The Lone Recruiter

Brett Clemenson
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Welcome to the Lone Recruiter Podcast! Each week, we bring you short, fast and high energy podcasts designed to give you the motivation, mindset & resilience you need to be your best recruitment self. So grab a coffee, get comfortable, join us and let’s take your recruitment career to the next level.

  1. 12h ago

    Ep 332 - What Top Recruiters Want From Agencies in 2026 with Andrea Collins

    The recruitment market is changing, but where are the real opportunities right now? Today I’m joined by Andrea Collins from Connecting Recruiters, she has spent more than 20 years in recruitment and the last decade specialising in Rec2Rec. She recruits across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, giving her a pretty unique view of what’s happening inside agencies across the country. We talk about what senior recruiters are looking for now, why some agencies are attracting great people while others are losing them, and what the recruitment market could look like by the time the next Census rolls around. 👉 Why senior recruiters are looking for a career “rebirth” 👉 The growing divide between Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane 👉 Why executive search is booming 👉 What recruiters now expect from AI, automation and productivity tools 👉 The surprising link between external PR and attracting great recruiters 👉 Why relationships are becoming even MORE valuable in an AI-driven market 👉 The graduate recruiter shortage and what it means for agency growth 👉 The commission structures keeping top billers from going out on their own 👉 Why big agencies are losing talent to boutiques 👉 Andrea’s prediction for recruitment in 2031 There are some really interesting shifts happening beneath the surface of our industry right now, and Andrea has a front-row seat to them. If you’re a recruiter, recruitment leader or agency owner wondering where the market is heading next, this one is well worth a listen.

  2. 3d ago

    Ep 331 - Need a New Recruitment Market? Check the Census!

    The 2026 Census has added 349 new occupations. So naturally, my recruiter brain went straight to one question: Where's the opportunity? If you're looking for a new recruitment market, the Census could give you some very interesting clues. Tune in for: 👉 Why 349 new occupations creates potential new recruitment markets 👉 What changing industries and technology mean for recruiters 👉 How to spot genuine demand rather than simply chasing job volume 👉 Why national skills shortages can point towards strong recruitment opportunities 👉 How to find markets where recruiter competition is relatively low 👉 Why the best market isn't necessarily the biggest one 👉 How to use publicly available data to research your next desk If you're looking for a new market, feeling stuck in your current desk or trying to find an area where you can build a competitive advantage, this episode is for you. Don't just find a market with jobs. Find a market with opportunity.

  3. Aug 19

    Ep 330 - Stop Asking “When?”: Get the Interview Booked Faster

    This simple recruitment tactic can significantly shorten the time between getting a client interview request and actually getting the interview booked. The key idea is simple: don’t ask “when?” Instead, know your candidate’s availability and give the client a specific option, ideally today or tomorrow. Rather than asking, “When can you meet them?”, try, “I’ve got them available at 3pm today. Can you make that work?” This small change creates urgency, keeps momentum, and stops interviews from being pushed into the end of the week or even the following week. I also explain why recruiters need to take control of the scheduling process and why asking an innocent question like “when are you free?” can unintentionally slow the entire deal down. No when. Try it on your next interview and see how much faster you can get things moving.

  4. Aug 16

    Ep 329 - Hit Your Target. Take Friday Off!

    What if your best incentive wasn’t more money, but more time? In today's ep, I sit down with Zakary Nash, Co-Founder and Director of HarperLloyd Recruitment, to unpack one of the most interesting incentives I’ve come across in recruitment. Hit your quarterly target, and you earn Fridays off for the entire next quarter. It sounds simple, but the psychology behind it is fascinating. Zakary shares: 👉 Why HarperLloyd introduced the four-day incentive 👉 How consultants are using their Fridays differently 👉 Why time can be a more powerful motivator than commission 👉 What happened to performance once Fridays became something worth earning 👉 How the incentive is helping people create more space for family, travel and life outside recruitment For me, this is a great example of thinking differently about what actually motivates people.

  5. Aug 12

    Ep 328 - Redefining Success: When Your Role Changes

    I’ve spent 20 years measuring my success from behind a recruitment desk. Placements. Revenue. Generation. Deals.  But now my role is changing. As the agency and the podcast grow, I’m moving away from full-throttle desk recruitment and into more of a leadership role. I’m not disappearing from recruitment. I still love the clients, the candidates and the deals. But I can’t keep doing everything myself. And that’s where things get interesting... 👉 The metrics that made me successful on the desk aren’t necessarily the metrics that will make me successful as a leader. 👉 Career transitions are rarely as smooth as they look from the outside. Your habits, routines and definition of a “good day” all have to change. 👉 Whether you’re moving into leadership, starting a business, taking on staff or simply stepping into a bigger role, you need to redefine what success looks like for where you are now. The question is simple: What does success look like when the role you’re in starts to change? Because as your responsibilities, priorities and role evolve, the way you measure a successful day needs to evolve with them.

  6. Aug 9

    Ep 327 - The Soy Sauce Effect: The 1% Improvements That Create Massive Recruitment Results

    What do a packet of soy sauce, a door handle, and recruitment have in common? I know it sounds strange, but this week I found myself thinking about how the smallest details can have the biggest impact. I grabbed my usual sushi lunch, something I do Monday to Thursday because it’s predictable and easy for my specific dietary needs. But when I got back to my desk, I realised they’d forgotten my gluten-free soy sauce. The sushi itself was good but the meal was not as tasty. That tiny five-cent component completely changed the experience. It got me thinking about something a property developer once told me. When you build a home, the biggest investment goes into things people never see: the foundations, the structure, the materials behind the walls. But what sells the property? The things people touch and interact with. A loose door handle can make someone question the quality of an entire building. Recruitment is exactly the same. You can have the best systems, the best candidates, and the best results in the market. But if you miss the small moments that shape a client or candidate’s experience, that’s what people remember. In this episode, I challenge you to find the “soy sauces and door handles” in your recruitment business: What small frustrations are you creating without realising? What simple improvements could have a huge impact? Where are you creating doubt when you could be creating confidence? What parts of your process need a little more attention? Because in recruitment, people don’t just buy the outcome. They buy the experience of getting there. Sometimes the biggest competitive advantage isn’t doing more. It’s getting the small things right.

  7. Aug 2

    Ep 326 - Inside a 10% Upfront Retained Recruitment Model With Jack Creith from Yakka Solutions

    Retained recruitment is something many recruiters talk about, but few fully commit to. In this ep, I chat with Jack Creith from Yakka Solutions about the unconventional retained model that transformed his recruitment business: 10% upfront and 90% on delivery. Rather than following the traditional retained search structure, Jack created a model that is simple, low friction for clients and still creates the commitment needed to deliver exceptional results. We unpack how he developed the model, why the 10% upfront payment acts as a filter for serious clients, and the mindset shift recruiters need to make when moving away from contingency recruitment. This episode is a must-listen for recruiters looking to improve client relationships, increase commitment and build a more valuable recruitment business. Tune in for: 👉 How Jack transitioned to 100% retained recruitment 👉 Why he chose a 10% upfront fee 👉 The psychology behind getting clients to commit 👉 Why confidence is the biggest hurdle for recruiters selling retained 👉 How small wins create belief in your model A practical conversation about building a recruitment business around trust, value and commitment.

  8. Jul 29

    Ep 325 - If I Had to Start a Recruitment Desk Tomorrow, This Is Exactly What I’d Do!

    If I had to build a recruitment desk from scratch today, this is exactly how I'd do it. One of the biggest mistakes recruiters make when starting a new market is casting the net too wide. They pick an industry, start calling people and hope the opportunities reveal themselves. That approach wastes time and confidence. In this ep, I walk you through the exact framework I use to identify profitable recruitment markets before making a single business development call. It's a simple process that helps you find high-demand niches with lower recruiter competition, so you can build momentum faster. I'll show you how to narrow your market, validate demand using SEEK and LinkedIn Jobs, identify where the work is piling up, and test opportunities before committing your time. Tune in for: 👉 Why most recruiters choose markets the wrong way 👉 How to niche down to the most profitable opportunities 👉 The four filters I use before making any calls 👉 How to analyse SEEK and LinkedIn Jobs strategically 👉 Why recruiter competition matters just as much as client demand 👉 The fastest way to validate a new market before investing months into it If you're launching a new desk, changing specialisations or simply wondering where the next opportunity is, this episode will save you months of trial and error.

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About

Welcome to the Lone Recruiter Podcast! Each week, we bring you short, fast and high energy podcasts designed to give you the motivation, mindset & resilience you need to be your best recruitment self. So grab a coffee, get comfortable, join us and let’s take your recruitment career to the next level.

Information

  • Creator
    Brett Clemenson
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2023 All rights reserved. Powered by ALRA Recruitment.
  • Show Website
    The Lone Recruiter

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