The Resilient Recruiter

David Jenyns had 15 people on his team when he realized his business still couldn't function without him. Every client wanted him personally. Every escalation came back to him. He was working long hours and couldn't switch off. When he thought about taking time off to be present for the birth of his first child, it filled him with anxiety rather than excitement.

"It was a little bit scary when I realized, hey, if I'm not working, the business isn't working."

David is the founder of SYSTEMology, a three-times bestselling author of Authority Content, SYSTEMology, and Systems Champion, and a TEDx speaker. He has built and exited multiple businesses and, in 2016, systemized himself out of Melbourne SEO Services by documenting the business, hiring a CEO, and stepping away from day-to-day operations. He has since personally coached 223 businesses across 48 industries and 27 countries.

In this conversation, David and Mark explore why founder dependency is so common in recruitment businesses, why it often gets rewarded in the early stages, and how agency owners can break the cycle. David explains the Critical Client Flow, the knowledgeable worker concept, the Systems Champion role, and why documented processes have become even more valuable in the age of AI.

In this episode:

• Why the traits that help build a recruitment business can eventually limit its growth
• The Critical Client Flow and how to identify the systems that matter most
• How to distinguish between the work that requires your expertise and the work that doesn't
• Why key person dependency creates risk beyond just the founder
• How to capture the knowledge inside your team's heads before it walks out the door
• The Systems Champion role and how it drives systemization from within
• How AI can turn recordings into first-draft process documentation
• Why businesses with documented processes are getting the most out of AI right now
• What happened when ChatGPT disrupted a quarter of David's business almost overnight

Episode Highlights

[2:08] Why David's agency became dependent on him despite having 15 team members
[4:15] The catalyst: finding out his wife was pregnant
[9:03] Why founder dependency gets rewarded in the early stages
[13:16] Systemize everything around the magic
[19:58] The Critical Client Flow: where to start
[25:32] The knowledgeable worker concept
[27:41] The Systems Champion role
[38:40] Building a Systems Hub for your intellectual property
[47:03] How ChatGPT disrupted David's business overnight
[49:06] Why process documentation is now the foundation for AI adoption

About David Jenyns

David Jenyns is the founder of SYSTEMology and a three-times bestselling author. His books, Authority Content, SYSTEMology, and Systems Champion, have been endorsed by Michael Gerber, Gino Wickman, and Allan Dib. A TEDx speaker and serial entrepreneur, he has personally coached 223 businesses across 48 industries and 27 countries. He also hosts the podcast Business Processes Simplified and runs systemHUB, a platform for business process documentation.

Connect with David:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/david-jenyns
SYSTEMology: systemology.com
systemHUB: systemhub.com

Podcast Partner

Recruiterflow is an AI-first ATS and CRM built for modern recruitment agencies.
Book a demo: recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

Free Resources

Seven Figure Freedom Scorecard: recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard
Free Strategy Session: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session

Connect with Mark

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

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

Dubai attracts recruiters from all over the world. Louise Vine has spent the last 18 years learning how the market really works.

Louise is the founder of Inspire Selection, a specialist finance and accounting recruitment firm based in Dubai. Over the last 13 years, she has built a fully remote business operating on a commission-only model while navigating a market where fee pressure is intense, cultural differences shape every interaction, and jobs can disappear without warning.

Last year, 70% of Louise's assignments were either canceled or put on hold.

Louise covers the challenges that catch Western recruiters off guard, why agencies charging 8% fees have changed client expectations, and how she introduced engagement fees to protect her team's time. She also explains how her commission-only model works, why only a small percentage of recruiters are suited to it, and what she has learned about hiring, accountability, and building culture in a fully remote business.

If you're considering Dubai, exploring commission-only recruitment, or looking for a different way to build a recruitment business, this episode is worth your time.

In this episode:

• How Louise went from Robert Half in the UK to building a recruitment business in Dubai
• What recruiters need to understand about the realities of the UAE market
• Why nationality-based salary bands still exist in some organizations
• How fee pressure impacts recruitment firms across Dubai
• Why 70% of Louise's jobs went on hold or were canceled last year
• The engagement fee strategy that changed client behavior
• The pros and cons of a commission-only recruitment business
• How to manage performance without micromanaging
• Building culture and accountability in a remote team

Episode Highlights:

00:00 Intro

02:17 Growing up in Yorkshire and how it shaped Louise's resilience

15:51 The Facebook photos that convinced Louise to move to Dubai

17:25 Becoming top biller in her first quarter in Dubai

22:37 Nationality-based salary bands and what they mean for recruiters

27:06 Why 70% of jobs went on hold and how the engagement fee changed things

37:43 The commission-only model: 60-80% payouts, fully remote, no base salary

44:07 The hidden cost of commission-only, most owners don't see coming

46:18 How Louise manages performance without micromanaging 56:30 Why finding the right person for a commission-only model is harder than it sounds

1:03:07 How Louise builds team culture with everyone working from home

About Louise Vine Louise Vine is the founder of Inspire Selection, a specialist finance and accounting recruitment agency based in Dubai. She moved to Dubai from England 18 years ago and launched Inspire Selection 13 years ago. Today she leads a team of nine billers and three support staff, all working remotely on a commission-only model.

Connect with Louise: Louise on LinkedIn, inspireselection.com

Podcast Partners Recruiterflow is an AI-first ATS and CRM built for modern recruitment firms. Find email addresses and phone numbers directly from LinkedIn profiles and manage your entire recruitment workflow in one platform. Book a demo: recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

Free Resources:

Take the Recruitment Freedom Scorecard: recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

Book a free Strategy Session with Mark: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session

Connect with Mark Whitby LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter for weekly interviews with recruitment business owners and search firm leaders.

Rich Rosen is having a strong year. But he's quick to point out that it hasn't come easily. In his words, he's working twice as hard for those results.

Rich has completed more than 1,200 placements, been recognized by Forbes as one of America's Top 50 Recruiters for seven consecutive years, and continues to bill over $1 million annually. He also spends more time testing recruiting technology than almost anyone in the industry.

Yet despite all the AI tools available today, Rich still spends four to six hours a day speaking with clients and candidates.

His concern is that many recruiters are approaching AI the wrong way.

Either they use it as a distraction, spending core hours building automations instead of talking to people. Or they save time with AI and then fail to reinvest that time into the activities that actually generate revenue.

Rich's view is simple: AI should help recruiters become more productive. The real question is what you do with the time it gives back.

In this conversation, Rich shares how he runs his desk in 2025, what's in his tech stack, why disciplined phone time still matters, and what he's learned from producing results in a market he describes as genuinely tough.

In this episode:

• Why are many recruiters getting distracted by AI rather than becoming more productive because of it
• The one question every recruiter should ask after saving time with automation
• Rich's current tech stack: Pin.com, Ren Systems, Cluely, Gemini Deep Research, and more
• How he plans his day the night before, so he's calling from minute one
• Why does he fire bad clients even in a difficult market and what happens when he does
• How to identify the clients worth keeping and the ones worth walking away from
• What the Pinnacle Society conference revealed about where the market really is right now

Episode highlights: 

• [10:03] Why perseverance was the dominant theme at Pinnacle Miami
• [11:46] Rich's take on AI hype and what companies are actually doing with it
• [17:57] Why recruiters burn out from underappreciation, not hard work
• [21:29] How to identify the clients worth keeping and the ones worth walking away from
• [32:44] The mistake recruiters make after saving time with AI [35:18] His current tech stack and the tools generating the most value
• [46:38] How AI has changed the workflow of a million-dollar desk [54:17] Why he still spends four to six hours a day on the phone [59:57] Is AI making recruiters more productive or just creating new distractions?

About Rich Rosen: Rich Rosen is the founder of Cornerstone Search Group and one of the most accomplished recruiters in the technology sector. Over the course of his career, he has completed more than 1,200 placements and been recognized by Forbes as one of America's Top 50 Recruiters for seven consecutive years. Rich specializes in software sales, sales leadership, sales engineering, and executive-level searches for technology companies ranging from startups to enterprise organizations. He is also a longtime member of the Pinnacle Society, the premier consortium of top-performing recruiters in North America.

Connect with Rich: Rich Rosen on LinkedIn Cornerstone Search Group

Connect with Mark: Free 30-minute strategy call: www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/ Mark on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Sam Johnstone has never worked for a recruitment agency.

He spent three and a half years selling video technology to agency owners. Then he decided to go and do it himself.

Four years in, he has a portfolio of repeat clients and inbound leads from LinkedIn. All built from a cabin on the Scottish coast with a few thousand pounds in the bank.

Sam is the founder of Real Recruit, a specialist sales recruitment firm based in Glasgow. He built his entire business around video - using it to prospect for new clients, market roles, screen candidates, and deliver shortlists. It's his single biggest differentiator for winning clients over every other agency they're talking to.

In this episode, Sam breaks down his complete video process from first outreach to final shortlist. He explains how a 30-second personalised video and a five-minute callback rule consistently gets prospects to take his call. He explains how filming video job adverts inside client offices builds relationships that standard agencies can't match. And he shares the hiring day model that compresses weeks of interviews into a single afternoon.

Sam also covers the harder lessons. A hiring day that cost him money. A client who took 180 days to pay. The payment term changes he made after that. And the monthly recurring revenue model he built to create more predictable income.

In this episode you'll discover:

• The 30-second video formula that gets cold prospects to pick up the phone
• Why Sam sends personalised videos to multiple decision makers at the same company on the same day
• How filming a video job advert on-site at a client's office wins repeat business
• The hiring day model and how to run one
• Why a client who haggles on your deposit is a red flag
• How Sam rebuilt his payment terms after a client took 180 days to pay
• How Clay, SourceWhale, and Claude Cowork replaced LinkedIn Recruiter in his tech stack

Episode highlights:

[1:18] What a video-first recruitment agency actually means

[15:15] The BD routine: personalized videos, watch notifications, calling within five minutes

[17:54] The 30-second video formula

[22:29] How a Rangers fan story turned into Sam's first big retainer

[25:16] Why Sam works on deposit - and what clients receive in return

[32:42] The hiring day model explained

[43:55] The hiring day that cost Sam money and what he learned

[49:32] Getting paid 180 days late - and the changes that followed

[1:08:16] Clay, SourceWhale, and Claude Cowork replacing LinkedIn Recruiter

If your outreach isn't getting responses, this episode will give you a completely different approach to winning clients.

Connect with Sam: LinkedIn: Sam Johnstone Website: realrecruit.co.uk

Connect with Mark: Free strategy session: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session Mark on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Recruitment business owners are being pitched new tools every single day. Most of it gets bought based on fear of missing out, not because there is a real problem that needs solving.

Nitin Sharma is the founder of Rectools IO, an independent directory of recruitment technology, and the host of Rectalk, the most followed recruitment podcast on YouTube with over 100,000 subscribers. He speaks to more recruitment technology companies than almost anyone in the industry while staying completely independent.

Before all of that, Nitin built a recruitment agency to 15 people and close to 5 million pounds in revenue. Then it failed. Sitting with an insolvency practitioner, being asked why he did not know the answers to basic questions about his own business, was the moment that shaped everything he does now.

In this episode, Nitin shares why most recruitment businesses are buying technology in the wrong order, how to work out what you actually need, and the one question every business owner should ask before spending anything on new tools.

You will hear why your business finances almost always mirror your personal finances, the three conversations to have before buying any new tool, how to audit what you already own before spending anything new, and why a CRM with strong back office functionality is the one thing every recruitment business genuinely needs, regardless of size or model.

Nitin also breaks down where AI will genuinely replace recruitment work first, how to spot a GPT in a wrapper before you buy it, and why legacy recruitment software is under more threat than most people realize.

Episode highlights:

2:19 Building to close to 5 million pounds in revenue and the collapse in December 2023

6:17 The real reasons the agency failed 15:56 Why business finances mirror personal finances

25:47 How Rectools IO and Rectalk became the industry's biggest YouTube channel

31:13 What recruitment business owners should be doing on LinkedIn

46:47 Why legacy recruitment software is under threat

48:10 The recruitment work AI will automate first

49:06 How to spot a GPT in a wrapper

50:53 The one question to ask before buying any recruitment tool

53:38 How to check what you already have before spending anything new

59:48 Why a CRM is the one non-negotiable

Connect with Nitin: LinkedIn: Nitin Sharma

Website: rectools.io

YouTube: Rectalk Podcast

Connect with Mark: Free strategy call: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session

Seven Figure Freedom Scorecard: recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

Mark on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby

Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Adding more people is how you grow a recruitment firm.

Michelle Lownie spent years believing it. Then she watched it go wrong.

Michelle is the CEO and co-founder of Eden Scott, one of Scotland's leading recruitment firms. She started in recruitment in 1989, filing documents and making tea at Melville Craig on a six-week summer contract. She stayed 15 years. In 2003, she co-founded Eden Scott alongside Guy Martin and Chris Logue.

Today, Eden Scott generates approximately £25 million in annual revenue with 38 consultants across Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Glasgow. At its peak, the business had nearly 70 people.

In this episode, Michelle talks through what it took to rebuild around a smaller, higher-performing team - and how that decision changed everything about how the business runs today.

She covers the hiring process Eden Scott uses to find recruiters who don't need managing, why they've stayed on the 360 model for 23 years while everyone else splits desks, and what keeps recruiters at Eden Scott for years in an industry known for high turnover.

She also shares what the last 18 months have looked like on the ground in Scotland - and why relationship-led recruitment still matters more than ever.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Eden Scott rebuilt from 70 people down to 38 - and what changed
• How COVID became an opportunity to rebuild around the right people
• The hiring process - including why interviewers never discuss candidates between stages
• What Michelle is actually looking for when she makes a hiring decision
• How their commission and retention structure works, including sabbaticals at 5, 10, and 15 years
• How the 360 full-desk model still produces a £25 million business
• What consistent business development actually looks like in practice

Episode highlights:

[13:39] How COVID forced a complete rethink of the business

[17:51] Why Michelle has no interest in scaling back to 70 people

[26:29] Why Eden Scott has stayed on the 360 model while others split desks

[35:30] The hiring process - and why interviewers don't discuss candidates between stages

[45:11] The retention strategies that keep consultants at Eden Scott for years

[52:18] Why good recruiters don't need to be pushed

This episode is sponsored by Recruiterflow - an AI-first ATS and CRM built for recruiters who want to spend less time on admin and more time on relationships. See it in action at recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow.

About Michelle Lownie: Michelle Lownie is the CEO and co-founder of Eden Scott, one of Scotland's leading recruitment firms with annual revenue of approximately £25 million. She began her career in 1989 at Melville Craig and co-founded Eden Scott in 2003 alongside Guy Martin and Chris Logue. The firm operates across Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Glasgow with 38 consultants.

Connect with Michelle: LinkedIn: Michelle Lownie Website: edenscott.com

Connect with Mark: Free 30-minute strategy session: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session Mark on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/markwhitby Follow on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Sourcing frustration is usually diagnosed as a volume problem. Not enough candidates in the funnel. Not enough searches. Not enough outreach.

Steven Lu thinks it's the opposite problem.

Steven is the co-founder and CEO of Pin.com and the founder of Interseller, a recruiting outreach platform that helped place over 40,000 candidates before being acquired by Greenhouse in 2021. After two years inside Greenhouse studying the top of the recruiting funnel, he launched PIN to solve a specific, persistent problem: the candidates most worth finding are the ones current sourcing tools miss.

In this episode, Steven explains why 30% of top talent is essentially invisible in LinkedIn searches. He breaks down how PIN's shadow resume technology rebuilds candidate profiles from external data to surface people who've never described themselves online. He also shares the outreach approach that generates 30 to 40% response rates, the exact sequence he recommends (3 emails and 2 LinkedIn touches), and the four most common mistakes that quietly destroy deliverability.

The bigger picture matters for every recruiter working in an increasingly noisy market. The era of high-volume outreach is coming to an end. Email providers are measuring engagement signals. Spam filters are getting sharper. The recruiters who win over the next two or three years will be the ones who source fewer candidates, make each one count, and treat every outreach like it's going to the one person who can fill the role.

This is a practical conversation about what's changing in sourcing and how to address it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the most qualified candidates rarely appear in standard keyword searches
• How PIN's shadow resume makes unfindable candidates findable
• What PIN's autopilot mode does and how to set it up with just two inputs
• Why you should cap your outreach sequence at five steps
• The four most damaging outreach mistakes recruiters make
• Why including a Google Doc link beats pasting the job description every time
• How to structure omnichannel outreach across email and LinkedIn
• Why the top 1% of billers operate from a very short candidate Rolodex

Episode highlights:

• [3:49] From Interseller to Greenhouse to PIN - Steven's journey
• [9:34] The talent curve: why top candidates don't show up in search
• [13:36] PIN's North Star KPI: 7 out of 10 candidates accepted
• [27:32] Autopilot mode: 50 candidates sourced for you every weekday
• [37:34] Why volume sourcing is running out of road
• [44:57] The four outreach mistakes killing your response rates
• [49:50] The 5-step sequence Steven recommends
• [1:04:12] How the top 1% of billers think about their candidate pipeline

Guest bio: Steven Lu is the co-founder and CEO of Pin.com. He previously founded Interseller, which helped place over 40,000 candidates before being acquired by Greenhouse in 2021. He spent two years at Greenhouse before launching PIN in December 2024. Steven is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Connect with Steven: Pin.com - book a free demo or start a free trial

Connect with Mark: Free 30-minute strategy session: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session Mark on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby Follow on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

What does it take to build a search process that has a VP of HR saying they've never seen anything like it?

Darwin Shurig built a $2.5 million medtech recruiting firm with $1.2 million in personal production. Then in one quarter, eight of his nine top clients stopped using external recruiters. Revenue collapsed. His team disappeared. His 17-year marriage ended in the same period.

What he built on the other side changed how he runs every search.

His process replaces the standard job description with a short video interview between the recruiter and the hiring manager. Qualified candidates see the role in the manager's own words before a single formal interview is scheduled. On the hiring side, the manager receives the candidate's personal why on video, written samples, and personality profiling. Both sides walk into the first conversation already informed.

A VP of HR, after seeing it, told Darwin his firm had just paid $97,000 for an executive search and received resumes and scheduling. "We didn't get anything like this."

In this episode, Darwin breaks down the collapse, the lessons, and the process he built from scratch — including two specific things every recruiter can use this week with no software required.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why eight of nine clients can vanish in one quarter and what it exposes about your business model
• The three root causes of underperformance most agency owners never diagnose
• Why personal why has to match company why when hiring, or it breaks when things get hard
• How a hiking idea became a platform that's changing how retained search is delivered
• The hiring manager video that replaces the job description and why candidates respond differently
• "How Darwin's process consistently delivers results that clients say they've never experienced before
• Two things you can apply this week with whatever tools you already have

Episode highlights:

0:00 Intro

1:41 How Darwin built a $2.5M firm, then lost it

5:43 Eight of nine clients stop overnight

11:16 What the collapse taught him

22:05 The hedgehog lesson: too many projects, not enough oxygen

28:15 Why misaligned values break down when things get hard

36:39 Managing your own business vs. someone else's money

40:48 The expectation failure: "Nobody ever told me."

44:22 The hike that became a platform idea

47:48 Inside Top Talent Accelerant: the hiring manager video

53:59 How the platform is being commercialized

1:05:54 The $97K fee moment

1:11:20 Two things you can use this week

Guest bio: Darwin Shurig is the founder of Top Talent Accelerant, a medical device and medtech executive search firm. He built the firm to $2.5 million in revenue with $1.2 million in personal production before a sector-wide downturn in 2023 disrupted the business. He is a Pinnacle Society member, author of Modern Day Job, an Amazon bestseller published in 2024, and is currently writing a second book on talent management strategy.

Connect with Darwin: Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darwin-shurig/ Website: https://www.toptalentaccelerant.com/

Connect with Mark: Free 30-minute strategy session: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session Mark on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

He nearly quit after 7 months.

Zero placements. Nothing working.

He packed his things into a cardboard box, walked toward the door, and heard his colleagues talking about him behind his back.

What they said stopped him.

He turned around, sat back down, and made two placements by the end of that week.

That was 1982. He never left.

In this episode, Rich breaks down the daily habits behind 44 years of consistent billings.

He’s used the handwritten planner for nearly 40 years.

Why does he track talk time instead of call volume?

And the old-school business development strategy most recruiters have abandoned.

Rich is the founder of Team Bradley and a Pinnacle Society member for nearly 30 years. He’s billed $28 million personally. At 67, working solo alongside his wife, he’s still going strong.

This isn’t about talent.

It’s about cadence, commitment, and building a career you actually want to keep.

If you’re wondering whether you can sustain this long term, this episode will change how you think about the business.

Resources Mentioned
👉 Find out exactly where your recruitment business is getting stuck. Take the free 7-Figure Freedom Scorecard in under 10 minutes: https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

Sponsors
👉 Same team, same market — but 30% more productive. Recruiterflow is an AI-first ATS and CRM built for recruitment agencies and search firms. Book a demo: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

👉 One 30-minute session per month gives you 30 days of LinkedIn video content — fully edited and ready to post. Built for busy recruiters: https://recruitmentcoach.com/video

What You'll Learn

• 00:00:00 Introduction
• 00:00:59 44 years in recruiting and $28 million billed — he nearly quit after 7 months
• 00:05:10 Growing up with abusive, alcoholic parents and running away from home at 15
• 00:06:21 The voice that drove him for years: "You're never going to amount to anything."
• 00:17:08 Six months with no placements, and the manager who refused to let him quit
• 00:19:38 The cardboard box moment, what he overheard walking out the door
• 00:21:33 Two placements in one week and what total commitment actually looks like
• 00:25:15 Success is cadence, not luck, the daily planning habit he's used for 40 years
• 00:32:09 Filling jobs versus placing applicants: the philosophy behind a client-driven business
• 00:39:02 Why he measures talk time, not call volume, and his daily target
• 00:42:22 Why reference checks are his primary business development strategy
• 00:53:25 Polite, professional, persistent, and why that's enough
• 00:56:18 The cancer diagnosis that reshaped everything and why it happened twice
• 01:10:28 Still targeting $600K-$700K a year, working solo, at 67

About The Resilient Recruiter
The Resilient Recruiter is hosted by Mark Whitby and is one of the top recruiting podcasts in the world, with over 520,000 downloads across 34 countries. Every week, Mark interviews recruitment agency owners, executive search leaders, and top billers to uncover what's actually working in today's market.

Connect with Rich Bradley
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbradley/
Team Bradley website: https://teambradley.com/

Connect with Mark Whitby
Free 30-minute strategy call: https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/

👍 Subscribe if you’re serious about building a recruitment career that actually lasts.

Rich Bradley has been recruiting since 1982. He’s billed $28 million. He’s been a Pinnacle Society member for nearly 30 years. And at 67, working solo alongside his wife, he has no intention of stopping.

In his first seven months, he made zero placements.

He packed his things into a cardboard box, walked toward the door, and heard his colleagues talking about him behind his back. What they said stopped him.

He turned around, sat back down, and made two placements by the end of that week.

That was the moment everything changed.

This episode is about what sustained success actually looks like across four decades in recruiting.

Rich breaks down the daily planning habit he’s used for nearly 40 years, why he tracks talk time instead of call volume, and why reference checks remain one of his most reliable sources of new business long after most recruiters abandoned them.

He also talks candidly about growing up with abusive, alcoholic parents, surviving cancer twice, and how those experiences shaped both the recruiter and the person he became.

• The cardboard box moment that changed his career

• The handwritten planner system he’s used for nearly 40 years and why skipping it derails his day

• Why he targets three to four hours of talk time daily

• How reference checks generate clients, candidates, and referrals

• Why he won’t work with clients he wouldn’t want to work for

• How two cancer diagnoses reshaped his business and priorities

• What polite, professional, persistent looks like over a 44-year career

[0:59] 44 years in recruiting, $28 million billed and he nearly quit after 7 months
[19:38] The cardboard box moment, what he overheard walking out the door
[25:15] Success is cadence, not luck - the daily planning habit
[42:22] Why reference checks drive his business development
[56:18] The cancer diagnosis that reshaped everything
[1:10:28] Still targeting $600K–$700K a year, working solo, at 67

Rich Bradley is the founder of Team Bradley, a boutique IT and technology recruiting firm based in the Chicago area. He started in recruiting in 1982, has billed $28 million over a 44-year career, and has been a Pinnacle Society member since 1997.

Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbradley/
Connect with Mark: https://linktr.ee/recruitmentcoach