The Make More Placements Show for Recruitment & Search Business Owners | More Placements | Higher Fees | Less Work | Fewer Headaches |

Hosted by Terry Edwards, Drew Edwards

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394

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Aug 2026

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About the show

The Quick, Dirty & Uncensored Secrets For Your Recruitment, Staffing & Search Business Success who want to make more placements for higher fees with less work and fewer headaches as told by Terry Edwards and Drew Edwards co-founders of MakeMorePlacements.com

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September 4, 202656 min

# 407 Mike Ames Sold 2 Recruitment Businesses for £39 Million: Here's What He Knows That Most Don't

(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.

August 21, 202619 min

# 406 Why 2/3 Recruitment Consultants will Fail and cost your business money (and the fix)

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

August 7, 20262 min

# 405 The Discipline Lie That's Quietly Killing Your Recruitment Firm

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.

July 31, 202617 min

# 404 INVISIBLE TO INEVITABLE The Mindset To Show Up On Video When No One's Clapping Yet

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.

July 23, 202612 min

# 403 Confidence

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.

July 3, 202616 min

# 403 Stop Chasing the Deal: Detachment and Advocacy for Recruitment Business Owners

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.

June 23, 202619 min

# 402 The Cost Of Staying The Same

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!

June 11, 202620 min

# 401 Why Needy Recruiters Lose Good Deals

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.

May 22, 202616 min

# 400 The Scar That Wasn't There

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.

May 7, 202615 min

# 399 The Thoughts That’s Costing You Everything

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.