Why do some recruitment business leaders triple their revenue while others plateau despite working twice as hard? My guest Martin Herbst found the answer after hitting rock bottom with burnout. And it wasn’t about working harder.
Martin is the CEO of JobAdder, one of the world’s leading recruitment technology platforms. Under his leadership, JobAdder has tripled its revenue and client base in five years. But before that growth, Martin experienced a year of crushing anxiety and insomnia that forced him to step away from work completely.
That breakdown became a breakthrough. Martin rebuilt his approach to leadership from the ground up.
In this episode, you’ll hear why Martin credits values and vision (not tactics) for JobAdder’s growth, the daily habits that keep burnout at bay, where AI is creating real efficiency gains for recruiters right now, and why the best business development technology might still be the telephone. If you’ve ever wondered how to scale your business without sacrificing your health, this is your roadmap.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [6:44] The burnout story: a year of high anxiety and insomnia that led to stepping away completely
- [11:17] Morning and evening borders: the simple habits that prevent burnout from creeping back
- [13:56] Why swimming is Martin’s secret weapon for stress (it’s about breathing, not just cardio)
- [19:32] How JobAdder tripled revenue in five years, and why it wasn’t about working harder
- [23:31] Why most recruitment agency owners underinvest in strategy and long-term vision
- [27:05] “I’ve never walked away from a strategy offsite and said that was a waste of time”
- [32:29] Why recruitment might be the profession most immune to AI disruption
- [48:36] Why automation has created diminishing returns in outreach (and what works instead)
- [53:59] The survey result that shocked everyone: the #1 technology for BD is still the telephone
- [56:50] Only 4% of agencies are happy with their BD strategy, according to JobAdder’s 2025 report
Strategy Over Hustle: Why JobAdder Tripled Revenue
Most recruitment business owners think growth comes from working harder. More calls. More placements. More hours.
Martin took the opposite approach when he joined JobAdder in 2020.
He invested heavily in clarifying JobAdder’s purpose, vision, and values. He ran strategy offsites. He built a long-term blueprint instead of chasing short-term wins. And his team sometimes had to tell him to slow down.
“I think that growth has been about establishing these values, building off those values, but also having a pretty clear purpose and long-term horizon. Why are you here? Where are you going? What makes us special?”
Here’s what Martin learned about time investment.
“I have never, when any time that I have scheduled offsites or workshops to talk about strategy or culture, walked away from that and said, well, that was a waste of time. It’s always been the opposite.”
The challenge? Balancing long-term vision with short-term performance. Martin sees this as one of the biggest challenges any business leader faces.
“Typically we underinvest in clarifying what the long term is and then making the right decisions and investments toward that long term in favor of the short term.”
JobAdder’s North Star became crystal clear: “Advance the future of recruitment by unlocking people’s potential with powerfully simple technology.”
Martin and his team iterated on that statement many times. Every word was chosen carefully. Those words map directly to their values, strategy, and what makes them different.
The result? JobAdder tripled revenue and clients in five years. Not by working harder. By being clearer about where they were going and why.
The Burnout That Changed Everything
In 2019, Martin bottomed out completely.
He’d been running eBay’s classifieds business in Australia for almost seven years. Stress levels were through the roof. Anxiety was constant. Insomnia set in. Then he crashed.
“In my case, I had about a year or so where stress levels, anxiety levels were very high, contributing to insomnia and then really bottoming out and needing to just completely step out and get some space.”
Martin makes an important distinction. Burnout isn’t just being tired.
“There is a difference between literally being burnt out where you need some help and need to step away and start over versus hey, I’m just tired and exhausted and a little bit of a break will help.”
Looking back, Martin calls it a blessing. When you hit that kind of bottom, you learn what makes you tick. You figure out how to solve the problem so it never happens again.
Since then, Martin has built specific habits.
Morning borders. At least 30 minutes with no phone. Time for coffee, normal routines, space before the day starts.
Evening borders. Screens off by 8pm. No exceptions.
Exercise every morning. Regardless of weather or how he feels. Non-negotiable.
Swimming. Martin’s secret weapon. Not just for cardio. The group dynamic, being in water, and most importantly, regulated breathing.
“Swimming naturally regulates your breathing. You can only take a breath at certain intervals. It helps that same kind of meditative breathing style.”
Meditation. His coach’s advice stuck with him. When things are normal, meditate 20 minutes a day. When things are stressful, meditate an hour. Which is usually the opposite of what we do.
Martin internalizes stress. He’s learned to recognize the signals his body sends before stress becomes overwhelming.
The lesson? You can’t outrun stress. Even with running, exercise, and meditation, your body still registers it. The key is catching it early and creating borders that protect you.
AI Won’t Replace Recruiters. It’ll Make Them More Valuable
Martin sees AI as a massive revolution. But he’s tired of the hype.
“I’m looking forward to when we get to the point where AI is no longer thrown out as a word, like .com was 20 years ago.”
For recruitment, Martin believes AI will handle the admin and allow recruiters to focus on what technology can’t replace. Human relationships.
“Of all the professions that are out there, maybe one of the most immune to disruption is recruitment. Because recruitment is literally about human-centric relationships and helping people find their next career, their next purpose, and companies finding the best people that fit them.”
The opportunity? Take away the hard stuff and let recruiters elevate.
Martin points to three areas where AI creates real efficiency gains:
Candidate sourcing and matching. AI distills mountains of data (resumes, LinkedIn profiles, notes) into a ranked shortlist with high confidence. It shows why candidates fit and why they don’t, with full transparency.
Business development. JobAdder’s Lead Feed alerts recruiters when existing clients open new roles, so they can be proactive with value, not just another message.
Temp desk management. Automating availability, qualifications, worker management. Martin calls AI “the automation of automation.”
But here’s the surprising finding from JobAdder’s survey. When they asked recruitment agencies worldwide what technologies mattered most for business development, the number one answer was the telephone.
“Thank God the number one technology that rose to the top was telephone.”
With so much automation, recruiters have become keyboard warriors. Especially younger recruiters who’ve only communicated digitally.
“We’ve forgotten the value and the impact of literally just picking up a phone and calling somebody. And also the value of catching up with them face to face.”
Martin’s advice: less is more. Be targeted with context and need. Use technology to identify the right moment, then pick up the phone.
The bottom line? AI will make recruiters more valuable, not less. In a world drowning in data and noise, clients will rely even more on recruiters who can validate, vouch for, and verify the best candidates.
