Chris Relth is a seasoned professional with 19 years of experience in the talent industry, recognized as a thought leader and an agent of change. He is the Founder and CEO of Artemis, a specialized staffing and executive search organization, where he brings a tenacious approach to concierge-style permanent search and staffing services. Additionally, Chris is a Managing Partner for Artemis United, a DVBE-certified joint venture that works with the state, fed, and clients to help meet their vendor diversity needs. Artemis United only hires military veterans internally to help with their transition to the civilian workforce.

Chris' leadership philosophy is rooted in the belief that fostering a supportive and collaborative work environment is critical to the success of his team, and ultimately leads to successful outcomes for his clients. His company is dedicated to the satisfaction of its team members and is committed to contributing to positive, long-lasting impact through the promotion of happier, healthier workforces.

A Bay Area native, Chris holds a degree from Chico State University and has been a resident of Orange County for over a decade, where he currently resides in Ladera Ranch, CA. In his free time, Chris channels his energy into philanthropic pursuits as a partner of Miracles for Kids and sits on various boards. He is also a youth football and baseball coach and is heavily involved in fitness.

Chris Relth

A salesperson said they were a "prospecting machine"
But when I asked about their process...
Crickets.



Last week, I was interviewing candidates for a sales role. I needed a hunter.

One particular salesperson had an impressive resume. 

The right companies and the right numbers.

But when I asked about their approach, they gave generic answers.

Even after digging deeper, asking about their actual process, specific techniques, sequences for outreach, follow-up cadence... still... silence.

When you're hiring for a hunting role, you need to test real methodologies.

Here are the specific questions I've learned to ask:

> What prospecting techniques have you found most successful and why?
> What are the expected pull-through numbers you look at and the ROI?
> How do you research prospects before reaching out?
> Describe your follow-up process when someone doesn't respond
> How do you handle rejection and maintain consistency?

The best hunters can and will walk you through their entire system.

They know their numbers.
They understand timing.
They have a process they follow religiously.

Don't just ask what someone's done in your interview process. Ask them to show you how they do it again and again.

What's the best interview question you use to separate the hunters from the chancers?

At least 30% of promoted top performers 
End up going back to individual contributors 
But why does it happen? 



It’s rarely because they failed.
It’s because the job they loved suddenly became one they didn’t recognize.

As a top rep, you can blow past quotas,
Without even thinking about KPIs, reporting, or corporate bureaucracy.

It’s instinct at that point.

But leadership is an entirely different game.

Suddenly you're dealing with:

> Managing people who can't do what came naturally to you
> Endless reporting and administrative tasks
> Two team members making more money than you (despite your bigger base)

They start to make you question why you ever left the field.

That’s when burnout kicks in, and the best producers quietly ask to go back to selling.

The reality is simple: 

Being great at sales doesn't automatically make you great at leading salespeople.

Here's what I look for when identifying top performers built for leadership:

Do they help others without being asked?
Do they already mentor teammates informally?
Do they have patience for someone who’s still learning what came naturally to them?

If the answer is no, you might be doing them a favor by keeping them in an IC role.
Where they can excel and earn more without the management headaches.

Some of the highest earners I know never moved into management. 
They stayed focused on what they do best.

And you know what?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with that path.
Leadership isn’t the only way to grow.

And we should normalize that.

Every client I hire for… 
I ask for their top 5 competitors. 
And they always push back

Every client I hire for, I ask for their top 5 competitors. 

To map the market and spot potential in the wild. The vast majority push back with an objection.

"We'll never get someone from [X]. They pay too well."

"Their people are too loyal."

"It's impossible."

Think about this. The most common response is "we can't do it."

Why?

Because most assume their competitors' top performers are happy. 

Without evidence. Maybe it's branding, PR, or the regard in which they hold the business.

But many of these people are fighting limited growth, outdated products or leadership they can't stand.

Instead, they ask me to search for generic "software sales experience." Like selling enterprise accounting software is the same as selling cybersecurity tools. It’s not.

Just last month, my client insisted we avoid their main competitor. Three weeks into the search, generic candidates filled the pipeline.

None of the candidates understood the market and training would be too long.

I finally convinced them to let me target their competitor.

Within a week, our headhunters found someone who:

1. Knew their products inside out
2. Been selling to same clients
3. Could hit the ground running, day one.

Fast forward six months. They're the top performer and won their biggest deal of the year.

If you want A-players and immediate impact, think strategically about your top 5 competitors.

That's where your next star salesperson is probably sitting.

TakeTwoBrothers

I proposed to the love of my life yesterday. She said yes : )

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We Interview the top 1% of recruiters and share their PROVEN strategies to Win More Placements. 100+ episodes with top billers: from $500k to $2.5 Million producers.

I’m 32. 
Have a cat. I just got engaged to my partner. 
And I’ll stand on this hill till I die… 




A simple life with the right person is one of the greatest achievements you can have.

Not status.
Not money.
Not impressing people online.

Just building a life you’re genuinely happy to wake up to.

Happy Friday, peeps. 

Put the work down for a minute or two and go breathe some fresh air : )

Ben Miller 

Smart advice from a 500K+ Biller. 
One great candidate can unlock 10 new clients.
Here are 4 questions you should be asking… 


Spoke with a 500k+ Biller. 

He treats every single candidate call as an opportunity to win new business. 

When you've got an A-player candidate on the phone, someone with great tenure, strong soft skills, a real motivation to move, and reasonable expectations, ask them: 

1. "What 10 companies would you love to work for and why?"

(Now you've got 10 target accounts handed to you on a plate) 

2. "Do you have any friends who left your company and went somewhere else that you stay in touch with?"

( Now you've got warm connections inside those businesses)

3. "Where else are you interviewing right now?"

( Now you know which companies are actively hiring for exactly this type of person — and are willing to pay for it) 

4. "Have you ever been placed by a recruiter before? How many times?"

(If they say four times? That's an A-player. Companies don't pay £50-70K fees on risky hires. That candidate knows how to interview, knows how to get offers, and has been vetted at the highest level (repeatedly) 

And here's the bit most people miss:

When you take that candidate to market, you can honestly say:

"Your company was highlighted as one they'd be most interested in."

Thats the truth : ) 

Full podcast in comments

Spoke with a recruiter last month.
She scaled a recruitment business to $2 Million.
With just 4 people. Here are the top 5 lessons:



$2 Million revenue with 4 people is unheard of.

After speaking with Mina and digging deeper into her exact tactics and strategies.

Here are the top 5 things I extracted…

1. They stopped saying yes to everything.

They analysed every client and every role by time-to-hire and revenue.

Became RUTHLESS on anything that wasn't ROI-positive.
Fewer roles. Better talent pool. Shorter time to hire. More revenue per client.

They basically said NO to crap searches and YES to the most profitable. 

2. They trained recruiters to consult, not serve.

Every recruiter learned to challenge the brief before accepting it.

Push back on unrealistic expectations. 
Pressure test the process before sourcing starts. 
Prepare for worst-case scenarios on day one.

She said most recruiters lose 2-5 weeks per process because they skip this step.

3. They built a content engine instead of doing outbound.

Zero cold calls. Zero email campaigns. All inbound (Again, almost unheard of) 

Success stories after placements. 
Anonymised candidate profiles that pulled hiring managers in. 
Job posts that generated client enquiries as a byproduct.

4. They automated the right things.

They built AI to screen and shortlist candidates, not to send messages.

The recruiters still wrote every outreach by hand.
But they started with a shortlist instead of a longlist.
That alone cut sourcing time by 50%.

5. They upsold at the right moment.

40-50% of new roles came from existing clients ( READ THAT AGAIN ) 

The key was timing, upsell when you've just delivered a strong shortlist or an offer, not after the placement closes.

They'd reverse-engineer the timeline for the client and create urgency without pressure.

No extra headcount. No outbound. Just sharper decisions at every stage.

FULL podcast in comments

This recruiter had $500 left in his bank account. 
He billed $789,000 the same year. 
Here are the 3 biggest shifts he made: 




Randy wasn't just struggling. He was cornered.

$500 in the bank. A newborn on the way. A mortgage to cover. And a wife who wasn't working. 

There was no safety net, no plan B, no waiting it out. 

He had to turn his business around — and he had to do it now.

So he did.

1. Business development every single day, no exceptions. 

He started sending a minimum of 5 new MPC emails daily. Not when he felt motivated. Not when the pipeline looked thin. Every single day, rain or shine.

2. He stopped negotiating his fees. 

Before this, he'd take whatever the client would give him. 5k, 7k, 12k — whatever kept the conversation alive. Then he made a decision: 25% minimum, or he walked. One placement that used to earn him 12k was now worth 37k. He didn't change the work. He changed the standard.

3. He built a point system to track the activities that actually lead to placements.

Candidate submission = 2 points
Interview booked = 3 points
New client agreement = 5 points

Weekly target: 40–45 points. Not a vague goal, a scoreboard. 

And when you can see the score, you know exactly what to do on a slow Tuesday.

Most recruiters already know what they should be doing. Randy just had no option but to actually do it.

Full podcast in the comments.

I'm genuinely surprised by how many recruiters 
STILL aren't running MPC campaigns.
It's the single most effective way to open doors… 



If you're reliant on referrals and not doing this, here's exactly what I'd do:

Step 1: Find your "hell yes" candidate.

Figure out which profile in your market is in demand right now. 
What do your clients keep asking for? 
What type of candidate would make them pick up the phone immediately?

Step 2: Build a hit list.

50-100 target companies. 
Ideally, ones that are openly hiring for this type of role — but it doesn't have to be. If the candidate is genuinely that good, the right clients will always be open to a conversation.

Step 3: Set up the outreach.

Upload your list to Dripify and build a simple sequence:
→ Day 1: Connection request 
→ Day 2: MPC pitch 
→ Day 3: Follow-up (a GIF works well here — playful, acts as a pattern interrupt)

Your MPC pitch should be short. The most recent one we wrote for a client won her £60k worth of business. It was 600 characters, and we only sent 20 messages. 

First line: who this candidate is. 
Four bullets on what they've achieved. 
Final line: CTA to book a call.

That's it, don't overcomplicate it. 

Step 4: Back it up with content.

While your outreach is running, start posting about:

→ Why these candidates are so in demand 
→ What motivates them 
→ What companies they love working for (and why they leave others) 
→ The impact they have on the businesses that hire them 
→ Examples of similar candidates you've placed 
→ How you actually find them

Now you've got two engines running at once.

Outbound: starting conversations. 

Inbound: demonstrating expertise and warming people up before you ever get on a call.

Most recruiters do one or the other. Do both, and you won't need to chase business.

BTW, we do this for recrutiers and we show you for free : ) 

Head to the link in the comments to find out more.

Morning routine of a ‘successful’ influencer  
(LinkedIn version)

- 5 am cold plunge
- 20 minutes journalling
- Gratitude meditation
- Broccoli shot
- Post on LinkedIn about hustle

Morning routine of recruitment business owners I know, billing £800k+

- Wake up
- Get to desk
- Call candidates
- Call clients
- Repeat

lol.

Spoke with an 800k Biller today 
He’s an expert in the finance sector 
Something came up that caught me off guard: 




After 15 minutes of getting to know eachother… 

We started talking about faith. 

We talked about Jesus. 

We talked about our personal experiences and how it’s shaped our lives. 

I finished the conversation with my cup full. 

And a very real reminder that we are all here for a greater purpose.

And, we are all loved : )

Spoke with a 300k Biller Yesterday 
His biggest client stopped hiring. 
Now he’s doing MPCs (Badly) 


Spoke to a recruiter yesterday. 

10+ years in finance and accounting, $300K desk

Knows his market. But his outbound had flatlined, and he couldn't figure out why.

When I dug in, here's what was actually going wrong:

1. The emails were way too long. He was sending an intro, five or six bullet points (3-4 lines per paragraph) and a subbed CV. If I got that in my inbox, I'd click off. Our best MPC campaigns have been around 100 words MAX.
 
2. The lists weren't refined enough. He was targeting anyone with the right title at any company. No filtering by size, sector, or location. If you're sending to everyone, you're really sending to no one.

( BONUS: Look at whom you've successfully placed with the last 12-18 months. What are the common themes? ) 

3. He was sending to job postings only. Reaching out when a role is live sounds logical, but you're competing with every other recruiter doing the same thing. The better play is getting in front of clients before they're actively hiring.

4. And the fourth one, which honestly might be the biggest, his MPC wasn't really an MPC. He hadn't identified a candidate his target clients would genuinely get excited about. No clear demand signal. No "hell yes" profile. Just a decent candidate sent to a broad list, hoping something would stick.

To summarise: 

- Fix the list. 
- Shorten the message. 
- Stop waiting for job posts to go live. 
- And if your candidate is not SHIT HOT. Don’t even bother.

This Recruiter made $1.2 Million 
From a simple outbound process 
Here's his exact MPC approach... 



Full podcast in comments

This recruiter spent $15K with us. 
He's made over $200K back. 
That's a 1,233% return on his investment.




Joe places high-level salespeople into tech companies across the US. 

He was already doing well... solid experience, thousands of LinkedIn connections, a strong reputation in his space.

But he had a feeling he was leaving money on the table. 

And he was right.

So we got to work. Nothing revolutionary, just consistent, quality content that actually resonated with his audience.

Here's what 6 months of that looks like:

1,960,809 impressions 
11,000+ Reactions
4000 Profile views
12,253 engagements

75% of people engaging were completely outside his existing network

He invested $15K. He won $200K worth of business.

Now here's the uncomfortable part.

If you have years of experience, a niche you own, and a LinkedIn profile collecting dust, you're Joe before he called us. 

The opportunity is already there. You're just not activating it.

The good news is, I'm willing to show you exactly how this works for FREE. 

Head to the link in the comments to learn more.

I have to constantly remind myself of something.
You can ALWAYS make time for family. 
And nothing bad will happen if you take time off.




Before heading to Taiwan, I was dreading it.

Almost instantly, the negative thoughts crept in:

What if my team needs me? 
What if something falls apart? 
What if I lose money?

What if, what if, what if…

In reality?

Everything was fine.

Emails could wait. 
Nothing burnt down.
My business was still here when I landed back.

And I had moments I'll never forget.

Some of them weren't even anything dramatic, just sitting around a dinner table, sharing food, and laughing together.

That's it. That was enough.

So here's your reminder (especially if you're a workaholic recruiter):

You can take time off. You should take time off.

You'll come back fresher, more motivated, and happier for it.

This recruiter scaled to $166,000 per month 
50% of her new business came from existing clients 
It's only 5 simple steps, so you can copy it! 


40-50% of Mina's new business comes from existing clients.

Here's the exact account management system she uses:

Step 1:  Map the account from day one. 

In every kickoff, her team asks about the whole company, not just the open role. Growth plans, hiring roadmaps, and which departments are scaling. So when the upsell conversation comes, they're already armed with the answers.

Step 2: Identify the hottest moment. 

Believe it or not, the best time to talk about the next role isn't after a placement lands. It's when two or three strong candidates are in process or heading to the offer stage. The client can see the value in real time and has nothing to push back on.

Step 3: Use their own words. 

"You mentioned you were planning to hire a Head of X in Q2; if they need to start by June, you'd want to be in market now." It's consultative, not salesy. And it works because the client told you first.

Step 4: Categorise clients and follow up. 

A client's: high growth and strong placement probability → call monthly
B clients: smaller demand or lower probability → call every quarter or six months

Step 5: Stay visible between placements. 

Follow hiring managers on LinkedIn. Comment on their posts. Show up as a partner, not someone who only calls when they want something.

Full podcast in comments : )

This week's Free Trial Results.
3 posts. 300k+ impressions. 
12 inbound leads. 2 SOLID candidates.


You know why I love the free trial?

I don't have to sell.

Convincing people to buy feels icky. I'd rather just show people what I do.

The results tend to speak for themselves.

3 posts in. This chap has likely already made his money back.

This process works for clients. 
It works for candidates. 
It works for employees 

Heck, if you want to attract an ice cream man, I'm pretty sure I could help you do that, too. 

Joking... I tried that one once. Zero impressions. One empty ice cream cone. 

Anywayzzz.... 

I'm tired, so heading to bed soon. 

If you want to give our free trial a shot. 

Head to the comments and learn more.

Spoke with a potential client last week. 
He had SO much potential. 
But we ended up parting ways…




It was a shame... 

Mainly because there was so much potential.

He had a great network.
In a booming sector. 
Already getting results with minimum effort.

I’m convinced I could have made him a huge ROI. 

But…

It was ALL worthless because there were too many red flags: 

1st red flag: He committed to something and didn't follow through.
2nd red flag: Kept pushing things back (3 times) without a real excuse.
3rd red flag: When he was given a deadline, he squirmed almost immediately.

So, we parted ways…

And we will probably never work together in this lifetime.

For a minute, it felt like a loss. 

But then I was reminded of all the bad-fit clients in the past who gave me red flags that I ignored.

And I quickly realised I just saved myself a shed load of time, money and energy.

A 'Good client' can have ALL the right components. 

But if communication and follow-through aren't there... It's not worth it.

Spoke with a recruiter, Billing 500k 
HE WAS SO BUSY!!!! and proud of it. 
But 50% of his clients were lower-level. 



One of the biggest problems I'm hearing from recruiters lately isn't the lack of clients. 

It's not even the lack of a pipeline.

It's QUALITY.

They're busy. But they're working on the wrong assignments.

I spoke with a recruiter this week. He said he was incredibly busy, so busy he didn't have a spare moment for BD or marketing.

But when I dug deeper, over 50% of his clients were lower-level. 

By lower level, I mean:

Contingent clients working with multiple agencies
Clients paying 18-20% instead of 25%
Clients who are poor communicators with an A-player vacancy and a C-player budget

Now, forgive me for being blunt, but these types of clients will LOSE you more money in the long run.

The core problem? 

No online presence. 
No real brand outside of his immediate network. 
And no structured outbound happening on a weekly basis.

Ironically, he had 15 years of experience. 10,000 connections (most of whom were in his sector) And a great reputation in his niche. 

So I made him an offer: 

I said I'd show him exactly how I'm getting inbound leads for my clients. 
I'd show him 10 posts in his exact niche that have had over 100k impressions. 
I'd write him 2 posts for free that will get him a ton of eyeballs. 
I'd give him a 17-page MPC playbook so he can see how to start conversations in the DMs — developed from our own testing and 100+ episodes with top billers. 
And finally, I'd create him a bespoke landing page for free, to show him how to drive traffic on LinkedIn to an offer that sells.

Quite rightly, he said yes… 

Because it's free : ) why wouldn’t he? 

And I'm going to show him how it works next week. 

And in 3-6 months, he's going to have more clients, better clients, a stronger brand, a way to start conversations, and, finally, the confidence to say no to the bad ones.

Trust me, that's where every business owner should strive to be. It makes life so much easier.

If any of this sounds familiar, the link in the comments is worth 60 seconds of your time. It'll show you exactly what I showed him.

Got this message from a client yesterday.
2 inbound leads from a single post.
Which is great, obviously. But…. 



Here's the thing most people miss when they see results like this. 

The leads themselves aren't actually the most valuable part.

The most valuable part is understanding why it worked.

In this case, the post was about a candidate. A very niche profile with a specific, hard-to-find skill set. Turns out there were hiring managers in the feed who'd been quietly looking for exactly that person and didn't even know where to start.

The post surfaced a need they hadn't articulated yet.

So now we know three things:

- The specific topic that triggered the response
- The type of audience it resonated with
- The angle and framing that cut through

Next week, we will rebuild a version of that post. 

Different angle, same core topic. 

And we keep testing until we understand the pattern well enough to replicate it on demand.

In 3-6 months time… 

You should have a list of topics that you can replicate and reuse. 

Posts that trigger more impressions 
Posts that trigger more engagement 
Posts that trigger more Inbound 

That’s how you build a true inbound system. 

By testing… looking at the data and always asking WHY!

This CEO was generating $2 million PA 
Then, a client stopped hiring
30% of his revenue stopped overnight

Recruiters, simple question.
In the last 90 days…
How many calls have come through your website?


For most recruiters, the answer is none. 

Or a handful of low-quality leads (if they’re lucky) 

How you present yourself online will have a direct impact on the number of inbound leads you generate. 

And if your website is old, dated, or the message is NOT compelling enough. 

You’re leaving money on the table. 

One of my clients had the same problem.

Well-known in the space. 15+ years in recruitment. 

But he had two bottlenecks: 

1. No one outside of his network knew who he was
2. His website was dated, boring, and not optimised to convert prospects.

So we helped him replace his website with a simple landing page.

ONE page with ONE offer and ONE outcome that we KNEW his clients would care about. 

Next, we started creating content to drive the RIGHT prospects to said offer.

In the last 90 days, we've generated over 500,000 eyeballs.

And we're booking 1-2 quality calls per week directly through the landing page.

They see a post.
Click the link.
Go to the landing page.
Read the offer
And then book a call straight into his calendar.

He's got a genuine inbound machine that's getting him calls.

And with deal sizes worth 40-50k… we only need a handful of clients for him to make a considerable ROI.

Here's what I'd like to offer you:

- 2 free posts that typically drive between 10 and 100k impressions
- A free high-converting landing page template for your business
- A 90-day road map on how you can build an inbound machine

Head to the link in the comments to learn more :)

Recorded a client testimonial yesterday.
He's secured $200,000 in new business 
(Directly from content) 




He's run a boutique search firm for years. 

He’s a top performer and built a serious name for himself by finding the best salespeople in the country.

The problem? 

He had the network. 
He had the knowledge. 
He had the track record. 

But the right people weren't seeing him. 

So we got to work.

Over the past several months, his content has pulled in over 2 million impressions. 

Decision makers who would have never found him are now in his world every single week. 
A-player candidates are reaching out to him. 
New roles are landing in his inbox.

At least $200k in business we can directly tie to content. 
(And that's a conservative number) 

The full video is dropping next week

This is what happens when someone with real expertise finally gets seen by the right audience. 

BTW… I show you how this works FOR FREE. 

If you're anything like Joe, and you want more inbound. 

Head to the link in the comments

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