Shally's Alley

This episode rips apart the myth that high recruiter turnover is a talent problem. Adam Kovacs, founder of Hire With Near, delivers hard truths about why your recruiting function is hemorrhaging people and money. The real issue? Organizations treat recruiting like an administrative function while demanding strategic results, then wonder why nobody stays. Adam breaks down the structural failures th...

Ashley Surratt, Head of Talent Acquisition at Black & Veatch, went from recruiting at AWS to sourcing engineers who build power grids, water systems, and data centers. The shift completely redefined what "difficult sourcing" actually means. Think tech recruiting is hard? Try finding a project manager who needs 10 years designing wastewater treatment plants before they're even qualified to manage o...

Brandon Jeffs isn't your average recruiter. He's the founder of Building the Talent Machine, a content studio serving the recruiting tech industry, and he's built his brand on storytelling, authenticity, and refusing to blend into the beige corporate landscape. This conversation cuts through the usual conference BS and gets real about what it takes to stand out in recruiting today: humor, intentio...

Want to know why some recruiters build unstoppable pipelines while others struggle? It starts with curiosity. Liz Whitehead brings raw energy and practical wisdom about what actually works in talent acquisition: staying curious, adapting like a french fry (yes, really), and remembering that recruiting is fundamentally about people, not Boolean strings. She's built her career on tech obsession bala...

Angel Alexander: From Therapist to Workforce Architect SUMMARY: What happens when a mental health therapist pivots into talent acquisition? You get someone who sees recruiting as relationship architecture, not transaction management. Angel Alexander managed 36 recruiters, negotiated over 10,000 offers (up to 30 per week), and built diversity pipelines that actually worked because she focused on ou...

Diane Prince sold her staffing firm for $28 million and discovered something counterintuitive: the biggest business killers aren't market conditions or competition. They're the psychological traps entrepreneurs set for themselves. Her raw advice cuts through entrepreneurial fantasy and delivers the mindset shifts that actually move the revenue needle. In this episode we talk about the sunk cost fa...

Ben Solomon has built something rare in recruiting: a sourcing team that works. After 18 years at Objective Partners, he's cracked the code on hiring, training, and scaling sourcing teams in both agency and RPO environments. This isn't theory from a consultant who job-hops every two years. This is battle-tested wisdom from someone who's hired dozens of sourcers and watched them succeed or fail. In...

Marcel VanderMeer brings a refreshingly pragmatic European perspective to the AI automation conversation, cutting through the Silicon Valley hype with real-world implementation wisdom. This isn't another "AI will change everything" conversation. Instead, Marcel reveals why most successful "AI" projects are actually 80% traditional automation with just 20% machine learning sprinkled on top. In this...

David Jaramillo brings fifteen years of cross-industry recruiting wisdom to challenge everything you think you know about modern talent acquisition. From hospitality to finance to tech startups, he's seen how the fundamentals of human connection consistently outperform the latest recruiting technology. His insights on referrals, metrics that mislead, and the dangerous trap of culture fit will make...

What if getting laid off with a newborn was actually the best thing that ever happened to your career? Julia Arpag, CEO of a bootstrapped search firm, proves that massive career leaps and radical LinkedIn transparency can build a profitable recruiting business from scratch. Her unconventional approach to intake calls, candidate vetting, and hiring manager calibration is rewriting the playbook for...

Most recruiters are operating with blinders on, managing only full-time employees while ignoring 50% of their actual workforce. Jeff Mike, former head of human capital research at Deloitte, reveals how the "extended workforce" encompasses everything from contractors and gig workers to statement-of-work consultants, volunteers, and even AI agents. This isn't just about temps anymore - it's about co...

Rusty Rueff, former CHRO at Electronic Arts and CEO of music startup Snowcap, reveals the hidden psychology behind managing elite creative talent and why most companies completely misunderstand what drives creators. From leading HR at one of the world's most innovative gaming companies to his dramatic career pivot into the CEO seat, Rusty shares hard-won insights about balancing commercial deadlin...

Steve Bartel reveals why traditional recruiting tools are fundamentally broken and how AI-native platforms can revolutionize candidate relationships. From his engineering days at Facebook, Blizzard, and Dropbox to building one of the most innovative recruiting platforms, Steve shares the hard truths about why ATSs track requisitions instead of people and why bolt-on AI solutions miss the mark enti...

Guest Steve Bartel, co-founder and CEO of GEM, reveals why traditional recruiting tools are fundamentally broken and how AI-native platforms can revolutionize candidate relationships. From his engineering days at Facebook, Blizzard, and Dropbox to building one of the most innovative recruiting platforms, Steve shares the hard truths about why ATSs track requisitions instead of people and why bolt-...

🎙️ Meet Bill Malcolm: AI Strategist. TA Transformer. Human Capital Futurist. William doesn't talk about the future of AI in recruiting. He's built it. He cut onboarding time by 58%, saved $12M in labor costs, and built GPT-powered tools that changed how HR works from the inside out at one of the largest cancer centers. From resume screeners and onboarding bots to ethical AI use in healthcare hirin...

🎙️ Meet Rob Beck, trusted friend of 20+ years and among the sharpest sourcing minds I’ve ever worked with. Rob’s journey has taken him from building client teams at Grep Staff (yes, he founded it!) to solving complex data and measurement hiring challenges at Ibotta, where he now leads as a Staff Technical Sourcer. https://www.linkedin.com/in/grep4robbeck/⁠ If you’re in product, data science, or me...

🎙️ Meet Nicole Roberts, the HR whisperer for founders, investors, and execs who actually want their people strategy to work. Nicole isn’t your average HR pro. She’s the first call when a CEO needs more than compliance. When they need culture clarity, systems that scale, and leaders who can lead. From launching People Solutions Group to teaching at HCI and spotlighting job seekers on Amplify Your S...

Shally Steckerl sits down with fellow sourcing pioneer Jim Stroud for a no-BS conversation about the real impact of AI on recruiting, the economic forces reshaping talent acquisition, and why personal branding trumps any technology. This isn't your typical AI-will-save-us-all discussion. Instead, two industry veterans who've weathered every tech revolution share hard truths about what's actually h...

🎙️ Meet CoSandra Dent a respected corporate Talent Acquisition leader who transitioned from shaping TA at major corporations to building something of her own with CoCreate Solutions. She was my boss at Fiserv for five years, so I’ve seen firsthand how she balances sharp leadership with genuine connection (and a great sense of humor). CoSandra has spent years leading large-scale TA functions, navig...

🎙️ Meet Ryan Englin the blue-collar hiring whisperer behind Core Matters. corematters.com/podcasts/ If you think the skilled trades talent shortage is just a pipeline problem, Ryan will challenge that fast. He’s helped hundreds of business owners ditch job boards and outdated tactics in favor of recruitment marketing that actually works — especially for essential, boots-on-the-ground roles. With R...

🎙️ Meet Terry Terhark, the recruiting rebel who’s been reshaping talent acquisition for decades. Terry doesn’t just talk about change, he builds it. From founding pioneering RPO firms to leading innovations at NXTThing RPO and PeopleScout, he’s been at the frontlines of what works (and what doesn’t) in recruitment. Now, with the power of data, automation, and high-touch engagement, Terry is on a m...

🎙️ Meet Dart Lindsley: Work is a product architect. 45 million people quit their jobs each year, but Dart says the real crisis is not turnover but the working dead… employees who’ve emotionally checked out but still show up. That’s where the damage is done. 🔁 Enter Multi-Sided Management, Dart’s groundbreaking framework for rethinking work itself. Not as a job to be filled, but as an experience t...

🎙️ Meet Alex Marcus, recognized innovator in TA and HR technology. Founjder of System Admin Insights and Integral Recruiting Design, Alex has pioneered community-driven solutions for system administrators and advance recruiting strategies. He has implemented sourcing performance models to leveraging data and navigate market changes. Alex will share his unique insights on sourcing performance, indu...

Michael Beygelman is a serial entrepreneur, workforce technology innovator, and expert in the intersection of AI, automation, and HR. He is best known as the founder and CEO of Claro Analytics, a talent market intelligence platform that provides real-time labor market insights to help companies make better strategic workforce decisions. Claro was acquired by WilsonHCG in 2022, where Michael now le...

Christine turns the tables and interviews Shally in this episode. Come listen to advice on metrics, why measurements are not metrics, and how AI is not going to eliminate sourcing.