Becoming a Hiring Machine
Becoming a Hiring Machine is the key to unlocking the future of recruitment. You’ve probably heard that traditional recruitment is broken, inefficient, and in dire need of fresh perspectives. This show is dedicated to not only rooting out those perspectives, but more importantly, the practical wisdom they hold. We dig deep to go beyond simply saying what needs to change and, instead, equip you with the tools that teach you how to make the change. Each episode features the sharpest minds in recruitment finding solutions to the real-world challenges you face every day. Whether it’s a mindset shift or a tactical change, Becoming a Hiring Machine will help you find the answers you seek. If you want to become more efficient and competitive, you need insights you can actually put into practice — insights that will help you on your journey to Becoming a Hiring Machine.
Episodes
Thank you for tuning in for (gasp) 2.5 years! We can hardly believe it ourselves!
Stay tuned for a better, bigger, stronger season 2. We'll be back soon, and you'll love it.
Love,
- Sam
The traditional headhunter is dying and if you’re still searching for talent based on job titles, you’re already being outpaced by the machines.
In this episode, we break down why the old-school keyword match is now a liability and how to transform your sourcing strategy to find the hidden gems your competitors are completely missing.
You will learn:
- The Title Obsession Trap: Why searching for candidates by their previous job tit...
In this episode, Sam explains the playbook he's seen work a cross B2B SaaS, B2B hardware, services, and countless other models: Account Based Prospecting.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to escape the feast or famine cycle so many firms find themselves in
- How to stop relying on the 5% of companies hiring right now for revenue growth
- How to build and nurture client relationships long before you need them
- And so much more!
P....
In this episode, we'll discuss the critical yet often overlooked aspect of the interview process: the interview debrief.
You will learn about:
- The "Politeness Paradox": Why your candidate thinks they nailed the interview (when they actually failed) and the one question you must ask to shatter this illusion before they lose interest.
- The 10-Minute Window: Why waiting until the next day to debrief is a death sentence for accuracy, ...
What do history's greatest entrepreneurs all have in common?
Answer: they all know recruiting is their #1 job, and they're all excellent at it.
In this episode, Sam breaks down:
- How Ernest Shackleton attracted over 5,000 applicants by telling them they could die
- How to build an organization full of A players
- Why inbound is not enough and why you must go hunt for talent
- Who should lead recruiting efforts at top companies
- And so much m...
Wow.
Today’s a big day at Becoming a Hiring Machine — it’s our 250th episode. Crazy to say, and even crazier to look back and realize we’ve been doing this for over two years!
Thank you for listening — and if you’ve been here since the very beginning, thanks for being along for the ride with us.
Today, as we go into reflection mode at the end of the year and at this milestone episode, we’re pulling together a compilation of some of...
If you audited your recruiting technology stack the same way you audit your P&L, many would be shocked by the grade.
We tend to look at software as a line item expense. But in 2025, your platform is your operating system. If it’s broken, your business is bleeding revenue, even if the subscription cost seems “manageable.”
To help you see whether your technology investment is helping or hurting you, we developed a 5-point framewor...
No one likes getting ghosted. Not candidates, not recruiters.
Luckily, there are easy ways, at least on the recruiter side, to minimize ghosting occurrences. In this episode, Vivien dives into the nuances of candidate motivation during the hiring process—particularly focusing on how responses to screening questions can indicate a candidate's level of commitment and genuine interest in job opportunities.
Many recruiters are flying blind — not knowing what exactly is working, or why. Not knowing, definitively, what it takes to make a great placement. Sam breaks down the ratios of candidates needed for screening calls, interviews, and placements, contrasting the approaches of rookie and expert recruiters.
Another takeaw...
The discussion moves beyond simple numbers into the tactical "control" variables of the closing process, including how to preempt scheduling bottlenecks by requesting block availability upfront and how to navigate hiring slowdowns during t...
In this solo episode, Sam discusses the common pyramid of the 5 Levels of Employee Agency — breaking down each of these levels and how to find Level 5 Simplifiers when you're seeking to make a hire or placement. In this conversation, Sam gives some examples of how Loxo is facing this challenges, emphasizing how, in his personal experience, the most impactful team members ar...
This episode focuses on diagnosing the "why" behind your drop-offs—whether it’s refining your initial sourcing strategy or understanding why interested candidates withdraw—to ensure you aren't wasting time on the...
...But then you needed another for sourcing, another for contact data, and one more for outreach.
Before you knew it, you weren't running a recruiting firm — you were Dr. Frankenstein to a ghastly Frankenstack monster.
The scary reality is that operational chaos is the #1 silent killer of growth for modern recruiting firms.
- Data silos make a single source of truth impos...
Don't worry—you don't have to remember middle-school math or statistics to follow along.
Chapters:
00:00 - Dive into job order to placement ratios
02:01 - The critical job ...
Will covers a lot of ground, referencing his wealth of experience running a rec-to-rec firm. One thing he's seen time and time again? Great—not just good—billers follow a consistent routine. Their days don't look wildly different from one to the next. In making this point, he highlights that, while personality traits can aid succ...
Sam and Vivien chat through the importance of understanding recruiting ratios, for both rookie and expert recruiters. They break down key metrics that can help recruiters optimize their hiring processes — including the ratios of job orders to placements, screening calls to interviews, and interviews to placements.
Chapters:
00:00 - ...
On this spooky edition of the pod, Sam and Lex break down some of these modern recruitment nightmares, including: The Frankenstack, the Accidental Ghost, and the risk of going Zombie Mode. And of course, they give you actionable tips on how to...
Listen to the audio from our recent webinar, The Fast and the Follow-Ups and learn how to build effective nurture campaigns that keep both clients and candidates engaged. This episode will focus more on the prospect side of things, helping you grow your business....
In this episode, Sam sits down with Amarbir to explore the evolving expectations of Gen Z in the workforce as we look ahead to 2026 (because it'll be here before you know it).
They discuss:
- The importance of transparency in compensation
- The significance of work-life balance, and
- The need for meaningful career progression
Listen to the audio from our recent webinar, The Fast and the Follow-Ups and learn how to build effective nurture campaigns that keep both clients and candidates engaged.
You’ll hear all about how to set up nurture stages in Loxo, move prospects into campaigns, an...
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