Episode 7

Most recruiters don’t fail because the market is hard.

They fail because they were never built for the work.

In this episode of The Performance Zone, Dan Alexander sits down with Tom Bedford, founder of EMB Recruitment & Training Services, to unpack what seventeen years inside recruitment really teaches you - beyond tactics, tools, and trends.

This is a grounded, uncomfortable look at selection, mindset, and why training alone doesn’t create great recruiters.

Tom has built, exited, restarted, and rebuilt recruitment businesses. He’s worked desks, trained teams, and watched hundreds of consultants come and go. What he’s learned is simple and confronting: most people don’t fail because they weren’t trained enough, but because they were hired without the raw ingredients to succeed.

This conversation cuts through common recruitment myths:
- If sales is “learnable,” why do so many trained recruiters still wash out?
- If the market is “bad,” why are some consultants still billing consistently?
- And if everyone can be taught, why do only a few actually endure?

We unpack:
- Why recruitment success is more about selection than training
- The difference between skill, temperament, and tolerance for discomfort
- Why contact-centre grit often outperforms polished graduate profiles
- How comfort quietly kills performance in recruitment
- Why most junior recruiters fail in the first six months - and what was missing from day one
- The danger of hiring on CVs instead of behaviours
- Why training works best when the raw mindset is already there
- What great recruiters have in common long before their first placement
- And why “the market” is often just the most convenient excuse

If you’re a founder, leader, or senior recruiter responsible for hiring, developing, or retaining consultants - this episode will challenge how you think about potential, training, and performance.

It’s not about doing more.
It’s about choosing better.

🕒 Timestamps
00:00 - Intro: seventeen years, no filters
04:30 - Falling into recruitment and early lessons
10:30 - Why some people thrive in discomfort
18:00 - Training vs temperament: the real gap
26:00 - Junior recruiters, selection mistakes, and false optimism
35:00 - Comfort, excuses, and “the market” narrative
43:00 - What actually creates long-term recruiters
50:00 - Final lessons: invest smarter or stop pretending

👤 Guest - Tom Bedford Founder, EMB Recruitment & Training Services Seventeen years in recruitment across multiple sectors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasbedford/

🎙️ Host - Dan Alexander Bamboo Performance https://bamboo-performance.com/

💬 Comment below: What do you think matters more in recruitment training or temperament?
And where have you seen the biggest hiring mistakes made?