The Make More Placements Show for Recruitment & Search Business Owners | More Placements | Higher Fees | Less Work | Fewer Headaches |

(Re-upload) What does it actually take to build a recruitment business worth selling?

Not just one that runs. One that's genuinely valuable.

Mike Ames has done it twice. First exit: £24 million. Second exit: £15 million. And in this interview, he holds nothing back.

Terry Edwards sits down with Mike to unpack the full story: the strategy, the decisions, the mistakes, and the mindset shifts that most recruitmen...

Recruitment and search business owners: if you've hired a consultant who "should have been good" and they still haven't billed, this episode is why.

Watch the free video on how we help recruitment and search firm owners fix this: https://makemoreplacements.com/vsl

In our experience, two out of three consultants hired end up costing the business money rather than making it, once you account for salary, on-costs, and th...

We've all been sold the same myth: that successful people win because they've got ironclad discipline, and if you're falling behind, you're just lazy.

It's a great story. It's also wrong.

In this episode, Terry breaks down why discipline is the weakest tool in a recruitment owner's kit and why building your firm on "just trying harder" guarantees it eventually falls over.

He explains why willpower works like a phone battery: you star...

Most recruiters aren't losing business because they're not good enough.

They're losing it because their market has forgotten they exist.

In this episode, Terry breaks down why 82% of recruiters say they want to post video content: but only around 12% actually do it consistently.

The gap has nothing to do with talent or technology. It's mindset.

Using the idea of a "trust bank account," Terry explains how...

You don't have an information problem.

You already know how to win retained work, raise your fees, and build predictable income.

What's stopping you is the gap between what you know and what you're willing to do, and that gap is confidence.

In this episode, Terry breaks down why most recruitment and search business owners stay stuck: they wait to feel ready before they act.

The outbound call, the retainer conversation, the strong Li...

The recruitment business owner who needs the deal often repels the deal.

In this episode, we break down why neediness shows up in client conversations, how hiring managers sense it, and why the strongest recruiters and search firm owners are willing to walk away when the work is not right.

You’ll learn how to shift from chasing the fee to leading the decision, how to ask better commercial questions, and how to become the truste...

Are you tired of clients telling you that your recruitment fees are too high?

In this episode, we break down why you should never defend your price tag and what you must do instead to win the business. 

When a client pushes back on your fee, they are usually comparing it to two flawed metrics: the perceived "free" cost of doing nothing or the price of a cheaper agency. It is time to change the number they use to judge your...

Most recruiters think they lose deals because of the script, the objection, or the client’s budget.

But often, the deal is lost before a single word is spoken.

In this episode, we break down why your emotional state on a sales or business development call matters more than most recruiters realise.

Hiring managers can sense neediness, panic, hesitation, and self-doubt quickly, and they respond to it.

You’ll hear why confid...

Most recruiters aren't losing fees to the market.

They're losing them to a story they wrote three years ago and never updated.

In this episode, Terry breaks down the Dartmouth "scar experiment", and why it explains more about your fee conversations, retainer pitches, and client meetings than almost anything else you'll hear this year.

You'll hear: Why "I can just read the room" is one of the most dangerous beliefs a recruiter can car...

Most recruitment business owners don't have a strategy problem.

They have a thinking problem.

In this episode, Terry opens up about losing his father at 12 and the years of unprocessed anger, insecurity, and fear that followed, patterns he didn't even recognise until a stranger asked the right questions over dinner in Venice.

That conversation changed everything.

What followed is the same realisation he sees in recruitment owners eve...

You didn't start a recruitment business to end up busier, more stressed, and earning less than you planned.

But that's where a lot of recruitment and search business owners quietly end up.

Not because they're not working hard enough.

Because they stopped pushing for the business they actually wanted and started managing the one they've got.

This video is for recruitment business owners who know something needs to c...

Mike Ames built and sold two IT recruitment businesses, one for £24M, one for £15M.

In this episode, Terry sits down with Mike to find out what serious buyers actually look for, what kills value before a deal even starts, and what most recruitment business owners are getting wrong right now.

They get into the 360-degree model, yo-yo revenue, client estate management, strategic BD, delivery obsession, and the mindset shift that separ...

You know exactly what you should be doing in your recruitment business.

So why aren't you doing it?

That's the question Terry tackles in this episode, and the answers are uncomfortably honest.

He covers the 12-week year framework, what Rory McIlroy's back-to-back Masters win teaches about performing under pressure, and the invisible habit of mentally rehearsing failure that most recruitment business owners don...

Most recruitment business owners think they need more time.

They don't.

They need to stop being the bottleneck in their own business.

In this episode, Terry Edwards is joined by Emily

specialist in building remote teams for recruitment firms to discuss the delivery engine: the system that separates recruitment businesses that scale from those that stay stuck.

They cover why winning clients can feel like creating problems, the depende...

Terry Edwards breaks down the pattern that keeps most recruitment business owners stuck, not because they lack skill or knowledge, but because their daily behaviour is quietly protecting them from discomfort.

In this episode, Terry walks through the exact cycle that turns busy days into zero progress, why most recruiters are maintaining motion instead of building momentum, and what top billers do differently to design their results ...

“We already have a supplier.” “It’s not a priority.” “Send me an email.” Sound familiar?

In this episode, Terry Edwards unpacks the five objections that stall recruitment sales calls and shows you how to stop accepting them at face value.

Learn how to challenge them politely, reveal the truth faster, and focus your time on the deals that are actually real.

Book a short call at makemoreplace...

Welcome to the Make More Placements Podcast, hosted by Terry Edwards and Drew Edwards.

In this episode, Terry and Drew break down five business development rules every recruitment and search business owner needs to know to grow in 2026.

Over the past year, we have spoken with hundreds of recruiters and search firm owners.

One challenge comes up again and again.

Everyone wants more clients, but more imp...

Your year starts strong, then quietly collapses by February.

If you run a recruitment or search business, you’ve probably lived it: goals set over the holidays, January momentum feels real, and then client noise, delivery pressure, and old habits creep back in.

In the first episode of 2026 on The Make More Placements Podcast, we break down why this happens, and what to do instead so you build consistency across...