Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Resilient Recruiter
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The 4 Talent Magnets that Drive Recruiter Retention and Success, with Charlie Saffro, Ep #228 | 30 Aug 2024 | 01:00:28 | |
“We spend 50% of our lives working… What is crazy is that 8 out of 10 people in today’s workforce say they don’t even feel a connection to their jobs or their employer. Which means that most of us are probably half of our lives feeling disengaged and maybe feeling unfulfilled.”
This is how Charlie Saffro opened her TEDx talk on prioritizing people in your business. As the CEO of a recruiting firm, she gives insightful takes on how a people-first culture can positively impact you and your client’s retention and long-term revenue.
Charlie is the CEO of CS Recruiting, which specializes in the Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transportation industries. The company is based in Chicago and recruits nationally. Charlie founded CS Recruiting over a decade ago and has built it from the ground up into a multi-million dollar organization.
She leads a team of 28 talented recruiters, emphasizing a people-first culture.
Episode Outline and Highlights
The Four Magnets in Building a People-First Culture
From a business point of view, a people-focused culture benefits employees and contributes to the organization's long-term success and resilience. Charlie gave very specific and pragmatic initiatives that they implement to engage with their employees. What strategies can you implement to foster a people-first culture in your recruitment firm?
Charlie explains that culture acts like a magnet in attracting the right talent while repelling those who don't align with the company's values. She breaks down this concept into four key "talent magnets":
Charlie believes that these magnets help attract and retain the right talent while ensuring a strong and aligned company culture.
Practical Steps to Enhance People Engagement
What steps do you currently take to enhance your team's engagement? Does it need a big budget? I wanted to know the actual actions that Charlie implements from a leadership perspective to further a people-centric environment. A notable takeaway is how Charlie initiates small, personal gestures of appreciation, like handwritten notes or small gifts, regardless of whether there is no budget allocation for these gestures. These small acts of recognition made a significant impact on employee morale and engagement. Over time, this evolved into a formal appreciation and recognition program within her organization. The program includes a budget for recognizing milestones such as new hires, promotions, anniversaries, and personal achievements like buying a house or having a baby. There's also a "petty cash" fund for impromptu recognition, where any team member can submit a form to acknowledge a colleague who might need a pick-me-up, whether it's sending a gift card, treating them to lunch, or something as simple as giving them their favorite candy (a part of their onboarding process is asking members to share favorite foods or places). These small, thoughtful gestures cost very little and can significantly boost employee morale and foster a strong, people-centered culture. She advocates for sharing these practices with clients, especially those in small businesses, to help them retain their talent by showing genuine appreciation for their employees. Would you apply the same for your team?
How to Develop a Strong Brand While the topic of an engaging culture is certainly most interesting, I also wanted to pick Charlie’s brains on building a strong brand and online presence. Charlie is excellent at leveraging her voice through social media and building her brand. She became a recruiter back when LinkedIn was not yet a thing, and she is now utilizing various platforms to build her brand.
You may find the following action items helpful when building your brand:
Charlie Saffro Bio and Contact Info Meet Charlie, a recruitment expert with a passion for human leadership, talent acquisition, employee engagement, company culture, and retention. She founded CS Recruiting over a decade ago and has built it from the ground up, managing a multi-million dollar organization and leading a team of talented recruiters with an emphasis on a people-first culture.
As CEO and Founder, Charlie's mission is to create meaningful connections that empower others to discover their full potential. She is a recognized expert in the Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transportation industry and her firm has worked with a diverse range of clients nationwide.
Charlie's goal is to develop long-lasting relationships with clients and candidates, making appropriate and timely career matches for all levels of positions. Beyond her work, Charlie is also a dedicated yogi and encourages her clients and team to practice mindfulness in the workplace and beyond. She believes that personal development and self-care are crucial to achieving success and fulfillment in all areas of life. Charlie is also a proud mother of three teenage boys and actively volunteers with local organizations to support and empower women in the workforce.
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| Why Relentless Work Ethic is Key to Executive Search Success, with Vince Dunne, Ep #227 | 22 Aug 2024 | 01:12:43 | |
When he started his search firm, Vince was told that you would make 100 grand in year one if you're lucky. In his first year, he did more than $600k in revenue! Was that just a lucky year? Definitely not. He would not even consider his 12 years in business his best year. What are Vince’s key strategies in achieving this phenomenal result? In this episode, he shares two things: his belief system and his hard work.
Vince Dunne is the President of Dunne Search Group, an executive search firm based in South Carolina. For the last 12 years, he’s specialized in recruiting salespeople for the biotech industry and has helped build some of the most important companies in cancer testing.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Pulling off $600k Revenue in His First Year Vince and I talked about his motivation to transition from being a top recruiter to launching his search group. “But I noticed I was getting my clients. Nothing was handed to me, and I thought it was because ‘Vince will figure it out. You know, he's. He's doing well. He's rookie of the year.’ I'm hitting all my numbers every quarter… So I was getting my clients anyway. So why am I splitting my business? And so I felt like I was ready. I've got enough clients out there of people that want to do business with me.” Knowing that he was ready, he took on the challenge of becoming a recruitment business owner, leveraging the skills he learned and the relationships he built over the years. Remarkably, he was able to make more than $600k in revenue in his first year!
I wanted to dive deep into the causal factors of this phenomenal success. Vince believed that he was just lucky. But you will find out as we continue our conversation that there are two main ingredients for his secret sauce: his belief system & hard work. Vince was really competitive and strictly adhered to his no-fail mindset. He would reach out to ten people before 9:00 AM daily to generate leads. These traits enabled him to shorten his learning curve when he was just a rookie and surely contributed to his success as a business owner.
How to “Make a Name” For Yourself Another topic that resonates with me is Vince’s emphasis on building a reputation and making a name for yourself. Vince’s niche is in the Biotech industry, a very competitive circle, which means that your reputation is a huge deal. Vince shared insights on how he makes a name for himself and that people know him within the sales biotech world.
Building Relationships is Always Better in the Long Run
Vince shared an insightful take on building relationships versus burning bridges. If you have been unfairly treated by a client before, you will most likely relate to his story. I asked Vince about the biggest adversity in his career, and he shared that it was learning not to burn bridges. His aggressive, competitive nature sometimes led to conflicts with clients, particularly when he felt he wasn’t fairly compensated or recognized for his work.
Vince acknowledges that, in hindsight, there were times he should have taken the high road instead of standing his ground, which ultimately damaged relationships with some clients. He overcame this challenge by realizing the importance of choosing his battles wisely and maintaining long-term relationships, even if it meant compromising on smaller issues. He now prioritizes staying loyal to clients who treat him well, even if it means turning down business from competitors.
A key takeaway is that maintaining a positive image and strong relationships is crucial in the long run. Vince balances his competitive nature with a more strategic approach, focusing on clients who value and respect him while still holding onto the principles that have made him successful.
Vince Dunne Bio and Contact Info A graduate of the Coles College of Business, Vince Dunne brings his keen business acumen and 12 years of accomplished biotech search experience placing the most qualified candidates in both established corporations and start-up companies. Vince utilizes his proven, unique business model to conduct his search to locate and refer the ideal candidate(s) to meet the tailored, strategic needs of an organization, conserving their company resources and increasing corporate efficiencies.
Vince has helped build out some of the most important companies in cancer testing. Having focused on many areas in biotech, the oncology and women's health space is where we spend most of our time. We pride ourselves on being very well-known and trusted in the market.
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| How Grit and Determination Fueled a $2M Recruitment Firm's Success, with Brent Orsuga, Ep #218 | 29 May 2024 | 01:04:05 | |
Starting a recruitment business from scratch demands dedication, planning, and an aggressive approach to networking and client acquisition. You will also need a massive differentiator - and our special guest in this episode shared his approach to how he grew his search firm to more than $2M from scratch!
We are joined by Brent Orsuga. In this episode, Brent highlighted the importance of deep client relationships, strategic matchmaking, and staying motivated by setting high goals and continuously driving growth.
Brent Orsuga is the Founder of Pinnacle Growth Advisors, a headhunting and talent advisory firm solely dedicated to the Supply Chain and Logistics industry. Brent comes from 22 years of recruiting and 15 solely in Logistics. Brent helps companies, from startups to Billion-dollar companies, find the best people possible. Pinnacle Growth Advisors has won numerous awards over the past 10 years, including the INC 5000 fastest-growing companies.
Episode Outline and Highlights
How Brent Started from Zero and Won the Confidence of Clients
Brent shared a fascinating story of how he got into the recruitment business and started his firm with no plan B or option of failing. He was initially a candidate who transitioned to becoming a recruiter, and making the most of his training eventually led him to be a successful search firm founder. As much as his origin story can be relatable to many recruiters who aspire to become business owners, one key topic that will resonate with many of our listeners is building relationships. Brent strongly believes that building relationships is one of their business priorities. One of the biggest challenges he had to overcome was starting from zero and having no clients, candidates, or relationships to leverage. How he figured it out can be summarized on the following pointers:
Applying the Talent Advisor Approach as a Recruiter
On the topic of being a partner rather than a vendor, Brent shared insightful ways in which he is able to build relationships with clients and candidates. “One of the biggest pet peeves that I have in recruiting is I feel like a lot of people are selling or pitching without knowing enough about the person or the company,” he explained.
Brent places high value on knowing clients and candidates on a deep level. He recommends visiting client offices in person to understand the layout, environment, and how the workplace generally feels. In his analogy, you can only describe how great a restaurant is after eating there. In his words, “So it allows me to come from a completely different lens and angle so that when I'm putting you in front of a company, it's not random, it's strategic.”
This approach enables him to be a talent advisor rather than a generic recruitment firm. It gives him the advantage of painting a really clear picture of what his candidates are walking into, which is a massive separator from his competitors.
Mindset and Grit - Brent Shares His Key to Success
Overall, what really fascinates me in this conversation with Brent is his grit, mindset, and daily routines. He has a very competitive mindset—to the point where he is even able to use a chip on his shoulder as a driver for success. He wakes up every day at 3:30 a.m., goes to the gym at 4, prepares breakfast for his kids at 6, and goes to the office at 7!
To start his day, he would listen to a 13-minute clip by Les Brown:”What I'm doing is I'm getting my mindset into a very positive motivated state. Intentionally. This is not random.” He then shared how his days look when it comes to making every day intentional and purposeful.
Brent also shared how he measures inputs and outputs, how he leads his team, and what culture he fosters for Pinnacle Growth. His consistent actions led to remarkable milestones for his firm, including being included in INC 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies.
Our Sponsor
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro
i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Their technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees, and increase their billings. Their software combined with world-class training enables you to transition from transactional, contingency recruiter to consultative, retained recruiter. Instead of being perceived as a “me too” vendor, you’ll be positioned as a “me only” solutions provider. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: https://recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Brent Orsuga Bio and Contact Info
Brent is the Founder of Pinnacle Growth Advisors, a headhunting and talent advisory firm solely dedicated to the Supply Chain and Logistics industry. Brent comes from 22 years of recruiting and 15 solely in the Logistics space. Brent helps companies from startups to Billion dollar companies find the best people possible. Pinnacle Growth Advisors has won numerous awards over the past 10 years including the INC 5000 for fastest growing companies.
People and Resources Mentioned
Related Podcast You Might Enjoy
Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
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| Boutique vs Behemoth: How the Little Guys Can Beat the Big Recruitment Firms, with Paul Taaffe, Ep # 129 | 08 Jun 2022 | 01:01:22 | |
Last time Paul Taaffe came on the podcast, we heard how this former CFO has enjoyed extraordinary success running a boutique search firm. He revealed how he managed to bill €4,000,000 in revenue with a small team. Nearly two years later, Paul is back for his second appearance on the show. You’ll hear fascinating insights on how to gain an advantage over the competition and outperform even the biggest search firms in the world. Paul’s philosophy is about providing “return on energy invested.” He and his team provide an efficient service without compromising quality by leveraging their relationships and market knowledge. You’ll learn how he achieves market mastery by carefully cultivating his network so he can deliver a shortlist in 30 days or less. On multiple occassions, Paul has made a €100,000 placement fee in 7 days! Paul is the founder and CEO of FINANCE People Solutions (FPS) based in Frankfurt, Germany. Prior to starting his business in 2014, he was either a CFO or CRO for US global corporations as well as high profile private equity funds and their portfolios where he mastered various change management challenges, from turnaround and restructuring to the implementation of new growth strategies. Episode Outline and Highlights
Choosing the Right Clients Paul is a fan of positive energy which means he is selective of the clients he works with. He only works with committed clients, no contingency, only retained or exclusive. In our interview, Paul shared his criteria in client selection and when to ‘fire’ or let go of a client. “If we do not enjoy working together, if the process is not good, in this day and age if you get your hands on top three candidates or two or even one for this matter, we never say we are going to produce a shortlist, we will produce at least one … and the customer is not coming back, not setting up appointments, not picking it up, that is no good we are wasting people’s time,” is how Paul described it. He shared concrete examples based on experience how in some cases it did not work with some clients. Also, given the current situation in the market where recruitment needs to adapt, how do you coach your compatible clients on improving their recruitment process? Paul shares his best practices. Marketing and Brand Building Best Practices Although Paul’s background is in finance, he is actually excellent at marketing. In this interview, you will hear some of his marketing strategies including:
Paul believes US companies are the best at marketing and says his experience at Nike helped him to become a great marketer. Why Head-Hunting is a Term of the Past Another interesting topic we talked about is the term “headhunting” which Paul believes is outdated. As Paul said, “The difference for us is we have relationships with these people… That is why I don’t like this term head-hunting… I call it resource matching. We match resources. We don’t headhunt people, we have them already in our network. So it is about what is the best position for these people. So it is an evolution from the old headhunting.” Paul doesn’t need to “hunt” because he’s already mapped his market and curated a strong network. Since he already knows and has relationships with the vast majority of the candidates in his space, he is able to move fast without compromising quality. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained We’re excited to announce that Recruitment Entrepreneur will be sponsoring the podcast! If you’ve dreamed of starting up or scaling up and exiting your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters who they can invest in. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Paul Taaffe Bio and Contact Info Paul is the founder and CEO of FINANCE People Solutions (PFS) in 2014. He has been in the recruitment business since 2014, and prior to that, he was either a CFO or CRO for US global blue-chip companies such as Pepsi Cola, Nike, Lear Corporation, and Dell as well as having worked in Private Equity. He founded the PE Finance Organisation Benchmarking company, Taaffe and Partners in 2011. People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
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| How to Attract Inbound Client Leads and Win Engaged Search Assignments, with Skip Freeman, Ep #128 | 02 Jun 2022 | 00:59:49 | |
Want to attract inbound client leads and convert them into engaged search assignments, where the client pays part of the fee up front? Then you’ll love my interview with Skip Freeman, founder of Smart Buildings Talent. Skip shared that he’s currently working on 13 engaged searches simultaneously at 25% fees. Of those 13 searches, 12 of them were inbound leads meaning the client approached Skip instead of the other way around.
Skip reveals some of his most effective tactics and strategies, including a detailed masterclass on how to be “prominent and visible” in your chosen niche. You’ll also hear his fascinating story of resilience - from building a business, overcoming prostate cancer, and restarting from the ground up.
Skip is the Founder and President of Smart Buildings Talent, specializing in Buildings Automation and Smart Industry. Skip graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1976, with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and has almost 20 years of experience as a recruitment business owner.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Finding a Super-Focused Niche A recent achievement that Skip shared is when a global IT consulting and contract staffing firm, Emerge360, reached out to acquire his brand, Smart Building Talent. This is an outstanding accomplishment for a business of its size - and what made it possible are three things:
On the topic of finding a critical niche, Skip’s background in mechanical engineering served as a foundation to look at focusing on automation and discovering the talent behind this industry. He then focused on his mastery in this specialty which was a critical game-changer in his business. Skip also revealed what made him prominent and visible in his chosen niche.
Your Recruitment "Sequence of Operations" Another topic that Skip shared is the system he discovered, which he refers to as his sequence of recruitment operations. “A system is going to be a consistent process that everybody understands, and you have the tools as well as needed. Every time you get a job order, it enters into the system,” is how he describes it.
Inspired by Mike Pietrack and Scott Adams, you will hear his four major steps to the job order fulfilment process:
How to Be Prominent and Visible in Your Chosen Niche Choosing the niche and area of specialisation is the first step, but how do you become prominent and visible in your chosen niche? How do you generate inbound leads? Skip shared how he does it. From his experience, he explained how he attends trade shows, creates articles and content specifically for his industry, and how he has become a “community leader” on LinkedIn. You will hear how to use polls to your advantage and how to generate inbound leads from LinkedIn.
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
We’re excited to announce that Recruitment Entrepreneur will be sponsoring the podcast! If you’ve dreamed of starting up or scaling up and exiting your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters who they can invest in. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Skip Freeman Bio and Contact Info
Skip Freeman graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1976, with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. He served in the US Army Corps of Engineers, more specifically the Combat Engineers, after which he moved into industry as a chemical sales rep for a major speciality chemical company.
He progressed from field sales into sales management. As a Sales Manager, Skip had started using one particular recruiter for all of his hiring needs. That relationship began with none other than an MPC marketing call. And while that candidate wasn't hired, many were over the next several years.
Then Skip's firm was purchased. To stay with the company, he was going to have to relocate. That not being an option due to family reasons, he called his recruiter this time saying, "I don't need a candidate, I'm going to need a job." After some contemplation, his recruiter said, "Have you ever thought about running your own business? Skip said, "Tell me more..." and that's how Skip's recruiting career began.
With some of Skip's recruitment work helping to hire chemists and chemical engineers, he was contacted by an agency in Washington, DC, which led to an interesting parallel journey. in which Skip recruited for the CIA for 4-years.
In 2013, he started building a recruiting firm and his wife joined him in the business. His firm reached a size of 8 people when he suffered a personal setback, prostate cancer, which, more or less, took him out of the game for 3-years. One by one everyone in the firm dwindled away or needed to be fired until it was just Skip again along with his wife. Since then he’s completely rebuilt his business as the founder and president of Smart Buildings Talent, focused on buildings automation and smart industry. Today he is back with an exciting story that illustrates perseverance, discipline, and a will to win.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
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| How to Future-Proof Your Recruitment Business During the Great Realignment, with Bert Miller, Ep # 127 | 25 May 2022 | 00:55:03 | |
“For those out there that are starting a firm or for those recruiters out there thinking about starting a firm… when people really will look at the mirror and understand what their capabilities are, and where there are gaps and they work on that, they will then become a better leader.” I am very much looking forward to sharing this episode with you. My very special guest, Bert Miller, with more than 25 years of leadership experience in the world of work, has been very generous in sharing golden nuggets of wisdom. Hear his fascinating insights on the “Great Realignment” and how it impacts our recruitment business today. You will also hear major trends in the recruitment industry as well as effective techniques you can use to warm up your leads. Bert currently serves as President of Protis Global, plus President and CEO of MRINetwork, a network-centric recruitment organization that offers consulting, training, contract staffing, and community building to over 325 search firms worldwide Episode Outline and Highlights
LinkedIn Strategies to Warm Up Your Leads How are you using LinkedIn as a tool to find potential candidates or clients? You will be delighted to hear strategies shared by Bert on how to warm up your leads using this platform. How do you connect with an executive? How do you make your presence felt with insightful engagement? Bert shared two techniques:
The Great Realignment A fascinating insight shared by Bert is about the “Great Realignment”. In his words, “What happened in the last two and a half years only accelerated something that is already underway… The power of individuals coming in to play… The dynamics coming into play about the hybrid model, working flexible… I think companies that do not react or respond enough on the last several years to the individual… those organizations are now stepping back.” With this transition, how do recruitment businesses remain in the forefront instead of being left behind? Bert placed an emphasis on rehiring your people all the time - keeping the ones you have and storytelling your North Star. You will hear a more elaborated explanation about it in this episode. Also, key areas that would need to be addressed are:
Bert’s Success Factors in Owning and Scaling Your Recruitment Business With over 25 years of leadership experience in the world of work running Protis Global and becoming President of the MRI Network, what are the success factors that Bert can share to all our listeners? “I find myself at 60-years-old continuing to learn every day. I know that I am not there. My team does that too. So having that humility and vulnerability does not make you weaker as an organization, it actually makes you stronger.” Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
We’re excited to announce that Recruitment Entrepreneur will be sponsoring the podcast! If you’ve dreamed of starting up or scaling up and exiting your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters who they can invest in. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Bert Miller Bio and Contact Info With over 25 years of leadership experience in the world of work, Bert E. Miller currently serves as CEO of Protis Global, Ace Talent Curators, and President and CEO of MRI Network. MRI is a network-centric recruitment organization that offers consulting, training, contract staffing, and community building to over 325 search firms worldwide. Bert also co-founded Protis Global, an award-winning search and recruitment firm specializing in the F&B, CPG, cannabis, and hospitality industries. Bert is an active speaker, mentor, advisor, and investor. He hosts the MRINetwork Podcast and his new video podcast series, "Beyond the Bottom Line," features interviews with CEOs and leaders from across categories on issues impacting the world of work.
People and Resources Mentioned
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| How to Stop Working with the Wrong Clients and Embrace Your Inner Badass, with Jackie Rothschild, Ep # 126 | 18 May 2022 | 01:00:06 | |
Are you putting up with companies who aren’t your ideal clients? Does the thought of asking for a retainer or increasing your rates scare the hell out of you? Do you have a mind block to being more specialized or refocusing on a niche that’s truly aligned with the direction you want to take your recruitment business? In this interview, my special guest Jackie Rothschild shares how after years of struggle, a change in approach and mindset enabled her to attract the right clients – clients who were willing to work with her as a true partner. You’ll also hear Jackie’s inspiring story of resilience, and how a health crisis was the catalyst for renewed determination to succeed and no longer being willing to settle. Jackie is a Human capital advisor and retained search executive for PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers) and Physician practice owners who want to grow their business and hire the most qualified PBM, healthcare executives and clinicians. Episode Outline and Highlights
From a Successful Pharmaceutical Career to a Starting a Recruitment Business Jackie shared her successful career as a licensed pharmacist when she worked in the Pharmacy Benefit Industry (PBM) for 15 years. Being a friendly person, she built an extensive network of connections. Her friends made her a point of contact if ever they needed to hire a specialist in the industry. This made Jackie realise that recruitment is something she should try. Even with no prior background, she took a massive salary cut, took a risk, and started her recruitment career. She was then assigned to build a branch for her staffing firm which became a huge success. This is when her husband encouraged her to start her recruitment firm. It was a strange idea in the beginning since she had no business background. She took a risk and started Acclaimed Staffing. At the onset, things were okay but were not clicking. This is where her story becomes interesting. She shared her struggles and learnings. You will hear instances of failures and adversities, but what will resonate is her journey of resilience.
COVID Setbacks and Surviving Cancer An astonishing revelation that Jackie shared in our interview is how she was able to overcome a series of devastating events. In 2020, Jackie’s business was affected by the pandemic. At that time, she was also diagnosed with a very rare type of cancer with which very few medical professionals in the country can deal with it. As she was recovering from surgery, her husband had a heart attack. Those were trying times for Jackie and her husband. What type of treatment did Jackie have to endure? How was she able to manage her business? How is Jackie doing now? I am confident that you will be inspired by her story of grit, resilience, and courage. Her husband calls Jackie a badass, and once you hear her story I think you’ll agree! Getting off the Hamster Wheel Through Retained Business Jackie shared how she learned to filter the best client when she shifted to the retained business model. For her, it was a change in mindset. This enabled her to walk away from new clients that are not really a good fit and made her focus on her partners or clients that stood by her. If you are contemplating whether you should consider shifting from a contingent to a retained search model, I highly recommend hearing out how it became a game-changer for Jackie.
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
We’re excited to announce that Recruitment Entrepreneur will be sponsoring the podcast! If you’ve dreamed of starting up or scaling up and exiting your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters who they can invest in. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Jackie Rothschild Bio and Contact Info Jackie is the owner of Acclaimed Staffing and CEO of Rothschild RX. Acclaimed Staffing is an Arizona staffing agency that specializes in the healthcare career placement of all aspects for ambulatory surgical centres, clinics, medical offices, hospitals, imaging and radiology centres, nursing homes, home care, hospice, and other healthcare facilities. Jackie and her team have been trusted business partners for over 7 years servicing many medical offices, health plans, home health and assisted living facilities in finding mid-level and executive clinicians and ancillary staff. Jackie is a licensed pharmacist since 1995 and worked in the PBM (pharmacy benefit management) industry for over 15 years. Based on her deep PBM roots, RothschildRx was formed in 2021 to specifically service the PBM (pharmacy benefit management) industry. Recently due to their successful track record, the RothschildRx team is being awarded an exclusive talent sourcing agreement with a leading mid-market PBM. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Jackie is living in Arizona where she lives with her husband, 2 children, and 4 “furry children”. People and Resources Mentioned
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| What’s the Secret to Sustainable and Profitable Recruitment Business Growth, with Mark Skinner, Ep #125 | 12 May 2022 | 01:02:16 | |
An ironic fact about the recruitment industry is that we have a very high attrition rate and so much churn, which can often translate into a massive drain on profit and can be an impediment to growth. My special guest, Mark Skinner, shares how they set up a work culture which has led to their recruitment team having an average tenure of more than eight years.
Mark is the Co-Founder & Managing Director of CSC Recruitment, a construction recruitment firm founded in 2005. CSC has 25 employees with 3 offices and specialist teams dealing with freelance, permanent, and executive search with a thriving international division. Mark began his recruiting career in 1998. Episode Outline and Highlights
The Key to Having An Average Tenure of Eight Years If there is a secret to having a sustainable and profitable business that grows over time, holding on to your team members - especially the ones performing well - is important. Mark and I discussed how they take care of their people leading to their average tenure of eight years. Some of the key highlights of our discussion on this topic are as follows:
The last item is a very interesting topic we covered which is about building a culture of achievement. Building a Culture of Achievement via Company Conferences On top of hosting sales meetings six times a year to recognize top billers, Mark’s company also do what they call ‘company conferences’. Over 17 years, they have done around 40 overseas trips where they take everyone. These conferences are a testament to how they value the contributions of their respective teams. The basis of where they are going or how expensive the trip is going to be will depend not only on individual achievements but also on overall group performance. It Is Okay Not to Be Okay - Taking Care of Your Team’s Mental Health Another theme that stood out in our interview is how Mark is taking care of their team’s mental health. “Let’s face it millions of people said it before, the stigma is about it, a lot of people don’t understand it… when we found people that we think are happy go lucky… and you found out, hang on one second, they’re not and you try and help them. When the business was new, we didn’t have a lot of things in our toolbox,” is how Mark described how it was when they were just starting their business. Their commitment to their principle of “people come first” ensures that they have sufficient support from professionals. They made it possible for the people in their team to have someone to talk to 24/7 and if needed, therapists to give help. What if people are not covered by their healthcare provider because of pre-existing conditions? Mark’s company pay a significant amount to help that person. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
We’re excited to announce that Recruitment Entrepreneur will be sponsoring the podcast! If you’ve dreamed of starting up or scaling up and exiting your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters who they can invest in. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Mark Skinner Bio and Contact Info Mark is the Co-founder & Managing Director of CSC Recruitment. He spent four years with Hays and Hill McGlynn (now Randstad) before setting up a construction division for a boutique agency and then establishing CSC 2 years later. A graduate in Economics and Politics from the University of Kent, Mark founded CSC Recruitment as a consultancy-led construction business to work with clients looking for a recruitment partner rather than a supplier.
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| How to Recession-Proof Your Recruitment Business While Accelerating Growth, with Abid Hamid, Ep #124 | 04 May 2022 | 00:57:19 | |
Are you concerned about what is going to happen when the current growth in the recruitment industry starts to slow down? While the recruitment industry is still enjoying the momentum from 2021, propelling it forward through Q1 and most likely Q2 too, it remains a cyclical industry. Sooner or later, economic growth and hiring will decelerate. In this episode, Abid Hamid reveals the biggest concerns and hot topics on the minds of recruitment business founders and CEOs. The information that he shares in this interview can make a valuable contribution to any size recruitment business. His advice is to prepare right now for when the next slow cycle comes around. This could be in 6 or 18 months from now and nobody can predict the exact date for the change in direction. The only certainty is that there will be one again and this should urge recruitment business owners to take the necessary steps to protect their businesses while still scaling and growing. One of the ways to do this is by creating and sustaining sticky relationships with your clients. He explains all you need to know about how to do this in the next hour of conversation. Episode Outline and Highlights
What Are the Three Hot Topics on the Minds of CEOs Right Now? Abid states that currently, the thoughts of founders and CEOs centre around the current state of the market. He then breaks this down further, referring to what this entails. The first point to consider when you take a look at the entire market is how to build cultures in businesses where there is a flexible environment. Another point is how do you attract the right people in the market that is so heated when it comes to salaries. The third point of interest is, how do you create more sticky situations with your clients?
He says that in these cycles, it is evident that flexibility in the workplace is here to stay and what is becoming vital now is how you manage this flexibility. For example, if your teams work mostly remotely but do spend some time at the office, you get teams to come in at the same time. This still allows for some collaboration on the sales floor.
The Risk Matrix - What Is This and What Does It Mean To Your Recruitment Business?
What are the characteristics that Abid looks for in candidates when recruiting internally?
“For me, slightly out of the norm is good. Slightly unhinged is good…Slightly unhinged in the sense that you really, really know what you want because people who are passionate about something, they are slightly different,” Abid states before explaining what the Risk Matrix is that he is looking for in candidates.
The Risk Matrix is the built-in barrier that we all have that determines our decisions regardless of whether we purchase something or make a phone call. While he sees the perfect candidate to have a bit of an unusual side, the Risk Matrix must still be controlled, making them prepared to go to the edge of their experiences, constantly expanding on what they are capable of and getting comfortable with.
Why Are There So Many Small Recruitment Businesses That Don’t Scale?
The recruitment industry has an abundance of small recruitment businesses and there are many reasons why the majority of them don’t scale. According to Abid, creating a successful business and an exit-able business are two different things. You need to know how to exit and plan for that in advance. It is also important to understand that many of the solo recruiters or boutique firms don’t want to scale as they’re only interested in a lifestyle business. That’s perfectly fine, so long as the business is providing what they want, and that they’re not letting fear hold them back from scaling.
Abid further emphasizes that it is important to distinguish between generating an income from recruitment and building a recruitment business that you can exit from at a later stage. The latter is what Recruitment Entrepreneur helps their clients to achieve.
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Abid Hamid Bio and Contact Info Abid is trained as a lawyer, worked in corporate banking, and has been in the recruitment sector for the last 20 years mainly in management and leadership roles. He had worked globally within the recruitment sector and is a highly experienced business leader with a wealth of experience in various industry sectors and difficult geographies around the world. Abid had held various board positions from start-up to FTSE 250 Listed company and is currently Chairman and NED for 19 companies.
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| How a Recruitment Business Launched, Scaled and Sold for $12,000,000 in 5 Years, with James Caan, Ep # 123 | 27 Apr 2022 | 00:59:18 | |
Have you ever dreamed of starting and scaling up a recruitment business to the point that you could achieve a successful exit? If so, you’re going to love my interview with James Caan, who joins us for his second time on the show. In this episode, James walks us through how to successfully launch, scale, and exit your business. His insights are backed up by his track record as the founder of Recruitment Entrepreneur, the world’s leading private equity firm specializing in recruitment start-ups and scale-ups. RE has been successfully operating in 60+ countries and has currently invested in 45 recruitment businesses. You will hear a case study of how one of Recruitment Entrepreneur’s partners was able to launched, scale, and sell their business for $12m in just five years! James is an investor, a serial entrepreneur, and a former panellist on the hit TV series Dragon’s Den. He founded two recruitment companies with combined revenue of £1B. Episode Outline and Highlights
Launching, Scaling and Selling a Recruitment Business for $12M in Only Five Years Since its founding in 2014, Recruitment Entrepreneur’s goal is to help founders and owners of recruitment businesses to globally, launch, scale, and exit their recruitment businesses. James shared a superb case study on how they worked side by side with James Absalom, CEO of Walter James recruitment. Below is the chronology of his success:
You will hear James walk you through the process - what do you need to start? What is the thought process in deciding when to scale? How do you grow the billing? How do you attract talent? These are a few of the golden nuggets that you will hear in this episode. If you are strategizing on launching, scaling and exiting your recruitment business, you will enjoy our interview. How to Create and Enhance Your Recruitment Business’ Value James’ recruitment and entrepreneurial experience bring invaluable insights when it comes to enhancing businesses under their portfolio. You will hear James reveal specific key pointers for success. How do they create value and further enhance recruitment businesses to set it up in a profitable exit? “The single factor to success and scale is having the ability to attract and keep people,” James stated. He further elaborates on specific focus areas that founders would need to work on to make their business scalable and successful. James added, “First thing is, we don’t back markets, we don’t back sectors, we don’t back products. We back people, and that has been the mantra of my entire working life and it has never failed me yet.” Must Haves to Make Your Business Scalable and Exit-Able If you plan to scale and exit your recruitment business, you will hear the following key takeaways from our discussion:
You will find James’ take on the above elements definitely insightful.
Our Sponsors
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®.
i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained James Caan Bio and Contact Info James founded private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw in 2004 and joined the panel of heavyweight investors for BBC’s Dragons' Den in 2007. His main focus is on charity work, current investments, growing Hamilton Bradshaw and mentoring entrepreneurs to help ensure their success. With a passion for building businesses and backing talented people, he has been building and selling businesses since 1985 and thinks it is important to invest in people rather than products or businesses. James is a great believer that it is people who create a successful business through their passion and conviction, with a firm belief that “It’s your attitude, not your aptitude that determines your altitude”.
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| The Four Pillars of Success in Growing Your Recruitment Business, with Doug Baird, Ep #122 | 22 Apr 2022 | 00:56:28 | |
I am always fascinated by hearing how recruitment business owners navigate their journeys through difficulties to grow their practices. That’s why I am very much delighted to share this episode with you on how my special guest, Doug Baird focused on four strategic pillars to successfully grow his small contract recruitment firm into a leading consultancy group today. Doug is the CEO at New Street Consulting Group (NSCG), a people advisory firm that helps their clients find, assess, build and accelerate teams and leaders who are as good in practice as they are on paper. NSC has been ranked as one of the best small companies in the UK, previously ranked in the Sunday Times’ Fast Track 100, and Doug himself has been a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award. Episode Outline and Highlights
The Four Pillars of Success in Growing Your Recruitment Business Doug shared his story beginning in 2003 when he started Interim Partners. They started off as an interim management provider and contracting recruitment business. In this interview, you will hear how he was able to lead his company to growth which ultimately led him to establish a professional services consulting firm, the NSC Group. I asked for his critical success factors and you will certainly enjoy how he laid the foundation of his business growth on four pillars: talent, structure, governance, and technology. You will also hear us discuss each of these and I am confident that you will be able to pick up several golden nuggets of wisdom to use in your own journey of scaling your business. Using the Sense of Dissatisfaction to Your Advantage Tony Robbins once said that being dissatisfied is one of the best ways to achieve more and stay motivated. This is definitely the same with Doug. He believes that having a sense of dissatisfaction and having the courage to walk away from what you are famous for can work to your advantage. He revealed how this mindset gave him a clear vision of his end goal. Related to this idea, you will hear from this interview why growing your business via acquisition makes sense in certain situations. Strengthening the Pillar of Technology to Scale Your Business We also covered utilizing technology to effectively manage your recruitment business. Doug shared how they had to let go of some legacy systems they were using and how they adapted by using contemporary technology. We were very specific with some tools such as SalesForce, Bullhorn, Marketo, Cascade for HR, and others. An interesting thing that Doug shared is how they are using Salesforce and Bullhorn at the same time despite the potential overlap. You may be able to relate with some of the technologies mentioned. What Would Have Doug Done Differently? What I consider to be the best part of my conversation with Doug in this episode is when he responded to the question of what he would have done differently. “I would probably have tried to have held onto people, some of them that I’ve had at the very beginning,” is how Doug puts it. When you listen to this part, you will hear Doug’s sincerity as he further elaborates on what he meant. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Doug Baird Bio and Contact Info Doug has 25 plus years in recruitment and professional services where he created and managed companies operating within Interim Management, Executive Search and Leadership Consulting. Outside of work, his four children keep him busy. With his family, Doug loves traveling, skiing and cinema. He enjoys rugby, plays golf badly and loves learning new things - fortunate to be heading to Harvard in May.
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| How to Increase Employee Engagement and Double Productivity, with Saira Demmer, Ep #121 | 14 Apr 2022 | 00:49:09 | |
“Leaving people in the situation where all their major needs are met. For us, that is what a truly employee-centric model is. It is putting our people’s needs first so that they are at their best, and in turn they will make sure that the service they are providing to our clients and candidates is also at its best.” This is how my special guest, Saira Demmer, explains their approach to creating a culture of high performance. If you are looking for strategies to increase your employee engagement and individual performance, I am sure you will enjoy this episode! Saira is the CEO of SF Recruitment Group, a specialist recruitment firm located in the Midlands. Since 1998, SF Group has placed over 40,000 people and they’ve been recognized as one of the Top 20 companies to work for in the UK. Saira is passionate about employee engagement and since joining SF has introduced a new people-centric business model which has delivered an increase of over 60% in individual employee performance and reward. Episode Outline and Highlights
How to Create an Environment of High Performance Recruiters SF Recruitment was listed 18th in the UK's 'Top 100 Small Companies to Work For', securing a place in the Top 20 for the second year. Their commitment to employee engagement has not only garnered them local and national recognition, but it is reflected in their performance as well. After joining SF, Saira introduced a people-centric business model that doubled productivity. Saira’s insightful take on KPIs may nudge you to re-think your strategy in terms of performance management and employee engagement. Here are some key pointers that Saira shared which I encourage you to focus on in this episode:
The SF Recruitment Experience To show the level of commitment they have for their employee experience, Saira came up with a business model called the SF Experience. This is an approach wherein they are able to build a high-performing culture through autonomy and flexibility. Benchmarking of packages and earnings is regularly done. In fact, one notable achievement by Saira is achieving a 0% gender pay gap at SF three years after reporting a 23% gap in 2018! This combination of benefits indeed results in better profitability and employee retention. Listen to this episode to hear the specifics directly from Saira. An Insightful Take on KPIs I am a firm believer in knowing your numbers. Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are incredibly valuable in order to manage and optimize your performance. Interestingly, Saira mentioned that in SF, they do not impose KPIs. I asked Saira to what extent they enable people to measure their milestones resulting in placements and billings? Be sure to listen to this interview to discover her answer. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Saira Demmer Bio and Contact Info Saira is CEO at SF Group, a specialist recruitment firm headquartered in the Midlands. Saira joined in 2018 having previously been UK CEO and CFO at Ignata where she played a key role in building the group to over £40m of turnover today. Her knowledge of recruitment and talent solutions was honed during six years spent in Deloitte’s M&A strategy team, where she was involved in a number of high-profile deals in the recruitment sector. Outside of the boardroom, Saira is also a dedicated adventurer, she previously climbed half of Mount Everest and loves to travel the world to pursue her love of open-water diving.
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| How to Make Your Recruitment Company the Best Place to Work, with David Cathey, Ep #120 | 05 Apr 2022 | 01:04:36 | |
Best results come from the best talents, and the best talents can be found in the best places to work. How do you make your recruitment company a top place to work? My guest, David Cathey, reveals their standards and practices that made his firm, Unity Search Group, amongst the Dallas Business Journal’s Best Places to Work for three years running. David is a Partner at Unity Search. He oversees Unity's finance, accounting and tax consulting/contract, Unity's IT division and Unity's practice development, including training and development of our core team members, along with client development, relationship management and candidate recruiting. Episode Outline and Highlights
Continuous Learning and Establishing a Culture of Accountability In our conversation, you will hear David shared Unity Search’s approach on team development focusing in the following areas:
Why It’s Time to Start Doing Client Visits Again Because of the pandemic, most recruiters stopped or drastically reduced the number of in-person client meetings. The advent of technology also made it possible for recruiters to engage via Zoom or MS Teams which brings us to the question: “Are client visits still relevant when it comes to recruitment?” Dave shared how client visits are one of his team’s KPIs and how meeting clients face-to-face is more relevant than ever, now that pandemic related restrictions are getting more lenient. He shared his philosophy behind it, “You are not going to date someone long term and develop a long-term relationship if you haven’t seen them face-to-face.” David explained that the pandemic really took that in-person element away because everybody was working remotely. He then elaborated, “What ended up happening at least for our business … is your client visits turned to just phone call check-ins.” Now that restrictions have been lifted, David is making sure his team is taking the opportunity to get back out there and get in front of them. If you are running a local desk, this is something that you may want to look at to further engage with your clients and establish more connections. As Dave shared, “Sometimes meeting them for a cup of coffee, they love that because they are going out of their house.” Are You Struggling with Impostor Syndrome? If you are experiencing persistent self-doubt on your skills, talents and accomplishments, you may be suffering from impostor syndrome. This is like an elephant in the room that talented recruiters and recruitment business owners may be hesitant to discuss but it is something that everybody feels every once in a while. David courageously shared his battle with the impostor syndrome and how he overcame it. “I’ve really worked on changing my attitude towards impostor syndrome” David stated. You may be able to relate on how it can hold you back in your career or how it can make it difficult to engage with a client. David realized that it is actually rooted in fear and not getting out of his comfort zone. He then shared how he turned it into a benefit for him and the steps he took to get out of that comfort zone. I hope that you too can appreciate the nuggets of wisdom in this part of the interview. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained David Cathey Bio and Contact Info David’s experience includes over 15 years of executive recruiting on both a direct hire basis and consulting/contract recruiting basis. Throughout his recruiting career, his primary focus has been in accounting, finance, tax and information technology. After spending time as a Financial Analyst and Senior Pricing Manager for a large multinational organization, David began his recruiting career with one of the largest, US domestic recruiting firms, working in the Dallas/Fort Worth market for over 7 years. He established himself as a top performer in the organization, earning multiple incentive trips throughout his time as a producer. At Unity Search, David’s focus remains in development of core information technology, accounting, finance, and tax recruitment and consulting for (and with) our clients. David’s focus on being relationship driven and process oriented allows Unity Search to service our clients at our best. People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
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| How to Elevate Your Recruitment Firm to $12M with Effective Lead Generation, with Jeremy Jenson, Ep #217 | 23 May 2024 | 00:57:48 | |
Top-of-the-funnel lead-generation activities are a critical ingredient for a successful recruitment business. How do you strategize your lead generation to stand out in this age where all your competitors are probably doing the same thing you are doing? We are really lucky to be joined in this episode by Jeremy Jenson, the founder and CEO of Encore Search Partners, the largest privately owned executive search firm based in Houston, Texas. Before starting his recruitment firm, Jeremy used to run a lead generation company for different businesses such as recruitment and search firms. You will hear Jeremy’s insights and strategy on lead generation activities and how he transitioned into becoming the recruitment business owner of a $12M search firm. Episode Outline and Highlights
From a Lead Generation Firm to a Recruitment Business - Jeremy’s Story
Jeremy’s story on what led him to the recruitment industry is fascinating. He started a lead generation company in 2010 - and upon realizing that more than half of his client base was sourcing and staffing businesses, he transitioned into putting up his recruitment business. His claim to fame was in lead generation, where he was the main lead generator, regularly feeding senior recruiters with leads.
His business grew and was billing a million in the third year when market and economic difficulty struck. He had to make a pivotal decision whether to shut his business and be a full-time employee or to keep on going. You will hear how his decision to stay in business paid off, and how implementing strategies to go national and hiring other senior leaders contributed to their growth.
I think many of our listeners can relate to what Jeremy went through. Starting your own recruitment business is not easy - you can get to the point where you are making 100k to zero in a month. Jeremy’s inspiring thought process and decision-making can inspire our recruitment firm owners who are going through the same ordeal.
The Pillars of Lead Generation
Jeremy’s transition from a lead-generation specialist to a recruitment business owner shows us the critical role of top-of-the-funnel lead-generation activities in business success. He shared insights on what makes lead generation his key strength. Here are the two pillars:
Having Structure in Place Means Sustainable Growth
Jeremy is a subject matter expert on EOS - Entrepreneurial Operating System. We discussed how a clear and consistent structure contributed to their business growth. He also touched upon the value of embedding core values to overcome big challenges they had to face by the time their business was growing.
He shared how excellence, resilience, gratitude, professionalism, coachable attitude, meticulousness, and competitiveness are deeply ingrained in daily operations, fostering culture through practices like core value spotlights during meetings. He also talked about transparency, and how it made their company a Best Place to Work award recipient in the Houston Business Journal.
Our Sponsor
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro
i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Their technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees, and increase their billings. Their software combined with world-class training enables you to transition from transactional, contingency recruiter to consultative, retained recruiter. Instead of being perceived as a “me too” vendor, you’ll be positioned as a “me only” solutions provider. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: https://recruitmentcoach.com/retained.
Jeremy Jenson Bio and Contact Info
Jeremy Jenson is the Founder & CEO of Encore Search Partners. Jeremy is a subject matter expert on The Entrepreneurial Operating System and prides himself on building Houston’s largest privately-held Executive Search firm on the back of his seven Core Values: Excellence, Resilience, Gratitude, Professionalism, Coachable, Meticulous, and Competitive. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends & his 3 sons. He is also a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a global co-op of over 17,000 entrepreneurs, worldwide.
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| How to Achieve an Amazing Customer Experience for Both Clients and Candidates, with Nick Eaves, Ep #119 | 31 Mar 2022 | 01:00:39 | |
Many recruiters claim to provide excellent customer service. Certainly, nobody sets out with the goal of delivering bad service. But is customer satisfaction built into your recruitment process, and most importantly do you actually measure it? My podcast guest, Nick Eaves, is the Chief Customer Officer of Stanton House. As his job title suggests, customer experience is something they take very seriously indeed. They’ve made customer satisfaction central to the way they engage with clients and candidates. Nick believes it’s a key differentiator and one of the secrets to their success. The results speak for themselves - Stanton House is one of the UK’s fastest-growing recruitment companies. Since launching in 2010, they have scaled to £35m and a team of 80 people with offices in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and the US. Episode Outline and Highlights:
Candidates and Clients Both Deserve Outstanding Customer Service “When we started the company, right from the start, the one thing that we were adamant was going to be different about Stanton House was that we are passionate about the customer experience and that was going to be the heart of everything we did. It is part of the DNA and it remained true until today,” Nick expands on how much value their brand attaches to ensuring that both clients and candidates enjoy the level of service they deserve. He states that the recruitment industry often treats clients very well but not candidates so much. Yet, both are just people and the investment that a candidate has with a recruitment company has a far greater impact on the candidate than on the client. Therefore, Stanton House has a comprehensive system in place to ensure that they always deliver on customer satisfaction and this is the foundation of their success. Exploring the Factors that Contributed to Their Success When Nick and co-founder Neil Wilson founded Stanton House, they didn’t have any clients and could only rely on their networks. They were determined to make their venture a success and create a brand that values customer service. One challenge was that neither had actively run a recruitment desk for a while. Their solution was to get funding from investors so they could hire excellent people from the beginning. Nick highlights the following factors as the keys to the success they enjoy:
Why Experience Isn’t the Most Important Criteria When Recruiting Recruiters When hiring internally, values fit is essential. It is why Stanton House often employs people without recruitment experience and then provides excellent training to give them the skills to be successful in the industry. Nick states that one of the most important things they are looking for in candidates for internal employment is the ability to overcome adversity. They prefer candidates who had to face severe challenges in their past and managed to overcome these challenges. They’re looking for individuals who will care about the customer experience and are not only concerned with making money. Work ethic and shared values are what bind their team and not age, gender, background or experience. This is how they manage to remain a team that achieves greatness. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Nick Eaves Bio and Contact Info Nick Co-Founded Stanton House back in 2010 and has played his part in building the Business to the 80+ people it is today. Stanton House operates in the UK, Asia and the US in a range of professional service verticals and the vision for the Business is to Achieve Outstanding Performance through exceptional customer experiences. This balance of ambitious business success, a focus on the Customer and a true commitment to strong values go to the heart of Stanton House. As Chief Customer Officer, Nick is the custodian of measuring and enhancing that customer offering.
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| How to Increase Your Profits by Offering Solutions that the Market Needs with Lauren Stiebing, Ep #118 | 25 Mar 2022 | 00:52:08 | |
How resilient is your recruitment business? What will you do the next time there’s a financial crisis, like we experienced in 2020? In this interview, my guest Lauren Stiebing describes the experience of her pipeline evaporating in March 2020. She goes on to reveal how she used that setback as an opportunity to create new service offerings that complimented her core business. Best of all, the new Mentoring program she developed aligned with her passion for and commitment to championing gender diversity. Could you recession-proof your recruitment business by creating multiple revenue streams? Listen-in to Lauren describing her process for researching the market, creating a “minimum viable product” and sales strategy leading to a very successful launch. She also shares how she uses “video sales letters” as part of her fresh and innovative approach towards marketing. Episode Outline and Highlights
Female Mentorship - Answering a Need In the Market When the pandemic hit in March 2020, Lauren suddenly had no searches to work on. She was coming off a record year and had money in the bank, so at first she didn’t panic. But as the months went by without any signs of improvement, she realized she had to try something new. “Always analyzing the market, analyzing what is happening and when you see a gap or a need, to really create a minimal viable product and see how the client reacts,” is how Lauren describes her process for developing a new service offering. What Lauren realized is that there was a need for mentorships for female executives. Her clients often struggled to recruit female talent into leadership roles. So rather than recruiting outside talent, companies should invest to develop and advance their own female employees so they could promote them internally. This is how LS Elevate, Lauren’s mentorship program came into existence. Her initial goal was to sell 10 mentorship programs in the first year. However, the sales and marketing campaign exceeded her expectations and she ended up selling 27 - more than double her original target. Now, in the second year of the program, she is ready to expand but is cautious about growing too quickly. She would rather enjoy sustainable, long-term growth instead of over-extend herself. Especially since her search business has picked up again. Podcasts Are The Perfect Way to Present Yourself As An Authority Lauren has published roughly 60 podcasts and states that these podcasts play a vital role to earn the trust of potential clients and candidates. When she already has a rapport with these people when they meet for the first time, it makes discussions and negotiations so much easier. Lauren is also committed to constantly trying out new and different marketing ideas to see what delivers the best results. One of her most effective marketing strategies are “video sales letters.” In this interview, she shares all you need to know to create your first video sales letter. Plans for Growth and Hiring for Attitude Over Experience Lauren is growing her team once again and I asked what she looks for in a potential hire. She believes that “learning, agility, and curiosity are what is going to make someone successful.” comes Lauren’s words infused by her own experiences and the many mistakes she made as a young recruiter. Lauren is highly committed to the learning and development of her team and wishes for them to step outside of their comfort zones and to explore wider horizons on the constant journey of self-improvement. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Lauren Stiebing Bio and Contact Info Lauren is a small-town girl with big dreams. She has a degree in International Studies from Louisiana State University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her passion for head-hunting, top-notch networking abilities and being a skilled judge of people made her an experienced head-hunter. She is the founder of LS International, persevering, hard-working, resilient and has high personal standards. She is dedicated to the success of every client and candidate with a burning ambition to transform executive search. Lauren specializes in finding the best people for Sales, Marketing, and General Management positions in the consumer goods industry across the USA, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Her relationships with candidates and clients give her a broad and deep knowledge of markets and people. Both clients and candidates acknowledge that they love working with her because of her unique ability to craft solutions that balance client needs with candidate interests. Extensive international travel allows Lauren to pursue her hobbies of collecting currency and attending electronic music events.
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| How to Leverage Remote Teams and Pioneering Technology to Unlock Rapid Growth, with Natasha Makhijani, Ep #117 | 18 Mar 2022 | 01:00:39 | |
Recruiters everywhere are experiencing a surge in demand for quality candidates combined with an increasing quest for diversity and inclusion. Traditional approaches and outdated processes are proving inadequate to meet these challenges. Consequently, many recruitment firms are failing to capitalize on the huge potential for growth. My next guest, Natasha Makhijani, has managed to transform these challenges into an opportunity to revolutionize the recruitment industry. In this episode, Natasha shares how her team has developed their own mobile apps to increase candidate attraction, engagement and diversity. She also reveals how they ensure much greater diversity and how they’re pioneering the use of Amazon’s Alexa to stay at the cutting edge of executive search. Episode Outline and Highlights
Being a Part of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Across the UK, plans are put into place to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. 2022 marks the 70th year since her ascension. For the Oliver Sanderson team, this is an even more thrilling event as the recruitment business has been chosen as one of 70 companies across the UK that represents the values of the British Monarchy and what they stand for. The brand is the only recruitment business that has received this honor and the team’s advances in the field of technology and taking the recruitment industry to a more digital world is what they are being recognized for. “Alexa: Find Me a Job” When it comes to advances in technology, the team at Oliver Sanderson is at the forefront of development. Their Oliver Sanderson OS Executive App – brings digital innovation to the executive search process. Natasha explains, “when we go out and map the candidates, once we’ve got a long list of candidates whom we think are of interest. At that point, you can either just reach out to them or you can send them a link to an app which allows them to watch a little video.” If they like what they see, they can proceed from there onwards but you already got them to the point to make a small commitment. The app is proving to be a highly effective solution to combat the challenges of a candidate-driven market. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Natasha Makhijani Bio and Contact Info Degree Qualified from City University and a Masters in HR from the USA. Natasha began her professional career with Hays Logistics on their graduate scheme. She set up the Victoria office with her manager, and within two years, the Victoria office and the staff of eight were the top-performing office in the country. She was offered the opportunity to work with Michael Page and Robert Walters. She started with Michael Page Human Resources, and she became their top biller within HR during her first year. She helped set up their St Albans office and then moved to London to set up permanent recruitment for the Public Sector. Later, Natasha was promoted to Managing Consultant and contributed to the growth of the Public sector office. She considers herself lucky to have had a revelation to an entrepreneurial community from an early age, and she believes this helped her to shape into somebody who is vibrant and enthusiastic and with a keen interest and passion for business. Oliver Sanderson is a dynamic brand in Executive Search & Selection that looks after Perm and Interim assignments to FTSE 100 & 250 clients. They offer retained, exclusive and contingent end-to-end recruitment in a variety of disciplines and serve major UK & Global sectors. They also provide cutting-edge service solutions to customers, ensuring the needs are met in tune with the changing marketplace. As the market changes, so do the needs of candidates and clients, and the expert team at Oliver Sanderson ensures there are strategies created around new topics matters, IR35 and BAME, to name a few, to satisfy client and candidate needs. Oliver Sanderson offers access to new products such as their mobile job app from candidate attraction, to Drag & Drop to 1st stage video interviewing platform through their sister company Snapp CV Group PLC. Devising an alternative method of recruitment through their technology strategy has helped to move forward in the recruitment space, and they are excited about developing the digital side to recruitment through the use of Artificial Intelligence with new products.
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| How Treating People Well Delivers 30% Annual Revenue Growth for 15 Years, with Simon La Fosse, Ep # 116 | 10 Mar 2022 | 01:01:54 | |
Would you like to generate an average revenue increase of 30% per year? In this interview, Simon La Fosse shares how La Fosse Associates has achieved this every year for the past 15 years. When Simon founded La Fosse Associates, his focus was on creating a values-led company and treating people well – including team members and customers. He firmly believes that the core values of Caring, Ambition and Humility have been a huge factor in company’s sustained success as they scaled to a team of 250 people. Simon also expands on why La Fosse Associates give share options to everyone in the business and 40% of the company is owned by the employees. He explains how it has benefitted them not only with staff retention but has also created a culture where everyone is extremely motivated to contribute to the company’s consistent growth. Their commitment to looking after the people on their team has earned the brand several awards. Another more recent but highly exciting addition to Simon’s portfolio is Futureproof. This venture is completely revolutionary and has the potential to set the recruitment industry off in a new direction. Through innovative thinking, Futureproof is a solution that overcomes the demand for more diversity and also addresses the severe talent shortage in technology. Episode Outline and Highlights
Why Do Values Play Such A Vital Role In La Fosse? “The better I treated people, the more successful I was,” this is the observation Simon made as he looked back on 15 years in the recruitment industry before he founded La Fosse Associates. Back then the recruitment industry was very competitive and income-driven, making his observation quite profound for the time. However, it was this wisdom that he took with him as he felt that it was something that would give his brand a key strategic advantage. Today, the brand still operates on principles that celebrate care, ambition and humility as determining factors to their success. It is by upholding these principles and giving it space in everything they do that the brand manages to sustain its value-driven culture for more than a decade. Through sustaining this brand culture, it has earned several awards but even more importantly, La Fosse has been able to show 30% growth year on year, for the past 15 years. At La Fosse Associates, 40% of the Company is Owned by the Staff – Why Is the Share Option Scheme Open to All Employees? The first characteristic that differentiates the way that La Fosse gives share options is the fact that the percentage of the business that is reserved for share options is much larger than usual. I’m not aware of any other recruitment company that is 40% owned by the employees. The second is that they don’t only offer share options to the senior management team and the highest billers. Every employee has access to this opportunity. “I started the business and I took the risk but you know I am one person amongst 250 and I don’t do much billing anymore. So, you can see where the value is being created and it is not me. So I think to say 60% seems really fair to leave me with,” Simon expands on how they came to the point of offering as much as 40% of the business to share options rather than the conventional 5-10%. The longer you are part of the team and the more you progress in the level of role you fulfill, the larger your share option grows, but essentially everyone, even those who just started as fresh graduates, has access to this opportunity. Futureproof - Helping to Address Diversity and Talent Shortages in the Industry As the recruitment industry can be very stagnant, the foundation of Futureproof came as a breath of fresh air. Simon admits that it has been an expensive venture, but it represents a major transition in the recruitment industry. It allows the team to select the best of the pickings of graduates before putting them through relevant training and placing them in the workplace for two years. The academy enables them to present their clients with a diverse group of junior candidates. As students don’t have to pay for this training, it allows access to training on the basis of how good you are rather than whether you can afford to pay the fees. The result is fairness and diversity when it comes to the selection of suitable candidates they can present. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Simon La Fosse Bio and Contact Info Simon is the founder and now Chair of the technology recruitment business La Fosse Associates. He also more recently founded a rapidly growing subsidiary business called Futureproof; a diverse and free-to-learn tech academy. Everyone’s a shareholder in the group and the mission is to continue to rapidly grow a purpose-driven business with the hope of positively impacting the whole recruitment industry. La Fosse Associates has won a few awards for growth and the way they treat people, which they keep at the heart of their ethos as they continue to expand. La Fosse Associates is 15 years old, over 250 strong, has a number of UK offices, and established operations in Los Angeles and New York
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| Retained Recruitment: How to Pitch and Win Retained Projects with Confidence, with James O'Brien, Ep #115 | 02 Mar 2022 | 00:57:00 | |
Are you ready to progress from contingency to retained recruitment services but aren’t sure how to pitch it? It is often a lack of confidence in what truly differentiates your brand – and the value you can deliver – that keeps recruitment business owners trapped in a position of earning less than they deserve.
As the COO of i-intro, James O’Brien has helped hundreds of recruiters transition to a retained recruitment model. He’s also a champion and advocate for recruiters, a true thought leader who is committed to sharing knowledge and insight to benefit the recruitment industry. In this podcast, he shares many helpful tips and offers valuable guidance to make the shift from contingency to retained services easy. He provides ways to overcome a lack of confidence and how to distinguish yourself by effectively differentiating your service.
James has more than 30 years of experience in the recruitment industry and understands all the pain points of recruiters and he has the solutions to help them overcome this with outstanding success.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Escaping The Grip of Limiting Beliefs
Creating videos or podcasts is one of the most powerful tools to establish yourself as an authoritative figure inside your niche market. Yet, many professionals still shy away from capturing themselves on video or audio because they can only see and hear their shortcomings. They convince themselves that the value of their message is overshadowed by these imperfections that are so prominent in their eyes.
James disagrees: “If you are saying something that is going to be useful to somebody, then people do want to hear.” He believes that people “appreciate the realness of who you are,” and will overlook a less-than studio quality production. This belief that you are not capable of doing it is merely self-limiting, holding you back from achieving the success you deserve.
How To Tripple Your Income
“I am not here saying that retained recruitment is the only way to deliver service. But I am someone who says that retained recruitment is not just the executive search assignments,” James states his belief that this is the way to increase your revenue without increasing your efforts.
He explains that by opting for retained recruitment, you can increase your conversion rate from 20% which is the norm for contingency recruitment, to 60% or more. It means that you can triple your income without working harder. You will also be able to work smarter with your clients and candidates and have more fun doing so. The secret is not in working harder but in being able to convince a client of your value of your service.
How to Convince Clients to Appreciate You
“There is a perception of what a recruiter is and what they do that the market has and they have that for a very good reason…but if you hold yourself and have your self-worth and believe that you are worth it, then you should have the confidence to tell your clients what you do,” James states.
He says that you should refrain from positioning yourself as a recruiter for you deliver much more than merely sourcing a few CVs. You should be able to differentiate yourself from the rest by being able to express to your clients what you truly offer them and how hiring you will benefit them. He explains some of the practical steps that will help you to do this with great success.
Are you ready to make the transition from offering a contingency service to the position where you can rather enjoy a fair exchange for your expertise through a retained recruitment model?
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained James O’Brien Bio and Contact Info James O-Brien has been the COO of i-intro for the past six years and during this time he grasped an in-depth understanding of the challenges that recruiters face when they transition to retained recruitment services. During his career, James trained hundreds of recruitment firms and helped them to fully understand and be able to utilize the i-intro platform. He was an early adopter of the i-intro platform and process while he was still running EO Executives, an international interim management and executive search firm. James’s career in recruitment dates back to the 1980s. During most of the past 30 years in the field, he has been involved in coaching and training recruiters as well as being the coalface of the industry. Connect with Mark Whitby
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| Growing a Recruitment Startup to £1.1 Million in Only Five Months, with Ben Broughton, Ep # 114 | 17 Feb 2022 | 00:56:08 | |
Want to grow your recruitment business more rapidly? In today’s podcast, you’ll hear the remarkable story of how Ben Broughton managed to grow his start-up, Primis, to 21 staff members and revenue of £1.1 million in just five months. Primis specialises in recruitment in the field of technology and serves the UK and US market with a vision to expand into Europe soon. Ben started his career in recruitment in 2000 at SThree where he ran and set up offices across several locations before moving onto Premier Group in 2006. Here he spent 14 years as managing director, taking the company from 14 people to 110 and growing the revenue to £30 million and £10 million in Net Fee Income. While the core focus of Primis is the field of technology, the company and its success are centred around diversity and inclusion, giving everyone access to shares and putting people first. Episode Outline and Highlights
Making The Most of Shareholding “Give everybody access to shares in the business. I think for me personally, I currently have 80% of the organisation but if I end up with 60% and the team has the other 40 but we’re worth four times as much, then that is just a no brainer for me,” Ben explains that they want everyone to feel like they have a piece of the pie, to promote even greater success for all. One of the reasons why Ben left the Premier group was because he didn’t have enough control to make the changes he desired. Thus, shareholding is something that is not only important to him on a personal level but also as a vital part of his success. Coupled with having the right people on board, success comes much easier. Ben states that ownership is key to creating a space where staff feels they belong and the outcome is that they deliver even greater results. Getting The Right Practical Aspects In Place To Obtain Such Rapid Growth When you are starting a business to grow it at a rapid pace, it does require that you have certain measures in place to ensure that everything happens at a certain pace. How did Ben do this?
What Are The Mistakes Ben Has Made Along the Way As a large part of Ben’s success at Premier Group was the large expansion he delivered on, taking the recruitment team from 14 to 110 people, he can share some lessons learned. The following are all things he mentions to ensure rapid expansion
These and many other insights that Ben brings to the podcast can help you too to speed up the growth of your business. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Ben Broughton Bio and Contact Info Ben’s career in recruitment started in 2000 when he joined the team of SThree. Here his primary responsibility was to set up and run offices for the company across Birmingham, Leeds and Reading. By 2006, he moved on to Premier Group. After successfully expanding the contract function of the business he continued to open offices for the Premier brand in Manchester, London, Birmingham, New York and Austin. During his 14 years as managing director, he led the company to expand from 14 people to 110, reaching revenue of more than £30 million and £10 million NFI. As founder of Primis, Ben scaled the business to 21 employees since September 2021. Ben’s mission is to grow the Primis brand into a leading technology-focused recruitment business that puts people first. People and Resources Mentioned
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| How Simple Yet Powerful Changes Unlocked Two Years of Record Growth, with Steven Street, Ep # 113 | 11 Feb 2022 | 01:03:40 | |
Looking back on the past two years, how would you summarize the impact that Covid-19 had on your business? For most companies, this was a devastating time and an even worse period for the individuals who worked in these firms. It was no different for the team at Cubed Talent Management, but they opted to turn the cards into their favour and can now look back on two records years. Added to this success, they are confident in predicting a 35% increase in the budget for 2022. What Steven Street, CEO of Cubed Talent Management, brings to the table is much more than 25 years of experience and exceptional skills in the industry. The insights he is sharing is much more profound as it speaks of a deep understanding of how to take a calm approach amidst global chaos. Under his guidance Cubed Talent Management could revert back to basics, set certain vital systems in place and excel beyond expectations “Without sounding like I am fetishizing the pandemic which was terrible and truly a crisis for too many people. There was something strangely exhilarating about the whole thing where there was little we were completely in control of and I think it had a bit of a levelling effect,” is Steven’s take on the first couple of weeks after Covid-19 became a very relevant reality. In this podcast, he shares how his team managed to turn what could have been a disaster into profound success. Episode Outline and Highlights:
How Cubed Talent Management Managed to Turn Covid-19 Into Two Record Years “What the pandemic taught us was really was to flatten and simplify and we went back into direct drive. For every input, for every hour worked, for every pound spent, for every effort expended, we’ve got to see the wheels turn and they’ve got to turn quickly and they got to turn and take us into the right direction to the next destination which was recovery, consolidate. grow and then scale.” Steven explains how they realized when the pandemic stripped away the numbers they were used to and all the comforts and certainties that come along with success, all they had left was each other and the values they shared and the bonds that tied the team together. The platform they could use to gain traction again consisted of basic human needs of association, community, security and a sense of belonging. The result was a record two years in the business. As they had no choice but to change, they opted to go at it “really hard and radical.” They realized that they went through the typical enterprise maturity cycle and that they need to take on the mindset of being a startup again. This was how they could attend to the tasks that really mattered and made a difference to their success. From here they could proceed from recovery mode, to consolidate, grow and scale. This is where they are now and the foundation that allows them to put an exciting but reasonable growth expectation in place for 2022. The Values That Served as the Glue Leading to Success CIRCLE - what does it stand for? Steven explains what these values are what they were holding onto. He also emphasizes that for values to be the platform of your success, you need to do more than claim them, you need to live them. While value statements are mostly written manifestos of what your brand stands for during times when all is well, their team has experienced that their values became even more tangible when all bets were off due to this immense disruption of lives the world experienced during especially the height of the pandemic. Lesson Learned - Keys to Lasting Success Cubed Talent Management showed themselves as exceptionally successful to manage their in-house talent optimally during a time that might as well turn out in quite a different manner. What did they learn during this time?
These are only some of the aspects Steven believe will enable a recruitment firm to enjoy an unexpected level of success. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Steven Street Bio and Contact Info Got into recruitment on the ground floor - fortuitously, with Larry Gould's business Link Up in June 1993 - followed by a successful stint with Pertemps (which would have been my forever career - had I not launched Relay Recruitment in 1996; subsequently sold in 2011. Now working with an amazing handpicked team at Cubed Talent Management. As stated on my LI profile: a human Swiss Army knife, problem solver, acquirer and nurturer of World Class talent, therapist, wine drinker, believer in a brighter future and, most importantly- lover of dogs. 🐶 Yorkshire born and bred - dragged up in Bradford. A vociferous enemy of mediocrity, shabby service, average aspiration, poor standards and negativity. My own personal mission is to launch a community enterprise supporting young people with Autism, Aspergers and other additional needs into dignified internships, work placements, work experience and ultimately, quality career pathways.
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| Secrets to Surviving Four Financial Crises and Growing Revenue to £56 Million, with Mark Brown, Ep #112 | 04 Feb 2022 | 01:02:16 | |
Imagine starting your own recruitment business with zero experience in recruitment and only 10 days later the world comes to a standstill with 9/11. This is how the story of Mark Brown, co-founder and director of Worldwide Recruitment Solutions (WRS) started. However, this wasn’t the last obstacle in his way. Their niche field was financial institutions with a specific focus on the mortgage market when the 2008 financial collapse took place. From there they transitioned their business into serving the oil and gas industry and 2014 came along, seeing the oil industry plummeting. In this podcast, Mark expands on how they still managed to grow WRS to revenue of £56 million and EBITA of £1.7M with 4 international offices (UK, Singapore, Iraq & Uganda), becoming the 3rd fastest growing recruitment company in the UK. Episode Outline and Highlights:
Cash Is King “You talk about systems but there weren’t any systems. The reality was that this was a decision that I’d taken on the back of good advice. I think the advice I was given besides that cash is king is to make sure you’ve always got a minimum of 6 and ideally 9 months worth of working capital, business as usual working capital so that you can keep the lights on,” Mark explains how they managed to survive and thrive through 4 major global financial crises. How to Scale Your Business to 30 People In a matter of three years, WRS grew from 5 to 30 people. On top of that, they also have an employee retention rate of 90%. Mark compared their system to that of Jack and the Beanstalk where they had four department heads and added new team members underneath each one. The following factors all influenced their success in hiring the right people to fall underneath these heads:
However, what added more value to the business was the high retention rate that sometimes was above 90%. As WRS always gave their staff the perfect runway to grow within, staff would very seldom leave the business. Mark also pointed out that they created a clear path for everyone joining the firm and they offered a space without any glass ceilings and where the opinion of employees was respected. Why Did WRS Win The Sunday Times Best Small Company to Work for Award? Mark states that even though the company has grown tremendously since its early days, they’ve maintained the same kind of culture. The management team, the L&D team and the culture of the business never changed. “I refer back to respect, fair environment, an environment where people feel they belong, feel they have a voice, feel they have an input, they understand the purpose of the company and the direction of travel and that is through constant communication,” Mark shares why he believes they won the award for being the best small company to work for. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Mark Brown Bio and Contact Info Mark Brown is the co-founder of Worldwide Recruitments Solutions (WRS) and has 20 years experience as a recruitment business owner and CEO. Involved in the start up of two recruitment brands - KCMB (2001-08) & WRS (2008 to date). WRS is a global recruitment consultancy and workforce solutions company serving the oil and gas, mining, marine and power industries. In 2021, WRS achieved revenue of £56M with an EBITDA of £1.7M. The brand has a global presence with offices in UK, Singapore, Iraq and Uganda. They currently have a headcount of 65 (peaked at 120 in 2015). WRS was recently named by Recruiter Magazine as the 3rd fastest growing recruitment company in the UK. He and his team have a long list of awards that includes being the Sunday Times Best Small Company to Work for, WRS enjoys a place on the Version Fast Track List and they’ve received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and International Trade. Mark brings expertise in international trade and global expansion and is an advocate of technology innovation and digitisation to improve business process and efficiency. Married for 20 years, he has twin daughters (aged 22). A keen supporter of football (30 years a season ticket holder at Man United) and horse racing as a spectator sport.
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| Enjoy Exponential Growth: How to Scale and Sell a Recruitment Firm for €32 million, with Tom Hopkinson, Ep #111 | 28 Jan 2022 | 00:54:56 | |
Many founders dream of selling their business one day. In this interview, you’ll hear from someone who’s actually done it. Since launching his firm, Taylor Hopkinson, in April 2009, Tom Hopkinson has grown the business to almost 100 employees and revenue of £50,000,000 – a 60% increase over the previous year! However, the biggest news is that in December 2021, Taylor Hopkinson sold 72% of their shares to Brunel International N.V. for 32mm EUR. Tom is the founder and CEO of Taylor Hopkinson, based in Glasgow. The team is a valuable recruitment partner to the world’s leaders in renewable energy. The team at TH has several accolades to their name including, winning the Windy Industry Awards Best Recruiter of the Year in 2021 and 2019/20 and Recruiter Fast 50 named them one of the fastest-growing companies in the industry. They offer retained search and selection, permanent and contract recruitment services and business intelligence solutions to global market leaders with offices in London, Mexico, Valencia, Boston, Singapore and Taipei. In this episode, Tom shares his story that begins much like many other recruiters who stepped into this field by accident. For Tom, this was a very literal experience as he actually got lost en route to his first interview in recruitment and almost didn’t show up at all. Luckily for him, and for our industry, the hiring manager called and guided him on the phone right into their parking lot. Imagine if he’d never attended that fateful interview that set him on the path to success in recruitment! Episode Outline and Highlights
The African Proverb that Tom Lives by Now “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This African proverb is what Tom uses to summarize his approach towards leadership. Yet, this is a lesson that he had to learn the hard way. There were times when he simply pulled everyone forward at the pace he wanted to go and that wasn’t realistic. Now, in hindsight, Tom is sure that this couldn’t be very nice for the people working with him. He shares that they would’ve wasted far less effort, energy and sleepless nights on stressing if they only believed that things would come. Patience is vital if you want to persevere until the end. The Top 3 KPIs for Recruitment Success Tom mentioned that there are three Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that need more attention than others. So, I wanted to know how he determines what metrics are more important than others. He also shared why he believes so strongly in this system that he runs his entire operation on this model. He explained that in any business, there is a range of KPIs but not all of them are equally influential. Tom suggests that you pinpoint the three most influential KPIs that affect all other KPIs. Once you have identified them, they become your focal point as they are the determining factors to your success. By reducing the number of KPIs you track, you can prevent your focus and attention from becoming diluted. The three KPIs he is looking at are:
Tom believes that all other KPIs depend on how successful you are in meeting these three. At Taylor Hopkinson, they don’t emphasize “new job orders” as a metric. You can find yourself in a situation where your team brings in a lot of new jobs but they’re not necessarily jobs that you can fill, or even want to fill, as a niche market recruiter. Don’t lose quality on what you have to offer simply because you are chasing targets. Rather, focus on the number of first interviews because if you have enough first interviews, that means you also have enough jobs. Only once the number of first interviews seems to be sliding, you have to determine why. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Tom Hopkinson Bio and Contact Info Tom obtained his degree in English Literature and Philosophy from Cardiff University in 2002. It was not even two years after graduating that he set up the renewable energy proposition from the very start as manager of renewable energy at Ellis Fairbank. Tom considers this as the first time when he opted to follow his passion as the move was inspired by wind turbines next to the M6. From here, he moved on to Eden Scott Limited as divisional manager of renewable energy before founding Taylor Hopkinson in 2009. TH has a global presence as they have offices in seven countries and professionals on their team operating from more than 40 countries across the globe. Tom approaches his trade from the perspective that you need to do what you are committed to and have a passion for as it is better to be dominant in a niche field than average in much larger pool. Other mottos which he uses to guide his success is to absorb as much information as possible from others and to believe that through persistent quality deliverance things will come to you rather than chasing success.
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| Why Top Billers Don’t Want to Join Your Recruitment Agency, with Dandan Zhu, Ep #110 | 21 Jan 2022 | 01:14:30 | |
Whether you’re a recruitment agency owner who wants to scale, or a recruiter looking to progress their career, you will benefit from listening to my informative and entertaining discussion with Dandan Zhu. Dandan is the Founder and CEO of DG Recruit, established in 2018 to connect top-billers within agency recruitment with top recruitment firms. As such, she has a valuable perspective on what characteristics make both parties attractive to one another. In this interview, Dandan shared her thought process and interviewing techniques. By the way, she does not pull her punches - if you have a fragile ego, don’t listen to this episode! Dandan started recruiting right out of college as a full-desk pharma headhunter with 3S Group, a top UK recruitment firm that was rapidly expanding in the US. She became a top rookie/top biller internationally and parlayed her success in technical and executive recruitment into aggressive savings strategies converted into largely real estate investments, retiring at age 28. After 2 years off, Dandan re-entered the recruitment scene by establishing DG Recruit in 2018, a recruitment firm that only services agency recruiters. Episode Outline and Highlights
Characteristics Dandan Looks For When Interviewing Recruiters “Our candidate speaks for us, if the candidate is not performing well, is not driven… we don’t want to do the deal.” That is how Dandan’s summarized their guiding principle when it comes to identifying candidates for their clients. She laid out the following non-negotiable characteristics when looking for great placeable recruiters:
For her, the biggest piece is getting to know if the candidate really understands what recruitment is. Dandan gives direct and hard hitting advice on how she assesses candidates. Why Some Recruitment Agencies Will Never Attract Top Recruiters I asked Dandan about common mistakes that recruitment agencies make when it comes to recruiting recruiters. She was quite blunt in her appraisal of the industry and explained that most agency owners are unrealistic about the sort of person they’re going to attract. For example, if the owner isn’t a big biller then in Dandan’s view it’s unlikely they’ll attract big billers to join their team. In Dandan’s words, why would a top biller join an environment where they’re not going to learn and be challenged? She believes that if you’re a small firm with only average billings, then you can forget about hiring experienced top-producers. Instead, you’ll find more success by hiring recent graduates and training them from the ground up. She also described certain “must-haves” for recruitment agencies who want to hire the best recruiters. She believes most agencies just aren’t very attractive and wouldn’t qualify for representation by a rec-to-rec agency like DG recruit. Some critical must-haves are: excellent employee benefits (such as health insurance), and the ability to work remotely. She also emphasized the importance of having an excellent platform - in other words, you must provide people with all the right tools for them to be successful. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Dandan Zhu Bio and Contact Info Dandan fell in love with the recruitment business in 2011 when she started her career at a top international headhunting firm for 5 years where she built out multiple niche & executive search divisions and teams before retiring a week after her 5th year anniversary as a global top producer. As an entrepreneur, Dandan built career coaching business Dandan Global in 2016 and DG Recruit in 2018 while accumulating a robust portfolio of rental properties and crypto investment assets. Dandan travels frequently to coach top recruitment professionals and firms in every major city and speak about topics including sales, personal development, and strategies for life and career success. Dandan also hosts 2 podcasts, the DG Recruit Podcast and Daily DANDAN Podcast, to help job-seekers and recruiters get ahead in their life and careers. While working on DGR and real estate investing is Dandan’s primary passion and focus, she is also a huge Harry Potter nerd, dog-lover, avid traveler, foodie, and snowboarder.
People and Resources Mentioned
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| How this Veteran Recruiter Averaged $750K Annually for 29 Years Straight, with David Bradley, Ep #216 | 10 May 2024 | 00:59:49 | |
Being a high biller requires a combination of hard work, skills, and strategies. But what does it really take? My special guest, David Bradley, is a 29-year veteran who averaged $750k in annual billings his entire career! In this episode, David shares the strategies and mindset that make him a very effective recruiter! On top of that, David also manages high-volume accounts with a team of 60 headhunters. If you are a recruitment leader like David, you will find insightful takes on how he manages KPIs and how they drive a culture that is geared towards performance. In 2009, David helped start Movement. He is a partner with Movement and has been an instrumental part in helping the firm grow from 3 to 65 plus headhunters over the past 14 years. Movement has 5 brick and mortar offices across the United States. Episode Outline and Highlights
What it Takes to Be a Top Recruiter What does it take to become a top recruiter? It certainly involves grind and hard work. David’s 29-year experience provides him with a credible perspective on what it takes to be successful. This also gives him an advantage as a recruitment leader - his capabilities are a testament to how his team has been performing. Below are the critical topics that David and I discussed:
If you are listening, as a recruiter or recruitment leader, David's insights are inspiring!
The Foundation of Being a Successful Recruiter
Being consistently successful in a long time requires more than hard work. There is something else and David generously shared his secret sauce:
“So I think having that gratitude, understanding that we get to talk to people for a living and have just an incredible life, incredible income opportunity, incredible balance, we can manage our life any way we want it… And I think that fuels getting up in the morning and saying, you know what? This is gonna be another great day. It's gonna be a great year. It's gonna be a great month. Well, if it's not been a great month, next month's gonna be great. So having that sort of mindset, I think, is really, and factor a lot of fun into this.”
This fantastic mindset is an invisible but highly influential factor that determines your success as a recruiter or recruitment business owner. Possessing a positive mindset enables us to navigate the favorable and unfavorable changes we encounter with resilience.
The Keys to Continuous Growth and Eight-Figure BIllings
David shares how Movement produced $20M in billings around 2022-23. It was a great year for them post-Covid, and the systems and frameworks they had at the time enabled them to retain the momentum even when things appear to slow down in 2024. I wanted to pick David’s brains on the culture and systems they have in place, given that not many recruiting firms get above 8 figures.
My takeaway is how they emphasise creating and enabling a culture geared towards high performance. They have annual trips for the top 10% of producers, on top of regular social activities and loyalty bonus programs. They also have annual meetings where they fly everyone in, including their staff’s spouses. Doing so contributes to relationship-building and as David said, “an essential part of the culture.”
David also discussed their profit-sharing scheme. What I also loved was his insights on managing KPIs while not micromanaging everything. Our Sponsor This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Their technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees, and increase their billings. Their software combined with world-class training enables you to transition from transactional, contingency recruiter to consultative, retained recruiter. Instead of being perceived as a “me too” vendor, you’ll be positioned as a “me only” solutions provider. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: https://recruitmentcoach.com/retained
David Bradley Bio and Contact Info
David is a 29-year veteran of the headhunting business. David stumbled into the business in 1995 when he was working with a headhunter to help him find a sales job. The tables got turned and David actually got hired as a headhunter. He spent the next 16 years working for Spherion. He enjoyed success right from the beginning. He billed $175K in year 1 and the following year billed close to $400K and he never looked back from there.
In 2009, he left Spherion (later known as Ranstad) to help start Movement. He is a partner with Movement and has been an instrumental part in helping the firm grow from 3 to 65 plus headhunters over the past 14 years. Movement has 5 brick and mortar offices across the United States.
* He has been a leading producer at Movement with 750+ placements since 2009 with the most placements in the firm's history (Personal billings of $1.3M in 2023, $1.1M in 2022, and averaged $750K+ in billings throughout his career) * He manages high-volume accounts with a team of 60 headhunters * He has helped mentor aspiring headhunters into the business. * He has completed over 2500 placements throughout his career. * Member of Pinnacle Society since 2023. * David holds an MBA from Franciscan University.
David has been married to his lovely wife for 32 years and has 5 grown children (ages 17 to 31) He is an avid hockey player and resides with his family in Clarkston, MI.
People and Resources Mentioned
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| How Effective Automation Can Help Your Solo Practice Make 7-Figures, with Craig Paisley, Ep #109 | 07 Jan 2022 | 00:55:50 | |
In this interview, my special guest Craig Paisley shares his secrets to billing close to 7-figures as a solo recruiter. He finished the year on $950,000 to be exact. How was he able to accomplish this amazing feat? There were several factors, of course, but Craig believes that the biggest key to his success was his tech stack. In this episode, Craig reveals his preferred automation tools and how he leverages recruitment technology to fill jobs faster than his competitors. Craig started his recruitment business, Industrial Resource Group, in 2009. He specializes in recruiting for companies from the food and beverage manufacturing and distribution industries across the United States and Canada. In 2021, IRG was awarded 56th Forbes Best Recruiters – Professional Search. Episode Outline and Highlights
Starting a Recruitment Firm During the Great Recession Prior to becoming a business owner, Craig was a successful full-desk recruiter with the same firm for 10 years and worked his way up to VP of Sales. When he eventually launched his own staffing firm in 2009, the timing wasn’t ideal. When I asked how he survived the first 12 months as a new business during the great recession, Craig described it as “kind of fighting… you claw and you edge your way in any place that you can… it was tough, it was a grind, I just pounded the phones and I worked hard. Any opportunity and position I got, I worked hard on it and luckily I was able to make placements and string enough together to where I sort of built up some momentum.” Leveraging Automation Tools Craig was able to make 2021 his best year yet in terms of personal production, just shy of one million dollars. How did he do it? By leveraging automation tools. Some of the recruitment technology stack we discussed include:
Craig reveals his exact system and end-to-end sourcing process. He’s built a “candidate generation machine” that enables him to source, vet and submit candidates quickly and efficiently. Even though the majority of his searches are contingent, he is able to outperform his competitors and win the day. Automating mundane tasks can be extremely profitable by saving time and increasing productivity. As Craig puts it, previously the majority of his phone calls were reaching out to candidates to try and talk to them about a position. Now the outreach part is automated and his phone calls are more focused on screening candidates, getting them prepared for interviews, and closing deals. Vetting Your Clients Well With the rising demands for candidates, how is IRG able to compete with other recruiting companies in such a tight job market with more openings than candidates available? Craig’s secret is choosing their clients wisely. “I think I have more success because of where I am starting from. What I mean by that is if I partner with good companies that have good reputation, that have good positions with great opportunity of growth, good salary, bonuses, all that stuff, if I am going to the market with those kinds of positions, it is going to be easy for me to get more candidates.” Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Craig Paisley Bio and Contact Info A dedicated business owner with over 20 years of experience in the staffing industry. Experienced in all areas of staffing including Clerical, Accounting & Finance, Maintenance & Engineering, Sales, Light Industrial, etc. With honesty and integrity, Craig’s passion lies in the successful recruitment of personnel in the food, beverage, and pet food manufacturing and distribution industries for companies across the United States. Specialties: Over 10 years of manufacturing and distribution based recruitment experience with a focus and emphasis on partnering with companies from food, beverage and pet food industries across the United States and Canada. Craig started his career as a full desk recruiter placing exempt and non-exempt maintenance personnel in California. He then moved into a regional management position within the same division before moving on to build a clerical division for a joint venture/new company. From there, Craig moved into a director role focused on light industry and left the company after 10 years as the VP of Sales responsible for multiple states and offices. Craig started IRG in 2009, building the company to 8 internal employees before downsizing to a solo operation in early 2020. Currently ranked the 56th best staffing in the US by Forbes. People and Resources Mentioned
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| The Winning Formula: How to Grow a Recruiting Firm to $2 Million in 3 Years, with Amanda Brandenburg, Ep #108 | 15 Dec 2021 | 00:54:39 | |
A highly successful career in a large recruitment agency does not always translate to becoming a successful business owner. As challenging as it can be running a desk, the challenges are multiplied when running a business. As my special guest Amanda Brandenberg explains, you suddenly find yourself wearing “42 different hats.” Yet in spite of those challenges, Amanda has grown from startup to revenues of $2,000,000 in just three years. That puts her firm in the top 1-2% out of 12.3 million women-owned businesses in the United States. Her journey to building a successful search and staffing firm has never been easy, and the insights Amanda shares are hard-won. Amanda Brandenburg is the Founding Principal at OpusLex Partners, a legal recruiting boutique servicing law firms and corporate legal departments throughout the country. For over a decade, she was a top producer at two of the country’s largest legal staffing firms where she provided interim solutions and direct-hire placements to law firms and corporations within the continental U.S. Episode Outline and Highlights
From Being a Top Biller to Recruitment Firm Founder: Success Formulas Amanda is a consistent high achiever. From being a consistent top biller, overcoming recessions, she eventually quit a steady lucrative role to start her own gig. I wanted to get insight from Amanda on her key factors to success. What separates a top performer from an average performer? She laid out a few differentiating factors:
Are you planning to startup or currently in the painful phase of setting up your own business? Amanda shared that it is important to find your own motivator. This is how she puts it, “For anyone starting out, you have to find your own motivator and I think especially with this younger generation that we have right now, they are really motivated by helping people. We are in a business, so you would have to dollarize that in some way and dig a little deeper because this can be quite transactional sometimes but I think you have to really think about what motivates you. If it’s changing lives, then think about how many placements per year in terms of how many lives changed.” Why Self-Awareness is Critical When Building a Team Having a great team around her previous roles and currently in Opus Lex is a critical factor in her success. She shared her thought process when putting together an awesome team, “Self-awareness. First of all I have a very long list of things that I am not good at, that are not my strengths. I really do understand what my strengths are… I am not the most organized person, I’ve got a lot of loose ends at any given point.” This awareness enables Amanda to build a compatible and solid team. Her strength is in client-facing and allows her other team members to handle operational tasks. Painful Phases and Surprises When Starting Up Your Own Business When Amanda was working with her previous employer, she had the opportunity to open up a new office. This happened during the great recession whilst pregnant and she had just moved into a new house. You will hear her fascinating story during this phase of her career which gave her confidence in building her own business. It was not a walk in the park though, as she also had a lot of ‘surprises’. I hope you will relate to her story and be inspired to overcome challenges when running your own recruitment business. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Amanda Brandenburg Bio and Contact Info In 2018, Amanda founded OpusLex Partners to bring a hands-on, customized, and personalized approach back to legal recruiting. At OpusLex, which translates to “legal body of work,” our body of work includes finding the very best for every search. Amanda is passionate about her work and enjoys the challenges and competitive nature of the business. When she’s not sourcing top legal talent for her clients, you can find her spending time with her husband, their three children, and two rescue dogs at home in Atlanta. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia. People and Resources Mentioned
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| Failure is Only Temporary: How to Build a Really Successful Search Firm, with Susie Farrell, Ep #107 | 09 Dec 2021 | 00:53:31 | |
In this episode, you will hear how Susie Farrell built a really successful executive search firm under challenging circumstances. This podcast is called The Resilient Recruiter for a reason -- the path to success is often paved with adversity. This was certainly the case for Susie. You will hear her share the story of why her first attempt to launch a recruitment business in Ireland failed - and how she applied what she learned from that experience to make it work the second time around. While this setback took a huge toll on her confidence, it also made her more determined than ever to succeed. In this interview, she reveals some of her most effective marketing strategies for building her brand and growing a thriving business. Susie is the Founder and Director of Addison, an executive recruitment and search firm based in Dublin, Ireland. She has 17 years of experience working for global and specialist recruitment brands in Ireland, Australia and the Middle East. Susie has extensively delivered in Banking, Utilities, Telecoms, Retail, Consumer and Government sectors in the areas of Corporate Affairs, Marketing and Business Transformation. In this episode, you will relate to her experience and learnings. Enjoy! Episode Outline and Highlights
Great Ideas on Branding and Collaboration Susie shared her career milestones of being a recruitment specialist for 17 years. Her solid experience working with specialist and global brands equipped her well to succeed in setting up her own business. However, it was not a walk in the park as you will hear in our conversation. You will relate to the challenges and failures she experienced, and how those learnings ultimately helped her get where she is today. Susie credits the amazing team she worked with at her previous firm, Ampersand International as being pivotal to her successful career in recruitment. One of the phenomenal ideas they came up with which she has replicated at Addison is the strategy of creating a forum or networking group within your niche, leading to collaboration, credibility, brand recognition and the development of key relationships. Bouncing Back from a Devastating Business Experience Another takeaway from our conversation was Susie’s resilience. She shared a very challenging stage in her career that really took a toll on her confidence and almost made her quit the agency life altogether. This happened when she returned to Ireland from Australia in 2015 for personal reasons. Her former employers asked her to open an office in Ireland, which seemed like a perfect opportunity. She launched the business and built a brilliant team, but in spite of working incredibly hard things didn’t work out and they eventually had to close down after two years. As you can imagine, this was a devastating experience for Susie. However, it prepared her for the challenge of setting up her own search firm. Transitioning to the Retained Model I have always advocated for the retained search model - it is a win-win solution not only for recruiters but for clients as well. This is the case with Susie, she used to work in contract staffing but now doing permanent placements on a retained basis. So what was involved in making that transition? Susie said, “I felt it was really risky running a business and being the only person in the business and having all this contingent work never really knowing what’s going to come in next month… It just helps you forecast guaranteed revenue but it also guarantees that I am going to deliver the results. I absolutely have to do it, they paid for it.” Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Susie Farrell Bio and Contact Info Presenting with a Masters’ Degree in Marketing and Business Studies, Susie is an Executive Recruitment and Search Consultant with 17 years experience working for global and specialist recruitment brands such as Ampersand Executive, Talent2 and Michael Page International in Ireland, Australia and the Middle East. She is Director and Founder of Addison, an Executive Recruitment and Search firm that partners with organisations looking to attract exceptional talent, focusing exclusively on mid to senior appointments in Communications, Corporate Affairs, Public Affairs and Marketing. Susie has extensively delivered across Financial Services/Banking, Energy/Resources, Telecoms, Retail, Consumer and Government sectors in the areas of Corporate Affairs, Marketing and Business Transformation. Her industry experience in Marketing, combined with her strong work ethic and passion for the executive recruitment and search industry, allows her to understand the specific requirements of her clients and candidates. Susie is immersed in the current thinking of the essential customer functions by continually engaging with top talent from a diverse range of sectors and across multiple markets and geographies. She prides herself on integrity and professionalism and places a high priority on relationships and driving commercial results. Leading Addison, Susie will continue to support organisations deliver and manage critical appointments by providing a full range of recruitment solutions from executive search through to contract consulting appointments. Connect with Mark Whitby
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| How to Bill $12,800,000 in 14 Years, with Michael Pietrack, Ep #106 | 26 Nov 2021 | 00:56:34 | |
What is the secret to billing $28,000,000 in 14 years, including $12,800,000 in personal production? If your goal is to become a top biller or billing manager, you’re going to love my interview with Michael Pietrack. Michael was recommended to me on five separate occasions by previous podcast guests, so I made it my mission to get him on the show. He’s the Vice President of TMAC Direct which is the executive recruiting arm of The Medical Affairs Company based in Atlanta. On top of being a consistent top producer, Michael’s achievements include becoming MRI's #1 Worldwide solo recruiter, being elected into the Pinnacle Society and becoming PharmaVoice’s Top 100 Most Inspiring People in Pharma. Michael generously shared his approach and best practices as well as his mindset that drives him to success. Enjoy listening! Episode Outline and Highlights
The Value of Failure Upon realizing that Michael had previous playing and coaching experience in baseball before transitioning to recruitment, I recalled what my friend Joel Slenning said about hiring athletes as recruiters. I have also interviewed successful recruiters and business owners who applied discipline from sports or even combat sports in their recruiting careers. I asked Michael’s perspective, what is it about the athletic background that can add chances for success in recruiting? He gave his insights, “I would say the biggest commonality between all athletes is this ego drive that despite failure, you are going to succeed next time.” Michael added, “That’s very important if you are going to be a resilient recruiter, you got to have that ingrained in you.” This is golden, considering that actual success is just the tip of the iceberg. What most people don’t see are the number of times a recruiter or business owner must fail in order to learn and move forward. Michael’s Success Factors Michael also shared differentiating factors contributing to his success. Billing $12,800,000 in 14 years is more than just hard work. As Michael stated, it is a “compounding variety of things.” He gave two primary takeaways:
Candidate and Client Outreach Best Practices On top of what Michael shared on sticking to your niche and being consistent with branding, he also shared practical approaches that can significantly increase your chances of success. From overcoming the fear of cold outreach, how to seek out candidates and earn exclusivity, to how he manages his time to make the most out of each day. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Michael Pietrack Bio and Contact Info Michael Pietrack is a leading Pharmaceutical Industry recruiter from the US. His firm is called TMAC Direct, the executive recruiting arm of The Medical Affairs Company, which is the international leader in direct-hire and contract staffing for Medical Affairs. Michael is known as one of the top five billers in the US, and because of that, he is a sought after speaker and trainer. He runs a high performing desk, while overseeing several teams. His hobbies include creative writing, Bible study, and spending time with his wife and three daughters.
People and Resources Mentioned
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| How to Achieve Excellent Staff Retention and Sustainable Recruitment Agency Growth, with Neil Dickins, Ep #105 | 18 Nov 2021 | 00:56:28 | |
One of the biggest problems in our industry is the high level of staff turnover and attrition. This can have negative implications on profits, branding, and continuity of service. How do you overcome this? Neil Dickins, the founder of Intellectual Capital Resources, shares how they have achieved excellent employee engagement and retention for the last 21 years. This correlates with them achieving 86 profitable quarters in a row! Founded in 1999, IC Resources now employs over 70 people with 7 offices across the UK, Germany, Austria, China and the USA. They’ve made over 12,000 placements and are the pre-eminent ‘deep tech’ recruiter in the UK and Europe. In this episode, Neil shares their approach to hiring, organic growth, culture and KPI management, and how ‘letting go’ can be a challenge but beneficial in the long run. Enjoy! Episode Outline and Highlights
Critical Success Factors for Sustainable Growth and Profitability I reached out to Neil because IC Resources were listed in the Hot 100 List of the Recruiter Magazine. Out of 30-40,000 recruitment firms in the UK, they are 33rd in terms of billings per employee. This is on top of them having 86 straight profitable quarters! Such an incredible feat has a lot of contributing factors. But I asked Neil to boil it down to the key components. Neil mentioned two:
Avoiding Unwanted Staff Turnover As we went through our conversation, it was clear that what significantly contributed to IC Resources’ strong business is retaining talent and reducing staff turnover. “For 21 years...we almost had no unwanted staff turnover” is how Neil puts it. What are their practices to have such high staff retention? Neil said, “It is a combination of culture and lack of greed.” He laid out some of their employee practices which I believe you will find interesting:
All of the abovementioned factors are founded on how they manage their KPIs. Their approach to having dynamic and custom KPIs for each person is genius! Learn more about it while listening. The Ten-Second Rule I’ve noticed that many successful leaders have certain phrases or key messages they repeat over and over to their team until it becomes part of the DNA of the organization. I asked Neil what message he finds himself repeating when communicating with his team. He shared a nugget of wisdom that we could all adopt as a fundamental principle in doing business; let’s call it the ‘ten-second rule’. This is how he puts it: “People know within 10 seconds of a phone call if you see them as a person or as a pound sign.” How does that impact the overall end-to-end hiring process? Listen to this episode of The Resilient Recruiter to hear Neil explain this philosophy in detail. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Neil Dickins Bio and Contact Info Fell in love with theatre at McMaster University, graduated 1st Class Hons Psych & Drama while running two University businesses. Came to England to study Shakespeare at LAMDA, became ensnared in the thorns of an English rose and stayed in the UK. Helped Chris Benham start Orion Electrotech prior to co-founding Intellectual Capital Resources. Founded in 1999, IC Resources is now 70 people and the pre-eminent ‘deep tech’ recruiter in the UK and Europe. Also covering high-level software and supply chain, we can startups full skills coverage outside of legal and accounts. We manage blue-chip relationships through an account management team. Neil makes early-stage investments (Anorak Investments), performs in theatre, runs a weekly poker club and attempts to keep up with the youth on the basketball court.
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| International Recruitment: Hard Won Insights From Placing People Around the World for 25 Years, Ep #104 | 10 Nov 2021 | 00:48:26 | |
If you’ve ever wondered what’s involved in running an international recruiting firm and placing people all over the world, here’s your chance to find out. You’ll enjoy listening to my interview with Abigail Stevens, founder of Think Global Recruitment, who has 25 years of experience assisting accounting and finance professionals to not only change jobs, but to relocate from one country to another. I’ve known and admired Abigail for almost 20 years -- she was one of my very first clients when I started my recruitment training business back in 2001. As you’ll hear, Abigail has been hugely successful, both as a top biller and as a business owner. But what was special about this interview is that Abigail talked not only about the high points, but the lows as well. Having survived four downturns / recessions, she’s had some heart breaking moments. You’ll benefit from knowing what she’s learned along the way, and how these experiences have shaped her current strategy for growth. Episode Outline and Highlights
Think Global’s Wildly Successful Candidate Generation Strategy Abigail shared her fascinating journey including how she started her first business very young, then went travelling around the world, before falling into recruitment and eventually setting up Think Global Recruitment at the age of 28. You will enjoy listening to her best learning moments - as well as some of the innovative recruitment strategies she pioneered. An example is how they used international recruitment conferences in the UK, South Africa, and Australia to attract top talent for consulting firms such as PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, BDO, Grant Thornton. Pearls of Wisdom on Talent Retention The other part of our conversation is how Abigail was able to take her company through four economic recessions, including the current pandemic situation. The resilience and planning enabled her firm to withstand the difficulties. Of course, there are things that she would have done differently, which she humbly shared for the benefit of other business owners. One main takeaway was on retaining top recruiters. Abigail shared:
Hear how Abigail elaborated on the above takeaways in our conversation. Growing During the Pandemic In the middle of the pandemic, Think Global Recruitment decided to expand. What makes successful companies such as Think Global thrive during this difficult time? Abigail explained, “Our thought process was, we know from the previous recessions that we’ve been through, that after recession usually there is a shortage of people,” she explained. “So we knew that there is going to be a high demand for our candidates at the end of all of this.” Indeed, being a step ahead and maintaining a growth mindset is definitely a differentiator in success. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Abigail Stevens Bio and Contact Info Abigail Stevens is the Founder and Managing Director of Think Global Recruitment, which she established in 2000. Abigail herself has 25 years experience as a specialist in global accountancy and finance recruitment. She has been assisting Accountancy & Finance professionals to secure new roles throughout the globe and employers to recruit the best accountants in the world, since 1995.
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| How to Smash Your Targets and Become a Top Biller in 6 Months, with Zach Mayner, Ep #103 | 04 Nov 2021 | 00:46:20 | |
This email instantly got my attention: “Since listening to your podcast, I’ve had an exponential increase in my billings numbers. The past 64 days, I’ve billed $286,550. I just wanted you to know that your podcasts add value, and have been life changing from a commissions perspective for me.” Usually I interview recruitment business owners. But based on Zach’s incredible results, it was obvious that I had to invite him onto the show and hear his story. Zach’s enthusiasm is infectious and I am sure you will find insight from both the perspective of a recruiter and a billing manager (Zach has recently hired two recruiters onto his team). If you are a business owner, you will be interested to hear how Zach’s current employer set him up for success. Zach has only been in the recruitment industry for six years and this year he has absolutely taken off like a rocket. He even had a four-month stretch where he billed an average of $100k per month! Zach is a Director at iRiS Recruiting Solutions out of Indiana and places travelling superintendents with Contractors across the United States. iRiS specializes in assisting companies hire top talent for Construction, Warehouse/Distribution, Power & Electronics, Retail, and Manufacturing. Episode Outline and Highlights
Confidence Changes Everything Zach shared how confidence helped him to put up big billing numbers. It helped him approach his day and business in a way where he can set his own table and choose clients he works with. “I am handling objections better on the phone, handling negotiations better, I don’t go below 25%,” Zach described. His no-nonsense attitude of “This is how I work - are you in or are you out” stems from his methodology and ability to deliver. During our interview, Zach shared key takeaways from his experience that greatly contributed to his success:
Sell Retainers by Creating the Demand Making 40+ placements already this year, one of the things Zach is doing differently is retainers. He moved from contingency model to what he calls “Resource Dedication Fees” and was able to secure four retainers this year. Why call it Resource Dedication Fees? It is a creative approach to rebranding retainers. Aside from overcoming any negative connotation that some clients may relate to the term “retainers”, their clients would have a clearer understanding of the retainer model from the term “resource dedication”. Another factor that Zach shared on why he sells retainers easily is by creating demand by putting forth high-level candidates. Hear the details from Zach in this episode. Stop Wasting Time - Focus on the Right Candidate Recruiters typically waste a lot of time working the wrong jobs on the wrong candidate. Zach’s philosophy is to try and cut that time out enabling him to focus on the right candidate for the right job. Zach shared a situation where many recruiters can relate - pulling a candidate out of the hiring process to stop wasting time and focus on more decided candidates. Zach said, “I think recruiters spend a lot of time … ‘I got two final interviews today, I wonder how it will go.’ You are just worrying about it. My thought is, hey, go hit the phone, the interview for today is from work you did yesterday or the week before. Let’s focus on what we're doing today for tomorrow and next week.” Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Zach Mayner Bio and Contact Info Zach works iRiS Recruiting Solutions out of Carmel, Indiana. iRiS specializes in assisting companies hire top talent for the following industries: Construction, Warehouse/Distribution, Power & Electronics, Retail, and Manufacturing. iRiS is one of the Top Recruiting Firm’s in the United States. Out of the 10 Account Executives currently on Staff, 5 have Billed over $400,000, 1 has billed over $500,000 and 2 are North of $600,000 since January of this year. Zach has been in the recruiting industry for 6 years, and started listening to the Resilient Recruiter podcast at the beginning of 2021. Since tuning in and heading the advice from industry leaders, Zach has made minor tweaks to his approach, and has increased his 2021 billings exponentially. This year, he’s had a 4 month stretch where he averaged over $100K in billings per month. Zach is currently scaling his business and has added 2 Recruiters to his team. He has a unique perspective on transitioning from one of the Top Billers at his company to managing a team of 2. He celebrated his 4th wedding anniversary in September with his beautiful wife Felicia. He has an almost 3 year old daughter named Estabelle, and another baby girl due in November. In Zach’s free time, he runs a Disaster Relief Ministry at his church that specializes in traveling to areas within the United States to provide financial support to families that have been affected by natural disasters. People and Resources Mentioned
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| How Recruiters Can Promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, with Chikere Igbokwe, Ep #102 | 29 Oct 2021 | 00:57:17 | |
Diversity and Inclusion is a hot topic in recruitment right now, and for good reason. We’ve reached a “tipping point” (to borrow a term coined by Malcolm Gladwell) where most companies and organizations are embracing diversity and understand the benefits of a diverse workforce. Which means that we recruiters have an opportunity to play a pivotal role in promoting DEI. I confess that I know very little about this topic. Fortunately, I found the perfect person to guide me. My special guest, Chikere Igbokwe, explains why self-education is key and why it’s important to go back to basics when strategizing your approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion in your business. Chikere is an Experienced Executive Recruiter, Facilitator and DEI Leader. She is passionate about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and is on a mission to educate employees, make organisations more diverse and inclusive and to equip them with the know-how to be changemakers. Episode Outline and Highlights
What is Meant by “Safe Space”? When building a culture conducive to tolerance and respect, it is important to establish an environment that is psychologically safe. What is meant by “safe space” from this perspective? Chikere explained, “Obviously space is really important but it is a safe space to come together and have a discussion, a difficult discussion.” From here, Chikere shared actual experiences on discussions about race, white privilege, and other topics that may be considered touchy. Having people comfortable enough to have these conversations is beneficial and a crucial step towards making a difference. Embedding DEI Into Your Recruitment Business - Where Do You Start? It makes commercial sense to create a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy for your recruitment business. Aside from the fact that it’s the right thing to do, we believe that recruitment businesses who are serious about DEI will perform better than those who don’t. However, before you jump into creating your DEI strategy, Chikere firmly believes that the following should be considered:
Introducing More Diverse Candidates to Your Clients In order to find diverse talents, it has to be intentional. Diversity in recruitment requires effort and planning. In some cases, it may mean going out of your comfort zone. Is it worth it? Chikere shared that clients are leaning towards those recruiters who are serious about diversity and have a clear strategy in place. Where can you start? Hear Chikere’s fantastic ideas on how allyship can be a valuable avenue in building a network of diverse talents. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Chikere Igbokwe Bio and Contact Info Chikere founded Inclucive - a DEI Consultancy to help organisations build inclusion into their foundations. She values long term partnerships and works with clients who want to build from a solid foundation. Chikere is also the founder of Allyship.co.uk – a community for Allies to come together in a safe space to learn and the Allyship Book Club. The community is 260 strong and growing. Chikere was born in Southampton, England to a Trinidadian Mother who is part of the Windrush generation and a Nigerian father. She is passionate about equality, equity, Social justice and amplifying unrepresented voices. She is a subject matter expert on gender, recruitment, retaining diverse talent, understanding race including anti-racism and allyship. She has travelled extensively and currently lives in Lewisham, London. She is married with two teenage sons.
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| How SourceBreaker Grew to 63 Employees in 3½ Years, with Steve Beckitt, Ep #101 | 26 Oct 2021 | 00:50:37 | |
If you’re an ambitious recruitment company director looking to scale your business, then you’ll definitely want to listen to my interview with entrepreneur Steve Beckitt. In this conversation, Steve revealed how he was able to grow his recruitment technology business to 63 employees in just three and a half years. At the same time, they have created a high performance culture and were recognized as one of the best places to work. In this episode, Steve did not hold back in sharing the learnings and key factors that contributed to his success. Steve is the founder of SourceBreaker, an award-winning recruitment technology company. Having spent six years at Sthree Group, Steve took the leap to launch SourceBreaker in 2014. They have absolutely taken the industry by storm, growing from three people at the beginning to 70 people today. In fact, SourceBreaker has been listed by the Financial Times as one of the top 100 Fastest Growing Companies in Europe. Episode Outline and Highlights
Key Factor to Growth: Strategic Marketing + Hard Work If you are starting and scaling your business from scratch, what should be your priority? For Steve, getting invoices out the door should be your top priority. As a technology business, how did SourceBreaker strategize their marketing to reach as many clients? “Very much just getting on the phone and calling people up to sell the products to sell the services we offer,” Steve shared. He also emphasized that while others who are also starting might be spending too much time honing their website and messaging, the old-school approach of hard work and making a high volume of calls to sell their product worked for them. When starting your own recruitment business, how do you feel about potential candidates and clients saying “I’ve never heard of you”? Although this can present itself as a challenge, Steve mentioned that you can also push this to your advantage. Hear how. Key Factor to Growth: Building Your Team and Successful Hiring Another factor that contributed to SourceBreaker’s rapid scaling success is how they build their team. There are three primary qualities that they look for when hiring:
Among the three, Steve gives priority to humility. This is how he puts it: “The reason why we think humility is our key, is we have an obsession with always wanting to be better, always wanting to learn. I feel that a new graduate or a new hire to SourceBreaker can teach me things and I am open to hearing their feedback and learning from them.” Key Factor to Growth: Learning and Talent Development To retain your talents, it is important to remember that the people you hire, as Steve pointed out, “are obsessed with their own personal development.” It makes perfect sense to invest in your team’s development, may it be personal or professional. That is why you might find it fascinating how SourceBreaker implements an approach on mentoring and coaching. Also, hear about their book club and how everyone even from top management gets involved. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Steve Beckitt Bio and Contact Info Steve is the Founder and Director of SourceBreaker, a multi-award winning tech platform that helps recruitment companies accelerate their growth. Prior to founding SourceBreaker, Steve worked as Head of Infrastructure Recruitment with Sthree PLC. Steve then took the leap to set up SourceBreaker with the aim of making genuine difference for recruiters.
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| The 7 Habits of Million-Dollar Billers | 19 Oct 2021 | 00:16:51 | |
I am proud and excited to share with you the 100th episode of the Resilient Recruiter Podcast! I would like to thank you for listening and following my show, for all the fantastic reviews which I really appreciate. I am humbled by how much people seem to love this show and I don’t take your support for granted - it motivates me to provide really more meaningful content each week. This podcast has given me a platform to meet truly exceptional people which has been an absolute privilege. For the 100th episode, let me share the seven common habits of million-dollar billers who unselfishly shared their stories of humble beginnings, resilience, and success. Episode Outline and Highlights
Three Factors That Are Not in Common From Million-Dollar Billers I Interviewed Before I dive into the seven common habits of million-dollar billers I interviewed, allow me to share the factors that were not common among them. The first one is their market sector. The million-dollar billers who I have interviewed come from very different specializations and industries. The next one is personality: from extremely dynamic and extroverted people to some who are confidently quiet and introverted, and of course everything in between. Lastly, this one surprises me the most, some working like machines working 12-15 hours a day while some work way fewer hours than others. 7 Common Habits of Million-Dollar Billers At least 25 of the 96 people I interviewed in this show are solo million-dollar billers. So if it is not about the market sector, personality, or number of hours they work, what are the common factors? Here then are the seven common habits of million-dollar billers I interviewed:
I will not deep dive on each of these habits, but I am looking forward to covering it in my subsequent episodes. About Our Inner Circle Program Speaking of growth mindset and continuous learning and development, I can give you a proven process to double or triple your billings and to generate a consistent predictable flow of placements. If you’d like to learn more, go ahead and book a free Strategy Session here. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained People and Resources Mentioned
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| Why Modern Recruiters Must Embrace Cold Calling to Stay Competitive, with Danny Cahill, Ep # 215 | 03 May 2024 | 00:58:16 | |
In the evolving recruitment landscape where LinkedIn and ChatGPT dominate the conversation, one tool stands resilient: the humble phone call. Is cold calling still a critical part of your recruitment and selling process? Can you be a successful modern recruiter while making zero cold calls? I am thrilled to be joined by a veteran and successful recruiter, Danny Cahill. You will enjoy his insights based on his decades-long expertise in recruitment approach with a spotlight on the importance of using the phone for cold calls. Danny started his recruiting career right out of college at Hobson Associates. He became its rookie of the year and went on to become a top producer and the general manager by the age of 26. At 27, he bought the company and built it into one of the country's largest search firms. Danny was the educational chairperson of the Pinnacle Society, 75 of the highest achievers in the industry. Episode Outline and Highlights
How Veteran Recruiters Should Approach the Current Industry Landscape
I have known Danny for decades - he is a legendary recruiter and you can just imagine my delight when I had the chance to meet him in person at a Pinnacle Society conference last year. We discussed the talk he gave about using old-school cold-calling. Danny believes that using the phone is a critical skill for recruiters, especially before the advent of the internet. We recalled how exciting it was to not know in detail who you would be talking to, how skillful you should be when carrying conversations, and of course, going through gatekeepers before reaching your actual target.
But the landscape now changed. On average, you will only reach 5% of your prospects by phone. Danny believes that although it should be a combination of tools and platforms, making phone calls is more relevant than ever, as it can be a differentiator. This is how Danny puts it:
“If this helps you with your identity crisis, the thing that made you great is going to be more important than ever because you're not someone who just makes phone calls. The phone is your conduit to who you are, which is a storyteller, a persuader, an enabler of aspiration. We sell dreams. That's what we do. And companies are going to always use us. If you have a level of contact and subject matter expertise so that I feel like you can get candidates I can't get in a faster way.”
Flipping the Order – Why the Phone Should Come Before Email
On Hobson Associates’ website, you will see the line “We’re Always Available to You. By Phone. Online. Or in person.” This is aligned with how Danny wants the order in which their recruiters would reach out to prospects via phone before mail. I tried to pick Danny’s brain for this approach, and he explained the logic.
“Yeah, well, because I think the phone has some real advantages and it is direct. You know, people often say, well, email is faster. Oh, no, it's not. I see email exchanges all the time between clients.”
Danny also emphasized that the phone has some power to engage with prospects. “The power of the pause; the power of someone sighing. The thing about text, is that young people like text, because text can be filtered, text can be edited, right? You can wait and you can make a draft of it. Whereas with the phone, you can't skim a phone call. Right. You're on it. You're on the hot seat.”
Can You Be a Successful Recruiter With Zero Cold Calls? We have members of our coaching group who are not really into making cold calls. We see recruiters who are making consistent placements without making a single cold call. With the power of LinkedIn, Social Media platforms, & AI, you can do a lot of business development that can translate to end-to-end sourcing and placements. The question is, can you be a successful recruiter without making cold calls?
Danny shared a fact from SourceWhale: 60% of meetings come from the phone call. It may not be the primary way of reaching prospects anymore, but possessing the skill of doing cold calls is a critical part of becoming a successful recruiter. But of course, Danny pointed out that there are so many ways of doing business. Those who can make it work without the need to do cold calls should keep doing what they are doing.
Our Sponsor
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro
i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Their technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees, and increase their billings. Their software combined with world-class training enables you to transition from transactional, contingency recruiter to consultative, retained recruiter. Instead of being perceived as a “me too” vendor, you’ll be positioned as a “me only” solutions provider. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: https://recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Danny Cahill Bio and Contact Info
Danny Cahill started at Hobson Associates right out of college. He became its Rookie of the Year, top producer, and general manager by the age of 26. At 27 he bought the company and built it into one of the country's largest search firms specializing in Software Sales, Bio-Tech Sales, and Industrial Sales talent. He is the only industry “guru” that runs a search firm every day. He does what you do.
He was the Educational Chairperson of the Pinnacle Society, 75 of the highest achievers in the industry, and he still personally mentors many members. He also owns and runs AccordingToDanny.com, an online training and mentoring company dedicated to enhancing the skills and jumpstarting the spirits of recruiters worldwide. His keynote presentations have made him one of the most sought-after speakers in the country.
He was elected to the NAPS Hall of Fame in 2006 and also received the Dave Knutson Lifetime Achievement Award. HireAbility overwhelmingly voted him the industry’s most popular speaker. AccordingToDanny.com was awarded “Best-In-Class” for Training Excellence from MRINetwork.
In his other life, as a playwright, he has had works produced off-Broadway and won both the Maxwell Anderson and the CAB Theatre Award for playwrights. He has written for CBS Television, Muscle and Fitness Magazine, as well as numerous magazines. He received his Master’s Degree in Literature from Wesleyan University and believes salespeople enjoy the world's only job security. Danny’s book, “Harper’s Rules”, a business novel/parable, which of course features a headhunter, won the 2011 Axiom Award for Best Business Parable. His screenplay, “Breakpoint” was optioned by Dialogue Pictures, and his new memoir, "Aging Disgracefully" is available now in bookstores and on Kindle.
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| How to Turn Your Trainee Recruiters into Top Billers in 6 Months, with Simon Kouttis, Ep #99 | 12 Oct 2021 | 00:53:58 | |
If you want to accelerate your recruitment agency growth, there are two key challenges you absolutely must solve. First, how to attract and recruit the right people. Secondly, how to develop your people into great billers. Consistently achieving both of these objectives will translate into better talent retention and faster business growth. Of course, that’s easier said than done. How do you actually do it? In this episode, my special guest, Simon Kouttis, gives a masterclass on how to hire, train and develop recruitment consultants. He reveals how they are able to take trainee recruiters and get them billing £500,000 in six months! Simon is an Executive Director and Partner in SOAP, a London-based executive search firm on a mission to revolutionize the cybersecurity recruitment industry. Simon also is a co-host of his own podcast, called Hunters and Unicorns. Episode Outline and Highlights
The SOAP Sales Playbook One of the differentiating factors for Simon’s firm is their commitment to continuous learning and development. To help their staff to reach their full potential, they came up with the SOAP Sales Playbook. For Simon, it is one of the most transformational things that they have come up in the recruitment business. “We are seeing recruiters that could barely bill doing five hundred thousand in a half a year.” Simon shared that there are four playbooks on which the foundation is focused on how to influence the most high performing passive candidates in the market. If this idea appeals to you or if you are in the process of creating a developmental methodology for your organization, you will enjoy Simon’s detailed explanation. Culture and Values - Not Just Lip Service Promoting culture and company values is critical for a growing business. For some recruitment companies, however, it can only be lip service. Culture may only be by default instead of by design. For Simon, from a values perspective, they spend three days when people join their business talking about values. Simon explains, “The reason for that is because everything we do as a business, every decision we ever make, comes from those values. Who we hire, who we fire, what process we are going to build, what strategies we are going to execute, everything comes with reference to those values.” In line with this, Simon shared how their values affect their internal hiring process. Investing Heavily in Training and Development As mentioned earlier, SOAP invests heavily in training and development of their employees. This is one of the key topics Simon and I discussed. I clearly remember when I started back in 1997, there was really no structured training plan in place. For successful recruitment business owners that I had the privilege of having as guests in this podcast, a common factor is how they value continuous learning for them and their team. SImon is no exception. This is how he puts it: “Learning and development is not something you do at the beginning. It is something that you do every single day every week.” You will hear Simon reveal their methodology and approach in development, as well as how it has positively impacted their growth as a company. What Would You Look for When Hiring Internally? Let’s be honest, as ironic as it may sound, effective recruiters are not always as effective when hiring internally compared to hiring for their clients. This is indeed a known challenge to those who have been around for a long time in this industry. So I had to ask Simon, when hiring internally, what are they looking for? SOAP does not only bank on recruitment experience when looking for clients. He discussed different methodologies they apply as well as their hiring process. What do they look for potential candidates? Here are the takeaways:
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Simon Kouttis Bio and Contact Info From: https://huntersandunicorns.com/your-host/ Having graduated with a degree in mathematics, Simon’s early career included property development and owning a hospitality business, before entering the world of executive search. With a decade of experience, Simon is now a Founding Executive Partner at SOAP where he leads the sales enablement function. He has developed industry-leading best practices that include the Trinity Search Methodology, the Candidate Spectrum of Motivations and is the author of the SOAP sales playbook built on MEDDIC. Simon straddles the technical and sales recruitment functions, in order to drive engagement on the largest and most complex global recruitment campaigns. Simon is passionate about recruitment strategy, which has led to a focus on working with talent acquisition in order to identify the bottlenecks that can suffocate the effectiveness of attracting the highest calibre individuals. Simon kindles his creative spark through his love of art and music. He is a golf addict, although his first love is Liverpool football club. He is a father to boy-girl twins that keep him away from many of his hobbies.
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| How to Partner Successfully with Human Resources, Talent Acquisition and Hiring Managers, with Katrina Collier, Ep #98 | 05 Oct 2021 | 00:59:42 | |
As agency recruiters, we are often required to collaborate with multiple stakeholders including hiring managers, HR and Talent Acquisition. This can be incredibly challenging and frustrating - especially when there’s a lack of cooperation or a breakdown in communication. To facilitate an efficient and successful recruitment process, we must find a way to engage all the stakeholders. So how could you collaborate effectively with your client’s HR, Talent Acquisition and hiring managers? My special guest, Katrina Collier, will answer this question. Katrina Collier is on a mission to end the collaboration chaos existing between HR, recruiters & hiring managers, to better recruitment and the candidate experience. She is the author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter, a global keynote speaker, and host of The Hiring Partner Perspective (Unedited) podcast. Episode Outline and Highlights
Challenges When Collaborating for Recruiters and Hiring Managers From Katrina’s point of view, what are the underlying challenges that can affect collaboration among these stakeholders? Two points were shared:
How can the above challenges be neutralized? Hear Katrina’s pragmatic advice. Mindset Shift to Partnership and Collaboration Equal and mutually respectful collaboration is the ideal scenario for recruiters and hiring managers. Recruiters need to think of themselves as equal partners in the recruitment process, instead of just focusing on a “customer service” type of mindset. Here is what Katrina said, “Get out of your head and into your heart.” It always goes back to the human factor - we are dealing with humans. Human skills are now more relevant than ever! In this episode, you will hear why. Building and Gaining Trust From Candidates As we are dealing with human beings, we need human skills to connect with candidates. So what’s the best way to build and gain trust as recruiters? Katrina mentioned important factors such as:
Improving Your Response Rate When Contacting Candidates In line with the above, patience is indeed needed when we seem to be getting minimal response from potential clients and candidates. How do we get people to respond? Katrina emphasized the importance of considering your own profile and brand. Do you look like someone who is worth connecting with and speaking to, someone who could add value and provide expert insight? She also mentioned that although LinkedIn is the mainstream platform when searching for candidates, you should leave LinkedIn. I am sure it was an overemphasis, but to Katrina’s point, there are other platforms we can consider when engaging with talents. On top of that, she also gave pointers on how to rethink your approach in engaging your candidates. Hope for Justice Katrina also shared a charity organization that she fully supports, Hope for Justice. She shared how this non-profit organization impacted her life and how it impacts others. If you wish to know more about Hope for Justice, please visit their website in the links below. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Katrina Collier Bio and Contact Info Katrina Collier is the owner of Katrina Collier Limited . She is the author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter, a well-loved global keynote speaker, and host of The Hiring Partner Perspective (Unedited) podcast. Enticed by a newspaper advert in 2003, she started her career in recruitment. She spent 5.5 years in an agency and then 18 months in-house. She started teaching social recruiting and sourcing. Tweeting, blogging and, later, The #SocialRecruiting Show led to unexpected notoriety. This opened up opportunities to work with companies and recruiters all around the world, and even to deliver talks on 5 continents. She is also an Ambassador for Hope for Justice charity, and you’ll find her on LinkedIn and on Instagram & Twitter @KatrinaMCollier.
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| Lift Outs: How to Successfully Recruit an Entire High-Performing Team, with Harlan Friedman, Ep #97 | 28 Sep 2021 | 00:51:32 | |
Imagine if instead of placing one person at a time, you were able to recruit a whole team and enjoy correspondingly bigger deal values. I always thought team moves were rare opportunities that you might come across once in a blue moon - if you’re lucky. That was until I met my special guest Harlan Friedman. Harlan has developed a process for “lift outs” and has moved teams multiple times in his career. Through experience, he understands the nuances of how to put these complex deals together. Sometimes instead of recruiting an intact team, Harlan creates a “dream team” and places them together at a client company. In this episode, you’ll hear Harlans’ tips and advice on how to strategically move teams. Plus, be inspired when you hear Harlan’s remarkable story of how he joined the search industry at age 55 with $300,000 in debt. Listen to how he turned his finances around within 18 months by becoming a consistent top producer before eventually building his own search firm.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Fascinating Story of How Harlan Started His Recruitment Career One fascinating story about Harlan is he actually started in the search business in 2011, he was in debt and 55 years old. Harlan had enjoyed a very successful career as a public finance banker. However, when the real-estate market crashed, his high six-figure income turned zero overnight. Unfortunately, his wife lost her job around the same time and as the months went by with no job offers, they ended up $300,000 in debt. Harlan’s fortunes changed when he responded to an ad in Craig’s list and persuaded the owner of a small search firm to give him a chance. With no background in recruiting, Harlan became rookie of the year and the top biller in an office of about 8-10 full time recruiters, enabling him to pay off his debts in 18 months. The Key Success Factor How did Harlan do it? What made him very successful in the recruitment business even if he has no prior experience? This is how he puts it, “I think the number one answer is I am very coachable.” He shared the story of how he was inspired by a shoe salesman becoming a top salesperson of the company (you need to hear this one from Harlan). He also mentioned how discipline plays a key role in his daily routine. Selling by Not Selling - “Don’t Sell Anybody Anything” Another remarkable takeaway from our conversation is Harlan’s perspective on reaching out to clients. He focuses on what their concerns are -- not on how he will get the deal. “I don’t try to sell anybody anything. That’s the key to being a good recruiter, don’t sell. Because if they think you are selling, you have nothing.” Harlan revealed how he came up with his own system as he adapted to the industry. Below are some key pointers:
Successful Team Moves As a recruiter or a business owner, how often have you successfully completed a project on which you moved a whole team instead of just one candidate? This is not something we encounter very often, and when it does happen, it tends to be opportunistic rather than strategic. In Harlan’s case, he’s developed a repeatable process for “lift outs” and he actively looks for these types of situations. According to Harlan, “The key to working with teams is a hundred percent mindset.” Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Harlan Friedman Bio and Contact Info Harlan is the Founder & Principal of H. Friedman Search - responsible for all recruiting of Municipal Finance Bankers, Advisors & Bond Counsel. Harlan’s recruiting efforts result in sole sourcing of both candidates and companies within the area of banking, finance & law. He oversees all recruiting nationwide representing both Regional and Super Regional Investment Banking firms and Regional and National Law Firms. He is tasked with the responsibility for overseeing and managing all aspects of client and candidate relationships from initial interview to transition. He has been instrumental in sourcing, presenting, negotiating and closing candidates. Harlan earned Rookie of the Year, his first complete year in the business as well as becoming a 2012 - 2018 President's Club member. Over his tenure at both Armstrong Financial Group & Novum Group which is eight years in the industry he has recruited over 85 individuals and teams throughout the United States. In 2018, Harlan was admitted into the Pinnacle Society, an elite organization for Top Recruiters in North America. He credits his in-depth knowledge of Public Finance and the Legal arena for his success. As he is fond of saying, when you know the industry inside and out, senior people welcome the opportunity to have high-level conversations with you. People and Resources Mentioned
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| The Benefits and Challenges of Expanding Your Recruitment Business Overseas, with Rob Green, Ep #96 | 22 Sep 2021 | 01:01:58 | |
Exploring new markets can be really exciting especially if you’re considering international expansion. But as much as opening offices in a new territory can present big potential for growth, it can also present an enormous amount of challenges. That is what my special guest, Rob Green, will be sharing in this episode. Rob has built recruitment teams across Europe, Asia, North America, Australia, and Africa. Despite some significant successes, it was never a walk in the park. In this interview, Rob shared both the mistakes and learnings he gained. Rob has almost two decades of experience in the recruitment industry, recruiting lawyers in 40 countries. He launched his career in London with Badenoch & Clark. Since then he has worked and lived in various locations around the globe. In 2014, he took over the Hong Kong branch of his company, rebranded it as GRM Search and won 15 industry awards over 8 years working with the most coveted legal firms, multinational companies and financial institutions in the world. Episode Outline and Highlights
Overcoming His Biggest Challenge Rob humbly shared his biggest challenge which took place in 2016 when he started in Hong Kong. Growing to 25 people with expensive offices, high salaries, and high commissions, the business was not sustainable. When local market conditions worsened, he had to scale down the business or go bust. Within six painful weeks, he had drastically cut his overheads which sent a shock through the HK legal recruitment market. Behind the scenes, he was going through a very tough time because of personal problems which magnified the issues he was having with his business. Rob recalled, “I had grown the business too fast. We had a number of offices that just weren’t profitable. I was trying in many cases to buy my way out of trouble by starting new desks, starting new offices… We just grew too rapidly with the wrong people and the wrong structure.” I certainly admire Rob’s unselfishness in sharing his story. In our conversation, you will hear what steps he took to stabilize his operation in HK while expanding successfully to South Africa. Key Learnings From Mistakes This podcast is called The Resilient Recruiter for a reason, and indeed Rob personifies that quality. He has built teams and offices in Cayman, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Johannesburg and Cape Town, which were all successes. He also expanded to Brisbane, Singapore and Tokyo which he considers as “massive failures''. Rob is happy to talk about the things that he did right as well as sharing the mistakes he made. Here are the takeaways of what he shared:
The Value of Getting Help One of Rob’s key success factors is getting guidance from others. This is how he put it, “This is for all business owners for recruitment - get help!” Rob believes that you can learn a lot from fellow business owners as well as professional coaches. The key is to have a growth mindset, be receptive to feedback, open to new ideas and focused on constant improvement. As the expression goes, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Rob Green Bio and Contact Info With almost two decades’ experience in the recruitment industry, Rob has recruited lawyers in 40 countries, working with firms and companies from the biggest in DLA Piper, Bank of America, Facebook, Alibaba, and such like, to small one-person law firms, looking to double in size. Rob launched his career with leading financial services agency, Badenoch & Clark, in London. Following his relocation to the Cayman Islands in 2005, he joined one of the Caribbean's top recruitment companies, CML, to establish the region’s leading legal recruitment provider. In 2009, Rob became a partner in the business and moved to Hong Kong to grow the business and become one of the top consultancies in Asia. He took full ownership of the Hong Kong branch and rebranded as GRM Search in 2013, winning 15 industry awards in 8 years and working with some of the most coveted legal firms, MNCs, and financial institutions in the world. Enticed by the link between Africa and Asia, Rob opened GRM Search’s first office in South Africa in Johannesburg during 2014. He moved with his family to settle in Cape Town and spearhead the growth of the business into the African continent in 2017. GRM has had notable successes in Asia, Africa and Australia, with some failures along the way to keep him humble. Rob regularly shares his views on the legal job market with industry publications, business radio shows, HR seminars, and law graduates at HKU, Stellenbosch University, and UWC. He is renowned for his global outlook, experience, legal market knowledge, and down-to-earth approach. In his spare time, Rob is the proud founder and chairman of South Africa’s first soccer programme for special needs children (GPS Vikings FC) and a part time boxing ring announcer as well as a doting father and husband.
People and Resources Mentioned
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| How to Scale Your Recruitment Business Through Innovation and Constant Improvement, with Edward Chamberlain, Ep #95 | 16 Sep 2021 | 01:01:40 | |
For a lot of recruitment business owners, going to the next level and scaling their business can present unexpected challenges. But no matter how difficult you’re finding it to grow your recruitment business, I hope today’s episode will inspire you to never give up! My special guest, Edward Chamberlain, shared that by far his biggest challenge was scaling the business. In this episode, he shared how he was able to overcome a lot of obstacles you may also be facing now and build a really successful recruitment business from scratch, with no external investment. Ed is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Altus Partners, a market leader in Private Equity search with a team of 30 people. Ed also co-founded C&C search with his sister Lucy, an HR and business support recruiting firm. Both of these firms generate multi-million pounds in revenue. Previously, Ed was a founding member of Investigo (a Virgin fast-track business), which grew from a team of 4 to over 250 people, before its sale. He recently launched Stryve, an ATS that can help SMEs grow their businesses faster. Episode Outline and Highlights
Innovative Tools to Add Rigor to the Process As we talked about best practices, one thing I noticed is how Ed is constantly innovating and striving to add rigor to the recruiting process on behalf of the client. Ed breaks down his unique search methodology and highlights a few of the key elements:
You will definitely enjoy learning about how Edward’s focus on constant improvement has helped with client acquisition and scaling his businesses. The Challenge of Scaling A Business Ed is definitely a serial entrepreneur, but you might be surprised that one of the biggest challenges he had to overcome was scaling his business. He was very open about sharing his failures and learnings. You may be able to relate to some of these challenges. You will hear Ed’s advice on how to create a robust People Plan, replicating your effectiveness as a recruiter to your team, and why the retained approach works best for you and the client. Ed’s Advice If You Want to Scale So if there was one key piece of advice he would give to a business owner who wants to scale, what would that be? Ed said, “If you are going to start a recruitment firm, generally speaking you are going to be a salesperson or recruiter before that. Inherently what goes hand in hand in that is individuals that don’t like planning and often don’t like the administration piece. The bit of advice I would give to anyone is to make sure to go back and do that. Put it together, put your finances together, put a really good business plan.” Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Edward Chamberlain Bio and Contact Info Ed is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Altus Partners and has built an enviable track-record, over many years within Private Equity search. He has placed from Partner to Analyst level with a range of high-profile funds to emerging managers. His guiding principles of honesty and integrity have enabled him to build long-standing, trusted relationships with key figures in the Private Equity industry. Ed graduated with a BA Hons in Architecture before starting his career in Search in 2002. He was a founding member of Investigo (a Virgin fast-track business), which grew from a team of 4 to over 250 people, before its sale. He helped establish another search firm in 2006 (rather this name isn't mentioned ;) One Search) – before identifying a gap in the market and setting up Altus Partners in 2009. Altus Partners has become a market leader in Private Equity Search and continues to thrive today, placing c-suite professionals into Private Equity Backed Companies and also Investment Professionals into the funds themselves. Further to this he co-founded C&C Search with his sister in 2014, which places HR and Support Staff Professionals and has a training academy (launched to counter the pandemic), which has seen over 5,000 people enroll in their courses and has won corporate training contracts with the likes of Sony, Warner Brothers, Amazon and Campbell Soup. More latterly, and out of a desire to see small and growing companies recruit better, he launched an ATS - Stryve. He raised seed funding of £500k in March 2021 and launches the Beta product this month!
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| How to Create a Unique Value Proposition and Sell Retained Executive Search, with Chris Schoettelkotte, Ep #94 | 07 Sep 2021 | 01:10:34 | |
If you want your clients to work with you on a retained basis, you need a strong value proposition and an effective sales process. In this episode, my special guest, Chris Schoettelkotte, gives a masterclass on selling retained search, including how he developed his unique value proposition. He shares how he transitioned his firm from contingent search to a retained business model. Chris and I discussed in detail why retained search is usually a better solution for the client and how to explain the benefits. You’ll even hear us deliver an impromptu training session on how to pitch exclusivity. Chris is the President and Founder of Manhattan Resources, an executive search firm based in Houston. Chris has been incredibly successful in the search business and he’s consistently one of the top recruiters in the United States. In his best year, Chris collected $2.3M dollars in placement fees -- that’s personal production not including his team’s billings. In this interview, you’ll discover what it takes to perform at the highest level in our industry. Episode Outline and Highlights
How Manhattan Partners Convert 95% of Their Clients Into Repeat Customers On top of being ranked as one of Houston’s top search firms for 18 straight years, another outstanding feat of Manhattan Resources is having a minimum 95% of clients becoming repeat customers. What is their secret? Chris shared, “It is all about investing in long term relationships.” For Chris, this means having the proper value proposition for your clients and candidates as well as going above and beyond what is expected. He shared how his approach works for most of his clients - jumping on a flight and visiting every potential client to get to know them. “There is not a time where the client said, ‘Hey you’re in Houston, I’m in New Jersey, and we want to hire you, you don’t need to come.’ Yes we do. So we are going to get on a plane, we are going to fly to New Jersey, we are going to get a hotel, we are going to spend a couple of days in your office, I want to interview all the stakeholders involved in this position… At the end of this before I get back on a plane I am going to go to whoever the primary stakeholder is… I’m going to say, this is what I know...” Isn’t it risky to invest time and money up front? What if the deal doesn’t materialize? Chris admitted this can sometimes happen, and shared a couple of actual experiences. But this is immaterial compared to the relationship built and the long term benefits produced. How to Sell Exclusivity Manhattan Resources started out as a contingent search firm because, in Chris’s words, he simply didn’t know any better at the time. However, they quickly evolved into a retained executive search business. Chris explains how and why they switched to the retained model not just because it’s more profitable, but also because it benefits the client as well. In this part of our conversation, you will hear verbiage that you can use to sell the true benefit of retained search. Chris indeed shared how he was able to convert his contingent clients into embracing the retained approach. The Two Things All Recruiters Must Understand Another golden nugget of wisdom shared is the two things all recruiters must understand:
Chris further elaborated on the second point, which is actually a brilliant approach in establishing a potential business relationship in the future. What Does it Take to be Successful in Recruitment? Chris’ longevity and accomplishments in the recruitment industry gives him credibility to give advice on what it takes to be successful in this business. He mentioned insightful advice and here are some takeaways:
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Chris Schoettelkotte Bio and Contact Info Chris Schoettelkotte founded Manhattan Resources in 1999 after serving in various leadership positions with Union Pacific, Olsten Corporation and Corporate Express. His background in business strategy, integration, high performance team development and business turnarounds in both corporate and private equity environments uniquely prepared Chris to look at Executive Search differently. Chris determined from the beginning that the value proposition in the search industry wasn’t strong enough or aligned properly with the needs of the client. Building and refining a robust and transparent search process that enables our client’s to make strategic hiring decisions confidently has always been his primary focus. Chris believes that helping our clients build high performance teams is our mission. We do this by working with our clients to understand our client’s business and the specific needs of the team. We work with our clients to fill the intellectual capital needs of the team while carefully keeping in mind the individual cultures of our client companies. Chris has his B.A. in Business from Western Illinois University and his MBA in International Business from the University of Houston Bauer College of Business. Chris enjoys coaching Boys Varsity Basketball in Houston, Texas where he resides with his wife Anna and their four children.
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| The Top 10 Factors that Fast-Growing Recruitment Companies Share in Common, with Hishem Azzouz and Mark Whitby, Ep #93 | 02 Sep 2021 | 00:49:52 | |
If you enjoy listening to the Resilient Recruiter podcast, I have a special treat for you. In this episode, I am collaborating with fellow podcaster, Hishem Azzouz, host of the Recruitment Mentors podcast. Between us, Hishem and I have interviewed hundreds of recruitment business owners. We decided to compare notes and discuss the key factors that the most successful recruitment companies share in common. We both came up with five things, so you are about to hear the top ten success factors for growing your business. Episode Outline and Highlights
The Top Ten Success Factors for Growing Your Recruitment Business
The vast majority of the firm owners I’ve interviewed or worked with who have been the most successful are specialists in a particular field. Hear the reasons why focusing on a particular niche is building your marketplace rather than limiting it.
Being open-minded to trying new things, learning, and getting out of your comfort zone are qualities that make a successful recruitment leader. Successful leaders do not romanticize what worked for them 10 or 15 years ago. They are always thinking, learning, and trying to understand what more they could be doing.
Internal recruitment strategy is critical. The companies that scale are really good at recruiting recruiters. In contrast, the companies that remain small may not be able to figure that important piece out.
Investing heavily in talent development is an important key to scaling your business. Having a mindset of nurturing current employees is a successful recruiter leader’s way of thinking.
Complementary with the above previous points mentioned, having a serious commitment to establishing a career ladder within your organization is key to growing your business. Hishem added, “I’ve been interviewing people in their first year in recruitment, second year in recruitment, and they are all people who have graduated in the last two years. I just ask them a direct question like, ‘what type of company are you excited to work for?’ The number one thing is progression.
Genuinely, most scaling recruitment agencies that you may know in the market are guaranteed to have clarity on what they want and where they are going. This inspires confidence in your existing team members and attracts great people to join your company.
The question is have you designed your culture? Or do you just have a culture by default? The most important defining feature of the culture comes down to the values.
“For me personally in my own experience, most recruitment business leaders I speak to have humility in abundance,” explained Hishem. This enables leaders to have an open mind to learn and grow.
Recruiting is a sales business, and like my friend Greg Savage says, your sixth, or seventh hire should be a full-time marketing person. Visibility as a thought leader and someone who adds value to your industry is ultimately good for business. Investing in marketing is significant to achieve this goal. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Hishem Azzouz Bio and Contact Info An underperforming recruiter that turned his fortunes 180 degrees in six months using the power of personal branding and the launch of the Recruitment Mentors podcast. Over 100 episodes, and 20,000 monthly listeners later he founded Azzouz Branding to help recruiters leverage personal branding & social selling. He helped 200+ agencies and consultants build their brands. Recruitment Mentors is the brainchild of Hishem Azzouz. People and Resources Mentioned
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| How to Enjoy a Rewarding, Long-term Career in Recruitment, with Michael Goldman, Ep #92 | 31 Aug 2021 | 00:55:32 | |
When you started in your recruitment career, how long did you visualize yourself doing this for? Many recruiters get into this profession because of the earning potential but don’t necessarily see recruiting as a long-term career. There’s no question that recruitment is challenging. The failure rate among rookie recruiters is high and many experienced recruiters suffer from burnout. Is it possible to make recruitment a rewarding career for the long term? My special guest, Michael Goldman, is an example of someone who has enjoyed longevity and sustained success in recruitment. Michael started his recruitment career in 1980 and founded his own firm, Strategic Associates, in 1988. Michael has built an excellent reputation as an executive recruiter in manufacturing and supply chain nationwide, in both contingency and retained basis. He is a Founding Member and former President of the Pinnacle Society. Having run a successful desk for over 40 years, and being consistently a top producer, he also speaks on, and enjoys teaching, recruiting tactics and strategies to recruiters globally. In this episode, Michael shares his passion, learning, and what makes his recruitment career a fulfilling and rewarding path. Episode Outline and Highlights
The 3 Keys to Long Term Success and Fulfilment as a Recruiter Successfully running his desk as a consistent top biller for 40 years, I wanted to ask Michael on what can young recruiters learn from a seasoned veteran like him. He responded, “understand what it means to bring value.” MIchael is passionate about helping recruiters develop themselves as "counseling" rather than "transactional" recruiters. He has helped a lot of recruiters, candidates, and clients as well as changed people’s lives with this clear mission of bringing value. He further expanded on what this means and outlined three keys:
What It Means to Add Value What does it mean to add value as a recruiter? Michael explained, “Providing expertise, a counsel to help guide people not just on where they want to get to from point A to point Z. But how to put tools and tactics and strategies together to get to that point. We are not about just transactionally being traffic cops and sending out resumes and setting up interviews. The better among us, the most self-fulfilled among us are ones that can tap into what will help motivate people for success. It is not just on the candidate’s side it is on the client’s side too.” I absolutely agree with this mindset. Recruiting is indeed not about being too transactional as engaging with your stakeholders and motivating them. I believe this approach is the secret to Michael’s longevity in this industry. Why Michael Does Things that Scare Him Michael shared a fantastic quote from the Founder of Southwest Airlines: “I love to do things that scare me because without fear there is no courage.” He cut this quote out of a newspaper years ago and it’s wisdom drives him to this day. This philosophy has helped Michael face challenges, adapt to changes and always stay out of his comfort zone. Do you have a favourite motivational quote you can share? Let me know in the comments below! Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Michael Goldman Bio and Contact Info Since 1980, both in his native New York and Austin, Texas, Michael Goldman has cultivated a respected reputation for achievement in nationwide manufacturing/supply chain executive recruitment on both a contingency and retained basis. In 1988, he founded Strategic Associates with the purpose of creating a highly specialized firm encompassing talent in the areas of supply chain, procurement, quality/regulatory affairs and operations (plant and corporate). Clients span industries from medical devices to consumer packaged goods to industrial to high technology products–from perishable goods to durable–from food products to computers and personal communication devices to biomedical technology to capital equipment. They are from Fortune 500 and 50 to mid-sized privately-held firms. Michael is an original Founding Member of the Pinnacle Society and, from 1991 to 1995, served two consecutive terms as its second president. He was awarded the Honorary Lifetime Membership in recognition of both his accomplishments in recruiting and service to Pinnacle. In addition, he has earned his CPC through the National Association of Personnel Services. Along with continuously maintaining his consistent success as a “desk-running” recruiter for over 40 years (and currently), Michael also speaks on and teaches domestically and internationally advanced and basic recruiting tactics and strategies. He has been requested to provide grass-roots recruitment seminars and speaking engagements to American state and national organizations as well as international audiences. To date he has personally educated recruitment professionals in the US, Ireland, England and South Africa. In addition, he has conducted webinars for state recruiting organizations and Pinnacle Society meetings and Pinnacle Panel events. People and Resources Mentioned
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| How to Start, Scale and Sell Your Recruitment Business in 7 Years, with Karla Reffold, Ep #91 | 24 Aug 2021 | 00:58:29 | |
Starting a recruitment business isn’t easy. Scaling a recruitment business is even harder, as evidenced by the fact that 73% of recruitment companies never grow beyond 10 employees. Selling a recruitment business is rare indeed -- according to BDO there are only 20-40 M&A deals done per year in the UK recruitment sector. Accomplishing all of this in 7 years while still in your 30’s is practically unheard of. Yet that’s exactly what my special guest, Karla Reffold, has achieved. I had so much fun interviewing Karla about her entrepreneurial journey as a young, female founder. She shared the challenges she faced and the crazy ups and downs she experienced. You’ll hear what she learned from having founded, scaled and sold her recruitment business in the tech space -- traditionally a male-dominated sector. Karla founded the international recruitment business, BeecherMadden in 2010 before overseeing the acquisition by Nicoll Curtin. In 2020 she joined Orpheus Cyber as COO. Karla is also an experienced speaker on cyber security and was included in SC Magazine’s Top 50 Women in Security in 2019. Episode Outline and Highlights
Increase Your Success in Winning Businesses A critical part of Karla’s success as a founder is how she consistently wins businesses which immensely contributed to her company’s growth. What are the keys to increasing your success in winning clients? Karla shared at least three.
What if Things Don’t Go Your Way? As a young founder, things wobbled a bit when she was expanding quickly. In fact, she believed that one of her learnings as a business owner is that growing too quickly can create a lot of problems. Another huge challenge is stepping back from the day to day management, which she attempted to do after her second child was born. Karla told me the story of hiring a Managing Director to run the business while she was on maternity leave, which turned out to be a disaster. Listen to how she was able to get things back on track after this major setback. Hear her other stories as well as her key learnings on never underestimating her value. If you are a business owner or someone who is just starting, you may find this one truly relevant. Careers Beyond Recruitment - Becoming a Senior Executive in the Tech Space Karla is now a COO at Orpheus, a leading cyber threat intelligence and cyber risk rating company and is respected in her industry. Unfortunately, that respect wasn’t always there. What were the challenges she faced as a young woman in tech? Karla recalled, “I was in my 20’s when I started... I remember people would literally say things like, “you’re very young aren’t you?” Fortunately, Karla believes the industry has changed for the better and the tech space is gradually becoming more diverse. In 2020, Karla transitioned from the recruitment industry to cyber security, which brings a new set of challenges. One question she now gets asked is “Wow, how does a recruiter become a COO?” Her response: “I founded a 7-figure business and sold it for a really decent multiple - that’s how.” Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Karla Reffold Bio and Contact Info An experienced business owner and leader, Karla is passionate about values-led leadership and people development. Karla founded the international recruitment business, BeecherMadden in 2010 before overseeing the acquisition by Nicoll Curtin. In 2020 she joined Orpheus Cyber as COO. Orpheus is a threat intelligence company with a SAAS platform that helps organisations manage their own risk, and that of their third parties, with an easy-to-understand cyber risk score. Karla is an industry awards judge, the host of industry interviews on the Cyber Talks media platform and the Zero Hour Podcast. She is also an experienced speaker, on the topic of cyber security and women in technology. Karla was included in SC Magazine’s Top 50 Women in Security in 2019. She was a finalist at the Women of the Future awards in 2016, for Entrepreneur of the Year and a finalist in The Future Ladies Awards for Mentor of the Year in 2019.
People and Resources Mentioned
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| How to Build a World-Class Talent Development Program, with Ann Swain, Ep #90 | 17 Aug 2021 | 00:54:06 | |
One of the common factors that fast-growing recruitment companies share is that they invest in their people. To attract great recruiters, maximize their performance and retain them as pillars upon which you can build your business, you need a solid career development program in place including excellent training and development. What does a world-class talent development program look like? I can’t think of anyone better qualified to answer that question than my special guest, Ann Swain. Ann is the Global CEO of APSCo, an international trade body representing the recruitment sector with operations in the UK, Germany, Singapore, and Australia. Ann has over 30 years’ recruitment experience, and co-authored the best-selling Professional Recruiter’s Handbook. Episode Outline and Highlights
What Does A World-Class Talent Development Program Look Like? Ann is passionate about talent development and making the recruitment sector into the profession it deserves to be. The two are interrelated, and should be brought together in order to maximize your team’s performance and attract great people. With over 30 years’ career in recruitment and global talent development, what does a world-class career and talent development program look like for Ann? She laid out the following pointers:
To conclude, Ann said, “I think from a development program, it goes beyond training, it goes to mentoring, it goes to personal development across the board in things that are not only about recruitment and skill sets necessary, but as an individual - how you can grow throughout your career.” Creating Pathways to Greater Diversity Working my way through Recruiter Magazine’s Hot 100 List, I noticed that there are only around six women on the list of Founders and CEOs, which I thought as an industry we could do better. I took this chance to ask Ann, as someone who made it to the C-suite, what she believes we can do to create pathways for more women to the top. She shared a very interesting insight. Ann said, “I’ve been involved in ‘Women in Recruitment’ for a very long period of time and we have done research every year, to see whether that figure has changed. It hasn’t changed enough and there are definitely things we can do.” One of the things they found is that “we lose women from the recruitment market, not all of them but a big percentage.” And what could be the reason? Cultural fit. Listen to how Ann further elaborated this aspect and how we can do better as a sector in terms of gender balance and diversity. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Ann Swain Bio and Contact Info Ann Swain is the Global CEO of APSCo, an international trade body representing the professional recruitment sector with operations in the UK, Germany, Singapore and Australia. Ann has over 30 years’ recruitment experience and is co-author of the best-selling Professional Recruiter’s Handbook. In 2009, she was honoured to receive a fellowship from the NSPCC and in 2014 she joined the Executive Committee of Women in Recruitment. In 2018, Ann received the prestigious Leadership Award from the Trader Association Forum and features in Staffing Industry Analysts Global Power List of the most influential women in professional recruitment. An acknowledged thought leader, Ann features regularly in the national, HR, business and recruitment media and is a popular platform speaker at conferences around the world. People and Resources Mentioned
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| How To Build Your Dream Team and Replace Yourself as a Biller, with Balraj Guraya, Ep #214 | 19 Apr 2024 | 01:15:23 | |
Building a scalable recruitment business that operates seamlessly even without recruiters' direct involvement should not be just a dream—but a tangible goal. Balraj's achievement with Envision Education serves as a testament to what can be accomplished through strategic planning and execution. Today’s episode explores how recruiters can build high-performing teams and a scalable business with a special guest, Balraj Guraya. As the founder and director of Envision Education, Balraj has not only grown the company into a high-performing team of 23 individuals but also strategically positioned himself to focus solely on scaling the business by replacing himself in the hands-on role in 2022 Tune in to gain valuable insights from Balraj's unique approach and what's working and not in building a scalable business that can thrive even when the founder isn't in the driver's seat. Episode Outline And Highlights
During our discussion, Balraj and I discussed his recruitment strategies at Envision Education. Founded in 2014, Envision Education addresses staffing shortages in Primary, Secondary, and Special Schools across London and the home counties. Balraj's vision has led Envision Education to become a high-performing team of 23 individuals. His journey includes transitioning from a hands-on role as a builder in 2022 to focus on scaling the business.
Balraj shares six key principles for recruiters aspiring to become effective managers and leaders in their business.
Ultimately, running a business transcends mere profitability; it represents a journey of personal development and collective growth—the continuous evolution of oneself and the team. Steps to Building a Recruitment Business That Runs Without You
Balraj shares invaluable insights into transitioning a recruitment business from a one-person 360 operation to a structured departmental setup, effectively replacing oneself in key roles. The key to this evolution lies in making strategic and sometimes costly decisions, recognizing that letting go of control is essential for scalability. Central to this process is:
Scaling a recruitment business beyond the founder's requires strategic planning, delegation, talent cultivation, and process optimization. Embracing these principles paves the way for scale, sustainable growth, and long-term success.
Our Sponsor
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro
i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Their technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees, and increase their billings. Their software, combined with world-class training, enables you to transition from transactional, contingency recruiter to consultative, retained recruiter. Instead of being perceived as a “me too” vendor, you’ll be positioned as a “me only” solutions provider. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: https://recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Balraj Guraya Bio and Contact Info
Balraj is the founder and director of Envision Education, a recruitment firm he established in 2014 to address staffing shortages in schools across London and the home counties particularly within special needs education. Barlaj has grown Envision education to a high performing team of 23 people and was able to replace himself as a builder in 2022 so he can concentrate on scaling the business.
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| How to Bill Half a Million and Work Less Than 15 Hours a Week, with Michelle Parchman, Ep #89 | 11 Aug 2021 | 00:54:59 | |
Is it really possible to work less and make more? It seems counter-intuitive and the majority of big billers I know advocate the “hustle and grind” approach. But what if you could work smarter rather than harder? My special guest, Michelle Parchman, has been doing this for years - billing half a million dollars per annum by working 2 to 3 hours a day. Like me, you will find her thought process revolutionary! Listening to our conversation may move you to revisit your way of working, your values and how you define success. Michelle is originally a CPA and began her public accounting career in auditing with Anderson in Dallas. After 17 years in Big Four public accounting plus seven years with the largest executive search firm in San Antonio, she founded Parchman and Parchman Executive Search in 2009, specializing in accounting, finance, tax, legal and C-level searches. Parchman and Parchman was named by Forbes as one of America’s best recruiting firms and Michelle has been described as one of San Antonio’s Most Inspiring and Influential Women. She is also a Board Director for the Pinnacle Society, the premier consortium of 80 leading recruiters in North America. Episode Outline and Highlights
From Public Accounting to Executive Search Michelle revealed her journey and transition from being a public accountant for 17 years to becoming an owner of an executive search business. If you are just starting your career as a recruiter, you will definitely relate to her story. It was not all rainbows and butterflies, as she also relayed how it was challenging for her at the outset. The recruitment firm she initially worked for did not fully fit with her way of working, which led her to create systems and processes. “It was very challenging in the first six months, I didn’t think that I was going to like it, I didn’t think I was going to succeed, but once I was able to kind of roll up my sleeves and lay out processes like ‘this is how we are going to strategize to get new clients’… It was great!” With her current success, what were really her daily thoughts during the painstaking first six months? “I think I typically persevere and I want to succeed and I am motivated. I’m just not willing to not let this work.” Indeed, an inspiring story for our new recruiters out there, or anyone facing adversity and overwhelm. Bill Half Million and Work Less Than 15 Hours a Week Is it possible to hit half a million dollars in billings by working only 15 hours a week? “It is 100 percent possible, and I have been doing it for years and years,” Michelle confirmed. The foundation is her thought process. She evaluates and prioritizes all her work activities based on ROI (return on investment). “It is because I look at everything as ROI. So every single thing I do, I think in my head, what is the return on my investment? For me it’s time. Time and then money. I try to make sure that everything I do is going to take me the least amount of time and give me the highest amount of money.” Some of my key takeaways of our conversation:
The Power of Network Another key factor for success that Michelle revealed in our conversation was her network. She said, “I just feel blessed in the sense that I know really smart people.” Her network is based on two foundational principles - relationship building and ethics. Ethics plays a major role when selecting her network. Also knowing that the people she surrounds herself with are so trusted and credentialed, it makes her job really easy when she gets referrals because she knows that they would only refer her people who also have the same level of ethics and professionalism. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Michelle Parchman Bio and Contact Info Michelle is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Personnel Consultant. She graduated with distinction from Oklahoma University with a BBA, concentration in accounting. Michelle began her public accounting career in auditing with Andersen in Dallas. During her 17-year successful tenure with Andersen, Michelle worked in Audit, Tax, Business Development, and Recruiting. Michelle has received numerous awards and recognition:
In 2009, Michelle founded Parchman + Parchman, Executive Search Experts, a highly specialized, niche recruiting firm specializing in Accounting, Finance, Tax, Legal, and C-Level searches. The primary function of the firm is to locate and present the best-qualified talent the current market has to offer. Michelle brings more than 20 years collective experience in the recruitment and placement of qualified professionals. Michelle is also Current Board of Director for The Pinnacle Society, the premier Consortium of 80 Industry-Leading Recruiters in North America. People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
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| How to Achieve Phenomenal Recruitment Business Growth Through Strategic Acquisitions, with Ross Eades, Ep # 88 | 06 Aug 2021 | 00:58:35 | |
Business acquisitions can be a hassle and can present a lot of challenges - especially when it comes to the integration of management, culture, and way of working. My special guest, Ross Eades, believes that as challenging as it may be, strategic acquisitions can effectively lead your business to phenomenal growth! Hear his experience and approach on how he built recruitment powerhouse businesses and how he kept his current organization’s business growing despite the pandemic. Ross is the CEO of RED Commerce, a global leader in placing SAP professionals with 250 employees and six locations around the world. Prior to joining RED Commerce in 2018, Ross was the CEO of Horton Group International - a global executive search and leadership firm with 50 offices in 32 countries. Ross has a phenomenal track record as a CEO within the recruiting and staffing industry. Episode Outline and Highlights
Increasing the Business by Ten Times in Five Years One of Ross’s amazing feats when he was with InterQuest was growing the business from 10M to 100M USD in five years. So I had to ask him, what were the key success factors that enabled him to achieve that phenomenal growth rate? Ross responded, “I put a lot of it down to the focus of the teams we had and the businesses we bought in. The idea was to have a selection of specialist teams.” This ‘specialist approach’ contributed highly to the growth and success of InterQuest. Ross also added his thoughts and practices in growing a business through acquisitions. Mainly in three areas:
He also elaborated on the benefits and value of growing through strategic acquisitions. It is not easy to integrate new businesses, so best-practices and learnings from personal experiences to overcome difficulties were shared. Best to hear all these pieces of gems from Ross himself. Steering Through the Pandemic Ross eventually joined RED SAP Solutions. One of his notable accomplishments as CEO is steering the organization to success during the pandemic. The company is still doing an amazing job during the crisis and continues to grow. Were there any things they would have done differently? Ross answered, “I have not given it that much thought to be honest. There isn’t anything… I can’t identify anything that we haven’t done that if I had our time again last year we would have done. I think we were very quick to put the right things in place and to try and protect the business and as many people’s job as we possibly can.” So now things that are ‘normalizing’, what learnings or changes could organizations adapt to retain post-pandemic? I asked this question to Ross for RED, and his answer was definitely insightful. Hear his thoughts on a hybrid model of working in the office and remotely. Retaining Amazing Talents A key factor when growing your recruitment business is attracting and retaining great talent. This is definitely a challenge, ironically, to the recruitment industry. So if you ask Ross of the secrets in attracting and retaining talent, he mentioned these key factors:
In this episode, you’ll hear Ross explain these points in detail. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Our technology and methodology allows recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter for a 25% discount. Book your free, no obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Ross Eades Bio and Contact Info Ross Eades is the Chief Executive Officer of RED Commerce and holds a seat on the RED Board of Directors. Ross joined RED in May 2018, with a wealth of recruitment experience in international blue-chip organisations. He has a successful track record spanning 24 years (as a CEO), creating growth, both organically and via strategic acquisitions, within the technology sector. Prior to assuming the Chief Executive Officer role at RED, Ross held the post of Chief Executive Officer of Horton Group International – a global executive search and leadership firm, with 50 offices in 32 countries. Ross spent several years building Modis Professional Services Group International into a £300m turnover, 800+ staff, European professional services organisation, with key brands Modis and Badenoch & Clark. Ross has taken a private business through an IPO to successful flotation and listing on the London Stock Exchange, as well as achieving a significant trade sale at a premium price. Previous successes include five years developing InterQuest Group plc from £10m to £100m+ in revenues, achieving all analyst profit expectations and four years completing the turnaround of UK staffing organization, Kellan Group plc.
People and Resources Mentioned
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| How to Increase Recruitment Profits By Putting Your People First, With Nathan Callaghan, Ep #87 | 03 Aug 2021 | 00:56:35 | |
Want to accelerate growth and increase your recruitment business profits? According to Nathan Callaghan, it’s about hiring the right people and creating a culture where they can thrive. Nathan is Managing Director at Futureheads Recruitment - an award winning recruitment company based in London with a team of 30. They have been awarded Great Place to Work multiple times as well as listed on the London Stock Exchange’s 1000 companies to inspire Britain several years in a row. I asked Nathan about the factors that contributed to Futureheads being ranked by Recruiter Magazine as one of their Hot 100 companies, based on GP/employee. Some of the success factors he shared include niche market specialization, clear company values, a culture of collaboration and a career path that allows people to play to their strengths. Episode Outline and Highlights
The Benefit of Being Niche Market Specialists I asked Nathan about their approach to niche specialization. Futureheads has a deep and genuine commitment to being experts who focus on a handful of digital specializations rather than “tackling a bit of everything.” I am a big believer of niche specialization so it was interesting hearing Nathan lay out how and why they do it this way. Nathan shared insights on how to increase your success while specializing in your niche:
Is the 360 Model Outdated? Futureheads Wants their Recruitment Consultants to Play to their Strengths One positive impact of the pandemic for Futureheads was redesigning their business model and adopting a more collaborative approach. Nathan explained that the management team started questioning, “why are we asking people to conform to the 360 model?” He elaborated: “If we want our people to really thrive and reach their peak performance, let’s stop pushing people to do things where the enjoyment and engagement isn’t there. Let’s create career paths where they can play to their strengths and focus on the component of the job that makes sense to them, whether that’s client acquisition, process management, candidate engagement. Giving people control back is really working for us.” According to Nathan, some people can perform well as 360 degree Consultants, but the majority of people truly excel at either the client side or candidate side, not both. He believes they’ll get the most out of people and have a happier, more engaged team if everyone plays to their strengths. At futureheads, Consultants can choose whether they want to focus on client acquisition, candidate generation or process management. The Consultants then partner with each other and collaborate to complete projects and make placements. Interestingly the job titles and career paths are the same for both sides of the desk, so Consultants who are excellent at candidate generation and engagement have the same opportunities for promotion as the business developers who open new accounts. What Attributes Make a Successful Recruitment Consultant? Futureheads were recognized by the Recruiter Magazine’s Hot 100 List which is the most successful recruitment companies in the UK based on GP per employee. They are now looking for future growth. Nathan mentioned they are hiring and focus more on people who have the right attributes, rather than necessarily having recruitment experience. So I asked him “what are the top attributes you look for more than the experience? Here are the takeaways:
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro®. Nathan Callaghan Bio and Contact Info Nathan Callaghan is Managing Director at Futureheads Recruitment. A seasoned recruitment professional, with substantial experience leading recruitment business within the digital and technology space. For over twenty years he has identified talent for a variety of businesses, working both as an agency and inhouse recruiter. He has worked in multiple recruitment start ups during his career and has a strong track record in creating new service lines within existing brands. He has been part of management teams in high growth recruitment environments, a business owner and in his role at Futureheads has found a leadership position that allows him to balance a values led approach with commercial thinking.
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