The Lone Recruiter

I've got a simple AI trick for you today that could uncover new clients and business development opportunities you've been completely overlooking.

If you're a specialist recruiter like me, chances are you've got a pretty finite list of clients you work with. You know your market, you know the players, and you've probably been working through the same CRM list for years.

But when was the last time you checked who you might be missing?

I recently tried a simple AI trick that uncovered FOUR potential new clients I’d never even heard of...

I can never make a candidate do something they’re not willing to do for themselves. I can’t force anyone to take a job. What I can do is lay out all the information and make the path to where we want them to go as inviting and compelling as possible. That’s the job of a recruitment consultant.

In this ep, I walk you through one of the strategies we’ve named in our office: The Takeaway. It works especially well when a candidate is taking their time and you’ve got a real offer on the tab...

Think you've cracked the LinkedIn algorithm? Think again!

This week I'm joined by the brilliant Emma O'Connell, a LinkedIn insider with 13 years of experience at the company and an incredible depth of knowledge about the platform recruiters rely on every single day.

Emma is my go-to LinkedIn expert, and every time we chat, I walk away having learned something new. So I thought it was about time I shared some of that knowledge with you!

We're separating fact from fiction, busting some of LinkedIn's biggest algorithm myths and getting into what actually makes...

There’s always love in the room until there isn’t. In my view, our job as recruiters is to keep that love, because the moment it leaves, the deal usually goes with it.

In this ep, I walk through a scenario from my own team that holds a big lesson for junior recruiters and a timely reminder for the seniors. You know the feeling. The brief looks great, the candidate looks great, they shake hands, and both walk away saying “that felt good.” That’s love in the room. So what ruins it?

I cover:
...

We all know about KPIs in recruitment. Calls, CVs, interviews, placements. But what about the habits behind the numbers?

I've been working with a health coach recently, and he's introduced me to habit tracking. It got me thinking about how we measure success in recruitment and whether we're overlooking some of the most important things.

KPIs tell us what we're achieving, but I reckon our daily habits have a huge influence on how we get there.

In this episode, I explore why habit tracking could be a game changer for recruiters, managers and...

What if you could swap your biggest problem for someone else's? Would you take the risk, or would you stick with your own?

I heard this question recently and it really got me thinking.

We all have problems. Some big, some small, but when you're in the thick of one, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the stress, uncertainty and emotion surrounding it.

Here's the thing. Sometimes the problem isn't nearly as complicated as we've made it out to be. We just haven't taken the time to properly understand it.

In...

Feeling stressed about your recruitment desk? Worried about a tough market or where your next placement is coming from?

Here's something I want you to remember: one job is all you need.

In this episode, I'm breaking down how to take a single vacancy and turn it into a pipeline of new opportunities. Because when you've got one good job, you've got everything you need to start rebuilding your desk.

I'll walk you through the practical steps I use to turn one placement into multiple opportunities, from backfilling candidates and leveraging references to...

Ever feel like you're spinning your wheels, juggling a hundred things and not actually moving any closer to making a placement?

I've been there. But there's one question that's stuck with me throughout my recruitment career. A manager drilled it into me every day for six and a half years, and it's still my North Star whenever I'm feeling scattered, overwhelmed or unsure where to focus.

What's closest to the money?

It's ridiculously simple, but it works.

In this ep, I share how this one question can cut through the noise...

If I followed you around with a camera for 24 hours, would I believe you were going to hit your targets this month?

It's a bloody good question. And if you're consistently falling short of your goals, you might not like the answer.

Here's the thing. Most recruiters have a pretty good idea of what they need to do to succeed. But knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things.

We track our calls, interviews, placements and to-do lists. But what about all the time we're wasting? The unnecessary...

Are you prepping your candidates for interviews but forgetting to prep your clients?

Here's my simple piece of advice I gave a client that completely changed the way she interviews candidates and helped her achieve better hiring outcomes.

The idea is simple: stop grilling candidates in the first interview and start selling the dream.

👉 First interview: Sell the company, the opportunity, the projects, the team and the culture
👉 Second interview: Drill down into technical skills and make sure they’re the right fit
👉 Then: References, offer, close

When a great candi...

What if recruitment isn’t always the answer?

Brett is joined by Rachel and Shannon from Stitch Partners to unpack their move from a traditional recruitment agency into a broader advisory model.

After more than 20 years in the industry, they realised they were already helping clients with far more than filling jobs. The difference? They decided to start treating that expertise as a service in its own right.

Tune in for:

👉 Why recruitment isn’t always the solution to a client’s problem
👉 How to turn the advice you’re already giving...

You can’t sprint forever.

Recruitment works well in bursts — 10 or 11 weeks of pushing hard, followed by a chance to stop, recharge and reset.

So if you’re coming to the end of a quarter feeling depleted, this ep is your reminder to take the break. Book the week off. Switch off properly. Touch some grass. Put your feet in the sand and unwind.

But before you clock off, there are a few things to get sorted.

I run through my four-step quarter-end reset:

👉 Take the break and actually recharge...

Recruiters are a superstitious bunch.

Placement bells. Lucky songs. Weird office rituals. Things that make absolutely no logical difference to whether a deal lands… but somehow become sacred agency traditions anyway.

Today I’m counting down five of the best, weirdest and funniest recruitment rituals I’ve come across over the years.

👉 The placement song that announces to the entire office you’ve made another deal
👉 Why one agency ditched the placement bell for a FULL-SIZED GONG
👉 The candidate shrine designed to send good juju to anyone on interview
👉 The deliberately hideous...

Hiring a great recruiter is only half the job. What you do with them in those first few weeks can make all the difference.

I’m not a fan of the old “sink or swim” approach. Throwing someone a laptop, a desk and telling them to go build a market from scratch might show you what they’re made of, but it also creates a massive amount of unnecessary pressure.

Instead, I believe in setting people up for quick wins.

In this ep, I break down exactly how we’ve done that with Dana, who...

How do you treat someone when you don’t think they’re the person you need to impress?

A conversation with Beth in my office got me thinking about the way some people treat support staff, EAs, receptionists and the people standing between them and the person they actually want to speak to.

Most people are brilliant. Some, however, are dismissive, abrupt or just plain rude.

And here’s the thing: it gets back to the person you’re trying to impress.

This is particularly relevant in recruitment, where it’s easy to be...

What happens when AI starts automating people’s jobs?

IKEA has given us a pretty interesting answer.

Rather than simply using automation as an opportunity to slash headcount, they re-skilled thousands of customer service employees into new roles. For me, it’s a brilliant example of what AI integration could actually look like when businesses bring their people along for the ride.

It also got me thinking about what we’re doing in our own businesses.

I’ve started telling my team that part of their job is to automate the mundane...

What if you’re doing all the “right” things for your health, but you’re still not operating at your best?

I train five days a week. I eat pretty consciously. I supplement. I don’t drink a hell of a lot. On paper, I’m doing alright.

But a lot of it is still guesswork.

So I decided to find out what’s actually going on under the hood.

In this ep, I’m joined by health and high performance coach Luke Maslin from Total Performance Living, who recently put me through a ser...

Today, I’m giving you permission to do something that sounds completely wrong for a recruiter: don’t pick up the phone.

Hear me out.

We’re trained to answer calls. Client calls, candidate calls, callbacks... the phone rings, we pick it up. But what happens when you answer and you’re not actually ready for the conversation?

I recently watched a colleague do exactly that. A callback came through, they couldn’t quite remember what they needed to discuss, but they answered anyway. The result? A clunky conversation spent fumbling around trying to remembe...

The Australian jobs market is slow, tougher and uncertain right now. But what does that actually mean for us as recruiters?

I’m joined by SEEK Chief Economist Blair Chapman to cut through the headlines and look at what the data is really telling us about the Australian employment market.

Employment is still growing, but at a much slower rate than we’ve become accustomed to. Job switching is at historic lows, candidates are more hesitant to move, businesses are watching costs and some sectors are facing a much tougher outlook than others.

But...

Have you ever felt like you KNOW how to do something, but it still takes a huge amount of effort to get it right?

That’s where the four stages of mastery come in.

In this episode, I break down the journey from having absolutely no idea what you’re doing to reaching the point where a skill becomes almost automatic.

For recruiters, this can apply to everything from interviewing and taking a job brief to BD, closing deals, leadership and eventually running your own agency.

👉 The four stages of mastery
👉 W...

The recruitment market is changing, but where are the real opportunities right now?

Today I’m joined by Andrea Collins from Connecting Recruiters, she has spent more than 20 years in recruitment and the last decade specialising in Rec2Rec. She recruits across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, giving her a pretty unique view of what’s happening inside agencies across the country.

We talk about what senior recruiters are looking for now, why some agencies are attracting great people while others are losing them, and what the recruitment market could look like by the time the next...

The 2026 Census has added 349 new occupations. So naturally, my recruiter brain went straight to one question: Where's the opportunity?

If you're looking for a new recruitment market, the Census could give you some very interesting clues.

Tune in for:
👉 Why 349 new occupations creates potential new recruitment markets
👉 What changing industries and technology mean for recruiters
👉 How to spot genuine demand rather than simply chasing job volume
👉 Why national skills shortages can point towards strong recruitment opportunities
👉 How to find markets where recruiter competition is relatively low
👉 Why the best market isn't neces...

This simple recruitment tactic can significantly shorten the time between getting a client interview request and actually getting the interview booked.

The key idea is simple: don’t ask “when?”

Instead, know your candidate’s availability and give the client a specific option, ideally today or tomorrow. Rather than asking, “When can you meet them?”, try, “I’ve got them available at 3pm today. Can you make that work?”

This small change creates urgency, keeps momentum, and stops interviews from being pushed into the end of the week or even the following week.

I also explai...

What if your best incentive wasn’t more money, but more time?

In today's ep, I sit down with Zakary Nash, Co-Founder and Director of HarperLloyd Recruitment, to unpack one of the most interesting incentives I’ve come across in recruitment.

Hit your quarterly target, and you earn Fridays off for the entire next quarter.

It sounds simple, but the psychology behind it is fascinating.

Zakary shares:

👉 Why HarperLloyd introduced the four-day incentive

👉 How consultants are using their Fridays differently

👉 Why time can be a more powerful...

I’ve spent 20 years measuring my success from behind a recruitment desk.

Placements. Revenue. Generation. Deals. 

But now my role is changing.

As the agency and the podcast grow, I’m moving away from full-throttle desk recruitment and into more of a leadership role. I’m not disappearing from recruitment. I still love the clients, the candidates and the deals. But I can’t keep doing everything myself.

And that’s where things get interesting...

👉 The metrics that made me successful on the desk aren’t necessarily the metrics that will make m...

What do a packet of soy sauce, a door handle, and recruitment have in common?

I know it sounds strange, but this week I found myself thinking about how the smallest details can have the biggest impact.

I grabbed my usual sushi lunch, something I do Monday to Thursday because it’s predictable and easy for my specific dietary needs. But when I got back to my desk, I realised they’d forgotten my gluten-free soy sauce. The sushi itself was good but the meal was not as tasty. That tiny five-cent component completely changed the...

Retained recruitment is something many recruiters talk about, but few fully commit to.

In this ep, I chat with Jack Creith from Yakka Solutions about the unconventional retained model that transformed his recruitment business: 10% upfront and 90% on delivery.

Rather than following the traditional retained search structure, Jack created a model that is simple, low friction for clients and still creates the commitment needed to deliver exceptional results.

We unpack how he developed the model, why the 10% upfront payment acts as a filter for serious clients, and the mindset shift recruiters need to make...

If I had to build a recruitment desk from scratch today, this is exactly how I'd do it.

One of the biggest mistakes recruiters make when starting a new market is casting the net too wide. They pick an industry, start calling people and hope the opportunities reveal themselves. That approach wastes time and confidence.

In this ep, I walk you through the exact framework I use to identify profitable recruitment markets before making a single business development call. It's a simple process that helps you find high-demand niches with lower recruiter competition, so you...

What separates top recruiters from everyone else isn't always a better process, it's confidence.

I share the one trait I try to build in every recruiter I coach. Whether you're doubting your process, overthinking your decisions, or second-guessing every call, this episode explains why confidence is often the missing ingredient between knowing what to do and consistently doing it.

You'll also learn why validating your process with a trusted mentor, manager or colleague can eliminate doubt, improve your decision-making and help you recruit with greater conviction.

If you've ever wondered whether you're doing...

What if improving your recruitment performance wasn't about working harder, but simply paying closer attention.

By simply tracking a single activity you could change your results, without complex dashboards or endless KPI meetings.

I have Type 1 diabetes and by changing one simple habit I had the best blood glucose result in years. That experience sparked an important question:

Rather than obsessing over outcomes you can't fully control, recruiters should focus on measuring the activities that lead to success. My suggestion is that you start tracking one metric: first interviews. By simply recording every...

Recruitment has traditionally revolved around three models: executive search, contingent recruitment and contract staffing.

But I believe the market is changing.

I'm seeing more and more clients asking for retained recruitment partnerships because they want greater commitment, better outcomes and a higher standard of service.

In this ep, I share why I think this shift is happening and introduce a concept I've been developing: Specialist Executive Search.

Tune in for:

👉 The three traditional recruitment models and where they fit

👉 Why I'm seeing clients move away from contingent recruitm...

Most recruiters will do everything they can to avoid refunding a client. After all, we've invested time, expertise and effort into making the placement.

But what happens when continuing to honour a replacement guarantee starts costing your business more than it's worth?

I recently had my first recruitment fee refund of my 20-year career. Giving money back wasn't a sign of failure, but a strategic business decision that freed up valuable time, strengthened the client relationship and ultimately generated more revenue.

If you've ever struggled with replacement guarantees, difficult briefs or knowing when...

Easy. Lucrative. Fun.

I'd never heard of ELF Mode until a casual conversation at the gym with a mate who has successfully built and sold multiple businesses.

The more he explained it, the more I realised it's one of the simplest and most powerful ways to think about building a successful recruitment desk.

In this ep, I unpack the idea behind ELF Mode—doing work that's Easy, Lucrative and Fun—and compare it to the opposite: HALF (Hard, Annoying, Lame and Frustrating).

As recruiters, it's easy to get caught up doing work...

Most recruiters never check one of the most valuable reports inside LinkedIn Recruiter.
Should you?
Absolutely.

In this episode, I break down LinkedIn's average InMail response rate (27.5%) and show you exactly how to improve yours. Better response rates don't just mean more conversations with candidates. They also help you retain InMail credits, improve your reach and ultimately make more placements. I'll walk you through three practical changes you can make immediately to start lifting your response rate without relying on gimmicks or spammy messaging.

Tune in for:
👉 Where to find your InMail res...

How do you know if you're actually on track... or if you're quietly falling behind without realising it?

In this ep, I share one of the simplest but most effective tools every recruiter should be using: a visible pipeline tracker. No fancy tech. No AI. No complicated dashboards. Just a straightforward way to keep your deals moving and ensure you're always focused on the right activity.

If your pipeline is hidden away inside your CRM, chances are you're not looking at it often enough. The recruiters who stay on top of their numbers are the...

Ever sit down to write a LinkedIn post and have absolutely no idea what to say?

In this episode, I share why most recruiters are making LinkedIn far harder than it needs to be. The days of posting generic insights, AI-generated content, and recycled advice are quickly disappearing. If your content sounds like everyone else's, you're going to struggle to stand out.

The good news? You're already creating valuable content every single day.

Every conversation you have with candidates and clients contains real-world advice, market intelligence, hiring trends, salary insights, and practical solutions...

Can recruiters still build a million-dollar desk without the endless grind, cold calls and hustle culture?

In this ep I sat down with Christine Foggiato from Riverside Recruitment, who is challenging many of the traditional recruitment beliefs we've all grown up with.

Christine is closing in on a seven-figure billing desk while generating almost all of her business through inbound marketing. No LinkedIn Recruiter licence. No cold calling. No endless BD sessions. Instead, she's built a powerful personal brand, content strategy and marketing engine that keeps both clients and candidates coming to her.

...

How do I actually scale a recruitment desk or business without becoming the bottleneck?

In this ep, I break down a simple but powerful operating philosophy: I do, we do, you do - a progression that shows how to move from doing everything yourself, to building with others, to ultimately stepping back so the business can run without you.

When I started out, I was doing everything: clients, candidates, deals, management, all of it. Then I moved into the “we do” phase, building a team around me and delivering together. But the real shift (and the h...

The best recruiters I have ever worked with, interviewed or talked to - the real multi-million dollar billers - all share one habit. It's something I do compulsively as well. 

They know what worked today, what didn't, and what they're doing differently tomorrow.

In this episode I break down the simple but honestly powerful practice of diarising your recruitment desk.

No complicated system needed and we're not talking "dear diary" okay - just 15 minutes at the end of your day to review:

Why do we always seem to get sick the moment we finally slow down?

Today I dive into the science behind stress, burnout, cortisol, and why so many high performers crash physically after big work pushes.

My grandfather worked as a GP with only one day off every fortnight, and he would consistently get migraines the moment he finally stopped working. I unpack what’s actually happening inside the body during prolonged periods of stress and why the “post-stress crash” is so common.

I also break down: