We live in a world where recruiters can connect with thousands of people with a single click. LinkedIn, CRMs, and AI tools all promise to manage relationships at a scale unimaginable a generation ago.

The challenge is that genuine trust doesn't scale automatically. When interactions become automated and transactional, the very thing that makes recruiting work starts to break down. People still hire people they trust, and the best referrals still come through relationships, not algorithms.

So how do you build and maintain trust at scale?

My guest this week is Denise Chaffin, Founder of Top Source Talent and host of the Talking TA podcast. In our conversation, she shares how nearly four decades in recruiting have shaped her thinking on building trust at scale and ensuring technology strengthens relationships rather than undermines them.

In the interview, we discuss:

The risk of transactional relationships
Building and maintaining trust over time
The limits of managing large networks
How AI tools can support relationships
Finding talent through unexpected connections
Network Mapping
Key skills to build trust and connection
What the future looks like

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