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Talentless
Talentless episodes
- Back to Basics Vol. 1
No guest this week just Desiree and Ashley going back to basics on the stuff even experienced recruiters get wrong: the real difference between a prospect, applicant, candidate, and new hire; how to spot a lazy (or AI-written) job description before it wrecks your search; and how to build a comp business case with actual data instead of a hunch. Consider it Part 1 the hiring-manager pushback conversation is coming next.
Resources & Links Mentioned:
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
O*NET
Salary.com · LinkedIn (salary insights) · Glassdoor · Radford
Kat Kidman (Kat Kibben) — job description writing expert
Dr. Amanda Diekman — research on gendered language in job descriptions
HR Data Labs — Desiree's consulting engagement
Erin Risco — recommended follow for BLS/comp content
Steve Levy — referenced for his "6/9/12 month" hiring manager question
RecFest USA 2026 and HR Tech Conference — where to catch them this fall
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.
52 min - Why Has Recruiting Not Changed Since 1996?" with Matt Schalsey, CEO, PerfectHireMatt Schalsey, CEO of PerfectHire, joins us to make the case that recruiters are salespeople whether they admit it or not and Ashley immediately pushes back with "recruiting is sales plus ethics." We get into vanity metrics, ATS systems quietly blocking candidates from reapplying, why nobody can prove recruiting ROI the way sales can, and how PerfectHire's new Agency Plus platform is built for agency and embedded recruiters specifically. Talentless listeners get one free month with code TALENTLESS.
Resources & Links:
PerfectHire: theperfecthire.co
Agency Plus: getperfecthire.com/agency
Matt Schalsey on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matt-schalsey
Talentless listeners get one free month of Agency Plus with code TALENTLESS
42 min - LinkedIn User #204,097: 39 Years of TA, Told Straight (with Steve Levy)
One of the actual founders of modern talent acquisition, still on the field, tells us what the profession got right, what we got embarrassingly wrong, and why AI won't fix any of it. Steve Levy unfiltered.
Where to Find SteveLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/levyrecruits (fair warning if he hasn't touched your baby belly, he might not accept your connection request. IYKYK.)
Recruiting Inferno Inc.: 30-year TA strategy practice
ATAP: Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals — join it
Lex Duo: lexduo.net — TA for TA, AI tools for in-house recruiters
R1 RCM: r1rcm.com/careers/r37-lab
hireEZ: Recruiter Therapy, For Recruiters By Recruiters Conference, Outbound Academy
Also Mentioned
Katrina Collier's The Robot-Proof Recruiter — Chapter 5 on intakes (Steve's rec)
Harriet Braiker's The Disease to Please
Og Mandino (the mountain quote)
Connect with Talentless
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts Instagram • LinkedIn • TikTok • YouTube • BlueSky • Threads Newsletter: talentless.beehiiv.com Come see us at RecFest Nashville — announcing our session soon Got a #DumDumTalent story? Email [email protected]55 min - Off Script: One Year of Talentless (with Desiree Goldey & Ashley King)One year. Thirty-seven episodes. And zero prep. Des and Ashley turn the mic on themselves for their 1-year anniversary no guest, no script, just the two humans behind the podcast.
Where to find us
Newsletter: talentless.beehiiv.com
Instagram • LinkedIn • TikTok • YouTube • BlueSky • Threads: @talentlesspodcast
Discord community: join via talentlesspodcast.com
1-Year Anniversary Giveaway: search Talentless Anniversary Giveaway 2026
Got a #DumDumTalent story? [email protected]
51 min - Your Origin Story Is the Job Skill Nobody's Hiring For (with T. Tara Turk-Haynes)Equity Activations founder T. Tara Turk-Haynes on The Origin Arc framework, why corporate America put icing on a crumbling cake, and the feedback crisis that's quietly destroying your talent pipeline.
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]
52 min - The Talent You Were Trained to Throw Away (with Chason Forehand)Chef-turned-HR founder Chason Forehand on the people the workforce filters out, why "people-first" is meaningless without action, and how recruiters hold more power to fix the wealth gap than they realize.Where to Find Chason
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)
Connect with TalentlessSubscribe 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]
50 min - Empathy Is Not Soft. It's a Damn Strategy. (with Dr. Melissa Robinson-Winemiller)TEDx speaker and bestselling author Dr. Melissa Robinson-Winemiller breaks down the 43 types of empathy (yes, 43), why niceness is a lie, and why self-empathy is the foundation every leader skips.Where to Find Dr. Melissa
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)
49 min - Compensation isn't a math problem. It's a truth-telling problem.
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.
48 min - Lori Golden : Early Career Hiring: What is different?
Early career hiring didn’t suddenly “break.” Companies changed the rules.
Lori brings over 27 years of recruiting experience across agency, startup, and corporate environments to a conversation that goes far beyond campus recruiting. Together, the team explores how hiring expectations shifted after the pandemic, why “entry-level” jobs now demand years of experience, and how AI, social media, and modern work culture are reshaping the future of employment.
Connect with Lori Golden:
LinkedIn: Lori Golden on LinkedIn
Community: Rebel HR
Early Career Program: Hire You
49 min - AI Isn’t Replacing Recruiters. Bad Leadership Is. - Oscar Chavez
In this episode of Talentless, Desiree Goldey, Ashley King, and Oscar Chavez unpack the real issue behind modern hiring dysfunction: leadership decisions that stripped recruiting of strategy, empathy, and human judgment.
Oscar shares what 20+ years in recruiting from agency to in-house to AI startup environments taught him about hiring systems, recruiter enablement, and why technology cannot fix a broken process without people who know how to lead it.
Connect with Oscar Chavez
LinkedIn: Oscar Chavez (“Oscar from LinkedIn”)
Resume Audit Tool: The Six Second Test
51 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…
everything that matters. Hosted Industry Leaders Ashley King and Desiree Goldey, we’re here to dig into the heart of what makes workplaces tick (and sometimes, blow up). From talent acquisition tips that actually work to the real talk on DEI and workforce trauma reshaping our industry, we’re not afraid to get into the messy, the meaningful, and the downright motivating. Buckle up—this is where you become the best in the business.