Behind the Growth

The best career advice in recruiting and talent gets shared in private conversations over coffee. Insights that never make it to the broader community. We want to change that.Welcome to Behind the Growth – a podcast where emerging talent leaders get behind-the-curtain access to career stories from industry architects at LinkedIn, Meta, Stripe, Anthropic, and beyond.This isn't about company case studies or industry trends. It's about the humans who built the talent functions we admire – and the winding paths that got them there.Each conversation feels like eavesdropping on a 1-1 coffee chat. The kind where leaders share their real stories: the pivots that scared them, the mistakes that taught them, the frameworks they swear by.

Behind the Growth is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 10 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Behind the Growth, a business show with 10 episodes published.

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  Episode #9

  The Journey Behind Growth by Design with Mike Joyner, Adam Ward, and Jill Macri

  Dec 11, 202546 minS1

  <p>For our final episode, the three founding partners of Growth by Design Talent turn the lens on themselves. Mike Joyner, Adam Ward, and Jill Macri sit down together to reflect on the journey of building GBD from scratch, what led them to start the firm, and why they're closing this chapter.</p><p></p><p>They share the inflection points that shaped each of their careers—from Adam's internship that sparked his love for recruiting to Jill's formative years at Backroads learning leadership, to Mike's path through design, tech, and into talent. The conversation covers what it really took to...

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  Episode #8

  Leading with Heart: 30 Years of Talent Leadership with Miranda Kalinowski

  Dec 4, 202527 minS1

  <p>Miranda Kalinowski's 30-year journey from HR generalist in Australia to Head of Global Recruiting at Stripe reveals what it takes to lead talent through transformational growth. She scaled Facebook from 6,000 to over 84,000 employees while learning that your internal culture is your external brand.</p><p></p><p>You'll hear why she chose recruiting from day one and the advice that changed her leadership approach—"lead with heart and minds will follow."</p><p></p><p>She also opens up about the builder mode energy she found at Stripe, her philosophy on investing in the recruiting profession rather than just hi...

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  Episode #7

  Building Sustainable Operations Across Hypergrowth with Samara Crasilneck

  Nov 21, 202536 minS1

  <p>From Google and Facebook to Airbnb, Lyft, and Discord, Samara Crasilneck has built recruiting operations at some of the most influential tech companies of the past decade. Her career spans the full spectrum of hypergrowth chaos and post-growth stabilization, teaching her that success isn't about moving fast all the time—it's about knowing when to move fast and when to slow down.</p><p></p><p>Samara shares her refreshing practical approach to tools and innovation: start with pilots, find champions who aren't on the ops team, and remember that sometimes the basics work just as well as the la...

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  Episode #6

  From Agency Recruiting to Building In-House Teams with Emil Yeargin

  Nov 12, 202532 minS1

  <p>Emil Yeargin's career path took him from agency recruiting to leading talent teams at Lyft and Gusto. His transition from individual contributor to people leader wasn't just about managing more people—it required a fundamental shift in how he defined success.</p><p></p><p>You'll hear why agency recruiting skills translate so well to high-growth startups (and where they fall short), his framework for creating conditions of success rather than managing people's work, and why sometimes the most caring thing a leader can do is make the tough decisions others avoid.</p><p></p><p>An authentic conversation ab...

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  Episode #5

  Building a Career on Impact, Not Titles with Becky McCullough

  Nov 5, 202536 minS1

  <p>Becky McCullough's decade at HubSpot has been defined by one core philosophy: focus on the work itself, not the title. From executive search to leading teams at McKinsey, and now as VP of Talent Acquisition at HubSpot, she's built her career by doing great work and letting recognition follow.</p><p></p><p>You'll hear why she believes you should always take the call (even when you're happy where you are), her framework for evaluating opportunities based on skills rather than job descriptions, and the hyper-scheduling system that keeps her productive without burning out.</p><p></p><p>Becky...

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