Talentless

This one's special, it's Talentless's 1-Year Anniversary Episode. Thank you for listening, sharing, and showing up for us this year. For our anniversary episode, Des and Ashley sit down with T. Tara Turk-Haynes, founder of Equity Activations, creator of The Origin Arc framework, first-generation college grad and first-generation corporate worker, and 15+ years deep in talent acquisition and people...

"People-first" is the most overused, underutilized phrase on LinkedIn. Everyone says it. Almost nobody does it. This week, Des and Ashley sit down with Chason Forehand — chef with 45+ years in the culinary world, founder of HR-4U Inc. (a four-time Platinum Seal of Transparency nonprofit), creator of Transformation Kitchen™ (now operating in Nicaragua with locations coming to New York, Beacon, and...

Empathy is the most overused word in leadership right now. Everyone says it. Almost nobody does it. This week, Des and Ashley sit down with Dr. Melissa Robinson-Winemiller , TEDx speaker, international bestselling author of The Empathic Leader, host of The Empathic Leader podcast, and the founder of EQ via Empathy. Two doctorates, an MBA, a master's in data analytics, and a personal story that tur...

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. If you're a recruiter who freezes up w...

Early career hiring didn’t suddenly “break.” Companies changed the rules. In this episode of Talentless, Desiree Goldey, Ashley King, and Lori Golden unpack why the hiring market feels so disconnected for Gen Z candidates, recruiters, and employers alike, and why companies quietly pulled back from investing in early career talent. Lori brings over 27 years of recruiting experience across agency, s...

Recruiting isn’t broken because of AI. It’s broken because too many companies reduced recruiting to speed, admin work, and “paper pushing” long before AI entered the conversation. 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....

What happens when hiring becomes automated, impersonal, and frankly broken? This week on Talentless, Desiree and Ashley sit down with communications strategist and Ghosted by the Machine host, Mark Lane, to unpack what job seekers are really experiencing right now and what recruiters need to hear. From being ghosted for months (or a year ) to competing against AI-generated resumes, this conversati...

In this episode of Talentless, we’re joined by Victoria Gates and Lorna Erickson; co-founders of Expert Interviewers and hosts of the Don’t Tell Me About Yourself podcast to unpack a truth many companies don’t want to hear: Interviewing isn’t broken because of AI… it was already broken. AI is just exposing it. From gut-based hiring decisions to untrained interviewers and wildly inconsistent proces...

In this episode of Talentless, Des and Ashley are joined by Chloe Ryan, VP of Talent Solutions at WSI Talent Sync, to tackle a question most of the industry avoids: Are recruiting models actually broken… or do we just not understand them? From agency to RPO to retained search, there’s no shortage of options, but most companies still default to the same approach when hiring gets hard. Chloe brings...

The resume is not dead yet. But it is definitely on life support. In this episode of Talentless, Des and Ashley sit down with Mayur Macwan, CEO of Roundone.ai, to talk about what happens when the traditional resume stops being a useful signal and hiring teams are left drowning in volume, noise, and top-of-funnel chaos. They get into why so much human time gets burned before any real evidence exist...

AI didn’t just change hiring. It changed lying. In this episode of Talentless, Des and Ashley sit down with Maryam Mahdaviani, Founder & CEO of Attesto, to unpack what “candidate fraud” actually looks like in 2026. We’re not talking about a little resume inflation. We’re talking: Fabricated LinkedIn + resume + GitHub ecosystems Impersonation and proxy interviews Fake candidates who pass early scre...

Leadership conversations love to talk about intention. This one talks about impact. In this episode of Talentless, Desiree Goldey and Ashley King sit down with Felicia Smith, founder of The Climb, to unpack what leadership development actually looks like when diversity moves beyond buzzwords and into real behavior, decision-making, and power structures. We get into: The moment representation stops...

Ben Abear, Scaled Analytics & Innovation Manager at Adobe In this episode of Talentless, Desiree Goldey and Ashley King sit down with Ben Abear to talk about why modern hiring breaks when decisions are driven by feelings instead of facts. Ben shares how data builds trust, strengthens partnerships with the business, and helps recruiters move from order takers to true strategic partners even on smal...

Hiring veterans isn’t hard. Hiring veterans without understanding them is where everything falls apart. In this episode of Talentless, Desiree Goldey and Ashley King are joined by Lee Cage Jr. (SPHR, HRIP, CSM) to break down the myths, mistakes, and missed opportunities in military hiring. Lee brings a rare mix of experience across enterprise transformation, HR technology, and 17+ years of service...

AI is everywhere in recruiting right now. And depending on who you ask, it’s either the future of TA… or a compliance nightmare wrapped in a shiny demo. In this episode of Talentless, Ashley King and Desiree Goldey cut through the hype and talk about what AI actually does well in talent, what it does dangerously wrong, and why the biggest risk isn’t the tech. It’s the humans using it without guard...

Data. Data. Dada. However you say it, one thing is clear: not all data is created equal. In this episode of Talentless, Ashley King and Desiree Goldey break down what data actually matters in talent acquisition and why most TA teams are stuck reporting numbers that don’t move the business forward. This is a practical, no-fluff conversation about data literacy, business impact, and why knowing how...

What if the problem with talent acquisition isn’t recruiters… it’s how we set them up? In this episode of Talentless, Ashley King and Desiree Goldey dig into recruiter enablement and why it’s quickly becoming the difference between TA teams that survive and those that actually move the business forward. We unpack what recruiter enablement really means (spoiler: it’s not just more tools), why measu...

We took Talentless on the road and dropped ourselves right into the middle of RecFest. Sun out, mics on, chaos fully embraced. In this episode, we sat down with two of our all-time favorite humans in recruiting, Brooke Freeburg and Krissy Callari from ZRG, and let the conversation do what it does best… wander in the smartest, funniest way possible. We talked about the realities of recruiting right...

"HR Conferences” is our love letter and side-eye to the events that are supposed to move this industry forward. Desiree and Ashley break down what conferences should be about – community, real education, and true innovation – and why too many of them have turned into overpriced vendor parades with celebrity keynotes no one asked for. We talk about safety (especially for women), inclusion, accessib...

Jim Miller is a global People Operations leader with over 20 years of experience scaling recruiting and people teams across tech giants and hyper-growth startups including Google, FullStory, and now Ashby, where he serves as VP of People & Talent. From leading 200+ recruiters worldwide to advising on product, process, and people tech, Jim has built his career around one central truth: productivity...

Katrina Kibben is a leadership speaker, LinkedIn Top Voice, and founder of Three Ears Media known for transforming how companies attract talent and build healthy team cultures. With over 15 years at global brands like Monster.com and Randstad, Katrina brings real talk on leadership, belonging, and what it means to show up as yourself at work. In this episode, Katrina joins Talentless to talk about...

“Clockout with Julia Arpag” is a story about building something meaningful at work and at home. Julia shares how she turned her love for connecting people into a business rooted in purpose, faith, and high-performance recruiting. As founder of Aligned Recruitment, she’s proof that you can lead with heart, hire with intention, and still build world-class teams. Catch the full episode below and hear...

“Clockout with Tejal Rives” is a conversation about finding power where the system told you not to. Tejal opens up about navigating the job search and promotion process as a woman of color and how that experience pushed her to change how hiring works—starting with transparency and empathy. From helping others decode what recruiters really look for to talking openly about DEI and neurodiversity, he...

“Clockout with Erin Riska” dives into the unconventional path of a recruiter who refuses to play by the old HR rulebook. Erin shares how curiosity, flexibility, and a healthy dose of irreverence shaped her work as a fractional talent strategist and writer. From building better candidate experiences to designing people-first recruiting systems, her story is equal parts grit and wanderlust. Catch th...

Joel Lalgee is a podcast host, executive recruiter, and content strategist who’s become a true friend of the Talentless Podcast. In this episode of Clockout, Joel shares his journey, lessons learned, and why content is one of the most powerful tools in the talent industry.  Tune in to hear Joel’s story and get inspired by one of the legends in recruiting content.