PODCAST · business
The Lone Recruiter
by Brett Clemenson
Welcome to the Lone Recruiter Podcast with the highly successful & even more energetic Brett Clemenson. If you’re a you’re a recruiter flying solo, out on your own or just generally lacking mentorship & guidance then this is the community you want to be a part of. Every week, Brett & his top-billing guests deliver short, sharp & loud doses of recruitment advice, tips, tricks, inspiration & motivation designed to help you be the best Recruiter you can be.So join us, grab a cup of coffee & let’s take your Recruitment career to the next level.
Episodes
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Ep 345 - What’s Closest to the Money? The One Question Every Recruiter Should Ask
Ever feel like you're spinning your wheels, juggling a hundred things and not actually moving any closer to making a placement? I've been there. But there's one question that's stuck with me throughout my recruitment career. A manager drilled it into me every day for six and a half years, and…
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Ep 344 - Would I Believe You’ll Hit Your Goals if I Filmed You for 24 Hours?
If I followed you around with a camera for 24 hours, would I believe you were going to hit your targets this month? It's a bloody good question. And if you're consistently falling short of your goals, you might not like the answer. Here's the thing. Most recruiters have a pretty good idea of what...
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Ep 343 - Teaching Your Client Best Practice For Interviewing
Are you prepping your candidates for interviews but forgetting to prep your clients? Here's my simple piece of advice I gave a client that completely changed the way she interviews candidates and helped her achieve better hiring outcomes. The idea is simple: stop grilling candidates in the first...
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Ep 342 - Turning Recruitment Expertise Into a New Revenue Stream with Rachel and Shannon from Stitch Partners
What if recruitment isn’t always the answer? Brett is joined by Rachel and Shannon from Stitch Partners to unpack their move from a traditional recruitment agency into a broader advisory model. After more than 20 years in the industry, they realised they were already helping clients with far more...
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Ep 341 - The Quarter-End Reset Every Recruiter Needs
You can’t sprint forever. Recruitment works well in bursts — 10 or 11 weeks of pushing hard, followed by a chance to stop, recharge and reset. So if you’re coming to the end of a quarter feeling depleted, this ep is your reminder to take the break. Book the week off. Switch off properly. Touch…
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Ep 340 - Top 5 Recruitment Rituals
Recruiters are a superstitious bunch. Placement bells. Lucky songs. Weird office rituals. Things that make absolutely no logical difference to whether a deal lands… but somehow become sacred agency traditions anyway. Today I’m counting down five of the best, weirdest and funniest recruitment...
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Ep 339 - How to Set a New Recruiter Up for Success
Hiring a great recruiter is only half the job. What you do with them in those first few weeks can make all the difference. I’m not a fan of the old “sink or swim” approach. Throwing someone a laptop, a desk and telling them to go build a market from scratch might show you what they’re made of…
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Ep 338 - Your Reputation Starts With How You Treat Everyone
How do you treat someone when you don’t think they’re the person you need to impress? A conversation with Beth in my office got me thinking about the way some people treat support staff, EAs, receptionists and the people standing between them and the person they actually want to speak to. Most...
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Ep 337 - What IKEA Can Teach Us About AI and the Future of Work
What happens when AI starts automating people’s jobs? IKEA has given us a pretty interesting answer. Rather than simply using automation as an opportunity to slash headcount, they re-skilled thousands of customer service employees into new roles. For me, it’s a brilliant example of what AI...
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Ep 336 - The High Performance Health Check with Luke Maslin
What if you’re doing all the “right” things for your health, but you’re still not operating at your best? I train five days a week. I eat pretty consciously. I supplement. I don’t drink a hell of a lot. On paper, I’m doing alright. But a lot of it is still guesswork. So I decided to find out…
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Ep 335 - Stop Picking Up the Phone! Why Recruiters Should Let It Ring
Today, I’m giving you permission to do something that sounds completely wrong for a recruiter: don’t pick up the phone. Hear me out. We’re trained to answer calls. Client calls, candidate calls, callbacks... the phone rings, we pick it up. But what happens when you answer and you’re not actually...
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Ep 334 - What Recruiters Need to Know Right Now with SEEK Chief Economist Blair Chapman
The Australian jobs market is slow, tougher and uncertain right now. But what does that actually mean for us as recruiters? I’m joined by SEEK Chief Economist Blair Chapman to cut through the headlines and look at what the data is really telling us about the Australian employment market.…
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Ep 333 - The 4 Stages of Mastery: Where Are You?
Have you ever felt like you KNOW how to do something, but it still takes a huge amount of effort to get it right? That’s where the four stages of mastery come in. In this episode, I break down the journey from having absolutely no idea what you’re doing to reaching the point where a skill becomes...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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…
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Ep 324 - There's No Right or Wrong in Recruitment... Only Confidence
What separates top recruiters from everyone else isn't always a better process, it's confidence. I share the one trait I try to build in every recruiter I coach. Whether you're doubting your process, overthinking your decisions, or second-guessing every call, this episode explains why confidence…
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Ep 323 - You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure
What if improving your recruitment performance wasn't about working harder, but simply paying closer attention. By simply tracking a single activity you could change your results, without complex dashboards or endless KPI meetings. I have Type 1 diabetes and by changing one simple habit I had the...
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Ep 322 - The Future of Recruitment: Why Retained Search Is Winning
Recruitment has traditionally revolved around three models: executive search, contingent recruitment and contract staffing. But I believe the market is changing. I'm seeing more and more clients asking for retained recruitment partnerships because they want greater commitment, better outcomes and…
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Ep 321 - Should Recruiters Ever Refund a Client? Here's Why I Did
Most recruiters will do everything they can to avoid refunding a client. After all, we've invested time, expertise and effort into making the placement. But what happens when continuing to honour a replacement guarantee starts costing your business more than it's worth? I recently had my first...
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Ep 320 - Why the Best Recruiters Spend More Time in 'ELF Mode'
Easy. Lucrative. Fun. I'd never heard of ELF Mode until a casual conversation at the gym with a mate who has successfully built and sold multiple businesses. The more he explained it, the more I realised it's one of the simplest and most powerful ways to think about building a successful...
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Ep 319 - Recruiters: Is Your InMail Response Rate Below 27.5%?
Most recruiters never check one of the most valuable reports inside LinkedIn Recruiter. Should you? Absolutely. In this episode, I break down LinkedIn's average InMail response rate (27.5%) and show you exactly how to improve yours. Better response rates don't just mean more conversations with...
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Ep 318 - The Recruitment Pipeline Rule You're Ignoring
How do you know if you're actually on track... or if you're quietly falling behind without realising it? In this ep, I share one of the simplest but most effective tools every recruiter should be using: a visible pipeline tracker. No fancy tech. No AI. No complicated dashboards. Just a...
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Ep 317 - Stop Using AI for LinkedIn Posts (Do This Instead)
Ever sit down to write a LinkedIn post and have absolutely no idea what to say? In this episode, I share why most recruiters are making LinkedIn far harder than it needs to be. The days of posting generic insights, AI-generated content, and recycled advice are quickly disappearing. If your…
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Ep 316 - How Christine Foggiato Built a Million Dollar Desk Without Traditional BD
Can recruiters still build a million-dollar desk without the endless grind, cold calls and hustle culture? In this ep I sat down with Christine Foggiato from Riverside Recruitment, who is challenging many of the traditional recruitment beliefs we've all grown up with. Christine is closing in on a...
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Ep 315 - I Do, We Do, You Do - The Only Scaling Framework You Need
How do I actually scale a recruitment desk or business without becoming the bottleneck? In this ep, I break down a simple but powerful operating philosophy: I do, we do, you do - a progression that shows how to move from doing everything yourself, to building with others, to ultimately stepping...
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Ep 314 - Diarise Your Day: The 15-Minute Habit I Absolutely Swear by
The best recruiters I have ever worked with, interviewed or talked to - the real multi-million dollar billers - all share one habit. It's something I do compulsively as well. They know what worked today, what didn't, and what they're doing differently tomorrow. In this episode I break down the...
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Ep 313 - Why You Always Get Sick After Stressful Periods
Why do we always seem to get sick the moment we finally slow down? Today I dive into the science behind stress, burnout, cortisol, and why so many high performers crash physically after big work pushes. My grandfather worked as a GP with only one day off every fortnight, and he would consistently...
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Ep 312 - Showing Up In State: The Tony Robbins Trick to Reset Your Mindset in Seconds
What state are you showing up in every day? In this ep, I dive into the idea of “showing up in state", a concept popularised by Tony Robbins that’s all about deliberately shifting your mindset, energy, and focus before stepping into important moments. I actually recorded this episode after having…
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Ep 311 - My Candidate Closing Playbook (3x Techniques that WORK).
I’m walking you through something I use every single day on my desk… my closing playbook. Closing isn’t one-size-fits-all. Every candidate, every deal and every situation is different, and the mistake I see recruiters make is trying to use the same close every time. So I break it down into three...
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Ep 310 - Recruiters: Don’t Let The 2026 Budget Destroy Your Desk
The 2026 Australian Budget has triggered a lot of emotion, uncertainty and fear across the market and recruiters are hearing it directly from clients. Here's what I'm seeing, hearing and doing right now as businesses react to major legislative and economic changes. This isn’t so much about...
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Ep 309 - The Biggest Pitfalls of Going Out On Your Own
At some point, almost every recruiter thinks about going out on their own. More freedom. More money. No boss. But what I’ve seen over the years is that a lot of recruiters underestimate the financial pressure that comes with actually running a business. In this ep, I break down the biggest…
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Ep 308 - Game of Millions
Most people stop at level two. They make good money… Then coast. But what if wealth was actually a 4-level game? In today's ep I break down the “Game of Millions”, a framework that completely changed how I think about success, leadership and purpose. Level 1: Make $1M in revenue. Level 2: Make…
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Ep 307 - Small Language Changes, Bigger Placement Results
Most recruiters completely change their success rate with passive candidates once they understand one thing: A headhunted candidate is psychologically very different to an applicant. Applicants are already in the market. Passive candidates are not. That means the language you use throughout a...
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Ep 306 - If You're Not Growing, You're Dying
When markets get tough, most business owners default to the same move: Cut costs. Cut staff. Cut spending. Cut everything. But there’s a problem with that strategy… It’s a finite game. Today I unpack a simple mindset shift that completely reframed how I think about business growth, recruitment…
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Ep 305 - Healthy High Performer or Burnt-Out Achiever? with Luke Maslin
Do you feel like you’re performing at a high level… but running on empty underneath? In this ep, I sit down with Luke Maslin to unpack the hidden cost of high performance and why so many ambitious recruiters are unknowingly burning themselves out. Luke shares his journey from semi-pro athlete to...
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Ep 304 - Generalist Chaos vs Specialist Control
Ever feel like every new brief means starting from scratch? Today I break down the difference between generalist chaos and specialist control and why constantly reinventing the wheel is slowing you down more than you think. I share how I’d approach a messy, wide desk, and the simple shift that…
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Ep 303 - Attract Better Clients by Being Real with Eva Bantin
Ever felt like you're holding back who you really are at work? In this ep, I sit down with Eva Bantin (formerly Eva Wilson), recruiter, business owner, and self-proclaimed “people alchemist”, who’s done something most won’t: she’s completely leaned into her authentic self and built a thriving...
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Ep 302 - Building Australia’s Biggest Recruitment Community with Pete Watson
What happens when you bring hundreds of recruiters together in one place? In this ep, I sit down with Pete Watson to unpack the growth of Recruitment United and why community, training, and real-time collaboration are becoming game changers in the industry. From a scrappy WhatsApp group to the...
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Ep 301 - Who You Surround Yourself With Is Everything
The people around you either drag you down or lift you up. In this ep, I share a CrossFit analogy that shows how being surrounded by high performers naturally raises your standards, your effort, and your results without you even realising it. Who you surround yourself with is everything. Tune in...
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Ep 300 - Your Energy Is Limited
You don’t have unlimited time and energy… so where you spend it will either make you money or quietly cost you. In today's ep, I dive into a real story. A signed candidate, a pulled offer, a scramble to recover, and then a fee dispute that could’ve gone all the way to court. The question we had…
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Ep 299 - Learned Helplessness Is Killing Your Desk
Ever caught yourself saying… “that doesn’t work”? Cold calls don’t work. Ads don’t work. That client will never use us. That candidate will never respond. Or is that just learned helplessness talking? In today’s ep, I break down one of the most dangerous (and common) patterns I see in recruitment…
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Ep 298 - Stop Leaving Placements on the Table!
Are you leaving money on the table without even realising it? In this ep, I share a simple but powerful strategy to turn one candidate on multiple interviews into multiple placements. Too many recruiters celebrate a placement and move on, missing the bigger opportunities right in front of them.…
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Ep 297 - A Great Candidate… That Nobody Wants
Ever had a candidate who looks incredible on paper… but the market just doesn’t respond? Today I talk about a conversation I had on the launch tour that really highlights a mistake a lot of recruiters make — especially those still chasing their first placement. It’s easy to get excited about a...
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Ep 296 - Why You’re Losing Retainers (And How to Fix It)
Ever feel like you’re doing everything right when pitching a retainer… but still getting knocked back? In this ep, I break down the real reason most recruiters struggle to win retainers. It’s not your pricing. It’s not your process. It’s the way you position it in the conversation. I'll walk you...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to the Lone Recruiter Podcast with the highly successful & even more energetic Brett Clemenson. If you’re a you’re a recruiter flying solo, out on your own or just generally lacking mentorship & guidance then this is the community you want to be a part of. Every week, Brett & his top-billing guests deliver short, sharp & loud doses of recruitment advice, tips, tricks, inspiration & motivation designed to help you be the best Recruiter you can be.So join us, grab a cup of coffee & let’s take your Recruitment career to the next level.
HOSTED BY
Brett Clemenson
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Lone Recruiter have?
The Lone Recruiter currently has 347 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Lone Recruiter about?
Welcome to the Lone Recruiter Podcast with the highly successful & even more energetic Brett Clemenson. If you’re a you’re a recruiter flying solo, out on your own or just generally lacking mentorship & guidance then this is the community you want to be a part of. Every week, Brett & his...
How often does The Lone Recruiter release new episodes?
The Lone Recruiter publishes regularly with 347 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Lone Recruiter?
You can listen to The Lone Recruiter on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Lone Recruiter?
The Lone Recruiter is created and hosted by Brett Clemenson.
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