For staffing firm owners & solo recruitment founders

The operator behind record‑breaking recruiting.

Over twelve years, I've built and scaled some of the fastest-growing operations in recruitment, from top-producing desks to entire offices, and founded two firms of my own along the way. The teams I've led have driven more than $30M in fees and over 1,000 placements. Today I help firm owners and founders sharpen their sales, streamline their operations, and modernize with AI, so the business bills more and runs cleaner as it grows.

Paid, focused sessions. You leave with answers, not a pitch.

$30M+
in recruitment fees
1,000+
placements delivered
12+
industries placed across
2x
co-founder & operator

Who I help

Wherever you are in the journey.

Whether you're scaling an established firm or building your first one, the work meets you where you are.

You run a firm

Staffing & agency owners

Most firms are leaving money on the table without knowing where. I pinpoint what's capping your billings and bleeding your margins, then build the systems that let the firm scale without running through you.

Scale the firm
You're going solo

Solo recruitment founders

You're a strong biller ready to bet on yourself. The hard part isn't the recruiting, it's everything around it. I help you set the business up right from day one, so you spend your energy earning instead of guessing.

Start your firm

What I do

Capabilities.

Market segmentation

The hardest call in recruitment is where to point the firm. Staffing is agile, so you can always follow the money. I identify the lucrative, underserved segments worth building a desk around, and the ones to walk away from.

Sales & recruiter productivity

Making people bill more is what I do best. Activity that converts, pipeline discipline, and the daily habits that separate top producers from everyone else. I make good recruiters great and great ones unstoppable.

Recruiter training & coaching

Onboarding and upskilling that ramp new hires fast and sharpen veterans. The desk-side coaching, scripts, and rhythm that turn headcount into production, not payroll.

Comp & commission design

The single biggest lever on behavior. I build comp and commission structures that reward the right activity, protect your margins, and keep your best billers from walking.

Operational efficiency

The operating system of a firm: workflows, KPIs, back office, and reporting that tells you the truth instead of what you want to hear. Less drag, more output.

Contract, direct hire & RPO builds

Stand up any model the right way, whether contract/temp desks, direct-hire and retained search, or talent-outsourcing (RPO), with the margins, workflow, and tech stack that make each one profitable.

Go-to-market & business development

Winning clients, not just filling roles. The BD strategy, positioning, and outreach that bring better accounts in the door and keep the pipeline full.

AI & automation

Most firms still run on manual effort and a CRM nobody updates. I build tech-enabled platforms and AI-driven workflows across sourcing, screening, outreach, and ops, so a lean team produces like one twice its size.

Scaling & new divisions

I've opened offices and built profitable new divisions from scratch. When you're ready to add a desk, a vertical, or a location, I know exactly where the landmines are.

Profitability & margin design

Revenue means nothing if it leaks out the bottom. I rebuild pricing, bill rates, and cost structure so more of every placement reaches the bottom line, and the firm is worth more when you sell.

Industries served

Deep experience across the markets that pay.

A dozen-plus industries and counting, with the deepest reach in technical and regulated markets where the hard-to-fill roles command real fees.

Accounting & Finance Aerospace Banking & Investment Management Construction & Built Environment Craft & Skilled Trades Engineering & Manufacturing Government & Defense Hardware Technology Healthcare & Life Sciences Legal Oil & Gas Renewable Energy Robotics Telecommunications

How we work together

Ways to work with me.

Start with a paid session, then move up as the stakes grow. Whatever fits the problem.

01
Paid working sessions
A focused, paid call. Either a 60-minute fit call or a 2-hour deep-dive strategy session. Walk away with answers.
Per session
02
Launch & build your firm
End-to-end guidance from first decision to a fully running business: market, structure, comp, operations and infrastructure, tech stack, first hires, and the system to grow it.
Engagement
03
Fixed-scope engagements
Defined builds with a clear deliverable: sales-productivity overhaul, comp redesign, desk build-out, recruiter ramp, ops cleanup, tech-stack and AI workflow setup.
Project
04
1:1 advisory & fractional director Flagship
Ongoing retainer. I sit beside you on the hard calls. Highest intimacy, highest impact.
Retainer

Book a call

Book time with me directly.

My time is paid because the session is worth paying for. You walk away with something useful whether or not we work together, and the fee is credited toward any engagement we start.

Option A

Intro / fit call

$500 / 60 min

A focused first conversation to pressure-test where you are, where you're stuck, and whether I'm the right person to help.

  • Diagnose the real bottleneck
  • Honest read on what's working
  • Clear next step, no hard sell
Book the intro call
Option B · most popular

Deep-dive strategy session

$800 / 2 hours

Bring your hardest problems: market segments, comp plans, hiring, margins, tech stack, scaling, launching. We work them live for two full hours.

  • Your agenda, your questions
  • Direct, specific, no fluff
  • Fee credited toward engagements
Book the strategy session
Sonny Lo
Founder, ProSearch Advisory
Partner & Co-founder, Talentree
Co-founder & COO, Ignite Recruitment
Associate Director, GQR Global Markets
Senior Consultant, Spencer-Ogden

About

I've done the job I'm advising you on.

I'm not a consultant who read about recruiting in a book. I built top-producing desks, opened offices, stood up entire divisions, and went on to co-found two firms of my own. I've carried the P&L, made payroll, and lived every problem you're facing right now.

That experience comes down to a few things I do better than almost anyone: I make salespeople more productive, I tighten the operations that quietly drain a firm's margins, and I bring the AI and systems that let a lean team outproduce a much larger one. When we talk, you get someone who has actually done it, telling you what really moves the number, not theory from a deck.

Questions

The things people ask first.

Because the call itself is valuable. You're not buying access. You're buying a focused hour with someone who has built and scaled this exact thing, and you leave with answers you can use whether or not we work together. The fee also keeps the calendar full of serious people. It's credited back if you move into a larger engagement.
Two groups: owners of staffing and search firms who want to scale or fix their economics, and strong billers leaving to launch their own firm. If you run a recruiting business or you're about to start one, and you want it more productive, I can help. The industry doesn't matter. The willingness to change does.
No. The efficiency and sales-productivity work is industry-agnostic. Billing is billing. In fact, one of the things I'm best at is the opposite of staying in a lane: figuring out which markets are actually worth being in. Recruitment is agile, you can always follow the money, and knowing where to point a desk is one of the hardest and most valuable calls an owner makes. I help you find the lucrative, underserved segments and build toward them, whatever the vertical.
After a call, the natural next steps are a fixed-scope project (a defined build with a clear deliverable), end-to-end guidance to launch and build your firm, or an ongoing 1:1 advisory / fractional-director retainer. We'll pick whatever actually fits the problem, and your paid call fee is credited toward it.

Let's talk about where you're stuck.

One focused call. We figure out, fast, whether I can move the needle for you. Bring the hard stuff.