Nobody hands you a blueprint when you start a company. You figure it out — sometimes through small wins, sometimes through uncomfortable moments that force you to look in the mirror. This is one of those stories.
I’m Matt Baker, President and Founder of KNK Recruiting. We’ve been connecting healthcare organizations across the Midwest with exceptional talent since 2009. Over those sixteen years, I’ve learned more from my mistakes than from anything that went smoothly. And if there’s one thing I want to share with other leaders — whether you’re running a recruiting firm, a hospital department, or a small business — it’s this: real leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about being honest enough to admit when you don’t.
The First Hire — And the First Hard Lesson
His name was Ryan. My first hire. I was so locked into my vision for what KNK Recruiting could become that I spent most of our early time together explaining it to him rather than including him in it. I thought investment meant giving someone a clear picture of where we were going. What I didn’t understand yet was the difference between investment and inclusion.
Ryan started to disengage. Not dramatically — it was subtle at first. Less initiative. Fewer ideas in conversation. I noticed it, but I told myself he just needed more time to get up to speed. That was the story I told myself because the real story was harder to admit.
The real story was pride.
I had built something from nothing, and I was protective of it. My vision. My plan. My company. What I was calling conviction was actually a one-way street. I was talking at Ryan, not with him. And no one — no matter how talented or motivated — does their best work when they feel like a passenger.
That realization didn’t come all at once. It came slowly, through honest self-reflection and a few conversations where I finally asked Ryan what he thought instead of telling him what I believed. The difference in his energy was immediate. That was the first time I understood that the best thing I could do for my vision was to let other people help shape it.
Building Culture — One Conversation at a Time
After that experience with Ryan, I started to think differently about culture. I used to think culture was something you declared — a mission statement on the wall, a set of values in the employee handbook. And don’t get me wrong, those things matter. But they’re not culture. Culture is what happens in the room when people feel safe enough to tell the truth.
We started doing weekly team meetings. Not status updates — actual conversations. The kind where someone could bring a challenge they were facing, professional or personal, and know they weren’t going to be judged for it. That shift changed everything.
At KNK Recruiting, our core values are trust, support, commitment, and results. But values only mean something when they’re lived out loud. When a team member knows they can say “I’m struggling with this” — and be met with support instead of judgment — that’s when culture becomes real. That’s when people stop performing and start contributing.
The Client Crisis That Could Have Ended Everything
A few years in, we hit a moment that tested everything we had built. A key client relationship ran into a serious problem. There was a misunderstanding — the kind that, handled poorly, ends partnerships and damages reputations. I won’t get into every detail, but I will tell you this: the only reason we got through it was because of the trust we had built long before that moment arrived.
We hadn’t just been working with that organization at the top level. We had built genuine relationships across the team — with hiring managers, with HR, with department leads. When the crisis hit, those relationships held. People knew our character. They knew our commitment. They advocated for us internally before we even had a chance to make our case.
But I still had to have the hard conversation. I walked in, I told the truth, I owned what went wrong on our end, and I didn’t try to spin it. That was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve done professionally. And it earned more respect than any polished presentation I’ve ever given.
The lesson I took from that experience is one I now consider a core business principle: proactive relationship building is not just good practice — it’s insurance. In healthcare recruitment, our clients are trusting us with something critical. Their ability to deliver quality care depends in part on having the right people in the right roles. That’s not a transaction. That’s a partnership. And partnerships require depth, not just surface-level service.
Strong partnerships don’t happen by accident.
The same relationship-first approach I describe here is how we work with every healthcare organization we support.
At KNK Recruiting, we don’t believe recruiting should feel transactional. We partner with healthcare leaders to understand their culture, goals, and long-term workforce needs so we can deliver talent that stays and makes a lasting impact.
If you’re looking for a recruiting partner who invests in your organization, not just your open positions, we’d love to start a conversation.
Learn more about KNK Recruiting’s healthcare RPO solutions.
Knowing Your Value — And Saying It Out Loud
There came a point where I knew our rates needed to reflect the results we were delivering. That’s a conversation a lot of service providers avoid. It’s uncomfortable. It can feel like you’re asking for something rather than asserting something you’ve earned.
But I had done the work. Our clients were seeing real outcomes — faster time-to-fill, stronger candidate quality, reduced turnover. Our relationships were strong. And the feedback we were getting from the organizations we served spoke for itself.
So I had the conversation. Not from a place of desperation, but from a place of confidence. I presented the results, I acknowledged the partnership, and I made the case clearly. Some clients pushed back. Most didn’t. Because the evidence was there and the relationship was solid.
What I learned is that your ability to assert your value is directly tied to whether you’ve actually delivered it. You can’t shortcut that. But when you have delivered — consistently, over time, with integrity — you don’t need to oversell. The work speaks, the clients advocate, and the conversation becomes much easier than you feared.
The Permission to Not Have All the Answers
One of the biggest shifts in my leadership happened when I finally gave myself permission to say, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
Early on, I felt an immense amount of pressure to have the answer to every question. I was the founder. The president. The person people were looking to for direction. Admitting uncertainty felt like weakness. So I would fill the silence with confidence I didn’t always have, and hope no one noticed.
That approach is exhausting. And it’s not honest. And eventually, it erodes the very trust you’re trying to build.
The turning point came when I admitted, in front of my team, that I wasn’t sure how to handle something. I said I’d look into it and come back with a real answer. The reaction wasn’t what I feared. No one lost confidence in me. If anything, the opposite happened. That moment of transparency created more trust than any time I had projected certainty I didn’t fully have.
Credibility, I’ve come to understand, doesn’t come from knowing everything. It comes from being honest about what you know, resourceful about what you don’t, and consistent in how you show up.
What Real Leadership Actually Looks Like
If I had to distill sixteen years of building KNK Recruiting into a few core truths about leadership, they would be these:
Inclusion is more powerful than direction. The best leaders don’t just cast vision — they invite others into it. Your team’s buy-in and contribution will take you further than your individual conviction ever could.
Culture is built in conversation, not in mission statements. Create the space for honest, consistent dialogue. That’s where trust lives, and trust is the foundation of everything.
Relationships are your most durable asset. In this industry — and really in any industry — the depth of your relationships determines your resilience. Invest in them before you need them.
Deliver first, then assert your value. Results give you the confidence to have difficult conversations. There’s no substitute for doing the work with excellence over time.
Transparency is a leadership strength. Admitting what you don’t know and committing to find the answer builds more credibility than projecting false confidence. People follow leaders they trust, and trust requires honesty.
At KNK Recruiting, our mission is simple: connect exceptional healthcare talent with top Midwest facilities to improve the quality of care in our communities. That mission drives everything we do. But the way we pursue it — with genuine relationships, consistent integrity, and a team that’s truly invested in the outcome — that’s what makes the difference.
Real leadership isn’t a destination. It’s a practice. And sixteen years in, I’m still learning.
Leadership starts with the right people.
Building a strong healthcare team takes more than filling open positions. It takes trust, honest communication, and a recruiting partner who understands the people behind every hiring decision.
That’s exactly how we approach every partnership at KNK Recruiting.
Whether you’re looking for full RPO support, help with a difficult search, or a long-term workforce strategy, we’re here to help you build a stronger team for the future.
Learn more about KNK Recruiting and how we help healthcare organizations across the Midwest connect with exceptional talent.
