Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Resilient Recruiter
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How I Grew My Recruitment Agency to $300K Monthly Revenue, with Karolina Willis | 02 Apr 2025 | 01:01:25 | |
After relocating from Dubai to the U.S. with two young children, Karolina Willis found herself having to rebuild her recruitment business from scratch. Facing overwhelming personal and professional challenges, she reached a breaking point—when walking away felt like the only option.
But instead of giving up, Karolina doubled down. What followed was a period of six months of explosive growth.
In this episode, Karolina shares the mindset shifts, business decisions, and key differentiators that helped her scale Intercare Recruitment into a thriving international healthcare staffing firm. From winning retained contracts to building a remote team and offering full immigration support, Karolina’s story is filled with practical insights and inspiration for recruiters who want to build something global, resilient, and values-led.
🎯 Episode Highlights:
[01:53] Karolina’s journey from Poland to the UK, Dubai, and the U.S.
[07:27] The mindset shift that helped her bounce back after hitting a wall
[10:16] Hosting live events to build a pipeline of quality candidates
[13:39] Starting over solo—and the early challenges of launching a firm
[28:02] Relocating to Florida and facing a pivotal breaking point
[37:23] Her U.S. go-to-market strategy and how she built credibility fast
[40:34] What helped her win retained business in a competitive market
[46:30] Managing and growing a fully remote, international team
[51:59] How she identifies and mentors recruiter talent
[57:35] What she’d do differently if starting all over again
Scaling Across Borders with Heart and Strategy
Karolina built Intercare Recruitment to specialize in placing top-tier talent in nursing, allied health, and executive healthcare roles. What sets her apart is a blend of deep industry knowledge, personal investment, and standout service.
She shares the importance of:
Hiring former nurses as recruiters to ensure empathy and insight
Offering full immigration support for international candidates
Staying hyper-focused on relationship-building, not just transactions
From Survival Mode to Sustainable Growth
Karolina opens up about the emotional toll of moving countries, raising kids, and starting a business from the ground up. But what kept her going was her purpose and a deep belief in service-driven recruiting. Within months of recommitting to the business, she began to see results—securing retained contracts, expanding into new regions, and building a global team.
Her story is a masterclass in:
Personal resilience
Strategic positioning
Building credibility in a new market
Leading with empathy and authenticity
👤 About Karolina Willis
Karolina is the CEO and Founder of Intercare Recruitment, with 19 years of experience in global healthcare recruiting. She launched Intercare in 2011 and has placed top healthcare professionals across the UK, Middle East, and U.S. She’s known for her hands-on leadership, mentorship, and ability to scale teams across borders.
She holds a Bachelor’s in Human Resources Management, is PHR-certified, and is based in Greenville, South Carolina, where she’s also a proud mom to two daughters.
🔗 Connect with Karolina:
LinkedIn: Karolina Willis
Website: Intercare Recruitment
🎙️ Connect with Mark Whitby:
LinkedIn: Mark Whitby
Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach
Twitter: @MarkWhitby
Facebook: Mark Whitby
🎁 Free Resource:
Book your FREE 30-minute strategy call
👍 Enjoying the show?
Leave a review to help more recruiters discover The Resilient Recruiter. | |||
| How Top Recruiters Stay Organized and Focused Even in a Tough Market, with Jenny Diaz, Ep #252 | 28 Mar 2025 | 01:00:32 | |
Focus is a superpower every recruiter needs, especially in a harsh market with tough competition. How do you keep yourself organized and focused despite multiple expectations that you have to deliver to your clients, candidates, and if you are a business owner, to your team?
Jenny shares the Jenny Diaz Day Plan and how it helps her stay organized and focused every day. She also shares how basic daily tasks help her business navigate this tough market while navigating growth and expansion.
Jenny Diaz entered recruiting in 2015. In late 2021, she, Ryan, and another former colleague, James, founded Apex Recruitment Group, a firm that specializes in construction management recruitment throughout DC, Virginia, and the Carolinas.
While Jenny has worked in various industries, she has focused on construction management for the last several years. Through her recruitment career, Jenny has had the opportunity to participate in relevant non-profits that make the tough days in recruitment easier. She is currently the Vice President of one such organization, Career Confidence.
Episode Outline and Highlights
03:31 How Jenny got into recruiting from studying Hebrew, traveling, car washing, and working on a dude ranch.
12:29 Discussion on “Jenny Diaz Day Plan.”
17:25 Launching Apex Recruitment Group and overcoming initial hurdles.
23:19 The added value of meeting people in person.
27:39 What is it like being married to your business partner?
30:09 Keys to getting her first million.
[33:10] Going through challenges and things they would have done differently.
[43:34] Jenny shares their growth plans.
[48:03] Zooming in on Apex’s business culture.
[54:37] Business development and client acquisition in a tough market.
Jenny’s Day Planning Process
Focus is the super power that recruiters need for sure. Successful business owners and recruiters have a daily hack on how to organize their to do’s and make the most of their days. Jenny is no different, and she gladly shared the “Jenny Diaz Day Plan.”
“So I have this Microsoft Word doc… I print it out, I take a pencil because the day will change, and I write down whatever's on my Microsoft calendar. I have a list of follow-ups that I'm people I'm going to follow up with. That's usually like five to 30 people depending. I have my three main goals, I have my two jobs. I'm going to work that day if I get it. I have things I'm grateful for, that I've learned.”
To summarize her methodology, here are the takeaways:
Jenny meticulously plans each day using a printed Microsoft Word document with hourly blocks
She writes her plan in pencil to allow for adjustments throughout the day
Her day plan includes follow-ups, main goals, jobs to work, things she's grateful for, and long-term goals
Writing plans physically rather than digitally creates a stronger commitment
The planning process helps combat distractions and provides focus
Jenny maintains this day-planning routine for approximately 90% of her workdays
Do you have a similar approach to being focused and organized?
Jenny Diaz Bio and Contact Info
Jenny has partnered with firms of all sizes to successfully recruit entry-level professionals to C-level executives. Since 2017, she has focused on engaging construction management talent in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. She stumbled into recruitment through seemingly unrelated experiences that began with working and studying in Russia and Israel and then ended on a dude ranch outside of Yellowstone. She has learned that the people you meet along the way are anything but chance encounters.
Jenny on LinkedIn
Apex Recruitment Group website link
People and Resources Mentioned
Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0 by David Perry
Connect with Mark Whitby
Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call
Mark on LinkedIn,
Mark on Twitter: @MarkWhitby
Mark on Facebook
Mark on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, please take two minutes to leave a review. Your review is greatly appreciated because it helps us attract a bigger audience and help more recruiters. | |||
| The Human Connection: Why Top Recruiters Lead with Phone Calls, with Rachel Filby, Ep # 243 | 22 Jan 2025 | 01:08:26 | |
Not everyone is born to become a recruiter, but this may be the case for our special guest, Rachel Filby. When her father convinced her to pursue a career in recruitment, she never hesitated and firmly believed that it was one of the best decisions of her life. In her first year with Michael Page, she became a top biller, and she now runs her own recruitment agency, RF Recruitment. In this episode, you will hear about the very specific success factors that led to her becoming a top performer and how she successfully transitioned to becoming a consistently successful solopreneur. Rachel has 20 years of recruitment experience, initially working for one of the largest recruitment agencies in the world. In the Financial Times Survey 2024, Rachel Filby was recognized as one of the top 150 recruiters in the UK. Episode Outline and Highlights
Five Success Factors of Becoming the Top Biller in Her First Year as a Recruiter Rachel initially wanted a career in media, but her father recommended that she take recruitment as a career path. At 21, she started her career with Michael Page and became a top biller in her first year! Although she primarily attributes her success to the great training she received from Michael Page, I found five success factors that could resonate well with many aspiring recruiters who also plan to become future recruitment business owners:
Together, these factors, along with the right mindset and strategy, propelled Rachel to outstanding success in her first year as a recruiter. This also led to a strong career trajectory, with her getting an early promotion as a manager.
Using the Past-Present-Future Approach in Day-to-Day Business
As a recruitment solopreneur, it can be challenging for Rachel to handle the end-to-end process of her business due to capacity challenges. This is also on top of her duty as a mother, as she places high value on taking care of her kids. I wanted to know her day-to-day process and how she can sustain her momentum in successfully running her business with consistent billing and client acquisition.
She explained, “I kind of separate my, my thought process and on my business in kind of three areas. So it's past, present, and future.”
She elaborated that the “past” means protecting the money she made or existing relationships. This entails a lot of aftercare and ensuring that relationships are continuously maintained.
The “present” is explained as “Then I have kind of the present, which is jobs I'm currently recruiting, candidates I'm currently working with. That's my kind of here-and-now. So, you know, I guess there's a bit of a sweet spot of how many jobs, you know, you have that you can do a really good job on within the time that you have. And you don't really want too many more than that or too many less than that.”
The “future” refers to business development and lead generation to secure the source of the next job.
Do you also apply the same approach to your business?
Best Practices on Lead Generation and Business Development
When discussing the “future” principle, I wanted to pick Rachel’s brains on her approach to business development and lead generation as well as how much time she spends in this aspect of her business. Below are some takeaways:
1. Proactive and Low-Pressure Engagement
Rachel consistently monitors her niche market, staying updated on who’s hiring and when they might need her services. She engages early in the recruitment process with no expectation of immediately winning the job, allowing her to build rapport without pressuring the client.
2. Intentional Targeting and Tailored Communication
Her outreach is bespoke and personal—whether it’s a phone call, LinkedIn message, or email—avoiding generic marketing materials in favor of tailored communication that resonates with potential clients.
3. Prioritizing Connection Through Calls
Despite the prevalence of digital communication, Rachel emphasizes the power of phone calls as the foundation of strong client relationships. She supplements this with follow-ups via voicemail, email, and LinkedIn to ensure she remains on their radar.
Rachel Filby Bio & Contact Info
Rachel Filby has 20 years of recruitment experience working initially for one of the largest recruitment agencies in the world and now runs her recruitment agency specializing in Facilities Management Recruitment. Rachel Filby is recognized as one of the top 150 recruiters in the UK in the Financial Times Survey 2024.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How to Improve Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Your Recruitment Process, with Jo Major, Ep #154 | 30 Nov 2022 | 01:08:08 | |
Most recruiters say that Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is important but haven’t actually updated their recruitment process accordingly. There’s a big difference between talking about ED&I and making a real commitment to implement it. This is why a lot of the discussion around this topic is performative while in reality the candidate shortlists recruiters are presenting to clients are largely made up of the “usual suspects.” In this challenging episode, it was my pleasure to interview a prominent champion of ED&I, Jo Major. Jo brings 22 years of recruitment industry experience and founded Diversity in Recruitment because of her drive to get ED&I on the agenda of recruitment teams. She believes recruiters can influence and lead the change needed to tackle underrepresentation in UK employment. Through training and advice, she helps recruiters get to grips with ED&I and gives them the insight, tools, and confidence to attract diverse talent, make their processes equitable and accessible, and recruit inclusively and confidently partner with their clients and hiring managers. Jo believes that a candidate's identity, background, and circumstances should never be the reason they don't make it into the recruitment process. If you are on the quest of helping your candidates, clients, and your own team, to align with ED&I principles, Jo’s insights and practical advice will be of help to you. Episode Outline and Highlights
How Diversity in Recruitment Supports Recruitment Businesses Jo’s two decades of recruitment industry experience gives her a valuable perspective on how diversity, inclusion, and equity should be aligned with the profession of recruitment. She also has a strong drive and passion for this topic.
This was the motivation behind launching her training business, Diversity in Recruitment. How does her organization support recruitment firms to include ED&I in their agenda? “I tend to take a training and advisory approach rather than a consultancy,” stated Jo. “I am a massive fan of module learning - bite-sized accessible training rather than days and days talking about new concepts to recruiters.” Below are some ways in which they can help recruitment businesses:
ED&I - Is Making a Difference Really Worth It? Let’s face it - making a difference can be challenging and overwhelming, especially for smaller businesses. In an environment where recruitment businesses have targets and placements to meet, the task of embedding ED&I in the core of their businesses can seem enormous. So you may ask, is it worth undertaking this challenge?
This is how Jo puts it, which for me makes perfect sense. “This will help you be better at your job. This will help you reach more candidates and increase your talent pools. This will help you win more business. This will help you develop long-term relationships with your clients. This will differentiate you from your competitors. It will get you to think about additional products and services.”
The next question is, how do you help your team to be aligned with the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion? And how do you support your clients in doing the same? Jo has provided several meaningful ideas that can help you as a recruiter and recruitment business owner.
My biggest takeaway from the interview with Jo is that recruitment leaders must start their ED&I journey with their own internal recruitment process. Take a look at your existing team and internal hiring practices. Before you start advising clients on ED&I, make sure you’ve taking steps to implement it within your own business.
Our Sponsors
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Jo Major Bio and Contact Info
Jo has a twenty-year+ career in the recruitment space behind her. Her work has helped to grow businesses, schools, charities, and enterprises, and has shaped the careers of some outstanding humans.
Jo has developed strategic D&I, Social Mobility & CSR programs that build and improve recruitment team culture, engage employees, attract underrepresented talent and make recruitment businesses better places to work and partner with.
She founded Diversity in Recruitment because of her absolute drive to get D&I on the agenda of recruitment teams, no matter what their size and capacity – Jo believes that recruiters have the opportunity to influence and lead real change
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Meet The Recruiter Who Survived And Thrived Through Four Recessions, with Gail Audibert, Ep #153 | 25 Nov 2022 | 01:01:09 | |
Many recruiters are feeling anxious about the economy. Are you concerned about how a slowdown might affect your billings in 2023?
My special guest, Gail Audibert, has been a recruiter since 1984 and has survived four recessions. In this episode, Gail shares the steps she took in previous downturns to protect her business and achieve consistent, predictable billings.
Gail is a member of the Pinnacle Society and remains one of the top recruiters in the country while only working 20 hours per week. In this interview, she reveals how she designed her business around her family and her secrets to working less and making more.
Gail launched Gail Audibert Associates in 1988, specializing in Commercial Insurance. She’s the VP of the Pinnacle Society and President-elect for 2023. She’s a former president of the National Insurance Recruiting Association and its current education chair. She also served on the Board of the Connecticut Association of Personnel Services for close to 20 years.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Designing Her Business Around Her Family
Given Gail’s career longevity and success in recruitment, it would be easy to assume that she had been working really hard with long hours, making sacrifices for her business and profession. On the contrary, Gail considers it her success that she is able to build her business around her family. She leveraged the flexibility of our industry to raise her family and be there for every sick day, snow day, and other activity of her children. She never let her work to-do list get in the way.
Gail works 20 to 25 hours a week and still manages to be really productive. “I don’t think I waste a lot of time on things that are unnecessary.” That includes positions that she isn’t confident of filling … “If I think that it is unplaceable, I just drop it. I call the company and tell them ‘this isn’t going to fly’.” Gail also believes that this job should get easier over time because you know more people, explaining “I have a very strong database of candidates or people that I know that makes it easier.”
Gail went on and also shared her success factors - making her a consistent top producer and becoming an esteemed member of the Pinnacle Society. Some takeaways are as follows:
How to Sell Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
Gail revealed that one of her secrets to survive and thrive during a recession. She explained how she pitched an RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) business model to some of her clients. She structured this in a way that was truly a win-win. It was extremely beneficial for her clients’ cashflow while giving Gail predictable revenue during a downturn.
During slow economic times, many recruiters drop their rates. Gail didn’t reduce her fees but instead let her clients spread out the payments over a longer timeframe. That reduced the up-front cost of recruiting for her clients, enabling them to continue hiring. This was a solution that her client’s CFO loved and gave Gail steady cash-flow as well.
Gail still offers an RPO business model - but only if she firmly believes that this model is aligned with her client’s needs. How is she able to identify those opportunities? Listen to the full interview to hear Gail’s insights and actual examples of how it worked for her.
Doing Well During a Recession
If there is a timely topic that all of us can relate to, it is having the right mindset towards a recession. I have experienced a few recessions myself and although it was painful at the time, those experiences were so valuable and enable me to guide our coaching clients through turbulent waters.
Gail has survived and thrived at least four recessions! It is normal to feel anxious and worried. Here are the golden nuggets I took away from my conversation with Gail:
Our Sponsors
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Gail Audibert Bio and Contact Info
Gail has been a recruiter since 1984 (having started before the adoption of the fax machine, Personal Computer, cell phones, and the internet). Her specialty is Commercial Insurance. Gail is a member of the Pinnacle Society and is currently the VP and President-elect for 2023. She is also a former president of the National Insurance Recruiting Association and its current education chair. Gail served on the Board of the Connecticut Association of Personnel Services for close to 20 years and was also a "40 under 40" recipient.
People and Resources Mentioned
Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||
| Recruiter Mistakes #5: Doing Everything Manually Instead of Leveraging Automation, with Mark Whitby and Leanne Jones Hunt, Ep #152 | 17 Nov 2022 | 00:32:43 | |
When Leanne ran her own recruitment business, she managed to claw back 25 hours of her time PER WEEK by implementing automation strategies and hiring 4 offshore virtual assistants.
When was the last time you reviewed your full recruiting process and identified the recurring tasks? Are you still manually using spreadsheets and doing everything manually?
Doing everything manually instead of leveraging automation is costing you precious time and constraining your growth. In this episode, we will share the top three benefits of leveraging automation, parts of your business you can automate, and the do’s and don’ts when running automated campaigns.
Episodes Outline and Highlights
The 3 Big Reasons Why You Need to Leverage Automation
In our experience, these are the three reasons why you need to leverage automation ASAP:
We are not saying that automation replaces the more personalized approach when dealing with clients and candidates - picking up the phone, making personalized video messages, and other activities that provide that essential human touch. What automation actually gives you is time to be more personalized as it allows you to invest time in the right areas of your business.
What Can You Automate in Your Recruitment Business
The easiest place to start with by looking at your current recruitment process. What are the repetitive tasks that could potentially be automated?
For example:
You can start by writing all the steps in your sourcing and recruiting process and look at which of those steps you could leverage automation.
Keep in mind that this is not an email broadcast. These are smaller, highly targeted and personalized campaigns that feel like a one-to-one message.
Automation Errors That Cost You Sales and Damage Your Reputation
We’re big believers in the power of automation to grow your business. Having said that, automation done incorrectly can have negative consequences.
Here are two common mistakes to avoid when creating automated campaigns. These tasks need to be done manually either by you or a member of your team:
It sounds obvious, but it’s a complete waste of time sending messages to people who aren’t relevant. It’s essential to inspect the recipient list and confirm that they are relevant recipients before hitting send. Don’t rely completely on automation and get carried away to the point that it loses effectiveness.
If you get personalization wrong, it has the exact opposite effect. It’s becomes obvious your message is automated and elicits a negative response. For example, putting someone’s name in ALL CAPS. Or using their full company name - e.g. International Business Machines Corporation, instead of IBM. (Think about it, if you were writing a personal note to somebody, you probably wouldn’t include Inc, Ltd or LLC in the company name, would you?)
You or ideally your VA need to clean up your spreadsheet to ensure that the job title, name, and other data points are correct and natural sounding before adding anyone to an automated campaign.
Our Sponsors
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling, and selling your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters in who they can invest. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, back office support, marketing, and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
People and Resources Mentioned
Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Personalized Service as a Success Factor in Recruitment Business Growth, with Frido Diepeveen, Ep #151 | 12 Nov 2022 | 00:54:30 | |
If you believe in providing personalized customer service, you’ll love my interview with Frido Diepeveen. In this episode, Frido shared his wealth of experience from 17 years in recruitment and how his Dutch-Hungarian upbringing influenced his service-oriented approach toward his clients and candidates. Born in the Netherlands, Frido trained as a lawyer before discovering his true passion in recruitment and executive search in 2005. That’s when he joined a recruitment firm and helped the founder grow to 55 employees before selling it to Randstad in 2010. After the transaction, he remained on the board as Commercial Director and helped the new owner achieve 20-30% year-on-year growth. He stayed with Randstad until 2018 when he decided to start a new recruitment firm from scratch. Frido is now the MD of Diepeveen & Partners, a boutique search firm with a team of 15 based in Budapest, Hungary, and serving clients in North America and Europe. Episode Outline and Highlights
Loving the Recruitment Profession Before becoming a recruiter, Frido worked in banking - first as an in-house counsel and then in a commercial role as an account manager. It was in 2005 that he found his true calling as a recruitment professional. In 2005 he was asked to join a recruitment firm in a start-up phase, called ProfiPower. Founded by Dutch-Hungarian entrepreneur Ilonka Jankovich, he later became an equity partner and they were able to build the business into a market-leading recruitment firm in Hungary. Prior to selling it to Randstad in 2010, they had a team of 55 employees! What were the factors that led to such rapid growth? Frido shared two factors:
What Does Delivering a Personalized Service Look Like? How does Frido define personalized service? Pretty much all recruitment firms will say that they offer personalized service to their customers.
Fido explained their approach, “Many of my clients have become personal friends over the years… Being personal to me means that you should not see an assignment as one of the many but you should consider it as a unique job that you are so lucky to get to work on.”
Frido elaborated on his commitment to client service. For example, he always meets his clients in person regardless of where they’re located. That involves lots of international travel. Why bother jumping on a plane to see a client when he could meet on Zoom or Teams? He explained how his mindset on personalized service builds chemistry and long-term relationships with his clients and candidates which eventually results to repeat business.
Quality Over Quantity In 2018, Frido started his own recruitment firm from scratch - Diepeveen & Partners International. He leveraged his experience and learnings from his previous organizations. His own firm is rooted in the solid philosophy of quality comes before quantity. This philosophy not only guides the organization on the services they provide to their clients but on how they handle their own employees as well. They ensure that their 15 team members are not overworked and assigned reasonable assignments - improving their quality of work and output.
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Frido Diepeveen Bio and Contact Info Frido is the founder of Diepeveen & Partners. Having obtained a law degree in international and civil law (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), he started his career in 1998 as an in-house lawyer at the head office of Abn Amro Bank in Amsterdam. In 2001, Frido moved to Hungary, continuing his finance career at another Dutch financial institution, ING Bank. During this time, he had the opportunity to gain a deep understanding of the Hungarian financial sector and to become fluent in the Hungarian language. After four years of back-office as well as front office positions, he found his true calling.
In 2005, he started a career in HR consulting and (executive) search. From 2005 to 2010, Frido co-owned and co-managed the recruitment firm ProfiPower that went on to become Hungary’s market leader in 2008. In 2010, the firm was sold to a listed company, which has since then become the world’s largest HR services company. After selling ProfiPower, for seven successful years, he continued as commercial director of the newly merged company. He then founded Diepeveen & Partners in 2018. They have now expanded globally and specializing in specific fields, such as SCM, Pharma and Professional Services.
People and Resources Mentioned
Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How to Self-Destruct a $4M Search Firm and Re-Build on Stronger Foundations, with Mark Phillips, Ep #150 | 03 Nov 2022 | 01:15:17 | |
Imagine building a search firm from scratch to $4M in billings. An incredible achievement, right? Now imagine that same business suddenly imploding from 14 team members down to just one. How would you bounce back from such a devastating loss? Would you have the heart and will to rebuild?
This is the story of my special guest, Mark Phillips. Mark is the founder and CEO of HireEducation and in this interview, he shares his journey with unflinching honesty and self-reflection. He takes ownership of the behaviours and decisions that led to the decline of the business. Based on the lessons he learned from both his successes and failures, Mark is rebuilding his business and himself - this time on stronger foundations.
Mark got into recruiting in the late 90s and has specialized in the Education Technology industry since 2006. He launched his firm HireEducation in 2010 and by 2019 he built it into a $4M per year business. That same year, he faced his biggest challenge. You will now hear what he’s doing differently to build an even more successful business that he enjoys a whole lot more. Episode Outline and Highlights
Building From Scratch to a $4M Annual Run Rate Mark shared the key success factors that contributed to growing a $4m search firm in 9 years. There were a number of challenges they needed to overcome which anyone growing a recruitment businesses will relate to. The two biggest success factors were:
Hire Someone to Manage You Another significant success factor that Mark mentioned is the value of hiring an assistant. Mark’s longest serving employee, Katie, was originally hired as his assistant and has contributed so much and developed her leadership skills to the point that she was recently promoted to CEO.
What is the added value of his assistant? “Operational details are not my strong suit. I am acknowledging that. When I hired Katie back in 2014, I said ‘your first job is to manage me and your second job is to manage my inbox.’” This actually makes a lot of sense. In our coaching group, we emphasize the value of hiring someone, like a virtual assistant, that can support you on administrative tasks or operational undertakings while you focus on your business’ vision and income-generating tasks. This is how Mark puts it, “Having somebody that I trusted operationally was really key from getting from $1M to $4M.”
Extreme Ownership: Improving Your Results Requires You to Own Your Mistakes
In 2019, Mark’s business imploded, shrinking from 14 people back down to 1. That was a really rough experience for Mark which led to a lot of soul-searching and shifts in personal and business focus. At the height of their success, Mark was really stressed and not sleeping well due to significant issues from his working environment. Due to cultural misalignment, a rift developed between Mark and some of his key employees who he had brought on and promoted to Partner level. Ultimately, this led Mark and his top billers to part ways, which snowballed into losing almost his entire team. It was a truly heartbreaking experience.
In retrospect, Mark is able to analyze the situation and identify his own role in the decline of the business. As Mark described, “When I think about that time, my relationship with those three partners and team members, was not first. Consequently, it was a house of cards… In the end, it was not relationship first”. This lead him to establish a new core value when he rebuilt his business, which is to always protect the team.
You will truly appreciate Mark’s candor and humility in sharing this experience, which can also be a learning moment for all of us.
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Mark Phillips Bio and Contact Info Mark first into recruiting in the late 90s and then moved into the Education Technology industry in 2006. He built his firm from a solo desk in 2010 to a $4M run rate in 2019. As a member of the SanfordRose Network, Mark has coached recruiters to the following accolades: 3 Rookies of the Year, 2 Top recruiters in the network, and multiple top 10 in the network performances. His firm recruits for education companies, not schools, but companies that sell products and services to PreK, K12, and Higher Education institutions.
People and Resources Mentioned
Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Values-Driven Leadership: How to Grow a Search Firm to 7-Figures in One Year, With David Fleming, Ep #149 | 21 Oct 2022 | 01:04:09 | |
It always fascinates me to hear stories of recruitment business owners who succeed despite the most challenging circumstances. My special guest, David Fleming, shares an astounding story of both personal resilience and recruitment success.
David is the Managing Partner of Acuity Partners, the search brand from Stanton House. David established the business this year and is already on track for a 7 figure Net Fee Income in their first full year. Acuity Partners delivers leadership searches for C-Suite and Director level mandates within technology-led businesses and investors. David has 25 years of experience in recruitment and has run multi-million-pound P&L managing teams of over 100 consultants.
In this episode, David shares how having a set of clear values embedded in each team member plays a vital role in their success. Also, you will hear David’s story of resilience and how it influenced the way he leads his team and how it moved him to prioritize taking care of their mental health.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Four Key Factors for Rapid Growth When David started Acuity Partners in February this year, their vision is crystal clear: To enable individuals and businesses to outperform by relentlessly connecting brilliant people. Starting with 3 staff, they now have 8 people in their team and are on track to reach 7 figures in net fee income. What is the secret sauce leading up to this success? He gave four factors:
Values that Influence Success David also shared the values that drive their culture and underpin their search methodology. He revealed how their recruiters embody the values and how it motivates them to be curious and interested in their clients. Here is the outline of the values he shared:
Taking Care of Mental Health David just had their second child when he started with Stanton House. After three months, their newborn son was diagnosed with a condition called Hydrocephalus (water on the brain). The baby required 25 different instances of emergency brain surgery, 6 of which were during David’s first year with Stanton House. David would frequently spend all night in the hospital and then make his way to the office in the morning and try and build a desk, something he hadn't done for 10 years.
This had a monumental impact on his mental health, self-confidence, and ability to bring his best self to work. Seeing his kid battle this over the last 11 years has impacted how David leads his team and how he looks after his own and his team’s mental health. The team at Stanton House created what they call the Empathy Series. It is a program that was launched in their wider business to support their people in understanding each other as they seek to appreciate the anxieties and challenges their people are dealing with.
Our Sponsors
This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
David Fleming Bio and Contact Info David Fleming has been in recruitment for 25 years across two businesses. Badenoch & Clark and since then Stanton House. He started as a consultant placing interim finance professionals into Telecoms clients and quickly went on to lead and grow that team to become a leading performer in the company. Before taking on more teams and running the London business before taking on further regional responsibilities, he was promoted to Director at that time, helped by starting up the Transformation and Marketing practices (multi-million NFI P&Ls) for the company, and led teams of over 100 consultants.
David left B+C shortly after the Adecoo acquisition and joined Nick and Neil at Stanton House. His time at Stanton House has seen him grow and lead many parts of the business (A&F, Transformation, our business in London) before setting up Acuity Partners.
He have always been motivated by building businesses and through speaking to and connecting with interesting people. Setting up the Acuity business allows David to combine working with some exceptional clients who are making a huge impact in the world.
People and Resources Mentioned
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| International Expansion: How to Grow a Successful Recruitment Business in MENA and APAC, with Justin McGuire, Ep #148 | 13 Oct 2022 | 01:02:41 | |
Building a recruitment business in the Middle East and Asia presents opportunities as well as challenges. My special guest, Justin McGuire has successfully expanded his firm into MENA and APAC, becoming very knowledgeable about these markets in the process. This is Justin’s second time on the show and I am excited to have him again. In addition to providing fantastic insight into doing business in the MENA and APAC regions, Justin shares his experience growing his team from 12 to 30 people. But there have been plenty of challenges and detours along the way. For example, Justin discusses his failed attempt to open a London office and everything he learned from that experience. Justin is the CEO and co-founder of MCG Talent - a talent consulting firm specializing in creative, communications and marketing people across the Middle East and Asia. Justin spent 8 years working for well-known creative agencies before jumping into recruitment for the last 15 years. MCG Talent have ambitious plans for continued growth and have set their sights on opening offices in new countries and scaling the team to 50 people. Episode Outline and Highlights
Catching Up with Justin - Updates Since His Last Episode Appearance Justin’s last appearance was a couple of years, more than a hundred episodes ago in which he shared radical ideas on their global recruitment offices and how they get to scale. This time, he brings me up to speed on what has changed since then. The last time we spoke, Justin was in Singapore. He has since relocated his family back to Dubai and refocused on the markets they excel in - the Middle East and Asia for roles in the marketing, communications, and technology. He explains, “During COVID we really understood the need for a niche where we were doing well and where people were leaning on us.” This move served them well and they’ve grown from a team of 12, they are now a group of 30 people and still scaling to the 30-50 person stage. Focusing on the Middle East and Asia Territories Justin’s decision to focus on the Marketing Communications and Tech niche in the Middle East and Asia regions brings opportunities as well as challenges. For a lot of my recruiters and recruitment business owner listeners, the MENA and APAC region is unchartered territory. You will be interested to know what recruiting is like in those regions compared to the European or North American territories. What are the cultural differences? What would be Justin’s biggest shocking revelation? But most importantly, I am sure you are interested to know, how did Justin make it work? Business Management Practices When Scaling Internationally Justin shared so many important factors to consider, including:
In addition, we discussed how Justin made the transition from Big Biller to Billing Manager to Business Manager. Most owners aren’t able to navigate these steps and get stuck as a producer with a small team. For example, how and when do you come off a desk? If you’re a big biller, how do you replace your production in order to focus more time on growing the business? Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Justin McGuire Bio and Contact Info Justin began my professional career in London at the start of the digital boom, working in client servicing for a fantastic communications agency. During his seven years in the industry, he had the pleasure of working for some of the world’s most celebrated brands alongside some of the most talented and creative people in the industry, many of them have since gone on to become business leaders. Having reached the Director level, he was charged with recruiting talent for his own team as well as playing a key role in developing the agency’s digital offering and taking it to market. It was at this point that his passion for recruitment became apparent and he resolved to change his career. He joined a headhunting firm based in the heart of London, creating and managing the advertising and media division. It was there that opportunity knocked and Justin was approached by a leading multi-national recruitment company and invited to set up their advertising and media business. Following a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding two years, he felt that with my experience in the communication industry combined with my recruitment training and market knowledge, he was perfectly positioned to set up his own enterprise. MCG Talent was born in 2010 with a single vision: to connect the best businesses with the brightest talent in the marketing, communications, and digital space, enabling progress for businesses and individuals alike. Justin lived and worked in London, Singapore, and Dubai. He also spent a year doing charity work in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He proudly invested in diversely.io - a diversity hiring platform and also co-founded and successfully exited a learning and development business called Ampersand.
People and Resources Mentioned
| |||
| How to Make 40 Placements per Month by Setting High Standards, Speed and Having Fun, with Elaine Tyler, Ep #147 | 07 Oct 2022 | 00:52:24 | |
Want to know how a fast-growing recruitment firm generates 40 placements per month with a small team of only 11 people? Then you’re going to love my interview with Elaine Tyler. She’s the CEO of Venatrix, a London based agency that specializes in recruiting and training SDRs for SaaS companies. In 2015, Elaine partnered with James Caan and his recruitment venture capital firm, Recruitment Entrepreneur, to launch Venatrix. Since then, her company has consistently been one of the top performing businesses in the RE portfolio and she expects to double her headcount and turnover in the next 18 months. What are the secrets to her success? Elaine shared so many golden nuggets, from branding and marketing strategies to creating a unique selling proposition that benefits both clients and candidates. Elaine explained her sales and delivery model in detail and revealed the secret sauce that enables Venatrix to get such high performance and productivity from a relatively small team while achieving a Glassdoor score of 4.8. Episode Outline and Highlights
Starting Off with the Right Partners Elaine started her career in recruitment 14 years ago, during the Great Recession of 2008. She shared her learnings and challenges - which a lot of us can relate to. What I liked about our discussion is her mindset of focusing on things that we can control - it worked for her during the recession, and the same principles are working for her today. She shared her story of how she had the opportunity to speak with James Caan which eventually led to her founding Venatrix. What made her decide to collaborate with James’ recruitment venture? “I was 29 years old and I had the feeling that something in my career was set to change and I needed a new challenge.” As the opportunity presented, she grabbed the chance! Originally she presented a business plan which she describes as ‘ridiculous’, but Recruitment Entrepreneur guided her to come up with a more realistic plan. After that, Venatrix was born - and is turning 7 this year. Elaine’s decision of choosing a reliable partner played a critical role in her success. Building a Brand on LinkedIn Elain and I also discussed marketing strategies and how the team at Venatrix are building a prominent brand on LinkedIn. Elaine explained how it happened organically: “It happened very organically. I think the reason why it worked so well and the reason why it became part of our brand personality… is that it is so authentic. Nobody told anybody to start doing videos. It just came naturally as part of our energy of business and we all subscribed to it as part of our brand personality.”
Elain also revealed that this ‘energy’ rolls down from the top - “It has to be led from the front, from the leaders and the most senior people from the business. You will see that … we post a lot and have that consistency. So that motivates the more junior people in the team.”
We also talked about another approach in marketing and community building in their respective niche. Elain also revealed the reason why they are rated with a high 4.8 rating on Glassdoor. Providing a Well-Qualified Pool of Talents for Their Clients Venatrix’s value proposition is truly unique in that they provide extensive training and support for the candidates they place. This significantly reduces the risk associated with hiring entry-level salespeople. How do they do it? They offer a 9-module Virtual Sales Academy to accelerate the impact of the new hires. On top of that, they organize, sponsor, and host SDR meetups events in London which leads to peer-to-peer networking and learning.
Listen to the podcast to hear how Elaine came up with this idea and how this works for them, their clients, and candidates. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Elaine Tyler Bio and Contact Info Elaine Tyler is the CEO & Founder of Venatrix, a specialist assessment, placement and training business that identifies high calibre Sales Development Representatives and introduces them to fast growth tech companies. As the candidates are typically entry level, Venatrix supports the businesses it works with by also offering a 9 module Virtual Sales Academy to accelerate the impact of the new hires, plus sponsors & hosts a number of SDR meet ups in London to encourage peer-to-peer networking & learning. People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Recruiter Mistakes #4: Doing Everything Yourself Instead of Delegating and Outsourcing, with Mark Whitby and Leanne Jones Hunt, Ep #: 146 | 05 Oct 2022 | 00:11:53 | |
Does your recruitment business feel like you’re running on a hamster wheel? That everything depends on your efforts and you can’t ever slow down or stop because your delivery to customers (and your revenue) would also come grinding to a halt? No matter how talented and hard-working you are, trying to do everything yourself is unsustainable. It leads to inconsistent results, frustration and burnout. But what if you could get a lot of tasks off your plate and free up your time to focus on high-value, revenue-generating activities? The good news is that you can! In this episode, we discuss WHY you shouldn’t be the one spinning all of the plates even if you are a solo recruiter. We will also cover HOW to get started with delegating and outsourcing parts of your recruitment process. Our goal is to increase your time spent on high-value, revenue-generating activities, and the parts of the job you do best. This is the fourth of a series of episodes where Leanne and I will share insights that we have gained from working with hundreds of successful recruitment business owners. Episode Outline and Highlights
Should You Hire a Virtual Assistant (VA)? Two Questions to Consider Here are the two questions you need to answer:
This is a great exercise - calculating your hourly rate will give you the insight to see what tasks are indeed worth delegating. You may simply choose your billings per annum and divide by 1800 which is the average hours of someone who works full time during the course of the year. Your job is to figure out how you can spend more time and focus on high-value activities and how to delegate or outsource those activities where you will not be earning your dollar per hour. The Three Downsides of Trying to Do Everything by Yourself Why you should not be doing everything by yourself? Here are three reasons why.
This is not going to happen overnight, but I want you to think about outsourcing some parts of your business. This will take one step at a time and will be an ongoing process. Simple Actions You Can Take to Start The main thing is to not overcomplicate things. Look at your end-to-end process and analyze things you can delegate in the aspects of sourcing, business development, and account management piece. Look at what you don’t enjoy doing, the tasks that are recurring, and what tasks you are currently spending time on that realistically someone else could do for you. Keep in mind that as a business owner, your focus should be on high-level activities. We recommend that you hire a full-time VA to support you. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling, and selling your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters in who they can invest. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, back office support, marketing, and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How to Become the Leading Recruiter in Your Market Niche, with Brooke Ziolo, Ep #145 | 27 Sep 2022 | 00:48:45 | |
Imagine if you were a dominant recruiter in your industry with a portfolio of clients who come to you for all their hiring needs. That doesn’t happen overnight and requires persistence. As you’ll hear in my interview with Brooke Ziolo, it’s certainly achievable with the right mindset and methodology. Brooke is the President of Egret Consulting, and has been an Executive Recruiter for 14 years. She and her team have become the Go-To recruiters for the lighting industry covering positions in sales, marketing, engineering, and operations from mid-level to C-Suite. In this episode, she shares how they became the market leading recruiters within the lighting industry. She describes in detail how they reach out to clients and candidates with a blend of manual and automated processes plus an attitude of polite and professional persistence. Brooke’s history of how and when she started her recruiting career is a resounding story of resilience, leading to her becoming a Partner of Egret in 2013, the Managing Director in 2016, and purchasing the firm in 2019. She was inducted into the Pinnacle Society, the premier consortium of industry-leading recruiters in North America, in 2016. Episode Outline and Highlights
Starting Her Recruitment Career During the 2008 Recession Brooke started her recruitment career in 2008, during the Great Recession. As you can imagine, it was extremely challenging. She only made 2 placements that whole year! But Brooke’s mindset and strategy during that turbulent time lead to her being successful when people started hiring again. Reminiscing her early days, Brook explained, “The only thing I control is how many calls I make. So if I keep making more calls than everybody in the office… that is all I can do right now. I kept just pounding the phones until somebody told me no or I am sick of you.” For Brooke, it is all about her polite persistence. She understood the balance of not harassing anyone but staying within professional boundaries to put her name out there even if she was not making many placements. The result? People remembered her! Making all those phone calls enabled her to build her network of industry connections so people thought of her when they started hiring again. Blended Approach to Marketing and Business Development Cold calling and polite persistence laid the foundation for Brooke to become a top-producing recruiter and billing manager. But how has her approach to business development and marketing evolved over the last 14 years? Here are some of the strategies she shared in this episode:
We also shared tips and ways on cold text messaging. Many recruiters are afraid of sending unsolicited text messages and are concerned about receiving a negative reaction from the recipient. On the other hand, texting is a very effective way to communicate and typically gets a much faster response compared to other platforms such as email. Brooke shared how she does it and how much response she gets in doing so. Brooke’s Success Mindset In 2019, Brooke purchased the firm from her father who was the founder of Egrit Consulting. Acquiring the business wasn’t something she had initially set out to accomplish. But after falling in love with recruitment and becoming a top recruiter in the firm, she started being able to imagine the possibility of taking over the business. I asked Brooke’s recipe for success. In addition to her persistence and also being niche-focused, she shared three keys: :
I have always aimed to understand recruitment owners’ formulas for success. And Brooke certainly delivered in this episode. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Brooke Ziolo Bio and Contact Info Brooke Ziolo has been an Executive Recruiter with Egret Consulting for 14 years. Brooke works exclusively in the lighting industry with manufacturers, rep agencies, ESCOs, and design firms. She works in positions in sales, marketing, engineering, and operations from mid-level to C-Suite. She was inducted into the Pinnacle Society, the premier consortium of industry-leading recruiters in North America, in 2016. Brooke became a Partner of Egret in 2013, the Managing Director in 2016, and purchased the firm in 2019. People and Resources Mentioned
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| The Science of Strategic Trust: Building Long-Term Recruitment Success, with Mary Morton, Ep #242 | 10 Jan 2025 | 01:04:02 | |
Mary Morton reveals how converting scientific research into strategic relationships revolutionized her recruitment approach. A biology major turned pharmaceutical recruiter, she leverages investor presentations and company pipelines to identify opportunities before her competitors. This research-driven strategy and building deep client trust helped her agency thrive from its 2008 recession launch through today's market challenges.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Critical Foundations in Billing $10M Mary's 30+ years of experience demonstrates how becoming an industry expert enables proactive rather than reactive recruiting. Her biology degree and pharmaceutical specialization became powerful advantages in building a $10M+ billing desk. Her longevity in the industry and accomplishments in the pharmaceutical niche can be attributed to several foundational elements:
These factors, combined with her adaptability, niche specialization, and focus on continuous learning, have solidified her position as a leader in the recruitment industry.
How to Add Value to Your Niche as a Recruitment Organization
“Well, if they're already niched, I think they owe it to themselves as well as to the candidates and clients that they're serving to be an expert in the space that they're niched in or that they claim to be niched in. You know, I think that's where the value comes it.” This statement summarizes Mary’s mindset on adding value to your industry niche as a recruitment organization.
By investing in niche-specific knowledge and preparation, recruitment organizations can elevate their effectiveness and differentiate themselves in competitive markets. It also brings about the following benefits that Mary elaborated on in our discussion:
One way Mary builds her credibility in her relevant niche (in addition to her longevity) is by hosting a podcast.
Comprehensive Information Gathering as Competitive Advantage Mary's approach to information gathering goes far beyond standard job requirements. This thorough preparation becomes a key differentiator in her market. She can easily engage with potential clients' primary decision-makers, which results in optimum connection rates.
She shared the essential elements of her process:
These strategies directly contributed to Mary's ability to build a sustainable business that has thrived through multiple market downturns while maintaining premium fees averaging $50,000.
Mary Morton Bio & Contact Info
Mary began her recruiting career 30 years ago this coming March. For the last 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry. She owns SEMbio, a niche recruiting firm in field-based medical affairs, that she founded in 2008 with her longtime colleague and business partner, Nicole Evans. She has been a member of the Pinnacle Society for 7 years and runs a 360 desk that is primarily focused on account management, with personal billings above $10M over the last 15 years. (I only have billing records going back to 2011!)
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How to Grow Your Recruitment Agency from Start-up to $2M in 3 Years, with Joel Slenning, Ep #144 | 21 Sep 2022 | 01:00:38 | |
I’m a firm believer that success leaves clues. If someone was able to scale their staffing business not just once or twice but multiple times, that can’t be based on luck. To produce those results over and over, they must have a winning formula. That being the case, you’d want to know their formula, wouldn’t you? Well the good news is that’s exactly what you’ll learn from my podcast interview with Joel Slenning. This is Joel’s second appearance on the show. Last time, he shared the story of how he scaled his previous recruitment firm, ICON Medical, to $16M before selling it in 2019. I found that story fascinating - especially the part where he started his own business in the middle of a global recession and how he strategically scaled it during the most difficult first year. This time, Joel is back to reveal the strategies he’s using to grow his new staffing firm, INNOVA People from a start-up to almost $2M in revenue in less than 3 years! Joel talks about his business model, leveraging offshore sourcers, and inbound marketing, and much more. Joel is the President of Innova People, a healthcare and IT staffing agency based in Oregon. Joel and I run a coaching program together called APEX which is a mastermind group for owners of 7-figure recruiting firms who want to scale to 8-figures and build a business that runs without them that they could potentially sell one day. Episode Outline and Highlights
Structuring a Very Sustainable Business Model After successfully scaling and selling ICON Medical Network, Joel is now the owner of a successful IT Staffing Agency, INNOVA People. What he has been doing differently with this new agency is the approach to a sustainable business model, where business development works side by side with the delivery team. He segregated business development from the delivery team by creating a talent acquisition leader for delivery and sales development reps on the business development side. How does this work for Joel’s team? With this strategy alongside a number of automated processes, the team was able to scale rapidly. Contrary to a 360 model, this approach is really agile and avoids having recruiters having to switch-task which reduces productivity. Each person is dedicated 100% to what they are doing. The business development team is able to fully support the delivery team, which results in consistent hiring and scalability. In its third year, they are pushing close to $2M in revenue. Joel further shared key factors in his current business model such as leveraging offshore resources and automation. If you are hesitating in employing an offshore team member, Joel’s insights on the matter can be very helpful. What to look for in an offshore colleague? Does location really matter? In his own experience, making the right offshore hire is critical to Joel’s success in scaling his business. Top of Mind Awareness and Inbound Marketing The last time we had Joel in the podcast, he alluded to the fact that the majority of his leads on both clients and candidates were generated using inbound marketing. We ran out of time to get into the details of how he does it, and so we are truly fortunate to hear the details from him this time around. Joel shares their strategy for applying the ToMA or Top of Mind Awareness approach in their marketing. Here are some of the practices that Joel discussed in this episode:
You will enjoy the very practical and no-nonsense approach that Joel shared in this part of our conversation. Outworking the Global Economic Slowdown Joel also shared his insight on having the right mindset to deal with economic downturns or recessions. This is a relevant topic to a lot of recruitment business owners who are concerned about a global slowdown in hiring activity. The media has amplified this message to the point that there’s a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt in the market. But if there is one thing that I learned from the 2008 global recession and the COVID19 pandemic, is that taking a proactive approach and having the right mindset are the game changers. Joel shared his thoughts on how to outwork whatever potential economic downturns that may come. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Joel Slenning Bio and Contact Info Joel is a talent acquisition expert, talent strategist, tech investor, and tech startup guru based in Portland, Oregon. With a recruitment career spanning for more than 20 years, Joel has always been a consistent top performer and an award-winning billing manager. He is the president of INNOVA People, a Human Resources Solutions agency that utilizes AI platforms to solve complex HR problems mainly focused on healthcare and information technology.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||
| How a Competitive Bike Racer Turned Recruiter Built a 7-Figure Staffing Firm in 3 Years, With Paul Warner, Ep #143 | 13 Sep 2022 | 01:07:20 | |
From professional athlete to 7-figure recruitment business owner, Paul Warner’s journey is quite unique. In this interview, you’ll learn how Paul has gone from a part-time solo recruiter billing $90K per year to building a team that bills over $1M per annum in just three years. Paul shared his incredible story and breaks down the key factors that he believes contribute to increasing billings by 10x in 3 years including:
Paul founded Tamarack Recruiting in 2018 as a lifestyle business that could support his other career as a professional cyclist. He leveraged AI and other technology to allow him to connect companies and candidates quickly in the few hours he had to work between races and traveling. In 2020, the pandemic brought the cycling circuit to a halt, and Paul shifted his focus to scaling his staffing agency. Episode Outline and Highlights
Tamarack’s Key Game Changers Tamarack recruiting’s growth is so rapid, I really wanted to hear from Paul about the ‘secret sauce’ to their success. From billing 90k to 1m+ in just three years within the pandemic is surely an accomplishment and a feat that thousands of recruiting companies could have not easily achieved. What I observed is his successful sales engine and volumes of repeat businesses. For this to happen, they had to keep on consistently delivering. What are the game changes that enable them to do so? Paul mentioned two things:
Paul later on shared how they empower their employees, his passion for hiring Gen-Zs, and business development strategies contribute to their rapid growth. What Tamarack’s Business Model and Business Development Look Like Paul shared that they have a dedicated business development resource. The main focus of the BD resource is to set appointments. They are running email campaigns, LinkedIn campaigns, and cold calling campaigns simultaneously. Once an agreement is signed, they then execute it with a sourcer, the account recruiting manager, and a designated recruiter to work on the process. For Paul, having these three minds work together is a game-changer that enhances the process and brings a better recruitment experience for the hiring manager. The Passion for Managing Gen-Z Recruiters and Empowering People “I have decided to go with the growth model of bringing kids fresh out of college to teach them our process and procedures.” Paul’s passion of hiring fresh graduates stemmed from his own experience coming out of college and he felt really vulnerable entering the workforce. He felt that his true potential was not realized especially when he was not treated well, e.g. being yelled at. This inspired him to create a psychologically safe environment in his organization, even for young people. He is also focused on empowering his employees. The results? He feels that his team is motivated to work ten times harder. He wants to give them an experience that launches them into their professional career, especially for recruitment. You will pick up golden nuggets in this part of our conversation - actual examples of young people joining their organization full time and doing really well. Paul has clarity on what motivates people - it is not just money but the feeling that you truly care. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Paul Warner Bio and Contact Info Paul’s role within Tamarack Recruiting is to oversee client development, as well as managing candidate pipelines in the Mountain States Regions. Tamarack Recruiting's slogan "We stand out" comes from the Tamarack Tree. Tamarack Recruiting provides staffing and recruiting in both the Technical and Financial verticals. They differentiate themselves by having our recruiters putting full focus on no more than three client needs at a time. Just like the tamarack tree that changes colors in the fall, "We Stand Out" is how they approach the saturated staffing and recruiting market. Now a team of seven, Tamarack Recruiting today uses the cutting-edge processes Paul developed to make impactful placements with a fast turn-around. We have become the go-to recruiting partner for many of our clients because of our track record of success in filling urgent openings with in-demand professionals. People and Resources Mentioned
| |||
| How a Former Music Teacher Created Her Dream Life as a Top-Producing Recruiter, with Cathy Stewart, Ep #142 | 06 Sep 2022 | 01:04:48 | |
One of the core competencies of successful recruiters is influence. When Cathy Stewart became a recruiter 15 years ago, recruiting seemed like a perfect fit based on her ability to build trust and influence others. In this episode, Cathy reveals her exact approach to influencing people which has enabled her to become a top biller. Recruiting is actually Cathy’s third career. Prior to becoming a recruiter, she started out as a music teacher before going on to achieve great success in direct home selling, building a multi-million dollar organization. Cathy Stewart is the Vice President of the Senior Living Division with Jeff Harris and Associates. Since she began her recruiting career in 2008, Cathy has been a consistent top biller and she became a Pinnacle Society Member in 2018. Episode Outline and Highlights
The Keys to Success in Recruitment Cathy is an achiever. Since she began her recruiting career in 2008 she has been the lead recruiter and top biller in the office her entire recruiting career and she became a Pinnacle Society Member in 2018. But what would she consider her proudest accomplishment as a recruiter? “I don’t see myself as a super special awesome person. I just think that I am really good at the basics,” is how Cathy describes it. Here are the key things that she believes have contributed to her success:
Creating and Maintaining a Positive Mindset A positive mindset is not something you will get from someone else. You must create and maintain it within yourself. Cathy shares this from a recruiter’s perspective: it is about being passionate about your selected niche. It is about having a solid foundation of ‘Why’. Her love for seniors really motivates her to consistently do her best in her chosen niche which is senior living. She also added, “Being able to stay positive is really about gratitude. You can’t feel anxiety and negativity if you feel gratitude.” Honing Your Influencing Skills and Building Trust Cathy believes that influence is her “superpower.” How does she do it? As a DISC profiler, Cathy applies her knowledge and understanding of personalities when communicating with her stakeholders. An important key is having conscious self-awareness about both your own personality profile and the other party’s. This plays a huge role when influencing and building trust. Her sales background trained her to hone this approach when dealing with hiring managers, and interviewing candidates. She explains in detail how she incorporates these influencing skills in the recruitment process. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Cathy Stewart Bio and Contact Info Cathy Stewart is a national leader in the senior living recruiting industry. From clinical to sales and marketing to operations leadership roles at both site and corporate levels, Cathy has spent nearly 15 years producing top talent for senior living organizations nationally. A native of Greensboro, NC, she began her recruiting career in 2008 with Jeff Harris and Associates and has been the lead recruiter and top biller in the office her entire recruiting career. At the heart of what she does lies her commitment to serving seniors and finding candidates who share that same mission. Despite starting a new career just as the economy was collapsing in 2008, because of their specialized niche in healthcare, JHA not only weathered the recession, but grew as more than 50% of firms across the nation closed their doors. Cathy began to build a team of researchers and recruiters in 2014, allowing her to deliver top talent with unmatched speed and accuracy to her clients in both retained and contingent search. Her commitment to her clients is evident in her determination to identify quality candidates quickly and efficiently. Her team consistently averages between $800K and $1M in annual billings. In November of 2018, Cathy was formally asked to join The Pinnacle Society, the premium consortium of industry-leading recruiters in North America. People and Resources Mentioned
| |||
| Recruiter Mistakes #3: Relying on LinkedIn as Your Primary Source of Candidates with Mark Whitby and Leanne Sara Jones Hunt, Ep #141 | 02 Sep 2022 | 00:19:20 | |
Where do you find most of your candidates? If LinkedIn is your primary platform for sourcing and engaging with candidates, this episode is for you. We are not telling you to stop using LinkedIn. But we believe that it’s a mistake to be over-reliant on LinkedIn as your main source of candidates. In this episode, you will hear the downsides of being dependent upon LinkedIn. You’ll also learn what specific steps you can take now to enhance your candidate engagement and increase response rates to your outreach. Episode Outline and Highlights
The Downsides of Being Over-Reliant on LinkedIn LinkedIn is actually the number one source of candidates for the majority of recruiters out there. But there are downsides to being over-reliant on LinkedIn as your primary source of candidates. Some of them are:
Also, you have to remember that you do not own the data on LinkedIn. The data belongs to LinkedIn and they could at any time just cut you off. They can restrict your account and remove the facility. All the time you have invested in curating that network can be taken away. So we always recommend that you extract data from LinkedIn and build your own database. Then your ATS will become your number one source of candidates in the future. Going Further and Leveraging Multi-Channel Strategies We are not saying to stop using LinkedIn. We just want you to go much further when it comes to your candidate outreach and activities. Your goal should be to have a sophisticated, multi-touch, multi-channel recruiting campaign in place - one that leverages automation technology. In this episode, we will be giving examples of strategies you can use to increase candidate response and engagement. The Benefits of Implementing a Multi-Touch, Multi-Channel Recruitment Campaign Do not leave money on the table. You owe it to yourself and your candidates to make them aware of the opportunity on offer. As a recruiter, increasing your response rates translates to more placements and profits. Plus it enables you to have a positive impact on more lives. Here are some of the benefits of utilizing multi-channel strategies:
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling, and selling your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters in who they can invest. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, back office support, marketing, and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
People and Resources Mentioned
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How Building Better Relationships Drives Growth for Irish Staffing Company, with Andy Mackin, Ep #140 | 31 Aug 2022 | 00:53:18 | |
What’s the secret to scaling a staffing company internationally? According to my special guest Andy Mackin, relationships are a key driver of business growth. In this episode, you will hear how Andy transitioned from serving with the Irish Navy for 21 years to becoming an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. He shares his story of rapidly expanding his staffing company from six employees to 200 in less than 8 years. At Mackin Talent, their number one value is “Relationships Matter.” Listen to Andy explain exactly how they invest time and resources to build stronger client relationships. He reveals how they’ve embedded this core value into their systems and procedures from the way they sell to the way they deliver their service. Andy is the CEO of Mackin Group, which encompasses Mackin EHS & Mackin Talent. They’re an award-winning business services company headquartered in Ireland and operating globally with 200 team members in 12 countries. Episode Outline and Highlights
Life Lessons From Working as a Waiter Andy’s story is interesting and colorful indeed - before setting up his own consultancy business, he served in the Irish Navy for 21 years. After retiring from the Navy, he set up his own health and safety business which led to him setting up a talent and staffing agency. What struck me is when Andy shared his stint as a server or waiter before joining the navy. He described it as his best 10 and a half months experience in life. For him, the life lessons he learned and the experience of dealing with people are invaluable. It became a foundational step in his journey that he attributes to his success in the recruitment space. Andy shares: “It is all about people. People that you deal with, life is all about people. I think recruitment is a pretty solid industry where it is all about people. How you get on with people, how you react to people, how you react to candidates, how you react to clients… it has served me well.” How Relationship Building Was the Key to Scaling the Business One of the keys to the growth of Mackin Talent is they partner with multi-national corporations and support them in rolling out sizeable EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) projects. As a small business, how do they win these major accounts? According to Andy, it’s simple - relationships. Corporations are made up of people. He can form a relationship with one person in a company, land small opportunities, and expand from there. Eventually this leads to larger and larger opportunities. Of course, it is expected that they can deliver, which they do. To further strengthen their business relationship, they ensure that an onsite engagement specialist is present with their clients free of charge. This investment ensures that the project runs smoothly, resulting in less worries for their clients, and more repeat business for Mackin Talent. This practice enables them to embed themselves within their clients, and deliver excellent service. Their guiding principle is to treat other people how you want to be treated. The Importance of Meeting Clients Face-to-Face How much relationship building are you doing remotely versus in person? This is the same question I asked Andy during this interview. Since the pandemic, a lot of business owners are conducting the majority of their meetings virtually. But how critical is face-to-face relationship building when you are looking to scale your business? For Andy, they still allocate at least 65% in-person relationship building but are on the track of further increasing it to 75%. He spends thousands of dollars quarterly just to meet with employees and clients in person - the creativity and collaboration are just different when done in person. It is nice to speak with people regularly via Zoom, but meeting them in person levels up the relationship. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Andy Mackin Bio and Contact Info Andy originally hails from Dundalk,Co Louth, in Ireland. The eldest of eight, Parents Roy and Roseleen.
Andy joined the Irish Naval Service at 18 in 1985 and has been in Cork since. He served for 21 years as a member of the Irish Naval Service and, during this time, qualified as an electrician. It was here that he gained his initial experience with risk management and developed his appreciation of Environmental Health and Safety. Andy retired from service in 2006 as Petty Officer. Andy holds a Diploma in Health and Safety from University College Cork a Certificate in Training and Education from NUI Galway, and has over twenty years experience in the field of Environmental Health and Safety. As CEO of Mackin Group he has responsibility for the day to day operations of both organisations, Mackin EHS & Mackin Talent and also works with varied clients across all sectors in Ireland, UK, Europe, Asia and the US. A positive mindset and personal development are key factors in my life to help declutter the constant noise from around the world. People and Resources Mentioned
| |||
| How to Grow a Wildly Successful Executive Search Practice, with Somer Hackley, Ep #139 | 26 Aug 2022 | 00:54:59 | |
To build a thriving executive search practice, you need to be good at winning new business. However, my special guest Somer Hackley realized early in her recruiting career that traditional approaches to business development didn’t work for her. Instead, Somer developed her own way of landing retained searches. Her approach has proven to be highly effective, enabling her to become a top producer at two of the world’s biggest retained executive search firms. Her strategy involves, as Somer puts it, “doing BD by not doing BD.” I was intrigued by the apparent contradiction. Somer explains that while she doesn’t perform pure business development activities, “everything I do is BD.” In this interview, Somer reveals her top three ways of winning work. Somer has been in recruiting for 20 years, the last 14 in executive search. In 2020 she launched her own firm called Distinguished Search. Having worked for some of the biggest executive search firms in the world, she wanted to work with fewer clients and offer more personalized service. Somer is the author of the new book, Search in Plain Sight - Demystifying Executive Search which was published in June. Episode Outline and Highlights
BD by Not Doing BD “I do BD, you can either say a hundred percent all the time or zero percent all the time, depending on how you are looking at it.” For Somer, business development traditionally was transactional - connecting to the higher-ups of potential clients and setting appointments. This formal approach did not work for Somer as she describes her communication style to be more casual. When Somer went on her own, her mindset was “I work with people” – she doesn’t think of them in terms of clients vs candidates. She never contacts executives with the sole intent of getting business. “I just reach out to people and I think every time I am talking to a person, this could be a client in 3 months, it could be a client in 5 years. So, how do I position this conversation so that when that role opens, they think of me for that?” Somer shared her approach to segmenting her clients into three buckets:
For Somer, business development is really simple. She focuses on the human connection and ensuring her processes work for her candidates. She finds that when her candidates have a hiring need, she’s the first recruiter they turn to – even if she didn’t place them. Video Content Idea: Two Distinguished Minutes Creating video content and posting consistently to different platforms such as LinkedIn is the easiest type of content marketing you can do. It does not cost anything - all it takes is for you to start and eventually more ideas will come for your content. This is exactly what Somer has been doing consistently with her videos - Two Distinguished Minutes. The idea came up when she watched Simon Sinek’s TED Talk about starting with WHY. She approached leaders in her network with a compelling idea. Will you record a video interview with me and answer the question, “Why do you do what you do?” It’s a topic that senior leaders were enthusiastic about, and because her videos are only two-minutes long, even the busiest executives could make time for it. I’ve studied and practiced content marketing for 20 years - before it was even called content marketing. So I enjoyed discussing how Somer comes up with her content ideas. I hope it will inspire you to start creating your own original content and positioning yourself as an authority in your market niche. Search in Plain Sight: Demystifying Executive Search Somer is the author of the new book, Search in Plain Sight - Demystifying Executive Search which was published in June. In this book, Somer shares a candid view of the world of executive search. I have read this book and it is fantastic! I am also honored to be interviewed by Somer and be in the few pages of the book (Chapters 6 and 14). I really recommend reading this book - it was really extensively researched with so many case studies and indeed a must-read for executive recruiters. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.cm/vc Somer Hackley Bio and Contact Info Somer Hackley received her degree in economics from Tufts University in 2002. She has been in recruiting for twenty years, including the last thirteen years in executive search. She spent six years at the seventh-largest global retained search firm, and later ran the North America Digital, Technology, and Commerce Practice at a leading boutique. In 2020 she started her own brand, Distinguished Search, inspired to launch a firm aligned with her core values: working with fewer clients and offering more personalized services. She has placed executives in companies from Fortune 100 to startups, with a focus on technology and digital positions. The need for transparency in executive search led to her debut book, Search in Plain Sight. People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Recruiter Mistakes #2: Working with the Wrong Clients with Mark Whitby and Leanne Sara Jones Hunt, Ep #138 | 22 Aug 2022 | 00:16:04 | |
If you’re like many recruiters we speak to, you’re extremely busy right now with more job orders than you can handle. However, are you working with the right clients? Many recruiters delude themselves by thinking they’re “too busy” to do business development when in reality they’re working on low-probability searches. So they end up doing a lot of work you don’t get paid for. Another common scenario is recruiters who rely on repeat business from the same legacy clients. Sure you’ve got a good relationship, but have you gotten into a comfort zone with them? When was the last time you reviewed your terms of business with your existing clients? Or asked them for a retainer? Perhaps you’re reluctant to rock the boat because you get a lot of business from them. If you can identify with either of these scenarios, pay close attention. In this episode, Leanne and I will share tips on how to increase your billings by working with your ideal clients - the ones who are willing to work with you exclusively at higher fees, and who treat you as a trusted advisor and true partners. This is the second of a series of episodes where Leanne and I will share insights that we have gained from working with hundreds of successful recruitment business owners.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Audit Your Existing Client with the Job Order Scorecard
When was the last time you audited your clients and measured the quality of jobs you are working on to make sure you are investing your time wisely? One of the first exercises we do with our new clients is to get them to do an audit on their existing clients and actually grade their jobs. Failing to do so can mean that you end up working with the wrong clients in ways that are not effective or efficient. A useful exercise is to look at your job-to-placement ratio. In this call, you will hear a scientific approach to using a diagnostic tool we call the Job Order Scorecard. This tool was designed to audit your existing live job - looking at measurable factors and criteria to work from when starting new partnerships or when analyzing your current clients. Some of the factors being looked at are:
If you want to steal our Job Order Scorecard you can download it here: http://www.recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard Challenge Your Self-Limiting Beliefs The idea of grading your jobs can lead to better outcomes for both you and your client. However, the fear of change and some limiting beliefs may stop us from taking the leap of faith to switching from contingent to the retained model, for example. Another thing we hear a lot is “In my market, it is very price sensitive, there is no way our clients will pay a higher fee.” If you hear yourself saying this, it may be a sign that there are underlying limiting beliefs that we may need to challenge. We want you to go out of your comfort zone and look at it from a different perspective. The success stories of our coaching group members should nudge you to overcome the fear of asking for higher fees and more commitment. Three Simple Actions You Can Take Now If there are key takeaways from this episode, it is taking action now and doing the simple steps below:
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling, and selling your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters in who they can invest. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, back office support, marketing, and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc People and Resources Mentioned
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| The Marathon of Recruitment Business Success and How to Double Revenue in One Year, with Helen Plumridge, Ep # 137 | 18 Aug 2022 | 01:05:04 | |
My next guest, Helen Plumridge, doubled her revenue last year and is on course to double again this year. But she didn’t achieve success overnight - it’s been more of a marathon than a sprint. Over a 20 year career, Helen’s experienced her share of setbacks and disappointments including the failure of her first recruitment business startup. Other areas of huge learning include choosing the right business model, hiring the right people and growing into leadership. Plus, the usual challenges of balancing business, fitness goals and family life. In this episode, you will hear Helen’s story of resilience and how she grew her recruitment business with the right combination of motivation, strategy, team, and partners. She discusses her partnership with Recruitment Entrepreneur and shares the key factors that contributed to doubling her revenue in the last year. Helen is the founder of King Recruit and King Executive, a partnership-led recruitment and search industry working with high-growth, small and medium sized companies in the South-West of England. Episode Outline and Highlights
Articulating the ROI of Hiring Your Candidate One of Helen’s incredible success stories is how they won a large account when they were just starting as a small business. On her 40th birthday, they signed up a fast-growing client with whom they ultimately placed over 200 people. You will hear from Helen how they won that account - including how they got their foot in the door. Helen revealed best practices for marketing your hot candidates and how to articulate the potential return-on-investment when presenting them to clients. The following takeaways were elaborated in our discussion:
How They Doubled Revenue Last Year Another key highlight of this interview is how they doubled their turnover last year and are on the way to again double their turnover this year, after partnering with Recruitment Entrepreneur. What were the key factors that led to this momentum? “Setting that bar higher,” is how it was described by Helen. It involves understanding the P&L (Profit and Loss) in more detail, looking at performance per head, and being more strategic by using real-time data. Setting the bar higher and believing that it is achievable is what moves Helen’s team. By joining the Recruitment Entrepreneur platform, Helen also found that it is far more achievable to reach the next level. A Culture of Building a Business Within a Business Helen also fosters a culture of hiring highly motivated people and giving them the freedom to run their desk in their way. This culture of ‘building a business within a business does not in any way compromise the King Recruiting’s way of doing things. As Helen explained, “It is not without systems and processes and vision.” Helen is not a fan of micro-managing. They empower their recruiters in business development, marketing, and client approach so long as it is aligned with King Recruiting’s way of working. This is also one of the reasons why they are more inclined to hire seasoned and mature recruiters - on which we discussed the pros and cons in this call. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Helen Plumridge and Contact Info Helen Plumridge, Founder, and Owner of King Recruit and King Executive. We're a partnership-led recruitment and search agency working with high-growth SMEs in the South West. I've enjoyed a 20-year career in recruitment, I started my business 5 years ago and last year, partnered with Recruitment Entrepreneur - to grow, scale and exit my business - in the next 5 years. People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Recruiter Mistakes #1: Relying on Repeat Business and Referrals with Mark Whitby and Leanne Sara Jones Hunt | 11 Aug 2022 | 00:16:53 | |
“I don’t need more clients, I need more candidates.” “I don’t have time for business developments because I have several roles already and I don’t have the bandwidth or capacity for any more clients.” Does this sound familiar? Are you relying too much on repeat business and referrals to the point that you may neglect your marketing and business development? In this episode, my co-host and colleague Leanne and I will tackle the trap of too much reliance on repeat business and referrals and forgetting we must never stop developing new business. We will share insights and strategies on how to avoid this trap and actual examples of our Inner Circle coaching group members who were able to adapt these strategies successfully. This is a first of a series of episodes where Leanne and I will share insights that we have gained from working with hundreds of successful recruitment business owners. We are going to start with a series about the biggest mistakes we see that recruitment business owners are making. Episode Outline and Highlights
Never Neglect Your Business Development This was an experience I had when I started my business in 2001. I was hustling, doing client visits, and working on my business development. That is when I got too busy and comfortable relying on a handful of clients. The Great Recession of 2008 came, and I lost 3 out of 4 key clients I had. I vowed that this is something I was never going to let happen again. If you realize you are also in this trap of complacence, keep in mind that being proactive is better than being reactive. Never forego your business development - if your recruitment business is a bicycle, the two wheels that should be continuously running at the same speed to gain traction are your candidate and client development. You Can Never Have Too Many Clients Do you feel that you already have too many clients and that you should only be focusing on getting candidates more than getting new clients? If that is the case, you have to reassess. One takeaway you should get from this episode is that you can never have too many clients. Employ practical strategies such as client re-assessment, employing offshore VAs, and other techniques to continue the business development side without compromising the quality of business provided to your existing clients. Simple Actions to Kickstart Your Business Development If you feel that your business development has taken a backseat, what are some things you can do to kickstart it? Here are some tips:
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc People and Resources Mentioned
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Recruitment Agency Growth: How to Scale From Startup to £10M in 10 Years, with Ed Steer, Ep #135 | 09 Aug 2022 | 00:52:43 | |
Imagine growing your recruitment business from zero to 10,000,000 in net fee income in just 10 years! That growth trajectory is highly unusual in recruitment. Yet Sphere Digital has achieved it. I was keen to uncover the key factors that enabled them to scale the business successfully so I interviewed Sphere co-founder, Ed Steer What I learned is that they always had the mindset and intention to scale, so they set up the company for growth from the very start. Over the past decade, they’ve managed to build a high-performing team of 70 employees but it wasn’t a walk in the park! Ed generously shared the things that worked, such as a real focus on training and creating career pathways for their people to be promoted internally. He also revealed the growing pains, mistakes and hard lessons they learned - especially as scaling rapidly can present a multitude of challenges. Ed is the CEO of Sphere Digital Recruitment, a multi-award-winning agency specialising in recruiting marketing, sales, analytics, product & creative talent in the UK, Europe and North America. Winner of Best Small Company in the UK and London at Best Company Awards 2022, Sphere works with clients like Amazon, TikTok, Facebook and a whole host of house hold brands and innovative tech start-ups. Episode Outline and Highlights
Organically Growing the Leadership Team with Trust and Enablement Starting with two founders in 2012 in a small office in London, they now have more than 70 key employees covering not only the UK but also the US market. We discussed the milestones leading up to this growth as we all key success factors that enabled Ed to effectively transition from a billing manager to a business owner.
One outstanding takeaway I appreciate from this part of the interview is how they are growing leaders organically. To retain great talents and put clear developmental plans for their employees, internal growth is in place. You will hear how trust and enablement are practiced within their firm. Ed also shared about PROGRESS - a development plan for associates, consultants, directors, and beyond. Rapid Growth Has Its Challenges Just like with other organizations rapidly scaling, there will always be growing pains. This is the same for Sphere Recruitment as shared by Ed. Elaborating on some things that went wrong, Ed said, “Lots of junior managers hiring lots of junior people probably too fast.” He also added, “Maybe expanding the headcount when we didn’t have the job flow to support it.” To summarize, he felt that they were successful in growing but business but did not have the experience or the know-how to make it as good as they were when they were just 10 people. What did they do to turn it around? Getting back to basics is the key. Focusing on their principles and repeating what makes them successful - business development and training. The Formula to Success When Expanding to New Territories Despite being pushed back because of the pandemic, Sphere Digital have recently expanded into the United States with an office in New York City. By allowing a senior member from the main office to facilitate the growth and manage the business in the US, they were able to retain the culture and values to the new office. This interesting approach is the same playbook I’ve observed with companies expanding into different regions and becoming successful in doing so: Having a client base in the new territory and sending someone from the main office to ‘evangelize’ the culture, processes, and way of working. Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.
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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc
Ed Steer Bio and Contact Info Ed is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sphere Digital Recruitment, a multi-award-winning Digital Media, Marketing, and Technology firm with offices in London and New York. Before starting Sphere, Ed worked with PFJ - from a consultant position to being an Associate Director in seven years. Ed and his wife also enjoy volunteering with Fun in Action for Children, where they work as "befrienders" and mentors since May 2013. They spend one day a week (a Saturday or Sunday) spending time with a brilliant and talented person who needed some additional support, away from challenging home life.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Why Values and Connection Built Our Remote Recruitment Success, with Hugh Pocock, EP #241 | 10 Jan 2025 | 00:59:56 | |
How does someone with zero recruitment experience build a thriving search firm from the ground up—in just five years?
In this episode, Hugh Pocock, Co-Founder of Cultura Connect, shares how his deep agricultural background helped him build a rapidly scaling recruitment firm that now boasts a team of 13 specialists across the agriculture, food, and forestry sectors.
We explore Hugh’s mindset, lessons learned, and the unique systems he’s implemented to grow a purpose-led, remote-first recruitment business.
🎧 Episode Highlights:
[02:11] Hugh’s journey from agriculture to recruitment
[11:30] Key stages in building Cultura Connect
[20:15] Overcoming the challenge of hiring for your own team
[26:58] Remote setup: challenges and solutions
[38:42] Early struggles in new business and how he got through them
[44:41] Cash flow, KPIs, and what really drives growth
[48:31] Hugh’s absolute keys to success
[51:48] Cultural values and minimum standards for hiring
[54:28] Branding and marketing strategies that work
🌾 Industry Expertise: The Ultimate Differentiator
Hugh’s story proves how deep subject matter expertise can become your biggest asset in recruitment. His 20+ years in agribusiness gave him:
Credibility with clients and candidates
Clear insight into roles, trends, and talent needs
An authentic voice that builds instant trust
By combining his field experience with co-founder Tom Marsh’s recruitment background, they created a business that bridges two worlds—and serves clients better as a result.
🧠 Building the Right Team
Cultura Connect’s rapid growth comes down to one principle: hire people who live and breathe your niche. Hugh looks for:
Passion for the sector
Resilience
Integrity
Proactivity
Team-first mindset
Quality-over-quantity mindset
Culture fit and domain knowledge matter more than volume metrics.
🏡 Remote-First Doesn’t Mean Disconnected
Cultura Connect is fully remote, but their people-first model proves remote teams can thrive with the right structure. Key ingredients:
6-week rhythm: In-person team sessions every 6 weeks
Quarterly bonding: Activities like hiking and canoeing
Strong onboarding: 3–4 days in-person to set the tone
Weekly virtual check-ins to maintain alignment
Flexible workspaces to accommodate preferences
The result? A tight-knit culture that drives performance—without the overhead of a physical office.
🔑 Hugh’s Keys to Success
“Getting the right people—people who understand the industry. That’s allowed us to be seen as the agri, food, and forestry specialists. Passion, commitment, and culture fit are what make it work.”
👤 About Hugh Pocock
Hugh is Co-Founder and Director at Cultura Connect, a niche search firm founded in 2020 that specializes in agriculture, food, and forestry talent. He brings over 20 years of agribusiness experience, including high-level commercial roles in cattle genetics and livestock operations.
He also runs a regenerative farm with his family in Shropshire, raising Romney and Dorset sheep and Wagyu cattle. His dual experience in farming and recruitment gives him rare insight into team-building across the agri-supply chain.
🔗 Connect with Hugh & Cultura Connect:
Hugh on LinkedIn | Cultura Connect Website | Cultura Connect on Instagram
📚 Mentioned in This Episode:
Matt Walsh on LinkedIn | Tom Marsh on LinkedIn
Overdue Invoices? Here’s How to Collect Your Placement Fee!
🎙️ Connect with Mark Whitby:
Free Strategy Call | LinkedIn | @RecruitmentCoach on Instagram
Twitter: @MarkWhitby | Facebook: Mark Whitby
👍 Like this episode? Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter and leave a review to help more recruiters discover the show! | |||
| How to Triple Your Billings in 12 Months by Improving Systems and Processes, with Karen Lloyd, Ep #134 | 01 Aug 2022 | 01:01:24 | |
“Everybody struggles. Building a business is really hard.” “But I’m going to keep listening to these podcasts and I’m going to keep pushing with my business… There’s no silver bullet, there’s no magic recipe, there’s no pill. You just need to keep going and going and going and eventually you get there.” These are the wise words of my next podcast guest, and valued client, Karen Lloyd. In October 2020, Karen set herself the goal of transforming her recruitment business and coming on The Resilient Recruiter podcast to tell her story. Well, she has achieved her goal and more. In the last 12 months, she has increased her billings by 300% through her relentless commitment to making small improvements to every aspect of her business, making her systems and processes more efficient and most importantly by never giving up. In this episode, you will be inspired by Karen’s humility and resilience as she’s bounced back from multiple setbacks and regained her confidence. Karen is the Managing Director of Armstrong Lloyd, a leading recruitment firm in the technology marketing space. Karen specializes in helping CMOs and marketing directors within technology companies to grow their teams and exceed their targets. Episode Outline and Highlights
Starting a Recruitment Business at a Young Age and Growing to a Team of 20 “This is something I have learned for myself at a young age. Don’t doubt yourself. Just try it, just do it, and see what happens.” This mindset equipped Karen with the determination to start her business with another person at the young age of 24. It was a challenging feat on its own – given that a transition from being a full-time employee to a business owner can sometimes be daunting. But they managed to grow their firm to a team of 20. “It was an incredible journey and I have learned absolutely so much,” says Karen. She was involved in the major decision-making, marketing, hiring and launching new divisions from scratch. In this interview, Karen shares her insights and main learnings from this transition. Bouncing Back from Setbacks Karen also shared a time in her career ten years ago when her confidence took a knock. This was when she left the company she co-founded and had spent 14 years of her life building. It was heart-wrenching for Karen to walk away, but looking back she now knows it was the right thing to do. What helped her overcome an experienced that was hard? For Karen, it is learning to ask for help. Karen started seeking support from a coach. This was an eye-opening experience and a game changer for her. Any roadblock she experiences, may it be related to her personal life, her personal fitness or her business, she finds getting help from a coach is one of the best courses of action. “The coaching part has been a phenomenal change,” is how she puts it. How to Run Effective Virtual Team Meetings We also talked about the changes that Karen implemented in her team to further accelerate their growth. One of the things that were discussed is running powerful online meetings with her team. Here are the takeaways from what Karen shared:
Our Sponsors This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur. 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: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling 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. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc Karen Lloyd Bio and Contact Info Karen placed her first candidate in 1996 - someone who she’s still in touch today. Karen has over 25 years experience in recruitment, with 20 years as a board director and business leader. She co-founded her first recruitment company at age of 24 and scaled it to 20 people. During that time, she started up a variety of new business divisions / brands from scratch. She’s now the founder and Managing Director of Armstrong Lloyd, a leading recruitment firm in the technology marketing space. She’s currently scaling the business and has increased her revenue by 300% in the last 12 months, doubling her previous best ever year. Karen’s also a valued member of Recruitment Coach Inner Circle coaching program. People and Resources Mentioned
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How this Top Producing Recruiter is Putting Health, Fitness and Family First, with Jordan Rayboy, Ep #133 | 05 Jul 2022 | 00:51:47 | |
Jordan Rayboy is famous within the recruitment industry for billing millions of dollars from his RV. In this interview he reveals that now at age 43 with 3 young kids, he’s no longer interested in accumulation, significance, ego, keeping score or trying to impress people. Jordan says he’s rebalanced his life to prioritize health, fitness and family. He told me “I try to be the best husband and father I can be, try to be healthy and my work supports the rest of my life, rather than living to work… I’m in a much happier, positive mental place since the last time we talked.” In this episode, Jordan gives his inspiring take on prioritizing what matters. He reveals how he is able to balance his priorities while being laser-focused on managing his recruitment business. We also talked about the importance of having a peer group, and he shared his thoughts on valuing mental health as well as practical tips on planning and productivity. Episode Outline and Highlights
The Importance of Being Intentional It has been around 15 months since we’ve heard Jordan in this podcast. He now shares his latest endeavours: having a new baby, focusing on his health, and prioritizing his family. “Being on the road and living the dream with three little kids and two dogs, still doing it 16 years into the adventure,” is how he describes it. He detailed what his daily routine looks like, and it was interesting to hear how busy yet balanced it is in terms of quality of life. Jordan is able to rank a lot of things to improve personal well-being and family life while doing well in his recruitment business. What is the key to his success? For Jordan, it is all about being intentional. He schedules his and his family’s health before scheduling phone calls. He knows his sleep is an important component of his health. He puts his sleep in his schedule. He schedules his time with his family first. Doing so, Jordan is in his best shape when it comes to “ground and pound” and is able to manage his business effectively. How to Avoid Distractions and the Myth of Multitasking Jordan is well-versed when it comes to power-planning. But for many of us, having a plan is not enough – the challenge is staying focused and executing our plan. How does Jordan stay on track? Jordan shared two tips:
Focus on the Right Priorities With Jordan’s success in both business and personal life, what are his current priorities? He believes that he is past the accumulation stage. He has changed his priorities and is now more focused on things that allow him to find balance and happiness. Jordan's top priorities these days are more on his health and energy - both physically and mentally. He has shifted his mindset to focusing on positive things. I asked Jordan about his feelings on a possible recession and he was able to share very practical tips on how to prepare based on having already experienced multiple recessions. 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
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. 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 Jordan Rayboy Bio and Contact Info Jordan Rayboy has always taken the road less traveled. He began his recruiting career with MRI in 2000, and by 2005 was ranked Top Ten globally out of 5,000 recruiters. The following year, Jordan struck out on his own, forming Rayboy Insider Search – the nation’s leading executive search firm in the cybersecurity, data storage, and data center infrastructure marketplace. He joined the Pinnacle Society in 2009, and has served on their Board of Directors and as Member Education Chair. Being an impatient type-A recruiter, Jordan long ago abandoned the deferred life plan (slave, save, retire). By building an effective virtual team and leveraging technology, Jordan has run his firm for over a decade while traveling full-time in a tour-bus RV with his wife Jeska, their three dogs, and their daughter Ryder. They’ve covered the majority of the U.S. and Canada during their adventure while living their dream every day.
People and Resources Mentioned
| |||
| How to Break Out of a Slump and Bill an Amazing $420k in 5 Months, with Wes Ashworth, Ep #132 | 30 Jun 2022 | 00:52:36 | |
“Turning around worst ever billing through the pandemic, to record-setting results currently.” In this episode, my special guest Wes Ashworth shares his story of the proactive steps he took to overcome a perfect storm of business during the height of the pandemic. He also explains how he went from 100% contingency to 100% retained! Wes is the Vice President of Executive Search at Lee Group Search, and specializes in partnering with packaging companies nationwide to find the talent they need to grow and scale their business operations. He joined the company in 2014 as an Executive Search Consultant and was promoted to his current position in April 2020. I’m especially proud of this episode because Wes credits The Resilient Recruiter as being a “lifeline” during the toughest period of his career, and helping him access the motivation, strategies, role models and resources he needed to turn things around. Episode Outline and Highlights
From Worst to Best Times - Key Success Factors Wes’ recruitment journey is indeed colourful in terms of successes and learnings. He joined the industry around 2014, and three years later he was stable and was billing $550k with his own book of clients. He had high hopes for 2020 and he even got promoted to VP. Then suddenly in March 2020, Wes’ high hopes came crashing down. Due to the pandemic, businesses and clients started to go away. His personal production plummeted and he was feeling the pressure. Being newly promoted, he had to carry his team’s performance which added more stress. Like with many others, the negativity brought about by the pandemic placed a great toll on Wes both personally and professionally. Wes was never a quitter. With the support of his wife and the proactive actions that he took, he was actually able to turn from the worst times to the best times of his career. This is a story I am sure you will want to hear. What are the key factors that enabled him to overcome this colossal challenge? Here are some takeaways from our conversation:
Wes discussed each of the above in this episode and even shared other best practices. The World Belongs to Askers One game-changer that contributed to Wes’ success is how he transitioned from 100% contingent to 100% retained. This was not easy at the onset as he had to be willing to walk away from businesses. Initially, Wes focused on implementing this approach to his new clients. How did Wes transition from pure contingent to engaged? He is a firm believer in the advice that “the world belongs to askers.” Asking the right questions enabled him to apply the retained approach to new clients and to some legacy clients as well. Wes is confident that he made the right decision, saying “honestly there is nothing in my mind that can convince me otherwise to do anything different.” Aside from the outstanding results profit-wise, he found that it makes more sense for him and his clients. With this approach, he is able to foster a working relationship based on trust. To Wes’ realization, if a client would not want to pay an engagement fee, it could be that they don’t trust you. He believes that if a client does not trust you, it will not be a good working relationship and best to move forward. How to Stand Out in A World of Noise Wes also shared his best approach to improving his messaging. There is a lot of noise out there at the moment, so how did Wes change his business development strategy? His approach is more niche specific. He also utilizes LinkedIn automation. He explained that it is not overbearing, it’s important to come across as a normal person. His messaging leans more on being raw, real and relevant. You will hear how he turned his messaging upside down and generated better results. 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 Wes Ashworth Bio and Contact Info A member of The Pinnacle Society, Wes continues to find success through his strong belief in doing the right thing, caring about people and fostering close relationships with both the company and the candidate. His proven process to align talent to grow businesses starts with taking the time to deeply understand what a business needs, the culture they’ve created for their team members and what type of candidate will help them grow. It stretches into getting that same level of understanding from the candidate. This work goes beyond a traditional meet and greet or interview. It’s more than a job description and more than a resume. For Wes, getting the perfect fit is the name of the game. Finding the candidate that fits the company and the company that fits the candidate are both critical. Only with a carefully evaluated fit will a candidate be positioned for success and find fulfillment in their job. In turn, companies benefit from an engaged employee who is a top performer over the long term. Wes’ laser focus on fit and long-term success has served him well. Recalling a client who turned to Lee Group Search with a job opening that several other agencies could not fill after more than six months of searching for candidates, Wes took the time to learn about the company and get up to speed on the nuances of the specific job requirements and culture of the organization. Within a few weeks, he was able to fill the position with the right candidate who went on to be successful with the company. Today, Wes counts the company as one of his most loyal clients. When he’s not matching candidates with positions, Wes enjoys spending quality time with his family and being around the water – piloting his kayak, catching a fish, or simply relaxing at the beach.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||
| How to Make Better Placements with Performance-Based Hiring, with Lou Adler, Ep #131 | 23 Jun 2022 | 00:52:22 | |
If you want to make more (and better) placements, you owe it to yourself to study “Performance-based Hiring.” The creator of Performance-based Hiring is Lou Adler, and I’m excited to have him on the podcast to learn from his four decades of recruitment experience. In our interview, you will hear Lou’s philosophy on figuring out the “performance objectives” for each role, instead of simply focusing on the skills that are needed. Lou’s models, examples and anecdotes are rich with insights for agency recruiters who want to gain the respect of hiring managers and get better results for their clients. With over 40 years in the recruiting industry, Lou's company ‘The Adler Group’ has trained over 40,000 hiring managers and placed over 1500 executives for many of the fastest-growing companies with clients including Disney, General Dynamics and Paycom. Lou has over 1.4 Million followers on Linkedin and is one of the top bloggers on LinkedIn’s Influencer program writing about the latest trends in hiring, employment, and recruiting. His articles and research have also been featured in Inc. Magazine, Business Insider, Bloomberg, SHRM, and The Wall Street Journal. Lou is the author of ‘The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired’ and the Amazon top-10 best-seller, ‘Hire With Your Head - Performance-Based Hiring to Build Outstanding Diverse Teams.’ Episode Outline and Highlights
The Sherlock Holmes of Recruitment Lou has had a diverse experience in his career, from becoming a nuclear missiles engineer to running manufacturing companies as a financial analyst. It is in recruitment that he found his calling. Lou’s background gave him a unique perspective when he joined the industry. This led him to invent what’s now known as the ‘Performance-based Hiring' model. In this interview, you will hear out-of-the-box ideas that you may find useful in your own recruiting practice. Some of these are:
His insights are invaluable and I am sure you will find them beneficial. Ask the Right Questions Lou is famous for the concept of the “One Question Interview.” You will hear the interesting story of how Lou came up with this idea. The logic behind it is very straightforward - how would a candidate identify broken processes? How would the candidate solve it? What has the candidate accomplished comparable to how he responded to the two previous questions? Lou used the analogy of peeling an onion when describing this approach which is the basis of the evidenced-based and performance-based hiring. In fact, the process can be outlined as follows:
It does make sense that this pragmatic approach can increase the probability of hiring the right candidate by focusing on accomplishments without emotional bias. The Most Important Piece of Technology in Recruitment You may also be intrigued with Lou’s perspective on the most critical piece of technology in recruitment. With Lou having around 1.4m followers on the platform, is it LinkedIn? Is it high-end CRM platforms? Here is what Lou said: “I did my last LinkedIn Talent Connect where I have thousands of people there. They talked all about this great technology. So I spoke in the afternoon to a sub-group… and I said ‘you know there is one piece of technology that nobody talked about. As far as I am concerned it is the most important and nobody… it is right here. It is the phone. You got to talk to people. To me, high-tech is not going to cut it. You got to combine the best of high-tech with high-touch.” 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
Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. 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 Lou Adler Bio and Contact Info Lou Adler is the CEO and founder of Performance-based Hiring Learning Systems – a consulting and training firm helping recruiters and hiring managers around the world source, interview and hire the strongest and most diverse talent. Lou is the author of the Amazon top-10 best-seller, Hire With Your Head (John Wiley & Sons, 3rd Edition, 2007), The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench Media, 2013) and the Lynda.com Performance-based Hiring video training program (2016). His current “Diversity Hiring without Compromise” initiative is focused on developing a colourblind hiring process that ensures the best people get hired regardless of race, religion, age, sexual preference and physical challenges. Lou is one of the top bloggers on LinkedIn’s Influencer program writing about the latest trends in hiring, employment, and recruiting. His articles, quotes and research can now be found in Inc. Magazine, Business Insider, Bloomberg, SHRM and The Wall Street Journal. The company’s new mobile-ready learning platform – Win-Win Hiring Learning Systems – provides instant access to all of the tools needed to find and hire outstanding talent.
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How to Build a Premium Recruitment Brand, Deliver Superior Service and Attract Higher Fees, with Rob Bowerman, Ep #130 | 15 Jun 2022 | 01:00:58 | |
There are significant advantages to being known as the premium brand in your market. For one, you can charge higher fees than your competitors. Secondly, your job as a recruiter is more fulfilling because you’re focused on delivering exceptional client and candidate experiences. Rob Bowerman is President and Executive Recruiter at The Bowerman Group, focused on recruiting for specialty and luxe brands. As you’ll hear from Rob, earning a reputation as the premium recruitment firm in their market has been a critical factor in their long-term success. Rob’s background in the retail sector gives him credible insights and perspectives on the topic of delivering outstanding customer service in the recruitment field. Episode Outline and Highlights
How The Bowerman Group Increased their Average Fee by $6,200 The last time I collaborated with Rob in this show was two years ago. It was indeed an amazing conversation (link of the episode below) and as the head of the Pinnacle Society, Rob also introduced me to other members who became guests of this show. This kind of support brought tremendous value to our audience and I am truly grateful. What has happened in the last two years? As with all businesses, the last couple of years were truly unprecedented. Rob shared a lot of learnings and strategies. You will hear how they intensionally focused on higher-level roles. The benefit of this has been twofold - winning more retained searches while also increasing their average fee from $21,800 to $28,000. The success of the Bowerman Group can be attributed to how they value client and candidate experience, which became a core topic in this episode. Becoming a Premium Brand in Recruiting Through Client and Candidate Engagement Coming from the Retail and Merchandising industry, Rob learned a great deal when it comes to customer experience. From his standpoint, a customer is not only your client but your candidate as well. He recently did a LinkedIn post (link below) about notifying a candidate that will not be moving forward with the recruitment process. The main theme is, “How can you not approach recruitment - either as an internal recruiter or external recruitment partner - without empathy and appreciation for the candidate's work in the process?” This post got hundreds of reactions and responses. It amazes Rob that since we are in the people business, the reactions and number of reactions were indicative that it is a massive issue within our industry. In this episode, Rob gave a great analogy on what defines a great customer experience. He then shared their process of engaging with clients and candidates consistently. He also gave insights on what could be preventing a recruitment firm from providing the same positive customer experience to its clients and candidates. The Bowerman Group Difference So what makes the Bowerman Group different from other recruitment brands? How do they consistently ensure positive customer engagement from both clients and candidates? Rob elaborated on the following pointers that I am sure you will find valuable:
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
Rob Bowerman Bio and Contact Info Rob started The Bowerman Group in 2009 after having been a successful Executive Recruiter since 1994. He discovered his passion for Search following a career in merchandising and shares his love for the industry with his team, clients, and candidates every day. Carving out a unique niche that focused on speciality and luxe brands, he has developed long-standing relationships with many respected American and European designer apparel, accessory, jewellery, and home furnishing companies. Rob had a vision of creating a boutique firm that matched the unique profile of this niche—excellence, brand heritage, and an unwavering dedication to quality. This vision has manifested itself into a dynamic group that is experiencing consistent year-over-year increases in successfully completed searches within TBG’s unique niche. Rob currently serves as the President of The Pinnacle Society, the premier consortium of industry-leading recruiters in North America. He is proud of his association with this group of the “best and brightest” within the search profession as well as honoured to be the only “retail guy” in the organization.
People and Resources Mentioned
| |||
| 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
| |||
| How to Attract Inbound Client Leads and Win Engaged Search Assignments, with Skip Freeman, Ep #128 | 02 Jun 2022 | 00:58:28 | |
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
| |||
| How to Future-Proof Your Recruitment Business During the Great Realignment, with Bert Miller, Ep # 127 | 25 May 2022 | 00:53:23 | |
“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
| |||
| 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
| |||
| 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.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||
| From BD to Brand Development: How to Build a Sustainable Recruitment Business, with Jessica Hamilton, Ep #240 | 03 Jan 2025 | 01:01:02 | |
Few people have established the credibility and connections that Jessica Hamilton has when it comes to recruiting in the financial crime space. Jess is the go-to recruiter in London for financial crime roles, with over a decade of experience partnering with clients to build out their teams. In our conversation, Jess shares the fascinating story of how a discussion in a pub first got her interested in specializing in financial crime recruitment. She went on to launch and build highly successful teams, first at Robert Walters, then Investigo where she led the top-performing financial services recruitment team globally. Recently, Jess took her career to the next level by launching her own firm, FincSelect, with business partner Ian Christie. Jess reveals the keys to her success, including focusing on being a trusted advisor, not just a transactional recruiter. Her "soft sell" marketing approach, sharing valuable insights and building real relationships, has made her the recruiter of choice in her market.
Episode Outline and Highlights
Nuggets of Wisdom from Jess
Jess shared insightful perspectives on her recruitment cadence and approach in our conversation. Below are the power phrases she shared that I am sure will resonate well to recruiters and business owners, both new and tenured:
Jessica stresses the importance of focusing on long-term outcomes rather than immediate successes. In her experience, success in recruitment comes from investing time and effort into understanding the market deeply, building expertise, and creating value for clients beyond merely filling roles.
Jessica highlights the effectiveness of positioning oneself as a knowledgeable consultant rather than a traditional recruiter. She builds trust and credibility by demonstrating expertise, being genuinely curious, and consistently engaging with the market (e.g., hosting events, having insightful conversations, and creating content on LinkedIn). This approach fosters a natural demand for her services, emphasizing the value of being seen as an advisor who shapes team structures and strategies.
Using Referral as a Metric to Drive Growth
Another interesting approach shared by Jess is how they use referrals as a primary metric. She has created a sustainable practice by prioritizing the quality of relationships that generate ongoing referrals. Some key strategies she shared for building a referral-based business are outlined below:
"How can you decide if you're the best if no one's referring you?" This mindset has enabled Jessica to build a business where quality relationships drive consistent growth rather than relying solely on direct business development efforts.
Brand Development as the new “BD” in Recruitment One of the most important takeaways from Jessica's approach is how she redefines BD—not as "business development," but as "brand development." Instead of relying solely on the usual cold calls and sales tactics, Jessica has carved out a thriving niche by positioning herself as a thought leader in financial crime recruitment. Her strategy shows that by consistently building your personal and professional brand, you can create a steady flow of inbound opportunities.
Some strategies she implements are as follows:
Jessica Hamilton Bio and Contact Info Jessica is pretty much synonymous with financial crime recruitment in London. She is the most well-known recruiter in her space and is seen as a thought leader and industry expert. She has featured in a book of financial crime compliance experts "Financial Crime Fighter - Book of Mentors", alongside many global heads of banks and industry. She speaks on industry panels and is the recruitment expert on the new ICA course for new MLROs. Jess has been recruiting for just over 10 years and created her first financial crime desk from scratch initially at Robert Walters in London, after meeting a girl in a pub who did financial crime (Jess thought the role sounded interesting) Jess then went onto replicate this at another global recruitment agency, based in London (Investigo) where within 2 years, she had built it to the top billing desk in financial services, globally. It was at Investigo she met her business partner, Ian Christie. After the birth of her first son, Ian approached Jess to start out on there own, and after returning from maternity leave the founded FincSelect in 2022.
People and Resources Mentioned
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How to Recession-Proof Your Recruitment Business While Accelerating Growth, with Abid Hamid, Ep #124 | 04 May 2022 | 00:56:37 | |
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.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
Related Podcast You Might Enjoy
| |||
| How a Recruitment Business Launched, Scaled and Sold for $12,000,000 in 5 Years, with James Caan, Ep # 123 | 27 Apr 2022 | 00:57:00 | |
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”.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||
| The Four Pillars of Success in Growing Your Recruitment Business, with Doug Baird, Ep #122 | 22 Apr 2022 | 00:54:04 | |
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.
People and Resources Mentioned Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||
| How to Increase Employee Engagement and Double Productivity, with Saira Demmer, Ep #121 | 14 Apr 2022 | 00:47:57 | |
“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.
People and Resources Mentioned
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| 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
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| 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.
People and Resources Mentioned
Connect with Mark Whitby
Related Podcast You Might Enjoy
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| How to Increase Your Profits by Offering Solutions that the Market Needs with Lauren Stiebing, Ep #118 | 25 Mar 2022 | 00:50:02 | |
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.
People and Resources Mentioned
Connect with Mark Whitby
Related Podcast You Might Enjoy
| |||
| 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.
People and Resources Mentioned
Connect with Mark Whitby
Related Podcast You Might Enjoy
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| 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
| |||
| Retained Recruitment: How to Pitch and Win Retained Projects with Confidence, with James O'Brien, Ep #115 | 02 Mar 2022 | 00:55:25 | |
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
| |||
| Why Video Content is No Longer Optional in Building a Successful Recruitment Brand, with Sunjay Vyas | 20 Dec 2024 | 00:45:35 | |
If there is one thing more certain in marketing and branding, it is this: Making videos is no longer optional for building a successful recruitment business brand. How do you overcome the common barriers, misconceptions, and complexities of creating effective video content? What are the proven ROI and benefits of doing so? In this episode, we are joined by Sunjay Vyas, an accomplished videographer, video podcast producer, and content creator based in the UK. He prides himself on producing compelling video content. Episode Outline and Highlights:
The Three Common Misconceptions or Barriers to Creating Video Content
Some recruitment business owners find creating videos or audio content difficult when building their brand. Sunjay and I agreed on the three most common misconceptions, and if you can relate to any of these, then you will enjoy this episode as we explain why the benefits and return on investment outweigh the barriers.
It’s Too Complicated or Overwhelming
Why It’s a Misconception:
Recruitment business owners often see video production as a technical, complex, and time-consuming process. Many start as solopreneurs already juggling multiple roles, making video creation feel like an enormous task.
Why It Shouldn’t Be:
Modern tools and platforms have simplified video production. With minimal equipment and basic editing software, creating professional-looking videos is accessible and manageable even for beginners. Starting small and scaling up can reduce overwhelm.
It’s Too Expensive with Unclear ROI
Why It’s a Misconception:
The cost of video production can seem prohibitive, especially if the return on investment (ROI) is uncertain. Business owners might struggle to see how content creation directly translates into revenue.
Why It Shouldn’t Be:
Video content builds brand visibility, trust, and long-term customer relationships, indirectly boosting sales and recruitment opportunities. Even low-cost content can yield significant returns through consistent engagement and brand presence.
Feeling Uncomfortable or Experiencing Imposter Syndrome
Why It’s a Misconception:
Though confident in conversations, recruitment business owners might feel uneasy in front of the camera. Self-doubt creeps in, raising fears of judgment, embarrassment, or not being perceived as valuable.
Why It Shouldn’t Be:
Authenticity resonates more than perfection. Audiences appreciate real, relatable content. Over time, regular practice helps overcome camera shyness and builds confidence, making the process more natural.
The Three ROIs of Video Content and Podcasting
The three benefits below, which can bring an exponential ROI to your recruitment business, counter the three common misconceptions about creating video content. Many of our previous guests, as well as many from our existing coaching community, have proven and shared these benefits.
1. Building an Audience Video content and podcasting allow businesses to reach a broader audience beyond one-on-one interactions. By sharing valuable insights online, companies can connect with potential clients and candidates they might never meet otherwise. Even if viewers or listeners don’t engage directly, the content can still impact their decisions, creating a ripple effect. Consistency is key—regularly publishing content builds trust, credibility, and a loyal following, transforming businesses from being the best-kept secret to a well-known industry authority.
2. Becoming an Authority in Your Space Creating content positions businesses as experts in their field. Companies can demonstrate expertise by sharing knowledge, insights, and solutions to industry challenges rather than just claiming it. This visibility helps potential clients associate the business with industry leadership and up-to-date insights. People trust brands that consistently showcase their know-how, making them the go-to resource when prospects need help or advice.
3. Generating Leads Podcasts and videos serve as powerful lead-generation tools. They create touchpoints that nurture relationships and keep businesses top-of-mind for potential clients. A well-executed content strategy can convert casual listeners or viewers into paying customers. Testimonials from businesses gaining clients through podcasts illustrate this, showing how content can be a direct revenue driver and a long-term business development asset. Best Practices and Tips Sunjay shared a few best practices and pragmatic approaches to creating content without adversely affecting your day-to-day schedule. Some of the core practices he discussed are:
Sunjay said, "People want to see you... when you see this person, you see them interacting with someone else on camera and you see the engagement, I think that builds trust quicker than anything else." One of our success stories is our coaching community member Jodi, who went from refusing to do videos to winning new business through her video content and podcast. Her story demonstrates how video content can transform a recruitment business's lead generation strategy from constant outbound activity to attracting pre-qualified, inbound leads. Sunjay Vyas Bio and Contact Info Sunjay Vyas is an accomplished videographer, video podcast producer, and content creator based in the UK. He prides himself on producing compelling video content. Whether he's hosting his own show or working with clients, Sunjay brings creativity and professionalism to every project. He is passionate about leveraging the power of video to tell impactful stories and engage audiences. In addition to video production, Sunjay has experience managing, recruiting, and training teams earlier in his career. He spent several years in recruitment across London and the Middle East, specializing in financial markets technology. Sunjay studied Exercise and Sports Science and holds qualifications in personal training and fitness coaching. Outside of work, he enjoys staying active and spending time with his family. With his dedication to creating compelling content, strong technical skills, ability to connect with audiences, and over a decade working in recruitment Sunjay is an asset and we are happy to have him on board. Visit my Amazon storefront at Anisha & Sunjay. Remember, these are affiliate links - you don't pay any extra, but Amazon sends me a few pennies for the referral.
People and Resources Mentioned
Connect with Mark Whitby
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter
| |||
| Growing a Recruitment Startup to £1.1 Million in Only Five Months, with Ben Broughton, Ep # 114 | 17 Feb 2022 | 00:53:43 | |
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
Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||
| 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.
People and Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||
| 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.
People and Resources Mentioned:
Connect with Mark Whitby
| |||