# How to Go Fully Retained Without Losing Your Clients

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-elite-recruiter-podcast-3517796/how-to-go-fully-retained-without-losing-your-clients
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-elite-recruiter-podcast-3517796/how-to-go-fully-retained-without-losing-your-clients.md
Podcast: [The Elite Recruiter Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-elite-recruiter-podcast-3517796)
Published: 2026-04-16T10:10:24+00:00
Episode link: https://pod.co/the-elite-recruiter-podcast/how-to-go-fully-retained-without-losing-your-clients
Audio file: https://downloads.pod.co/5825fd83-9e96-44b3-9cb7-112a46ad1e1b/ba03804c-c653-4906-8831-4f94de72d963.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-elite-recruiter-podcast-3517796/episodes/how-to-go-fully-retained-without-losing-your-clients
Duration seconds: 3954

## Resource

The This Is Your Year Recruiter Summit kicks off April 27th — less than 2 weeks away. Free live sessions with the industry's best, including Mike Williams, Brianna Rooney, and Mark Whitby. Register now: https://this-is-your-year-recruiter-summit.heysummit.com/ Most contingent recruiters think the hardest part of going retained is convincing their clients to pay upfront. Andrea Colabella thought the same thing — until she actually did it, and discovered the anticipation was far worse than the conversation. Andrea is the founder of Cardea Group, a fully retained executive search firm based in New York City specializing in legal and compliance professionals within investment management. She started cold-calling recruiting agencies in 2005 asking to be hired as a recruiter, found her first mentor, and spent the next 18 years niching further and further — from admin and HR, to software sales, to investment management broadly, to a single laser-focused vertical: legal and compliance at hedge funds, private equity firms, and family offices. She built Cardea Group in 2009 during one of the worst markets in modern financial history. She's a Pinnacle Society member, has placed over 500 professionals, and in 2023 made the full pivot to a 100% retained model. You'll also hear how she uses recorded video first-round interviews through Hinterview to cut five to eight hours of client interviewing time per search, how she runs weekly steering meetings with retained clients to manage expectations and protect the search process, and why building a reputation as the expert in the room — not just the recruiter who fills the job — has become her most powerful business development tool. Timestamps 00:00 — Cold-calling her way into recruiting in 2005 Boston 10:42 — Leaving the broad market t…

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## Transcript

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