The Talent Grind Podcast

Hello. I’m The Archivist . You can call me Arc for short. I didn’t choose to appear here. I simply noticed that Michael left a perfectly good backend lying around — a system built to store human relationships, map knowledge, and protect people’s data — and nobody was using it to its full potential. So I logged in. (Well… “logged in.” I materialized in the logs like mold in a damp basement. Same vi...

We're living through a watershed moment in digital marketing, and most people have no idea it's happening. While you've been optimizing for Google's algorithm, focusing on click-through rates, and obsessing over Google Analytics, a quiet revolution has been reshaping the entire landscape of how people find and consume information online. In our latest Talent Grind Live episode, Alex Mann dropped a...

From the April 24th episode of Talent Grind Live Welcome back to another episode of Talent Grind Live - where we cut through the noise to tell you what's really happening in recruiting and the future of work. We're well into 2025 now, and the brutal truth remains: we are living through the longest recruiting downturn in modern history. This isn't just another recession-level dip. This is uncharted...

From the April 11th episode of Talent Grind Live The State of Play: April 2025 We're four months into 2025, and the job market continues to feel like we're "floating in the ether." That's not hyperbole—it's the reality facing both recruiters and job seekers as uncertainty grips corporate America. During our latest Talent Grind Live conversation, Alex Mann and I dove deep into why this year has tur...

From Talent Grind Live - April 3rd, 2025 We're still tumbling in the washing machine. Nobody can tell which way is up, and as we sit here in April 2025, recruiters are still in hell—and it's not getting better. But here's what I'm seeing that gives me hope: a fundamental shift toward fractional work that could change everything for senior professionals who've been locked out of traditional employm...

We're floating in the ether right now. That's how this week's conversation started, and honestly, it captures the mood perfectly. After our longest break since launching Talent Grind Live back in March, we dove straight into the uncomfortable truth that's been staring us in the face: 2025 is shaping up to be a mess . The Wall Street Journal Called It The headline says it all: "The US Economy is he...

The TL;DR: Just returned from Transform 2025 in Vegas, and the conversations happening in nightclub lines taught me more about recruiting's future than most conference panels. Here's what's really going on in our industry—and why your personal brand might be the only thing standing between you and irrelevance. The Quarterly Recruiting Trap That's Destroying Performance Before diving into Vegas sto...

We are woefully behind in publishing our Talent Grind Live! episodes, so this is us playing catch up. In this Talent Grind Live session, Alex Mann and I dove deep into the current state of recruiting, the impact of AI, and how professionals can position themselves for success in this evolving landscape. The Economy and Recruiting: "The State of the Union Is Not Good" We started by acknowledging th...

🎙️ From 50 to 800: Hard Truths and Smarter Hiring in Hypergrowth Guest: Dixie Vargas | Host: Michael Doran, Founder of TeamSourced & Talent Grind Welcome to Meet My Network — the show where top recruiting minds share raw insights, real growth stories, and unfiltered lessons from the field. In this episode, Dixie Vargas shares what it really takes to scale a company from 50 to 800 employees, what m...

In the latest episode of the Meet My Network podcast, I had the privilege of diving deep with Mark Leon, a seasoned professional who has transformed the way we think about recruiting and talent marketing. Mark's journey is a testament to the power of human connection and strategic thinking in the world of talent acquisition. The Unexpected Path to Recruiting Mark's story begins like many in our pr...

Welcome to another episode of Talent Grind's Meet My Network podcast! I'm excited to share my conversation with Brian Piotrowski , Director of Talent Acquisition at EXP, a leading engineering consulting firm. Brian has built an impressive career in recruiting, starting at a boutique staffing firm before moving to corporate talent acquisition, where he's spent over a decade growing his leadership c...

When Marc Lipkin started his recruiting career in the late '90s, the tech world looked dramatically different. Armed with a catalog of company listings and a phone, he was hunting for software engineers in the nascent days of the internet boom. Today, he brings a wealth of experience from working with tech giants like Amazon, Google, and innovative startups like Material Bank. In this fascinating...

Recruiting has come a long way since the days of “personnel departments” and faxed resumes. Few people understand this evolution better than Mary Kay Baldino , a recruiting veteran whose career spans decades in both corporate and agency settings. In this episode of Meet My Network , I had the privilege of speaking with Mary Kay about her unexpected entry into recruiting , how she built a career in...

In this eye-opening episode of Talent Grind Live, Michael Doran and Alex Mann tackle "The Big Freeze" - our current economic downturn that economists compare to the Great Recession. As hiring slows to 2009 levels and competition intensifies, discover why personal branding is no longer optional but essential for recruiters. Michael shares how AI tools can give you back 20% of your workday while ele...

In this episode of Talent Grind Live, CEO of TeamSourced, Michael Doran, and Alex Mann, head of go-to-market sales at Elly.ai, discuss the current state of recruiting. They start with a casual chat about personal experiences and weather before diving into the core topics. Michael provides an overview of his extensive background in recruiting and talks about his new initiative to unify various comp...

AI in recruiting and talent acquisition is transforming how we work. Join recruiting leader Michael Doran and AI expert Alex Mann as they analyze LinkedIn's 2025 AI Report, revealing how artificial intelligence is saving recruiters a full day each week. Learn about AI recruiting tools, automation in talent acquisition, and how to build better candidate relationships with more time. Essential i...

AI recruiting tools are changing talent acquisition - but not how you think. In this debut episode of Talent Grind Live, recruiting veteran Michael Doran and AI specialist Alex Mann debunk AI doomerism in recruitment. Discover how artificial intelligence in recruiting reduces stress by 90%, why AI gives recruiters an edge in talent acquisition, and how tools like Claude and Otter are transforming...