Explore every episode of the podcast The Make More Placements Show for Recruitment & Search Business Owners | More Placements | Higher Fees | Less Work | Fewer Headaches |

Most recruiters who want to go independent never do.

They can recruit.

Quitting a salary just feels reckless.

Jon Chintanaroad found a different route.

He was laid off, called his two best clients, and both offered to sign with him. His first fee arrived within a month.

He ran his firm for around five years, sold it to his business partner, and now helps in-house recruiters launch their own agencies without quitting the day job.

In this episode, Terry Edwards and Jon get into:

• Why corporate recruiting is more precarious than it looks, and why so many in-house recruiters feel like “rentals”
• How to build a recruitment business quietly on the side, with one or two non-competing clients
• How in-house recruiters can turn silver medalist candidates into fees, ethically and discreetly
• Why a very narrow niche beats being a generalist, and gets you less resistance on fees
• Which outreach channels to combine, and why a third LinkedIn message to a non-responder is a waste
• Where Terry and Jon disagree on the fee model: contingent first, or retained from day one

If you’re an in-house recruiter weighing up going independent, this one is for you. If you already run a firm, stay for the niche, positioning, and fee debate.

Find Jon at recruitinglaunch.com and on LinkedIn.

Most recruitment owners have already decided how this year ends. October is busy, November goes quiet, December is a write-off, and January starts from scratch. That thinking costs real money.

In this episode, we break down the 12-week year and show you how to apply it to the final quarter in a recruitment or search business. Stop planning in years and start planning in weeks.

You’ll learn:

• Why “I’ve got time” is the most expensive belief in recruitment
• The story of a recruiter who set three controllable goals: seven hiring manager conversations a week, at least one retained search, and a 24% minimum fee
• Why he scored himself every Friday on what he did, not on what he billed
• The 85% execution rule, and why you don’t need perfection to hit your number
• How to work backwards from your target to the number of decision-makers you need to speak to

If you run a recruitment agency or search firm and want a stronger Q4 and a fuller January, this is for you.

Walk into a doctor's surgery and tell the doctor what treatment you want. No questions, no examination, just exactly what you asked for. You'd never accept that. Yet that is how most recruiters run their client calls.

In this episode, Terry breaks down why recruiters who hand over a pitch and a fee on request get squeezed on price, while the ones who diagnose first rarely have to defend their fees at all.

You'll hear:

• The "pharmacy with the phone" mistake that kills your credibility on the first call
• How a small agency owner went up against two other agencies on a £22k contingent search, asked one question, sat through the silence and walked away with it on retained
• Why whoever asks the questions controls the meeting, and how to set that agenda in the first 30 seconds
• The questions that make hiring managers talk about the real cost of getting the hire wrong, so fees stop being the issue
• Why the knowledge you pick up from daily client calls gives you more market data than most of your clients have
• Terry's rule: no talking about your service until you've asked at least five questions

If your last client beat you down on fee, ask yourself honestly whether you were too expensive or whether you showed up as a pharmacist.

Listen, then take one number from your last client call: how many questions did you ask before you pitched?

There's a recruiter called Sean.

He built a following on LinkedIn. He collected the interested prospects. He added them to the CRM. He added them to the mailing list.

He never picked up the phone — because he was "warming them up."

Six months later he lost 40% of his business to an in-house team, and one of those warm leads finally said 10 words to him he'll never forget: "I did message you, and you never came back."

In this episode, Terry breaks down the silent revenue leak sitting inside every recruitment business right now — the warm hands that got put in a spreadsheet and left there.

You'll hear:

– The real reason you're not calling the people who already raised their hand (it isn't time, and it isn't laziness)
– The "gym in January" analogy that reframes every prospect who's gone quiet
– Why the fear of "seeming pushy" assumes something about your importance that isn't true

If you've ever told yourself "I'll call them once I've done a bit more research," this is the episode to stop pretending with.

(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 recruitment business owners never make.

In this conversation you'll hear:

How Mike structured both businesses to be attractive to buyers from the inside out

The mistakes he made on the first exit that cost him, and what he did differently the second time

What he still sees holding recruitment business owners back today

Why most recruiters are building something they'll never be able to sell, and the simple shifts that change everything

What the journey from founder to exit really looks and feels like

Whether you're thinking about an exit in two years or ten, this conversation will change how you think about the business you're building right now.

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 the time spent managing them. Most owners who make a bad hire blame the person, the market, or a lack of effort. It's almost never any of those. The real reason is harder to hear: you hired for the wrong reason, took a claim on trust that was never tested, and gave talent no system to work with. Hiring multiplies what already exists. Hire into nothing, and you multiply nothing.

In this episode:
Why hiring to solve a growth problem instead of a capacity problem sets the whole thing up to fail
Why two out of three consultant hires end up costing the business money, not making it
The claim on a CV that owners never actually test
The difference between hiring for talent and hiring into a system
Why "let systems run the business, and let people run the systems" changes how you hire from here

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

This episode is sponsored by PlacementBox, our client attraction platform built for recruitment agencies. CRM, ATS and automated outreach in one system, so you get consistent client flow without living in cold call mode. placementbox.io

Who we are: Drew and Terry Edwards help recruitment and search business owners win better clients, higher fees and predictable pipeline without living on the phone.

#RecruitmentBusiness #RecruitmentAgency #ExecutiveSearch #RecruitmentOwner #Hiring #Pipeline

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 start the day at 100%, but every decision (chase the candidate, chase the invoice, write the proposal, post the video) drains it until you're running on 10% by mid-afternoon and blaming your own character.

The fix isn't more grit. It's routines and systems that get the work done without relying on willpower at all.

If you're a recruitment or search business owner who keeps starting strong and fading by lunchtime, this one reframes the whole problem.

Topics: recruitment business owners, willpower vs discipline, decision fatigue, business development consistency, systems and routines, building a more profitable recruitment firm.

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 every video you post is a deposit into your market's trust, and every time you go silent, or reach out cold asking for vacancies, you're making a withdrawal from an account you never funded.

He unpacks the real reasons recruiters stay invisible ("I don't have time," "I don't know what to say," "it needs to be perfect") and the identity shift required to become the recruiter your niche knows, trusts, and wants to work with.

You'll learn:

Why visibility beats being the "best" recruiter in your market

The trust bank account: how to make deposits instead of withdrawals

How to move from perfection to progress, performance to service, and motivation to identity

A simple content system to produce a week of videos in 30 minutes
The exact 45-second video to post in the next 24 hours

If you run a recruitment or search business and you know you should be posting content but keep putting it off, this one is for you.

Recruitment business development, video content for recruiters, personal branding, client acquisition, recruiter positioning, building authority, making more placements.

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 LinkedIn opinion: all sitting on the "when I'm confident" pile.

The problem? Confidence never comes first.

It comes second.

Terry unpacks the real sequence that works, action, then competence, then confidence, and why the reverse is a loop of your own making.

You'll hear why nerves before a fee conversation aren't a sign you're not ready (even Tom Hanks and Kate Winslet still feel like frauds), why borrowed confidence in a proven system beats waiting on your own, and why somewhere in your market a less skilled recruiter is winning your retainers simply because they showed up and asked while you waited.

If you're tired of knowing exactly what to do and still not doing it, this one names the problem properly, and gives you one move to make this week.

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 trusted advisor a client cannot ignore.

If you have ever gripped a deal too tightly, accepted bad terms, discounted your value, or stayed quiet when you knew something was not right, this episode will help you reset your approach before your next sales call.

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 worth!

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

• The "Dripping Tap" Trap: Discover why an unfilled vacancy is like a slow leak that quietly drains massive resources from a business, making the cost of doing nothing far more expensive than your fee.

• Behavior Driven by Fees: Understand why a low contingent fee simply buys a rushed race for CVs, whereas a higher retained fee guarantees research, exclusivity, and true accountability.

• Results vs. Chance: Learn how to reframe the client's mindset so they realize they are not choosing between different price points, but between a guaranteed outcome and a risky gamble.

• Calculating the Real Cost: Actionable strategies to make hiring managers calculate the exact weekly financial impact of an empty seat, instantly making your fee look like a minor, necessary investment.

Stop losing out to cheaper competitors and stop letting clients believe that delaying a hire is free. Tune in to learn how to take control of the conversation, because the expensive thing is never your fee it's the wrong outcome!

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 confident, calm recruiters get treated like peers, while desperate recruiters get treated like suppliers. We also cover how to set your state before a call, stop making the conversation about you, and show up with more authority, certainty, and control.

Because clients don’t just buy your service. They buy your calm, your credibility, and your standards.

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 carry

How one off-the-cuff client comment cost a recruiter 6% on every deal after it

The hidden costume most agency owners are still wearing, and don't know they put on.

Why your perception of your market is your reality (and how to test whether it's actually true)

The single question to ask before every important conversation this week

If you've ever softened your fees, avoided a retainer pitch, or "known" how a client was going to respond before you even called them, this one's for you.

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 every week: the real obstacle isn't the market, the CRM, the niche, or the economy.

It's the invisible script running in your head, the one telling you not to post, not to follow up, not to charge more, not to step up.

This episode gets into why you know what to do and don't do it. Why the feast-and-famine cycle keeps repeating.

Why your internal dialogue is either building your business or quietly dismantling it.

And what it actually takes to shift the thinking that's been shaping your results for years.

Your business will never outperform your thinking. This episode is about changing that.

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 change but haven't admitted it yet.

In this podcast, Terry covers:

Why recruitment business owners drift from ambition to survival mode

The difference between building a business and just running one

How to get back on track toward retained work, better clients, and real freedom


If you're a recruitment or executive search business owner who wants to win more clients, charge higher fees, and move toward retained and exclusive work without sacrificing your time or family life, Make More Placements was built for you.

Start here: https://makemoreplacements.com/call

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 separates recruiters who own a desk from those who own a real business.

Mike also shares how he went from £5M to £40M in five years, and what specifically changed to make that happen.

Whether you ever plan to sell or not, this episode is about building something that doesn't depend entirely on you.

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't even recognise in themselves.

The episode digs into the two to four actions that would shift most recruitment businesses, and what's actually stopping owners from doing those things consistently.

If you own a recruitment or search firm and Q2 already feels like it's slipping, this one's worth your time.

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 dependency trap that keeps owners doing everything, the six stages of a delivery framework built for recruiters, how to run a time audit that reveals where your week is actually going, and why the belief that "no one can do it like me" is the thing holding your business back most.

If you're a recruitment or search business owner who's generating work but still doing everything yourself, this one's worth your full attention.

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 before opportunities even exist.

If you've ever ended a day feeling like you worked hard but got nowhere, this one will hit.

Topics covered:

Why your pipeline might not actually be a pipeline

How comfort avoidance masquerades as strategy

What top billers have in common

How to stop selling recruitment and start selling outcomes, and the 90-day question that changes how you think about your business.

📞 Book a free 10-minute call: makemoreplacements.com

“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 makemoreplacements.com/call.

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 importantly, they want better quality clients.

Too many recruitment businesses are still relying on outdated business development tactics that no longer work in today’s market.

With nearly 30 years of recruitment experience, Terry shares why old-school methods such as cold calling, relying on your network, and willpower-driven business development are holding firms back, and what needs to change.

In this episode, Terry Edwards and Drew Edwards cover:

Why business development must run without daily willpower

Why visibility beats outreach in modern recruitment business development

Why not all conversations, or clients, are worth your time

Why authority must come before selling

Why business development should make you pickier, not busier

They also discuss how to escape feast-and-famine cycles, attract higher-quality retained and exclusive clients, reduce fee pressure through authority, and build business development systems that work even when motivation dips.

If you are serious about growing your recruitment or search business in 2026 with better clients, higher fees, and more predictable revenue, this episode is essential viewing.

Sponsored by PlacementBox.io

This episode is sponsored by PlacementBox.io, an all-in-one business development platform built specifically for recruitment and search businesses.

If you want more clients and better clients, visit PlacementBox.io to see what is possible.

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If you want help implementing these principles in your own business, book a call at https://makemoreplacements.com/call

Thank you for listening.

Take action. Be relentless.

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 the year, avoid the yo-yo income cycle, and actually hit your targets.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why motivation fades and what needs to replace it

How better goals fail when systems and structure stay the same

The hidden cost of prioritising delivery over growth

How to protect time for business development and strategic thinking

Why “the owner becomes the system” and how to fix it

What the top 20% do differently to stay consistent all year

If you’re done repeating the same year, this one will help you reset properly and build the habits, standards, and processes that make growth predictable.

Sponsored by Placement Box: the all-in-one business development platform built for recruiters to get more clients. Learn more at PlacementBox.io

If you want to speak to us about growing your recruitment business, visit makemoreplacements.com/call to watch a short video and book a quick call.

Drop a comment and let us know where you’re listening from.

Take care. Take action. Be relentless.