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 and repeatable parts of their role. I don’t want people hiding from AI because they’re worried they’re making themselves redundant. I want them actively looking for ways to use it, and being rewarded for doing so.

Because the opportunity here isn’t necessarily to achieve more by continually adding headcount. It’s to dramatically increase the productivity of the people you already have.

And that changes recruitment too.

As AI takes care of more routine work, the skills that become increasingly valuable are the ones that are hardest to automate: judgement, emotional intelligence, adaptability and genuine human connection.

AI is here. The question is whether we use it simply to replace people, or use it to make our people significantly better.

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 seriously comprehensive health assessment. We’re talking around 100 blood markers, a DEXA scan, body composition, blood pressure, respiratory testing and a deep dive into my health, lifestyle and habits.

And the results were pretty bloody interesting.

We unpack what my testing revealed around inflammation, liver function, cholesterol, vitamin deficiencies, thyroid function, testosterone, blood sugar, body composition and more.

But more importantly, Luke explains why you can’t just look at one dodgy marker and try to fix it in isolation.

We get into:

👉 Why “normal” blood test results don’t necessarily mean optimal health

Recruitment is a high-performance job. You need energy. You need concentration. You need to be sharp on the phone. And you need to be able to do it consistently.

You can keep pushing yourself for a while without looking after the foundations. But eventually, something gives.

This ep is a fascinating look at what happens when you stop guessing and actually get the data.

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 remember the point of the call.

And it made me think: why did you have to answer it right then?

Tune in for:

👉 Why you don’t need to answer every call immediately

If a client or candidate calls and you’re not crystal clear on what you need from that conversation, let it ring. Pull up your notes. Gather your thoughts. Know what you want to achieve.

Then call them straight back.

The goal isn’t to spend less time on the phone. It’s to make the calls you do have count.

As always, have an amazing day and make all your deals come true.

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 it’s certainly not all doom and gloom. There are still pockets of strong demand, and some major demographic shifts could create significant opportunities for recruiters over the next five years.

We cover:

👉 Why employment growth has slowed and what that means for recruiters

There’s a lot of noise around the jobs market right now. Blair brings the numbers, but more importantly, helps translate those numbers into what they could actually mean for your recruitment desk.

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

Knowing where you sit on the mastery scale can make the learning process a whole lot less frustrating and give you something tangible to work towards.

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 Census rolls around.

👉 Why senior recruiters are looking for a career “rebirth”

There are some really interesting shifts happening beneath the surface of our industry right now, and Andrea has a front-row seat to them.

If you’re a recruiter, recruitment leader or agency owner wondering where the market is heading next, this one is well worth a listen.

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

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 explain why recruiters need to take control of the scheduling process and why asking an innocent question like “when are you free?” can unintentionally slow the entire deal down.

No when. Try it on your next interview and see how much faster you can get things moving.

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 motivator than commission

👉 What happened to performance once Fridays became something worth earning

For me, this is a great example of thinking differently about what actually motivates people.

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 question is simple: What does success look like when the role you’re in starts to change?

Because as your responsibilities, priorities and role evolve, the way you measure a successful day needs to evolve with them.