Decoding AQ with Ross Thornley Feat. Matt Charney - Recruitment and Marketing

Decoding AQ with Ross Thornley Feat. Matt Charney - Recruitment and Marketing

Released Tuesday, 12th August 2025
Good episode? Give it some love!
Decoding AQ with Ross Thornley Feat. Matt Charney - Recruitment and Marketing

Decoding AQ with Ross Thornley Feat. Matt Charney - Recruitment and Marketing

Decoding AQ with Ross Thornley Feat. Matt Charney - Recruitment and Marketing

Decoding AQ with Ross Thornley Feat. Matt Charney - Recruitment and Marketing

Tuesday, 12th August 2025
Good episode? Give it some love!
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Matt Charney is an award-winning marketing and communications executive known for transforming bold content into measurable results. He is currently the Chief Marketing Officer at Employer.com, where he leads brand strategy, messaging, and campaign development to elevate the company’s impact in the HR tech and employer branding space.

With over 190,000 LinkedIn followers and a strong track record across roles such as Editor-in-Chief at Recruiter.com and Advisor to multiple HR tech startups, Matt is a leading voice at the intersection of talent and marketing. His career spans high-impact content roles for brands like Symphony Talent and Hootsuite, where his creative vision delivered measurable business outcomes.

Matt is known for his authentic, no-nonsense writing style that challenges conventional thinking in recruitment and branding. His thought leadership has been featured across global platforms, and he frequently advises companies on how to cut through the noise with clarity, strategy, and wit.

He currently advises several innovative platforms including ExactBuyer, Honeit Talent Solutions, and Symba, helping them scale through sharp messaging and differentiated positioning.

Ross and Matt talk about serendipity, conversations, recruitment, monster.com,  marketing, branding, standing out, brand affinity, unleashed, AI recruitment, LinkedIn, Reddit, Indeed, Fishbowl app, hiring, candid experience, short vs long game, adaptability, knowing what you want to achieve, Mr Beast, Peoplesoft and generating buzz. The pair also discuss product affinity, entertainment, recruitment, HR, content marketing, Athlete recruitment, learning agility, describing job roles, job interviews, company recruitment, transparency, 
oculus, repelling the wrong candidates, paths to mastery, growth, flying standby and bravery. 

Timecodes:

  • 00:15 Intro to Matt 
  • 01:09 Matt's Hats
  • 02:43 Matt's early journey
  • 05:54 Humour and professionalism
  • 08:01 What excites Matt
  • 12:11 Community platforms and ROI
  • 14:38 Things people don't know
  • 18:24 Naming AQai in 2019
  • 20:05 Combating pushback to shifts and people buying in
  • 22:39 Earnings to employee ratio and billion dollar business of one
  • 24:41 Replicating businesses and the importance of brand  
  • 26:23 Content strategy
  • 31:30 Divergent career paths and transitioning peoples identity in recruitment
  • 35:04 Specific job roles changing in recruitment 
  • 39:12 Job role recruitment done well 
  • 43:57 The last time Matt did something for the first time 
  • 45:53 Reaching out to Matt

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