We’re taking everything we’re learning from those coffees and from our clients, and we’re building a pilot to see if we can solve the root issue: Finding, vetting, and placing recruiters who stay long enough to make an impact.

Here are some themes we’ve uncovered: 1. Recruiters are burning out long before they hit their stride 2. Leaders are stepping back into the role they hired someone else to own 3. As a result of the recruiting bottlenecks, a business slows down right when it should be scaling up.

In response, we launched Coffee to Connect. We reach out to five or six leaders in different cities across the country, then we meet with each of them in person, sit down over coffee, and ask real questions about their recruiting process.

So we've had several clients ask us to help them recruit recruiters. It’s not something we’ve ever done directly before, but when we heard that same pain from leaders in financial services, insurance, and real estate, we knew it was worth exploring.

- Most in-house recruiters last only 12-18 months. - Leaders don’t have the time to retrain someone new. - So when that recruiter leaves, the hiring responsibility snaps right back to the leader… usually at the worst possible moment

“We hired a recruiter. Took us six months to get them trained, they finally understood how to tell our story… and then they left.” We’re hearing versions of that same sentence all over the country. The more conversations we had, the clearer the pattern became:

It’s about refining our process to remove friction, so recruiters can focus on what matters most: understanding people deeply, not just parsing resumes. We’ll keep learning, testing, and adapting (thanks to Cara).

Recently, Cara Drysdale was testing a new backend feature that could automate DNS changes in real time. The tech was awesome, but I got more excited when she mentioned how it would free up more time for meaningful human interaction with candidates and clients. That’s the win.

She explores with intention. She’ll compare tools, sit in on webinars, test something small, all with one question in mind: “How could this help us stay more human?”

ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and the thousands of others are moving fast. Faster than I can keep up. What’s been grounding for me lately is watching how our COO approaches it.

Especially now, when AI can polish a resume in seconds, the differentiator is connection. Because connection is what creates conversion.

After: What we’ve built for our clients with Cara Drysdale at the helm - Cold sourcing that’s structured, but human - One-way videos that show the person behind the resume - Candidates who know who they’re meeting and why it matters

Before: Traditional top-of-funnel recruiting - Post to job boards and wait - Scan hundreds of resumes, most generic - Hope the right candidate rises to the top - Spend time chasing unresponsive applicants

You might get 100 applicants and only 10 respond. It feels mundane. Overwhelming. Easy to dismiss. That’s the problem and also the opportunity.

Most companies only care about the outcome: the hire. But the truth is that the magic happens long before a candidate ever sits down for an interview. Top-of-funnel recruiting is messy.

Someone might say, “Oh, that person likes hunting. I like to hunt.” And now they’re connecting on a different level, outside of work. So yes, use the tools, but bring your humanness along. That’s still the only thing that makes you memorable.

People still want to see the human behind the message because it’s the major step toward trust. Being human is what sets you apart today, especially the quirky things that make your personality fun and exciting. That’s what connects with hiring managers.

When Cara Drysdale joined ProducifyX, she audited and refined our entire delivery process with the human, the person, always front and center. For example, candidates receive a video from her introducing the process, right from the start.

That’s what some resumes and recruiting processes sound like now, just automation talking to automation.

We recently saw a video ad featuring a man walking into a gas station. The cashier says, “Hey, how’s it going?” The guy panics, pulls out his phone. And says, “ChatGPT, this guy just said hi…what do I say back?”