I'm building hiring that
starts with conversations,
not automation.
What people can do and what companies need are both far more complex than what fits on a resume or a job description. I'm building a better starting point: real conversations that capture what matters before any matching happens. From those conversations, clear profiles take shape — what someone can do, what a role requires, and where the two fit.
The backstory.
I got into recruiting by accident. I found it on Craigslist, almost quit on day two, and stayed anyway. That decision changed my life. Over the next 14 years, I built a career in hiring, agency, in-house, consulting, and eventually leading teams and building entire TA functions. I got good at it.
Looking back, my recruiting career started because someone chose to have a conversation with me, not screen me out. My resume wouldn't have gotten me in the door, but that conversation did. And that's not how hiring works for most people. We reduce people to resumes, we filter them by keywords, and we often make decisions on incomplete information. It isn't that anyone is doing this on purpose. I believe everyone is trying their best, but finding work and hiring people should not be this hard.
Recruiting has always started with the job, but what if we started with the person? I left my corporate job last year to go build the answer to that question. Reel is a people-first company built by a non-technical founder who's committed to keeping things real. Real conversations, real information, reeling in what matters.
And it felt familiar, fishing has been part of my life since I was a kid. Summer trips with family on the lake in northern Michigan. Simple, patient, paying attention. That's what hiring should feel like too.
Founding clients get the founder.
I'm working directly with a small number of companies to rethink how their hiring actually works. We look at where alignment breaks down, where signal gets lost, and how the process can be rebuilt so decisions get clearer and more consistent. It's thoughtful, hands-on work, and I'm keeping the group intentionally small while I build Reel.
Together, we assess your current hiring process, build role profiles for your priority roles, and introduce a conversation-based methodology to your team that gives everyone involved better information to work with. I stay involved to make sure it sticks. 60–90 day engagements.
Process design, workflow optimization, AI integration for recruiting teams, or something else entirely for your TA function. Having worked across corporate, startup, hyper-growth, RPO, agency, and staffing, I've learned that every org needs something different, and I'm really good at partnering with teams to figure out what that is.
For people who want a better way to talk about what they do. One conversation captures what you bring to the table, plus the tools to use it: a Reel profile, a rewritten resume, interview prep, social profile copy, and a 30-minute follow-up. Your profile gets more valuable over time, too. As Reel's network grows, it becomes the foundation for matching you with opportunities based on real information.
The conversation matters most at the turning points.
A Reel conversation does its best work when a career is in motion, for the person and for the organization responsible for people in transition. Here's where I see Reel helping, and where I can help now.
When you have to let people go, give them something that genuinely helps: a conversation that gets at their real value and a profile to move forward with. More useful than most outplacement, and more affordable.
A new leader landing, or an existing one stepping up, starts with understanding how they actually operate. Reel captures that.
Your best next hire may already work for you. Reel surfaces what people are great at, so the right internal moves become obvious.
Students and new grads have a lot to offer that a resume doesn't capture yet. A Reel conversation helps them put it into words and step into the market with confidence.