April is speaking at Finish The Year Strong (Sept 28 - Oct 5) and her session has the most RSVPs of the entire summit. All live sessions are free. Register here: https://recruiters-finish-the-year-strong.heysummit.com/
Atlas, the CRM that actually understands context: https://recruitwithatlas.com/
90% of April Ben-Sabat's business comes from referrals. She has never made a cold call, never pitched at a networking event, and built her agency in four years with zero recruiting background. In this episode she hands over the entire playbook: the first 90 seconds of walking into a room alone, the solo restaurant challenge that trained her confidence, why the standard follow-up message is worthless, how she engineers her own networking events with a word-match game that forces connection, and the AI sourcing agent she built on Claude Code that vets shortlists and runs outreach in her voice while her ATS sits headless in the background. She also shares why she is tearing up a working playbook to enter the US market in a brand new niche, and the one part of recruiting she refuses to automate.
Firm Leaders Summit (Nov 16-18): https://firm-leaders-and-owners-recruiting-summit-2026.heysummit.com
Elite Recruiter Community: https://elite-recruiters.circle.so/checkout/elite-recruiter-community Newsletter: https://eliterecruiterpodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe
Connect with April: https://www.linkedin.com/in/april-ben-sabat/
00:00 Cold open
04:59 The accidental recruiter: half-handing in a resignation
09:08 Bankruptcy forces the full-time leap
13:45 The scattered years: Eventbrite and anything free
15:56 How to spot a waste-of-time event
20:27 The first 90 seconds of walking into a room alone
21:55 Why a wingman makes you less approachable + the solo restaurant challenge
24:52 Never selling, and the 8-month referral chain
27:37 The follow-up message that actually works
32:17 Engineering her own events: the word-match game
36:44 90% of business from referrals
37:42 Why break something that works: the US move
42:22 The AI sourcing agent, start to finish
46:38 n8n to Claude Code: what broke
51:22 Living in a bubble: most recruiters aren't touching AI
53:54 What to build first (over a weekend)
56:33 The one thing she refuses to automate
59:46 Quickfire: zero clients, first event is Thursday
01:03:41 The Instagram story that landed a 500-person law firm
