The Resilient Recruiter

For the first five to six years of his first recruiting business, Mike Kelly did everything himself. Cold calls, interviews, client meetings, even payroll. He began handing off the work when he asked himself: what's the highest and best use of my time?

Mike is the Founder and CEO of Conexus Advisors and has grown and exited three professional services businesses. In this conversation, he shares how Conexus reached $65M in revenue, with 50 internal team members and 230 consultants working on client projects. The firm generates over $750,000 in gross profit per desk, including researchers.

About 85% of the business is project consulting and interim advisory. Mike explains how that revenue supports growth and walks through the division of work between researchers, screeners, recruiters, and account executives. Two people work on the database all year so fee earners can spend their time talking to clients and candidates.

Mike also explains how he develops managers who can take over coaching and grow their own teams. He shares why top billers don't always make good managers, how overrides and equity reward leadership, and what allowed him to hand over his own book of business for the first time in 28 years.

In this episode:

• How to identify the work you should hand off first
• Why Mike and his partners went nine months without a paycheck
• How a split desk works from research through to offer
• Why account executives personally prepare candidates for interviews
• How staying within a clear niche improves desk productivity
• The conversion targets Mike uses to assess recruiting performance
• How to develop and reward team leaders
• What makes a recruiting firm sellable

Episode highlights:

[09:24] Building a business instead of owning a job
[12:15] Protecting recruiter time and generating $750K GP per desk
[14:20] The fear that keeps owners doing everything
[16:33] Funding the team before paying yourself
[19:24] How the split desk works
[38:25] Conversion targets and the daily call report
[48:54] What makes a recruiting firm sellable
[54:49] Developing managers who take over coaching

About Mike Kelly:

Mike Kelly is the Founder and CEO of Conexus Advisors, an advisory, interim and executive search firm focused on the Office of the CFO. A former CPA, Mike began his career at Ernst & Young. Over the course of his career, he has founded, scaled and sold three professional services firms, including Spinnaker Financial Resources, Beacon Resources and Tactical Cloud.

Connect with Conexus:

https://conexusadvisors.com/

Podcast Partners:

This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more:
https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more:
https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

Free Resources:

Book your FREE 30-minute strategy call:
https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/

Take the Recruitment Business Scorecard:
https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

Listen to more episodes:
https://recruitmentcoach.com/podcast/

Connect with Mark Whitby:

• Mark on LinkedIn
• Mark on Twitter: @MarkWhitby
• Mark on Facebook
• Mark on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter so you never miss an episode.

A hot market can hide a lot of problems.

Josh Volinsky and his partners launched Synergy Search in September 2020, and the accounting and finance recruiting firm has reached as high as $6M in revenue. When the market normalized, recruiters who had learned to work transactionally struggled to adapt, a run of hires didn't work out, and the founders recognized that they weren't tracking the activity behind their results.

"We got sloppy. And when you aren't tracking activity in any way, you can't see it coming."

In August 2025, a breakfast conversation between the three founders became the start of what Josh calls the reboot. That October, three recruiters each billed over $100K in a single month. At the time of recording, Synergy has 15 employees and revenue in the mid- to upper-$4 M range.

Josh explains how they introduced accountability into a firm built on freedom, what their scorecard now measures, and why shared office days became part of the reset. He also discusses supporting the team following the death of their colleague Cara, and the training process that has helped accountants become successful recruiters.

In this episode:

• How a strong market can disguise weaknesses in your recruiting business
• The breakfast question that prompted Synergy's reboot
• How conversion data encouraged a top biller to improve
• Why Josh prioritizes client interviews, job orders and calls
• How a Bullhorn-connected phone system reduced manual administration
• Why Synergy hires accountants and trains them to recruit
• How a written blueprint and regular role plays support new recruiters

Episode highlights:
[01:24] Hiring accountants as recruiters
[07:28] Preparing financially to launch the business
[18:11] Dividing responsibilities between three founders
[22:32] Building the recruiting blueprint
[25:29] Practical role plays that involve the whole team
[43:58] The market shift that exposed transactional habits
[48:31] The breakfast conversation that started the reboot
[54:06] The three recruiting metrics Josh prioritizes

About Josh Volinsky
Josh is a co-founder of Synergy Search, an accounting and finance recruiting firm with offices in Maryland and Nashville. He began recruiting in 2007 and launched Synergy with Mark Hammond and Gary Palank in September 2020. He remains an active biller and joined The Pinnacle Society in spring 2025.

Connect with Josh
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshvolinsky/
Synergy Search: https://synergysearch.com/

Podcast Partners
Recruiterflow: The AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

Juicebox: The modern AI platform for recruiting search, outreach and pipeline management. https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

Free Resources
Take the 7-Figure Freedom Scorecard: https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard
Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/

Connect with Mark Whitby
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/markwhitby
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRecruitmentCoach/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter: https://plinkhq.com/i/1489513354

What would you change if you could start your recruitment firm again today?

In 2023, Kim Laipple led a 28-person team at Scientific Search and personally billed $1.4 million. Since then, the biotech market has been volatile. Between the downturn, retirements and other changes, the team dropped to about 16. Kim was also promoted to President after the previous owner retired.

Today, Scientific Search is back to around 22 people. Kim is running the business while still spending 30% to 50% of her week generating new business.

In this episode, Kim walks through the five channels feeding her pipeline: SEO that took nearly a year to produce consistent results, LinkedIn content built around the company and her personal brand, signal-based outbound using intent data, email marketing that depends on timing and relevance, and visibility through Claude and ChatGPT.

She also explains the 90-day training program she created for four new hires. Instead of giving inexperienced recruiters immediate ownership of live searches, the program allows them to build confidence on the phone while supporting established recruiters and protecting existing client relationships.

Kim is candid about the hardest part of becoming President. It is not learning new responsibilities. It is stepping back from the work that made her successful and allowing other people to do things differently.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• How Scientific Search contracted from 28 people to 16 and rebuilt to 22
• Why do new hires spend their first 30 days building confidence on the phone
• The five channels behind Kim’s business development machine
• Why SEO took nearly a year to produce consistent leads
• How ZoomInfo intent data changes who gets called and when
• Why Kim tracks gross profit per fee earner across three groups
• What it takes to move from placements into longer-term strategy
• Why Kim launched a podcast interviewing life sciences leaders

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Why Kim still calls herself “the rainmaker”

[01:22] Scientific Search goes from 28 people to 16 and rebuilds to 22

[05:24] Moving from placements into longer-term strategy

[12:08] Dividing the week between rainmaking, coaching and training

[24:36] Why the first 30 days center on phone work

[39:48] The five channels behind Kim’s business development machine

[42:54] SEO produces five to seven qualified company leads a month

[45:36] Timing outreach with ZoomInfo intent data

Podcast Partners:

This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

About Kim:

Kimberly Laipple is President of Scientific Search. Alongside her operational responsibilities, she continues to run a full desk while managing 18 recruiters and researchers.

Kim has more than 30 years of recruitment experience and has personally billed more than $1.4 million in a single year. She is also Vice President of the Pinnacle Society, a consortium of 80 leading recruiters.

During her 18 years with Scientific Search, Kim has placed professionals across clinical and commercial operations, manufacturing, engineering, R&D and analytics. She holds an MBA and a BS in Business Management from Rowan University.

Connect with Kim:

• Kim Laipple on LinkedIn
• Scientific Search
• Inside the Industry with Kim Laipple

Connect with Mark:

Free 30-minute strategy call: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session

Mark on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby

Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

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Every December, Charlie Saffro caught up with a friendly competitor at Hirewell to compare notes on the recruiting market. At the end of their 2024 call, after four difficult years, she said something almost as a joke: if you know anyone looking to buy a supply chain recruiting firm, let me know. About a week later, Hirewell's owner called her.

Charlie founded CS Recruiting in 2010 and spent 15 years building a specialist logistics, supply chain and transportation firm. She had no exit plan. What changed was a prolonged downturn and two rounds of layoffs, the first in the company's history.

Charlie explains why she rejected buyers who wanted her client book without her people, and what she was looking for instead. She also talks through the part most owners never hear about: almost 12 months of confidential negotiation, running the business while both her senior leaders were on leave, and what closing day actually looked like from the 8am signature to the 3pm welcome meeting.

The second half of the conversation is about what happened next. Charlie walks through how her recruiters moved from a split desk into full desk work one account at a time, what that did for accountability and ownership, and why the best source of new business was already sitting in their database.

If you are weighing an exit, or you want your recruiters to own more of the work, Charlie's experience is worth an hour of your time.

In this episode:

• Why Charlie sold to protect her team rather than to cash out
• The three types of buyer she rejected and what disqualified each one
• What almost 12 months of confidential negotiation actually involves
• How she handled due diligence while two senior leaders were on leave
• What closing day looked like, hour by hour
• The advantages and disadvantages of full desk and split desk
• How recruiters can move into business development one account at a time
• Why past candidates may be your best source of new clients

Episode highlights:

[02:31] CS Recruiting joins Hirewell and Charlie's entire team comes with her
[04:16] Fifteen years in business with no formal exit plan
[12:07] The buyer conversations that failed Charlie's test
[15:14] Keeping the deal secret while running the business
[18:30] The offhand comment that led to a call one week later
[21:19] Two senior leaders go on leave during the negotiation
[26:41] Signing at 8am and telling the team at 10am
[31:35] Moving recruiters toward full desk one account at a time
[33:23] Full desk versus split desk and the accountability trade-off
[39:14] Providing value on a retained search without a placement
[42:14] Why past candidates can become your best source of business
[49:33] Using recorded calls and AI feedback to coach recruiters

Podcast Partners:

This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

Free Resources:

7-Figure Freedom Scorecard: https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

About Charlie Saffro:

Charlie Saffro founded CS Recruiting, a specialist recruitment firm serving logistics, supply chain and transportation. She started the company in 2010 and led it for 15 years before it joined Hirewell in December 2025. CS Recruiting now operates as a Hirewell company, giving its clients access to a broader nationwide recruiting team while retaining the specialist brand and team Charlie built.

Connect with Charlie Saffro:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesaffro
CS Recruiting: https://www.cs-recruiting.com/
Hirewell: https://hirewell.com/

Connect with Mark Whitby:

Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/markwhitby
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRecruitmentCoach/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter: https://plinkhq.com/i/1489513354

Ross Cohen left his role as managing director at one of Florida's leading search firms to launch Brinc Search Partners with his business partner, Brett Nortman. They gave up an established brand, a built-out book of business and the steady flow that came with a larger firm. Ross also had a non-compete preventing him from approaching his former clients.

Brinc launched in March 2025. In its first year, Ross and Brett billed over $1 million.

They did it by getting scrappy. Although both had spent years specializing in financial services recruitment, Ross accepted searches ranging from executive assistants to engineers. These assignments kept revenue moving, helped Brink prove its value and opened the door to further work.

Ross also explains why Brinc does not rely on traditional cold calls. Each search begins with people Ross and Brett already know in the market. They gather intelligence, ask for referrals and identify passive candidates who may never appear through job boards or LinkedIn searches.

You'll also hear why they hired their first associate before the business felt ready, how face-to-face meetings fit into Brinc's hybrid schedule and how the team uses Recruiterflow, PIN and Claude to reduce administration and present candidates more effectively.

What You'll Learn:

• How Ross and Brett billed over $1 million in Brinc's first year
• Why accepting searches outside their specialty helped create early momentum
• How Ross rebuilt his book of business without approaching former clients
• Why existing relationships outperform traditional cold calls
• How referral conversations uncover passive candidates
• Why Brinc hired its first associate earlier than planned
• How in-person meetings help the team assess cultural fit
• How Claude reduces administration and improves candidate presentation

Episode Outline:
[00:10] Billing over $1 million in the first year
[05:16] Lessons Ross carried from equity research into executive search
[17:22] Building candidate flow at StevenDouglas before launching Brinc
[23:01] Leaving an established firm to launch Brinc
[27:42] Rebuilding the business one phone call at a time
[38:51] Hiring an associate before the firm felt ready
[50:38] Replacing traditional cold calls with warm market conversations
[59:40] Building Brinc's technology stack around Recruiterflow, PIN and Claude

About Ross Cohen:
Ross Cohen is the co-founder of Brinc Search Partners. He launched the firm with Brett Nortman in March 2025 after building a financial services recruitment practice at StevenDouglas. Ross began his career in equity research at Lazard before moving into recruitment with Solomon Page. He holds Series 7, 63, 86 and 87 securities licenses, an economics degree and a master's in international business from the University of Florida. He is based in South Florida.

Connect with Ross:
Ross on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-cohen-44658037/
Brinc Search Partners: www.brincsearch.com

Podcast Partners:
This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

Connect with Mark Whitby:
Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Mark on Twitter: https://twitter.com/markwhitby
Mark on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRecruitmentCoach/
Mark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter: https://plinkhq.com/i/1489513354

What do you do when the recruitment business you've poured everything into starts to fall apart?

Gemma Downing Mapp came back from holiday to find Mixxos £100,000 behind budget. Two months later, the company recorded its highest-billing month ever with roughly half the team.

Gemma is co-founder and CEO of Mixxos Group, a boutique recruitment consultancy she built with her business partner, Chris. They grew the company from a team of two into a multimillion-pound firm, with the numbers moving in the right direction year after year.

But the foundations had not kept pace.

Gemma and Chris knew within the first few months that a senior operations hire was not working. They liked the person and wanted the appointment to succeed, so they continued trying for 18 months. During that time, leadership became misaligned, standards slipped and financial forecasts became unreliable.

Gemma is open about the responsibility she and Chris carried for allowing the situation to continue. She explains why recruitment business owners delay difficult people decisions, what finally forced them to act and why the first thing she would fix is always the person leading the team.

The turnaround involved restructuring the company, reducing headcount by 50% and redefining the founders' roles. Gemma became CEO, responsible for the people and culture. Chris became Commercial Director, focused on revenue and gross profit.

They also brought in Sam to restore operational control. He introduced consistent one-to-ones, clearer financial reporting and a skills matrix, while helping the business prepare for a new technology rollout and launch a retained executive search desk.

Throughout the restructure, approximately 99% of Mixxos clients stayed with the company. Gemma credits the relationships she and Chris had built and their determination to do what they said they would do.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How fast growth allowed problems to develop behind the scenes
• Why Gemma and Chris delayed a senior leadership decision for 18 months
• The danger of wanting success for an employee more than they want it themselves
• Why the leader between an owner and the team shapes everyone's standards
• How Gemma and Chris divided their roles around their strengths
• What Mixxos changed about hiring, onboarding and accountability
• How the company achieved its best month with half the headcount
• Why strong client relationships protected the business during the restructure

Episode highlights:
[05:58] Five years of growth and the foundations that failed to keep pace
[09:57] Returning from holiday to a business, Gemma no longer wanted to be in
[11:44] The cost of delaying a senior leadership decision for 18 months
[22:00] Gemma becomes CEO and Chris becomes Commercial Director
[28:29] Launching the retained executive search desk
[31:04] Achieving the best billing month in company history with half the team
[40:17] How Mixxos retained approximately 99% of its clients

Podcast Partners:
This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

About Gemma Downing Mapp:
Gemma Downing Mapp is co-founder and CEO of Mixxos Group, a boutique recruitment consultancy based in Milton Keynes. She and her business partner, Chris, grew Mixxos from a team of two into a multimillion-pound firm working across permanent, temporary and retained executive search. The business now also delivers retained search assignments in EMEA and the United States.

Connect with Gemma:
Mixxos Group: https://mixxos.com/

Connect with Mark Whitby:

Get your free 30-minute strategy call: https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Mark on Twitter: https://twitter.com/markwhitby
Mark on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRecruitmentCoach/
Mark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter: https://plinkhq.com/i/1489513354

While much of the recruitment industry was flat last year, Sachin Ruparelia grew billings by 33% and kept hiring.

Sachin is the Founder and Managing Director of Camino Partners and Camino Search. Over the last couple of years, his businesses have grown net fee income by 20% and then 33%, while scaling to around 37 people across London and Tampa.

A big part of that growth has come from community-led business development. Instead of calling prospects to ask if they're hiring, Camino creates reasons for clients and prospects to want to speak with them. They run events, CFO dinners and networking sessions. They publish salary surveys and a 120-page Global Report for the private equity market.

Sachin calls it "the art of selling without selling."

In this conversation, Sachin explains how those events and insights turn into real recruitment opportunities, including the important step recruiters often miss: making the commercial ask after they've earned the conversation.

You'll also hear how Sachin approaches the other side of scaling: people. He shares how to know when it's time for your next support hire, why an operations manager can be one of the smartest early hires for a growing firm, and his A's, B's and F's approach to hiring people who are better than you in the areas where you're weak.

Sachin also speaks openly about growing up in a violent household and the two years of psychodynamic counseling that helped him understand how those experiences had shaped his behavior. He explains how that self-awareness made him a better husband, father, friend and leader, and why he now speaks openly about mental health in recruitment.

• How Camino grew NFI by 20% and then 33% while scaling to around 37 people
• How community-led BD creates conversations without leading with a sales pitch
• Why Sachin runs one to two events a month and how he gets the right people into the room
• How a 120-page insight report creates multiple reasons to contact prospects
• How to turn events and content into actual recruitment opportunities
• When a growing recruitment firm should make its first operations hire
• How the A's, B's and F's test helps founders hire around their weaknesses
• Why is self-awareness becoming increasingly important as you build a larger team

[08:50] Setting up the business at 31 and appointing a chairman
[09:33] The two years of therapy Sachin calls game changing
[17:20] Two verticals, 37 people and 33% growth in a flat market
[22:51] The first scaling lesson: hire people better than you
[29:25] Community-led BD: the art of selling without selling
[39:07] Insight-led BD and Camino's 120-page Global Report
[52:55] The first operations hire for a scaling recruitment firm
[54:50] The A's, B's and F's approach to hiring around your weaknesses

Sachin Ruparelia is the Founder and Managing Director of Camino Partners and Camino Search. He launched Camino Partners in 2012 with two former colleagues, initially specializing in accountancy and finance before expanding into "mission control" roles within recruitment businesses.

Camino Search works within the private capital ecosystem, placing CFOs and other senior finance professionals, along with corporate development, M&A and origination talent, into private equity-backed technology-enabled and business services companies.

The business operates from London and Tampa and has grown to around 37 people. Over the last two years, Camino's NFI grew first by 20% and then by 33%. Sachin's next plan, Mission 234, is to double headcount and triple NFI over four years.

Sachin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachinruparelia/
Camino Partners: http://www.caminopartners.co.uk
Camino Search: http://www.caminosearch.co.uk

This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach, and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/

Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/

There's a belief in recruitment that scaling a firm means scaling headcount.

Dave Fox has built a different model. His fully remote technology staffing firm, Focus GTS, generates more than $10 million in annual revenue with a team of just 11 people.

Early on, Dave assumed he would need 80 to 100 people to build the business he wanted. He also thought a 360 model and broader market coverage would be the right path. Over time, he found a different way to grow: stay close to one specialist market, build a split-desk team of strong people, and make AI part of how the whole business works.

Dave is the founder of Focus GTS, a Miami-based technology staffing firm that specializes in the Adobe Marketing Cloud ecosystem. He started in recruitment with the S3 Group, working his way from trainee consultant to manager and director before launching his own business eight years ago.

In this conversation, Dave explains why he is done with the "chase game" of constantly pursuing new opportunities. His focus now is on becoming so useful and well-known in his market that clients and candidates come to him.

That means creating free tools that solve real problems, publishing useful content, and using AI research agents to stay close to key customers. It also means giving every member of his 11-person team access to Claude and Claude Code, then creating a culture where people share what they are learning.

Dave is not suggesting AI is a shortcut to success. He spends 50 to 60 hours a week learning and building with it. But he makes a strong case that agency owners need to rethink the old relationship between headcount, growth, and productivity.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Dave moved from a 360 model to a split-desk structure
• The assumption that made him think he needed 80 to 100 people
• Why a smaller, better-paid team can outperform a larger one
• How Focus GTS became known in the Adobe Marketing Cloud market
• How free tools and useful content can create inbound conversations
• How AI research agents help Dave's team stay close to top clients
• How to make AI a shared team habit rather than a founder-only project
• The mindset Dave believes agency owners need as AI changes the market

Episode highlights:

• [02:49] Why Dave launched Focus GTS after walking away from a potential partnership
• [07:53] Building a fully remote technology staffing business
• [10:46] Why Focus GTS uses a split-desk model
• [18:18] The AI inflection point that changed Dave's view of growth
• [23:28] Building free tools for a specialist market
• [29:42] Using AI research agents on Focus GTS's top five clients
• [34:52] How to become a celebrity in your recruitment niche
• [45:25] How all 11 team members learn and use AI together

Sponsors:

This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach, and pipeline management within a single workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

Guest Bio:

Dave Fox is the founder of Focus GTS, a fully remote technology staffing firm based in Miami. Focus GTS generates more than $10 million in annual revenue with a team of 11 and has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 list. Dave and his team specialize in the Adobe Marketing Cloud ecosystem and use AI across research, marketing, sales, website development, and client delivery.

• Connect with Dave Fox on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davefoxceo/
• Learn more about Focus GTS: https://www.focusgts.com/

Connect with Mark Whitby:

• Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
• Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
• Mark on Twitter: @MarkWhitby
• Mark on Facebook
• Mark on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

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David Paffenholz never worked as a recruiter. He studied economics at Harvard, led growth at Snap, and built a couple of consumer products with his co-founder, Ishan, before the two of them turned their attention to hiring. What they noticed was that most of the recruiting tech stack is built for candidates who are already in the funnel, while the harder and more valuable problem sits right at the top: finding the right people and getting them to reply.

The platform they built, Juicebox, is now used by more than 5,000 customers, and around 40% of them run AI agents that source candidates autonomously for open roles. One agent per role. Each learns from your feedback, sources a set number of new candidates every day, and tells you when the talent pool needs a different approach.

In this special sponsored episode, David walks Mark through what that looks like on a real desk. He covers the four-step outreach sequence Juicebox recommends, why generic AI-written emails hurt response rates and how to keep yours sounding like you, and how the platform searches and ranks candidates without a LinkedIn Recruiter seat. He also makes the case that recruiting will start to look more like executive search, with agents handling the research and sourcing while recruiters spend their time where they create the most value: building trust with candidates and clients.

He also shares the honest version of building the company, including the two difficult years when it was just him and Ishan, before Juicebox found momentum.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• How one AI agent per open role sources candidates every day
• The four-step outreach cadence Juicebox recommends, and why the fourth email waits
• Why generic AI-written emails hurt your response rate, and how to keep yours sounding like you
• How to search and rank candidates without relying on LinkedIn Recruiter
• When to add LinkedIn and phone steps to an automated sequence
• Why the future of recruiting may look more like executive search
• What helps recruiters and employers win the best talent
• The two difficult years before Juicebox found momentum

Episode highlights:

• 01:22 Why David and his co-founder chose to build for recruitment
• 03:41 The top-of-funnel problem most recruiting tools ignore
• 10:27 The four-step email cadence that gets more replies
• 12:00 Why AI-written outreach often sounds generic
• 24:57 The recruiting org chart of the future
• 26:49 What one AI agent per role does each day
• 32:18 Why recruiting will increasingly resemble executive search
• 51:01 The difficult two years before the business found momentum

Podcast Partner

This special episode is sponsored by Juicebox, the AI recruiting platform that helps recruiters find and reach the right candidates. Book a demo: recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

About David Paffenholz

David Paffenholz is the co-founder and CEO of Juicebox, an AI recruiting platform used by more than 5,000 customers to find and reach candidates. He studied economics at Harvard and led growth at Snap. He and his co-founder, Ishan, built several consumer products before founding Juicebox, which went through Y Combinator in 2022.

Connect with Mark

Free 30-minute strategy call: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby
Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter so you never miss an episode.

What separates recruiters building momentum from those whose desks are quietly drifting?

Benjamin Mena has recorded more than 300 episodes of The Elite Recruiter Podcast. Mark Whitby has done the same with The Resilient Recruiter. Between them, they have interviewed hundreds of high-performing recruiters and repeatedly seen the same success patterns.

Ben begins this conversation with an honest admission. His recruiting revenue had been drifting. It was not collapsing, but his attention had become divided and the work he should have completed months earlier had not happened.

That changed the conversation. Ben and Mark were not simply identifying what elite recruiters do. They were examining why proven fundamentals remain difficult to execute, even when you know exactly what they are.

"The wealth in our industry is built on going day after day, doing the most boring basics."

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Why successful recruiters plan the next day before the current one ends
• How rigorous qualification protects your time, energy and revenue
• Why hyper-specialization is common among the industry's top billers
• How engagement fees test whether a client is genuinely committed
• Why recruiters need to rebuild the sales skills weakened during easier markets
• How cornerstone clients create a more stable recruitment desk
• How LinkedIn, podcasts, newsletters and SEO can generate inbound opportunities
• Why long-term relationships become more valuable as AI changes recruitment

Episode Highlights:

• [02:08] The revenue drift that made Ben delay this conversation
• [07:18] Defining success beyond recruitment billings
• [11:33] Why elite recruiters plan tomorrow before today ends
• [15:21] How rigorous qualification protects time and revenue
• [21:46] Becoming the go-to recruiter in a hyper-niche market
• [29:16] Rebuilding the sales skills weakened during easier markets
• [36:36] Building an inbound engine that compounds over time
• [46:05] How AI could widen the gap between recruiters

About Benjamin Mena

Benjamin Mena is the host of The Elite Recruiter Podcast and Managing Partner of Select Source Solutions, an executive search firm specializing in federal recruiting for government contractors.

Ben has 20 years of recruiting experience across major defense contracts and complex federal programs. Through his podcast, recruiter community and virtual summits, he brings together top billers, firm owners and industry leaders to share what is working on the desk.

Connect With Benjamin Mena

The Elite Recruiter Podcast: https://www.eliterecruiterpodcast.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminmena/

If you want to build a recruitment desk around disciplined execution, market authority and relationships that compound, this episode is a must-listen.

Podcast Partners

This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow — an AI-first ATS and CRM with built-in data enrichment. Book a demo at recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow.

Free Resources

Recruitment Freedom Scorecard: https://mark-rf1pexbm.scoreapp.com/
Book a free 30-minute strategy call: https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/

Connect With Mark Whitby

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwhitby/
Twitter: @MarkWhitby
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecruitmentCoach/
Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter so you never miss an episode.