The RAG Podcast - Recruitment Agency Growth Podcast

Julia Arpag is the founder of Aligned Recruitment, a retained search business working with US tech startups. She has built a LinkedIn following of over 91,000, and she has never made a single cold call.It started in the hardest possible way. Julia was five weeks postpartum, with a two-year-old and two teenage foster sons at home, when the startup she worked for ran out of money and let her go. She had six job offers within two weeks, and accepted one.Then a friend asked her to help spin up a recruitment company, "like five hours a week". They closed three retainer clients in their first six weeks. Julia went all in. She had only ever worked retained and RPO, and in its first year Aligned billed $650,000.The obvious next move was to scale and sell. Diane Prince, who coached her one to one and taught her how to sell, had scaled and sold her own business for 28 million. Julia started down that path, and the stress, anxiety and sleepless nights told her something was wrong. "I'm killing myself for something that I don't actually need to do right now or want to do right now."So she made a decision most founders never make. She let enough be enough.On this episode of The RAG Podcast, Julia breaks down how she built a business around her life instead of the other way round.Julia isn't ruling out selling one day. But she is clear that she won't lose these early years with her family to get there.If you've ever wondered whether you are allowed to stop climbing, decide that what you have built is already enough, and still win, this episode is for you.----------Episode Sponsor: AtlasAdmin is a massive waste of time. That's why there's Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies.It doesn't only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it's entering a whole new era.With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords.Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow.Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that's not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in billings after adopting the platform.No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus on what actually drives revenue.Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting.Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/----------Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn, but AI has turned templated posts and outreach into a commodity. When everyone sounds the same, the market stops listening. The recruiters winning now are the ones the market trusts.At Hoxo we help recruitment founders become the most influential name in their niche, using AI to multiply output while trust stays the product. Our clients turn their existing networks into £100K to £300K in new billings within months. Watch the free RAG listener training to see how: https://hubs.ly/Q03lBpYC0

Rich Rosen has been recruiting software sales talent from his home outside Boston since 1996. Thirty years, almost 1,300 placements, and he's done it pretty much solo.He lasted six months at Management Recruiters in New England. He closed two deals in his first ten days, was the top recruiter out of about 77, and then left over how commission was being handled to start Cornerstone Search from home.He's publicly said he bills around a million dollars a year, and has done for 30 years. Forbes ranked Cornerstone #14 on its list of America's Best Executive Recruiting Firms. In the last seven weeks alone he's billed over $400,000.On this episode of The RAG Podcast, Rich tells the full story.Rich isn't here to argue against building a bigger agency. But he's proof that the life most recruitment founders are chasing may already be available to them, if they shift their focus.If you'd like to know why one of America's top-ranked recruiters still works alone after 30 years, this episode is for you.----------Episode Sponsor: AtlasAdmin is a massive waste of time. That's why there's Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies.It doesn't only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it's entering a whole new era.With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords.Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow.Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that's not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in billings after adopting the platform.No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus on what actually drives revenue.Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting.Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/----------Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn, but AI has turned templated posts and outreach into a commodity. When everyone sounds the same, the market stops listening. The recruiters winning now are the ones the market trusts.At Hoxo we help recruitment founders become the most influential name in their niche, using AI to multiply output while trust stays the product. Our clients turn their existing networks into £100K to £300K in new billings within months. Watch the free RAG listener training to see how: https://hubs.ly/Q03lBpYC0

Dom Khedun landed in Sydney in 2007 on a sponsored visa with Michael Page. Ten months later he moved companies, and then the financial crisis arrived. He was made redundant and worried he'd have to go back home.Years later he was building a legal team inside another agency when the MD called him out at a breakfast meeting in front of the whole business, 35 to 40 people.After that day, Dom went to the bank and applied to remortgage his apartment. When the money came through, he resigned and started Mizzen Search.Mizzen started as a 50-50 partnership. Working largely on his own, Dom billed between A$300,000 and A$400,000 a year off 10 to 12 deals. Last financial year, with one other recruiter in the business, Mizzen did just under a million Australian dollars, double its previous best.He has no intention of hiring again.On this episode of The RAG Podcast, Dom breaks down how a two-biller business doubled its billings without becoming an agency.Like most founders, Dom has thought about growing heads and turning Mizzen into a bigger agency. But the first thing he pictures is the price: a proper office, 5 days a week, listening to other people's problems.Even if you offered him double the profit for working that hard, he's out. He'd rather keep the Tuesday golf, the month back home, and a business he can run at this pace into his fifties.If you've ever wondered whether you can build serious money out of a two-biller business without ever building a team, this episode is for you.----------Episode Sponsor: AtlasAdmin is a massive waste of time. That's why there's Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies.It doesn't only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it's entering a whole new era.With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords.Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow.Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that's not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in billings after adopting the platform.No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus on what actually drives revenue.Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting.Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/----------Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn, but AI has turned templated posts and outreach into a commodity. When everyone sounds the same, the market stops listening. The recruiters winning now are the ones the market trusts.At Hoxo we help recruitment founders become the most influential name in their niche, using AI to multiply output while trust stays the product. Our clients turn their existing networks into £100K to £300K in new billings within months. Watch the free RAG listener training to see how: https://hubs.ly/Q03lBpYC0

Mike Williams was handed a cold desk in a rural US town and told to place accountants. There weren't any. So he placed an engineer instead, and kept going, until his boss's boss rang to tell him the whole thing was going to fail and he'd be fired when it did.He became Rookie of the Year and made President's Club all 5 years. Then he quit, moved from Massachusetts to Charlotte, North Carolina, and billed over $900,000 in his first year on his own, from a spare room in his house.4 years on, Carnegie Search is a team of 14 and he's at $3.5m going into the final quarter against a $4m target.And he says it isn't good enough.The reason is sitting in his own office, and it's the same problem in most agencies this size.On this episode of The RAG Podcast, Mike breaks down why a team that bills well on his accounts still isn't the business he's building.He isn't chasing an exit. Two years ago he wanted to be the biggest firm in town. He's dropped that, and what replaced it is a harder target than any revenue figure.If you've ever looked at a team billing well on your accounts and felt uneasy about it, this episode is for you.----------Episode Sponsor: AtlasAdmin is a massive waste of time. That's why there's Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies.It doesn't only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it's entering a whole new era.With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords.Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow.Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that's not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in billings after adopting the platform.No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus on what actually drives revenue.Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting.Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/----------Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn, but AI has turned templated posts and outreach into a commodity. When everyone sounds the same, the market stops listening. The recruiters winning now are the ones the market trusts.At Hoxo we help recruitment founders become the most influential name in their niche, using AI to multiply output while trust stays the product. Our clients turn their existing networks into £100K to £300K in new billings within months. Watch the free RAG listener training to see how: https://hubs.ly/Q03lBpYC0

Three years ago Jordan Shlosberg walked up to me at an expo and asked to sponsor this show. I said no. I'd had enough of CRM companies.Two years on from our first conversation in a Sheffield hotel, Atlas is in the multiple thousands of users, with 60 staff spread across Greece, Bosnia, Italy, India, Colombia and Liverpool. He still won't disclose revenue. He's aiming at Vincere and Loxo first, then Bullhorn.Last November on this podcast he predicted a renaissance for agency recruiters and told internal talent teams they had a lot to worry about. Ten months on, I made him mark his own homework.His answer: it's happening. Atlas customers are growing headcount while the job market stays sluggish, which means recruiters are taking share.On this episode of The RAG Podcast, Jordan breaks down what to actually buy in 2026 and what's about to be automated.Jordan is not selling the idea that AI turns bad recruiters into good ones. He's blunt about it. Atlas is only as good as the conversations feeding it, and crap calls with no network behind them give you very little to work with.What he is arguing is that the gap is widening. The average recruiter gets marginally better. The strong ones get considerably better, because twenty years of relationships suddenly became searchable.If you've ever wondered what you should actually be doing with AI right now, not in theory but this month, this episode has the blueprint.----------Episode Sponsor: AtlasAdmin is a massive waste of time. That's why there's Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies.It doesn't only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it's entering a whole new era.With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords.Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow.Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that's not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in billings after adopting the platform.No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus what actually drives revenue.Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting.Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/----------Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn, but AI has turned templated posts and outreach into a commodity. When everyone sounds the same, the market stops listening. The recruiters winning now are the ones the market trusts.At Hoxo we help recruitment founders become the most influential name in their niche, using AI to multiply output while trust stays the product. Our clients turn their existing networks into £100K to £300K in new billings within months. Watch the free RAG listener training to see how: https://hubs.ly/Q03lBpYC0