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Guilty Pleas, Autopilots and Iced Lattes: RecFest USA Live artwork

Guilty Pleas, Autopilots and Iced Lattes: RecFest USA Live

The Chad & Cheese Podcast

September 25, 2026

What do a big couch, a can of Stella, and four of the biggest personalities in recruitment have in common? They’re all live from RecFest this week, covering the hottest topics in the world of hiring. Chad, Joel, Mo’, and J.T.

Speakers Joel Cheesman, Chad Sowash, Maureen Wiley, J.T. O'Donnell, Joseph Cole

TopicsCareersBusinessTechnology

Joel Cheesman (0:00)

All right, who's ready for a cold hard fact? Indeed's pricing model and all programmatic job advertising is based on driving volume, not outcomes. Job boards get paid on clicks and applies, not hires. Their incentive is to send you more volume. That's what happens with volume-based pricing models, and all that volume creates exactly what you'd expect. Mass inefficiency, mountains of unqualified applicants, and wasted spend. Meanwhile, TA teams know their career site is already their best source of quality applicants who get hired. TA teams invest in their career sites and employer brand, but the outdated technology makes it too hard for people to connect and apply. Dalia fixes that. Millions of job seekers use Dalia every month to seamlessly connect to employer career sites and apply to jobs using their universal candidate profile. No re-entering information over and over. It's like the shop pay button, but for jobs. It's secure, it integrates directly into your ATS, and it works instantly on any career site. Employers using Dalia can double their conversion of career site visitors into qualified applicants and hires. That's how you start cutting your dependence on Indeed. Learn more at dalia.co. That's D-A-L-I-ACO.

SPEAKER_2 (1:15)

A crummy commercial? Son of a bitch.

Joel Cheesman (1:23)

There we go. Was I supposed to do that? Oh, yeah.

Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only ten I see. What's up, boys and girls? This is The Chad & Cheese Podcast.

SPEAKER_2 (1:33)

So fast.

Joel Cheesman (1:34)

I'm your co-host, Joel Cheesman, slash, wait, Joel Nashville Hot Cheeseman.

SPEAKER_2 (1:39)

Do it again.

Joel Cheesman (1:40)

I practiced that one. Do it again. Do it again.

SPEAKER_4 (1:42)

I love it.

Joel Cheesman (1:44)

Oh, yeah. Are you a 10?

SPEAKER_4 (1:50)

So good.

Hide your kids, lock the doors. You're listening to HR's most dangerous podcast. Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where it hurts. Complete with breaking news, brash opinion, and loads of snark. Buckle up, boys and girls.

Joel Cheesman (2:08)

It's time for The Chad & Cheese Podcast.

SPEAKER_4 (2:13)

Oh, yeah.

Joel Cheesman (2:13)

Are you from Tennessee?

Because you're the only 10 I see. What's up, boys and girls? This is The Chad & Cheese Podcast. I'm your co-host, Joel Nashville Hot Cheesman.

Chad Sowash (2:24)

This is Chad. It's a marathon, not a sprint, Sowash.

Maureen Wiley (2:29)

This is Maureen, aka Mo. There's a new sheriff in town, Wiley Cluff.

Joel Cheesman (2:35)

The bedazzler, Maureen.

Maureen Wiley (2:37)

Let's get you ready.

J.T. O'Donnell (2:38)

And I'm JT, drinking pernicious IPA O'Donnell.

Maureen Wiley (2:42)

There it is.

Joel Cheesman (2:43)

And on this episode of HR's Most Dangerous Podcast, Vodcast, we are live from RecFest in Nashville, Tennessee. It's commercial time.

SPEAKER_4 (2:54)

Okay, face it.

Chad Sowash (2:55)

Recruitment marketing is broken. 70% of paid recruitment media goes wasted. 93% of candidates bounce off your job ads before they even apply for the job. And this is not a talent problem. No, it's not a data problem. It's a targeting and experience problem. The beauty of this is companies aren't trying to fix it. They're transforming it.

Joel Cheesman (3:18)

Hell yeah!

Chad Sowash (3:19)

With up to 80% more high quality applicants, 40% reduction in spend and 50% less recruiter time spent, they're realizing what's possible with recruitment marketing that actually works. So how did they do it? Well, they chose Jovio, an AI led high performance recruitment marketing platform built to eliminate waste and drive more results. With Jovio's AI agents, your job ads reach the right candidates while your career site, conversational AI and application process drive better candidates and conversions. What about those qualified candidates you've already bought and paid for and they're wasting away in your ATS? Well, Jovio also re-engages them. Want to learn more about Jovio? Cool. Just go to jovio.com. That's joveo.com.

It's showtime.

Joel Cheesman (4:14)

Okay. What's up, kids?

J.T. O'Donnell (4:15)

Okay, okay.

Joel Cheesman (4:16)

What's up?

Chad Sowash (4:17)

Mo, Mo, finally, we're all together. We're doing this live.

SPEAKER_9 (4:21)

Mo is drunk.

J.T. O'Donnell (4:23)

Day one.

SPEAKER_2 (4:23)

I'm eating Spoonie Pop.

Maureen Wiley (4:25)

Day one, cheers.

Joel Cheesman (4:27)

Cheers.

J.T. O'Donnell (4:28)

Look in the eyes.

Maureen Wiley (4:29)

Look in the eyes.

J.T. O'Donnell (4:29)

This is yours.

Joel Cheesman (4:31)

You made it. He's all here, except for him.

J.T. O'Donnell (4:34)

It's good stuff.

Joel Cheesman (4:35)

If you can't tell and you're listening, we are in the Shaker booth.

J.T. O'Donnell (4:39)

Yes.

Joel Cheesman (4:39)

Who has graciously given us their facilities here. Thanks, Joe. Now the show is over, so it's kind of an easy thing to do to give us the show. Yeah. But let's hear. Day one is in the books.

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