How do you grow a high-margin recruitment business without hiring a big team or chasing every lead? And what happens when you go all-in on yourself, right before a global pandemic?
In this episode, I’m joined by Jordana Matsos, founder of Higher Equity, who shares her bold and honest approach to building a thriving solo recruitment agency. With no prior agency experience, Jordana drew on her corporate sales background, implemented razor-sharp systems, and leaned into radical transparency to stand out in a crowded market.
We discuss why blunt honesty and messaging work better than polished sales talk, how Jordana systematized her entire business (even as a solo operator), and how she rebounded after scaling too quickly. She also shares how she created an online academy for job seekers, turning inbound candidate traffic into an additional revenue stream.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [03:43] From Sales Leader to Agency Founder – Jordana shares her journey from leading sales teams to launching her own sales recruitment agency.
- [11:16] After being denied a partnership, Jordana opens up about the early days of building her agency, including how she set pricing and selected her tech stack.
- [14:28] Discover how Jordana pioneered the use of video and short-form content in recruitment, and the impact it had on her business.
- [21:58] A candid look at the biggest challenges and hurdles Jordana faced during the first 12 months of running her agency.
- [28:45] Building the “Academy” – Jordana introduces their internal training academy, explains how it works, and shares her vision for scaling it.
- [40:46] The power of well-organized SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and how they add value to a growing recruitment business.
- [45:48] Rethinking Business Development – An honest conversation about strategies and mindset when approaching BD in today’s market.
- [58:30] How blunt honesty became Jordana’s superpower in building authentic relationships with both clients and candidates.
Building Relationships Through Blunt Honesty and Messaging
One of Jordana’s self-defined strengths is her ‘blunt honesty.’ This translates to being transparent —being upfront about the company, compensation, and expectations from the very first message to her clients and candidates.
Instead of relying on vague outreach or generic sales copy, she built trust by saying what others wouldn’t. Her LinkedIn messages include the job title, salary range, and employer name, resulting in a 55–70% acceptance rate from candidates. On the client side, she sends her pitch deck in the first email, complete with recent placements and fee structure, cutting through the usual sales fluff.
This no-nonsense approach not only sets her apart but also earns the respect of both clients and candidates.
She shares exactly how her messaging is structured, how she frames her value in writing, and why being direct often works better than being “polished.”
Being Well-Organized, Templated, and Using Automation and Tech Stack
Jordana also shared a key success that led to her launching her recruitment agency and how she was able to make more than $300k in revenue in the first year.
Coming from a corporate sales background with no agency experience, she realized that repeatability was key to staying organized, delivering consistent quality, and saving time. Every step was documented, structured, and systematized, from client intake to follow-up messages, candidate outreach, and business development pitches.
She started with simple tools like Google Sheets and later integrated platforms like Taplio, Otter.ai, and Aspect to automate admin tasks, recap calls, and optimize content.
“Anybody could come into this business and take over for me,” she explained, highlighting how systems enabled her to grow lean and sustainably, even as she scaled past $500K in solo billings.
Learnings from Scaling Too Rapidly
If there is one key learning that Jordana wants to share with us in terms of hurdles in the first 12 months of launching her business, it is about the pitfalls of growing too rapidly. After a strong first year, billing nearly $300K solo, Jordana scaled too fast.
Hiring a full-time recruiter, BD rep, and sourcer all at once seemed like the right move, but instead of accelerating growth, her margins dropped to 20%, and client quality suffered.
Conference spend, software costs, and payroll ate into profits. Worse, the hands-off delivery model weakened client relationships.
Within months, she realized she had to course-correct. Letting go of staff and low-margin clients, she refocused on her core niche and rebuilt a leaner business. Today, her gross margins are back above 60%, with stronger client partnerships and a renewed sense of control.
