Imagine going nine months without a single placement.
You’re still the sole breadwinner. You’re still showing up for clients and candidates. And you’re still doing the work, even while your accountant is calling to ask if you’re okay.
That’s where Tonya Leadman found herself.
Tonya doesn’t sugarcoat it. She talks openly about the fear, the pressure of running a firm while raising a three-year-old, and the discipline it took to go back to the basics when the market turned.
Tonya is the owner of Leadman & Associates, a national executive search firm serving the food, beverage, and CPG manufacturing industries. She built her early career as a top performer at MRI, then went in-house as a Fortune 500 talent acquisition leader, before launching her firm in 2022 after returning from maternity leave and discovering her role had been eliminated.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to hold your standards when the market turns, the candidate presentation system behind a 92% interview rate, and why staying visible during the drought is what wins when business comes back.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [00:00] The nightmare scenario: nine months without a placement
- [01:40] Returning from maternity leave to a CHRO meeting and a layoff
- [03:10] What made her stand out at MRI: scrappy, organised, fearless with senior stakeholders
- [14:35] The candidate presentation process behind a 92% submit-to-interview ratio
- [18:19] The two-or-three candidate rule (and how she handles “show me more”)
- [25:49] Going in-house and why it was one of her smartest career moves
- [30:33] Launching a firm in 2022 with a newborn at home
- [39:00] Seven searches on hold, two offers fell through, and the drought began
- [43:02] The activity that saved her: 337 networking calls
- [44:30] Firing a disrespectful client during a tough market
- [49:17] Career services as a stabiliser during the downturn
- [51:05] How recruiting can turn around fast
- [55:50] The reality behind the LinkedIn highlight reel
- [58:10] Tech stack: Crelate, Fireflies, and AI support
Building Your Edge by Mastering the Basics
Tonya’s story doesn’t start with executive search. It starts with the kind of recruiting many people dismiss.
High-volume temp staffing. Operational account management. Running a major client account with hundreds of associates on her desk.
That environment taught her pace, process, and how to stay calm when everything is urgent, because in staffing, everything always is.
So when she moved into direct hire and executive search at MRI, it wasn’t a leap. It was the final piece clicking into place.
Her edge was simple and transferable:
She was organised.
She was scrappy.
And she was comfortable talking to anyone, from the CEO to the line supervisor, with the same level of respect and confidence.
You can’t just manage up. You have to build trust at every level of the organisation. That’s what separates good recruiters from great ones.
Many recruiters can manage up. Fewer can walk a manufacturing floor, talk shop with operations leaders, then jump on a call with the C-suite without missing a beat.
That range is what made Tonya a top performer early in her career and what still shows up in how she runs her firm today.
The Candidate Presentation System Behind a 92% Interview Rate
Most recruiters send resumes with a brief email. Maybe a few bullet points if they’re being thorough.
Tonya doesn’t send resumes. She presents candidates.
The difference shows up in the numbers. About 92% of the candidates she submits get interviews.
Here’s how it works.
She interviews every candidate for one to two hours. Not a quick screen. A deep conversation that covers motivation, fit, compensation expectations, logistics, and career context.
She then creates a structured submission document and delivers it as a PDF through Crelate. And here’s the critical part: her submission summary appears before the resume.
She wants the client to see her thinking before they see the resume. Otherwise they make assumptions. Her job is to give them context.
Each submission covers:
- Why the candidate is motivated to move
- How they fit the role and the culture
- Career movement context so interviews don’t turn into interrogations
- What the client should dig into during the interview
That last section positions Tonya as a partner in the hiring decision, not a resume supplier.
And when a client asks for more candidates, she holds firm. She’s already interviewed 12 people. She’s only submitting the top two or three because she refuses to waste their time. If they want more resumes, she can do that. But if they want the right people, this is it.
That’s standards-based recruiting. And it’s why clients trust her judgement.
What Actually Keeps a Recruiting Business Alive During a Drought
The market shift hit Tonya’s niche hard.
Seven searches went on hold. Two offers fell through. She went nine months without a placement. And her accountant checked in because things looked that bad.
What did she do?
She doubled down on conversations.
Over two years, Tonya took 337 networking calls. About 253 were with candidates. Only 84 were with potential hiring decision-makers.
Some recruiters would say that’s backwards. Tonya sees it as building future inventory, future clients, and future trust. Recruiting is cyclical. When the market comes back, the recruiters who stayed visible and stayed human win first.
Those conversations weren’t about filling roles immediately. They were about staying present, understanding what was happening in the market, and building relationships that would pay off later.
She also made a hard decision when cash was tight. She fired a client who showed poor communication and a lack of respect. If they treat her that way, they’ll treat her candidates that way too. She wasn’t going to compromise her standards or her reputation.
That discipline is hard to hold when every potential fee feels like salvation. Tonya held the line anyway.
She also leaned on career services during the downturn. Resume reviews. LinkedIn optimisation. Interview coaching. It wasn’t executive search money, but it stabilised cash flow and built goodwill that turned into referrals.
And when the market shifted, it shifted fast.
Tonya went from nine months with nothing to six figures in billings over two months.
That’s recruiting. It can turn on a dime. But only if you’ve stayed visible. Only if you’ve kept relationships warm. And only if you didn’t burn bridges or lower your standards just to survive.
