The Retained Search Show

What happens when the business you've built no longer matches the life you want? Hoxo founder Sean Anderson shares the journey from PE teacher to top-billing recruiter, agency founder, podcast host, and one of the most recognised voices in personal branding for recruiters. Along the way, he reveals the lessons learned from scaling a business, chasing growth, navigating burnout, and ultimately...

Sam Rathling joined LinkedIn when most recruiters had never heard of it. More than two decades later, she's helped thousands of professionals build authority, create opportunities, and generate business without feeling salesy. In this episode of Retained Search, Sam shares the systems, habits, and mindset shifts recruiters need to stand out in an increasingly noisy market. You'll learn:...

So excited to have Paul Press back on the podcast for the third time. His previous episodes have been some of our most watched and most shared conversations, so we had to bring him back to unpack even more value with you. What does it really take to build credibility in private equity search? Louise sits down with Paul Press, founder of Press & Associates, to unpack the realities of operating...

Lucy Robinson started with a laptop, a notebook of contacts, and a belief that recruitment could be done better. Today, LCR International is a global executive search firm placing senior leaders across the fresh produce industry on six continents, with more than 90% of its work retained. In this episode of Retrained Search, Lucy shares the real story behind the transition from contingent recruitme...

What does it actually mean to be a “trusted partner” in recruitment and why are so many getting it wrong? In this episode of Retained Search , Louise and Jordan unpack the shift from transactional recruitment to true partnership. They challenge the idea that volume equals trust and explain why those relationships are breaking under pressure from AI, changing client expectations, and cheaper access...

AI is transforming delivery. Client expectations are rising. And the traditional, transaction-based model is being quietly dismantled. In this episode, Adrian Byra shares a sharp, no-nonsense perspective on what’s really happening beneath the surface and what it means for recruitment business owners and search leaders. Adrian breaks down:  Why transactional recruitment is rapidly losing value  Wha...

In this episode, Louise Archer speaks with Somer Hackley , CEO of Distinguished Search and author of Search in Plain Sight, about the real difference between transactional recruiting and true trusted advisory. Somer shares the pivotal story that changed her career: the moment she advised a client not to hire the only finalist left in process, despite months of work and huge pressure to close. That...

Is this what success is supposed to feel like? In this powerful and deeply personal conversation, David Plummer — founder of Triage — shares the lessons he learned after achieving everything he once thought he wanted. By his mid-20s, David had already built and sold a successful recruitment business. The cars, the houses, the financial freedom — he had climbed what he thought was the mountain of s...

What if the process for hiring a data center technician isn’t so different from hiring a CEO? In this episode, we sit down with Blaine Daws, co‑founder of WNTD, to unpack how a specialist firm launched two weeks before lockdown and still went on to build multi‑million retained partnerships at the heart of AI infrastructure. The through‑line is sharp: act like an advisor, not an order taker, and an...

Personal branding gets talked about a lot in recruitment but very few people explain what actually works… and what quietly destroys your credibility. In this episode of The Retained Search Show , we’re joined by David Wolstenholme , founder of BrandMeBetter and one of the earliest voices in personal branding for recruiters. We go deep on: Why personal branding is now a must , not a “nice to have”...

In this episode, Louise sits down with Sean Mallapurkar , Founder & CEO of Recruit CRM  - one of the highest-rated ATS/CRM platforms in recruitment - to unpack what actually drives product love in a crowded market. Sean shares why most vendors obsess over features while overlooking the real differentiator: customer success and onboarding . We dig into how Recruit CRM built a sub-1-minute suppo...

Search interest in retained and executive search has exploded, but most recruiters still don’t really understand the difference. In this episode, we unpack: Why searches for retained and executive search have quadrupled and what’s driving the shift The real difference between retained search and executive search Why calling everything “executive search” can quietly kill opportunities What actually...

In the final episode of 2025, Louise sits down with RecConnect founder Simon Lewis to unpack what’s really coming for the recruitment industry in 2026 and why traditional contingent perm is on a slow, silent death march. Simon shares his unconventional journey from Sunday Times journalist to IT recruiter, to job board owner, to community builder for recruitment leaders. Drawing on conversations wi...

Fresh off a round-the-world sprint (and a brutal back recovery), Louise Archer and Jordan Taylor tackle the biggest myth in retained search: that taking a fee upfront means you’re guaranteeing a fill.  They reframe retained as a governed process that delivers certainty, not luck-especially on those “nightmare” briefs everyone avoids. You’ll hear the surgeon analogy that flips risk on its head, whe...

We sit down with Jordan Shlosberg , founder & CEO of Atlas , to unpack how an AI-native, memory-driven CRM is changing the way executive search firms win work and deliver. Jordan shares the journey from building an expert network to architecting Atlas’s “remember-everything” engine, why retrofitting old CRMs with AI won’t cut it, and how features like Magic Search and BD signal tracking turn e...

What if the best path to growth is doing more with less ? We sit down with James Ward, founder of Clarity R2R, to unpack how a leadership-focused, values-driven R2R firm can scale in the United States without chasing headcount. From Manchester beginnings to a Miami base, James explains why a less saturated US market - with around 25,000 staffing firms serving 350 million people - creates space for...

Want to know why retained search works in one of the toughest arenas - search-to-search - and how boutique firms are turning that challenge into a competitive moat? We sit down with Candice Bourne, Director at Bourne Consulting to unpack the real mechanics of retained search for recruiter-to-recruiter hires: from patient sourcing of passive originators to brand signals that actually move the needl...

Louise Archer, Sophie Robertson, David Wolstenholme and Adrian Byra come together to announce their exciting Sydney Masterclass Event taking place on October 23rd at the Sydney Harbour Marriott Hotel, designed to help Australian recruiters navigate changing market conditions with innovative strategies. You'll Learn How to win exclusivity and commitment in cautious markets, avoid costly delive...

Pete Watson, founder of Mint R2R and Recruitment United, offers a refreshingly honest look at the realities of Australian recruitment today. With over 21 years building Australia’s longest-serving Rec to Rec business, Pete brings a unique perspective on how the industry is evolving and why community might be the secret ingredient most recruiters are missing. Pete's journey from running pubs i...

The recruitment landscape is shifting fast and AI is handing boutique search firms the edge to compete with industry giants. In this conversation, we unpack how artificial intelligence is transforming workflows, enhancing capabilities, and reshaping competitive dynamics in executive search without losing the human touch. Jord shares how he went from using ChatGPT as “Google on steroids” to fully i...

In this episode, Paul Press, founder and managing partner of Press Associates, joins us to unpack how ChatGPT and other AI tools are transforming recruitment. From automating time-consuming tasks to enabling anyone to launch a search firm with minimal investment, the possibilities are limitless. We explore: Which CRMs are best for search firms, and why HubSpot is emerging as an AI-powered favourit...

Ever wondered why most recruitment CRMs feel like they're designed for management rather than consultants? Manan Shah, co-founder of Recruiterflow, reveals how his accidental journey into recruitment technology led to creating a system that prioritizes consultant productivity over top-down control. Manan's insight is simple yet revolutionary: traditional recruitment software gets impleme...

How do you go from paying AU$50 a day just to shadow recruiters... to founding a national healthcare talent firm backed by a global partner? Paris Matin, founder of Healtii People , joins us to share his remarkable journey from chasing tennis dreams to redefining how Australia recruits for allied health, aged care, and social services. What started with pure hustle has evolved into a consultative,...

What do 100 door-knocks in a day and record-breaking recruitment billings have in common? Everything according to Jeron van den Elshout. In this high-impact episode, Jeron shares how he went from nearly getting fired in his first sales job to founding a global recruitment business operating across the US, Middle East, and Europe. You’ll hear how persistence turned rejection into revenue, and how a...

What does it take to escape the race-to-the-bottom world of contingency recruiting and build a high-impact retained search firm? In this episode, the wise and deeply experienced Clark Waterfall shares the lessons he's learned over decades in search, from placing hourly workers in the printing industry to founding Boston Search Group (BSG), a retained executive search firm serving private equi...