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

Alycia M. Huston spent a decade co-founding and running a biopharma company in San Diego, sold it in 2014, and stayed on through the acquisition, watching two completely different operating systems try to merge into one. Now she runs The Culture Cru, working almost exclusively with founders and small-to-medium businesses on building intentional hiring and culture from the ground up, before the org chart outruns the people in it.

This one's a masterclass in slowing down without slowing down. Alycia opens with a live story from a $25M founder client who was about to fill a VP seat out of pure urgency, until Alycia asked her one question that stopped the hire cold: does this person actually represent your mission when you're no longer in the room to reinforce it? Desiree and Alycia dig into why "urgency" and "precision" aren't opposites, why most founders think candidate experience is optional, and why one client's plan to let an AI bot handle all candidate screening ended exactly how you'd expect (spoiler: he hired Alycia three months later to clean it up).

Alycia also brings her biopharma background into the conversation in a way that actually lands, borrowing the "phased approach" from clinical trials and applying it directly to hiring: proving out each stage with data before moving to the next, instead of skipping straight to "just get someone in the seat." She and Ashley also get into candidate anchor bias (how a bad timeline promise wrecks trust before day one even starts) and the founder mindset trap of assuming everyone should already want to work for you.

In this episode:

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

Merit isn't dead, but it's not driving the bus alone anymore, and this episode is Desiree and Ashley pulling that apart with Abdurrahman "Muni" Muni, founder of Dreampath and former Head of Global Talent Acquisition at ApplyBoard, where he helped scale the company from 300 to 1,000 people in two years.

Muni opens by self-introducing himself the way he actually talks to clients: if you're seven-plus years into your career and suddenly having an existential crisis in the job market, he's the guy who fixes that. From there the conversation moves through relationships versus resumes (and why the answer genuinely depends on which "group" a candidate falls into), what actually happens to an application once it hits an ATS, and Muni's central reframe: you are a business of one, your experience is your product, and target companies are your customers.

Ashley brings the recruiter's side of the table, walking through what hiring managers actually mean when they say they want an "autonomous learner," and calling out the ugly reality of back-channel referrals, where a manager's cousin or neighbor gets fast-tracked past a legitimate process. She draws a hard line between a one-way relationship (an employee genuinely recommending a great company to a friend) and a two-way one (a manager strong-arming a recruiter into an interview because they personally know the candidate).

The conversation also covers ageism and why Muni tells clients to stop spending emotional energy on bias they can't control, the return of the long resume as AI keyword-matching reshapes what gets screened in, and a real debate between performance-based hiring versus tenure-based hiring, including Ashley's blunt read that most companies claim to be meritocracies but are actually just capitalism for their friends.

Talent Outside the Box closes the episode with Ashley going deep on why back-channeling candidates is functionally unethical outside of true C-suite hiring, and how it introduces anchor bias that sets candidates up to fail before they've even walked in the door.

In this episode, Desiree and Ashley ditch the guest chair and go one-on-one for a back-to-basics refresher — the terminology, habits, and blind spots that trip up even experienced recruiters. After a suitably unhinged icebreaker (where would you not want to die?), they dig into three fundamentals: the real difference between a prospect, an applicant, a candidate, and a new hire — and why mixing these up costs you money with vendors and credibility with hiring managers; how to actually vet a job description before it touches a sourcing tool, including how to spot an unedited AI-generated JD and the "Frankenstein role" problem (rockstar, ninja, unicorn); and a full walkthrough of how to build a comp business case with real, named data sources instead of a gut feeling. Ashley closes with a Talent Outside the Box segment on research showing how gendered language in job descriptions changes who applies. They ran out of time before hitting two more topics on the list — when to challenge a hiring manager, and what to do the moment a req lands on your desk — so consider this Part 1.

In This Episode:

Resources & Links Mentioned:

Note: This episode intentionally left two topics on the table , challenging a hiring manager, and the "got a req, now what" routine for a Part 2.

Matt Schalsey, CEO of PerfectHire, joins Desiree and Ashley to argue that recruiters are basically salespeople and the hosts don't fully let him off the hook. Matt built PerfectHire after getting laid off one too many times as a sales enablement leader and deciding the real problem wasn't him, or the hiring managers, or even most recruiters, it was the systems everyone was forced to work inside of. His answer: an ATS/CRM built around the idea that hiring a CFO and hiring a BDR should never run through the same workflow.

The conversation gets into where the "recruiting is sales" comparison holds up and where it falls apart. Matt's case: recruiters prospect, negotiate, multi-thread, and carry quota pressure just like sellers do. Ashley's counter: recruiting is "sales plus ethics" recruiters are asking candidates to trust them with their family, their income, and their life, not just a purchase decision, and that changes what "closing" should even mean.

Desiree lands in the middle, coming from a sales background herself but pushing back on flattening recruiters into a one-to-one sales analogy when the industry still can't reliably prove ROI the way sales can.

From there the conversation moves into the real 1996 problem: vanity metrics like time-to-fill, ATS systems that quietly penalize candidates for reapplying, sourcing tools companies pay for when the answer was already sitting in their own database, and the industry-wide habit of treating recruiting as a cost-center line item instead of a revenue function because most talent teams were never taught to prove their impact in the first place.

Matt also breaks down PerfectHire's shift toward Agency Plus a combined CRM/ATS/business development platform built specifically for agency and embedded recruiters who've been trying to force agency workflows into tools like Bullhorn or in-house ATS platforms that were never built for that model.

In this episode:

Resources & Links:

Note: No Talent Outside the Box or Dum Dum of the Week this episode, Ashley had to duck out early for an emergency dentist appointment. She'll be back next week, tooth and all.

Steve Levy is LinkedIn user #204,097. He co-founded ATAP. He was doing AI in hiring at Pitney Bowes before AI had a Wikipedia page. And unlike a lot of "thought leaders" in this space, he never stopped practicing, he's currently at R1 RCM building production AI/ML sourcing prompt stacks while simultaneously training the next generation of ocean lifeguards at Jones Beach (34 years and counting).

If you don't know Steve, Desiree said it best in the intro: babe, what are you doing? Pause the episode. Google him. Come back.

For our biggest episode of the year, Des and Ashley sat down with one of the actual founders of modern TA and asked him to zoom out. What did the profession get right? What did we get embarrassingly wrong? What's AI actually doing? And what do the recruiters listening right now need to be doing to survive what's coming?

Steve came ready. This one is a masterclass wrapped in a roast wrapped in an hour of the funniest, sharpest TA conversation we've had all year.

"You become so good at using a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail." — Steve

"We have a character problem in TA. We have a leadership problem in TA. We have a knowledge problem in TA. AI is not going to solve any of this." — Steve

"Resumes are a big pile of monkey poop. Job descriptions are a big pile of monkey poop. And we think that magically by smushing this stuff together, some system will produce a five-star Michelin meal." — Steve

"We're not a service function. We're an excellence in performance function." — Steve

"Striving for excellence motivates you. Striving for perfection is demoralizing." — Steve (quoting Harriet Braiker)

"I'm not a psychic. I have no psychic abilities. You have to ask a lot of questions. You have to study. You have to learn." — Steve

"I am here for a purpose, and the purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand." — Steve (quoting Og Mandino)

"If your presence adds no value, then your absence makes no difference." — Ashley

One year of Talentless. Thirty-seven episodes. Two hosts who somehow still like each other. And a whole lot of people who tuned in along the way, thank you.

For our post-anniversary episode, Des and Ashley did the thing they've been avoiding for a year: they turned the mic on themselves. No guest. No script. No agenda beyond "let's actually let people meet us."

If you've been listening for the strategy, the receipts, the guest interviews, welcome to the softer side. This one's about:

It's honest. It's a little messy. It's the two of us at our most us.

Thank you for a year of showing up. Here's to year two.

Best quotes

"Talent should be the sitcom of the world, not necessarily the dramedy." — Ashley

"I'm a mix of two Olivias." — Desiree

"I'm a Shrek pretending to be a Ted Lasso." — Ashley

"We're basically agility animals — a platypus, a chameleon, and a yappy dog." — Des & Ash on the Talentless mascot

"There is no such thing as a 30-minute vet that's gonna handle that." — Ashley on hiring humans

"We hold the keys to people's success — their life, their salary, their happiness. Recruiting is not order-taking." — Desiree

"Bro culture in HR podcasting is 80% of the mic time with 20% of the actual field. That needed to change." — Desiree

Where to find us

This one's special, it's Talentless's 1-Year Anniversary Episode. Thank you for listening, sharing, and showing up for us this year.

For our anniversary episode, Des and Ashley sit down with T. Tara Turk-Haynes, founder of Equity Activations, creator of The Origin Arc framework, first-generation college grad and first-generation corporate worker, and 15+ years deep in talent acquisition and people operations.

She's been featured in Lars Schmidt's Redefining HR, profiled by Business Insider, and spoken at RecFest, Culture Amp, and Living Corporate.This conversation went deeper than we expected and harder. Tara doesn't dance around the DEI rollback. She tells us why it failed (spoiler: we put icing over a crumbling cake), what The Origin Arc actually unlocks for hiring managers and recruiters, why feedback is the talent acquisition crisis nobody is naming, and why she will not spend her therapy sessions trying to convert the immovable middle of corporate America.

If you've ever sat in an intake meeting that lasted 12 minutes, ghosted a candidate after seven rounds, or wondered why your DEI work didn't stick this episode is your wake-up call.

What You'll Learn

The Origin Arc - what it is, where it came from, and how to use it in intake meetings, interviews, and one-on-onesWhy DEI failed the way it did (and the icing-on-a-crumbling-cake metaphor you won't unsee).

Why business leaders have "the attention span of goldfish" and how to embed real work into operations so it actually sticks

The feedback crisis in talent acquisition and why candidates have very long memoriesWhy "bringing your whole self to work" is a lie and what to bring instead

How to interview hiring managers in an intake using journalism-style reverse-engineered questions

Why education births empathy and what that means for managers leading diverse teamsTara's "don't care more than the people who get paid the most" mic-drop moment

AI as the great amplifier of both the best and worst of TA

Where to Find T. Tara

Website: equityactivations.com

Free download: Small business hiring checklist (for new and small businesses building their first hiring practice)

Newsletter: Linked at equityactivations.com

Instagram & Threads: @ttaraturkhaynes (where the spicy takes live)

YouTube: Job seeker advice and TA insight

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

Email for senior People & TA leadership roles: [email protected]

Connect with Talentless

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts Instagram • LinkedIn • TikTok • YouTube • BlueSky • Threads

Newsletter: talentless.beehiiv.com

1-Year Anniversary Giveaway: Talentless Anniversary Giveaway 2026

Got a #DumDumTalent story? Email [email protected]

"People-first" is the most overused, underutilized phrase on LinkedIn. Everyone says it. Almost nobody does it.

This week, Des and Ashley sit down with Chason Forehand — chef with 45+ years in the culinary world, founder of HR-4U Inc. (a four-time Platinum Seal of Transparency nonprofit), creator of Transformation Kitchen™ (now operating in Nicaragua with locations coming to New York, Beacon, and Australia), and co-host of the Time2CHANGE podcast.

But before all of that, Chason was a kid in an abusive home. A drug addict hiding in plain sight. Homeless. Incarcerated. Food-insecure. Until a Michelin-track chef put three piles in front of him and decided to pay it forward.

This episode is what happens when someone who has lived on every side of "unhireable" sits down with two recruiters who believe they can change the wealth gap without a single piece of legislation. It's a conversation about action over words, profits versus people, and the responsibility that sits in every job description, salary band, and "culture fit" decision recruiters make.

This is one to listen to twice.

Why "people-first" is the most performative phrase in HR — and what it actually looks like in action

How 44% of U.S. workers below a living wage is a recruiter and HR problem (and how to start fixing it Monday morning)

The truth about the CEO-to-lowest-employee pay ratio and why HR holds the cap key

What other countries (Australia, Nicaragua) get right that the U.S. gets disgustingly wrong about workforce development

The story of the chef who saved Chason's life with three piles on a counter

Why resume gaps are skills — and why recruiters need to stop treating maternity, caregiving, and recovery as disqualifiers

How the Juneteenth General Order #3 quietly shaped the employer-employee dynamic we still live under today

"The problem isn't the word. The problem is that it's overused and underutilized. People are talking, but there's no action behind their words." — Chason

"We could change the wealth gap in America without a single piece of legislation, and the only group in the United States that can do that is HR and recruiters. Period." — Ashley

"How much is enough? Because we have enough in the United States that there should not be a single person who goes without a home, a hot meal, a shower — all the things." — Chason

"If you are the human resource, that is basically a hat that says 'I'm always picking people, never picking profit.' That's my job." — Ashley

"I'm here today because someone else cared enough about me as a human being. And now I'm gonna pour into you. Action over words." — Chason (quoting the chef who saved his life)

"People-first is an action. It's not a value statement. Please remember that at all times." — Desiree

Ashley takes us back to June 19, 1865 — General Order Number Three, read in Galveston, Texas, twenty miles from where she sits today. The order that legally ended slavery in Texas also legally transitioned the master-slave dynamic into "employer and hired labor." She walks us through how that linguistic and structural shift still shapes how we think about employment in America today — and why every recruiter and HR pro should know this history.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chason-forehand-rcf1222

All links + donate: linktr.ee/chasonforehand

HR-4U Inc. + Transformation Kitchen™: TKNicaragua, TKBeacon, TKAustralia

Podcast: Time2CHANGE (everywhere you listen)

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts Instagram • LinkedIn • TikTok • YouTube • BlueSky Newsletter: talentless.beehiiv.com Join the Discord community via talentlesspodcast.com Got a #DumDumTalent story? Email [email protected]

Empathy is the most overused word in leadership right now. Everyone says it. Almost nobody does it.

This week, Des and Ashley sit down with Dr. Melissa Robinson-Winemiller , TEDx speaker, international bestselling author of The Empathic Leader, host of The Empathic Leader podcast, and the founder of EQ via Empathy. Two doctorates, an MBA, a master's in data analytics, and a personal story that turned losing a career into a mission.

She came armed with research, receipts, and the data point that stopped Ashley mid-sentence: there are 43 distinct types of empathy — and most leaders are only using one of them (badly).

This one isn't about feelings. It's about strategy. Get in.

The 43 types of empathy and why "feeling what someone feels" is only 1/43rd of it

Why self-empathy is the foundation every leader skips (and the 35% leadership burnout rate it creates)

Niceness vs. kindness why one is gift wrap and the other is the real work

Dark empathy how psychopaths, narcissists, and Machiavellians use cognitive empathy as a manipulation tool (and how to spot it)

Where the hiring process is the LEAST empathic experience companies offer

Why performance reviews are quietly robbing your team of growth

How to handle layoffs and terminations without leaving wreckage

Whether AI has empathy (spoiler: no, and the new term we coined for what it does have)

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dr-melissa-a-robinson-winemiller

Book: The Empathic Leader — Amazon (paperback + Audible, narrated by Dr. Melissa herself)

YouTube: @The.Empathic.Leader

Podcast: The Empathic Leader Podcast (everywhere you listen)

This week, Des and Ashley sit down with David Turetsky with 35+ years in compensation, U.S. patent holder on performance-driven pay tech, former VP at ADP, and the brain behind HR Data Labs. He's seen every comp shortcut, every salary band shortcut, and every excuse HR has ever used to underpay someone. And he's not interested in being polite about any of it.

If you're a recruiter who freezes up when comp comes into the conversation, this episode is for you. If you're an HR leader who's been quietly recycling the same broken pay practices for a decade, this one is especially for you.