The Recruitment CEO's Insider Guide

Feel your chest tighten every time you open the accounts?   Often, the pressure you feel around money in your business has very little to do with the numbers, as our guest this week found out...   Many recruitment business owners carry pressure around money that goes far deeper than monthly revenue or market conditions.    In this episode of The Recruitment CEO's Inside Guide , Katy Green speaks w...

Most recruitment business owners are trying to lead better, grow faster and scale their agencies without realising what's actually driving their behaviour.    In this episode of The Recruitment CEO's Insider Guide , host Katy Green sits down with Rob Lenaghan, a recruitment business owner who attended Beyond Beliefs - our immersive retreat designed to help leaders deconstruct the unconscious biase...

What happens when a recruitment agency founder billing a million dollars a year realises she's working 7am to 10pm every single day and nothing has actually changed? Andrea Rishmawi had built impressive revenue, but beneath the success, she was juggling everything herself, convinced that if she didn't control every outcome, things would fall apart. When the market heated up again in Q2 2025, she k...

Is your recruitment business stuck in the cycle of feast or famine? Tired of the grind of cold calling 80+ prospects just to land a single vacancy? In this power-packed episode, Jane Pettit reveals why you're making business development harder than it needs to be… and exactly how to fix it. Say goodbye to the cold calling burnout that defined recruitment in the Yellow Pages era. Jane shares her pr...

Feeling the fatigue as we hurtle toward the end of 2025? You're not alone. In this solo episode, Jane Pettitt tackles one of the biggest challenges facing recruitment business owners right now: the dreaded year-end slump. With over half the workforce reporting burnout as the holiday season approaches, Jane cuts through the noise to deliver practical, actionable strategies that will help you finish...

What happens when you know how to find great candidates but have no idea how to run a recruitment agency? Sofia found herself in exactly this position when she decided to shift from client-side HR and recruitment into building her own business in the aesthetics and wellness industry. With years of experience finding talent but zero agency structure to lean on, she faced a challenge that many recru...

You've got an underperformer on your team. They're missing targets, the rest of your people are watching, and you're losing sleep over it. Do you coach them through it or let them go? Make the wrong call and it could cost you six figures. One recruitment business owner discovered this the hard way when keeping someone for 11 months cost them £140K in lost revenue, £35K in salary, and nearly their...

What happens when a recruitment agency founder admits he hates sales, spends his days buried in tasks that drain his energy, and relies on clients randomly knocking on the door? For Ivan Gasparetto, CEO of Techified, this was his reality for years. Running a specialist recruitment agency finding tech talent in Brazil for the AEC sector, Ivan had built a 13-year-old business that survived but never...

It's 9am and you've already handled a candidate no-show, fielded a client complaint, and squeezed in a "quick minute" with your top biller. By 5pm, your to-do list remains untouched, your team has left, and you're still at your desk wondering where the day went. Sound familiar? In this episode, Katy and Jane tackle the brutal reality of firefighting management and reveal why your best work shouldn...

What happens when two complete newcomers to recruitment decide to build a talent agency for musicians on cruise ships? Carolina Torrallardona and her husband started Studio 16 Entertainment with nothing but passion and industry contacts; zero recruitment knowledge. Fast forward six months, and they've completely revolutionised their business, going from constant offer rejections to a 100% acceptan...

Picture this: you're staring at your recruitment dashboard, tracking every metric you can think of, yet your revenue remains frustratingly flat. You've got the fanciest CRM, the latest strategies, but something's still missing. What if we told you that the real driver of your business growth isn't hiding in your spreadsheets; it's sitting between your ears? In this episode, Katy and Jane reveal wh...

What happens when a recruitment business owner faces the perfect storm - every major client freezes hiring simultaneously, anxiety takes over, and nine years of hard work seem to crumble? Sean Neary of Nolan Recruitment found himself in this nightmare scenario last summer, burnt out and watching his engineering recruitment business haemorrhage money. Yet within months, he'd flipped everything arou...

If you're running a recruitment agency and constantly wondering why your team keeps missing the mark despite all your efforts, you're not alone. Many agency owners find themselves trapped in a frustrating cycle where talented recruiters seem to lose momentum after initial success, leaving them scrambling to understand what's gone wrong. The reality is that most underperformance isn't about lazy co...

What happens when a burnt-out recruiter working through family holidays transforms her entire business model in just 90 days? Meet Matilda Keywood, a computer science graduate from Gibraltar who went from earning £100K whilst drowning in overwhelm to building a £300K-£500K pipeline alongside a strategic business partner. Her journey from imposter syndrome to confidently owning client meetings reve...

Picture this: you're working harder than ever, but your recruitment business feels like you're driving in the dark without headlights. One month you're celebrating record numbers, the next you're scrambling to understand where it all went wrong. You've tried everything – new marketing funnels, fancy tech, ramping up your BD efforts – yet you're still left guessing about what's actually working in...

What if turning down half your job opportunities could actually increase your monthly revenue by 50%? Lucy Sinclair from TeamJobs discovered this counterintuitive truth when she transformed from a billing consultant into a commercial team leader facing serious challenges. Her team was underperforming, working the exhausting 360 model, and she was personally carrying the burden of a £8,000 monthly...

Are you trapped as the "Chief of Frigging Everything" in your recruitment business? If you started your recruitment company dreaming of freedom and great money, but find yourself stuck doing everything from billing to buying printer ink, this episode will be a game-changer. Katy and Jane reveal why most recruitment founders accidentally build themselves into a role they hate – and more importantly...

Claire Myers Vitale had all the makings of a successful recruitment leader—strong team, solid reputation, steady flow of jobs. But behind the scenes, things weren't adding up. Inconsistent revenue, mounting pressure, and a lack of systems left her stretched thin and questioning how to move forward. That's when Claire made a bold decision that changed everything. In just four months, she turned her...

If cash flow feels like a constant struggle in your recruitment business—one minute you're riding high, the next you're barely breaking even—this episode is a must-listen. Katy and Jane break down five hidden patterns quietly draining revenue and momentum from even the busiest agencies. These aren't surface-level problems. They're the deeply embedded ways of working that used to serve well, but no...

What happens when a recruitment business owner with no prior industry experience builds a six-figure-per-month operation in just three years? In this episode, Katy speaks with Colin Pybus, founder of Pybus Recruitment, to unpack exactly how he transformed his small Sunderland-based agency into a fast-growing force in the UK automotive recruitment sector. From working solo in a spare room to leadin...

What's the real difference between being a high-performing biller and building a recruitment business that thrives without you? In this episode, Katy and Jane discuss the common trap many recruitment business owners fall into — becoming the 'Chief of Everything'. If you've ever felt like your business depends entirely on your own hustle and you can't step away without everything grinding to a halt...

Are you a recruitment business owner struggling to break through a performance plateau? In this episode of The Recruitment CEO's Insider Guide podcast, Katy Green interviews Darren Shore from Talent Sure Recruitment about transforming his family-run business from burnout to breakthrough. Darren and his wife Tanya faced the all-too-familiar challenges of firefighting daily demands, taking on unsuit...

AI is shaking up the recruitment industry, but is it helping or hurting the role of a great recruiter? In this episode, Katy and Jane take a deep dive into the impact of AI on recruitment businesses, exploring where it adds value and where it could erode the human connection that makes recruiters exceptional. They break down the best ways to use AI without sacrificing the personal touch that build...

In this episode of the Recruitment CEO podcast, Emma and Simon Robinson of Red Diamond Executive Headhunters share their journey from a traditional 360 recruitment model to a specialised team structure. After 14 years in business, they found themselves stuck in a cycle of peaks and troughs, unable to break through to the next level of growth. Their conversation reveals how making bold structural c...

For years, recruiters have relied on LinkedIn to find top talent, but what happens when the rules change? In this episode, Katy Green and Jane Pettit uncover why LinkedIn is limiting your ability to build a sustainable, high-quality candidate pipeline—and why it's time to shift your strategy. If you're tired of rising costs, declining response rates, and ever-changing algorithms, this conversation...