Secrets of Staffing Success

[Stage] Go To Market Strategy for Staffing Firms | Sales Enablement with Avner Baruch

Sales Enablement in staffing is no longer a tactical side function, it's the engine of your entire go-to-market strategy. In this eye-opening episode, Avner Baruch (Author of Project Moneyball) shares how top staffing and recruiting firms are transforming enablement from “content dumping” into measurable impact through coaching, role practice, and feedback loops. This video will inspire you to re-evaluate your GTM systems and explore enablement through the lens of performance coaching and strategic execution.

In This Episode:

• What Sales Enablement in Staffing really means today
• How to build a go-to-market strategy aligned with sales motion
• The hidden cost of relying solely on content (and what to do instead)
• Why role practice and feedback loops are critical for sales acceleration
• How elite teams reinforce skills—without blowing their budget
• The enablement tech stack that makes it all possible
• Avner’s Project Moneyball methodology for enabling outcomes across the customer lifecycle

Whether you're launching a new GTM motion or trying to reverse stagnant revenue, the insights here are built to drive impact across your customer lifecycle.

Timestamps:

00:43 - What is sales enablement? A Moneyball analogy

02:57 - Sales enablement in startups vs. enterprises

03:45 - Why the best companies go beyond content

04:55 - The economic pressure fueling enablement evolution

06:43 - Common pitfalls: Content without context

08:51 - Why content is only half the battle

10:53 - The power of role practice and daily sales routines

12:55 - Real-world staffing challenges and playbook creation

16:29 - Why leaders avoid role practice—and how to fix it

20:52 - Leveraging AI for sales coaching

22:30 - Shifting outdated staffing habits

25:12 - Consistency beats intensity in sales enablement

27:26 - Misalignment of seller skills and roles

31:59 - Coachability and cultural fit in hiring

34:17 - The ideal sales enablement hire

37:01 - Content graveyards vs. actionable insights

41:36 - Meet Avner Baruch and Project Moneyball

44:26 - Moneyball methodology for enablement ROI

46:30 - Avner's favorite book: Crossing the Chasm

 

About the Speakers:

Brad Bialy is host of Take the Stage and InSights, two of the leading podcast for the staffing industry, presented by Haley Marketing. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic digital marketing. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 100 industry-specific conferences and webinars. As a visionary leader, Brad has helped guide the comprehensive marketing strategy of more than 300 staffing and recruiting firms. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after expert and speaker in the industry.

As an executive GTM and Enablement leader, Avner Baruch has built and led GTM, Sales Enablement and RevOps functions from the ground up for leading Startups such as Walkme, Imperva-Incapsula, Rapyd and more notable SaaS businesses. As a consultant, member of Advisory Boards and Design Partners, he has helped entrepreneurs and scaling startups implement and reinforce their sales methodologies, fine-tune their Product-Market Fit, design, build and scale their selling motion. In 2020 he founded Project Moneyball (a GTM consulting firm) to help early-stage startups and scaling businesses overcome growth challenges. He is a certified sales trainer holding a B.Eng with Honors in Electrical Engineering & Physics from Coventry University (UK) and the Max Planck Institute (France).

 

Offers Heard in this Episode:

30 minutes of strategic marketing consultation with Brad Bialy: https://bit.ly/Bialy30

Special Offers! Our Best Savings of 2025: https://bit.ly/bialyoffer

What if your back office fueled your growth instead of holding it back? TRICOM makes it happen! From payroll and billing to accounting and asset based lending, they clear the roadblocks and power your path forward. Your team gets paid, your cash flow stays steady and your business scales like never before. TRICOM doesn't just support you, they set you up to soar. Visit https://www.TRICOM.com to learn more. 

[InSights] Adjusting the Plan Without Losing Sight of the Goal

Join Brad Bialy and Steve Gipson of Recruiters Websites as they dive into the importance of endurance, mindset, and strategy in today’s staffing sales environment. Drawing powerful analogies from Brad’s Buffalo Marathon experience, they discuss how top-performing staffing firms are adapting their strategies to maintain growth in 2025.

 

Learn why consistent effort, data-driven tactics, and a strong “why” can help you overcome sales slumps and economic uncertainty. Plus, discover practical tips to optimize your recruitment marketing and measure what really works.

 

Chapters and Key Moments

00:00 – Welcome and Catching Up

02:45 – The Buffalo Marathon: Lessons in preparation and perseverance

05:00 – The emotional weight of running with family support

07:00 – Reflecting on legacy and the impact on kids

08:30 – Main takeaway: The goal remains, tactics evolve

10:45 – Drawing parallels between running and recruiting

13:50 – Avoiding shiny object syndrome in staffing tech

16:00 – Knowing when to pivot and redefine goals

18:40 – Budget constraints vs. strategic investments

21:00 – Are you really known in your market?

24:00 – Importance of outreach and continuous brand visibility

27:00 – Measuring marketing and sales success

28:30 – Why consistency beats short bursts

29:50 – Wrap-up and what to expect at NAPS Vegas

 

About the Speakers

Brad Bialy is the host of Take the Stage and InSights, the staffing industry's leading podcasts with close to 175,000 downloads. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic marketing concepts. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 150 industry-specific conferences and webinars. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after speaker and expert.

A recruiting industry veteran with over 15 years of experience, Steve Gipson is the Director of Sales and Operations at Recruiters Websites. After spending seven years as a recruiter with a boutique search firm, he joined Recruiters Websites, a digital marketing agency specializing in the recruitment industry. For the past decade, Recruiters Websites has helped over 800 firms of all sizes and specialties enhance their digital presence and make more placements through their expertise in digital marketing, website development, and SEO services.

 

Offers Heard in this Episode:

30-minutes of strategic marketing consultation with Brad Bialy: https://bit.ly/Bialy30

Special Offers! Our Best Savings of 2025: https://bit.ly/bialyoffer

If you’re running a staffing firm and your tech stack feels more like a roadblock than a growth engine—Broad & Madison is your fix. With over 60 years of recruitment technology expertise, they streamline your systems, automate the boring stuff, and make your tech finally work for your team, not against it. Broad & Madison doesn’t just keep your systems running... they make them smarter, faster, and more profitable. To learn more about our friends over at Broad and Madison and how they can help your staffing firm maximize its technology visit https://www.BroadAndMadison.com

[Stage] Kendra Cato - Using Strategic Partnerships to Scale Your Staffing Business

Strategic partnerships in staffing aren’t just a support tool—they’re a vital growth engine for firms looking to scale in today’s competitive landscape. In this episode, Brad Bialy sits down with Kendra Cato, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Advance Partners, to discuss the mindset shift required for staffing firms to treat collaboration not as a luxury, but as a strategic necessity.

With economic uncertainty, candidate shortages, and cautious clients, many staffing owners default to operating in silos. Kendra challenges this approach with real-world examples, outlining how early and intentional collaboration unlocks faster scaling, stronger client outcomes, and a competitive edge.

Expect to Learn:

1. Why strategic partnerships must start from day one
2. How to find true alignment with vendors and industry collaborators
3. The pitfalls of not checking in regularly with your partners
4. When to reassess your partnerships—and how to know you’ve outgrown them
5. Why data storytelling matters in executive-level communications

Chapters and Key Moments:

[00:22] The Mindset Shift: From Scarcity to Abundance

[02:17] Why Collaboration Should Start on Day One

[03:52] Finding a Growth Engine Through Partnerships

[05:03] What Makes a “True” Strategic Partner

[06:43] The Balance of Responsibility in Partnerships

[09:08] The Ideal Kickoff Call

[13:10] How Often to Check In with Strategic Partners

[16:18] Knowing When to Change Partners

[20:04] Overcoming the “First Service” Label

[22:33] How to Find the Right Partner Without Attending Conferences

[24:47] Investment vs. Expense in Strategic Partnerships

[26:10] Should Your Partner Be Local or National?

[29:18] The Importance of Community and Networking

 

About the Speakers:

Brad Bialy is host of Take the Stage and InSights, two of the leading podcast for the staffing industry, presented by Haley Marketing. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic digital marketing. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 100 industry-specific conferences and webinars. As a visionary leader, Brad has helped guide the comprehensive marketing strategy of more than 300 staffing and recruiting firms. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after expert and speaker in the industry.

Kendra Cato is a dynamic staffing industry thought leader and business influencer known for her ability to build meaningful connections between people and organizations. With nearly 20 years of experience in strategic planning, sales, marketing, and research, her experiences in staffing technology have made her keenly aware of the importance of people and technology in driving business development. Kendra is currently the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Advance Partners where she works closely with the company's leadership and sales team to build holistic relationships across the industry and help staffing firms grow. Kendra is also a thought leader, speaker, and co-author of "Together We Rise." She is one of the founding members of Women of Color in Staffing, an organization committed to making the staffing industry more accessible, fulfilling, and lucrative for female leaders.

 

Offers Heard in this Episode:

30 minutes of strategic marketing consultation with Brad Bialy: https://bit.ly/Bialy30

Special Offers! Our Best Savings of 2025: https://bit.ly/bialyoffer

 

[InSights] How the Best Recruiters Succeed in a Down Market: Curiosity + Reviews

Is your staffing firm struggling to gain traction in a tightening market? This episode dives deep into staffing industry success and the two often-overlooked drivers of long-term performance: curiosity and Google reviews. Brad Bialy and Steve Gipson unpack key lessons from recent conferences, real-world client experiences, and how top-billers like members of the Pinnacle Society stay on top.

Expect to Learn:

1. Why curiosity is the No. 1 trait driving elite recruiters

2. How top producers maintain growth in a slow market

3. The hidden SEO and reputation value of Google reviews

4. Why the industry's best are doubling down on continuous learning and reputation management

 

This episode should inspire you to rethink your recruiting strategies and explore how reputation marketing for staffing firms can become your next competitive edge. Drawing insights from elite groups like the Pinnacle Society and industry events like NAPS, Brad and Steve explain how the smartest recruiters are leaning into professional development, peer networks, and digital credibility.

About the Speakers

Brad Bialy is the host of Take the Stage and InSights, the staffing industry's leading podcasts with close to 175,000 downloads. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic marketing concepts. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 150 industry-specific conferences and webinars. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after speaker and expert.

A recruiting industry veteran with over 15 years of experience, Steve Gipson is the Director of Sales and Operations at Recruiters Websites. After spending seven years as a recruiter with a boutique search firm, he joined Recruiters Websites, a digital marketing agency specializing in the recruitment industry. For the past decade, Recruiters Websites has helped over 800 firms of all sizes and specialties enhance their digital presence and make more placements through their expertise in digital marketing, website development, and SEO services.

 

Offers Heard in this Episode:

30-minutes of strategic marketing consultation with Brad Bialy: https://bit.ly/Bialy30

Special Offers! Our Best Savings of 2025: https://bit.ly/bialyoffer

If you’re running a staffing firm and your tech stack feels more like a roadblock than a growth engine—Broad & Madison is your fix. With over 60 years of recruitment technology expertise, they streamline your systems, automate the boring stuff, and make your tech finally work for your team, not against it. Broad & Madison doesn’t just keep your systems running... they make them smarter, faster, and more profitable. To learn more about our friends over at Broad and Madison and how they can help your staffing firm maximize its technology visit https://www.BroadAndMadison.com

 

Demand Generation: Can You Really Create Demand for Staffing Services?

It's a bonus episode this week, taken from Lunch with Haley.

 

Can you create demand for temporary staffing?

Today, around 2% of non-farm employment are temporary jobs. With 25,000 staffing companies competing for that business, winning clients has become exceptionally hard.

But what if you could create demand for staffing? What if you could help employers to fill a larger percentage of job openings with contingent workers? Some studies have projected that as much as 10% of non-farm jobs could be temporary jobs. That’s 5x more staffing. Think about the impact that would have for your business!

In this Lunch with Haley webinar, we’re bringing together some of the top sales minds in the industry to talk about demand generation. We’re going to look at the ways staffing can be used strategically to help companies to control labor costs, improve productivity, manage risk, and capitalize on new business opportunities. And we’ll discuss how staffing sales professionals can use topics like these to sell more strategically and differentiate their sales process and messaging from their competitors.

About the Speakers

David Searns, Co-CEO, Haley Marketing

When it comes to marketing a staffing firm, few people know the industry like David. He literally grew up in the business. He has been helping staffing companies create innovative marketing strategies and award-winning websites for more than 25 years.

Tom Erb, President, Tallann Resources

With a career spanning nearly 20 years, Tom Erb has established himself as one of the staffing and recruiting industry’s top subject matter experts. As an executive for two of the largest staffing and recruiting companies in the world, Tom worked with some of the most recognizable and well-respected companies in the United States to help optimize their workforce strategy. As a consultant, trainer, and speaker to the staffing and recruiting industry, Tom has helped hundreds of firms create and execute sales and recruiting strategies to grow their business.

In 2010 Tom formed Tallann Resources, a consulting firm specializing in the Staffing and Recruiting Industry. Tom has helped staffing and recruiting companies of all sizes and verticals transform their sales structure, create and implement their strategic plans, and optimize their recruiting process.

Mark Winter, CEO, WinSource Group

Mark is an expert at driving sales performance, keeping focus on customers, and keeping things simple. For 20 years, Mark has held every sales role out there- from Branch Manager to Vice President of Sales and Enablement for a $2.5B publicly traded staffing company. During that time, he has spent countless hours figuring out what works and of course, what doesn’t. This enables Mark to sniff out things that are blocking performance, remove the barrier, and get people to act. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and holds master certifications from some of the top sales training organizations in the world. Whether its strategic planning, sales process development, sales training, customer acquisition & engagement, sales team performance, or system and tool adoption- Mark can help get your team on track.

Mark is the CEO of WinSource Group, a consulting company that specializes in the staffing industry. By providing training, coaching, and solid process WinSource help staffing companies get the best possible performance from their sales team.

Dan Mori, Founder of Staffing Mastery & President of Employment Solutions

Dan Mori is a seasoned staffing industry executive, sales strategist, and leadership coach with over two decades of experience driving business transformation in the employment space. As President of Employment Solutions, he helped engineer one of the most successful regional staffing expansions in the country, growing the firm from a single location in upstate New York to a multi-state powerhouse operating in 28 states.

As founder as well of Staffing Mastery, Dan brings a no-nonsense, high-impact approach to helping staffing firm leaders grow their teams, scale revenue, and systematize success. His passion lies in training salespeople to think strategically, lead with insight, and win market share—even in the most competitive or frozen economies. Dan also created the Staffing Dashboard, a powerful tool that provides staffing leaders with real-time business performance insights to make informed, data-driven decisions that drive growth and success.

A recognized voice in the industry, Dan has coached hundreds of staffing professionals through workshops, playbooks, and performance coaching rooted in real-world results. He’s known for breaking down complex sales challenges into repeatable, scalable strategies—empowering firms to shift from reactive selling to proactive demand creation.

 

[InSights] Stop the Digital-Only Madness: Smarter Lead Generation Strategies for Staffing Firms

Is your staffing firm's digital lead generation falling flat? In this episode of Take the Stage, Brad Bialy talks with David Searns, Co-CEO of Haley Marketing, about the pitfalls of relying solely on digital automation for sales success. David explains why your prospect pool isn't large enough to make digital-only work and offers a smarter, integrated approach that blends human connection with digital tactics.

Discover how to increase your conversion rates, win attention, and become the go-to expert your clients trust.

 

Expect to Learn:

1. The value of integrated direct marketing

2. Why the "spray and pray" approach is failing staffing firms

3. How to personalize your outreach and boost lead engagement

 

Key Moments:

[00:00] Personal intros and pickleball frustrations

[02:06] The Smart Ideas newsletter: history and purpose

[03:10] "Stop the Digital-Only Madness"—The core issue

[06:49] Why digital-only strategies fail in staffing

[09:11] Winning the battle for attention first

[11:49] Changing the sales conversation: Short game vs. long game

[14:09] Incentivizing smarter sales approaches

[17:34] Becoming a trusted advisor, not a necessary evil

[19:27] Establishing credibility from first contact

[23:01] Leveraging data and AI for better targeting

[24:35] Building integrated campaigns that actually work

[27:00] Aligning sales and marketing for success

[28:59] Final thoughts and AI as a game-changer for sales productivity

 

About the Speakers:

Brad Bialy is host of Take the Stage and InSights, two of the leading podcast for the staffing industry, presented by Haley Marketing. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic digital marketing. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 100 industry-specific conferences and webinars.

As a visionary leader, Brad has helped guide the comprehensive marketing strategy of more than 300 staffing and recruiting firms. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after expert and speaker in the industry.

When it comes to marketing a staffing firm, few people know the industry like David. He literally grew up in the business. He has been helping staffing companies create innovative marketing strategies and award-winning websites for more than 25 years.

 

Offers Heard in this Episode:

30-minutes of strategic marketing consultation with Brad Bialy: https://bit.ly/Bialy30

Special Offers! Our Best Savings of 2025: https://bit.ly/bialyoffer

If you’re running a staffing firm and your tech stack feels more like a roadblock than a growth engine—Broad & Madison is your fix. With over 60 years of recruitment technology expertise, they streamline your systems, automate the boring stuff, and make your tech finally work for your team, not against it. Broad & Madison doesn’t just keep your systems running... they make them smarter, faster, and more profitable. To learn more about our friends over at Broad and Madison and how they can help your staffing firm maximize its technology visit https://www.BroadAndMadison.com

[Stage] Dan Fisher - Actionable Advice to Master the Cold Call

Cold calling in the staffing industry is stuck in the 1980s—but it doesn’t have to be.

In this powerful episode of Take the Stage, Dan Fisher, founder of Menemsha Group, joins Brad Bialy (Director of Digital Marketing with Haley Marketing) to share how staffing professionals can modernize their sales outreach, differentiate themselves, and close more deals. From disarming the mental spam filter to mastering the art of the cold call, Dan delivers practical strategies backed by experience coaching 500+ staffing firms. Learn how to build trust, lead with empathy, and turn every call into a conversation.

 

Key Moments in the Episode:

• [00:00] – Introduction: Why Cold Calling Feels Broken

• [01:18] – Why Staffing Is Behind Other Industries

• [03:14] – The Order-Taker Mentality

• [04:53] – Roleplay & Daily Practice

• [06:35] – Disarming vs. Selling

• [08:34] – How We Come Across as a Commodity

• [09:52] – The Art of Asking Permission

• [13:10] – Define What Yes Looks Like

• [15:51] – Sell Outcomes, Not Services

• [17:46] – How to Collect Impact Stories

• [21:07] – What to Do Once They Say Yes

• [23:43] – Sell the Problem, Not the Product

• [29:01] – Why Flipping the Conversation Works

• [30:08] – The True Purpose of a Voicemail

• [31:07] – About Menemsha Group

• [31:37] – Final Advice for Sales Reps

About the Speakers

Brad Bialy is host of Take the Stage and InSights, two of the leading podcast for the staffing industry, presented by Haley Marketing. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic digital marketing. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 100 industry-specific conferences and webinars. As a visionary leader, Brad has helped guide the comprehensive marketing strategy of more than 300 staffing and recruiting firms. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after expert and speaker in the industry.

 

Between 1996 and 2008 Dan Fisher made over 800K cold calls selling IT staffing services, averaging $1.7M in annual GP. In 2008, he took the leap of faith, walking away from a high-paying Director level job in favor of hanging his own shingle and starting Menemsha Group. Since then Dan has worked with over 500 staffing and recruiting firms, and has trained and coached thousands of reps, recruiters and front line managers. By adopting Dan’s training and coaching tools,  clients have experienced amazing results including:

• 75% of sales reps trained grow their weekly GM by an average of 3X
• Sales win rates increase by an average of 19%
• Clients have accelerated new hire time to first placement by 52%

In addition to training and coaching, Dan now provides sales and recruiter enablement services, where he teaches staffing owners how to make winning behaviors repeatable, at scale, for predictable revenue growth.

[InSights] How to Recruit Outside of Job Boards in 2025

Struggling to find candidates outside of Indeed or ZipRecruiter? Learn how leading staffing firms are mastering recruiting outside of job boards in 2025.

In this episode of Insights, presented by Haley Marketing, Brad Bialy is joined by Chief Strategy Officer Brad Smith to break down the most effective strategies to supplement—or even reduce—your job board spend. From leveraging Facebook and community groups to building powerful referral networks and reactivating your ATS, this episode offers a comprehensive playbook for sourcing talent in tough labor markets.

Expect to Learn:

1. How to build hyper-local Facebook campaigns that actually convert
2. The real ROI of employee referral programs (and why most firms ignore them)
3. Why your ATS is a goldmine—and how to activate it with segmentation
4. Creative grassroots strategies like churches, trade schools, and local partnerships
5. How top firms are rethinking their application flow to increase conversions
6. The secret to follow-up that drives results: 70 touches, data-backed

Whether you’re scaling your recruiting operations or just trying to reduce dependency on major platforms, this episode gives you a tactical roadmap to find better candidates, faster. 

 

About the Speakers

Brad Bialy is host of Take the Stage and InSights, two of the leading podcast for the staffing industry. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic digital marketing. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 100 industry-specific conferences and webinars. As a visionary leader, Brad has helped guide the comprehensive marketing strategy of more than 300 staffing and recruiting firms. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after expert and speaker in the industry.

Brad Smith is a Certified Inbound Marketing professional who has managed the implementation of digital marketing campaigns for hundreds of staffing firms. Brad has over 20 years of industry experience and stays on top of new marketing and technology trends, transforming them into winning strategies for staffing and recruiting firms.

 

Offers Heard in this Episode:

30-minutes of strategic marketing consultation with Brad Bialy: https://bit.ly/Bialy30

Special Offers! Our Best Savings of 2025: https://bit.ly/bialyoffer

If you’re running a staffing firm and your tech stack feels more like a roadblock than a growth engine—Broad & Madison is your fix. With over 60 years of recruitment technology expertise, they streamline your systems, automate the boring stuff, and make your tech finally work for your team, not against it. Broad & Madison doesn’t just keep your systems running... they make them smarter, faster, and more profitable. To learn more about our friends over at Broad and Madison and how they can help your staffing firm maximize its technology visit https://www.BroadAndMadison.com

 

[Stage] Patrick Morin - Your Culture is Your Competitive Advantage

Company culture strategy isn’t just important—it is your competitive advantage. In this powerful conversation from Take the Stage, Brad Bialy sits down with Patrick Morin, Partner at Transact Capital, to explore why company culture is more than a part of the business—it is the business. Especially in the highly commoditized staffing industry, culture is the invisible hand that shapes performance, retention, and client trust.

Drawing on insights from Bill Taylor (Fast Company) and firsthand experience in M&A and organizational leadership, Patrick breaks down:

• Why culture defines your brand more than your strategy doc ever will

• How top-performing firms build cultures of accountability, learning, and responsibility

• The role of leadership in embedding values into operations, not just words

• How cultural fit—even for a 12-week assignment—can drastically improve outcomes

• Why the most disruptive companies hold everyone, even executives, accountable

• The golden framework for owning, competing, and reaching for business in uncertain times

If you’ve ever felt like your staffing firm lacks a true differentiator—this is the conversation you can’t afford to miss.

 

Chapters and Key Moments:

• 00:01 – Culture is the strategy: unpacking Bill Taylor’s insight

• 02:15 – Innovation as differentiation in a commoditized staffing world

• 03:47 – Top-down and grassroots culture development

• 05:12 – Hiring for cultural fit vs. skills

• 06:41 – Embedding temps into client culture

• 08:00 – Necessary evil to trusted advisor

• 11:28 – Culture of accountability, responsibility & learning

• 14:57 – A story of accountability—from the maintenance guy up

• 16:30 – Humility and “I’m sorry” as leadership superpowers

• 19:28 – Empathy and handwritten notes: the human advantage

• 24:32 – Own, compete, and reach: a framework for market strategy

• 28:31 – How to pivot in uncertain markets

• 30:58 – Optimism for the future of staffing

• 32:32 – About Transact Capital Partners

• 36:12 – Advice for new staffing professionals

 

About the Speakers

Brad Bialy is host of Take the Stage and InSights, two of the leading podcast for the staffing industry. He has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic digital marketing. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 100 industry-specific conferences and webinars. As a visionary leader, Brad has helped guide the comprehensive marketing strategy of more than 300 staffing and recruiting firms. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after expert and speaker in the industry.

 

Patrick Morin is a partner with Transact Capital Securities, a Richmond, Virginia- based investment banking firm that specializes in mergers and acquisitions of privately-owned companies with enterprise values up to $250MM. Transact specializes in the staffing industry, serving clients in technology, light industrial, marine/stevedoring, skilled labor, hospitality, logistics, financial & administrative, legal, and medical staffing specialties.

He was also one of the founding partners of BrightHammer, LLC., a global consultancy engaged by private equity groups, boards of directors, and CEOs to improve the performance of their invested companies. BrightHammer works with select start-ups, growth companies, and turnarounds to stabilize operations and ramp up revenue and employee performance.

Prior to his current engagement, he was seven years as Senior Vice President with Cornerstone Realty Income Trust, Inc., a New York Stock Exchange-traded company that owned and operated apartments throughout the US.

Before joining Cornerstone, Mr. Morin was with Dale Carnegie Training for five years and was an instructor for almost two decades. He was ranked among the top instructors globally and was a member of the elite Global Delivery Team.

While a member of the National Speakers Association, he personally conducted thousands of keynotes and training meetings for businesses, associations, government agencies and community groups. Notable groups he's addressed include: the National Independent Staffing Association, McDonalds, National Association of Women In Construction, NASA, the National Ground Intelligence Center, the DEA, National Apartment Association, and the staffing associations of NY, Wisconsin, New Jersey.

Mr. Morin appears on television, radio, and in print (Forbes, CNBC, Crain’s) as an authority in his field and wrote a weekly column on sales for the Central Pennsylvania Business Journal and www.lendio.com.

He serves on the boards of several local charities including the YMCA and the Franks Foundation.

Patrick makes his home in Richmond, Virginia and in chairlifts of ski resorts around the country.

[Stage] Mike Cleland - Can We Stop the Staffing Industry's 3-Year Decline?

In this episode of Take the Stage, Brad Bialy is joined by Mike Cleland, founder of Charted Path, for an insightful conversation on the real challenges and opportunities in the staffing and recruiting industry. As economic data shows disconnects between GDP growth and staffing performance, Mike provides a compelling breakdown of why the industry has underperformed and how accountability at every level is the missing link. The two discuss the importance of strong sales culture, resilience in recruitment, and the critical role of leadership in driving lasting change. Mike shares hard-earned lessons from coaching hundreds of firms and breaks down what distinguishes high-performing teams from struggling ones. Whether you're leading a staffing firm or just getting started in the industry, this episode delivers a masterclass in growth strategy, cultural alignment, and personal development.

 

5 Key Takeaways from This Episode:

✅ Who is accountable for the staffing industry’s underperformance?  

✅ Become a sales team, not order takers

✅ How should you address toxic high-performers?

✅ Common traits of a company poised for growth

✅ Can small firms compete with the Goliaths in the room?

 

Chapters & Key Moments

00:00 – Why the staffing industry is underperforming
01:25 – The accountability gap in staffing
03:56 – From order takers to proactive sales teams
06:31 – Sales rejection, resiliency, and realignment
08:05 – Leadership's role in resetting accountability
09:53 – Coaching high-performers and learning from them
11:28 – Top-down and peer-to-peer accountability
13:41 – Culture and the power of peer influence
15:13 – Addressing toxic high-performers
18:17 – Red flags in staffing firm culture
20:45 – Traits of a company poised for growth
26:32 – Can small firms compete with Goliaths?
28:21 – About Charted Path and Mike’s work
29:29 – The book that changed Mike’s business mindset
34:06 – Advice for those starting in staffing 

 

About the Speakers

Brad Bialy has a deep passion for helping staffing and recruiting firms achieve their business objectives through strategic digital marketing. For over a decade, Brad has developed a proven track record of motivating and educating staffing industry professionals at over 100 industry-specific conferences and webinars. As a visionary leader, Brad has helped guide the comprehensive marketing strategy of more than 300 staffing and recruiting firms. His keen eye for strategy and delivery has resulted in multiple industry award-winning social media campaigns, making him a sought-after expert and speaker in the industry.

With over 30 years of experience in the staffing industry, Mike Cleland helps executives achieve their growth goals through leadership development and organization design.  As the founder of Charted Path, Mike has worked with owners and executives on optimizing organizational structure, company governance, business planning, sales strategy, process improvement, performance management, and compensation plan development.   Mike has worked with over 140 companies ranging from start-up to $600 million in every major staffing vertical.

As a former president of a $60 million IT staffing company, Mike understands the practical challenges of execution and helps clients develop focused and feasible solutions that management teams can implement. When not working with his clients, Mike shares his knowledge through various articles and speaking engagements.  His latest book Breaking Through: Leadership Disciplines from Top Performing Staffing Firms,  was co-authored with Barry Asin, President of SIA, as a follow-up to Behind the Wheel: Driving Excellence in Staffing Operations. Mike was named to the Staffing Industry Analysts Top 100 in Staffing for many years. He is also an Everything DiSC and Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Partner as well as a Certified Contingent Workforce Professional through Staffing Industry Analysts.