Clark Willcox

I help recruiters + consultants build and leverage their brand to attract more of their ideal clients (and candidates).

You didn't become successful by accident.

You got there by making more calls, closing tougher roles, and outlasting everyone who quit early. 

You built real skill, running great meetings, understanding the market, and delivering results that speak for themselves.

But today, being a high performer isn’t enough to get new business. Or even referrals.

The digital landscape is louder, more crowded, and full of “AI-first” recruiting agencies that look polished online but crumble once a real sales conversation starts. They don’t have your experience, your instincts, or your ability to run a consultative call.

You still win the meeting.

You’re just not getting enough of the right meetings.

That’s the real problem, not your ability, but your positioning.

Most top recruiters never learned marketing. Why would you? 

You were too busy billing. But in today’s market, authority is currency. And if your ideal clients don’t see you as different before the call, they assume you’re the same as every other recruiter DM’ing them.

That’s where I come in.

We’ve helped 100s of recruiters + consultants create consistent inbound demand, elevate their authority, and regain clarity and time.

You don’t need more tech.
You need a better strategy and likely someone to run it for you.

To get what you want which is...

Shorten sales cycles
Book more warmed-up calls
Increase client quality
Use their story, skill, and expertise as a competitive edge

In short, you stop chasing and you stop 

And we do the work for you, strategy, messaging, content, outreach, and systems.

No more pointless cold calling.
No more AI fluff.
No more tech stack collecting dust.
No more roles that were never going to close.

Your experience is your leverage.

I help the market finally see it.

How we can help:
Fractional Sales + Marketing: I run your entire inbound + outreach engine.
LinkedIn Sprint: A fast, proven campaign and content system.
Digital Recruiter Academy: Build a full-funnel recruiting business.
1:1 Coaching: Customized growth and positioning strategy.

“Every post I make, I get an inbound lead.” - Rachel Brown, Founder + PT Recruiter

A little more about me:

10+ years in recruiting and sales, door-to-door, agency, entrepreneurship. I’ve failed, rebuilt, and grown through every season. By the grace of God, I went from being orphaned to having a family of my own and a career I love.

Message me if you’re ready to market like a top performer, not a commodity.

Founder

Growth partner to solo recruiters and small recruiting agencies. 

Need to improve your LinkedIn presence + outbound/inbound approach?

Looking to train up your current crop of recruiters?

Looking to add candidates with potential and a training partner to help them achieve it?

Welcome to the Digital Recruiter

https://testimonial.to/recruiter-accelerator/all

“You guys are awesome and have taken a huge burden off of my shoulders.  Trying to build a business (unexpectedly) while navigating my husbands career demands, my family demands is majorly stressful. You totally delivered and I can focus on what I’m actually good at.”

Tara Rochelo, Founder, Four Corners Search

Let’s see how we can help:
https://calendly.com/thedigitalrecruiter/strategy

Who was cutting onions here? 

Watching this with my almost 1 and 3 year old boys, getting the oldest to do his first U-S-A chant when they won in OT… super fun.

Then team USA showed what brotherhood and being proud of where you’re from and not forgetting your missing brethren other families….

Waterwork city. 

Good one them for keeping Johnny Gaudreau’s legacy going and making sure his children know the positive impact he had. 

Having lost parents at a young age, pictures are a thousand words but the greatest gift is hearing stories from family and friends about who they were. 

God bless those kids 🙏🏼

Founder @ The Digital Recruiter || Fractional Sales + Marketing || We fix and create your business development engine so your prospects actually start responding to you

No alternative text description for this image

My man, Greg Fischer, CPP 👊 

This is all him btw. I gave him pointers and bumpers, but he is consistent with posting and engaging with his market. 

It's been incredible to witness and raises my own bar for staying consistent.

Your best performing post this month might have 6 likes.

Your worst might have 200.

Stop letting that confuse you.

Likes come from peers. Leads come from hiring managers.

And hiring managers are lurkers.

They read. 
They remember. 
They reach out when the timing is right.

The post that gets 8 likes and lands you a $40k search?

That's the goal.

Not the chase of a dopamine hit of a viral moment that attracts zero buyers.

Post for the right people, not the most people.

Founder @ The Digital Recruiter || Fractional Sales + Marketing || Your personal brand should bring you revenue, not likes.

LinkedIn > cold email if you're an established recruiter.

Here's why

Because you're competing with the kid who started his recruiting agency yesterday.

And is a killer at cold email. 

So whether he converts or not, he's in your prospects inbox (and the question is, are you? because deliverability is a whole other subject).

Meanwhile, the time investment and ROI on potential on LinkedIn is insane.

$200/month in tools

Organic content (ads are not necessary)

The right approach

More importantly - YOU are bringing a history of placements, wins and experience to the table. 

That's how you beat the cold email wizards. 

Ideally you have calls, emails, LinkedIn all dialed in.

But if you're picking one to optimize this year, leverage and have a predictable compounding effect.

You can't beat LinkedIn. 

System + Approach + Follow up + Consistency

"The market's been tough for all recruiters, right?"

No, not necessarily.

Is money falling out of the sky like 2021-2022? No. And if you thought that could last...

Come on now. Let's live on Earth together. 

What you're experiencing.

Companies being much pickier.

But they are still hiring.

This is a game of musical chairs. 

And you can level up, figure out the competition you're up against.

Don't rely on "what you've always done"

Learn how to evolve. 

AI is rampant? Get better at building rapport and relationships WITHOUT needing a referral. 

Always used to MPC but email slowed down? Figure out a new channel and approach.

Tried something and it didn't work? Try it for longer.

Or find someone that you resonate with more and try that approach.

Staying stagant and b*tching will get you exactly what you want.

Which is zero improvement.

Producers don't have time for a lengthy pity party. 

You get one night to sleep off a bad day. 


h/t Daniel Miller

LinkedIn has doubled their membership count this decade to over 1 billion. Guess how many people post per week?

3 million. 

They get 9 billion impressions weekly.

The opportunity is insane on here.

90% + people on here are lurking.

But it's a business platform.

Unlike other platforms where other topics blend in.

This is about solving business problems. 

What else could you ask for in a marketing opportunity? 

Target your specific ICP for $119/month with Sales Nav.

Post consistently.

No need for paid ads. All organic. 

The goldmine is sitting there for you.

If you're stuck on figuring it out, or other attempts have fizzled out.

We should chat. 

If you have doubts. Check out my recommendations.

"The best money I've ever spent in 29 years of recruiting." 

Now, that only happens when you show up, implement, work through the struggle/pain and keep going.

That's what Dan Regovich did. 

Used to referrals and the "old way of doing things" but that wasn't enough anymore.

The system and approach was good but not enough. Anyone can sign up for automation or make some posts.

We focused on the follow up. 

What are hiring managers reacting to right now in 2026.

There's way more competition than 20 years ago. 

Understanding the landscape and reacting accordingly is critical. 

That's what leads to conversions. 

And the text that Dan sent me today.

"Top of funnel is full."

Music to my ears

My friend + hiring expert Greg Fischer, CPP is kind enough to host a free webinar in the Digital Recruiter Academy....

March 11th at 12:30pm EST. 

It's free.

You just have to be in the group to get access.

Niche or don't niche? Really what you want to know is, what do people who don't know me need to see? Here's the shift you need to make....

Own your lane...don't defend it. 

The Digital Recruiter clients come in, own a lane, and go for it, get the results they want.

The people we don't work with. They waffle on a lane, are worried about having prospects tune out.

I've seen this paralyze recruiters that have relied on referrals for years. They turn to cold outreach and get frazzled. 

Worry about people that aren't relevant. 

Those prospects are almost always the ones not worth chasing. 

Stop trying to convince about prospects that will never buy.

Understand your strengths. 

Get clear on the type of business you want more of. 

And unapologetically go after it.

"We closed a $35k fee and have a $40k offer out thanks to your candidate messaging and sequence for LinkedIn." - nice voice memo to start the day with. the catch? 

"But the sales side is still TBD"

And that's fairly normal. When you're use to the cold email/call game, it can be an adjustment navigating LinkedIn and doing more rapport building.

Candidate outreach almost always clicks first. The service is free on their side, so fixing messaging to resonate more with their incentives changes their behavior quickly into what you were always looking for.

Client side? They need a bit more time to earn that trust. And that's where consistency comes into play.

Trying different wants to open up conversations. Finding ways to add value without just needing an open role.

Having "feel" is a critical part of becoming better at biz dev. When the immediate opportunity doesn't present itself, how do you approach it? 

Improving your systems and approach on the candidate side = more opportunity to get the time and reps on mastering biz dev.

What's you get all that in place, you become dynamic, and you always know how to "catch your own fish."

That's when $35k and $40k doesn't just happen on a good week, but it happens over and over again.

Month 2 to Month 3 of content for a client.

Most recruiters quit at month two.

The feed feels quiet. The replies are slow. The likes aren't coming.

So they stop.

And they never find out what month 3 or 4 looks like. Let alone month 9 which is when I finally started getting double digit likes (yet I got leads in month 1)

Here's what I've seen over and over...

the breakthrough almost never comes when you expect it.

It comes from the post you almost didn't write.

The follow-up you almost skipped.

The campaign you almost turned off.

Stay with it longer than feels comfortable.

That's where the pipeline is.

Texas is in the house today. Got some gold to share with y'all TSRSA in about 90 minutes. Even if...

...there's a missing L in Willcox 😂 I hold no grudges

Join us on February 26th for an insightful session with Clark Willcox:
“Building a Consistent Recruiting Ecosystem”

Clark brings over 12 years of sales and recruiting experience, starting his career at Aerotek, the largest privately held staffing company in the U.S. Today, he owns and operates Digital Recruiter and Digital Recruiter Talent Group, helping firms build scalable, repeatable recruiting systems that actually work.

If you’re looking to:
✅ Create consistency in your recruiting efforts
✅ Build systems that support sustainable growth
✅ Align sales, recruiting, and digital strategy. You won’t want to miss this session.

🔗 Connect with Clark Willcox

Register now: https://lnkd.in/gWAbCuZ4 

#TSRSA #RecruitingLeadership #StaffingIndustry #RecruitingEcosystem #TalentAcquisition #ProfessionalDevelopment
Jessica Wheeler Judy Collins Nancy Martinez Beth Hammond, CTS Gayle Tapps Mike Lejeune Tiffany Wallace Ui Culbertson Chris Myers Dana Laramore, CPC

"How do I come up with content?"

Here ya go....

Does your ideal client read it and think,

“Yep. That’s exactly what I’m dealing with."

That's it. The best part...

You already have this content.

It’s inside your all your discovery and client calls.

For example...you ask a hiring manager,

 “Have you worked with agencies before?”

They say yes. You ask, “What went wrong?”

They say, “They just sent resumes.” or “They didn’t understand our product.”

That’s a post.

Or when HR says, “We don’t use agencies.” Instead of pushing back, you think,

“That makes sense, until a role sits open 4 months and delays your roadmap.”

That’s a post.

Or when they push back on fees and you ask, “How much revenue is delayed because this role isn’t filled?”

That’s a post.

Content that sells is translating real conversations into teaching moments.

It's explaining what you see.

That’s what builds authority, inbound leads and increased replies in your outreach.

Keep It Human in the AI Era

AI is everywhere in recruiting right now.

But here’s the real question we got into on our latest episode:

How much of the human aspect are we pulling out when we lean too hard on automation?

Michael Malinowsky, Director of Recruiting at Lean Synergy Solutions, started his recruiting career in the U.S. Army. 

In the military, recruiting meant hunting.
-Finding people where they actually are
-Thinking outside the box
-Building real relationships
-Earning trust with candidates and families

That mindset carried over to the agency world.

We talked about the difference between the art and the science of recruiting. The science is KPIs and numbers. The art is reading people, building relationships, negotiating based on what someone actually values, and caring enough to personalize every touchpoint.

One line that stuck with me:
“Keep it human. Don’t forget there’s a living, breathing person behind every resume.”

In a world where filters auto-reject candidates in seconds and messaging can be written by a robot, the recruiters who win are the ones who personalize their outreach, take time to actually review resumes, focus on fit, not just keywords, and build relationships that help with retention and negotiation

We also got into his “humanity audit” idea, reviewing auto-rejections and asking whether filters are set for compliance instead of potential.

If you’re a recruiter trying to balance AI with authenticity, or a hiring manager wondering why great people slip through the cracks, this conversation is worth your time.

You can listen to the full episode here:
YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gFKD_w9M
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gvm7n9jM
Apple: https://lnkd.in/gW9PvRE7

Open article: Digital Recruiter Podcast by tinyurl.com

Client just starting posting. Got a 70 likes, 20kimpressions. She couldn't believe it. Hiring managers engaging with her and her profile. The previous posts?


1 like
2 likes
1 like 

Not surprising, she focuses more on HVAC side of things. But this is why we scheduled out her first 3 weeks.

So she didn't have time to overthink and stay on the sidelines.

You can't get the wins if you don't play.

Enjoy the weekend 🥂

The moment your outreach starts generating conversations is the moment you stop doing this...

You HAVE to stop making it about you.

Every cold message that talks about your agency, your process, your passion for recruiting?

Ignored.

Every message that shows you understand their hiring pain, their timeline, their frustration with the last three agencies they tried?

That one gets a reply.

Hiring managers aren't waking up on a Monday looking for another agency recruiter that gives the same promises as the one that's currently not delivering for them.

They're looking for someone who actually gets it.

Be that person first. 

Sell second.

8 months. Target Market = AEC. 

Dozens of candidates for MPC.

Multiple MPC placements from inbound.

People in all industries are lurking on LinkedIn. 

Some will reach out right away, more will reach out later as you earn their trust and respect. 

Coolest part is the text I got earlier this year from this client paraphrased as...

"I'm ready to scale this up, not just have a lifestyle business"

That's what happens when you have confidence in your system and approach and have us to help you stay accountable.

The fun work is just beginning.

Guaranteee way to have BD fall off? 

I see it all the time.  

Stop doing BD. 

Wow. Game changing truth right? 

Question is, how can you stay coincident will working on roles.

1) content
2) connections

3/5 posts per week

Send 100-200 connection requests per week to your target market.

Can’t get results if you don’t have anything running. 

Then have to make sure it’s good. 

If you get stuck here, that’s when you need help.

And when we should talk.

Here are my favorite post metrics.


A static text post (no graphics, no hashtags, etc)

15 likes

3-5k impressions. 

Why?

If you're connecting with your ideal market every day, this is the sweet spot.

It means they are reading your content

It means the hook was solid. 

And you likely tapped into a real pain point they are feeling. 

That's how you resonate and become top of mind.

Now, if you scale those numbers with the same quality of content...great.

But it is not a must have to have a success organic content strategy that drives leads and revenue.

"The outreach worked so well I couldn't even use the content."

That's what I call a "good problem."

Ok but let's dig in as to why.

Offer is strong. Consultant for a specific niche. The need for her solution is scorching hot right now. 

Knows her industry in and out. 

Natural at building rapport. Not afraid to network.

Understands how to demonstrate value in setting up and running meetings, without always focused on closing a sale.

Everyone is getting pitched to daily right now.

Building a strong pipeline is about knowing where your valuable to your ideal market.

And demonstrating that consistently, while always adding new potential leads to your eco system.

Then you get maybe get to the place where it's too much.

That's how you create "good problems"

I help plastics and packaging manufacturers fill leadership, sales, and critical professional roles, especially the ones that are hard to hire for or take too long to close. 

From plant managers to VPs of Sales, I focus on roles that directly impact revenue, operations, and customer relationships. My clients often come to me after internal resources have been stretched thin, job postings have stalled, or roles are costing time and momentum. I step in to shorten the search, simplify the process, and deliver candidates who stick.

I’ve been recruiting since 1997 and in this space since 2001, when I landed in the industry unexpectedly, and never left. What started as a job offer from the recruiter I was working with turned into a 28-year career helping companies hire well and build strong teams. Along the way, this work has given me the freedom to build a life on my terms, support my family, and stay deeply committed to doing work I actually enjoy. I’ve spent most of my career focused on the plastics world, rigid, flexible, resin, packaging, and more, and I know how to get up to speed fast, even on unfamiliar roles.

Clients tell me they trust my instincts, appreciate my honesty, and value how smooth I make the process. I don’t use a rigid system or overcomplicate the search. I ask the right questions early, read people well, and build trust on both sides to keep things moving. I can spot red flags quickly, whether it’s a candidate or a job order and that saves everyone time. Whether I’m working directly with a VP, Director, or Owner, I make sure they’re never guessing where things stand.

Recent Successes:

-Filled a U.S. Director of Sales role for a South American plastics company in under 30 days.

-Helped a global blow molder launch in the U.S. by placing sales and operations leaders; responsive, efficient collaboration despite global time zones.

Other placements include:

*Sales Director - Plastic Injection Molder - Michigan
*Plant Manager - Plastics Recycler - Indiana
*Plant Manager - Plastic Extruder - Ohio
*Account Manager - Resins - Ohio
*Plant Managers - Injection Molding - Illinois, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
*VP Sales - Flexible Packaging - Illinois
*Entire Sales Dept. - Blow Molding - Indiana 

If you’re leading a team and ready to get that open role off your desk, let’s talk. 

Email me dregovich@ajaugur.com, message me on LinkedIn or call 440-357-7600

Dan Regovich

Many Plastics Executives are underestimating a workforce problem that’s already here.

This chart comes straight from LinkedIn Recruiter data.

Over 1 million professionals have identified themselves as working in plastics.

Here’s the part that should get your attention.
▪️ A huge percentage of the industry is 20+ years into their career
▪️ The 30+ year group alone is one of the largest segments
▪️ The so-called “5–15 year sweet spot” everyone wants is actually a much smaller slice than most assume

What does that mean in real terms?

It explains why:
 ▪️ Hiring feels harder than it used to
 ▪️ Everyone is chasing the same mid-career talent
 ▪️ Compensation pressure keeps rising
 ▪️ Succession planning keeps getting delayed

This isn’t a recruiting issue.

It’s a demographics and planning issue.

Companies that win over the next 5–10 years will be the ones that:
 ▪️ Stop pretending the bench is deep
 ▪️ Invest earlier in developing talent
 ▪️ Get realistic about pay for experience
 ▪️ Actually plan for retirements instead of reacting to them

The market isn’t broken.  The math is just uncomfortable.

P.S.  I'm adding this a day after the post but as an FYI, LinkedIn doesn't break down 30+ years.  They lump it all together.

taplio

The Battle

Clark Willcox

Dan Regovich

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreClark Willcox's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDan Regovich's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Clark Willcox

Dan Regovich

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Clark Willcox's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreDan Regovich's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreClark Willcox's LinkedIn Performance