The Lone Recruiter
by Brett Clemenson
Latest episode
Ep 353 - Don't Give Up Before the Finish Line
Ep 353 - Don't Give Up Before the Finish Line
About this podcast
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
The newest 50 of 357 episodes
- Ep 353 - Don't Give Up Before the Finish Line · 6 min · Season 4 Episode 353The Christmas countdown is on, the batteries are running low, and it’s tempting to take your foot off the accelerator. But don’t give up before the finish line! Today I’m…
- Ep 352 - The AI Trick That Could Uncover Your Next Big Client · 4 min · Season 4 Episode 351I’ve got a simple AI trick for you today that could uncover new clients and business development opportunities you’ve been completely overlooking. If you’re a specialist…
- Ep 351 - Time Kills Deals: The Takeaway Strategy That Gets You a Yes (or a Clear No) · 7 min · Season 4 Episode 350I can never make a candidate do something they’re not willing to do for themselves. I can’t force anyone to take a job. What I can do is lay out all the information and make the…
- Ep 350 - LinkedIn's Algorithm EXPOSED! What's Working, What's Not & What's Next with Emma O'Connell · 24 min · Season 4 Episode 352Think you’ve cracked the LinkedIn algorithm? Think again! This week I’m joined by the brilliant Emma O’Connell, a LinkedIn insider with 13 years of experience at the company and…
- Ep 349 - Love in the Room: Why Deals Fall Over (and How to Save Them) · 9 min · Season 4 Episode 349There’s always love in the room until there isn’t. In my view, our job as recruiters is to keep that love, because the moment it leaves, the deal usually goes with it. In this…
- Ep 348 - Beyond KPIs: The Habits That Make Better Recruiters · 7 min · Season 4 Episode 348We all know about KPIs in recruitment. Calls, CVs, interviews, placements. But what about the habits behind the numbers? I’ve been working with a health coach recently, and he’s…
- Ep 347 - One Question That Changes How You See Your Problems · 7 min · Season 4 Episode 347What if you could swap your biggest problem for someone else’s? Would you take the risk, or would you stick with your own? I heard this question recently and it really got me…
- Ep 346 - I Don't Know Who Needs to Hear This But ONE is All You Need · 8 min · Season 4 Episode 346Feeling stressed about your recruitment desk? Worried about a tough market or where your next placement is coming from? Here’s something I want you to remember: one job is all…
- Ep 345 - What’s Closest to the Money? The One Question Every Recruiter Should Ask · 4 min · Season 4 Episode 345Ever 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…
- Ep 344 - Would I Believe You’ll Hit Your Goals if I Filmed You for 24 Hours? · 9 min · Season 4 Episode 344If 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…
- Ep 343 - Teaching Your Client Best Practice For Interviewing · 5 min · Season 4 Episode 343Are 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…
- Ep 342 - Turning Recruitment Expertise Into a New Revenue Stream with Rachel and Shannon from Stitch Partners · 16 min · Season 4 Episode 342What 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…
- Ep 341 - The Quarter-End Reset Every Recruiter Needs · 6 min · Season 4 Episode 341You 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…
- Ep 340 - Top 5 Recruitment Rituals · 8 min · Season 4 Episode 340Recruiters 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…
- Ep 339 - How to Set a New Recruiter Up for Success · 7 min · Season 4 Episode 339Hiring 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…
- Ep 338 - Your Reputation Starts With How You Treat Everyone · 4 min · Season 4 Episode 338How 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…
- Ep 337 - What IKEA Can Teach Us About AI and the Future of Work · 7 min · Season 4 Episode 337What 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…
- Ep 336 - The High Performance Health Check with Luke Maslin · 31 min · Season 4 Episode 336What 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…
- Ep 335 - Stop Picking Up the Phone! Why Recruiters Should Let It Ring · 4 min · Season 4 Episode 335Today, 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…
- Ep 334 - What Recruiters Need to Know Right Now with SEEK Chief Economist Blair Chapman · 19 min · Season 4 Episode 334The 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…
- Ep 333 - The 4 Stages of Mastery: Where Are You? · 16 min · Season 4 Episode 333Have 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…
- Ep 332 - What Top Recruiters Want From Agencies in 2026 with Andrea Collins · 17 min · Season 4 Episode 332The 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…
- Ep 331 - Need a New Recruitment Market? Check the Census! · 6 min · Season 4 Episode 331The 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…
- Ep 330 - Stop Asking “When?”: Get the Interview Booked Faster · 5 min · Season 4 Episode 330This 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…
- Ep 329 - Hit Your Target. Take Friday Off! · 13 min · Season 4 Episode 329What 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…
- Ep 328 - Redefining Success: When Your Role Changes · 6 min · Season 4 Episode 328I’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…
- Ep 327 - The Soy Sauce Effect: The 1% Improvements That Create Massive Recruitment Results · 8 min · Season 2 Episode 327What 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…
- Ep 326 - Inside a 10% Upfront Retained Recruitment Model With Jack Creith from Yakka Solutions · 12 min · Season 4 Episode 326Retained 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…
- Ep 325 - If I Had to Start a Recruitment Desk Tomorrow, This Is Exactly What I’d Do! · 8 min · Season 4 Episode 325If 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…
- Ep 324 - There's No Right or Wrong in Recruitment... Only Confidence · 8 min · Season 4 Episode 324What 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…
- Ep 323 - You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure · 7 min · Season 1 Episode 323What 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…
- Ep 322 - The Future of Recruitment: Why Retained Search Is Winning · 8 min · Season 1 Episode 322Recruitment has traditionally revolved around three models: executive search, contingent recruitment and contract staffing. But I believe the market is changing. I’m seeing…
- Ep 321 - Should Recruiters Ever Refund a Client? Here's Why I Did · 7 min · Season 2 Episode 321Most 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…
- Ep 320 - Why the Best Recruiters Spend More Time in 'ELF Mode' · 6 min · Season 4 Episode 320Easy. 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…
- Ep 319 - Recruiters: Is Your InMail Response Rate Below 27.5%? · 11 min · Season 4 Episode 319Most 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…
- Ep 318 - The Recruitment Pipeline Rule You're Ignoring · 6 min · Season 4 Episode 318How 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…
- Ep 317 - Stop Using AI for LinkedIn Posts (Do This Instead) · 6 min · Season 4 Episode 317Ever 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…
- Ep 316 - How Christine Foggiato Built a Million Dollar Desk Without Traditional BD · 17 min · Season 4 Episode 316Can recruiters still build a million-dollar desk without the endless grind, cold calls and hustle culture? In this episode of The Lone Recruiter, I sit down with Christine…
- Ep 315 - I Do, We Do, You Do - The Only Scaling Framework You Need · 5 min · Season 4 Episode 315How 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…
- Ep 314 - Diarise Your Day: The 15-Minute Habit I Absolutely Swear by · 9 min · Season 4 Episode 314The 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…
- Ep 313 - Why You Always Get Sick After Stressful Periods · 6 min · Season 4 Episode 313Why 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…
- Ep 312 - Showing Up In State: The Tony Robbins Trick to Reset Your Mindset in Seconds · 14 min · Season 4 Episode 312What 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…
- Ep 311 - My Candidate Closing Playbook (3x Techniques that WORK). · 11 min · Season 4 Episode 311I’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…
- Ep 310 - Recruiters: Don’t Let The 2026 Budget Destroy Your Desk · 9 min · Season 4 Episode 310The 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…
- Ep 309 - The Biggest Pitfalls of Going Out On Your Own · 9 min · Season 4 Episode 309At 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…
- Ep 308 - Game of Millions · 5 min · Season 4 Episode 308Most 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…
- Ep 307 - Small Language Changes, Bigger Placement Results · 11 min · Season 4 Episode 307Most recruiters completely change their success rate with passive candidates once they understand one thing: A headhunted candidate is psychologically very different to an…
- Ep 306 - If You're Not Growing, You're Dying · 6 min · Season 1 Episode 306When 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…
- Ep 305 - Healthy High Performer or Burnt-Out Achiever? with Luke Maslin · 26 min · Season 1 Episode 305Do 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…
- Ep 304 - Generalist Chaos vs Specialist Control · 9 min · Season 1 Episode 304Ever 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…
