Some of the best ideas in business history weren’t born in boardrooms, and Steve Hardy has the Sip Club to prove it. In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with Steve Hardy, five-time CMO, Forrester Marketing Executive of the Year, and current SmartRecruiters CMO for a conversation about what modern hiring innovation should actually enable and all that it takes to get there. From building a Friday ritual that outlasted his own tenure at a company to keeping culture, momentum, and execution intact through big change, Steve and Nicole discuss how the future of hiring will be shaped by teams that can ship, learn, adapt, and deliver with trust.

And yes, they get into the numbers too. Because when nearly 60% of hires on your platform are already touching AI, and you’ve shipped 160% more product in a single year, the story goes beyond marketing and into the day-to-day reality of getting great work done. At a time when hiring leaders are looking for proof over hype, visible product progress, and consistent execution, Steve offers a grounded view of what it takes to keep momentum going inside a fast-changing environment.

Takeaways:

• If your team does not feel connected and inspired, do not expect execution to show up on its own. Ask yourself honestly whether the people executing actually believe in what you're building.
• Watch the market and keep your eye on customers, but make room for new ideas to surface. Some of the best thinking happens when people have the space to reflect, connect dots, and solve problems informally.
• Build WITH your customers, not just FOR them. Every feature SmartRecruiters ships has spent real hours in front of real users, and your design partner program isn't a nice-to-have, it's your quality filter. A quicker pace of innovation only matters when what you are delivering is clear, useful, and easy for customers to put into practice.
• Don't be afraid to kill what isn't working. Sunsetting a workflow, product, or idea is not failure; it is often how teams protect momentum and redirect energy toward what actually moves the needle.
• When navigating change, lead with curiosity instead of certainty. Ask more questions, bring in different perspectives, and let those differences sharpen the path forward rather than slow it down. Use frameworks like "five whys" to get to the real heart of how things work on both sides.
• Stop bracing for what AI might take away and start building toward what it could create. A decade ago, nobody had a job title with "cloud" or "social" in it, and the same shift is happening right now.

Quote of the Show:

• “We don’t call it innovation when it happens on a playground. Kids are just being creative. They’re given the space to be individuals and explore ideas freely, and I think we need to create more of those opportunities in the workplace to get the best out of people.” - Steve Hardy

Links:

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/steve-hardy-cmo
• Website: smartrecruiters.com

Ways to Tune In:

• Substack: HiringHappyHour.com
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369
• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793
• iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769

What does it actually take to build a hiring system from scratch, launch it during COVID, and hit 1.3 million hires in a single year? In this episode of Hiring Happy Hour, Nicole sits down with her friend and former implementation partner Preeti Woods, Senior Product Manager at Amazon Web Services, to unpack the real story behind deploying SmartRecruiters to 3,000+ Amazon DSPs across 14+ countries, including the moment a UAT crisis forced a full pivot that changed the product forever. This conversation is equal parts technical, human, and deeply honest about what it means to build something that actually works when the stakes couldn't be higher.

Takeaways:

• Passion and belief in the "why" aren't soft skills, they're load-bearing. Knowing why your work matters and who it ultimately serves is what keeps teams moving when timelines tighten and decisions get hard.
• Speed is an asset until it isn't. When UAT revealed a fundamental flaw in their deployment model, slowing down to pivot correctly was the only move… and it paid off.
• Your customer's customer matters. Preeti kept candidates and DSP owners at the center of every product decision, not just internal stakeholders, and that lens shaped a better outcome at every turn.
• Build relationships with your vendors the way you'd build them with your team. Transparency and trust between Amazon and SmartRecruiters made an impossible pivot possible in under a month.
• Outcome-oriented leadership beats micromanagement every time. Whether it's four days or six, remote or in-office, Preeti's standard is simple: are you delivering?
• Don't underestimate what one person with clarity can drive. Preeti started as a team of one and within months was coordinating a product launch that set new Amazon records.
• The hardest moments make the best case studies. The willingness to write a pivot doc, convince leadership, and take a risk is often where real transformation begins.

Quote of the Show:

"Ultimately we worked hard. We accomplished something big and now our customers are truly delighted by it." - Preeti Woods

Links:

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/preetiwoods
• Website: https://aws.amazon.com/

Ways to Tune In:

• Substack: HiringHappyHour.com
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369
• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793
• iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769

We're bringing this one back to the feed because some conversations are too important to only hear once. Jamie Szymkowiak, Head of Talent Acquisition at EcoVadis, former political advisor to the UK House of Commons, and disability rights advocate who turned personal adversity into a top 5% billing career, is someone whose story doesn't lose anything on a second listen. Nicole and Jamie’s conversation is a masterclass in doing hiring right, tackling AI's unintended blind spots, practical frameworks for accessibility, and why integrity isn't optional in recruiting.

Takeaways:

• State your accessibility options directly in the job description and on your careers page. That single line of text is often the first signal to a candidate that your organization actually sees them.
• AI interviewing can inadvertently exclude the people you most want to reach. Candidates with anxiety, disabilities, or nervous dispositions need human touchpoints, not just automated queues, to show up as their best selves.
• The most powerful step toward inclusive hiring is listening to the people most affected by it. Lived experience isn't a nice-to-have; it's the most credible source of insight and accountability you have.
• Unconscious bias training only works if it's recurring. A one-time module fades; it has to be woven into the rhythm of how your team operates, not treated as an annual obligation.
• Once you make inclusive changes, go back to the people who've been hired through your process. They've seen it from the inside, they trust you, and they're your most honest and underutilized source of feedback.
• Integrity in recruiting is your long-term brand. Every shortcut has a cost. Jamie learned it the hard way when a single lapse with a confidential client search ended a promising business relationship for good.
• The best recruiters don't just place candidates, they redirect them. Giving honest, actionable feedback and pointing someone toward a better-fit opportunity might be the single most impactful thing a TA professional can do.

Quote of the Show:

• "The human-centric aspect of our job will never go away." — Jamie Szymkowiak

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamieszymkowiak/
• Company website: http://www.ecovadis.com/

Ways to Tune In:

• Substack: HiringHappyHour.com
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1Pnhu7Njmi09N6Yzye59Nf
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/hiring-happy-hour/id1868802369
• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/d60912b0-8925-4bba-aff1-f5230a0cc793
• iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/317223012/
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/hiring-happy-hour-6340769