🎟️ Tom Kosnik is speaking at the Firm Leaders Summit presented by Crelate, November 16 to 18. Every live session is free: https://firm-leaders-and-owners-recruiting-summit-2026.heysummit.com/
🚀 This episode is brought to you by Atlas, the CRMx that captures every conversation and tells you the next action to take: https://recruitwithatlas.com/
We recorded this conversation with Tom Kosnik in 2024, during one of the longest down stretches the recruiting and staffing industry has seen. We're bringing it back because Tom is joining us at the Firm Leaders Summit, and the questions he raised then are the same ones firm owners are working through right now.
Tom was studying for the Catholic priesthood when he realized it wasn't his calling. He ended up in staffing almost by accident, and he's spent 30 years since then advising staffing and recruiting executives. As the founder and president of the Visus Group, he runs peer roundtables that, as he tells it, include close to 100 C-suite executives. That means he hears every few months what's working and what isn't inside firms from startup size to billions in revenue.
In this episode he breaks down how the owner's job changes at $1M, $5M, $10M, and $25M. He explains why more dials and more sales hires no longer grow a firm, and why marketing and personal brands now carry most of the sales load. He also covers the traits that predict great recruiters and how to keep your best producers from leaving to start their own firms.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Why this episode is back
02:49 The firms still growing in a down market
03:43 What the Visus Group does
05:40 From the seminary to staffing
09:26 What Tom is seeing in the market
14:32 How growing firms are winning right now
17:33 Why more sales calls isn't the answer
19:03 The seismic changes coming to staffing
22:42 How to grow now and prepare for what's next
26:32 Why marketing is now most of the sales process
31:57 Letting your team build personal brands
33:06 The kind of leader who scales a recruiting firm
37:47 Growing from $1M to $5M
39:04 Growing from $5M to $10M
41:48 Growing from $10M to $25M
44:56 Growing past $25M
47:31 How to hire top performers
53:58 Keeping A-players from leaving to start their own firm
56:59 The question firm owners never ask
57:52 The leader who took a firm from $1M to $3.5M in EBITDA
1:00:57 Can you learn to lead like that?
1:03:37 Advice for new firm owners
1:04:28 How to get unstuck
1:06:34 Books that shaped Tom
1:08:29 What drove Tom's success
1:10:32 Getting through the hard months
1:13:30 Advice to his younger self
1:14:58 Where to find Tom
🔗 Connect with Tom Kosnik: [GUEST LINKEDIN URL]
🌐 Visus Group: https://www.visusgroup.com/
💬 Join the Elite Recruiter Community: https://elite-recruiters.circle.so/checkout/elite-recruiter-community
📩 Get the newsletter: https://eliterecruiterpodcast.beehiiv.com/subscribe
