, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of The Mullings Group, a leading search firm in the medical device industry.

He is also the Chief Visionary Officer of MRINetwork, a Top 3 executive search firm with 400 officers worldwide.

Finally, he is the Founder of Dragonfly Stories, a production company and studio that focuses on creating stories that revolve around medical technology, including four seasons of the docuseries TrueFuture, of which Joe is the host.

Joe shares his 30-year history in recruiting , why he is so passionate about content creation, and his best practices for building a strong online brand 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:50] An overview of The Mullings Group

●      [06:01] How Joe got involved with MRINetwork

●      [07:21] What went into Joe’s decision to invest in a production studio

●      [11:16] The power of telling visual stories on LinkedIn

●      [15:04] Helping old-school headhunters embrace digital media

●      [18:44] All about the TrueFuture docuseries

●      [22:00] Why Joe has never balanced a checkbook in his life

●      [24:44] Joe’s experience filming a show in Israel

●      [28:10] The 10-4-2 Strategy to grow your network and increase engagement

●      [31:54] The Digital Transition: Hum, Sing, Shout

●      [35:04] Staying on-brand while continuing to produce entertaining content

●      [37:20] Is it possible to overshare on LinkedIn?

●      [39:17] Why not creating content will quickly make you obsolete

●      [40:30] How branding moves the phone further down the activity chain

●      [48:07] The importance of eliminating friction in your business interactions

●      [53:30] What Joe is most excited about in 2021

Key quotes:

●      “The content [we produce] is part of the product [we market].”

●      “If you examine all the activities I have going on, they all revolve around empowering the individual to make career decisions in their life to give them more choices and more freedom as they move forward downrange.

●      “ROI only declares itself when you define the denominator of that which is the timeline.”

●      “If you really look at it and step back, [LinkedIn] is not a social platform; it’s not a job posting platform anymore. It’s an educational platform. We use LinkedIn to tell the stories of our clients.”

●      “I think headhunters who intelligently use media will replace headhunters who don’t use media.”

●      “When you start to balance a checkbook, you start to pull your punches.”

●      “Your Hum, Sing, Shout Strategy should not be about advertising. Your Hum, Sing, Shout Strategy should be about educating, informing, and inspiring.”

●      “Give, give, give without the expectation of anything in return; but don’t cheat yourself—be standing in plain sight when somebody needs something.”

●      “Put the thought on a Post-It. If it can’t fit on a Post-It, it can’t fit on LinkedIn.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Joe Mullings

●      Joe Mullings on YouTube

●      Joe Mullings on LinkedIn

●      TrueFuture

Thanks to the incredible reception to our previous episode featuring 13 pearls of wisdom courtesy of previous guests, we’ve collected ten more short quotes from some of the earliest conversations we had on the podcast.

This week's episode includes clips from Marcus’s conversations with Julie Coucoules, Casey Jacox, Adriaan Kolff, Jeff Wald, Joel Lalgee, Natasha Katoni, Andrew Trout, Bruce Morton, Roopesh Panchasra, and Marcus Sawyerr.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:53] Julie Coucoules on partnering with recruiting agencies

●      [04:09] Casey Jacox on the importance of grit and resilience

●      [05:04] Adriaan Kolff on the key principles of success for job seekers

●      [06:14] Jeff Wald on how little one really knows when rolling out a new product or service

●      [07:25] Natasha Katoni on creating an excellent candidate experience

●      [08:20] Joel Leege on hiring great recruiters

●      [09:33] Andrew Trout on standing by your team amid crisis

●      [10:49] Bruce Morton on buying into your company’s mission

●      [13:11] Roopesh Panchasra on building a candidate pipeline

●      [14:55] Marcus Sawyerr on the purpose of building a diverse organization

Key quotes:

●      “What I always believed that agency recruiters should have is a value-add.” ~Julie Coucoules

●      “The elite sellers I’ve worked with were positive, had a plan, had clear direction with what they were trying to do, and they were resilient and gritty.” ~Casey Jacox

●      “It is a full-time job to find a new role, especially in this market.” ~Adriaan Kolff

●      “As smart as everybody is, we really don’t know a darn thing because we’re an audience of one; we’re a data set of one. Until you put something in front of a bunch of people, until you have a bunch of people touching it and interacting with it, you don’t really know how they’re going to use it.” ~Jeff Wald

●      “I would never go to bed until I made sure that I followed up with every single candidate. I hold myself to a 24-hour turnaround.” ~Natasha Katoni

●      “Try to hire the people that you feel have that desire to win.” ~Joel Leege

●      “[When making business decisions,] we’re thinking long-term and we constantly remind ourselves that this is a marathon, not a sprint.” ~Andrew Trout

●      “Studies have shown that if you have a diverse organization you, by far, outperform organizations who lack diversity.” ~Marcus Sawyerr

Resources Mentioned:

●      WIN the RELATIONSHIP, not the DEAL by Casey Jacox

●      The Ultimate Guide to Finding a New Job Fast & Efficiently by Adriaan Kolff

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with James Hornick. He is a partner at Hirewell, a 60+ person tech and marketing recruiting agency in Chicago. James wears many hats: leadership, strategy, marketing, business development, as well as content development and coaching under the banner of Careerwell, which he also co-founded.

James also publishes a newsletter called Talent Rants and Sarcasm, which offers a uniquely fresh perspective on all things recruiting.

Listen in as James makes a case for why content marketing is one of the most powerful initiatives that any recruitment agency can commit to today.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:49] The main distribution channels James uses for content marketing

●      [05:16] Why James decided to prioritize content marketing

●      [10:50] Is the lack of short-term ROI preventing many recruiters from committing to content marketing?

●      [13:30] Does James think twice about publishing controversial content?

●      [15:54] Why focusing on creating a personal brand over valuable content results in garbage content

●      [20:48] The right way to promote your product or service without resorting to a cheesy sales pitch

●      [23:54] Why video content works so well on LinkedIn

●      [28:19] Why personalization is overrated

●      [36:28] The right way to build an employer brand

●      [43:48] How to create content that resonates with your audience

●      [45:00] James on his most recent Saturday troll post

●      [49:27] What James has planned for the rest of the year at Hirewell and Careerwell

Key quotes:

●      “I’m a big believer that you have to start building out your own channels. While I’m on social media, I’m not a big fan of it. The algorithm can change. You don’t own that.”

●      “What I’ve always found hysterical is the amount of oversharing people do when it comes to their personal life on Facebook or Instagram; yet when it comes to something that will actually make you money such as improving your professional persona on LinkedIn, they completely clam up and they’re afraid of it.”

●      “You can talk about how your service or product works and why it’s valuable without giving a cheesy sales pitch.”

●      “Personalization is absolutely overrated. [...] Personalization is just a fancy way of saying ‘mail merge’ nowadays. I think that what candidates really crave is relevancy and detail, which is different from personalization.”

●      “Employer Brand is just a lagging indicator of your culture.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Hirewell

●      Careerwell

To celebrate our 40th episode, we feature 13 short clips from recent podcasts that each contain pearls of wisdom courtesy of previous guests.

Enjoy clips from Marcus’s conversations with Adam Conrad, Hung Lee, Jamie Beaumont, Joel Lalgee, Mitch Sullivan, Will Staney, Laurie Ruettimann, Vanessa Raath, Jonathan Kidder, Mike Myatt, John Randolph, Mike “Batman” Cohen, and Henna Pryor.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:08] Adam Conrad on the impression you leave with every candidate

●      [03:04] Hung Lee on the future of the workplace

●      [04:14] Jamie Beaumont on getting engagement on your social media posts

●      [05:11] Joel Lalgee on how content on LinkedIn can lead to more exposure

●      [06:24] Mitch Sullivan on telling your readers what’s in it for them

●      [07:10] Will Staney on employer branding

●      [08:38] Laurie Ruettimann on the four keys to taking control of your career

●      [09:53] Vanessa Raath on the top three skills of a competitive sourcer

●      [11:14] Jonathan Kidder on tools for automating your outreach

●      [12:22] Mike Myatt on the importance of thinking about business outcomes during the search process

●      [13:38] John Randolph on Benaiah Consulting’s mission

●      [14:43] Mike “Batman” Cohen the importance of authenticity in your emails

●      [15:42] Henna Pryor on writing insanely effective emails

Key quotes:

●      “You only place maybe 2-to-5% of the people you talk to. But you leave an impression with 100% of those people.” ~Adam Conrad

●      “There are going to be a bunch of companies that will successfully go on-premise only. They will basically be trading their ability to retain and recruit staff for what they get on-premise.” ~Hung Lee

●      “What people don’t realize about social media is that it’s a conversation.” ~Jamie Beaumont

●      “As you put content out [on LinkedIn], you start to see people checking out your profile. The biggest ROI that you’re going to see is more profile views and potential DMs.” ~Joel Lalgee

●      “What’s absolutely critical if you’re going to start getting more of the right people with the right qualifications responding to your ads or your InMails or your social media posts, is you’ve got to immediately tell your reader what’s in it for them.” ~Mitch Sullivan

●      “What I’m seeing—and this pandemic has brought it on, too—is this humanization of company brands overall.” ~Will Staney

●      “I think fixing work is an inside-out job.” ~Laurie Ruettimann

●      “A sourcer has to have a good online brand, […] is brilliant at identifying talent, [...] and is a wordsmith.” ~Vanessa Raath

●      “There are a couple of [great automation tools] out there: MyRobotWorks, Machine Sourcer, as well as Phantombuster are some of my top suggestions.” ~Jonathan Kidder

●      “Making the hire is not the endgame. [...] Where most search firms’ roles end at the placement, that’s where ours really begins.” ~Mike Myatt

●      “We want to work with clients and candidates on chasing down those lions that they’re facing in their career or in their business.” ~John Randolph

●      “When people ask, ‘What is the one thing I could change that would help me get better responses?” it’s, ‘Stop writing shitty emails!’” ~Mike “Batman” Cohen

●      “Think of how you feel when you’ve gotten a communication that was clearly for you [...] and how different

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Alex Margarite, a leadership recruiter who began his career in research for the executive research firm Isaacson, Miller and went on to become Head of Talent Research and Engagement at Asana before ultimately becoming the TA Lead for leadership roles there.

Alex is a lifelong singer and a musician trained on multiple instruments in jazz and classical. And he’s a fellow spinning instructor.

Listen in as Alex shares the most refreshing part about moving from being an external to an internal recruiter and the differences he has observed between the two.

He also gives his thoughts on behavioral interviewing and its advantages over situational interviewing.

Finally, Alex explains why rejecting a candidate on the basis of “culture fit” is almost always a smokescreen, and why his goal at every interview is to elicit “explicit and radical honesty” from his interviewees.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [04:12] Moving from being an external to an internal recruiter

●      [06:18] Why it was a relief to now be responsible for only one client

●      [10:06] Frustrations that Alex experienced in internal recruitment

●      [13:24] Addressing the claim that internal recruiters don’t headhunt

●      [15:18] Differences in approaches between external and internal recruiters

●      [20:09] How the stakes differ for internal recruiters

●      [26:24] Is it any harder to reject a candidate when you’re internal?

●      [29:00] Are active candidates treated differently from passive candidates?

●      [30:00] How status updates differ in importance for internal recruiters

●      [32:39] Alex’s thoughts on behavioral interviewing

●      [39:18] Does behavioral interviewing accommodate different personalities?

●      [40:50] Does behavioral interviewing reduce the need for subjective evaluation by the recruiter?

●      [42:52] Alex’s thoughts on culture fit in a society that aims to have more inclusive and diverse workplaces

●      [46:07] Why Alex sets up his interviewees for “explicit and radical honesty”

Key quotes:

●      “Executive search consultants have such commitments to process—a clean, repeatable process that has some sort of real legacy behind it.”

●      “If you are someone working with a recruiter, whether internal or external, the quality of the relationship (like any relationship) is exclusively based on how much you put into it.”

●      “I think, as an internal recruiter, you have a little bit less in common with a consultant and more in common with a salesperson.”

●      “Behavioral interviewing is more accommodating than situational interviewing to a broader set of personality, communication, and even cognition types (or folks that approach problem-solving differently) because it gives them the chance to describe the way that something happened through their own words.”

●      Values are not necessarily the same thing as culture. Culture is the thing that forms around values.

Resources Mentioned:

●      Asana

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with John Randolph, the founder of Benaiah Consulting Group, a boutique CPA Recruitment firm. He is a 33-year veteran of the industry and has worked in senior leadership positions at Kforce and Robert Half.

His LinkedIn headline quite simply states: “I provide recruiting solutions to local CPA firm owners delivering untapped talent at a price that won't break the bank.”

Listen in as John shares the link between the Old Testament and the name “Benaiah Consulting” and how it informs their service philosophy towards clients.

He also speaks on the importance of being clear with your niche in the industry, and why this is especially crucial if you are a smaller firm.

John then touches on the value of nurturing long-term relationships as opposed to adopting a purely transactional approach to doing business.

Finally, John explains his content creation strategy on LinkedIn and what a recruiter should really be looking for when posting job advertisements.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:49] The story behind the name “Benaiah Consulting”

●      [04:33] Contingency versus retained recruitment

●      [08:01] How John pitches his service to his clients

●      [18:10] The importance of defining and staying in your niche

●      [21:12] Why it pays to be transparent with clients about your entire process

●      [26:40] The value of nurturing long-term relationships in business

●      [32:38] How John builds on his brand by producing content on LinkedIn

●      [37:33] Benaiah Consulting’s approach to niche marketing

●      [42:22] Good candidates that came in through Benaiah’s advertising efforts

Key quotes:

●      “Contingency recruiting is akin to chasing your tail all day long. There are not a whole lot of industries and a whole lot of businesses out there that will put the work and the effort into a process that we do as recruiters with the hopes of what might come on the backend.”

●      “For most anything that we do in life, if we take a long-term approach to it and a long-term mindset, the value that comes out of that is immense. This business is exactly that same way.”

●      “Most of the clients we work with do not have a brand ambassador in their organization that’s helping drive the recruiting engine for them.”

●      “We don’t post positions to fill jobs. We post positions to attract candidates.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Benaiah Consulting Group

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Adam Conrad, the founder and CXO of Great Recruiters, a SaaS platform that empowers recruiters to actively manage their professional reputation online in order to remain competitive and grow their business.

Adam has been in the recruiting business for over 20 years, including a 15-year stint as VP of Business and Recruiting Operations at Brightwing.

Listen in as Adam shares how technology is impacting the recruiting industry, with a particular focus on the pros and cons of automation and the best way to use different automation tools.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:56] How technology has enhanced the human experience in recruiting

●      [04:52] Verticals in the industry that have been impacted by technology

●      [08:46] Distinguishing yourself from other recruiters with candidates

●      [11:33] Using technology to stay connected with candidates

●      [14:06] Becoming your candidates’ recruiter of choice for future roles

●      [18:11] The downside of metrics and becoming an advisor for candidates

●      [21:15] Having tough conversations and setting expectations

●      [26:36] The limitations of automation

●      [30:30] Adam’s favorite automation tools

●      [33:17] Examples of great automation

●      [34:43] Ways in which automation can crush the brand experience

●      [36:51] The proper way to use automation to build your database

●      [38:41] About Great Recruiters and why Adam founded the company

●      [42:52] How Great Recruiters works with companies of different sizes

●      [45:09] How many reviews a recruiter needs to be considered high-quality

●      [46:09] Leveraging the data obtained by Great Recruiters

●      [47:09] The biggest objections Adam gets from potential clients

●      [50:01] What Adam is looking forward to in 2021

Key quotes:

●      “Technology is evolving for the staffing industry to make recruiters better, create a better experience for the candidates and the clients, and help people get to what they want faster.”

●      “Having a large database, to me, doesn’t matter. You need an engaged database.”

●      “You can’t put your own agenda ahead of your candidate’s agenda.”

●      “You only place maybe 2-5% of the people you talk to; but you leave an impression on 100% of those people whether or not you’re asking how that experience was. They don’t remember what you tell them. They remember how you made them feel.”

●      “I’d rather over-communicate than under-communicate [with my candidates].”

●      “We can’t force somebody on the other end to make a decision; but we can control the experience that candidates are having throughout that process.”

●      “Just because you can automate it doesn’t mean you should. [...] If the automation is going to be a value-add to your candidate, automate it.”

●      “If you think about it, recruiters are the number one marketers in your company: They talk to more people—they put your brand name in front of more people than anybody in your organization.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Great Recruiters

●      Herefish

●      Sense

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Will Staney, the founder of Proactive Talent, an employer branding consulting and staffing company focused on helping companies evolve the way they hire and attract talent. He is also the co-founder of Talent Brand Alliance, a community for employment branding and recruitment marketing practitioners to learn, collaborate, and network.

Listen in as Will shares how the pandemic has shifted perceptions on hiring in the business world as a whole, the keys to creating a great candidate experience, the ROI of developing a strong employer brand, infusing the human story into the company brand itself, and the evolution of the tech landscape for talent acquisition during the pandemic.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:07] An introduction to Proactive Talent and Talent Brand Alliance

●      [04:10] Growing Proactive Talent (and any company) throughout 2020

●      [09:22] How soon startups need to commit to a proper talent strategy

●      [11:53] How Will helps company founders think about culture

●      [15:38] Sharing your value proposition to prospective clients as an RPO

●      [20:02] What is employer branding?

●      [24:05] Being intentional about your company’s reputation

●      [28:49] Fundamental steps to improve your company’s employer brand

●      [33:14] Examples of companies that have nailed their employer brand

●      [35:45] How your employer brand impacts your ROI

●      [37:55] The business of talent acquisition in the COVID economy

●      [42:40] Why the hybrid office is the future

●      [45:50] What Will is looking forward to in 2021

Key quotes:

●      “My personal mission since I got into this industry is to modernize recruiting to make it more client-centric. It is an outdated industry and sector. I want companies to be better run and more profitable and people to find the right career.”

●      “I think both VCs and CEOs are coming to the realization that talent is really important right now. If this pandemic has done anything, it’s shown us the humanity of hiring and business.”

●      “Obviously, startups need to commit to a proper talent strategy as soon as possible, and they need to update it at every phase of their growth. It’s just as important, if not more so, than your go-to-market strategy for your product or your service.”

●      “Culture and values are so important. They are usually an afterthought; but they are really core to how you define your hiring process.”

●      “The goal of employer branding is to help organizations attract and retain the right talent but, most importantly, give candidates the information they need to either self-select in or to self-select out.”

●      “I’m seeing a humanization of company brands overall. You’re telling the consumer brand story by telling customer stories as well as the employees’ stories and the impact they’re making to the company.”

●      “Your values and your mission are a collection of shared beliefs; but your employer brand determines how that is put into action.”

●      “You have to look at your hiring process and think about those moments where human connection really matters. Don’t automate those parts.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Proactive Talent

●      Talent Brand Alliance

This week, Marcus Edwardes chats with Joel Lalgee  from Hoxo Media, a prolific poster with almost 50,000 followers, and teaches recruiters to use LinkedIn content, to attract clients. 

 Why do recruiters need to sit up and pay attention and start posting meaningful content? 

 [4:54]   Joel saw a huge need within the training and development of new recruiters within the industry that are coming in because when he looks at somebody who's been in the recruitment industry for 20 to 25 years, most of their business is a result of referrals. 

[6:18] Joel’s mission is to bridge that gap and help educate, train, and help equip recruiters to deal with some of the modern challenges that they face in all B2B and sales/recruiting roles.

The mindset behind the initiative that you need to take as a recruiter

 [9:16] It's really about consistency, showing up every day, growing that arctic audience, nurturing them, and building their trust that you're going to show up every day. You have to change your mindset to this is a long-term investment.

How does Joel keep the ideas flowing on meaningful content?

[22:40] What Joel looks at as meaningful content is one, it's something that either entertains people, educates people, or inspires people. It motivates people. So those are the four goals Joel sees for content. For a long time, everybody was looking at LinkedIn is it's just education, education, it's quote-unquote professional. But what we're starting to see is this shifts, even to that paradigm of what professional means, like there's definitely a shift within our work culture.

[23:58] If you think of a good idea, write it down, doesn't mean you need to use that in content that day, but it's nice to go back then and have a specific content planning time.

 [24:28] The next step past that is to not be too afraid of what the negative result of posting something is.

 Strategy from Joel

 [26:40] If you're not posting anything, start with once a week. Post once a week for a month, get used to it. What you should be doing is posting and then engaging with other people's content. So you start to get a feel for what are other people posting. You start to get a feel for how to interact on the platform, start to leave meaningful comments. The strategy is every few months, start to add reps, start to add some weight to how much you're posting and you're much more likely to be successful with.

 Rules for creating, writing, and engaging content

 [30:37] If you've got a speaking engagement, it's like you're speaking to the crowd. There are different ways you can invoke conversation. There's the shock factor that people use and that that's used a lot on social media. That's how a lot of people have built-in LinkedIn.

[34:55] A lot of times, the easier you can make it for people to engage on your posts, the more likely you are to get engagement. 

[39:03] Try to not get hung up on one type of content. With LinkedIn, you have to switch up the type of content that you're posting cause there's a lot of different options. Joel’s advice to anybody is to switch up the type of content that you're posting and to be consistent.

[41:11] You want to give people something that's interesting and entertaining. And if you can master that on LinkedIn by testing what works with your audience showing up in different ways, using a variety of different content, you succeed on the platform longterm.

Nick Livingston is  a math major who moved to NYC originally to get into the music business - but ended up as a Rockstar Agency recruiter and the ultimately the Director of TA for MTV. He moved back to the bay to get his MBA from Berkeley whilst running TA for TubeMogul and now focuses his efforts on his own company Honeit which is helping companies simplify the hiring process through the capture of conversation and interview soundbites and intelligence.

As the Founder and Chairman at N2Growth, a top executive search firm with more than 50 locations globally, Mike serves as a leadership advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs and Boards. He’s advised some of the world's best known CEOs, entrepreneurs, and public figures  and been a guest lecturer at many of the world's top Universities and their Business Schools.  On top of all that, he’s authored a several books, including the bestselling "Hacking Leadership" (Wiley), and "Leadership Matters" (OP)

In this episode Marcus and Mike discuss the genesis of N2Growth from a Leadership Development business into one of the most successful, progressive Executive Search Firms in the market today. N2Growth prides itself on being the opposite of many of the well-known 'legacy' Exec Search Firms - with a methodology, a technology platform, a highly data-driven approach to research and pipelining - and an unprecedented degree of transparency throughout the entire process.

Jonathan Kidder - the "Wizard Sourcer" is back! He's published two books since we last spoke - "Top Talent Sourcing Tools for Recruiters" and "A Guide to Diversity Talent Sourcing”

In this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers - Marcus quizzes Jonathan on Top Talent Sourcing Tools for Recruiters - the tools he recommends for different aspects of the job.

Episode Highlights

1:25- Introduction

2:07- The inspiration and reason behind Jonathan’s book

4:08- Evernote as a great tool for LinkedIn                

5:30- Evernote and its integration on LinkedIn

6:32- Top few ATS tools recommended for an agency or in house

6:39-  Loxo and its different integrating features 

7:23- Airtable, a great personal ATS tool for in-house, plus Greenhouse, Jobvite and Salesforce

8:57- People search engines - PeoplePro, Spokeo, ZoomInfo  

11.30- Free tools: Free People Search Intellus Peoplesmart 

12.00- Contact finding extensions: Hiretual, Seekout purchase from PeoplePro and Spokeo

13.00 Lusha, Nymeria, Improver, Swordfish (get the book - there are loads!)

14:20- LinkedIn and how they view these tools

15.25 - Connectifier, TalentBin

16:43- Candidate outreach tools and email automation - primer on outreach

18:00- Take the time to personalize emails!

19.50- What percentage of messages are personalized?

21:43- Gem and its features as a top candidate outreach tools

22:19- Intersellar and its integration

24:34- Sourcewhale and its integration

25:03- The power of InMails - great for follow ups.

27:35- Recommendations of things for people to automate in order to save time and remain safe on LinkedIn

28:44- Tools to reach 1st degree connections MyRobot.works, Machinesourcer, PhantomBuster)

30:20- PhantomBuster and the meaning of web scraping and how it works

32:01- Recommended Boolean Generators-Recruitin.net

33:39- Email tracking tools- Saleshandy

35:00- Writing tools -Textio, Joblint, Gender Decoder, Graammarly

36:50- Scheduling tools -Calendly, Mytime, Setmore, Appointlet

38:44- How to get the book (Top Talent Sourcing Tools for Recruiters)

40:00- An overview of the second book “A Guide to Diversity Talent Sourcing”

42:26- Conclusion

Laurie Ruettimann is a  human resources leader turned writer, entrepreneur, and speaker. She’s been recognized by CNN as one of the top five career advisers in the United States, and she’s featured on NPR, The New Yorker, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Vox. Laurie’s mission is to fix work by teaching leaders how to create cultures that support, empower, and engage workers meaningfully – and her new book Betting on You: How to Put Yourself First and (Finally) Take Control of Your Career is now available for pre-order!

1:25- Introduction

2:09- Inspiration behind Laurie’s book (Betting on you)

5:17- What do you think of American corporate culture as it stands today?

8:21 –Prioritizing your wellbeing and taking control of your career

9:27- The four cornerstones of the book

10:10- Learning as the fundamental of everything

12:51- Work life balance

13:50- Prioritizing your wellbeing

19:22- Promoting wellbeing in the workplace

22:05- The stigma of admitting you need help in the workplace and how it is being addressed

23:38- Creating a safe space in the workplace

24;07- Stepping up as the CEO of your life

26:55- Advice and steps to help people build the resilience they need in this COVID economy

28:00 – As regards to recruiting, how does the pre mortem work?

30:40- Looking at the worst case scenario and coming up with ways to mitigate the problem

34:34- Other ways pre mortem might be able to help recruiters

35:34- Examples of how a pre mortem has benefited a business

36:25- The company "GlitchPath" created by Laurie

37:23- What did that failure teach you?

39:27- The change in how leaders execute their role and how they treat their employees

40:03- What is your concept on servant leadership?

42:21- Investment in talent acquisition

44:55- Developing other skills aside talent acquisition

45:16- Automation in recruiting

46:24- How to contact Laurie 

www.laurieruettimann.com
LinkedIn - 20K+ connections
Twitter - 66K+ followers
Instagram - 32K+ followers
Facebook - 3.6K+ followers
YouTube - 523 subscribers
Laurie's Punk Rock HR podcast
Laurie's new book, Betting on You: How to Put Yourself First and (Finally) Take Control of Your Career)

Vanessa Raath is a Global Talent Sourcing Trainer | International Keynote Speaker | Career Brand Specialist & Coach

Vanessa holds a teaching degree and spent 8 years as a teacher in the United Kingdom. She now combines her passion for teaching and recruitment in order to offer much needed Sourcing Training to the South African Recruitment Industry. 

Marcus and Vanessa discuss how the art of sourcing has really grown into a separate career - and a different skillset to recruiting - as well as international sourcing and online brand building.

1:46- Introduction

2:54- Definition of a sourcer

3:17- Three things a sourcer has to be able to do

4:31 –Difference between Sourcing and recruiters

8:23- Being a standalone sourcer

9:09- Having the first conversation as a sourcer 

12:14- Is LinkedIn recruiter still a the best resource

13:16- Searching via Google - XRay Searching

15:31- The importance of messaging as a recruiter and sourcer

18:00- Learning via Facebook or twitter to help you reach a little bit more

24; 07- The need to separate TA into a sourcing function and recruitment function

24:72- Is transactional recruiting getting harder as brands and agencies search for more ways to differentiate themselves?

27:43- What an effective sourcing strategy looks like today?

28:00 – Knowing your audience

30:00- Getting a working sourcing strategy in South Africa

32:00- Why companies need better branding

35:23- Sourcing community in South Africa

36:30- Building a strong and trustworthy online brand

38:58- Shout out to the sponsors of the podcast (Recruiter.com)

39:30- What do people need to post online because you are building a brand?

40:00- Working with a ratio

42:03- Educating your community and adding value to the community

42:50- Is video the tool of the future?

43:14- Video’s engagement

44:21- LinkedIn algorithm and how it works

45:32- Conclusion

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with recruiter and coach Chris O’Connell. He achieved worldwide top-biller status as SThree and managed teams generating £15 million in revenue. Then, he started his own recruitment business, grew it to £25 million in annual revenue and, in his own words, “lost it all.”

Today, Chris does what he truly loves. He helps leaders build purpose-led businesses that perform optimally with a focus on what Chris calls the BASE Mindset, which stands for Behavior, Attitude, Skills, and Experience.

Listen in as Chris shares what he learned about leadership and company culture after losing his recruitment business, how vulnerability and servant leadership manifest themselves in the workplace, empowering the individual to empower the team, dealing with the mental health crisis amid the pandemic, and the importance of personal branding.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:45] What Chris learned from losing a £25 million recruitment business

●      [07:06] Things that Chris did right in his previous recruitment business

●      [09:53] Chris’s advice to himself if he could build that business again

●      [11:08] Why vulnerability is the top trait of every great leader

●      [14:26] How your family life affects your leadership capabilities at work

●      [15:21] How Chris coaches his clients to improve their own leadership skills

●      [16:26] Where a leader’s strength, resolve, and confidence come from

●      [18:51] What “servant leadership really means”

●      [21:50] How COVID-19 is changing the KPI-driven recruitment industry

●      [24:44] Managing the individual, not the team

●      [28:38] Transitioning away from a “survival of the fittest” company culture

●      [30:00] How leaders can maintain accountability in a remote working setup

●      [32:42] The role of gratitude in the workplace

●      [34:30] The pillars of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace

●      [36:33] Common problems associated with working from home

●      [38:55] Helping your people talk openly about their mental health

●      [46:08] Personal branding best practices

Key quotes:

●      “Don’t put all your eggs in that one basket that is your business. Building a big business is great, but it doesn’t guarantee happiness.”

●      “Just because a recruiter is at the top of the board doesn’t make them a great performer.”

●      “People buy from people, not companies. They don’t care how many awards you’ve got or how operationally efficient you are. They want to be from that person who understands them and enjoy the journey.”

●      “Your company has to have a framework or a company or team ethos, but you have to allow the individual to flourish in their own skin.”

●      “It’s much better to execute three or four things really well than 25 things really badly.”

●      “I think mental health and wellbeing is the number one component that’s going to drive business’s success in 2021.”

●      “Personal branding is more important than business branding.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      BASE Mindset

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Hung Lee, who built the Recruiting Brainfood newsletter from scratch into a thriving community of over 25,000 adoring fans, with a potent and fascinating curation of content aimed to satisfy, inform, and entertain recruiting and growth professionals all over the globe.

Aside from Recruiting Brainfood, Hung is the co-founder of tech recruitment company Workshape.io and the tech startup 300 Notes.

Listen in as Hung shares the limitations of an algorithmic newsfeed like that of LinkedIn, a key strategy to getting engagement for your content on LinkedIn in spite of the algorithm, where you should put your focus if you want to build a big email list, the importance of being relentlessly consistent to build (and keep) a large audience, and the pros and cons of the hybrid workplace.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:30] What is Recruiting Brainfood?

●      [04:32] Recruiting Brainfood’s reader avatar

●      [06:15] How Recruiting Brainfood differs from the LinkedIn newsfeed

●      [10:36] Getting your content out there even if the algorithm is “against” you

●      [13:31] Building your own custom audience with an email list

●      [18:00] Why you need to stay consistent with your content

●      [20:34] How Recruiting Brainfood makes money

●      [22:52] What Hung would change if he could start the business again

●      [27:22] How Recruiting Brainfood filters its article submissions

●      [30:14] Trends that emerged out of the pandemic in the recruiting industry

●      [32:36] Why a hybrid working environment may not work in the long run

●      [41:12] The slippery slope of measuring productivity in recruitment

●      [45:45] How entry-level positions fit into a work-from-home environment

●      [50:58] The future of designing workplace culture

●      [52:03] Hung’s plans for Recruiting Brainfood in 2021

Key quotes:

●      “Recruiting Brainfood was created to reduce the size of the internet to make it more relevant to people who are in the recruiting and HR profession.”

●      “What gets interactions is not necessarily great content. It’s usually outrageous, emotive content that generates that kind of engagement.”

●      “Yes, you should experiment in your business, but you shouldn’t experiment irresponsibly with your people’s attention.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Recruiting Brainfood

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Julia Pollak, Labor Economist at ZipRecruiter, a leading online employment marketplace that uses powerful matching technology to connect millions of businesses of all sizes and job seekers every month.

Julia is a Harvard graduate, and Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University, and an enlisted helicopter mechanic in the U.S. Navy Reserve. She is also the winner of the Military Excellence Award as the top recruit of more than 800 people at the Great Lakes cohort.

Julia’s job is to use data accumulated through billions of these interactions to gauge the health of the labor market and also to generate insights that can help job seekers and employers stand out and succeed in that market.

Listen in as Julia shares the state of employment as uncertainties of all kinds persist in our day-to-day lives. She discusses which roles and markets are currently experiencing a high volume of applications and which of these verticals are unable to accommodate these sizable talent pools. She also touches on job seeker confidence, best practices for applicants today, and the paradox of remote work.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [03:15] Julia’s role at ZipRecruiter

●      [04:42] What the data shows regarding employment rates throughout 2020

●      [07:30] Are there more applicants per advertised role today?

●      [09:51] Roles that are attracting more candidates now

●      [12:09] Markets with a glut of quality applicants struggling to find work

●      [15:33] Sectors experiencing the largest decline in the labor market

●      [17:26] The current demand for recruiters

●      [19:46] Markets that agency recruiters should be focusing their efforts on

●      [23:14] What is job seeker confidence and why is it so important?

●      [28:16] Common misconceptions about the current labor economy

●      [31:11] Job seeker sophistication and education

●      [34:32] Other common missteps by job seekers

●      [36:24] How job seekers should set their expectations on ZipRecruiter

●      [38:52] What candidates should do if they do not get any feedback

●      [41:41] The dramatic increase of work-from-home opportunities

●      [45:50] The impact of prolonged forced remote working on mental health

●      [49:16] What a potential post-COVID office paradigm would look lke

Key quotes:

●      “One of the roles of a marketplace like ZipRecruiter is to allow employers to look through the database of job seekers and reach out proactively to job seekers who would be a good match. Those kinds of innovations allow smaller companies who don’t stand out to get ahead.”

●      “Nobody trains people on how to look for a job and most people only learn what to do and what not to do the hard way.”

●      “About 60% of jobs have been gotten through networking.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      ZipRecruiter

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Guillaume Moubeche, the Founder and CEO of Lemlist, a tool that many recruiters are starting to embrace which automates sequences and personalizes cold email outreach to both candidates and clients.

Lemlist has quickly amassed a $3m ARR in under 3 years - and Recruiters are embracing the tool in an effort to automate and personalize outreach at scale.

Guillaume shares how the many hurdles and uncertainties this year brought us served as teachable moments and opportunities for the company.

Listen in as Guillaume shares the inspiration behind Lemlist and how he and his small team bootstrapped the business, ways to personalize your outreach, how Guillaume and his team built the Lemlist Family, how recruiters and sales professionals can tap into the community for inspiration on creating better outreach campaigns.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [02:34] The initial concept behind Lemlist and how it began as a company
• [04:17] Personalization: The gap in the market
• [06:43] How recruiters can use Lemlist
• [11:37] Uploading your existing database for Lemlist to apply its features to
• [12:55] The power of reaching out with a video message
• [15:18] Ways you can personalize your message
• [20:10] Examples of success users have had with Lemlist (i.e open rates)
• [24:02] Lemlist’s multichannel capabilities (i.e. email, LinkedIn, calls, etc.)
• [29:01] How Lemlist differentiates itself from the competition
• [31:05] Building a community around Lemlist
• [36:02] Where to learn more about Lemlist

Key quotes:

• “The truth is, whenever you reach out to people, you need to have personalization because you’re building relationships.”
• “Outreach, whether you’re doing it for recruiting or sales, has the goal of getting a reply and eventually getting a meeting to get to know the person.”
• “Hiring is always a struggle, especially in the early days, because you don’t know the level of expectation you can get from someone.”
• “Whether you’re in sales or recruitment, the essence of both types of outreach is building relationships.”

Resources Mentioned:

• Lemlist

Today’s Sponsor:

Visit video.recruiter.com and enter code Recruiter1000 to access the recruiter.com video beta program for free

Just a 2 minute message from Marcus at Christmastime!

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Mitch Sullivan, trainer and recruiter known on LinkedIn for his biting wit and take-no-prisoners approach to the recruitment industry, social media, and his passion for copywriting.

Mitch created the online training course, Copywriting for Recruiters, and is the author of On Recruitment, a book chock-full of wisdom and best read within easy reach of a six pack or a glass of wine.

Listen in as Mitch shares his unique approach to gaining a massive following on LinkedIn; how to maximize attention, interest, desire, and action in direct response advertising; the problems with contingency recruitment; and the four key areas to turn clients (hiring managers or companies) to retaining a recruiter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:26] How Mitch amassed over 40,000 fans on LinkedIn

●      [05:25] Producing engaging content on LinkedIn

●      [07:46] Mitch’s most successful post

●      [10:03] Has Mitch ever crossed the line with a post on LinkedIn?

●      [14:36] Mitch’s ROI for his social media efforts

●      [18:02] The principles behind Mitch’s course, Copywriting for Recruiters

●      [23:20] The current state of copywriting in recruitment today

●      [27:51] Selling yourself to the best candidate

●      [31:50] The importance of outreach to the copywriting process

●      [33:53] Writing a job ad that cuts through the noise

●      [42:14] Contingent versus retained

Key quotes:

●      “If you’re consistent in how you write, prepared to use wit and sarcasm from time to time, and you never, ever say anything that you couldn’t back up, you’ll go far on LinkedIn.”

●      “Clickbait only works if what comes immediately after the clickbait title or headline is something that relates to it.”

●      “If you want to get more of the right people with the right qualifications responding to your ad, email, or social media post, you’ve got to immediately tell the reader what’s in it for them.”

●      “Recruiters have got to change their thinking. It’s not about being a good writer—it’s about being a good thinker.”

●      “All of the heavy lifting in recruitment is done in either attraction or assessment.”

●      “The only way the industry is going to regain or discover some respect is by acting more like ad agencies and only taking on work that they’re capable of fulfilling and being paid on.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Copywriting for Recruiters

●      Mitch Sullivan on LinkedIn

●      mitch@fasttrackrecruitment.com

Today’s Sponsor:

Visit video.recruiter.com and enter code Recruiter1000 to access the recruiter.com video beta program for free

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Jamie Beaumont, a recruiting technology entrepreneur. He ran his own recruiting agency in graduate recruiting before he founded Offerd, a SaaS tool that automates the many top-of-the-funnel administration tasks.

He also, more recently, founded another SaaS platform for recruiters called Fuel, which he calls “the Klarna for Recruitment”, helping agencies get paid 100% of their fees upfront whilst allowing their clients to split their payments over six months.

Listen in as Jamie shares how he was able to found two SaaS platforms after only graduating in 2012, his unusual LinkedIn content strategy that wins him business regularly, why you should minimize automation as a recruiter, and how to effectively use social media for business.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [5:33] How Jamie was able to become a serial entrepreneur so quickly

●      [09:09] What Jamie learned from losing five figures overnight day trading

●      [17:21] The advantages and disadvantages of being your own boss

●      [19:46] Jamie’s content strategy on LinkedIn

●      [26:28] How Jamie wins clients from people engaging on his LinkedIn feed

●      [27:37] Combining social media content creation with traditional methods

●      [29:46] How Jamie ranks different growth hacks

●      [32:42] Threading the line between automation and personalization

●      [38:50] Having a strong, powerful message and sticking to it

●      [40:19] What is Offerd all about and who is it for?

●      [45:03] Why Offerd tried to solve too many problems

●      [47:05] Why Jamie launched Fuel

●      [52:55] What people often get wrong about using social media for business

Key quotes:

●      “What realistically separates an entrepreneur from somebody else is actioning that idea instead of just sitting on it.”

●      “Don’t be arrogant. Things are far more difficult than you think they are, and it’s usually when they’re going fairly well, there’s something going wrong at the beginning, because you should be learning.”

●      “I don’t like selling. I like splitting audiences.”

●      “Automation within recruitment can be complete suicide because it’s a people business.”

●      “What people don’t realize about social media is that it’s a conversation, not an announcement.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Jamie Beaumont on LinkedIn

●      jamie@paywithfuel.io

●      jamie@getofferd.io

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Sam Wallace, Founding Member of Chief, a private network designed specifically for senior women leaders. She is also the Managing Director at Sheffield Haworth, an international executive search and talent advisory firm.

Sam is part of a globally-integrated team dedicated to executive search work across technology and professional services. She is a mom of identical twins, loves the mountains and mountain biking, is an avid reader, and partial to the odd Chardonnay.

Listen in as Sam shares how to support companies through change, how data utilization will play an even bigger role in the future of the staffing industry, a primer on “defensive hiring”, and the importance of considering the “art” of recruiting as opposed to looking at it simply as a transaction.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [5:19] What it is like to work at Korn Ferry

●      [12:42] Why Sam moved on from Korn Ferry

●      [14:38] Joining Carmichael Fisher Executive Search

●      [18:44] How Sheffield Haworth is different to Carmichael Fisher

●      [20:12] What makes a great leader and what is “servant leadership”?

●      [21:35] How COVID-19 has changed the way people lead

●      [22:47] The transformation of female leadership in 2020

●      [24:06] How much of recruiting leaders is “art” and how much is “science”?

●      [26:24] Evaluating candidates beyond the resumé

●      [29:33] How Sam gets to know candidates

●      [31:05] What is UPWARD Women?

●      [32:56] Avoiding the mistake of being a transactional recruiter

●      [34:21] Building a more valuable network

●      [37:29] Sam’s favorite kind of search

●      [40:18] Distinguishing yourself from other search professionals

●      [42:39] What is “the albatross search”?

Key quotes:

●      “Leadership needs to be defined for the specifics of the organization.”

●      “So much of leadership is about communication, empathy, and transparency.”

●      “Leaders fail when they focus simply on outcomes. While that is important, the first and most important thing for leaders to do is create teams that are truly motivated to get to the end game.”

●      “The role of an executive search recruiter is the consultant.”

●      “The challenge with search is when it becomes a transaction. When it’s reduced to the act of making the placement, that’s when the nuances regarding the art of recruiting gets lost.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Sam Wallace on LinkedIn

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Mike “Batman” Cohen, founder at Wayne Technologies, and well-known in the sourcing and recruiting community as an advocate and practitioner of technology automation and innovation in the industry. He has spoken at many conferences such as SourceCon, Talent42, Sourcing Summit, HRNow, RecruitCon, and many more.

Mike admits that he has been kicked out of every agency he has ever worked in. While obviously not proud of that fact, he took it to mean that he could never fit into the traditional corporate staffing environment and decided at some point to stake out on his own. At the beginning, he served as a consultant to various companies. After a few years growing his skills and expertise, he gained the confidence to start Wayne Technologies, putting his focus into top-of-the-funnel sourcing.

Listen in as Mike shares how to upgrade your outreach messaging in 2020, his best practices for writing an email, and identifying and conquering addiction.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [2:24] Why Mike is called Batman and how Wayne Technologies came to be

●      [6:38] Milestones that changed Mike as a recruiter

●      [11:03] Mike on his first talk at ERE

●      [13:24] The job of a recruiter

●      [17:24] The best ways to reach out to people in 2020

●      [19:54] Sending personalized emails

●      [30:58] Connecting with Mike for his message templates

●      [31:54] Using video effectively

●      [33:48] Building an email database and expanding your LinkedIn network

●      [37:23] The power of injecting your communications with personality

●      [40:11] Overcoming addiction

Key quotes:

●      “Contingency recruiting is a grind. You can be doing everything successfully and still not be making any money.”

●      “The actual job of a recruiter, when you break it down to its essence, is to be a bidirectional data pipeline. That’s it. We take data from an organization and bring it to market. We take data from the market and bring it to the organization to allow both parties to make the best informed decision for them.”

●      “The only reason to write an email is to get a response.”

●      “Your silver bullet to getting people’s attention in your message is your personality.”

●      “Anything that you do to escape from any of those really strong or uncomfortable feelings or situations is addiction.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Mike "Batman" Cohen on LinkedIn

●      The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connection, and Courage by Brené Brown

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Meagan Murray, Head of People at Anduril Industries. Meagan previously held leadership positions at well-known brands such as Riot Games, Facebook, Cruise Automation, and Karat.

Meagan reveals how she got Covid in March - and how terrifying it was back then when we knew even less about the virus. Meagan is also a Cancer survivor which she shares too. Meagan details how Covid has completely re-shaped the way she views here professional life, personal life - and overall well-being, including taking up running again and losing 45lbs!

Listen in as Meagan discusses how COVID-19 has shifted the focus of every organization onto the health and wellbeing of its people, the foundational role of culture in every business, adapting to the virtual workplace, and traits that make up a great recruiter. Marcus mentions his Leadership Doctrine - The Big IDEA (Inspire, Develop, Empower, Appreciate)

Leadership, Remote work challenges, engagement issues - Marcus and Meagan cover a lot of interesting territory in this fascinating conversation.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [1:12] How contracting COVID-19 shaped Meagan’s 2020

●      [8:43] Meagan’s thoughts on companies now focusing on wellbeing

●      [11:25] Anduril’s mission and Meagan’s role at the company

●      [13:53] Culture is the bedrock of any organization

●      [14:52] Anduril’s core values and how they contribute to their culture

●      [17:03] Leadership-related challenges in 2020

●      [19:07] Keeping people immersed in their work while being isolated

●      [21:17] Measuring productivity in a virtual workplace

●      [22:28] Why vulnerability makes better leaders

●      [24:55] Highlights from working at Facebook, Riot Games, Cruise, and Karat

●      [29:34] Working in a hypergrowth company

●      [32:38] What makes a great recruiter?

●      [35:21] The consulting aspect of recruiting

●      [39:07] Does Meagan believe in recruiting “up-and-comers”?

Key quotes:

●      “As HR professionals, we always tend to put the needs of others before ours, but we actually really need to take care of ourselves first if we want to be effective leaders in the long run.”

●      “The best leaders I’ve seen are able to be vulnerable when the situation calls for it.”

●      “Selling your company’s vision to a prospective hire is about finding out what is important to the candidate and linking that up to what we have in the company.”

●      “I can’t stand it when people say that recruiting is sales. In fact, it drives me nuts. We’re not in sales. The best recruiters are the ones that aren’t trying to sell the opportunity. They’re trying to support the candidate to make the right decision—they’re trying to see if the organization is the right match for them.”

●      “Curiosity is the number one thing that makes a TA specialist or recruiter awesome.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Lucy Leonelli, Director of Executive Recruiting at Twilio, Inc and former Managing Partner at Wilton & Bain.

At one point in her corporate career, Lucy developed a hunger for adventure that inspired her to look beyond her job to see what else life had to offer. Upon returning to Wilton & Bain, her professional motivations were never the same. She references Frodo’s return to the Shire in Lord of the Rings, where Bilbo tells him, “You can never go home again.” As fate would have it, Lucy’s business partners reached out to her with plans for expansion into the U.S., leading her down a new path in Silicon valley.

Listen in as Lucy discusses her transition to the U.S., the differences in doing business between the two countries, best practices for building your network and nurturing business relationships, why you need to start making more phone calls today, how to evolve from recruiter to trusted advisor, and how a traumatic motorcycle accident completely changed Lucy’s trajectory in life. From expanding her network, to getting through the right doors, to understanding and strategizing around competitors, Lucy goes over the various challenges she had to overcome to get to where she is today.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [2:37] Leaving Wilton & Bain and moving to the U.S.

●      [5:27] Lucy on living with vampires

●      [7:28] Lucy’s first few months doing business in the U.S.

●      [8:30] What Wilson & Bain offers

●      [11:48] How doing business in the U.S. is different from the U.K.

●      [14:51] Immediate challenges in getting the business off the ground

●      [17:24] Building relationships in the U.S. fresh off the boat

●      [19:35] Other networking activities

●      [22:33] The biggest misconception clients have about the search industry

●      [26:58] When Lucy knew that the business was finally getting off the ground

●      [31:09] A case for making more phone calls today

●      [32:00] Sending LinkedIn messages that get responses

●      [36:48] The power of getting introductions

●      [37:56] Interacting with British aristocracy

●      [39:27] Lucy on her motorcycle accident

●      [45:16] Creating your own happiness

●      [46:24] What Lucy is excited for in her new role at Twilio

●      [47:44] Lucy’s parting words of wisdom

Key quotes:

●      “In Silicon Valley, people are very open to meeting up with you over coffee to have a conversation. The challenge is closing business. In the U.K., it’s the other way around.”

●      “Automation can find the specific collection of experiences and companies that you’re looking for. But how you find that personality profile and level of experience that’s going to fit into your organization requires a high-touch, human element. You can’t replace that with an algorithm.”

●      “A real shortcut to success in a search is getting introductions from your connections.”

●      “We always think it’s the external things that make us happy, so we always put happiness off. Really, happiness is something that’s absolutely within your control. Always focus on celebrating the wins and don’t dwell on the failures.”

●      “Make a plan and move in that direction, but don’t be surprised when curveballs hit you, because I think we have a lot more of those to come in 2021.”

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Bree Silveira, who shares her experience as a recruiter up until COVID-19 led to her getting laid off from Glassdoor.

Bree describes her understandable feelings of disbelief and grief upon being laid off. She quickly regained her bearings, however, and decided to focus on the silver linings that the crisis presented. For one, Bree was actually a week out from a planned maternity leave when she was laid off. 

Listen in as Bree discusses lessons learned following her layoff from Glassdoor, best practices for job seekers on LinkedIn, maximizing precious real estate on your resumé in order to stand out, and what your frame of mind should be when you walk into that first interview.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [1:30] Bree on getting laid off from Glassdoor

●      [5:05] Planning for future job prospects while on maternity leave

●      [7:10] Bree’s background as a recruiter and her experience at Glassdoor

●      [9:41] The right mindset to adopt when going into a job search

●      [16:20] Starting a job search and effectively utilizing LinkedIn

●      [23:51] Setting up alerts on LinkedIn and finding job postings early

●      [25:34] Standing out among countless other job seekers on LinkedIn

●      [29:41] Other resumé writing tips

●      [33:51] Beyond the resumé: Connecting with key people at the company

●      [34:45] How recruiters can improve their processes during COVID-19

●      [38:45] Challenges that hiring managers are now facing

●      [39:32] Bree’s candidate experience so far

●      [42:20] Maximizing the candidate experience and the employee experience

●      [45:29] Advice for those going into their first interview

●      [48:31] Bree’s parting advice for struggling job seekers in 2020

Key quotes:

●      “It’s very easy to update the resumés of your friends and family while neglecting your own.”

●      “When going into a job search, you have to go in with confidence, and you have to be yourself. Anytime you feel like you’re losing that confidence is a good time to step back from the job search, take a breather, and do something else that you enjoy.”

●      “You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be in the universe at this moment. You have to have faith.”

●      “You get exactly what you’re supposed to get when you’re supposed to get it.”

●      “At the end of the day, you’ve really got to put yourself out there and let people know what your circumstances are and that you’re looking for an opportunity.”

●      “Make sure that your experience is transferable to the position you’re applying for. If it isn’t, but you have the experience, then you need to change your resumé so that the person reading it can see a match immediately.”

●      “When going into your first interview, do not forget who you are, do not lose yourself, and do not try to anticipate what they want to hear. Just go in with confidence and be yourself. You should also interview back. Remember: You are offering something to your potential employer.”

●      “No matter what happens following the interview, you cannot let it affect your wellbeing or confidence, because at the end of the day, it’s just another person on the other side of the phone.”

Lauren Jones of Leap Consulting Solutions

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Lauren Jones, founder and CEO at Leap Consulting Solutions.

Lauren was in the unique and especially challenging position of being forced to deal with the COVID-19 crisis right after she founded Leap Consulting Solutions. Not to be deterred, Lauren decided to focus on what she could continue to do effectively even as shutdowns were taking place all around her: help those who were struggling to get or keep a job.  “Staying focused on what you can control and staying true to yourself,” says Lauren, “will always work out in the end, ideally.”

Leap Consulting Solutions helps companies simplify, implement, and integrate: 1) They help agencies simplify the overabundance of technology and make good business choices based on where they want to go; 2) They help with functional alignment and change management and adoption within the organization; 3) They help you implement your stack and evangelize that investment to the rest of the team. In short, Lauren helps businesses redefine how they are supporting the most important person in the world: the candidate.

Listen in as Lauren discusses the importance of investing in tools that will help you communicate and evangelize messages internally and externally, and drawing the line between automation and personalization.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [1:36] Why Lauren is proud to receive the Care Award

●      [2:56] Adapting to the pandemic

●      [6:21] Lauren’s background in the staffing and recruiting industry

●      [8:08] What Lauren offers

●      [9:32] Areas which are now ripe for tech innovation in the recruiting space

●      [11:17] How technology can help companies implement their core values

●      [16:27] Initiating the ATS vs CRM question

●      [19:37] Exciting advancements and new tools

●      [25:42] Using automation effectively

●      [32:21] How technology has helped companies navigate COVID-19

●      [38:06] Using technology vs an organic approach to engaging with prospects

●      [40:55] Lauren’s approach to change management

●      [48:39] What is Sense?

●      [50:06] Lauren’s “ah-hah” moments in building systems and solutions

●      [53:20] What Lauren is most excited about in 2021

Key quotes:

●      “We must make it easy for veterans to reenter civilian life, and as employers, we have the obligation to do just that.”

●      “Intentions and authenticity are everything, particularly when you’re starting a business.”

●      “People don’t buy features. People buy benefits.”

●      “You want your core values to be reflective in the technology that you leverage and how you leverage it.”

●      “There is no transformation without integration.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      Consulting services focusing on the simplification, implementation, and integration of your tech stack: Lead Consulting Solutions

●      Connect with Lauren Jones on LinkedIn: Lauren Jones

●      Email Lauren at lauren@leapconsultingsolutions.com

●      Customer Engagement Automation: Sense

Henna Pryor of Pryority Group

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Henna Pryor. For 14 years, Henna was one of the top finance and accounting recruiters in the Tri-State area, and consistently in the 10% of performers at Kforce, including the number one spot in 2017. In 2019, she founded the Pryority Group, where she focuses on executive coaching and transformative training for high achievers. She recently developed a course aimed squarely at helping recruiting and sales professionals massively improve their outreach game; or, as she puts in, “write insanely effective emails that get results.”

Henna notes that the staffing industry, in recent times, has focused on quantity over quality when putting together messaging campaigns. In a globalized world where recruiters and sales professionals constantly need to cut through noise and ever-shrinking attention spans, it’s understandable and time-saving to simply rely on sheer volume and the law of large numbers. However, by taking the extra time and effort to personalize each message, you set yourself up for even greater success. Namely, you should strive for the ability to connect with and convert someone in such a way that they are compelled to respond to your outreach.

Listen in as Henna discusses the difference between a blueprint and a script; the power of segmentation and specificity when crafting messages; creating curiosity in your subject lines; and how personalization, warmth, and fun can encourage more engagement.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [1:59] Why messaging is paramount

●      [3:47] The key components to a successful messaging campaign

●      [6:16] How to connect with and convert prospects

●      [9:18] Getting and maintaining a prospect’s attention

●      [15:15] Crafting personalized messages using segmentation

●      [19:37] Incorporating your call to action in your message

●      [22:43] Good versus bad headlines

●      [26:26] The downsides of automated messages

●      [30:40] Creating commonality and fun in your interactions with prospects

●      [35:36] How Henna’s training has helped recruiters

●      [38:08] Focusing on benefits over features

●      [42:14] Approaching cold versus warm candidates and clients

●      [43:47] Advice on email sequencing

●      [47:03] Two tips to instantly increase the quality of your messages

Key quotes:

●      “90% of people screen their phone calls and don’t pick up an unknown phone number anymore.”

●      “Like it or not, people will instantly judge you based on the words that you use.”

●      “When you’re speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to no one.”

●      “People don’t buy features. People buy benefits.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      The world’s only sales messaging and copywriting masterclass for the staffing industry: Recruiter's Copy Clinic

●      Connect with Henna Pryor on LinkedIn: Henna Pryor

●      Email Henna at henna@pryoritygroup.com

Jonathan Kidder: The Wizard Sourcer

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Jonathan Kidder, otherwise known as the “Wizard Sourcer”. He is currently working as a tech recruiter for Amazon, and his blog, Wizard Sourcer, has become one of the leading knowledge resources for recruiters online.

Listen in as Jonathan unloads a treasure trove of advice on the current sourcing and recruiting landscape, including best practices to keep in mind when reaching out to potential candidates. He also gives us his favorite tools and platforms for prospect databases, customer engagement, and automation, as well as a primer on his own free browser extension, Recruiter Wand.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [1:49] How sourcing has evolved over the past five years

●      [3:45] Looking for candidates versus engaging with candidates

●      [4:52] Do all good recruiters make good sourcers, and vice versa?

●      [5:44] Is automation disadvantageous to the recruiting process?

●      [8:43] Jonathan’s process as a technical recruiter at Amazon

●      [15:30] What are some alternatives to LinkedIn?

●      [21:24] Why InMail is losing steam

●      [22:59] The best way to utilize texting

●      [26:00] Using video to connect with prospects

●      [27:26] Examples of candidate engagement platforms

●      [31:28] How Jonathan built his brand with Wizard Sourcer

●      [33:48] Jonathan’s other favorite platforms

●      [38:36] The four levels of automation and examples of automation tools

●      [40:39] What is Jonathan’s browser extension, Recruiter Wand?

Key quotes:

●      “Sourcing, as a whole, when it first started, was focused on lead generation. It’s changed in recent years as some teams do the full cycle process while others have sourcers and as well as recruiters to take over at some point in the process. More than ever, sourcers do now communicate and engage candidates and start them on the process.”

Resources Mentioned:

●      The most complete database of tech people: Human Predictions

●      Build better business relationships with video messaging: BombBomb

●      Candidate engagement platforms: Hiretual, SeekOut, Lusha, Gem, Lemlist, Interstellar, Sense

●      A new candidate interviewing platform: Honeit

●      Get matched directly with active talent: Hired, Vetterly, AmazingHiring

●      Automation tools: Phantombuster, IFTTT, Zapier

●      Jonathan’s free browser extension to create auto-filled emails: Recruiter Wand

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Maurice Fuller, founder and Conference Producer at StaffingTec, which began in May 2018 to meet the need for an up-to-date and reliable information hub and community dedicated to the world of staffing industry technology. Maurice is also the President of NewVector Group, a management consultancy and training company specializing in serving the IT staffing sector.

Maurice discusses the ever-evolving landscape of staffing technologies and, by extension, virtual communication as a whole. Obviously, COVID-19 has had a profound effect on the industry. He discusses how staffing companies will gradually be reducing their real estate footprints as they look for solutions to be able to work virtually. In addition, Maurice speaks about how staffing will be run more autonomously in the future, with humans only stepping in at times of exception or when their presence brings the type of value that automation cannot.

Many new technologies have emerged not only as the industry continues to change, but also as customers become more and more sophisticated with the staffing services that they purchase. While Indeed, Monster, and LinkedIn continue to serve as staples for recruiters and job seekers, companies that seek to stay on the cutting edge need to consider platforms that make the hiring process faster and more convenient.

A large part of Maurice’s role in NewVector Group is “helping companies identify technologies that will help them grow their revenues faster and improve profits. Also, I help them prioritize all the different options that they have in front of them.” For Maurice, a good strategy for the future of a staffing company depends not only on which tools and platforms they decide to focus on, but also on their taking into consideration how automation can be implemented into their system.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [1:30] StaffingTec’s digital transformation in recent years

●      [4:53] How the staffing technology landscape changed amid COVID-19

●      [7:19] The biggest ways technology has changed the recruiting process

●      [11:20] New technologies popular among recruiters aside from LinkedIn

●      [19:12] Potential downsides to automation in the staffing industry

●      [21:07] The role of new recruiting technologies in headhunting

●      [22:20] Promising emerging AI-driven platforms

●      [26:43] How staffing companies can implement marketing automation

●      [28:42] The current state of LinkedIn

●      [29:47] How staffing industry leaders must think about the future of staffing

●      [34:11] The role of blockchain in the staffing industry

●      [35:18] How Maurice helps staffing companies adopt new technologies

●      [39:29] What Maurice is most excited about going into the future

Key quotes:

●      “Staffing industry leaders should consider that customers are becoming more and more sophisticated about purchasing staffing services.”

●      “More than anything, it’s important to have a vision of what the future looks like. And once you have that clear vision of what the future staffing firm is going to look like, then you can build toward that vision. That vision is going to constantly evolve into the future, but it’s highly, highly automated across all areas.”

In this episode, Marcus interviews another Marcus, Marcus Sawyerr, Global Head of Digital Partnerships at the Adecco Group. 

Marcus Sawyerr details Adecco are adapting to the new economic landscape, and evolving digitally as the recruiting space continues to mature. He also examines the importance of developing essential diversity and inclusion practices. 

What you’ll learn in the episode…

• [02:37] How Marcus sees both daily operations at Adecco as well as his role as the global head of digital partnerships
• [04:42] Adecco’s role in other digital organizations, developing the future of HR Tech operations
• [05:00] How successful digital partnerships operate at Adecco, and about their recent education partnership
• [07:37] Where  Marcus  sees the future digital transformations in the staffing industry
• [09:01] How Marcus thinks that role of recruiters will have to evolve as a result of this transformation
• [10:19] How the organizations Marcus and Adecco work with are refocusing on diversity and inclusion 
• [13:17] Why education is such a pivotal factor in promoting positive diversity and inclusion initiatives
• [14:29] The mutual dependance of both diversity and inclusion, and how one factors into the other
• [17:27 How inclusive cultures can make companies better, stronger, and more agile in confronting the challenges that the future might bring
• [19:12] How the digital transformation in the staffing industry is affecting this push for diversity and inclusion
• [23:20] Where Marcus  sees opportunities in the future of recruiting
• [27:10] The values of niche marketing, and how niche approaches can serve as future proofing in the midst of uncertainty
• [28:30] What goes into the process of verticalizing a brand like Adecco
• [31:58]  Marcus’ thoughts on the opportunities in subscription models for the industry
• [35:58] The impacts of Covid-19 and the paradigm shift  Marcus is seeing as a result
• [38:48] How Adecco was able to react rapidly in the face of the coronavirus, moving 30,000+ employees to remote work at the drop of a hat
• [43:20] How the spirit and culture at Adecco has affected  Marcus, and how he looks towards the coming years of Adecco

This week on RT - Marcus shares a blueprint for implementing an impactful corporate culture that is both binding and progressive - and the key driver for Recruitment and Retention of the talent you need.

In this episode, Marcus interviews Roopesh Panchasra, Global Head of Executive Recruiting and Employer Branding, Vice President at SAP. 

Roopesh details how he and his team approach the multi-faceted challenge of finding great talent at SAP, from designing better candidate experience to building out a high-tech talent intelligence operation. He also examines the key differences between in-house and agency recruiting. 

COVID’s Effects

With the events of early March and global lockdowns, Roopesh and his team had to remain agile and creative to continue their consistent operation. Nobody was laid off in RP's division. This agility and creativity led Roopesh to reevaluate his assumptions on the ideal assessment of candidates, learning that video can be relied upon. 

What you’ll learn in this episode

• [01:27] What kind of problems Roopesh and his executive search team are grappling with
• [06:21] How the team at SAP adapted to the coronavirus crisis, and the shift to digital-only communication
• [08:45] Having to rely on video interviews to make a proper assessment of candidates
• [11:14] The silver linings and positive discoveries Roopesh has found in light of the coronavirus
• [12:57] How candidate experience is improving, and changing to focus on proper fit rather than creature comforts
• [15:15] How SAP and Roopesh’s team are able to give candidates responses within 48 hours
• [17:03] The way SAP approaches building their employer brand to attract top candidates
• [23:11] What SAP does, and how Roopesh is able to make it attractive to candidates
• [31:53] Building out a talent intelligence team that contextualizes talent to SAP
• [37:04] The tools and tricks the talent branding team at SAP uses to find and attract top talent
• [39:29] Creating branding events in an increasingly digital environment
• [42:12] The big distinctions between in-house and agency talent operations
• [51:02] Using AI and ATS systems to find candidates that might otherwise have been over looked.

A self-confessed Talent Trailblazer with experience of successfully leading multinational Talent Acquisition teams for nearly 20 years, Roopesh Panchasra is currently the Global Head of Executive Recruiting & Employer Branding, Vice President at SAP where he’s been for ab out 5 years and previously directed TA teams at Workday, Expedia and VMware.

Julie was my first guest on Recruiting Trailblazers - where she revealed she was leaving her position as Global Head of TA at Glassdoor.
Find out how she's been getting on over the summer and how her quest for a new role is progressing!

Matt Allen: We Are Not Participating in This Recession.

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Matt Allen, founder of Verticalmove, a 20-year-old high-end boutique technical and executive search firm based in Seattle, now moving into the Phoenix area. Verticalmove specializes in the placement of senior level software engineering and tech positions, both on contract and permanent.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Verticalmove has seen a drastic shift from hiring primarily on a full-time to a contract-to-hire basis. It is a shift embraced by many other recruitment firms due to the flexibility and cost-saving benefits of contractors—factors that companies value today more than ever.

While there is a thick air of caution around full-time recruiting in today’s climate, Matt discovered a gradual resurgence in Q3 as some companies have begun to hire for the long-term once again, especially as news of a possible vaccine is becoming more hopeful. He likens it to how the economy played out in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, in that a number of major stakeholders and executives saw a “land grab” moving forward while many other companies are struggling to recover from the recession.

For Verticalmove, Matt realizes that, if nothing else, building relationships with potential new hiring managers is “the key to getting through these economic upheavals.” Contrary to what most might think, more people are actually picking up the phone today. And more often than not, they are picking up the phone from home, which opens up new opportunities to form a more personal connection with leads compared to before the outbreak. By taking the time to reach out during these uncertain times, and leading with value, any business can quickly set itself apart in the market as a reliable and trustworthy partner.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [1:22] A primer on Verticalmove

●      [5:41] How Vertical Move is faring amid COVID-19

●      [8:08] Switching from recruiting on a full-time to a contract-to-hire basis

●      [13:09] Why companies are now recruiting less and how they are adapting

●      [19:06] How to give clients the confidence to pay a retained firm upfront for hiring whole teams

●      [27:34] Dealing with fewer job applicants during the pandemic

●      [34:07] Building an application tracking system

●      [37:48] Stand out in the market by becoming a subject matter expert

●      [43:10] Desire to add as much value to your constituents as you can

Key quotes:

●      “Full-time recruiting is definitely down. However, we are seeing, as we progress into Q3, something that is very similar to what we saw during the 2008 financial crisis. It was a pause, and a lot of companies started to absorb the bad news and figure out ways to move forward. [...] I think the types of companies that we tend to service are forward-thinking enough that they want to get ahead of the land grab.”

●      “Our business is a very relationship-driven business, so other than going out and focusing on the ‘net new’, the expectations we’re setting for ourselves is that we’re planting seeds, we’re establishing relationships. [...] The relationships are the key to getting through these economic upheavals.”

●      “We have started to think of ourselves as a sales organization who happens to recruit.”

●      “If we reach out with value rather than solicitations, if companies need us, they’re going to opt in.”

In this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers – Marcus interviews Bruce Morton about his role at Allegis as Chief Strategy Officer and his book “Redesigning the Way Work Works”

Bruce shares how he advises Clients on workforce design and TA in the future - as well as actually leading the design of most suited services for the Allegis client portfolio.
Allegis Largest privately held staffing firm in world (owns Aerotek) and operates in all the usual talent verticals – technology, manufacturing, financial services, energy and healthcare.

On the subject of the Covid disruption - Allegis were able to get 20k people employees working from home in 2 days plus 500k workers WFH! A lot of perm hiring came to a stop. Bruce thinks it’s going to be a “tick mark recession” (quick entry and slow exit), and also thinks that the contract markets will expand due to lack of confidence – probably indefinitely. Plus we may reach a 50-50 mix of perm to on-demand workers in the not too distant future.
Marcus and Bruce discuss the cornerstones of his book – “Redesigning the Way Work Works”

What is Organizational readiness? 

What are Work Design Architects and why do all (big) companies need one?

What is a Talentsumer?

(Bruce describes how todays workers “consume” jobs in the same way that they might purchase any product or service.)

Deconstructing the work – what is the need for it? (basing your hiring decisions on your achievement goals rather than duties and responsibilities)

One of the highlight of the conversation - Bruce shares a great story about Ronald Reagan visiting NASA – asking a cleaner what do you do? 

He responded – “I helped put a man on the moon!”

Other key questions answered:

To what extent do companies have a properly mapped out mission and strategy – to increase the value of their offering to their clients?

Talent Architecture – can Companies check their egos at the door to allow the new workers to choose how best to engage with an employer to perform a specific set of tasks.

Do companies need to bear more responsibility regarding the retention of employees/workers in tough times like Covid?

Are companies finally measuring workers by productivity instead of activity?

Are remote workers in fact getting more work done at home – and isn’t this a big surprise?

Do you think hiring managers do enough to sell the opportunity to a candidate - or spend too much time assessing for fit?

The Glassdoor phenomena – does it work and what impact is it having on the world of work?

 Bruce explains why Allegis is such a great place to work!

 Links:

Bruce’s book “Redesigning the Way Work Works”

https://amzn.to/3iUcPJ3

John Boudreau’s book “Lead the Work”

https://amzn.to/3g6l2rX

Daniel Pink’s Drive – discussion around Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

https://amzn.to/3iTy7qm

Julie Coucoules https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcoucoules/

Matt Charney https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcharney/

Andrew Trout is the Head for Talent Acquisition at Gusto. A people platform for small businesses handling everything from payroll to HR and benefits who ramped up to 1400 people last year with 600+ hires. He led his team in transitioning into the COVID period by being empathetic while looking out for the business.

In this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers, Andrew shares the steps Gusto has taken to ensure they remain productive even as they work remotely from home. He talks about how the organization is handling business during the pandemic and touches on the huge impact on businesses during the COVID period, some positive and others negative. Listen in to learn how Gusto is working towards representation and inclusivity as part of the Black Lives Matter initiative. 

Quote:

“Everyone coming into your organization is not going to have the same skillsets. If you’re rewarding impact, you’ve got to be able to train, coach, mentor, and provide your organization with tools to up-level their productivity.” Andrew Trout 

Key Takeaways: 

• How physical activity leads to mental sharpness
• How COVID-19 has forced more communication to happen within an organization
• How to maximize your time working from home even with all the distractions that exist
• The importance of having an impact-oriented team as compared to an hour oriented
• one
• Having the impactful conversations and learning more about the Black Lives Matter initiative

Topics discussed:

 - The steps that Gusto took towards the COVID-19 crisis and how they have changed positively. 
- The factors that led recruiting companies to make the decisions they made during the pandemic.
- What is Gusto’s recruitment scale?
- The process they’re using to hire less this year due to COVID. 
- Why Gusto considers themselves customer friendly especially during the pandemic.
- The distractions that come with working from home. 
- Why the impact is more important than hours worked.
- How the return to work plan looks for Gusto.
- How the Black Lives Matter initiative has created a space to learn in the recruiting world.  - How to find a silver lining when looking at the recruitment industry post-COVID. 
- The opportunities that exist now in the industry for businesses. 

Relevant Links:

Website: https://gusto.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-trout-7913562

In this week's episode of Recruiting Trailblazers - Natasha Katoni, from prominent VC Firm Amplify Partners, shares her mindset, methods and magic during her journey from Agency Recruiter to her current role as Head of Talent.

Natasha explains the difference between the roles as a Talent Partner as opposed to her previous role as a Recruiter. 

Marcus and Natasha discuss the climate inside the VC world - including the remote working paradigm and how it may “stick” as we move forward through the Covid crisis. 

They touch upon the concept of a more distributed, remote workforce - and the opportunities for both Companies and Candidates. 

Natasha talks about demand (in software engineering) outstripping supply - plus she comments on the most recent  and reactive layoffs in the Recruiter community - and ponders the structure of Recruiting departments moving forward. 

Mindset - Natasha shares some her guiding principles on her fast journey to Head of Talent - including making her own luck and the choices she has made, moving from company to company - and the role that some of her mentors have had in her development as a Recruiter. 

Marcus questions Natasha on how she convinced her early employers to take a chance on her as the first Recruiter hired. Natasha underlines the importance of working your network instead of just answering job ads. 

At Segment, a milestone for Natasha, she talks about her need to impact the business as the first recruiter. She explains how she partnered with internal stakeholders to build robust systems and processes. They also talk numbers and growth of the engineering division during her tenure. 

Natasha relates how she managed to build a closing strategy that helped them improve from a 40% to 80% close rate. 

She also shares her “imposter syndrome” and how she worked her way through it, via therapy and internal coaching. (David Clemens) 

They talk lessons learned, mistakes made - and things that Natasha might do differently. 

Natasha drives home the importance of making a true impact on the business and properly understand the driving needs of the business as opposed to focussing solely on the human capital requirements. 

They talk talent strategy and the cornerstones of implementing an early system to attract and process talent. 

Natasha talks "GEM" messaging - and sourcing through LinkedIn. She stresses the importance of developing an early talent brand - and how to differentiate the brand. 

Other topics they touch on are Covid hiring challenges, founders capping earnings, candidate messaging and candidate experience. 

Natasha reveals what she looks for in a Recruiter and offers some sage advice in how in-house Recruiters might follow in her footsteps into the VC community. 

They talk productivity, metrics and much more!

Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

You can connect with Natasha here:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-katoni-72440356/
email: natasha@amplifypartners.com 

Now is a good time to be working for one of the big brand Recruiting and Services companies and Randstad is one of the biggest, with revenues of 23BN Euros worldwide.

This week's guest on Recruiting Trailblazers is Joel Leege. 

As EVP & Chief Strategy Officer, Joel leads Randstad Technologies’, Engineering and our Centralized Delivery business unit’s sales approach for account portfolio alignment, sales methodology, productivity/growth strategies and execution. Joel is the US lead for M&A and also is involved in joint strategic business initiatives, business concept design and innovation with other Randstad operating companies. 

Joel explains his role in the $1.3Bn Tech and Eng. division - from Go-to-market strategy to operational M&A and partnership development across the firm.

Some of the questions on the table include:

What is the current state of the staffing market - since the Covid crisis began?
What has the impact been on direct hire markets and fees?
Where are you seeing growth? (biotech, healthcare and healthcare services)
Have there been many layoffs in the Direct hire bsuiness?
What's been the impact on "culture" due to the big remote work experiement?
What about morale? Joel says 
What's happening in the world of Recruiting automation and AI?
How do you build sales/recruiting teams in an industry with such high turnover?
What does it take to be successful in the Recruiting business?
Is there an opportunity for in-house recruiters back in the Agnecy contract or services business?

Some of the highlights include:

Getting back into the office: "I just want to see someone else in person!"

The movie “BIG’ and how his role aligns with a particular scene in the movie. 

The Randstad innovation fund - series A and B funding created for companies who disrupt the Talent space. Joel explains the fund and shares some data points.

Great quote: "Better to invest in companies that disrupt - than be disrupted” 

Joel runs through the vision of a fully automated Recruiting workflow -using AI tools. 

On the subject of Marcus says "You can’t automate relationship development" 

Joel talks about being surrounded by people who really know the business inside out- and how he feels the need to be on his A game all the time.  

Email: joel.leege@randstadusa.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelleege/ 

Twitter: @joelleege 

This week, Marcus speaks with Founder/Author, Jeff Wald, about giving away a $10m prize in 2040, the future of jobs and work and his book, The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations. 

Jeff is the founder of Work Market, an enterprise software platform that enables companies to manage freelancers (acquired by ADP). Jeff is the author of The Birthday Rules and The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations. Jeff frequently speaks at conferences and in media on startups and labor issues. Jeff holds an MBA from Harvard University and an MS and BS from Cornell University. 

Jeff is giving away 10m for the Future of Work Prize - he’s a huge X-Prize fan - and explains why, when - and to whom, he will be awarding the $10m.

Jeff talks about the intellectual antecedents (including OnForce) to his startup, Workmarket - the Freelance Management System that was eventually purchased by ADP.

He shares the challenges they faced to raise their first $6m - and the strategy they took. He supports the notion that it’s crucial to get to market as soon as possible - you don’t really know what’s going to happen next until you get the product out to your first 1000 users. Instead of  “The are using it wrong”  they took the position that “They are using it right - we built it wrong”.

Getting going out of the gate with 10-15 enterprise customers allowed them to generate $1.5m in the first year.

The elevator pitch from origination is discussed - Workmarket is enabling corporations to efficiently and compliantly organize, manage and pay freelancers.

Quotes: "Ideas are cheap - the will to execute is expensive”. "Doing it" is what separates people. "Release early, release often”

Jeff thinks that he might change the title of the book given a chance - he was not in love with it, and thinks the irony of the title might be lost due to the economic repercussions of the Covid pandemic. He might have caledl it “The Future of Work is Here"

Jeff shares thoughts on his “Labor equation” to evaluate the shape of the workforce and how to engage labor.

Jeff cites Historic trends, data patterns, corporate decision making and even brings his Mum into the conversation!

The duo talk about regulatory changes due to the pandemic and the impact moving forward.

Jeff does not like “non data-driven” predictions - talks about de-globalization, remote working and Robots and AI.

10-15% of jobs are going to disappear in the next 20 years - but there are plenty of jobs that are going to be created that will come close to balancing the equation.

Marcus asks if the human aspect (in recruiting) can be automated.

Mechanization, electrification and computerization are cited as previous drivers of major shifts in the workforce and the oncoming first services revolution is going to be the catalyst for some major retraining needs.

Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwald/

Get the book: The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations.

On this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers, host Marcus Edwardes speaks with special guest, angel investor and serial entrepreneur, Adriaan Kolff, on job seeker strategies, advanced sourcing as a service - along with some amazing tools and tips that are worth their weight in gold!

Adriaan shares the rollercoaster ride of MatcHR over the last few months - by doubling down on his Business Development efforts - focusing on current clients and by starting tooffer free Sourcing Workshops to showcase their value to existing clients.

Adriaan also talks about his forthcoming Advanced Webinar, to include scraping data, automating the sourcing process, using video for cold outreach to candidates, what are best outreach strategies and how can you collect data to optimize messaging.

Adriaan also reveals that business has taken off again - they've signed five new clients - and managed to rehire most of the people they had to lay off!

Adriaan generously discloses his favorite tools and why he uses them.

“There’s one thing you can’t automate in the recruitment process… and that’s the human connection.”  - Marcus Edwardes

Listen to this episode - there's so much value inside!

Connect with Marcus on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes/

Connect with Adriaan on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/adriaankolff/

Adriaan's Must-Read Articles on Medium:
- https://medium.com/@adriaankolff/the-ultimate-guide-to-finding-a-new-job-fast-efficiently-23ac5a50d2c8
- https://medium.com/@adriaankolff/the-best-and-worst-sourcing-and-recruitment-tools-of-2019-1b6e6f575015

Sourcing Tools Recommended by Adriaan:
- https://amazinghiring.com
- https://phantombuster.com
- Phantombuster Tutorial: https://www.loom.com/share/6c08dfa87fa74db986dc72850ba13176
- https://www.lemlist.com
- https://trinsly.com
- Dux Soup Chrome Extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dux-soup-for-linkedin-aut/ppdakpfeaodfophjplfdedpcodkdkbal

00:33 – Introduction and background of Adriaan

01:19 – About Medium article: The Ultimate Guide to Finding a New Job Fast and Efficiently

04:53 – What’s the first thing you should and shouldn’t do when you’ve decided to apply for a job online?

05:50 – Video messages as part of outreach

08:41 – Big takeaways from the article + top tips for securing the job

10:18 – Embracing rejection

11:33 – Finding a job is a full-time job

12:57 – Trust, transparency, and lay-offs during coronavirus

16:29 – Sharing financials with employees

18:13 – What has happened since the pandemic lay-offs?

23:07 – What is your best advice for recruiters and people who are struggling with sourcing people?

29:40 – Important questions for hiring managers + benchmarking

31:14 – Are you going to rerecruit some of your lay-offs or will you rebuild?

32:13 - What did you do to gain your new clients?

34:55 – What’s the talent pool like in Ukraine?

36:25 – Sourcing vs Recruiting as a service

40:42 – How do you differentiate from internal recruiters?

43:13 – Sourcing tools Adriaan uses and why

47:28 – Adriaan’s vision for the future

Thanks to 

In this episode of Recruiting Trailblazers - Marcus speaks with Casey Jacox about his journey to become the #1 All-time Salesperson for Kforce - one of the top Staffing Firms in the USA.
Casey relates some of the struggles to get to the top and the lessons he learned along the way - stating that the only thing that you can truly control are "Attitude and Effort".
Casey reveals some of the winning strategies that he applied in his 20 year sales career - and the main tenets of his book Win The Relationship, Not the Deal https://bit.ly/Win-Relationship 

These include:

• The Golden Rule: Treat people how you want to be treated
• Patience: don’t plan the wedding on the first date 
• Setting expectations: build credibility by clearly communicating, then delivering on your plan.
• Practice (sports analogies) - why don't salespeople role-play every day?
• Hearing vs listening - listening will give you all the clues you need to reconcile a “tailor-made”, irresistible solution 
• Documentation will set you free - salespeople are notorious for “trying to remember stuff” (Marcus says - treat yourself like a goldfish - write everything down!
• Ditch the Ego/ practice self awareness
• Grit: (includes conscientiousness, patience, perseverance, resilience, passion)

Casey talks about his goal of getting the book into college and university programs and syllabuses.

Marcus and Casey discuss Casey's podcast (below) and his new sponsor, who has finally encouraged Casey's daughter to eat fish! https://catchsitkaseafoods.com
Use CODE: QBDADAK

Winning The Relationship, LLC – Sales & Leadership Coaching

Author, “Win The Relationship; Not the Deal”
https://bit.ly/Win-Relationship

The Quarterback Dad Cast - Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-quarterback-dadcast/id1492347381

Casey's bio:

With more than 20 years of business experience, Casey’s leadership helps companies emphasize the building of relationships and not just transactional business deals.  He’s a father, a husband, a coach, a podcaster, a speaker and a business leader who is the same person in and out of work.  

Over his entire career, adversity has always made him stronger.  Casey is blessed to have a positive attitude, as he always looks at life through the eyes of an optimist. While at Kforce, Casey was the number one sales rep nationwide for 10 years in row before moving into the President of Client Strategy and partnerships.  In that role, Casey played a key role in driving a sales transformation as well as providing executive level support for large customers.  In April of 2019, Casey left Kforce as the firms all-time leading salesperson in the nearly 60-year company history to begin writing his debut non-fiction book titled, “WIN the RELATIONSHIP – Not the DEAL.”

Casey now is the founder of Winning The Relationship, LLC which is a consulting firm providing sales leadership and coaching.  Additionally, Casey is the host of The Quarterback DadCast which is a podcast that provides stories, advice, and wisdom for fathers looking to become the ultimate QB of thei

In this pilot episode of Recruiting Trailblazers, Marcus investigates remote recruiting and begins his hunt for producers, leaders, innovators, and pioneers who have made their mark on the Recruiting industry and can’t wait to share their points of view!

In this episode, Marcus is joined by Julie Coucoules, who most recently worked as Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Glassdoor. Julie has spent the last 20 years working in human resources, recruiting and talent acquisition, mostly in the software and video game industry. Join Marcus and Julie as they take a deep dive into the world of remote recruiting, covering topics such as communication and productivity in the workplace, how to succeed in remote recruiting, Glassdoor culture, and advice for Recruiters looking for a job.

Marcus and Julie discuss the Glassdoor platform, including how some people find it unfair that it allows for anonymous employer reviews with no consequences – and Julie responds with some excellent food for thought regarding the Glassdoor mission and culture inside the company.

They talk about corporate culture and specifically Glassdoor's own culture and Marcus's "Big IDEA" theory (Inspire, Develop, Empower, Appreciate) - which states that when you have those four themes securely in place – you’ve got a great culture which is crucial for both attracting and retaining the best talent out there.

Marcus and Julie also discuss the future of Agency recruiting, as well as give some advice for fellow recruiters in the market for a new Recruiting job.

Plus a very important observation for Recruiters looking to cross the bridge (with candidates or clients) from ‘complete stranger’ to ‘trusted advisor’ in order to 'make the sale'. (In a nutshell: you have to establish and flesh out their driving needs - before you can successfully reconcile your open position or solution).

All in all -  a great conversation with Marcus and Julie and a solid kickoff for Recruiting Trailblazers!

In this episode, we discuss Remote Recruiting and...

[00:01] Recruiting Trailblazers Introduction

[00:54] Introducing Our Guest

[01:31] TV suggestions and Being Acquaintances

[03:14] How Julie Has Been Handling Quarantine

[04:15] Staying in Shape During Quarantine

[05:34] Glassdoor Going Remote Recruiting

[07:00] Talent Acquisition Team

[07:22] Transition and Difficulties of Going Remote Recruiting

[08:36] Environmental Challenges of Working at Home

[10:32] Reframing Communication Styles During the Pandemic

[11:38] How to Manage Productivity with Remote Recruiting

[15:39] The New Normal in Cold Calling

[8:16] Leaving Glassdoor

[20:14] Anonymous Reviews and the Need for Feedback

[23:22] Is It Possible to Repair Glassdoor Company Reviews?

[27:35] Glassdoor’s Mission

[28:07] Culture is the Driver of Industry Movement

[28:53] Inspire. Develop. Empower. Appreciate.

[30:59] How to Be a Really Successful Recruiter

[34:42] The Future of Agency Recruitment

[37:38] Adding Value to Agency Recruitment

[40:48] You Cannot Sell Anything to Anybody Until You Establish A Need

[42:41] Mission-Driven Culture

[43:04] Advice for Recruiters Trying to Find a Job

[45:23] Work Your Network

[46:05] Adding Value to Your LinkedIn Profile

[47:28] Closing Thoughts

[49:37] Outro

Fancy connecting on LinkedIn, with Marcus or Julie?

www.linkedin.com/in/marcusedwardes

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcoucoules/

Thanks to https://freewayfever.com/ for the great intro/outro music.