How to 3x Your Results

By becoming a better storyteller

Author

Tal Zamir
March 16, 2025

Hi friends 👋🏻

In this edition we dig into a highly effective and strategic skill in our businesses - storytelling!

And a note: since many of us spent this past week investing in the Recruiting Summit, I’ve decided to push out the workshop I announced last week to March 27. Updated details and registration link below.

Enjoy!

-Tal

In today’s edition you’ll find:

  • 3x your effectiveness by becoming a better storyteller

  • Creating content like top billers

  • Workshop update: Creating a candidate nurture campaign in < 1 hour

  • Win a FREE VIP Replay pass to the Rock The Year Recruiting Summit ($149 value)

⏳ Estimated reading time: 8-10 minutes

Let’s go! 🚀

3x your effectiveness by becoming a better storyteller

I’ve been enjoying some new podcasts lately (MFM is my new fave!)

And asking myself: What makes a podcast really successful? 🤔

What pulls us into spending 1-2 hours (!!) listening to people talk on a regular basis?

I realized it’s all about STORIES! 📚

And often times a great story motivates me to take action (consciously or subconsciously).

Also: It connects me to others, even if I’m listening solo. 

And, thinking about my recruiting life, I realized….

Recruiting is built on storytelling.

Recruiters are powerful storytellers. 💪🏻

  • We tell our story.

  • We tell our clients’ stories.

  • We tell our candidates’ stories.

And from that mix, we create magic (and $$). ✨

  • When a prospect connects with our story - we gain a client.

  • When a candidate resonates with the client’s story - we create an engaged candidate.

  • When the client values the candidate’s story - we manifest a hire.

And so, the story wheel turns. 🎡

And what’s even more powerful:

If we become better storytellers, we become significantly better recruiters.

How much better? I'd argue 2x-3x better!! 💡

Here’s the simple math:

If you improve in each recruiting step by just 20%, your outcomes can triple.

Yes, 3x!!!

Here’s an example:

Stage

Original Pipeline

With 20% Improvement

Outreach

100 candidates

100 candidates

Positive response

20 (20%)

24 (24%)

Convert to phone call

10 (50%)

14 (60%)

Interested after call

6 (60%)

10 (72%)

1st to 2nd client interview

4 (67%)

8 (80%)

2nd to 3rd interview

3 (67%)

6 (80%)

3rd to final interview

2 (67%)

5 (80%)

Final interview to offer

1 (50%)

3 (60%)

Result: 1 offer → 3 offers! 🤯

While there are multiple ways to achieve these improvements, I strongly believe storytelling alone can yield a 20% boost - or more - at each stage.

Three key storytelling opportunities

I see three major storytelling opportunities in recruiting:

  1. Our story to prospects and clients

  2. Our clients’ stories to candidates

  3. Our candidates’ stories to clients

Below are my top insights with practical tips for each.

1. Our story to prospects/clients

Telling our own story helps current or prospective clients connect with us personally and professionally.

Key areas include:

  • Personal stories: Our values and priorities.

  • Craft stories: How our unique recruiting process creates value.

  • Success stories: Proof points of past wins.

  • Failure stories: Demonstrating growth and authenticity.

How do we tell these stories?

These stories live across our:

  • Websites

  • Outreach emails

  • LinkedIn profiles

  • Client pitches

  • Content marketing

Technically this is marketing - but framing it as storytelling shines a light on the importance of how to communicate.

Quick tips to improve your client storytelling:

  • Journal and/or write daily to practice your storytelling (and work with AI -like ChatGPT or Claude - to refine your narrative).

  • Follow great LinkedIn storytellers for inspiration (e.g., Justin Welsh, Darren McKee, etc.).

  • Follow top recruiters for practical examples (see article below)

  • Engage coaches experienced specifically in recruitment marketing.

My two cents: Recruitment storytelling (i.e. marketing) is niche - listen mostly to experts in our field and take general marketing advice with a grain of salt.

2. Our clients’ stories to candidates

This area is my personal favorite - and one I believe our firm excels at. 🥇

And within client storytelling is also the story of the specific role we’re filling.

The most impactful points for client storytelling:

  • Outreach messaging

  • Social media content

  • First calls with candidates

  • Debriefs, preps, and offer processes

Mastering client + role storytelling can significantly boost candidate engagement - often by much more than 20%.

I’ve seen improvements up to 200% (example: outreach response rate can improve from 20% to 40% with strong copy).

How to become a better client storyteller:

  • Ask clients directly: "How do you pitch your company and this role?"

  • Practice your pitch: Out loud, alone, or with colleagues/mentors, until it feels natural.

  • Record and review initial candidate calls: Awkward? Yes. Valuable? Absolutely.

  • Listen closely to candidates: Understand their concerns and excitement at every step of the process - and address concerns quickly.

  • Help candidates visualize their future: Ask candidates how they can see themselves excelling the role - help them create a picture of how this role aligns with their future.

  • Deliver offers as stories, not just numbers: Frame each offer in terms of candidate strengths, fit, and mutual excitement.

My two cents: In telling these stories, don’t oversell. It can backfire. Authentic, balanced storytelling wins trust and acceptance.

3. Our candidates’ stories to clients

This is perhaps the most underrated storytelling opportunity.

Yes, our job is to assess candidates - but it's equally our job to present their stories compellingly to clients.

Critical moments for candidate storytelling:

  • Initial presentations and resumes

  • Interview prep calls

  • Every subsequent interview step

I pay particular attention to the client's first impression. I actively shape their perception from the start.

Tips to improve candidate storytelling:

  • Control the first impression: Your commentary should be the first thing clients see - then your detailed notes, then the resume/LinkedIn.

  • Discover the candidate’s narrative arc: Why is this person uniquely interesting for this role?

  • Avoid sugarcoating: Skip empty adjectives like "very strong" or "special." Let facts and experiences speak clearly.

  • Be transparent about misalignments: Identify concerns openly. Clients appreciate balanced assessments.

  • Help polish candidate resumes/profiles: Offer feedback—this benefits everyone.

  • Address minor candidate slip-ups proactively: Protect candidates from their own mistakes or unfair scrutiny.

  • Never hide major red flags: Transparency builds lasting trust.

My two cents: Being transparent early (especially with new clients!) establishes credibility and trust for the entire search.

Storytelling is a force multiplier

Recruiting isn’t just about transactions - it’s about the power of connecting through stories.

How can we all improve?

Become intentional about storytelling. Refine it, practice it, share it. The stories we craft will resonate deeply with our clients, our candidates, and ultimately ourselves.

Now let’s all go tell better stories. 🚀

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Creating content like top billers

Good content on LinkedIn takes work. And commitment.

Honestly, I only started 3 months ago. 🐣

And it took me years to crack that ice and start figuring out how to create content consistently.

As in any craft, I find it powerful to have strong examples and role models.

So recently I’ve been checking out content produced by top billers. 💵

And wanted to share a few with you here.

And beyond simply creating strong, meaningful content, these individuals have created a voice on LinkedIn that is all their own. 

  • She hooks you in from the beginning (knows how to get you to press “see more”)

  • Uses strong client examples and real life situations - I feel like I’m a fly on the wall in the room with her and her client.

  • Recent post to check out

  • Uses simple videos (with captions) to communicate confidence and his craft and to make it easy to digest even if your sound can’t be on

  • Provides thought-provoking advice and hacks that are direct and actionable

  • Utilizes joint videos and podcasts with other top creators to accentuate his thought leadership

  • Recent clip from a conversation with the UK’s top recruiting podcast

  • Highly transparent about her revenue success and trajectory 

  • Humanizing content: uses real pictures and talks about her real life outside of just recruiting

  • Infuses humor into her content

  • Recent post with her story highlighted

  • Brings his team into his content on a regular basis (either as a part of it or highlighting their successes + stories).

  • Keeps it simple both in text and quality (most videos are probably shot on iPhone).

  • Regularly gives highly practical advice .

  • A short and simple post on how to be a top biller

  • Leads with videos that show his personality, his knowledge, and his energy. 

  • Utilizes videos with modern effects that help elevate the storytelling element

  • Recent video/post to check out  

Inspired!? Met too!

Now let’s all go make some fun, engaging and impactful content that will help us grow our revenue!

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A Free Workshop: Build a candidate nurture campaign in < 1 hour

In case you missed it last week….

And now at a new date/time: March 27 @ 12pm ET / 9am PT

I’m excited to collaborate with my good friend Julian D’Angelo, CEO of Talin.ai, to bring you a FREE workshop:

👉🏻 Creating a nurture campaign to expand your network of top candidates

What’s a nurture campaign? It’s a way to engage with top candidates in your industry/niche with an outreach message NOT about a job - but rather with the goal of creating a long term relationship.

The magic of this workshop: You’ll have the opportunity to build this nurture sequence directly alongside Julian and I. You’ll walk away with this new outbound campaign in < 1 hour. 

We’ll be using LinkedIn Sales Navigator & Talin.ai. If you don’t use these tools, you can try both of them on a free trial basis (or feel free to use your own tools instead). 

I’ll have a registration link coming next week. But in the meantime, mark your calendars for March 27 @ 12pm ET / 9am PT.

That’s today’s newsletter - I hope it added value to your business.

You’ve seen these buttons before - could I ask you to click one today:

See you next week!
-Tal

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