The Pinnacle Take

James Smith was the top producer in his MRI office, generating most of its revenue, when he walked in and told the owner eight words: one day I'd like to start a business. No plan. No date. Just a someday. The next morning, after an overnight consult with the lawyer and the accountant, he was fired. He walked out with a brand new mortgage three times the size of his last one, a son just accepted to private school, and a wife who did not yet know she was pregnant. A neighbor came by with $1,000 because everyone felt sorry for him. James took that, an unemployment self-employment program, and 25 years of stubbornness, and built a retained search firm that has been climbing the Forbes list of America's best recruiting firms ever since. That is the origin. The reason this conversation matters right now is what came after the success. Because a few years ago, the desk that relationships had fed for two decades went quiet. Clients he had worked with for 10, 15, 20 years stopped spending. In this episode James walks through the Monday he stopped waiting for it to come back: pulling every client and every candidate his firm had ever touched, getting back on the phone with no agenda except genuine curiosity, and how one relationship callback turned into 15 retained searches with a Fortune 100 company. Along the way: the 300 placements he made inside a single client and how you actually go from one contact to owning an org chart, why he now measures outcomes instead of talk time, the Kansas City keynote on transformation that he admits was aimed at himself, why he tells candidates he is not a recruiter but a career manager, and the nonprofit he refused to let die that now sits at $1.2 million and puts kids through college, as James tells it, one scholarship email at a time. If your desk has slowed and you are wondering whether the engine restarts, James gives you the blueprint. Then he tells you the two things most recruiters never do with it: implement and execute. Connect with James Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessmith9/ Learn more about the Pinnacle Society: https://pinnaclesociety.org

What does the person who has sat across from some of the best recruiters in the business actually see when he looks at them? In his first podcast appearance ever, Kevin Parker joins Benjamin Mena for a conversation that goes where recruiting content almost never goes. Kevin is a licensed clinical social worker and licensed clinical addiction specialist with 20 years in the psychotherapy world, and he has spent years in what he calls sacred spaces with high performers, usually as the one asking the questions. This time, he answers them. Kevin opens with what he sees in those rooms: incredible, entrepreneurial people whose minds run ten steps ahead of everyone else, and who often have nowhere to take the wins, the losses, or the weight of it all. Leadership can be a lonely place, and the antidote, he argues, starts with saying it out loud. Name it to tame it. He shares his three rules for who deserves to hear your story, why the recruiters who can look back on lost deals with gratitude are the ones who grow, and why the difference between a human doing and a human being changes everything. From there the conversation moves through the four buckets of life, biological, psychological, social, and spiritual, and why the trouble starts when you look into your social bucket and only see work. Kevin explains why he abandoned the phrase work-life balance entirely in favor of tension, a rope that has to be pulled in different directions as life demands it. Drawing on Bob Buford's book Halftime, he lays out the difference between success, which is measurable and honestly not that hard, and significance, which is humble, relational, and much harder to build. He takes on imposter syndrome through the lens of Internal Family Systems and makes the case that there are no bad parts, only parts that need to be thanked and told to take a seat. He speaks directly to working moms carrying full-time careers, full-time motherhood, and breadwinning all at once, and challenges the women who shattered the glass ceiling to mentor the ones coming up behind them. And to the recruiter listening who feels alone right now, Kevin closes with the answer he has spent 20 years arriving at, and a challenge for everyone who is not lonely: pick up the phone. By the end, one question is left deliberately unanswered. That one is for part 2. Remember that you are significant. The Pinnacle Society: https://pinnaclesociety.org/

21 CFOs Showed Up To His Office At 8AM. He Never Asked For The Business. Dario Furman got 21 CFOs to drive through South Florida traffic to sit in his conference room at 8 in the morning. No speakers, no sponsors, no sales deck. Before the room even emptied, one CFO handed him a search. That same night, another texted him a second one. He never asked for the business. In this episode of The Pinnacle Take, Benjamin Mena sits down with Dario Furman, VP of Finance and Accounting Search at StevenDouglas and one of the newest members of the Pinnacle Society. Dario has billed $7.33 million personally with 448 placements over 12 years, and he has never made a cold call. Instead, 63 percent of his closed searches come from candidates who later became clients, most of whom he never even placed. Dario shares the story behind that number: arriving from Argentina at age 3 with a mother who sold empanadas on the street to keep them going, getting fired on his third day in recruiting, and pulling over on the side of the road to email the president of the company asking for another shot. He breaks down how he built the South Florida Finance Leadership Exchange in just 8 days, why he spent his first years purely recruiting before ever touching sales, how he privately tracks every metric inside a firm that hates the word KPI, and why the real skill of a top biller is surviving the 210 days a year when nothing goes right. Whether you are chasing your first Pinnacle-level year or already there, this conversation is a masterclass in playing the long game. Connect with Dario Furman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariofurman/ Learn more about the Pinnacle Society: https://pinnaclesociety.org/

How Synergy Search Built $400K Billers from Scratch: Blueprint & Lessons with Josh Volinsky Guest: Josh Volinsky, President & Co-Founder of Synergy Search Host: Benjamin Mena, Pinnacle Take Podcast Episode Summary In this episode of the Pinnacle Take Podcast, host Benjamin Mena welcomes Josh Volinsky, President and Co-Founder of Synergy Search—a recruiting firm that transformed accountants into high-performing $400K billers. Josh shares the step-by-step blueprint behind Synergy Search’s rapid growth: hiring industry professionals with zero recruiting experience and training them into some of the most successful recruiters in the market. This jam-packed interview covers building a winning culture, actionable onboarding, adapting to tough markets, and data-driven leadership, with hard-won lessons from record-breaking wins and challenging setbacks. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: How Synergy Search Turned Accountants into Top-Billing Recruiters: Josh reveals Synergy’s secret for transforming ex-accountants, CPAs, and industry professionals into full-desk recruiters who consistently bill $400K+ their first year. The Power of the Right Team and Founding Partners: Why choosing the right co-founders and splitting equity equally fueled performance and culture. Building and Scaling a High-Performance Recruiting Firm: Insights on ramping up operations, scaling hiring, and creating a repeatable training system. Adapting to Market Shifts & Setbacks: What happened when the “golden era” ended and how Synergy Search rebuilt momentum with accountability, transparency, and a focus on key metrics. Leadership Lessons & Culture: How tragedy, major setbacks, and rapid growth shaped the company’s values and future. Key Takeaways and Quotes: “We hire A players—even if they have zero recruiting experience—and teach them everything. Attitude and industry knowledge are everything.” “Accountability and tracking key KPIs turned our worst quarter into our best. Transparency and culture drive results.” “You have to become obsessed: with your niche, your market, and your craft. Mentorship and relentless growth are non-negotiable.” Episode Highlights: Synergy Search’s founding story: why Josh left a high-earning recruiting job to start fresh Why hiring accountants—not recruiters—created a competitive edge The exact training blueprint that ramped up new hires to $400K+ in billings How Synergy weathered the 2024 market downturn & the challenges of scaling fast The critical importance of KPIs, accountability, mentorship, and leading by example Hard lessons and leadership moments—including the impact of losing a top team member What makes Synergy’s top billers different and advice for new recruiting leaders Who Should Listen? Recruiting agency founders and owners Talent acquisition leaders and in-house recruiters Professional services and executive search leaders Anyone interested in sales, leadership, and building high-performance teams Connect with Josh Volinsky and Pinnacle Society Connect with Josh Volinsky on LinkedIn Learn more about Pinnacle Society: https://pinnaclesociety.org/  If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and review the Pinnacle Take Podcast, and share it with a friend in the recruiting world!

What does it take to thrive when the recruiting industry throws every obstacle your way? In this impactful episode of the Pinnacle Take Podcast, host Bodie Nowak sits down with industry powerhouse Benjamin Mena for a candid deep dive into building an elite recruitment business rooted in grit, resilience, and self-mastery. From Benjamin Mena's early days of struggle—billing just $11,250 in a recession year—to breaking the $1.9 million mark as a lean two-person team, discover how discipline, self-control, and owning your story set the groundwork for unstoppable performance. You’ll hear how setbacks, from career pivots to economic downturns, sharpened his business acumen, and why choosing control over short-lived comfort is pivotal for true success. Enduring the Hard Times: Learn how to reframe adversity as your greatest mentor and why the “long way” is the real shortcut to mastery. Mindset & Motivation: Why “motivation is garbage” and how forming the right habits will carry you farther than inspiration alone. Scaling with Intention: Dive into the partnership model that enables a small team to surpass firms five times their size—and why staying small can mean bigger profits. Contingent BD Tactics: Explore the “laying paper everywhere” approach to business development and how it creates leverage in a competitive, contingent market. Start challenging your comfort zone and take actionable steps towards elite billing. Listen now to transform both your mindset and business growth. Listen, connect, and explore more: Connect with Bodie Nowak: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bodienowak/ Pinnacle Society: https://pinnaclesociety.org/