Highly Adaptive

You've read the leadership books. You've taken the courses. But nobody hands you a manual for the version of yourself that had no idea what they were doing...and was terrified for anyone to find out.

In this episode of Highly Adaptive, Jeff Pelliccio and Erin MacKenzie turn the mic on themselves. No guest. No borrowed framework. Just two leaders being honest about the gap between who they were and who they've become.

Erin opens with a story that sets the tone immediately, she quit a promising corporate job to become a skydiver and bartend at a biker bar in Daytona Beach. What sounds like a detour turned out to be one of the most formative professional experiences of her career, teaching her about risk, authentic connection, and what it actually means to trust the people around you. A chance conversation with an 80-year-old skydiver named Norm (known affectionately as the Sky Fossil) put her on the path that led to everything that followed.

Jeff takes the other road. He was the one with the condo at 20, putting himself through college, checking every box in the right order. From the outside, he had it all figured out. On the inside, he was building narratives in his head that nobody else was paying attention to...and spending years performing certainty he didn't have.

Together, they surface the lessons that only show up in hindsight: why your insecurities are louder in your head than anywhere else, why the environment doesn't bend to you, and why the most useful thing you can do is stop running someone else's race.

Key Takeaways

Your insecurities are a solo audience: The narratives you build in your head about what others think of you are almost entirely fiction. Stripping that layer of concern opens up more room to participate, contribute, and connect.

Authenticity isn't vulnerability — it's strategy: Trying to fake it in front of experienced people doesn't work. They already know. Showing up as where you actually are builds more rapport and opens more doors than performed confidence ever will.

The environment doesn't bend to you: Prioritizing what the environment needs before what you want isn't a compromise. It's the fastest path to getting what you actually want.

Empty questions cost more than no questions: Speaking up matters. But understanding what you're asking before you ask it matters just as much. Curiosity without clarity doesn't move the conversation forward.

You don't compete on a global stage: you compete with yourself — Using others as benchmarks is fine. Measuring your progress against them is a trap. The only meaningful comparison is where you were yesterday versus where you are today.

You're exactly where you're supposed to be: Every moment is the result of a decision you made. That's not a reason to be passive — it's a reason to pay attention to what each moment is teaching you.

Don't say no to the opportunity: Growth almost never comes from the comfortable path. Say yes, figure it out, and trust that you'll learn more in motion than you ever would waiting for the right moment.

Sponsors

🐼 Allied Insight: When this episode is about running your own race, Allied Insight helps staffing and consulting firms define what that race actually looks like — and build the marketing to match. The Preferred Marketing Partner of Staffing and Consulting businesses.

🐙 All Things Staffing: The resource hub for the staffing community. Expert Resources for the Staffing Community.

You've felt it — that moment when a competitor launches something new and your whole team shifts into chase mode. Meetings get called. Tools get purchased. Playbooks get copied. And three months later, nothing sticks.

In this episode of Highly Adaptive, Jeff Pelliccio and Erin MacKenzie unpack why the most powerful move a leader can make right now might be to stop moving — at least for a moment. They dig into the real cost of reactive decision-making: wasted tech investments, team burnout, and strategies that were never built for your organization in the first place.

But this isn't just a case for slowing down. Jeff shares the quarterly intake framework he uses to replace impulse with insight — built around five pillars that turn scattered information into a central nervous system for smarter decisions. Erin opens up about building her own "pause muscle," from calendar blocking to using AI as a strategic thinking partner. Together, they make the case that clarity isn't hesitation — it's leadership.

If you've ever caught yourself saying "just tell me what works," this episode is your wake-up call.

Key Takeaways

• Reaction Begets Chase — When competitors move, the instinct is to match speed. But chasing someone else's strategy without understanding your own environment leads to misaligned tools, burned-out teams, and wasted resources.
• The Pause Isn't Slowing Down — It's Preventing the Wrong Momentum — Strategic pausing means understanding the problem before building the solution. Skip the clarity, and you skip the alignment your team needs to execute.
• Clarity Creates Alignment, Alignment Creates Confidence, Confidence Creates Better Outcomes — This chain is the episode's core framework. When leaders take time to define the "why," everything downstream gets sharper.
• Define Why Before You Define How — Jeff uses a personal trigger: if he can't clearly articulate why he's doing something and who it impacts, that's his signal to pause. The questions — why does my team care, why do my clients care, why does the community care — become the foundation for better decisions.
• Build a Central Nervous System for Strategic Decisions — Jeff's quarterly intake framework examines five pillars: best-fit clients, areas of industry focus, frontline pulse, most valuable resources, and areas of friction. The output feeds the entire organization from the same data points.
• Be the Ball, Don't Chase It — Instead of copying what's working for someone else, ask how you can improve on the concept. Use inspiration as a starting point, not a blueprint. The copy is never as good as the original.
• Block 90 Minutes — Not to Solution, But to Ask Questions — Erin's tactical advice: block calendar time specifically for strategic thinking. Don't solve anything. Just ask — what problem are we actually solving? What does success look like? What happens if we don't move right now?

Sponsors

🐼 Allied Insight — Helping staffing and consulting leaders replace reactive marketing with strategic clarity. The Preferred Marketing Partner of Staffing and Consulting businesses.

🐙 All Things Staffing — Your go-to resource for the insights, tools, and community that keep staffing leaders ahead. Expert Resources for the Staffing Community.

In this episode of Highly Adaptive, Jeff Pelliccio and Erin MacKenzie are joined by Travis McGrew at Tracker, to break down a leadership reality most people experience but rarely name: clarity often comes after responsibility—not before it. 

 

Travis reframes resilience as something far more practical than “toughness.” It’s the ability to decide without certainty, stay curious instead of performative, and communicate truth early—before ambiguity turns into fear and teams start protecting themselves instead of aligning. The conversation moves from individual leadership habits (self-talk, internal benchmarks, discomfort patterns) to organizational consequences (trust, transparency, misalignment), giving leaders a clean framework for navigating uncertainty without hardening.

Key Takeaways

• Uncertainty isn’t incompetence — real leadership shows up as curiosity, not fake certainty.
• Clarity can be created through action — waiting to “feel ready” often means waiting too long.
• Truth prevents fear — avoiding reality creates ambiguity, and ambiguity fuels misalignment.
• Manage individuals, not “people” — personal realities always show up at work.
• Compete with yourself — internal benchmarks are more honest and sustainable.
• Protect your self-talk — self-doubt compounds faster than you think.

Sponsors

Allied Insight - The Preferred Marketing Partner of Staffing and Consulting BusinessesAllied Insight helps staffing and consulting leaders turn strategy into clear positioning and consistent execution—so your message holds up when the market gets noisy.

 

All Things Staffing - Expert Resources for the Staffing CommunityYour hub for practical insights, frameworks, and real-world examples to help staffing leaders outpace change.

In this episode of Highly Adaptive, Jeff Pelliccio and Erin MacKenzie are joined by Keith Weightman from Bullhorn to unpack what personal branding actually looks like when it’s done with intent—not gimmicks.

Keith breaks down why most leaders struggle to show up consistently: they overthink the algorithm, chase what worked for someone else, or fall into polarizing “rage bait” because it performs. His argument is simple (and refreshing): you can’t time what hits—but you can build trust by showing up consistently with a message your audience can actually use.

The conversation gets practical fast: how to review your analytics, remix what already worked, repurpose ideas across formats (including carousels), and keep your voice human—even when you use AI. The result is a repeatable system leaders can run without turning LinkedIn into a full-time job.

Key Takeaways

• Consistency beats the algorithm — you can’t time virality; you can build trust through repetition.

• Repurpose what already works — use analytics to remix proven ideas into new formats.

• Avoid polarizing “rage bait” — it may spike engagement, but it taxes credibility.

• Bring solutions, not complaints — don’t surface problems without proposing 1–3 options.

• AI can support your process — use it for ideation and clarity, but don’t copy/paste a voice that isn’t yours.

• Preparation is the advantage — the downside is limited, and the upside is exponential.

Sponsors

Allied Insight - The Preferred Marketing Partner of Staffing and Consulting Businesses
Allied Insight helps staffing and consulting leaders turn strategy into clear positioning and consistent execution—so your message holds up when the market gets noisy.

All Things Staffing - Expert Resources for the Staffing Community
Your hub for industry insights, frameworks, and real-world examples to help staffing leaders outpace change.

In this episode of Highly Adaptive, Jeff Pelliccio and Erin MacKenzie are joined by Mark Hummel, founder of Toro Insights, to tackle a problem most staffing leaders feel every day—but rarely name: you’re collecting a mountain of data…and still making decisions like you don’t have any.

Mark breaks down why “if it’s not in the ATS, it didn’t happen” became an industry mantra—and why it backfires when the data you’re collecting turns into digital dust: hard to access, hard to segment, and slow to use. The hidden cost isn’t storage. It’s time, missed opportunities, underused automation investments, and teams rebuilding lists from scratch because the system can’t surface what they need.

The episode gets extremely practical: where the real competitive intelligence actually lives (emails, texts, and conversations), how to run a DIY “external search” audit to find your missing data fields, and how to think about AI as a coach that gives your team superpowers—not a shortcut that replaces the fundamentals. The core message lands clean: digital dust becomes digital gold when you know where to “swing the hammer.”

Key Takeaways

• Your differentiator is hidden – Competitive advantage lives in what you know, not how many resumes you store.

• Digital dust is expensive – The biggest cost is time: tear sheets, list rebuilding, and analysis paralysis.

• Automation fails without segmentation – If data isn’t structured, your automation tools can’t deliver ROI.

• Mine conversations for stories – Emails/texts/LinkedIn messages hold the proof points that win deals.

• Start with the external search test – If teams go to LinkedIn first, identify what they’re looking for and where your system is missing it.

• Use AI as a coach – Train and empower recruiters with institutional knowledge, not generic outreach “slop.”

Sponsors

Allied Insight - The Preferred Marketing Partner of Staffing and Consulting Businesses
Turn your operational story into a market story. Allied Insight helps staffing and consulting leaders align strategy, message, and execution—so your brand and your systems work together to drive growth.

All Things Staffing - Expert Resources for the Staffing Community
Your hub for staffing insights, case studies, and operator-grade frameworks. All Things Staffing helps leaders turn ideas like “data strategy” into practical next steps that improve outcomes.