Talentless

Talentless

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Talentless episodes

  • Culture Isn’t a Department

    Guest: Hanan Harb, Principal and Learning & Development Consultant, Everybody, Be Cool!; author of Everybody, Be Cool!

    Guest links:

    •             LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hananharb/

    •             Website: https://www.everybody-be-cool.com/

    •             Book: https://www.everybody-be-cool.com/buy-the-book (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org)

    Who owns company culture? Everybody points up. L&D consultant and Everybody, Be Cool! author Hanan Harb joins Desiree and Ashley to make the case that culture is everybody’s job. They also get into why the work won’t speak for itself, how to ask for what you need, and how companies win back trust after they’ve broken it.
    Resources and links

    •             Hanan Harb on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hananharb/

    •             Everybody, Be Cool! (book and consulting): https://www.everybody-be-cool.com/

    •             Desiree’s book, Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality (out October 27, 2026)

    •             Watch Talentless on The HR Channel (Roku and Fire TV)

    •             Talentless newsletter, The T-Hive: https://talentlesshive.beehiiv.com

    •             This episode’s sponsor: HIDIZS ST2 PRO Nebula earbuds.

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    51 min
  • From the Vault: Your Employer Brand Is Bland

    Guest : James Ellis, Principal, Employer Brand Labs

    Guest links:

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thewarfortalent/

    • Website: https://employerbrandlabs.com

    • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmployerBrandLabs

    • Book, Becoming Choosable: https://employerbrandlabs.com/becoming-choosable

      • From the Vault: James Ellis of Employer Brand Labs calls out the "employer bland," the careers page that could belong to anyone. He breaks employer brand down to two questions (why are you different, and why would I choose you?), explains why you want two great applicants instead of 1,000, and hands small companies a no-budget playbook. Stay to the end for a tease of what's next.
      Resources and Links

      • James Ellis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thewarfortalent/

      • Employer Brand Labs: https://employerbrandlabs.com

      • Becoming Choosable by James Ellis: https://employerbrandlabs.com/becoming-choosable

      • Rory Sutherland (mentioned for the doorman problem from his work on behavioral economics)

      • Talentless Podcast: https://www.talentlesspodcast.com

      • Join the T-Hive newsletter: https://talentlesshive.beehiiv.com

        • 47 min
      • Recruiters Aren’t The Problem, Your Hiring Managers Are

        Sean Kennedy (“Sean The TA Guy”), Founder & Chief Content Officer, Kennedys Content; fractional Head of TA

        Guest links: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanthetaguy/ - Newsletter: The Recruiter Reality Check: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-recruiter-reality-check-7420456125470318592/ - The Talking Talent Podcast (RecTalk, guest host): https://www.linkedin.com/company/rectalk-podcast/

        Recruiters take the blame for everything, but is it deserved? Sean Kennedy, aka Sean The TA Guy, joins Desiree and Ashley to break down what it actually takes to earn a hiring manager’s respect: saying no, keeping your receipts, and following through. Plus a Lord of the Rings slide deck, the promotion “conspiracy theory,” and four words of advice every recruiter needs.


        Resources & links

        Sean Kennedy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanthetaguy/

        The Recruiter Reality Check newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-recruiter-reality-check-7420456125470318592/

        The Talking Talent Podcast (RecTalk) https://www.linkedin.com/company/rectalk-podcast/

        Desiree’s book, Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality (out October 27, 2026)

        Watch Talentless on The HR Channel (Roku and Fire TV)

        Talentless newsletter, The T-Hive: talentlesshive.beehiiv.com

        This episode’s sponsor: JiMMYBAR, https://jimmybars.com/TALENTLESS

        code TALENTLESS for 15% off

        51 min
      • Bias by Design - Desiree Goldey and Ashley King

        Recorded: Live at RecFest USA, Nashville

        Sponsor: RecOps Collective

        Live from RecFest Nashville: your brain runs on bias, so what happens when recruiters stop pretending it doesn't? Ashley breaks down anchor bias, decision fatigue, and why "bias-free" AI isn't, and the hosts debate where influence ends and manipulation begins.

        Resources and Links

        • RecOps Collective, recruiting operations community and consulting

        • Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

        • Dutton and Aron (1974), the suspension bridge study on misattribution of arousal

        • Darley and LatanĂ© (1968), the original bystander effect research

        • Women in the Workplace 2025, McKinsey and LeanIn.Org

        • TalentED, Ashley's recruiter university

        • Catch us at HR Tech in Las Vegas, October 20 to 22, 2026

        • Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality by Desiree Goldey, out October 27, 2026

        • The T-Hive newsletter: talentless.beehiiv.com

        • www.talentlesspodcast.com

          • Segment note: Talent Outside the Box is included in this episode (the bystander effect).


          49 min
        • Hire the Outcome, Not the Resume - Desiree Goldey and Ashley King

          Recorded: Live at RecFest USA, Nashville

          Sponsor: RoundOne AI (roundone.ai)

          Disclosure: Desiree is Head of Growth and Partnerships at RoundOne AI.


          Live from RecFest Nashville, Desiree and Ashley ask what "qualified" means when AI can optimize every resume. Ashley breaks down her four-quadrant recruiter performance model and time to find, a metric nobody tracks. Desiree asks whether any CEO will actually pay to hire this way.


          Resources and Links

          • RoundOne AI, voice screening that keeps humans in the decision: roundone.ai

          • TalentED, Ashley's recruiter university

          • Watch Talentless on The HR Channel (Roku and Fire TV)

          • Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality by Desiree Goldey, out October 27, 2026

          • The T-Hive newsletter: talentless.beehiiv.com

          • Subscribe on YouTube (please, we're begging)

          • www.talentlesspodcast.com

            • Segment note: Talent Outside the Box is included in this episode (validity versus reliability).




            45 min
          • Active or Passive: The Recruiter Line That Decides Who Survives AI

            Amit Parmar, Co-Founder & CEO, Cliquify

            LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/parmar79 | Company: cliquify.me

            Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cliquify/

            Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cliquify

            Cliquify CEO Amit Parmar says the best recruiter he ever managed refused to look at the applicants. In a conversation that went completely off the rails in the best way, Amit, Desiree, and Ashley take apart what storytelling actually means, why companies can get five tools approved but not one more recruiter, and the line between active and passive recruiters that decides who still has this job in two years. Plus: the Competitive Plateau, the Wadabot Layer, and how your job posting got on Indeed without anyone ever posting it there.


            In this episode:

            • What storytelling actually means, stripped of the buzzword, and the one question to ask a hiring manager that changes a job post

            • Why the storytelling that moves the needle most is recruiter to hiring manager, not recruiter to candidate

            • Ashley’s real example of a candidate who failed the screen and became the best hire on a two-and-a-half-year-old req

            • What the Edelman trust data actually says, and why "people trust their employer" is a ranking, not a win

            • The Competitive Plateau: what happens when a high-volume worker has already worked for every competitor in town

            • Bots talking to bots, and the ATS filter stack built to clean up a mess we created

            • Why companies can get five tools approved but not one more recruiter

            • Strategy, process, people, tech, and why everyone runs that order backward

            • Humans innovate because we are lazy, and what that means for every product purchase in TA

            • Why products sell you symptom relief, and how root cause analysis always defaults to "top of funnel"

            • Active versus passive recruiters, and Amit’s case that one of them has about a year left

            • How Cleo maps who is stealing your data scientists in Hungary, and what Cliquify will not use AI for

            • How your job posting got on Indeed without anyone ever posting it there

              • Resources & Links

              • Amit Parmar on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/parmar79

              • Cliquify: cliquify.me (also cliquify.ai, both redirect)

              • People Brand Collective, where Amit is a founding board member

              • James Ellis, name-checked by Desiree on employer brand

              • Desiree’s book, Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality, out October 27, 2026

              • Catch Talentless at RecFest USA (Nashville, Sept 23-24) and HR Tech this fall


                • 55 min
              • Just Send The Email: What Hiring Transparency Actually Takes

                Just Send The Email: What Hiring Transparency Actually Takes

                Alex Feder, Founder of Ghosted.work

                LinkedIn · Ghosted (ghosted.work/trace, free, public beta)


                Alex Feder spent the last year job searching and getting ghosted, so he built software to fix it. Desiree and Ashley talk candidate experience from the other side of the table: what real transparency actually sounds like, why "the system is broken" is the wrong excuse, and why sometimes the fix is just sending the email.

                In this episode:

                • Why Alex built Ghosted.work after his own brutal year of job searching, and why he built Trace as a second, narrower product instead of scaling the first

                • What "transparency in hiring" actually means in practice, from both the candidate side and the recruiter side

                • Ashley's own ghosting story: rejected before the interview, then invited back to interview for the role she'd already been rejected from

                • The fake-job problem, response rates under 1%, and a real (anonymized) story about a company posting fake listings just to farm LinkedIn followers

                • AI on both sides of the hiring table, and Alex's line: "these are two cars racing to a red light"

                • Why Alex is skeptical of the existing "call out the ghosters" sites and how Trace's approach differs

                • Homework assignments and live presentations as a harder-to-fake alternative to standard interview questions

                • Ashley's "Rate My Recruiter" pitch and the case for hiring the long-term unemployed as a wealth-gap lever

                  • Resources/Links:

                  • Ghosted.work: https://ghosted.work/

                  • Trace: https://ghosted.work/trace

                  • Alex Feder on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexfeder

                  • Desiree's book, Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality, out October 2026

                  • Talentless at RecFest and HR Tech this fall


                    • 56 min
                  • Kill Your Indeed Habit: What Job Ads Actually Cost You

                    Guest: Jason Pistulka, Founder & Principal Consultant, StratTech Talent Consulting and AdvisoryGuest Links:

                    LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/jasonpistulka) | Website (strattechconsulting.com) | Newsletter: The Talent Strategy Brief

                    Jason Pistulka ran recruiting operations for a team hiring 125,000 people a year. Now he audits career sites for a living, and he's not gentle about what he finds. This episode is a full recruitment-advertising teardown: Walmart's broken 14-million-visitor career site, Indeed's fall from grace, and the ATS Jason built from scratch in a single weekend just to prove the tech isn't the hard part anymore.

                    Resources/Links:

                    • StratTech Talent Consulting and Advisory: strattechconsulting.com

                    • The Talent Strategy Brief (Jason's newsletter, weekly, 2,496+ subscribers)

                    • Article: "How Indeed Is Losing What Little Trust It Had of Both Candidates and Employers"

                    • Article: "Walmart is the Largest Private Employer in America. Their Career Site is Broken."

                    • Book: Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality — out October 2026

                    • Talentless at RecFest USA and HR Tech Conference this fall


                      • 52 min
                    • Stop Hiring Out of Panic

                      Alycia M. Huston, Founder & CEO, The Culture Cru
                       LinkedIn | Website: theculturecru.com | Instagram | Threads: @alyciahuston | YouTube

                      Alycia M. Huston built and sold a biopharma company, then built The Culture Cru to help founders stop hiring out of panic. This episode covers the one question that stops a bad hire before it happens, why "urgency" and "precision" aren't opposites, and the AI-bot screening story that went exactly how you'd think.

                      Resources/Links:

                      • The Culture Cru: theculturecru.com
                      • The Culture Constellation (Alycia's newsletter)
                      • Book: Leadership is a Practice, Not a Personality — out October 2026
                      • Talentless at RecFest USA and HR Tech Conference this fall


                        • 43 min
                      • Merit Won't Get You Hired. Visibility Will.

                        Abdurrahman "Muni" Muni, Founder @ Dreampath, Ex-Head of Global Talent Acquisition @ ApplyBoard

                        • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ammuni

                        • Website: dreampath (site TBD, confirm URL with Muni)

                        • Booking link: calendly.com/muni-dreampath/careerchat


                          • Desiree and Ashley sit down with Muni, founder of Dreampath and former Head of Global TA at ApplyBoard, to talk about what actually drives hiring decisions once you strip away the "best candidate wins" story. Relationships versus resumes, the return of the long resume, ageism, and why back-channeling candidates is one of the most unethical things a recruiter can do.


                          47 min

                        About Talentless

                        From the publisher's feed

                        Welcome to Talentless 👋, the podcast that’s all HR, all talent, and zero fluff—the official show for recruiters, by recruiters! If you’re in the people business, this is your one-stop shop for…