A reflection on the words and reminders that guide a recruiter, mother, and entrepreneur through life's challenges, emphasizing progress over perfection, faith over fear, and the power of intentional action and genuine connection.
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Influential Woman · Recruiting
Jani Sue Macomb
Professional Recruiter & Founder, Relationship First Recruiting
Murray, UT 84123
17Years experience
2Articles published
Her Story
About Jani
Jani Macomb understands that every company needs the right person for each open position—and every résumé represents someone seeking the right opportunity. As the Founder of Relationship First Recruiting, she brings those two sides together through personal conversations, consistent communication, and a recruiting approach that helps people feel seen, heard, and valued.
With more than a decade of experience, Jani has recruited across healthcare, construction, skilled trades, manufacturing, logistics, supply chain, and professional services. She specializes in hard-to-fill hiring, full-cycle recruiting, proactive talent sourcing, candidate experience, hiring strategy, and employer branding.
At CompHealth, Jani became a top-performing physician recruiter specializing in neurology, pediatric neurology, neurosurgery, and other highly specialized areas of medicine. She guided candidates through complex career decisions while helping healthcare organizations reach physicians whose experience was difficult to find.
As Whitaker Construction’s first in-house recruiter, Jani helped build the recruiting process from the ground up during a period of rapid workforce expansion. She partnered closely with hiring managers to establish hiring priorities, develop talent pipelines, and fill critical construction and skilled-trades roles—creating a stronger recruiting foundation to support the company’s continued growth.
Today, Jani leads Relationship First Recruiting, partnering with organizations that need more than another job posting. She takes the time to understand the company, the position, and the people involved before developing a recruiting strategy. Her goal is not simply to fill an opening—it is to create a connection that gives an employer confidence in its next hire and gives a candidate confidence in the next step of their career.
Jani believes the strongest hiring outcomes begin with curiosity, trust, communication, and a willingness to look beyond the qualifications listed on paper. Outside of her professional work, she is a mother of five and volunteers with Rise Up School of Dance in Salt Lake City, where she and her daughters participate in community performances, including productions of The Nutcracker.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jani
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute much of my success to the example my parents set. My mother worked in adoption for more than 20 years, was a counselor, and earned a master’s degree in Child Development. Through her work, I saw how much it matters to listen, understand someone’s story, and recognize the responsibility that comes with helping people through life-changing decisions. My stepfather had a profound work ethic. His example taught me to show up, work hard, and follow through—even when things are difficult.
Those lessons are the foundation of Relationship First Recruiting. I bring determination to finding the right people and compassion to understanding what matters to them. For an employer, a hire can change the direction of a team. For a candidate, a new opportunity can change life for an entire family. I take that responsibility personally.
My success comes from combining the work ethic I grew up with and the belief that people deserve more than a transaction. They deserve someone who listens, stays involved, and does the work to help them move forward.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I’ve received comes down to persistence, practice, and follow-through. Early on, I learned that you may hear a hundred no’s before you hear the yes that changes everything. Rejection is part of the process—not a reason to stop.
I was encouraged to take interviews whenever possible because each conversation builds confidence, sharpens your communication, and teaches you something. Another lesson was to always be prospecting: keep meeting people, building relationships, and creating opportunities rather than waiting for them to arrive.
I’ve also been told to be “professionally aggressive.” To me, that means having the courage to initiate a conversation, ask for an opportunity, and pursue it with purpose—while respecting the other person’s time and decisions.
One physician I worked with shared a message about refusing to quit and persevering through adversity that has stayed with me. Setbacks can teach us, strengthen us, and prepare us for what comes next.
Above all: follow through, follow through, follow through. That is central to Relationship First Recruiting. Making a connection is only the beginning; earning someone’s trust means doing what you said you would do.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You do not have to know everything to have something valuable to offer. Ask questions, learn from the people around you, and give yourself permission to grow into the recruiter you want to become. Your voice belongs in the conversation.
Learn the businesses and industries you recruit for, not just the job descriptions. Ask hiring managers what success looks like on their teams, and ask candidates what matters most in their next opportunity. Listening closely will help you become a partner people trust.
Be confident enough to reach out, speak up, and advocate for yourself—and caring enough to remember that hiring decisions affect people’s lives. Kindness and ambition can absolutely exist together. You can pursue your goals without losing the qualities that make you who you are.
Build relationships before you need them, seek out mentors, and follow through on your commitments. You do not need to become someone else to succeed in this industry. Build your knowledge, trust your voice, and give people a reason to count on you.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges I see in recruiting is the disconnect between employers trying to find the right people and candidates trying to get noticed. A company may be struggling to fill an important role while a capable person is struggling to get a conversation. That is where recruiters can make a difference—by asking better questions, looking beyond keywords, and understanding what each side needs.
Technology and AI create opportunities to make recruiting more efficient, but I believe their greatest value is giving us more time to connect with people. A tool can help identify experience; a conversation helps us understand someone’s goals, strengths, and potential.
There is also an opportunity to help employers tell their story more effectively. Candidates want to understand the work, the leadership, the expectations, and why an opportunity might be right for them. That starts with helping companies communicate what they offer and following through on that experience throughout the hiring process.
For me, the opportunity is to make hiring feel more human. That is the purpose behind Relationship First Recruiting.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Strong morals, kindness, respect, and positivity guide both my work and my personal life. I believe in treating people the way I would want to be treated—with patience, consideration, and a willingness to understand their perspective. Whether someone is leading a company or applying for their first job, they deserve the same respect and attention.
Positivity is especially important to me. It means looking for possibilities, encouraging people, and focusing on what we can do to move forward. Sometimes, having someone believe in you can make a difference, and I want to be that kind of person for others.
I also value hard work, accountability, and keeping my word. Doing the right thing matters even when no one is watching. I want people to know they can count on me to listen, take responsibility, and follow through.
As a mother and business owner, I want my values to show in my actions. That is the foundation of Relationship First Recruiting: working hard for people while remembering that their lives, families, and futures matter. To me, success is measured not only by what I accomplish, but by the trust I earn, the commitments I keep, and the difference I make in people’s lives.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Jani
The Words Around My Desk: What Keeps Me Moving When Life Needs Everything at Once
How the Words Around My Desk Keep Me Focused on What Truly Matters
Around my desk are words and phrases I have collected over the years:
- What is the quickest way to the dollar today?
- Refuse to be defeated.
- Failure is success in progress.
- The difference between good and great is 5%.
- Progress, not perfection.
- Be the energy you want to attract.
There are also reminders about faith, hard work, rejection, gratitude, humility, and refusing to quit.
They are not there because every day feels positive or because I always have everything figured out.
They are there because I do not.
I am a professional recruiter, the Founder of Relationship First Recruiting, and a mother raising a family while building a business and continuing to develop my career.
On any given day, I may be speaking with a hiring manager, checking in with a candidate, developing a client's employer brand, handling an invoice, managing responsibilities at home, and thinking about everything that needs to happen tomorrow.
The words around my desk bring me back to what matters when my attention is being pulled in several directions.
They remind me that I do not need to do everything perfectly. I need to identify the priority, take the next step, and keep going.
What is the quickest way to the dollar today?
At first, this may sound like a phrase focused only on money. To me, it is about discipline.
When you own a business, it is easy to spend an entire day being busy without doing anything that moves the business forward. You can reorganize a list, research another tool, revise a graphic for the tenth time, or spend hours preparing to take an action instead of taking it.
Meanwhile, the call that could lead to a client remains unmade. The proposal remains unsent. The invoice remains unfinished. The candidate remains waiting for an update.
Asking, "What is the quickest way to the dollar today?" helps me identify the action that creates value now.
Sometimes that means following up with a potential client. Sometimes it means completing a search, strengthening a company's online presence, or making an introduction that could become someone's next hire.
Money is not the only measure of value, but a business cannot continue helping people if it cannot sustain itself.
The question keeps me focused on progress instead of activity.
The difference between good and great is 5%.
I have seen this difference throughout my recruiting career.
The extra 5% is rarely one enormous action.
- It is asking one more question during an intake meeting.
- It is following up when someone else might assume a candidate is no longer interested.
- It is checking whether a new employee is doing well after the first day instead of considering the work complete once the offer is accepted.
- It is learning what a company needs beyond the qualifications listed in a job description.
- It is taking time to help a candidate prepare for a conversation that could change the direction of their career.
At home, the extra 5% may mean staying in the room a few minutes longer when one of my children needs to talk. It may mean showing up when my schedule is crowded or setting aside my phone long enough to notice that someone is having a difficult day.
The extra 5% does not always require more hours. Often, it requires more attention.
That is one of the strongest connections I see between motherhood, recruiting, and business ownership: people remember when you pay attention.
Refuse to be defeated.
I have experienced rejection in my career. I have faced circumstances that did not turn out the way I hoped, opportunities that disappeared, and plans that changed without my permission.
I have also watched candidates go through the same thing.
They prepare, interview, wait, and imagine what a new position could mean for their future. Then they receive a rejection-or sometimes no response at all.
Rejection hurts because hope was involved.
But rejection does not get to make the final decision about who we are or what happens next.
One of the reminders around my desk comes from the Navy SEAL Ethos:
"I will never quit. I persevere and thrive on adversity."
I am not comparing my challenges to what members of the military endure. What I take from those words is the decision to keep moving when circumstances become difficult.
Refusing to be defeated does not mean pretending something did not hurt. It means allowing yourself to feel the disappointment, learning what you can, adjusting your approach, and trying again.
Sometimes perseverance means pushing forward. Sometimes it means recognizing that the original direction was not right and having the courage to choose another one.
Either way, I am not finished simply because something did not work the first time.
Failure is success in progress.
Failure has taught me lessons that success could not.
Success can confirm that an approach worked. Failure forces us to examine why something did not.
- Did I ask the right questions?
- Did I communicate clearly?
- Did I follow through?
- Was I trying to force an outcome that was not right?
- Did I allow pride to keep me from seeing what needed to change?
A message I appreciate from Katy Perry's song "Smile" is the idea that rejection can sometimes be protection and that an ego check can eventually become a turning point.
No one enjoys being handed a piece of humble pie. But humility can save us from continuing down a path that is not helping us grow.
Some of the hardest experiences in my life have made me reconsider what success means, become more willing to learn, and develop greater compassion for people recovering from setbacks of their own.
Failure is not automatically progress. It becomes progress when we are willing to learn from it.
Hard work always wins over talent.
Talent matters. Experience matters. Knowledge matters.
But none of them can replace effort.
Throughout my career, I have seen people with enormous potential stop when the work became uncomfortable. I have also seen people who were underestimated continue learning, practicing, and showing up until they became the people others could count on.
I want my children to understand this.
They do not need to be the most naturally talented person in every classroom, activity, or future workplace.
- They need to be willing to learn.
- They need to practice.
- They need to treat people well.
- They need to keep their word and follow through.
Talent may open a door, but work ethic affects what happens after someone walks through it.
As a mother, I want my children to see me work hard-but I also want them to know why I work hard.
I am not working simply to stay busy. I am building something. I am helping people find opportunities. I am helping companies build teams. I am creating possibilities for my family and showing my children that they can build careers, lead, and create paths that may not have existed before.
Progress, not perfection.
This may be the reminder I need most.
There are days when I do not complete everything on my list. There are days when a business responsibility takes longer than expected, someone at home needs more attention, or I reach the end of the evening with several things still waiting for me.
I once believed successful women had somehow figured out how to keep every part of life perfectly balanced. I no longer believe that.
Balance suggests everything receives equal time and attention. Careers, businesses, families, and personal responsibilities do not work that way.
Some days my family needs more from me. Some days a client deadline cannot move. Some days a candidate is waiting for an answer that could affect their entire family.
The goal is not to give everything an equal portion of every day. The goal is to recognize what needs my attention most and respond intentionally.
Progress may be one completed call. One application submitted. One difficult conversation handled well. One promise kept. One person reminded that they matter.
A day does not have to be perfect to move life forward.
If ye have faith…nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Faith is central to how I keep going.
Faith does not mean I believe every situation will end exactly as I want it to. It means I believe disappointment is not the end of the story.
It means I can continue working while trusting that I may not yet see the entire path.
There have been times when rejection felt personal, plans fell apart, or the future was unclear. In those moments, I have had to believe that a closed door may be protecting me, redirecting me, or preparing me for something I could not yet recognize.
Faith does not remove the work. It gives me a reason to continue doing it.
Be the energy you want to attract.
As a recruiter, I have learned that people often remember how an interaction made them feel.
A candidate may not remember every detail of a job description, but they will remember whether someone listened.
A hiring manager may not remember every résumé presented, but they will remember whether their recruiting partner stayed involved and followed through.
My children may not remember every task I completed during a busy week, but they will remember whether I made them feel supported, encouraged, and important.
Being the energy I want to attract does not mean forcing positivity when life is difficult. It means deciding what I will contribute to the room.
- Will I bring patience or frustration?
- Will I bring encouragement or criticism?
- Will I create connection or make someone feel like another item on my list?
I cannot control every situation, but I can take responsibility for the way I enter it.
What I Hope My Children Learn From Watching Me
I think often about what my children learn from watching how I work, respond to challenges, and treat other people.
- I want them to see determination, but not believe they must hide every struggle.
- I want them to develop ambition without losing kindness.
- I want them to know that humility and confidence can exist together.
- I want them to recognize that rejection does not reduce their value, failure does not erase their potential, and changing direction does not mean they have quit.
They do not need to wait until adulthood to become a positive influence. They are already influencing people at school, through their activities, in their friendships, and through the way they treat others.
One day they may attend college, pursue careers, raise families, build businesses, or create paths entirely their own.
Whatever they choose, I want them to know that their voices matter and that they are capable of doing hard things.
I Am Grateful for Today
The words around my desk do not promise an easy life. They remind me how I want to live the life in front of me.
- Work hard.
- Stay humble.
- Keep the faith.
- Learn from failure.
- Follow through.
- Bring the energy I hope to receive.
- Take the action that moves something forward.
- Be grateful for today.
I may never master perfect balance, and I no longer expect myself to. My goal is progress-not perfection.
I will continue building my business, serving employers and candidates, caring for the people I love, learning from setbacks, and showing my children what it looks like to keep going.
The words around my desk remind me that I have not come this far because every plan worked. I have come this far because when a plan did not work, I refused to believe that my story was over.
A recruiter's perspective on building meaningful connections between employers and candidates. Learn how thoughtful conversation, genuine curiosity, and follow-through create better hiring outcomes than speed alone.
AI Was Supposed to Make Hiring Easier. People Still Need to Be Heard.
How meaningful connections between hiring managers and candidates create better hiring outcomes.
A hiring manager needs someone who can help the team move forward. A candidate wants the chance to show what they can do.
Both are looking for a connection. Yet somewhere between the application, the screening process, and the hiring decision, they can miss each other.
As a recruiter, that is where I believe some of our most important work happens.
Technology can help us reach people, organize information, and move through administrative tasks. But a faster process is not necessarily a better one if we have not taken the time to ask what the company needs or what the person has to offer.
More activity does not always mean more progress.
Start with the conversation before the search
Before I begin recruiting, I want to know more than the job title and required experience. What is making this position difficult to fill? What does the team need help with? What would make someone successful in the role?
I also want to understand the hiring manager's priorities. Two leaders hiring for similar positions may need very different things from their next employee.
As Whitaker Construction's first in-house recruiter, I helped build the recruiting process from the ground up during a period of rapid workforce growth. One of the tools I developed was an intake process that helped hiring managers communicate the positions they needed and the priority of each request.
That upfront work mattered. It gave us a better starting point for deciding where to focus and helped keep recruiting connected to the needs of the business.
A job description should reflect the work someone will actually do. When that picture is shared from the beginning, candidates can make more informed decisions, and hiring teams can evaluate people against the same expectations.
Give people room to tell their story
A résumé is a starting point. It cannot tell us everything about someone's judgment, motivation, or ability to learn.
That does not mean overlooking the qualifications a role requires. It means asking enough questions to recognize relevant experience that may look different from what we expected.
What has this person accomplished? What problems have they solved? What are they hoping to find in their next role?
The same curiosity applies to employers. A company may have an opportunity that would appeal to the right person, but its job posting may not explain why. Part of recruiting is helping both sides communicate what matters.
For candidates, that means sharing specific examples of their work and asking questions about the team, expectations, and hiring process. A good conversation should help both sides decide whether to move forward.
Use technology to make room for connection
I see value in tools that help recruiters organize their work and spend less time on repetitive tasks. The opportunity is to use that time well.
If technology helps us identify potential candidates faster, we can spend more time learning about them. If it helps us coordinate interviews, we can put more attention into preparing people and gathering useful feedback.
But technology cannot take responsibility for the relationship. Someone still needs to explain the opportunity, ask the next question, address a concern, and communicate a decision.
That responsibility belongs to us.
Follow-through is where trust grows
One of the best pieces of career advice I have received is simple: follow through, follow through, follow through.
In recruiting, that means letting people know what happens next and keeping them updated when plans change. It means checking in with a hiring manager when feedback is overdue and giving a candidate an answer rather than leaving them guessing.
Not every interview will lead to an offer. Not every candidate will be the right match. Respect should remain part of the experience either way.
A brief update may seem small to the person sending it. To someone waiting on a career decision—or a manager trying to keep a team running—it can matter a great deal.
Better hiring takes both effort and care
I founded Relationship First Recruiting because I believe business results and care for people belong together.
Employers deserve a recruiting partner who learns their business, takes initiative, and stays involved. Candidates deserve to be heard, evaluated fairly, and treated with respect.
We can embrace better tools while holding ourselves to those standards. The goal is not simply to move more applications through a system. It is to help a company find someone who can contribute and help a person find an opportunity where they can succeed.
Technology can move an application forward. It takes people who listen, recognize potential, and follow through to turn it into a hire that strengthens a team and changes someone's future.
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