The RAG Podcast - Recruitment Agency Growth Podcast (Sean Anderson)

On this week's show, I've decided to completely pause the schedule and remember the amazing Ryan McCabe, who sadly lost his life this week.

I really don't have words to describe how amazing Ryan was.

I personally didn't know him that well, but we had great interactions. 

We spoke semi-regularly about our businesses, and I always felt that we were similar and that we saw the world the same way.

He was among the first to sponsor the RAG podcast and take a chance on me.

He was a guest on the show twice in 2020

I felt it was appropriate to remember Ryan by replaying the episode we recorded in May 2020. 

Just over four years ago, a 30-year-old Ryan tells us his unique story.

- His personal story from Mechanical Engineering to recruiter and technology leader

- How his vision for Odro took the platform into a new direction. 

- How the business grew across the global recruitment industry 

- His plans for Odro after 2020

- How he believed in putting 100% into everything he did

I hope this is received well and that you enjoy listening to Ryan and remembering how amazing he was. 

I am also aware that this may be a difficult listen for some people.

This is my little way of sending love to his wife, Roisin and his kids, to his friends and those who worked closely with him at Odro over the years. 

Please join us and let's remember the amazing Ryan McCabe.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Tribute to Ryan McCabe

03:11 Ryan McCabe's Journey from Mechanical Engineer to Recruitment Agency Owner

06:05 Introduction to Odro and its Evolution

10:16 The Story of Odro and its Expansion into the Recruitment Industry

24:00 Lead Generation Strategies and Growth of Odro

26:46 Starting Odro and Focusing on the Recruitment Market

36:06 Realizing the Potential of Odro

40:24 The Significance of the Adecco Deal

42:48 Transitioning to the Role of CEO

45:12 Future Plans for Odro

On this week's show, I was super excited to be joined by Anthony Kelly, the founder of DeepRec.ai which is a niche AI recruitment agency, part of the wider Trinnovo group. 

He joined the Trinnovo group three and a half years ago, as part of the Trust in Soda brand. 

After seeing early success, he left Ireland, moving to the UK and it was here that he realised he wanted to be an entrepreneur.

At the start of 2023, Anthony decided that it was this year that he wanted to launch his agency and that he wanted to do it in Bishop's Stortford, to be close to his partner and newborn baby. 

A little negotiation with the founders of Trinnovo, and they agreed that he could launch his own business within the portfolio, as long as he wanted to build something of scale.

They discussed building a business of circa 50 people in headcount with a 2 million EBITDA as a target focus. Anthony said, “yes, but I want to do it my way in an office five days a week in Bishops Stortford. We're not going to be in London.”

They all agreed and got it off the ground.

So he's now a team of five, five months in. He's got a plan to be 18 in 12 months. They're profitable and they're making significant waves from a placement perspective. 

In this show, I discuss:

• The strategy behind his business
• His approach to building something locally outside of London
• How he's going to build that scale and what that will mean for him and the team in the future

If you're wanting to speak to or learn from someone who's right in the thick of the first six months of growth of being a new founder, but with a vision of scale and exit and all the things that most people in our industry want, then this is an episode for you to listen to.

Anthony is a charismatic, open, friendly Irish guy. I love talking to him. I'm sure you will too. 

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support, and resources to take you from what I call “an offline recruiter”, reliant on posting jobs and sending in emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to “an online recruiter”, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up within six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons:

1) While I've been building The RAG Podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients. In less than two years, we built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn leading to multimillion-pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2) Our track record - not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,700 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds interesting to you, make sure you fill in our contact form and we’ll tell you how we can help: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Our trusted partner RecruitHub helps new founders launch their own recruitment businesses in the UK, US & UAE. The community...

On this week’s episode, I was joined by Kyle Winterbottom, the Founder of Orbition Group, a specialist Data & Analytics recruitment agency with 10 staff based in Manchester.

Kyle first came on The RAG Podcast in November 2020 when his agency was less than 3 months old. Kyle was a member of the Hoxo Academy back then and was beginning to win business using his daily Linkedin content in addition to his marketing events and podcast that he was already running.

In 18 months, he has managed to grow the business to a team of 10 and can track 100% of the revenue back to his brand!

In this episode, we discussed: 

• The growth from recruiting in his mother-in-law’s back bedroom to a swanky city centre office
• How his brand has brought in global retainers and multi-hire projects 
• Being the first recruiter to ever be selected in the ‘Data IQ 100 Most Influential People in Data 2022’
• The reality of personally earning less than during his agency career due to reinvestment and cash flow issues
• Some super low moments he experienced over the past 6 months and is grateful for the support of his coach and his wife when times get tough

Kyle is a down-to-earth guy who is doing some amazing things with his brand right now. Plenty of established businesses should listen to this episode to learn how he leverages his brand to win bigger projects!

Vincere

If you're following Vincere’s LinkedIn page, you'll notice that they’ve been sharing stories from their customer community on a weekly basis.

If you're shopping for a CRM or wondering if there's something better out there, check out Vincere. They have a library of customer stories from all sectors and recruitment types, be it perm, exec, contract and temp, available on Youtube: https://bit.ly/3uYdZM7

On this week's show, Oscar Orellana-Hyder, the Founder of Cordell Partners, shares his journey from being a sceptic of personal branding on LinkedIn to building a successful recruitment agency in the UAE.

I’ve worked with Oscar since 2021. He was a Hoxo client whilst working for Robert Walters.

He went from someone who thought that using LinkedIn was complete nonsense and was billing £350k per year using only traditional methods, to doubling this within 12 months! 

All through 100% inbound business, generated via his LinkedIn personal brand.

In late 2023, he decided that he finally had the skills and the confidence to launch his own agency. And his personal brand is still generating business all over the region.   

If you're really interested in finding out how a personal brand on LinkedIn can actually pay dividends in terms of revenue, you've got to listen to this episode.

Takeaways

• Personal branding on LinkedIn can have a significant impact on revenue and business growth – when done right
• Living and working in the UAE and how the region values family 
• The value of niche recruitment markets and how to build deeper client relationships with key decision-makers
• Focusing on quality over quantity in the mission to build a reputable and ethical recruitment agency 
• The realities of building a business from nothing in the UAE, how to navigate administrative challenges, and cultivating a strong network of local partners 
• Finding self-sufficient people to help grow your team
• Learning and connecting as part of a community
• Embracing change in dynamic and transient regions

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to The RAG Podcast and Cordell Partners

01:28 Oscar's transformation and launching Cordell Partners

02:52 The name and vision of Cordell Partners

03:49 The importance of family in the UAE

05:41 The influence of family ethics in business

07:34 The niche market of investment recruitment

09:59 Transitioning from corporate recruitment to niche market

11:24 The decision to move to Dubai

13:20 The impact of personal branding on revenue

16:14 Joining Robert Walters and focusing on Abu Dhabi

19:57 The impact of The RAG Podcast and LinkedIn

26:14 The catalyst for starting Cordell Partners

38:11 Setting up Cordell Partners and the vision for the future

45:15 Building businesses from nothing

45:42 Growing the team

46:41 Finding self-sufficient people

47:11 Value of being part of a community

48:08 Future plans and retirement

49:35 Expanding to other regions

50:05 Identity and accents in the region

51:01 Embracing change and transient nature

51:28 Infrastructure challenges

52:25 Living in a transient place

53:19 Future business goals

54:16 Importance of commitment to the region

55:37 Exploring other countries in the region

56:04 Openness to answering questions and helping others

56:56 Sponsor message: Hoxo

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within 7 days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do

In today’s episode I was joined by Joseph (Joe), the Co-Founder and MD of Manners Maclean, an international exec search business based in London and Buckinghamshire.

I was originally going to record today’s episode by myself. I have been feeling stressed and burnout over the past month and I realised that there are so many also experiencing this right now. 

However I was delighted to be joined by Joe, a member of The Hoxo Academy since May 1st, who after a number of conversations has shared with me that he has been feeling almost identical to me in the past month.

Like most recruitment owners, Joe has worked hard during the pandemic to keep his business alive, despite so many obstacles. 

But Joe took this to extreme levels and decided to work 7 days a week to give his agency the best opportunity moving forward.

With a wife and 4 year old twins in a 3 bedroom house lacking space, this began to break Joe down.

In this episode Joe shares the story of

• How he felt working so hard
• The signs of burnout
• What he did to combat the problem
• Tips any recruitment owner can adopt to overcome these challenges

A great guy with such a real and relevant story right now, if you would like to chat to Joe about this further please contact him HERE: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephsweeneymm/

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

This week’s show is going to be a little bit different. 

My guest is Mel Kang, the CEO of Mezzle, a consulting law firm, not a recruitment agency.

Mezzle takes traditional lawyers who work for traditional law firms and flips the model. 

They attract lawyers who join them without a set salary but take home 70 percent of their annual earnings/ billings. 

The reason Mel’s a guest on the show is because of how similar the law industry is to the recruitment industry. The way they set their firms up is almost identical.

Mel’s whole day job consists of headhunting lawyers from traditional firms and bringing them into Mezzle.

He launched Mezzle with his friend and partner Raj on the first day of the pandemic 

Since then, they've now grown to 48 consultant lawyers in the UK and Dubai.

They are on track to become one of the top 200 law firms in the world. 

I truly believe there's so much you can learn from this conversation as a recruiter or recruitment founder. 

Understanding the way Mel thinks and is able to adapt and evolve, can make your recruitment company better. So take notes. 

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.

__________________________________________

If you’re a recruiter who’d love to listen and learn from some of the greatest recruitment owners and leaders then you need to listen to the RAG Podcast!

We’re having real and raw conversations with successful recruitment entrepreneurs about what is happening in their businesses right now and their plans to navigate market changes.

Episodes are released every Wednesday at 12pm GMT

https://www.youtube.com/c/HoxoMedia?sub_confirmation=1

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Our trusted partner RecruitHub helps new founders launch their own recruitment business in the UK, US & UAE. The community is growing rapidly with over 70 founders on the RecruitHub platform.

Everything you need to launch your own recruitment business with ease.

- Receive 100% of the fees you bill

- Own full commercial control of your business and increase its value

- Cutting-edge tech stack, from ATS to sales automation

- No admin - we handle everything from company registration to contracts, to finance and support

- No setup costs on the platform, no recurring fixed costs, and no surprise fees

If you're thinking of taking the next step in your career and want to discuss your business idea, please book a confidential chat with RecruitHub's team or learn more here: https://www.recruit-hub.com/uk-awareness/

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say it’s been a tricky year for the recruitment sector globally, many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamline where possible.

However, accessing lower cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance, but anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into

Today I was re joined by a guest from Ep 19 of Season 1, Clare Cooper! Back in June 2019, Clare was then an executive director at Phaidon International about to celebrate her 10 year anniversary with the business.

Fast forward almost 2 years and she is now the Founder of Storm3 - a specialist Health Tech recruitment agency and one of the newest brands in the Levin Group (the fastest growing recruitment company in the world)

Having recently interviewed James Brown, CEO of the group and Founder of Storm 2, I knew I was in for a great episode!

In today’s episode we discussed:

🎙 Why Clare decided to leave Phaidon and almost left the industry

🎙 What she did with 6 months garden leave in a global pandemic

🎙 Why she decided to join James Brown and the team and start Storm3

🎙 Why and how she is hiring 20 grads at once to give the business a huge start

🎙 Her vision for Storm3 and why she feels their model is more simple than you would expect!

Clare has energy, charisma and huge confidence! I have every faith that Clare and the team will be a huge success and she is certainly one to watch across the globe!

-------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

Today, I'm excited to look at another of Access Group's products. 

This time, it's an automation platform called ELAY that was recently acquired by the Access Group based on its initial success in integrating well with Vincere and its customers.

 In this episode, I interviewed Mehdi Este, the founder and automation general manager, and Nick Beecroft, the head of new business for Access Recruitment. 

I've known Nick for a long time, but this is my first time meeting Mehdi. They are a really good duo. 

Mehdi tells us the back story of ELAY and explains how it automates processes within recruitment workflows, such as CRM automation, cold outreach emails, and chatbots.

Nick talks more from a client and industry perspective as to why you would want to put this into your operating system. Why automation, both in your CRM and on LinkedIn, will benefit a recruitment business of all sizes and scales

AI and automation are huge industry buzzwords right now.. I've talked about this frequently, and it can be overwhelming and scary. 

In this conversation, we aim to break it down into logical steps in a way that Recruitment leaders can understand 

Key Takeaways

• ELAY integrates with CRM systems and offers features such as CRM automation, cold outreach emails, and chatbots.
• AI and automation can help recruiters save time, improve efficiency, and nurture their database.
• ELAY can be used by recruitment agencies of all sizes, from one-man bands to large enterprises.

If you wish to learn more about AI and automation, then this episode is for you. Education and understanding are key to navigating the world of automation and AI in recruitment, and it's important to start with small steps and build from there.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the RAG podcast and ELAY

09:20 Automating Recruitment Workflows with ELAY

13:09 The Benefits of AI and Automation in Recruitment

25:33 Maximising LinkedIn with ELAY

27:25 Re-engaging with the Database and Remembering Ryan McCabe

28:23 Integration with Access Recruitment

29:17 Early Successes and Acquisition

36:20 Impact of Vincere’s Acquisition

37:15 Partnership and Synergy

40:06 Benefits of Integration

43:30 Future of Automation

48:34 Navigating Automation and AI

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within seven days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming, and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document, you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.

Over 5000 recruiters around the globe follow this process daily, and the results have been amazing!

You can have this, too!

Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY

If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder and CEO, Sean Anderson (the creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!

Get access to:

• 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost your business on...

I was really excited about today’s episode as my guest was someone who I had heard so much about during my recruitment days.

Daniel Fox is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Trilogy International, Forbes Testing and Quantum Six; all specialist businesses within the technology and business change & transformation markets

Prior to this he worked with the same people who trained me during my recruitment days in London, so we shared so many mutual contacts and stories!

In this episode we discussed:

🎙The story of Dan going from Football Agent to Recruitment Consultant

🎙His rise to billing £1.4m per year in his mid 20s

🎙Why he decided to leave and start his own company

🎙How he and his partner were served a legal letter on day 10 which changed everything 

🎙How sticking to a plan of being a contract first, profitable agency helped them ride the COVID wave without furloughing a single employee!

Super experienced recruiter with an honest account of what it takes to be a successful recruitment agency founder, Dan is happy to give time to anyone who may want to speak directly!! If you have any questions for him then please contact him via LinkedIn!

----

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

The RAG Podcast is BACK!

What a first episode we have in store for you!

Mark Znowski is a serial Recruitment Entrepreneur

He started, scaled, and sold Staffgroup UK & Europe over 12 years and has since invested in other recruitment agencies and started his latest venture EngTal - Engineering Talent

A true family man as well as a businessman, Mark shared insights into the areas he has got right and other areas he has gotten wrong in his hugely successful career!

Thank you to our friends and sponsor today - Odro.co.uk . These guys won an impressive three TALiNT tech star awards at their first in-person event since lockdown last month. Followed up just two weeks later with a much sought-after Recruiter award, best in innovation, and a special commendation for CEO Ryan McCabe for all his efforts over the last 18 months. It really is great to see such a brilliant company recognised, and so well deserved. So well done guys! Smashed it.

And the good news is, they’re hiring - which they’ve asked me to let you know. So, if you’re listening and are looking for a move, I couldn’t recommend them highly enough. There are vacancies across their Sales and Customer Success departments right now, and they really are a great bunch. If you’re interested, get in touch with CRO Dougie on LinkedIn or email recruitment@odro.co.uk for more info.

Thanks also to our second sponsor Vincere.io - A single tech platform to streamline the Front, Middle & Back office operations of Exec Search/Perm/Contract/Temp businesses. The technology that they have invested in is becoming a disruption in the space, more and more recruitment businesses are using this to give their recruiters a competitive advantage. 

For RAG listeners who you are thinking about changing CRM or you are a new business looking to launch with a new CRM then I would get in touch with these guys because if you mention that you are a rag listener you get an amazing deal- visit www.vincere.io/rag.

On this episode of The RAG Podcast I was joined by Joshua Rayner, the Founder & CEO of Rayner Personnel, a specialist in UK Property Recruitment.

I originally interviewed Josh in February of 2019 in my first Hoxo office in London.

At the time, Josh had a team of 13 who were all operating as franchisees. This involved buying into the business and scaling a branch of RP in their specific geographical area of the UK.

In the first year, this approach appeared to be working (listen to the first episode for more on that!).

But in late 2019, it was clear that he had the wrong model and the wrong people.

As the pandemic began, Josh made the bold decision to release all but one of the franchisees and start again.

He redesigned his business model whilst at home and went out on a mission to grow.

Since then, he has built a team of 20 self-employed licensees, making a small change to the old model with huge benefits for Josh and his people.

In 2021, he wrote a book about his journey as a serial recruitment agency owner - The Recruitment Rollercoaster is available via Amazon and is a current best seller! All the proceeds from sales go to Mind Charity.

A really interesting story with a unique approach to scaling a recruitment firm!

The RAG sponsors

Vincere:

Vincere have refreshed their homepage! They’ve redesigned their look and feel to incorporate the full universe of tools in their stable. Vincere’s platform has evolved so much over the past year that their website and branding needed to catch up. The new visuals are a clear reference to the solar system, with the Vincere CRM/ATS at the core and all their other modules working in harmony around it. Go check it out at https://www.vincere.io/ -

If you’d like to request a demo, follow this link https://www.vincere.io/rag - they’ve got an exclusive deal for RAG listeners!

District4:

Do you feel like you’re not surrounded by peers and you’ve stopped learning? Imagine only working alongside other experienced recruiters who you can really collaborate with, while having the freedom to do work your way. If you’re thinking of a change, check out District4, where you can launch your own business and not be alone!

Visit www.district4.io/hoxo to see what they can do for you.

On today’s episode, I was joined by John Dyson.

John is the founder of FJR Group, a specialist recruitment firm headquartered in Manchester with an office in London, operating across financial services, HR, and technology.

John started the business in May 2011, the very same month that I personally started in recruitment.

In that period of time, he’s grown a business to over 50 people and has opened multiple offices.

Recently, during a snowboarding holiday in France, John suffered an accident where he broke his back in a couple of places and had bleeding in the brain.

This specific accident led to many positive decisions and changes to his business - something John would never have foreseen!

In this episode, you’re going to find out about a recruitment owner who I believe is doing things in a hybrid way.

There are recruitment owners that keep the business lean and wrap everything around themselves, and there are ones who aim to build businesses as fast and as big as they can for growth and exit.

John is kind of in between.

He’s building a great leadership team to manage the day-to day-operation of FJR Group, but he’s very close to the frontline.

To anyone looking to grow their business in a more considered way - not wanting it to be a lifestyle but not necessarily wanting it to be the biggest agency in the world - I think this episode will inspire and support you in so many different ways.

Vincere

A message to all recruitment leaders looking to upgrade their CRM: Before you sign the contract, be sure to read the terms at least twice.

Common traps to watch out for:

- Not understanding the pricing model

- Discounts limited to only the 1st year of contract length

- Monthly contracts - this could mean flexibility for the vendor to raise prices

- Data hosting - anything outside your country could mean compliance & legal issues

Get Vincere’s 10-step guide to keep your vendor due diligence & evaluation process airtight: https://bit.ly/3C2G1s3

Season 6 | Ep 22 - Paul Sammeroff on how starting a rec business with two strangers backfired within 3 years!

On this week's show, I'm joined by Paul Sammeroff, the Founder and Director of PAS Capital, a specialist recruitment firm headquartered in Glasgow that exclusively operates within the oil and gas markets.

Paul’s business is only three years old with just under 20 staff at the moment. What's really interesting is the story that Paul's been through in those last three years. 

He founded the company in January 2020, just before the pandemic, in partnership with two guys that he didn't know. He was introduced by a rec to rec. 

One of the guys had recruitment experience, the other had cash and Paul drove their everyday operations. Together they created a business, but Paul quickly realised that this wasn’t becoming the partnership he had planned for. 

Sadly, the relationship didn’t work out and this led to serious strain on Paul, both in business and with his mental health. By the end of 2022 last year, Paul had decided that enough was enough - he was ready to walk away and leave the business or buy out his partners. 

In this episode, Paul breaks down everything that he did, all the challenges he faced, and how he got to a positive outcome.

I'm delighted for Paul that he's in a place that he's happy with, and I'm super excited for people to listen to this and learn the do's and don'ts of going into partnership with investors and anyone when launching a new entity. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Thinking about starting a recruitment business in the UK or US? 

Download your startup blueprint and access key information including:

- Funding – how much do you need, and what are your options

- Knowing where you stand - decode your non-compete and understand your restrictions

- Co-founder MUST-knows

- How to automate your way to faster billings

- Business plan basics – what are they, and how do you write one?

- Naming & brand-building – creating a brand that stands out

And more…

Get your copy at recruit-hub.com/startup-blueprint

In 2021 I believe that the use of video will no longer be ‘optional’ for recruiters. 

Every agency should be video content to attract candidates and clients

Also LinkedIn has exploded with video content and every agency needs to be a part of this

But do you know where to start?

No?

Well, Ryan McCabe and I have been producing video content on the platform since early 2017

And we have come together to help!

Last week we ran practical workshop for Recruitment Consultants on LinkedIn Live covering:

• The different types of video you should be creating in 2021
• The 'Kit' you can use to enhance the quality of the video
• A proven method for engaging your candidates and clients with video
• How to edit your content for LinkedIn
• A number of practical tasks to take back and use in your agency

There has never been a better time to start your video journey and Odro and Hoxo Media are here to help! Get in touch with Ryan or I if you would like any more information!

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

In today's live episode of The RAG Podcast, I am again joined by my P500 partner Tim Roedel, alongside Simon Cope the Headteacher of Wild Ridings Primary School in Bracknell.

Simon and his school received 10 x laptops last week and have a plan to distribute them alongside the 41 from the Department for Education this week!

He also confirmed that in his school alone - 85% of the kids have challenges with IT equipment and connectivity…

Again, the size of this issue is unbelievable!

We have to do something to help and we have to act now…

Project 500 is a scheme that is designed to help provide some of the UK's most disadvantaged families with the laptops they desperately need.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us so far - but we can’t stop now!

Please help by donating what you can - to do so please visit https://project500.hoxomedia.com/

In today’s episode, I was joined on LinkedIn live by Jamie Beaumont, Founder of Fuel Payments - a specialist FinTech organisation that helps recruiters provide alternative payment methods for their SME customers!

I absolutely loved this episode! Jamie is in the first 6 months of the business and is in hyper start up mode!

An ex recruiter who became a tech entrepreneur that massively flopped at the beginning, he knows a thing or two about starting businesses with no prior experience.

He now owns a financial lending company with no prior Financial Services experience, he reminds me of myself when I started Hoxo!

In this episode Jamie talks about his life as an entrepreneur and the relentless workload he is prepared to endure to make this business successful.

His product is super smart and will no doubt be a game changer for Recruiters around the world!

If you are interested in a raw and recent start up journey or want to know how you can better convert perm fees, you can not miss this one!

If you would like to reach out and ask any questions directly, then feel free to contact Jamie on here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-beaumont-4097a253/

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast Live, on this week's episode of The RAG Podcast I am re-joined by James Johnson!

James is the founder of District 4 and also a CEO coach. James works with ambitious founders, CEOs and VCs where the difference between success and failure is £m's

James was previously the CEO of Nicoll Curtin and decided to change his lifestyle after he and his wife suffered from their second miscarriage. The stress of running a global business meant that he was under investing in other, more important areas of his life.

Since then, he has changed almost every aspect of his life and now has the family he always wished for!

In this episode we went deep into James' own story but also the reality of the stress and challenges faced both inside and outside of work for his many recruitment agency owner clients.

----

A big thank you to today’s sponsor Volcanic.com - the best in class recruitment website provider delivering websites that look good and perform even better. 

Volcanic were thrilled to see 14 of their clients receive nominations across 13 categories for the recent National Online Recruitment Awards, and special shoutout to their client Camino Partners for winning Best New Recruitment Website!

They’ve also recently published a case study from leading recruitment agency Aspire, where they have reported cutting their website costs in half since switching to Volcanic, which delivered a staggering three websites in just three months! You can check out their website at weareaspire.com.

Finally, we are offering RAG listeners an MOT of their current site – landing page is here (and embedded on the above page) The Access Group

www.volcanic.com/hoxo

 This applies to any recruitment website.

Thanks to our second sponsor District 4

District4 supports experienced recruiters to launch their own recruitment businesses with an impressive start-up package and take care of the back office and technology which allows them to focus on what they do best: providing an excellent service to their clients and candidates.

District4 is a community of expert recruiters who are all business owners in their own right. As a community we support each-other professionally and personally to hit out goals. 

On Monday 8th November they started an exciting 5-day challenge “So you want to start your own recruitment business?”

Over 5 days you will explore your why, your vision, your financials, your market and put together a business plan.

This challenge is for experienced recruiters who have thought about going it alone and want to explore it at a deeper level.

At the end of the challenge you will either be raring to go and start your business or have decided that it is not for you.

 It is running all of this week and there are replays available for anyone who has missed the sessions

You can catch up either in the challenges closed facebook group at (1) Start your Recruitment Business in 2022 Free Challenge | Facebook or if they search in groups for "Start your recruitment busines in 2022 Free Challenge or by going to my LinkedIn profile and viewing the featured section.

They have a new task going live everyday at 9.15 and then a daily Q&A answering all of their set up questions at 12 noon both live via my profile.

The link to join the challenge is:

On this week's show, I'm super excited to be joined by Helen McGuire. Helen is the exited founder of Diversely.io, a technology business acquired by Access Group in 2023. 

Entering the pandemic in 2020, Helen ran a recruitment business dedicated to helping return-to-work mothers find flexible jobs. Helen understood this cause well, as she’d previously been in this exact position herself. 

But she soon realised that her recruitment agency's business model limited the number of people she could actually help. There was so much more to be done!

So, to solve the problem on a broader scale, she decided to pivot her recruitment company and become a technology business instead. 

She partnered with a co-founder from a tech background who was as passionate about the project as she was.

Three years later, she successfully grew and exited the company.

In this episode, we discuss the problems women face when returning to work and Helen’s journey as a female founder. 

Whether you’re a female founder yourself or a male founder who wants to understand the female perspective and how to balance your workforce, you’re going to enjoy this episode

Chapters

00:00 Challenges faced by women returning to work

04:15 The problem of Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace

06:59 Helen's journey as a female founder

15:10 The acquisition of Diversely and Helen's current work

36:31 Solving the DEI problem in Recruitment

40:19 Building networks and the importance of transparency 

45:43 The acquisition by The Access Group

50:27 Scaling the impact of Diversely

57:21 Continuing the journey in the DEI space

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within seven days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming, and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document, you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.

Over 5000 recruiters around the globe follow this process daily, and the results have been amazing!

You can have this, too!

Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY

If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder and CEO, Sean Anderson (the creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!

Get access to:

• 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost your business on LinkedIn
• Exclusive access to Hoxo 20:10:5 warm leads tracking template

Free support from the Hoxo team to help you implement the process and get the results

This course is part of the hugely successful Personal Brand Bootcamp which has seen over 5000 recruiters graduate and drive millions of warm leads and £££ in revenue as a result!

Get free access to the course once you’ve downloaded our guide.

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting...

On this week’s show, I was super excited to be joined by Stuart Fry & Lloyd Cremer. 

Stuart is the CEO, and Lloyd is the CRO, of Halian, a recruitment and IT services business headquartered in the UK with multiple offices all over the UK, Europe, and the Middle East.

Lloyd joined me from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Stuart was in Dubai. 

They recently completed an MBO where they bought the original founders out, and they're on a journey now for the next four years to create an incredible wealth creation exercise for a number of their teams across the world.

Stuart joined almost 15 years ago and has seen the business grow in both recruitment and IT services, and Lloyd has come through a traditional recruitment route for over 15 years. 

In this episode, we talk about

• Growing a recruitment firm as well as an IT services firm
• Why they are focusing their business in the Middle East 
• We debunk some myths about the Middle East, about living there and about getting paid in the Middle East
• The MBO and what their exit plan looks like 
• Why they are NOT entering the US market, unlike the majority of other UK recruitment firms

If you're looking to add different services on top of just recruitment, or if you're looking to join an organisation that's growing towards a wealth creation activity, then you should be listening to this show. 

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Our trusted partner RecruitHub helps new founders launch their own recruitment businesses in the UK, US & UAE. The community is growing rapidly, with over 70 founders on the RecruitHub platform.

Everything you need to launch your own recruitment business with ease.

- Receive 100% of the fees you bill

- Own full commercial control of your business and increase its value

- Cutting-edge tech stack, from ATS to sales automation

- No admin - we handle everything from company registration to contracts, to finance and support

- No setup costs on the platform, no recurring fixed costs, and no surprise fees

If you're thinking of taking the next step in your career and want to discuss your business idea, please book a confidential chat with RecruitHub's team or learn more here: https://www.recruit-hub.com/uk-awareness/

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say it’s been a tricky year for the recruitment sector globally, many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamlining where possible.

However, accessing lower-cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance, but anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time-consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4-stage interview and online testing process to find the top

On a special episode of The RAG Podcast this week, I am joined by fellow Recruitment Podcast Host - Lysha Holmes!

Lysha is a great friend of Hoxo and myself and we were deeply saddened to hear the news of her father passing away to cancer in October last year! He was diagnosed at such a late stage that the family did not get the time with him that they would have wanted.

On 29th April this year, a small group of us will be raising awareness and money for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund - visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/quirecruitmenthoxorammytohale2022 to find out more!

The RAG sponsors

Vincere:

Nailing your CRM tech strategy Playbook

We've just published a brand new playbook, like a buyers guide, for those shopping around for a new system. Inside they will find: 

• ROI-driven strategy to building out a comprehensive feature checklist
• How to assemble an effective CRM evaluation team
• Battle-tested compliance & security vendor scorecards
• Understanding inclusion versus integration
• Power plays & frameworks for vendor due diligence

Download here:  https://bit.ly/3C2G1s3 

Go to www.vincere.io/rag to book a demo - RAG listeners get an exclusive deal!

District 4:

District4 support experienced recruiters who want to launch their own businesses. They offer an impressive start-up package which includes back office support, coaching, and help choosing and implementing new technology.

Launching a business successfully takes a lot of hard work and preparation. Even if you aren’t ready right now, get the support you need sooner and you’ll stand the best chance of success when the time is right.

Visit www.district4.io/hoxo  to see what they can do for you.

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast, I was joined by Lawrence & Elliot, the founders of Arto Recruitment, a specialist life science recruitment agency. The business is headquartered in Canterbury, Kent and expanded to more than 23 staff in just over 2 years of existence during the pandemic!

Lawrence and Elliot have been best mates since they were 3 years old! Their story is one of real trust, ambition and friendship.

People say to never go into business with friends, but these guys are proving it can work.

I met Lawrence at a property development course in 2017 and we have been friends ever since - I am so happy to bring him and Elliot onto the show!

In this episode they discuss how they:

- Grew up together and never spent any time apart

- Started in recruitment and both flew up the ranks at Phaidon International

- Decided to move back to Kent and commute 2 hours each way to London daily

- Kicked off Arto a month before Covid-19 happened and what life was like for them

- Had to work in UK perm when their whole experience was in EU contract recruitment

- Hit £1m GP and bought sports cars to celebrate

- Plan to grow in the UK and the USA to begin with!

Don’t miss this conversation with two friends of mine who I am convinced are building a real powerhouse recruitment agency for the future. Enjoy!!

On this week's show, I was joined by Gary Redman. Gary is the CEO of the Now Business Group, a collection of recruitment organisations in construction, finance, accountancy, services, and most importantly in the education sector.

The business is headquartered in the UK with a really strong sales and EBITDA profile. We’re talking between five and a half to six million pounds per year in net profit.

Gary started the business 27 years ago. He started in recruitment at 19, quite quickly launched his own company and has been through everything you can imagine since then.

In this episode, we break down and chronologically crawl through those 27 years and talk about:

🎙️The highs and lows throughout his career

🎙️His health issues

🎙️His personal life

🎙️The catalyst that caused a lot of issues and challenges in the business

We agreed at the end of this episode that this will only be part one because Gary's story is one that we’ll need more time to tell. But, even in this first part, you’ll get so much value and inspiration.

I left the conversation feeling so inspired that someone who's in the later stages of their career is still so motivated by just doing a great job, building teams, and building businesses regardless of the money and the financial return.

It makes me think that I've got so much ahead of me.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did recording it.

__________________________________________

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Sponsor

‘Wow’ your clients by uncovering tactics and power plays for high-impact candidate submissions.

Download Vincere's eBook "Techify Your Client Experience Strategy"

 -Learn Candidate-driven strategies

 -How to offer the “VIP” treatment

- Leverage tech for high-impact collaboration

Link: https://personalbrand.hoxomedia.com/vincere

On this week's episode I was once again joined by Vincere, specifically their Head of Product, Kristy Gilham. This is a follow-up to the conversation we recorded back in September. 

In this episode, we focused exclusively on the product roadmap and the things that they're working on right now to improve for you, the customer. You’ll hear some interesting insights into how they decide on which products to put into action, and which ones to leave off the table. 

Despite the negative press post-acquisition, hopefully you're starting to understand that Vinny are still committed to the customer.

They’re also almost exclusively focused on working with small to medium-sized recruitment agencies – which is so important! 

So whether you’re a boutique agency looking for a new CRM or a current Vinny customer, enjoy the episode, listen up, and take notes. 

Takeaways

1. Vincere is committed to improving the user experience for small to mid-sized recruitment agencies.
2. The product roadmap includes enhancements to the user interface, email functionality, and automation.
3. Data security and compliance are top priorities for Vincere, especially when integrating with LinkedIn.
4. The company is actively seeking customer feedback and engagement to shape the product development.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the RAG podcast

00:57 Focus on the product roadmap

02:25 Discussion on market conditions and plans

03:23 Updates on product development

06:40 Product roadmap for small to mid-sized market

07:55 Improving UI and UX

09:20 Improvements to velocity and data import tool

10:20 Integration with LinkedIn and data security

13:52 Payroll integration and expanding marketplace

15:42 Revamping the scheduler for smaller agencies

17:06 Improving email functionality and automation

19:22 In-app training and product enablement

21:43 Improving internal communication and knowledge sharing

22:11 Introduction of workspace and AI functionality

23:07 Adopting AI in Vincere

25:03 Focus on improving system speed and security

27:05 Addressing compliance and email functionality

28:54 Marketing automation and marketplace mindset

30:45 Engaging with customers and gathering feedback

32:31 Prioritizing feature requests and engaging with customers

35:23 Openness to customer feedback and engagement

38:40 Closing remarks and contact information

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within 7 days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.

Over 5000 recruiters around the globe are following this process daily and the results have been amazing!

You can have this too!

Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY

If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder & CEO Sean Anderson (The creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!

Get access to:

• 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost business on

On this week’s show, you’ve got me again. I know I’ve been sharing solo episodes the last few weeks and had a couple of weeks’ break, but I really wanted to take this time to share my recap of Q3

So personally, and professionally, I feel like it's probably been the most powerfully transformational quarter of my life.

In this show, I discuss:

• Q2 being an extremely difficult quarter for our businesses (and a lot of other businesses as well)
• How we turned around our company for the better in Q3
• Hoxo’s 3 guiding principles going forward 
• How becoming a father has changed my priorities and perspectives on work-life balance
• Our vision for the future

There's so much stuff I've done that I think can add value to you guys. I really hope you enjoy the show.

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support, and resources to take you from what I call “an offline recruiter”, reliant on posting jobs and sending in emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to “an online recruiter”, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up within six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons:

1) While I've been building The RAG Podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients. In less than two years, we built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn leading to multimillion-pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2) Our track record - not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,700 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds interesting to you, make sure you fill in our contact form and we’ll tell you how we can help: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they

need in one place.

Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal straight within your Vincere account and

configure it to your own brand and theme so it feels like you.

You can publish jobs from Vincere’s Job Portal and sync them directly to your website in one

easy click. You can also offer candidates a quick and easy job search interface, so it’s made easy for them to find their perfect role.

And for your clients, you can offer them unique logins so they can access everything

they need 24/7, so they can rate and review candidates and arrange interviews.

Find out more on vincere.io/rag

I'm super excited to be joined by Alexander Antoniou, the founder of AL Solutions, a Life Sciences specialist recruiter headquartered in London, just over five years old, with 25 staff.

Now, the reason I wanted to interview Alexander is because he’s not only grown AL Solutions, but he's also built a portfolio of five other businesses that he does the back office support for. They share infrastructure, and he's basically set other people up.

Alexander is only 25 years old!

He got into recruitment at 18. Having said to his parents, who wanted him to become a lawyer, that he was going to have a gap year and just work in sales to save some money for university. 

He then became the top performer at a local life science recruitment firm, and two and a half years later, at the age of 20 years old, he went out and set up AL Solutions, which stands for Antoniou Life Science.

Alexander is an incredible guy with incredible energy. He’s so young and has achieved so much.

He looks at the business with energy, passion, and a level of simplicity. I believe we could all learn from the way he runs his business.

You’re going to enjoy this episode if you are a recruiter looking to start your own business in the future or if you're looking to grow and you want to think a bit clearly and a little bit more simply about the whole solution. 

__________________________________________

Hoxo

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo. We’ll give you the training, support, and resources to help you stand out from the competition and reach over 25,000 relevant people and drive daily inbound leads on Linkedin in 6 weeks - and if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

Now, how can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? 2 reasons:

1. Whilst I've been building the RAG podcast, we've actually done what we say will do for our clients in less than two years. We actually built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn leading to multimillion pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2. Second is our track record. Not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,700 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds of interest to you, follow this link: 

https://academy.hoxomedia.com/get-started59434285 

__________________________________________

Episode sponsor: RecruitHub

Over 70 founders have launched their businesses on RecruitHub in the UK, US, and UAE.

One of them was Stuart Mitchell, Founder of Hampton North in the US.

With experience in both the UK and US markets, million-dollar biller Stuart Mitchell formed Hampton North to tackle the biggest problem in cyber security; the talent shortage.

Before launching his own business, Stuart felt like he had run out of growth and he wanted to achieve a better work-life balance for himself and his team. For Stuart, this meant he could spend more time with his daughter.

He now is on a mission to create the best cybersecurity recruiting team in the industry, with the support of Recruit Hub, The world’s most powerful recruitment start-up solution.

His only regret once joining Recruit Hub? Not joining sooner.

Link to his full story:

On this week’s episode, I was joined by David Morgan, who in 2000 co-founded Morgan Law, a UK specialist public sector recruitment agency with 35 staff. 

In this episode, we went through David’s 22 years as a founder to unearth the highs, the lows, and the learnings you can take from them.

We covered:

-The reality of setting up a business in 2000 when the recruitment industry still operated using fax machines!

-How his life changed as the business grew

-David’s relationship with alcohol and how that's changed over the years

-The breakdown of David’s first marriage and how this affected the business

-David's approach to the business during and post Covid-19

-The economic impact on his business right now and how he sees the market changing over the upcoming 18 months

-His new role as CEO and how he spends his time 

David is an awesome guy with a unique and a powerful story, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did recording it!

Anyone wanting to contact David can reach him via davidmorgan@morgan-law.com

Talent Ticker 

Looking for a way to grow your recruitment business in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

More than 300 recruitment agencies are using Talent Ticker to automate their recruiters’ most monotonous tasks, help them predict who will be hiring 3 months in advance, and provide simple tools to identify ideal passive and active candidates to pitch for open roles.

Learn more at https://bit.ly/3DE7wLl and take advantage of their special offer for our listeners.

In today’s episode, I was joined on LinkedIn live by Scott Parsons, Managing Partner of Forsyth Barnes - a specialist in senior appointments within emerging technology with offices in London, Nottingham and NYC.

5 years old, at the start of 2020 Scott had just opened his NYC office and signed a 10 yr lease on a ‘shell’ that was 5 x the size of their original space in Nottingham. 

It is safe to say that they were super excited about 2020!

Then when covid hit, the company that they had selected to renovate the office went bust. They also had £160,000 worth of contractor payments withheld by a major client and other RPO projects cut at once.

However Scott and his business partner didn’t panic! 

In this episode Scott talks about his approach to building a high growth agency and dealing with major setbacks along the way!

A super smart and engaging guy, it is obvious why Scott is building such an amazing business!

If you would like to reach out and ask any questions directly, then feel free to contact Scott here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottparsons7/

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

In today’s episode I was joined by Liz, the Founder of Logjec Recruitment, a super niche recruitment agency based in the North West of England.

She doesn’t have a typical recruitment agency founder's story. 

An ex Recruiter working for her family Financial Advisory business in 2016, her world was turned upside down twice within 10 months after tragically losing her brother and later her father in horrific accidents.

At rock bottom, Liz somehow managed to find the strength to channel her pain towards something positive. This became her motivation for success.

I particularly loved how she now doesn’t let everyday challenges bring her mood down as they simply aren’t ‘life or death matters’, a great way to view the world I feel.

3.5 years later, she now has a successful recruitment agency and a niche recruitment coaching business where she is passionate about helping the next generation of founders who may be struggling with the confidence to take the next step.

A truly incredible woman and an inspiration to us all, if you would like to speak to Liz about her coaching business or just make contact then you can do: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-connor-04882051/

-------------------------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

Today I was delighted to be joined on The RAG Podcast Live with Jonathan Keen, the Founder & CEO of Cognitive Group, a 30+ staff recruitment agency experts in Microsoft talent acquisition & recruitment, based in London. 

Having met Jon on numerous occasions, I knew I was going to enjoy this one!

Originally from South Africa, Jon moved to the UK with no recruitment experience and limited funds. Having grown up in a household full of entrepreneurs, he knew this was also going to be his future path.

In this episode we discussed:

🎙His early life in SA, working for his father’s business 

🎙His move to London, staying in a single bedroom for £250 per month

🎙How he climbed to top billing status in his previous agency 

🎙His startup story and how he parted ways with his business partner in the recession

🎙How the pandemic affected the business

🎙Mistakes made trying to move into global markets and how he would approach this next time 

🎙The business today and his vision for future growth!

An articulate and charismatic leader with a clear vision for how he wants to grow his agency, if you would like to chat to Jon directly please contact them via LinkedIn!

-------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

What really happened to Volcanic and why they are making huge progress under The Access Group.

On this week's show, I'm joined by Nick Thomson and Rachel Kirton from Access.

Nick is the GM of Access Recruitment, and Rachel Kirton is Senior Product Manager for Volcanic.

Volcanic is an iconic brand in our sector. 

Famous for SaaS recruitment websites, they were acquired by The Access Group in 2019.

Similar to the situation with Vincere, post acquisition, there’s been some noise in the market. 

It is no secret that the business has faced challenges, including team changes and the need to regain customer trust. 

On today’s show, I wanted to find out what actually happened and the future of Volcanic under the Access Group.

In the show we discuss:

• The reality of post-acquisition
• The vision to provide a complete end-to-end package of technology and services is crucial for recruitment websites
• New features including WhatApp and diversity and inclusion tracking and compliance
• Their strategy for creating good-looking, high-converting recruitment websites
• Inside the Recruitment Operating System (RecOS) which integrates various recruitment products and provides a seamless experience for customers. 

Nick and Rachel are incredibly open, candid and forthcoming in their opinions and what they're trying to achieve. 

So, if you're a Volcanic customer or you're thinking about upgrading your digital marketing and using their platform in the future, then this one's for you.

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within seven days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming, and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document, you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.

Over 5000 recruiters around the globe follow this process daily, and the results have been amazing!

You can have this, too!

Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY

If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder and CEO, Sean Anderson (the creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!

Get access to:

• 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost your business on LinkedIn
• Exclusive access to Hoxo 20:10:5 warm leads tracking template

Free support from the Hoxo team to help you implement the process and get the results

This course is part of the hugely successful Personal Brand Bootcamp which has seen over 5000 recruiters graduate and drive millions of warm leads and £££ in revenue as a result!

Get free access to the course once you’ve downloaded our guide.

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they need in one place.

Easily set...

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I was delighted to be joined by Gaelle Blake, the UKI Director for Permanent Appointments & UKI Director for Construction and Property Appointments at Hays

Hays is known globally for its huge workforce in every corner of the world, and being at the helm of such a company will come with pressure and sacrifice!

Being a female in this situation obviously presents additional pressures relating to family and industry stereotypes.

Gaelle and I were recently introduced and I was blown away with her attitude to life, work and our industry!

A super inspiring female role model for our sector- this is for anyone seeking balance in their life!

---

Thank you to our friends and sponsor today - Odro.co.uk . These guys won an impressive three TALiNT tech star awards at their first in-person event since lockdown last month. Followed up just two weeks later with a much sought-after Recruiter award, best in innovation, and a special commendation for CEO Ryan McCabe for all his efforts over the last 18 months. It really is great to see such a brilliant company recognised, and so well deserved. So well done guys! Smashed it.

And the good news is, they’re hiring - which they’ve asked me to let you know. So, if you’re listening and are looking for a move, I couldn’t recommend them highly enough. There are vacancies across their Sales and Customer Success departments right now, and they really are a great bunch. If you’re interested, get in touch with CRO Dougie on LinkedIn or email recruitment@odro.co.uk for more info.

Thanks also to our second sponsor Vincere.io - A single tech platform to streamline the Front, Middle & Back office operations of Exec Search/Perm/Contract/Temp businesses. The technology that they have invested in is becoming a disruption in the space, more and more recruitment businesses are using this to give their recruiters a competitive advantage. 

For RAG listeners who you are thinking about changing CRM or you are a new business looking to launch with a new CRM then I would get in touch with these guys because if you mention that you are a rag listener you get an amazing deal- visit www.vincere.io/rag.

Because I’m away on paternity leave over the next couple of weeks, I’m giving you some super valuable information that I’ve recently shared as part of our Hoxo Academy Taster Sessions.

I’m featuring a case study that I recorded about a company called Precision Sourcing. Simon Hair, the MD at the company, was previously on The RAG Podcast and was part of my Personal Brand Bootcamp in 2020, where I taught him how to build his brand and find warm leads daily on LinkedIn.

As a result of that course, he enrolled his whole team in my training. 

At the end of 2022, I was working with over 32 members of his team, and they generated over 2.5 million Australian dollars, which is over 23% of their annual gross margin.

So they did just over $10 million, and $2. 5 million of that was generated through Hoxo's warm inbound leads process that we taught them through the bootcamp. 

If you're interested in how this team have generated extra gross margin from LinkedIn, then listen up in this episode, I'm going to tell you 10 things they implemented to ensure that our 3X system, which is the process that everyone follows in our training, so well that they got success from everyone in the business. 

Also, as part of this show, you can click the link in the show notes, and there's a downloadable guide that gives you everything that I've said (including all the notes). So you can take it and use it in your agency. 

So if you want to build your personal brand on LinkedIn, if you want to get more inbound business, and want to get warm leads that win inbound business on LinkedIn, you've got to listen to today's show.

I hope you enjoy it.

__________________________________________

Hoxo 20:10:5 

Find 25 x warm leads on LinkedIn every week with our new FREE training!

Our Hoxo 20:10:5 free course is now LIVE!

We've just launched and have had hundreds of recruiters sign up!

All looking to learn how to find warm leads on LinkedIn

We're already receiving messages from people telling us about their initial results

It’s crazy!

NOTE - a warm lead is someone who you can guarantee 100% knows who you are and has shown interest in you in the past 48 hours

Are you ready to learn?

If so, download our free guide and access our free course today - https://bit.ly/3ZtbNKo

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Our trusted partner RecruitHub helps new founders launch their own recruitment businesses in the UK, US & UAE. The community is growing rapidly, with over 70 founders on the RecruitHub platform.

Everything you need to launch your own recruitment business with ease.

- Receive 100% of the fees you bill

- Own full commercial control of your business and increase its value

- Cutting-edge tech stack, from ATS to sales automation

- No admin - we handle everything from company registration to contracts to finance and support

- No setup costs on the platform, no recurring fixed costs, and no surprise fees

If you're thinking of taking the next step in your career and want to discuss your business idea, please book a confidential chat with RecruitHub's team or learn more here: https://www.recruit-hub.com/uk-awareness/

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Untapped

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the...

This week's show is going to be different. I am featuring a recent webinar I hosted for the recruitment industry where I had over a hundred people turn up and I've had countless messages asking for this information.

At Hoxo, we help brand recruitment agencies and their people better. People are your biggest asset in your organisation. Every single recruiter at a desk level can have such a huge impact on your brand, on your market, and on your business.

I think it's fair to say everyone knows now that you should be getting your team to post more on LinkedIn. But asking them to do it and actually getting them doing it are two very difficult challenges that we see across the industry.

So in this 30 minute episode, I'm going to:

🎙️ Tell you why your recruitment team should be posting on LinkedIn

🎙️ Give you three things to get your team to do to raise the output and the quality of their output

🎙️ Give you some really simple metrics to track performance. So what are the KPIs and measurements you should be looking at on a monthly and a weekly basis to ensure that your team are moving in the right direction?

At the end of this episode, click on the link attached to the show notes, and download our show notes for free. So take your own notes and then you're going to get my notes and you'll be able to take advice and put it into practice and get things moving in your agency tomorrow.

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

LinkedIn for recruiters: Transform your team's posting power in just 30 minutes!

Download our resource for an overview of:

- Why your team should be creating and posting content on LinkedIn

- 3 important steps to get your recruitment team to post

​- What to expect from your teams each week on the platform

Get your copy here: https://academy.hoxomedia.com/download

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s TimeTemp is your complete integrated timesheet and workforce management solution, pre-built, pre-integrated, and designed so no matter how much your business grows, you’ll be able to keep track of every single worker.

All changes inside Vincere will sync with TimeTemp and feedback into your account, automating the entire process with two-way sync from your front to back office.

Vincere’s TimeTemp enables you to create shift schedules, search available workers, shortlist,

and book assignments in seconds.

It’ll also allow you to track time, leave, and expenses with its built-in pay rule engine,

DoorClock and mobile app for the on-the-go.

Find out more on vincere.io/rag

In today’s episode, alongside co-host Pete Watson,  I was joined on LinkedIn live by Angela Horkings, Co-Founder & Director of Tandem Partners - a boutique HR Recruitment Agency in Australia.

Angela is a recent member of the Hoxo Academy and someone I worked with weekly during the extended lockdown in Melbourne.

In today’s episode she discussed how 2020 started off with the news of the leader of their Sydney office suffering injury in a tragic accident. The rest of the year continued to provide incredible challenges.

The one stand out comment that Angela made referred to the ‘pace of life’ pre and post COVID. She has learnt that we simply do not need to rush around day in and day out in order to be successful. We can in fact find more time for ourselves and families whilst maintaining our performance.

An open discussion that left me feeling good about the future, if you would like to reach out to Angela and ask any questions directly, she is more than happy to help.

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

WOW what an episode to round up 2020!

Alongside co-host Pete Watson, I was joined on LinkedIn live by Stella Petrou Concha, Founder & CEO of Reo Group and soon to be CEO & Co-Founder Reo+Purtell a merger set to complete in January 2021 in Sydney, Australia.

Stella started her recruitment agency 10 years ago with her husband Marcelo, only 2 years into her recruitment career! 

I have had the pleasure of working with Stella in 2020 and I don’t think I know a more motivated or inspiring leader.

In this episode she reveals: 

• Where her ‘force’ comes from - deep in her childhood
• How she coped in lockdown with her husband and business partner in the same house
• How and why she has merged her agency with Cox Purtell 
• How she sees the future of our sector being built on collaboration and mergers of small agencies

I would go as far to say this is my favourite ever RAG episode! Stella is incredible and someone we can all learn from. 

If you would like to talk to her directly then reach out to her on LinkedIn, she will no doubt help in any way she can! https://www.linkedin.com/in/stella-petrou-concha-603624b/

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On this week's episode, I am excited to be joined by Stuart the Co-Founder and Director of Provide

With 21 years since starting the business, Stuart has seen pretty much everything there is to see in a growing recruitment agency

Most interestingly, post acquisition by TXM Group, Stuart moved into a new role as Director of Strategic Partnerships - leading their RPO division. I am super excited to hear the story of this change!

The RAG sponsor

It’s no secret that recruiters are notoriously time-poor, with highly demanding goals they must achieve to be successful. 

Talent Ticker was specifically designed to help recruiters get ahead of their most time-intensive tasks, like sourcing and prospecting, by providing recruiters with:

• powerful predictive intelligence
• a candidate database of more than 600 million profiles
• and integrations with popular recruitment tools

Any recruiter who uses this tool will be calling the right person, at the right time and for the right reason.

Request a demo at TalentTicker.ai and mention Hoxo for a free personalised leads list of candidates or hiring managers.

This week I  was joined for the third time by Elliot Dell.

Elliot is the CEO of Salt, a global leading digital recruitment agency with over 400 staff across 20 offices.

Now, Elliot joined the RAG in person in 2019, just before the pandemic.

At that point, there were 220 people in the company, spread across nine offices. So in three and a half years, effectively doubling the business while dealing with a global pandemic has been an interesting journey for him.

In this episode, we talked about:

🎙️ The reality of the boom post-Covid and how it helped the locations he's expanded into

🎙️ The introduction of an academy for hiring trainees and growing the organisation

🎙️ The reality of a global company - 20 offices located on every continent, and different regions suffering with different issues due to the economic downturn

Elliot also talks about protecting your time as a business leader. He discusses his routine and how he still finds time for his family, the gym, and his own self-care.

As always, Elliot was super honest and very passionate about the Salt business, sharing a vision to grow it to a thousand people in the next few years.

This was a really refreshing conversation that highlighted how high growth doesn't necessarily mean burning yourself at both ends. You can find time for everything else too.

Any business owner or recruitment leader looking to grow their headcount significantly should listen to this episode.

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Aaron from IXL launched his own recruitment business with RecruitHub, which offers start-up support that guides new business owners through the process and takes a lot of pressure off their shoulders.

Aaron can focus on recruitment, fully supported by their finance and operations teams as well as benefit from discounts and a full tech stack that he plugged into from day one.

He started at the beginning of this year and is already profitable!

Find out more about his journey here:  https://www.recruit-hub.com/case-studies/launch-stories-ixl/

On this week's show, I was joined by Matthew Wragg, the CEO of Gattaca, an organisation with 500 people, headquartered in the UK.

Matt has been with the company for over 21 years. 

From his first role in recruitment, he's worked his way up. He’s had eight or nine different roles in that time! And then, just over a year ago, in early 2022, he got given the CEO job. 

While he never vocalised it, this was something he’d always wanted. 

In this episode, we talked about his journey to becoming CEO, but also the work he's done beyond becoming CEO. 

He talked about:

- His visibility both internally and externally

- How he still meets with clients

- How he sends out messages to his whole company every single Monday

He gives some really practical advice on how you can run a business and focus on growth and attrition. 

We also talked a lot about how Matt's super proud of working in the recruitment industry and wants his whole business to share that sense of pride. 

Matt is a young, energetic, highly inspirational CEO and a huge advocate for the industry. 

You're gonna learn a lot from this one!

__________________________________________

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Aaron from IXL launched his own recruitment business with RecruitHub, which offers start-up support that guides new business owners through the process and takes a lot of pressure off their shoulders.

Aaron can focus on recruitment, fully supported by their finance and operations teams as well as benefit from discounts and a full tech stack that he plugged into from day one.

He started at the beginning of this year and is already profitable!

Find out more about his journey here:  https://www.recruit-hub.com/case-studies/launch-stories-ixl/

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast, I was joined by Jamie & Tony, the founders of The Just Group, a specialist group of construction recruitment brands headquartered in Bromley, Kent with 24 staff which launched in 2012.

Jamie & Tony launched the business with a 3rd partner Alan, and up until the pandemic things were going great! However, Covid hit the business for six and they quickly dropped to 6 staff and had to re-evaluate everything. 

In this episode they discuss how they: 

• Dealt with the pandemic and questioned their business direction
• Parted ways with Alan, their business partner, due to a conflict
• Took out a huge loan to keep the business alive and support their people
• Went back into lockdown in Jan 2021, which brought huge fear and anxiety
• Changed the business completely and have grown to their biggest ever since this time
• Want to enjoy the journey and enjoy life whilst building the business sustainably 

They’re great guys with a genuine story of ups and downs, I’m sure we can all relate to their journey!

Sponsor: 

Looking for a way to grow your recruitment business in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

More than 300 recruitment agencies are using Talent Ticker to automate their recruiters’ most monotonous tasks, help them predict who will be hiring 3 months in advance, and provide simple tools to identify ideal passive and active candidates to pitch for open roles.

Learn more at get.talentticker.ai/hoxo and take advantage of their special offer for our listeners.

On this week's show, I am joined by Sinead Connolly. Sinead is the award-winning founder of Lotus People, a specialist business support recruitment firm headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with over 22 staff.

Now, Sinead and I have known each other for a few years.

She’s been a Hoxo client since just after the pandemic, and I've watched her journey go from strength to strength.

In this episode, we talked about:

- Her journey from Ireland to Australia as a backpacker

- How she got into recruitment

- How she launched her business within three and a half years of starting in the industry

- The support and backing she got from another recruitment firm to start the business

- Her original business partner and what happened there

- How she went through severe burnout after nine months of being a founder to the point where she had to take three months out of the company all while as a pair, she and her business partner billed 1 million AUD in their first year

We explored the balance between success and working ourselves to the bone as founders and recruiters, and also why looking after yourself is crucial.

We are all aware of wellbeing in 2023, but this is a real life story of someone who's got the balance wrong and became bedridden because she worked too hard.

Now, seven years later, she's won Recruitment Leader of the Year at the SEEK Awards. She's got a really, really strong business and is in a strategic CEO role where she can look after the business and isn't responsible for billing.

If you are a potential or an existing recruitment owner who is (1) looking to find balance, and (2) looking to offload responsibility and become more strategic and make the business less reliant on your billings, then you need to listen to this.

Sinead is vulnerable, honest, and confident. She's a star in the industry. I hope you enjoy every single second of this episode.

__________________________________________

If you’re a recruiter who’d love to listen and learn from some of the greatest recruitment owners and leaders then you need to listen to the RAG Podcast!

We’re having real and raw conversations with successful recruitment entrepreneurs about what is happening in their businesses right now and their plans to navigate market changes.

Episodes are released every Wednesday at 12pm GMT

________________________________________

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help you:

- Recruitment Agency Branding

- Personal Brand Bootcamp for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Fill in this form to find out more: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Sponsor

‘Wow’ your clients by uncovering tactics and power plays for high-impact candidate submissions.

Download Vincere's eBook "Techify Your Client Experience Strategy"

- Learn Candidate-driven strategies

- How to offer the “VIP” treatment

- Leverage tech for high-impact collaboration

Link: https://personalbrand.hoxomedia.com/vincere

__________________________________________

In today's live episode of The RAG Podcast, I am again joined by my Project 500 partners Tim Roedel and Chris Redmond.

We are now 3 weeks into our February fundraising initiative to get brand new laptops to UK school children in need!

This week we saw lots of laptops reaching schools and letters of thanks for both children and teachers across the country!

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us so far - but we can’t stop now!

Please help by donating what you can - to do so please visit https://project500.hoxomedia.com/

In today's live episode of The RAG Podcast, I am joined by Chris Redmond and Tim Roedel, both recruitment owners who approached me with the exact same idea within 24 hrs of one another!

Today we announce our national initiative - Project 500!

As the UK battles through its third national lockdown, Ofcom estimates that 9% of children in the UK (between 1.1 million and 1.8 million) do not have access to a laptop, desktop, or tablet at home. 

It is devastating to hear about the families across the country who are fighting daily to homeschool their children without access to the basic equipment that is required.

We have to do something to help and we have to act now…

Project 500 is a scheme that is designed to help provide some of the UK's most disadvantaged families with the laptops they desperately need.

We have spent time in January sourcing a laptop supplier and having conversations with the Head Teachers of the most impacted schools in the UK.

During February, our aim is to engage our very own recruitment sector in order to supply 500 laptops to some of the families currently struggling. In order to do so, together we need to raise £80,000 in donations.

Between our businesses, we have donated £6,000 to the cause. We need your help to hit our target of £80,000/500 laptops.

We want to bring the recruitment industry together to make a difference!

To donate - please visit https://project500.hoxomedia.com/

On this week's episode I was joined by Chris Sheard, the founder of SR2 Recruitment, a 54 person agency with offices in Bristol, London and soon to be opening in Austin TX.

Launched in the middle of 2017, the business is almost 4.5 yrs old and has grown extremely well in that period.

In this episode Chris shares the story of why he decided to build a rec agency that gives 5% of operating profit to charity and the impact of having such a clear and powerful mission.

Across the industry, attracting internal talent is arguably the most difficult thing right now. Hiring strong recruiters will allow any agency to capitalise on the crazy opportunity in the market today

SR2 have been hugely successful in attracting experienced talent and believe their brand is the secret weapon!

The RAG sponsor

Looking for ways to stay ahead of your competition in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

Through the end of this month, any Hoxo listeners who request a demo of Talent Ticker will receive a free, personalised list of leads to help them get a jump on the rest of the year. 

Talent Ticker is the world’s first recruitment intelligence platform, providing you with accurate contact information for passive candidates and matching them with companies looking to hire them.

What is unique to Talent Ticker is that they predict when a company will be hiring whilst giving you the projected hiring roles and contact info for the hiring managers.   

Any recruiter who uses this tool will be calling the right person, at the right time and for the right reason. Don't wait. Head over to get.talentticker.ai/hoxo/ and claim your free leads today.

On this week’s show, I am joined by Louise Campbell, Global Head of Learning and Development at Robert Walters.

Robert Walters is a global, household name in our sector, with over 4000 employees around the world.

Louise is based in Ireland. She was the MD of their Irish business for over 20 years.

Recently, she reinvented herself and moved into L&D wth the goal of making a difference across the global team. 

I love understanding Louise's mindset. 

I've personally worked with Robert Walters for three years. They’ve just signed with us for another year, and we're working with over 500 of Robert Walters's consultants on their personal brand.

Louise has been instrumental in both bringing us on board, and also working with us to ensure that training is delivered well across the organisation.

L&D is normally something that's under-invested in and not very well managed in recruitment organisations. 

What I think is so special here, is that Louise went from being an MD of the usiness to then using all of her knowledge for L&D. 

So she's not just a trainer, she's a business leader, and we talked about her intrapreneurial journey through Robert Walters, why she loves the organisation, why she's been there for over 20 years, and everything in-between. 

If you are looking to develop a strong L&D function in your business and grow organically by building the best team possible, you need to listen to this episode.

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support, and resources to take you from what I call an offline recruiter, reliant on posting jobs and sending in emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to an online recruiter, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up with in six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons

1) Whilst I've been building the RAG podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients.In less than two years, we built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn leading to multimillion-pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2) Our track record - not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,700 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds of interest to you, make sure you fill in our contact form and we’ll tell you how we can help: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s portals is a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client

portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they

need in one place.

Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal straight within your Vincere account and

configure it to your own brand and theme so it feels like you.

You can publish jobs from Vincere’s Job Portal and sync them directly to your website in one

easy click. You can also offer candidates a quick and easy job search...

In today’s episode I was joined by Michael, Partner at IBAM Consulting and ex-colleague and friend of mine.

Michael is not a recruitment agency founder but a very experienced recruitment team leader, sales leader and biller. 

In 2016 Michael was living with his wife and 2 young daughters whilst leading a recruitment team in central London. After a long period of challenges at home, he then decided to separate from his wife and file for divorce.

In this episode, we talked about the reality of going through a divorce from a mans perspective. He gave a truly honest account of the pain he suffered by leaving his kids and how this hugely affected his performance in all areas of life - including recruitment.

Having a strong management team around him, he took the brave decision to step back into a billing role in order to support himself and the business as best he could.

This episode really isn’t about Recruitment at all, though I am sure so many recruitment professionals will be able to relate.

A friend to me with a huge appetite to help others, if you would like to speak to Michael about his experience or just make contact then you can do HERE

---------------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On this week's show, I'm joined by an old client of mine, Matt Green. 

Matt is the founder and CEO of IDEX, a recruitment organisation with an employer branding arm and an advisory arm working with the insurance industry, the financial services sector, and now the legal sector.

Matt founded IDEX 17 years ago and they are now fully remote with 60 people in Manchester, Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.

What I love about this business is that over 17 years, they've managed to do things the right way. 

• They've built organically without investment.

• They've invested a lot into the business without taking too much money away

They've also built a product with a genuine USP where they go into organisations and sell retainers and employer branding packages. They can genuinely take recruiters from £200k billings whilst working with other firms to 1.5 or x2 in billing by giving them access to their services and technology.

And as a result of all of this work, Matt is now on a mission to 10X the business! 

But there’s no pressure and no timeline. 

Matt has a long-term view, so anyone listening to this episode, especially new founders or even people that are thinking about starting a recruitment firm will learn from this! Matt's a great person to listen to because he’s quite different from a lot of recruitment business owners.

He has patience, sees the long-term picture, and doesn't make rash decisions. He invests in his company and he sees it as his baby. So many people can take advice and learn from him in this episode. 

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support, and resources to take you from what I call an offline recruiter, reliant on posting jobs and sending in emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to an online recruiter, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up with in six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons

1) Whilst I've been building the RAG podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients.In less than two years, we built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn leading to multimillion-pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2) Our track record - not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,700 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds of interest to you, make sure you fill in our contact form and we’ll tell you how we can help: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s portals is a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they need in one place.

Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal...

The first of our 5 x episodes recorded Live in the UAE kicks off with ME as the guest! 

So Chris Redmond, who's been on our show three times since 2019, approached me about interviewing me and telling both the Hoxo story and my learnings from almost 300 episodes of the RAG on my recent trip to Dubai!

In this episode, I opened up a lot! 

We discuss 

1. The story of Hoxo to date
2. The impact of my personal brand on building the business
3. Why I started The RAG Podcast
4. The impact The RAG has had on the industry
5. My top learnings from 5 years of interviewing the best in the business 
6. How my life and Hoxo are 100% different since the pandemic 
7. My vision for building a life that I love both personally and professionally. 

Thanks to Chris for taking the time to host this episode; it was so much fun to be on the other side of the mic!

I hope you find this valuable!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the RAG Podcast

05:11 The story of Hoxo Media

06:11 Hoxo's services: branding and personal branding

13:22 The impact of personal branding

20:02 The RAG Podcast: purpose and impact

24:25 Lessons from successful recruitment owners

30:05 Interviewing style and emotional moments

37:20 Hoxo's future plans

42:07 Scientist or artist: Sean's approach

43:31 Overcoming challenges and taking action

46:20 The power of energy and inspiration

47:15 Appreciation and friendship

47:44 Closing remarks and sponsorship

__________________________________________

*RAG Sponsor message* Hoxo

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within 7 days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.

Over 5000 recruiters around the globe are following this process daily and the results have been amazing!

You can have this too!

Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY

If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder & CEO Sean Anderson (The creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!

Get access to:

• 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost business on LinkedIn
• Exclusive access to Hoxo 20:10:5 warm leads tracking template
• Free support from the Hoxo team to help you implement the process and get the results

This course is part of the hugely successful Personal Brand Bootcamp which has seen over 5000 recruiters graduate and drive millions of warm leads and £££ in revenue as a result!

Get free access to the course once you’ve downloaded our guide.

__________________________________________

*RAG Sponsor message*: Vincere

Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they need in one place.

Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal straight within your Vincere account and

configure it to your own brand and theme so it...

Today I was joined by Paul Flynn - an investor in recruitment and mental health businesses and the ex Founder / MD of Staffgroup which he sold in 2015 for over £20m

A warm and open person, I have only ever heard great things about Paul from the market. This was  my first ever chat with him in person and he certainly lived up to expectation. 

In today’s episode we discussed:

🎙 Paul’s early days at Progressive (S3)

🎙 His journey to launching Staffgroup in 2003 with 2 co-founders

🎙 How he suffered from addiction and by 2006 needed to go to recovery to resolve this

🎙 Running his business as a sober leader, even with the annual trips to Vegas and Ibiza!

🎙 How he eventually sold in 2015

🎙What he did next

🎙His 3 key takeaways from his career for others to learn from

Paul is a recruiter at heart and he clearly loves the industry! One of the success stories of the past 15 years, feel free to contact him directly if you would like to ask any more questions relating to our conversation!

---------

Sponsors:

District4: https://bit.ly/3rSuE01

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On the final episode of 2021, I was delighted to be joined by Adrian Kinnersley.

Adrian is the Founder & CEO of TwentyAI, headquartered in London with offices in New York, Charlotte, and Austin US.

Launched in the middle of the global financial crisis, Adrian was certain he wanted to build a brand he could be proud of. He’d already worked for a number of traditional recruitment agencies and wanted to do things his way!

Now happily living in the USA and operating remotely, in this episode we discussed:

• What he disliked about other recruitment agencies 
• His startup journey
• The decision to launch in the USA - albeit a little too early
• Life during the pandemic
• How they are using AI to their advantage

A genuine guy with a no nonsense attitude, what a way to finish 2021!

Thank you so much to everyone who has tuned in to our biggest year yet - we will be back in January 2022 with more episodes.

----

Thanks to our long standing sponsor Vincere.io - who have experienced a record breaking 2021! Growing a truly global community of recruiters, I can not wait to see what they have in store for 2022.

If you are interested in finding out more about Vincere, they offer great discounts for RAG Listeners at www.vincere.io/rag

----

Thank you also to our friends and sponsors Odro.co.uk.

I know many of you are winding down for Christmas, but if you want to get your ducks in a row to hit the ground running in 2022, now's a great time to check out Odro. 

They’ve pulled together a new framework which aggregates the best practices from their most successful customers, and helps you create more meaningful connections with your candidates and clients at no fewer than 18 different touchpoints during the hiring process. 

The guys are offering a free audit of your process against the framework. Plus first time customers can take advantage of a new 90-day guarantee which means you’re not tied in if you don't want to be. 

Request a demo at their site odro.co.uk, I'm certain you’ll take something from it.

This week’s episode is a collaboration between RAG Podcast and Recruitment Mentors Podcast!

Hishem and I host two of the most well-known, highly-regarded podcasts in our sector. 

We started them at roughly the same time, and we even used to record them in the same Hoxo HQ studio!  

After sitting down together at the recent recruitment expo, we realised that we’ve released well over 500 recruitment episodes and interviewed/met 1000+ over this period

We thought it would be interesting to come together to discuss the five traits that we see in the most successful recruitment founders. 

You'll find that Hishem and I do agree on most areas, but we have slightly different views in certain areas too.

Hope you enjoy this special episode and do take notes!!

00:00 Introduction

09:03 Chapter 1: Creating a Business that Works for You

16:11 Chapter 2: The Power of Niche and Brand

33:30 Chapter 4: Building a Sales Culture

44:30 Getting Out of Your Own Way

56:44 Prioritising Personal Health and Well-being

__________________________________________

Episode sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say, last year was tricky for the recruitment sector globally. Many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamlining where possible.

However, accessing lower-cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance. But anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time-consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4-stage interview and online testing process to find the top 1% and secure these people roles in UK agencies doing research, marketing, finance, sourcing, end-to-end recruiting, coordination and account management. 

All candidates are benchmarked against UK competency frameworks and are tested for the highest level of communication and language skills.  

It’s a simple process: You pay a deposit to kick off the search, they provide a candidates shortlist in 14 days.  You can also put people through your own process and then hire perm or on a freelance basis, depending on your needs. They are totally transparent with salaries. Typically, your global talent will earn 30% more than their local benchmark, giving you high levels of motivation and work ethic, but you’ll still pay 70% less than a UK equivalent support. It’s a no-brainer to complement existing teams to handle surplus demand or to ease cost pressures. 

If you’re not using this time to rip up your business model and rebuild it with global resources, you are going to fall behind those that do. Due to demand and capacity restraints, they are operating a waiting list at the moment, so be quick to get in touch: www.tryuntapped.com

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Hoxo 

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within 7 days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on...

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I was delighted to be joined by Ishpal Bansal

Ishpal founded Aston Holmes, a resourcing and talent acquisition consultancy, alongside his business partner Brad Bloom in 2014.

Shortly after launching the business, Ishpal was diagnosed with a heart condition and needed open heart surgery! 

Thankfully he came through treatment and since then has gone on to grow teams across the UK and Africa (LDN, Cape and J’burg) Approaching 50 people and growing well. 

In this episode Ishpal was incredibly honest about the challenges he and his partner have faced in their journey so far and why choosing the right partner is non negotiable!

An essential episode for anyone who has a business partner today or is considering launching their agency in future!

----

Thank you again to our friends and sponsor today - Odro.co.uk .

Have you heard about Odro's up and coming new framework that's launching this week? If you don't follow the guys, you might not have so let me tell you about it....

Based on conversations from the best of the best in the recruitment space, the guys have pulled together a new framework that helps recruiters create more meaningful and longer-lasting connections with clients and candidates at various different touchpoints throughout the process. It's literally a diagram that really just distils all the opportunities throughout the process where video can be used to help to better attract, assess and provide aftercare, for improved relationships. Look it sounds simple, right? 

And, actually, it is. But when you see it down on paper like that, it's amazing how many opportunities you realise most businesses are probably missing. 

Hit the guys up at odro.co.uk/demo and I'm sure they'll be happy to send it on.

----

Thanks also to our second sponsor Vincere.io - are officially launching in the US with a new office in Atlanta.. Whilst they have gathered US Clients, they strategically held back from going into the US until they were ready to hire a team and do it in full vinny style! They are ready and looking to work with agencies with 20+ users - as they want to ensure the support is in place to cater for the wider demand of the smaller agencies!

If you are in the US or UK and interested in finding out more about Vincere, they offer great discounts for RAG Listeners so use www.vincere.io/rag

On this episode of The RAG Podcast, I was joined by Ed Stevens, the Founder of 94 Group, a specialist group of recruitment agencies in London with 50 staff.

This isn’t the first time Ed has built up a successful recruitment business. He launched, grew, and sold his shares in Eximius Group over 8 years between 2008 and 2016.

Ed is honestly one of the most impressive recruitment owners I have ever met.

His approach to growing this business is crystal clear:

He is the ONLY shareholder and ONLY person with recruitment experience.

The result is a genuine opportunity for hyper-fast career growth and equity for his business and the people that work in it. 

If you have aspirations of growing a future or current recruitment company, you NEED to tune in to this one!

The RAG sponsors

Vincere:

If you're a recruiter looking to switch careers and move to Tech, this is your chance. Vincere is hiring for a variety of roles across all their offices. There are opportunities to join their Sales, Customer Success and Implementation teams. Learn more about Vincere on their LinkedIn or Instagram for behind-the-scenes updates. Their careers page is here: https://careers.vincere-digital.io/join-the-team

District4:

Do you feel like you’re not surrounded by peers and you’ve stopped learning? Imagine only working alongside other experienced recruiters who you can really collaborate with while having the freedom to do it your way. If you’re thinking of a change, check out District4 where you can launch your own business and not be alone!

Visit www.district4.io/hoxo  to see what they can do for you.

On today's episode, I am joined by Simon Hair.

Simon is the Managing Director of Precision Sourcing Group, a business headquartered in Sydney, Australia with 31 expert recruiters in project services, SAP, data, and software development. 

Now, I've wanted to have Simon on for a long time.

I've worked with him for over two years and for some reason it just never happened. 

But the timing is perfect, because last week he got voted Australian Recruitment Leader of the Year at the TIARA Awards.

Nominated by his team, celebrated by his peers. 

You can see why in this interview.

Simon is one of the most organised and motivated people I have been lucky enough to work with.

He enrolled in my Personal Brand Academy during the pandemic, took everything I taught him, and drilled it into his team. 

Since then, his team has gone and worked with me as a collective for over 12 months.

They now are one of the most well-known brands in Australia in their market.

Over 23% of their net fee income last year, which is well over $2 million, was generated directly from their activity on LinkedIn. 

And that doesn't even include the work they've done with candidates. That's just clients they can track who have come in as inbound leads, or they've managed to source via the interaction through LinkedIn.

So I'd say he's building one of the most socially engaged recruitment firms on the planet.

And the way he explains it makes it sound so simple and so achievable. 

He's doing so whilst also driving the four-day week, so the team at Precision Sourcing now don't work on Fridays,

He appreciates everything there is to offer and he has an open mindset. That's evident in the episode and also in the business he runs today. 

Anyone who wants to grow in a modern, innovative way and who has an open mindset is going to love this episode.

Talent Ticker 

Looking for a way to grow your recruitment business in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

More than 300 recruitment agencies are using Talent Ticker to automate their recruiters’ most monotonous tasks, help them predict who will be hiring 3 months in advance, and provide simple tools to identify ideal passive and active candidates to pitch for open roles.

Learn more at get.talentticker.ai/hoxo and take advantage of their special offer for our listeners.

On this week’s show, I'm joined by Scott Brown, the founder of Heriot Brown, a UK-based in-house legal recruitment specialist agency.

Scott started his recruitment business almost by accident. 

He made the switch to recruitment because he felt unfulfilled as a lawyer and wanted to have more control over his career.

He wanted to gain sales experience.

Less than two years later, he launched his own recruitment firm. 

Scott admits that his lack of experience before launching his business had both positive and negative results.

Eight years later, they’ve: 

• Got their in-house legal podcast 
• Built a community-first recruitment company
• Expanded to be a global business and brand

And Scott hasn’t even scratched the surface.

This is a must-listen if you’re interested in finding out how Scott got to where he is today, what community-led actually means, and what’s next for this exciting business! 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the RAG podcast and Scott Brown

09:41 Scott's journey from lawyer to recruitment entrepreneur

31:00 Starting Heriot Brown: challenges and successes

37:13 Untapped: Transitioning to remote recruitment solutions

38:40 Leveraging global resources

53:20 Building a personal brand

45:26 Investing in a structured approach

01:05:28 Innovation in the recruitment industry

__________________________________________

Episode sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say, last year was tricky for the recruitment sector globally. Many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamlining where possible.

However, accessing lower-cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance. But anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time-consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4-stage interview and online testing process to find the top 1% and secure these people roles in UK agencies doing research, marketing, finance, sourcing, end-to-end recruiting, coordination and account management. 

All candidates are benchmarked against UK competency frameworks and are tested for the highest level of communication and language skills.  

It’s a simple process: You pay a deposit to kick off the search, they provide a candidates shortlist in 14 days.  You can also put people through your own process and then hire perm or on a freelance basis, depending on your needs. They are totally transparent with salaries. Typically, your global talent will earn 30% more than their local benchmark, giving you high levels of motivation and work ethic, but you’ll still pay 70% less than a UK equivalent support. It’s a no-brainer to complement existing teams to handle surplus demand or to ease cost pressures. 

If you’re not using this time to rip up your business model and rebuild it with global resources, you are going to fall behind those that do. Due to demand and capacity restraints, they are operating a waiting list at the moment, so...

In this episode, Ephram Stephenson, CEO and founder of Collar Talent Group, joins me for part 2 of the Collar Talent Group story!

I interviewed Ephram Jan 2023 when his business was just over a year old and he'd already reached a head count of 100.

13 months later, and the business now has 140 people across multiple Australian offices, making them the fastest growing agency in the country.

In this follow-up show, Ephram shares insights on how he has rapidly grown the business, built a strong company culture, and attracted top talent. 

Ephram strategically headhunted his leadership team, and together they have a combined experience of over 500 years in recruitment! 

Key takeaways

• The impact of strategic hiring
• How to build a strong company culture and prioritise the well-being of internal staff – and how this contributes to a high-performing business
• The essentials for winning tenders and contracts 
• How to attract the best talent in your market
• You can start a rec agency with minimal capital, but there are some things you can’t compromise on 
• The key to resolving internal conflicts in your business 
• Importance of a healthy work-life balance for both your personal and professional success 

As always, we talk about the things he's got wrong as well as the success. Ephram’s got bags of energy, and he's fun to be around. 

So if you're looking to grow your business at scale and with speed, check this one out!

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within 7 days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.

Over 5000 recruiters around the globe are following this process daily and the results have been amazing!

You can have this too!

Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY

If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder & CEO Sean Anderson (The creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!

Get access to:

• 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost business on LinkedIn
• Exclusive access to Hoxo 20:10:5 warm leads tracking template
• Free support from the Hoxo team to help you implement the process and get the results

This course is part of the hugely successful Personal Brand Bootcamp which has seen over 5000 recruiters graduate and drive millions of warm leads and £££ in revenue as a result!

Get free access to the course once you’ve downloaded our guide.

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they need in one place.

Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal straight within your Vincere account and

configure it to your own brand and theme so it feels like...

James Leighton on how you can build a business like his, which is eight years old, in two years!

On this week's show, I am finally joined by a good friend and client, James Leighton. James is the founder of Anderson James, a specialist construction and property recruitment firm, headquartered in Manchester with over 30 people operating in both contingent,RPO markets, public and private sector in the US.

And I'm delighted to finally have him on because I didn't actually know the story of him building the business.

Now whilst the business launched in 2015 and is effectively eight years old, the business didn't really get moving until 2017, 2018.

So they had at least two to three years at the beginning where they didn't get the business moving for a number of reasons. 

Now, James shared in-depth issues that they faced and the different steps they've gone to grow to where they are now. And he broke down exactly how he would get to where he is now in two years. 

So for anyone wanting to know how you can build a business that's eight years old in two years, you need to listen to this episode. 

He gives some really clear advice, practical examples, all the way through the show as to how a startup founder or someone trying to grow to 30 and above can do it in record time.

__________________________________________

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Sponsor

‘Wow’ your clients by uncovering tactics and power plays for high-impact candidate submissions.

Download Vincere's eBook "Techify Your Client Experience Strategy"

 -Learn Candidate-driven strategies

 -How to offer the “VIP” treatment

- Leverage tech for high-impact collaboration

Link: https://personalbrand.hoxomedia.com/vincere

Our first episode of 2022 and what a cracker to be kicking off with!

I was delighted to be joined by Alex Zoboli, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Cornerstone Recruitment Japan K.K.

Alex and his business partner scaled their previous recruitment business in Japan from 20 to 200 people and opened their own business only 2 years ago. 

Already 40 people and looking to grow again to 200 as fast as possible!

It was super exciting to find out more about his story to date, secrets to success and plans moving forward.

One thing I really respected about Alex was his conviction in the strategy behind HOW his team operates post pandemic. He has a team 100% in the office and will not allow remote working unless the government says otherwise. 

He believes this is a huge opportunity to build culture and get ahead of the competition. You may choose to agree or disagree but I love the confidence and direction he displayed.

If you would like to chat to Alex directly either to enquire about joining his team or to pick his brains on all things start up life then reach out via LinkedIn here.

Please note in 2022 we will be live on LinkedIn each Wednesday NOT Thursdays like in 2021 - this will typically be at 12pm UK time but is subject to change!

The RAG Episode 12 Sponsors:

Vincere joins forces with Access Group. They’re partners with the heavyweight who shares their vision of providing a single operating system for the front, middle and back office of recruitment firms, on a global scale. Vincere has the same people, same vision, but with way more firepower. Press Release here. 

You can visit www.vincere.io/rag to book a demo - RAG listeners will recieve an exclusive deal.

District4 provide support for experienced recruiters to launch their own businesses. They offer an impressive start-up package which includes taking care of the back office, providing coaching and implementing a suite of technology products, meaning recruitment entrepreneurs can focus on what they do best: providing an excellent service to their clients and candidates.

If you're thinking about starting your own recruitment agency, speak to District4 about the kind of support they can provide. Launching a business successfully takes a lot of hard work and preparation. Even if you aren’t planning anything for a few months, get the support you need sooner and you’ll stand the best chance of success when the time is right for you.

Visit www.district4.io/hoxo for more information.

On this week's show, I'm joined by Jonathan Berry, the director of the Middle East region for Robert Walters Group.

I’ve known him for five years and have been working with him for four years. 

Jonathan was the first staff member at Robert Walters to join my bootcamp. And I'm now working with over 700 recruiters across the Group. 

Jonathan came to Dubai after working for Robert Walters in Sydney, and is now running the business in the region. 

In this episode, he shares his journey from being a lawyer to transitioning into recruitment and building a successful recruitment desk in Dubai. Jonathan discusses the challenges and opportunities of working in the Middle East market and the impact of COVID-19 on recruitment. 

We also reflect on his leadership role and the importance of personal branding in his success so far. Jonathan explains how LinkedIn has translated into revenue and emphasises the need for a long-term strategy rather than a short-term focus. 

Takeaways

• Transitioning from law to recruitment requires adaptability and a willingness to learn new skills.
• Building a successful recruitment desk in Dubai involves strategic hiring, building client relationships, and understanding the local market.
• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted recruitment in Dubai, with many jobs being put on hold or canceled.
• Effective leadership involves trust, clear communication, and the ability to motivate and support team members.
• Personal branding is essential for recruiters to establish credibility and attract clients and candidates. LinkedIn provides value by building connections based on shared interests.
• Consistent messaging and content creation on LinkedIn can lead to revenue generation.
• A long-term strategy on LinkedIn is more effective than a short-term focus (Consistency is key) 
• LinkedIn can help you get in the room with potential clients and candidates – and keep you there!
• Cultural inclusivity and motivation are important aspects of building and managing teams.
• The Middle East offers exciting growth opportunities for recruitment agencies.
• Consider the balance between personal and professional life when making career decisions.
• Being an intrapreneur within a company like RW can provide support and resources for growth.

A great guy with a refreshing approach to recruitment – take notes, as this is super valuable! 

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say, last year was tricky for the recruitment sector globally. Many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamlining where possible.

However, accessing lower-cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance. But anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time-consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4-stage interview and online testing process to find the top 1% and secure these people roles in UK agencies doing research,...

I'm super excited to be joined by Oliver Legg, the co-founder of Aspiron Search, a specialist headhunter in the cybersecurity market operating from the UK but placing people all over the US.

Oliver started his career as a regional sales manager for a home security installation company seven years ago.  

Today, alongside Joe his co-founder, they generate over 7 figures a year with a team of five in the cybersecurity market. 

A super modern agency with a focus on brand and content (their podcast alone last year made them 320,000 in net fee income)

Takeaways

• The challenging but rewarding transition from sales to recruitment 

• Key to launching a business during a pandemic 

• The importance of a supportive network and the right guidance

• The challenges of growing a team in 2022

• Navigating expectations from the market

• Adapting and the value of consistency in the early stages of a new business 

If you're looking to grow your business or want to launch your own agency and want to hear from someone who didn't start too long ago, but is having an amazing journey, then you've got to listen to this!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:26 Oliver's Journey into Recruitment

06:12 Transition from Sales to Recruitment

09:03 Joining Iceberg and Early Success

14:21 Starting Asperon Search

25:29 Early Success and Growth

28:29 Working with Recruit Hub

31:17 Opening the Crawley Office

34:12 Boom Time and Hiring

35:12 Introduction to Triuntapped

36:12 Process of Working with Triuntapped

37:08 Benefits of Using Triuntapped

37:37 Challenges of Growing a Team in 2022

38:59 Lessons Learned in 2022

40:43 Adapting the Business Model

43:10 The Impact of Change on the Business

44:39 The Importance of Consistency and Adaptation

45:07 Navigating the Challenges of 2023

46:04 The Resilience of the Business

47:29 The Power of LinkedIn and Content Creation

49:24 Investing in the Business

50:51 Starting a Business and Lessons Learned

53:46 The Decision to Move to Bournemouth

56:06 The Impact of the Move on the Team

58:01 Current Way of Working

59:27 Future Hiring Plans

01:02:16 The Benefits of Being Together

01:05:38 Goals for 2024

01:08:41 Closing Remarks

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say, last year was tricky for the recruitment sector globally. Many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamlining where possible.

However, accessing lower-cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance. But anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time-consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4-stage interview and online testing...

On this week's show, I don't have a live guest. I have been away, and unfortunately, a few of the guests have not been able to record their own yet.

So, instead, I'm bringing back one of the most listened to and interesting episodes I've ever recorded, and that's with James Caan CBE. 

Most people know James Caan from his time on Dragons’ Den. What most people don't know is that James made his money from the recruitment sector.

James launched his own business, Alexander Mann Solutions, and is now the founder of Recruitment Entrepreneur, helping recruiters startup and scale up recruitment organisations all over the world. 

James is a celebrity, and in this episode that I recorded at the beginning of 2021, we got right into James's story and advice for anyone else growing, starting, launching, and becoming a successful recruitment owner.

We covered:

🎙Launching, growing and selling Alexander Mann in 2013 for £260 million

🎙How he felt when he had enough money to retire at 42 years old

🎙Growing Humana International and moving into private equity with Hamilton Bradshaw

🎙Launching Recruitment Entrepreneur in 2014, investing in more than 32 founders to date

🎙The impact his 3 million LinkedIn followers had on his career/business?

🎙Why he loves the industry and keeps on going when he simply doesn’t need to!

James is really humble, honest, and genuine. I hope you get value from this episode. 

__________________________________________

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Sponsor

‘Wow’ your clients by uncovering tactics and power plays for high-impact candidate submissions.

Download Vincere's eBook "Techify Your Client Experience Strategy"

 -Learn Candidate-driven strategies

 -How to offer the “VIP” treatment

- Leverage tech for high-impact collaboration

Link: https://personalbrand.hoxomedia.com/vincere

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast, I am joined by Ben Duffill.

Ben is the Managing Director of MRG Group, The Management Recruitment Group. 

They’re a 60-person recruitment organisation headquartered in London, with multiple global offices.

Ben has a really unique and interesting story in our sector. 

He went to university at 18 years old and quit within six weeks.

Back in Essex, he then managed to get himself into a recruitment career with Hays. This decision set him off on a trajectory to be successful in the future.

Now, at the age of 35, in the second business he's worked for, he's top of the tree. 

He is working for the founder as the Managing Director and has equity in the business.

Over the last 15 years, he's grown a family, he's been through ups and downs, but he's been very clear on his vision, what he wants to achieve, and how he can achieve his dreams of being an “intrepreneur”.

Usually, I interview entrepreneurs who have founded their own business, but I do not want everyone in recruitment to believe that the only way you're going to succeed is if you leave and set up your own company. 

Ben has proven that you can be super successful by staying with a business as long as one thing happens, and that is what we're gonna talk about in today's episode.

Sponsor: Vincere

A message to all recruitment leaders looking to upgrade their CRM: Before you sign the contract, be sure to read the terms at least twice.

Common traps to watch out for:

- Not understanding the pricing model

- Discounts limited to only the 1st year of contract length

- Monthly contracts - this could mean flexibility for the vendor to raise prices

- Data hosting - anything outside your country could mean compliance & legal issues

Get Vincere’s 10-step guide to keep your vendor due diligence & evaluation process airtight: https://bit.ly/3C2G1s3

Today I was delighted to be joined on Hoxo LinkedIn Live by Andy Shatwell, MD Charlton Morris, a 70 staff agency headquartered in Leeds UK

Andy has a business that is thriving and his whole team are invested in using marketing to win business and educate candidate communities!

This is literally the future of our industry as I see it!

In today’s episode we discussed:

🎙 How in he grew to 50 staff with relative ease

🎙 How they organically grew their marketing department 

🎙 How they invested 500k into an office that was opening in April 2020 (but didn't due to CV19)

🎙 How they have become a media publisher in their chosen markets and are years ahead of the competition

An awesome guy who is humble and happy to help -get in touch directly to find out more!

-------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On this week’s show, I'm joined by Kyle Grainger, our newest RAG sponsor and the founder of a six month old recruitment agency, Untapped. 

Untapped specialise in finding remote, highly experienced recruiters for recruitment agencies in UK, US, Middle East, and Australia, sourced from untapped, low cost locations such as the Philippines and South Africa.

The benefit of this model is that you can hire people with a proven track record, who don’t need too much management and training at a fraction of the cost of an equivalent hire in your location!

As you may know, 75% of Team Hoxo is based in South Africa and I can say from experience that this has been an amazing move for us!

The reason I brought Kyle on the show so early on in his journey was simple:

1. Having raw conversations with people in the first six months will give any new or aspiring recruitment owner the opportunity to find out what the beginning stages of launching a company is really like
2. I 100% believe in what these guys are doing and have already used them for sourcing our talent internally!

2023 has been a tough market and cost control has been on the agenda for most of us!

Untapped provides a cost reduction, high quality talent solution.

It's a complete no brainer. So listen up, take notes and reach out to Kyle if you're interested. 

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Our trusted partner RecruitHub helps new founders launch their own recruitment business in the UK, US & UAE. The community is growing rapidly with over 70 founders on the RecruitHub platform.

Everything you need to launch your own recruitment business with ease.

- Receive 100% of the fees you bill

- Own full commercial control of your business and increase its value

- Cutting-edge tech stack, from ATS to sales automation

- No admin - we handle everything from company registration to contracts, to finance and support

- No setup costs on the platform, no recurring fixed costs, and no surprise fees

If you're thinking of taking the next step in your career and want to discuss your business idea, please book a confidential chat with RecruitHub's team or learn more here: https://www.recruit-hub.com/uk-awareness/

Episode Sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say it’s been a tricky year for the recruitment sector globally, many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamline where possible.

However, accessing lower cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance, but anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4 stage interview and online testing process to find the top 1% and secure these people roles in UK agencies doing research, marketing, finance, sourcing, end to end recruiting, coordination and account...

On this week’s show I’m sharing one of the most powerful episodes I've ever recorded with a lady called Janette Marx. 

Jeanette is the global CEO at a company called Airswift, a huge workforce, staffing and solutions organisation headquartered in the US with 62 offices worldwide, 900 employees, and 7500 contractors that they support. 

Jeanette's been with the business for nine years and in the recruitment industry for over 20 years. She previously worked for Adecco and was leading a huge operation for them across the US.

What I love about Jeanette is her mindset and how she's done what she's done while going through so much!

She's an author of a book called Together We Rise, which she co-authored after the pandemic with 16 other female leaders in the staffing industry globally.

She shared how she’s grown her career as an entrepreneur and become a global CEO as a female whilst having a baby and running a business. Everything she's done to get to where she was at the beginning of 2023. 

And then we talked about the impact of finding out that she had stage two breast cancer at the beginning of March this year and how she dealt with the news.

Because the book she wrote was about dealing with crisis moments and stress and how to stay calm, she managed to put everything in the book into practice and between the beginning of March and the end of April, she was back to work, cancer free.

She went through a series of different operations, she built a team of doctors around her and she took control of a life or death situation and has come back to work with a different sense of appreciation for life. 

She's still incredibly motivated to give back, build a business and help her people, but she also has calmness, which has come from getting through something so serious.

In this episode there were moments where I had to take a deep breath and as I was getting quite emotional myself. I'm just inspired by such an amazing woman who and what she's achieved. And I think anyone out there who's dealt with serious illness themselves or seen their family members or friends go through it can resonate.

And anyone who's at the helm or wants to be at the helm of a larger business, you can also resonate with with different things we discussed. 

If you’re interested in reading ‘Together We Rise’, you can find it here: https://amzn.to/3KglF41

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support, and resources to take you from what I call an offline recruiter, reliant on posting jobs and sending in emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to an online recruiter, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up with in six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons

1) Whilst I've been building the RAG podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients.In less than two years, we built a business generating from zero to over 1 million...

Today’s episode was EPIC! It was funny, serious, honest and inspiring all in one...

Andy Larholt is the Founder and CEO of Montash - a 16 year old  international technology recruitment agency in London

An exceptional biller at S3 from 18-24 yrs old, Andy launched Montash from his bedroom in his mid 20’s! 16 years later, on his 42nd birthday he has over 50 staff working from London, servicing clients around the world. 

And what a journey he has had!

In this episode we discussed:

🎙The story of starting in recruitment at 18 and launching his agency at 24

🎙How he spent his early commission on a rolex and a new flat in Canary Wharf (he laughs at this now)

🎙The first 8 years of Montash being a small and hugely profitable agency which allowed him a lifestyle that not many people his age have lived!

🎙How he decided to grow the business in 2011 and implement process and structure

🎙Why he regrets not taking a huge offer to sell the business in 2015

🎙HIs decision to step back after this and appoint an MD to grow the business to 3 offices and 100+ staff

🎙Why he came back as CEO in 2019 and ‘cut the grass’ to grow a better more scalable business in the future

High energy and so many stories, you can’t help but love Andy when you listen! An all round great guy with incredible stories and experience, if you want to know more or ask for some advice then DM him on Linkedin!

---------

Sponsors:

District4: https://bit.ly/3rSuE01

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W 

On this week’s episode, I was joined by Matthew Baird, the Founder of Baird & Co Recruitment, which is part of District4. 

Matt has been in recruitment since 2012 and has worked for a number of agencies recruiting into the social housing sector.

During the pandemic, he became disillusioned with working for other people, and at a time of real uncertainty he made the bold and scary decision to start up alone…

However, he didn’t have the finances or the knowledge to manage all areas of the start-up process, so he decided to partner with our sponsor District4. 

In this episode, we discussed the reality of his first 16 months as a business owner, which have included a number of highs and lows.

Most notably, I found out that:

• His first deal happened within 3 weeks and was his largest EVER deal!
• He took his foot off the gas during the summer as things were going well, which began to bite him in Q3 when sales dried up and he made no deals for 2 months!
• He worked with his District4 coach to build a robust plan that works for him to drive successful outcomes daily

Matt is another great example of what it takes to thrive in today’s recruitment start-up community. If you would like to speak to Matt directly about his story or D4, then feel free to contact him directly via LinkedIn!

Vincere

If you're following Vincere’s LinkedIn page, you'll notice that they’ve been sharing stories from their customer community on a weekly basis.

If you're shopping for a CRM or wondering if there's something better out there, check out Vincere. They have a library of customer stories from all sectors and recruitment types, be it perm, exec, contract and temp, available on Youtube.

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I was delighted to be joined by Amy Golding

Amy Golding is the CEO of Opus Talent Solutions, Headquartered in Bristol, UK, Opus has more than 1,000 clients in over 50 countries with 300 staff across eight offices spanning the UK, the Netherlands, Australia and the US.

I met Amy back in late 2017 and found her to be truly inspiring, she had such grand plans for the business.

Recently acquired by Graphite Capital a UK mid-market private equity specialist- this conversation was fascinating!

In this episode we discussed:

• Her journey from Deloitte to becoming Business Advisor to James Caan CBE
• Launching Recruitment Entrepreneur
• Joining Opus as CEO and taking over from Founder Darren Ryemill in 2017
• How they made the decision to reduce the business from 13 to 3 brands and become true specialists in Tech and Energy markets.
• Becoming a Mother in Feb 2020 and then surviving the pandemic from March onwards
• Story of securing PE investment in 2021 
• The vision for Opus future

A remarkable leader who is respected across our sector, I know you will love this episode!

----

Thank you again to our friends and sponsor today - Odro.co.uk .

Have you heard about Odro's up and coming new framework that's launching this week? If you don't follow the guys, you might not have so let me tell you about it....

Based on conversations from the best of the best in the recruitment space, the guys have pulled together a new framework that helps recruiters create more meaningful and longer-lasting connections with clients and candidates at various different touchpoints throughout the process. It's literally a diagram that really just distils all the opportunities throughout the process where video can be used to help to better attract, assess and provide aftercare, for improved relationships. Look it sounds simple, right? 

And, actually, it is. But when you see it down on paper like that, it's amazing how many opportunities you realise most businesses are probably missing. 

Hit the guys up at odro.co.uk/demo and I'm sure they'll be happy to send it on.

---

Thanks also to our second sponsor Vincere.io - are officially launching in the US with a new office in Atlanta.. Whilst they have gathered US Clients, they strategically held back from going into the US until they were ready to hire a team and do it in full vinny style! They are ready and looking to work with agencies with 20+ users - as they want to ensure the support is in place to cater for the wider demand of the smaller agencies!

If you are in the US or UK and interested in finding out more about Vincere, they offer great discounts for RAG Listeners so use www.vincere.io/rag

I'm super excited to be joined by Mirtes Lobaito, the CEO and founder of AGM Tech Solutions, a recruitment firm headquartered in New Jersey in the US.

Mirtes shares her inspirational journey from Brazil to the US, where she started her business with no English language skills and worked her way up from cleaning homes to tech sales. 

She eventually entered the recruitment industry and decided to start her own company. 

Despite facing challenges and self-doubt, Mirtes grew AGM Tech Solutions into a successful IT staffing firm, achieving over $100 million in revenue in just five years. 

And she's done all of this whilst raising three children too :)

Mirtes’s energy is incredible – her story inspired me, and I’m sure you will be too!  

Takeaways

• Advice for achieving success even in the face of massive challenges and self-doubt
• The power of relationship and excellent service when you’re trying to build a business 
• Leveraging the support and knowledge of others can help overcome obstacles and learn new skills
• How to prioritise results over perfection. Start with what needs to be done right now!
• Remote work and building a distributed team to serve clients in different markets better
• Focusing on solid client relationships and how to become an extension of their team 
• Believing in the impact of your work and allowing yourself to dream big  

If you are looking for a story to get you off the ground and start or inspiration to drive your recruitment business even further, this is the one for you.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the RAG podcast

00:57 Overview of AGM Tech Solutions

06:18 Mirtes' decision to stay in the US

08:54 Mirtes' transition into tech sales

10:46 Mirtes' success as a salesperson

13:02 Mirtes' entry into the recruitment industry

20:45 Setting up AGM Tech Solutions

23:57 Building the team and growing the business

29:35 AGM Tech Solutions' growth and recognition

33:21 Building a business in a post-COVID way

34:19 The rationale behind dotted locations

36:31 Engaging with candidates and clients post-COVID

38:01 Winning business by becoming an extension of the customer

39:02 Opening the door with new business

40:09 The role of the CEO

47:19 The vision for the future

53:26 Balancing work and life

01:00:00 Tips for starting a recruitment agency

__________________________________________

Episode sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say, last year was tricky for the recruitment sector globally. Many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamlining where possible.

However, accessing lower-cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance. But anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time-consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4-stage interview and online testing...

For this episode, I’m excited to be joined by Daniel Puttick, the founder of LINKS Recruitment Group.

They’re headquartered in Cardiff, with 25 staff in offices in Birmingham and Bristol.

Dan started the business in 2017 and reached rather quick success.

He saw 7 figures of revenue and record profits inside the first few years. 

In Dan’s words, he got to a point where he thought he'd made it. 

As they were making more and more money, he began investing in different businesses.

He began starting work at different times, leaving the team to run the business.

He essentially took his foot off the gas… 

It soon backfired!

In this episode we talked about:

🎙️How Daniel got to the point where his business was in a great place

🎙️What happened to the business when he took his foot off the gas

🎙️Daniel being quite a controlling leader and what he's had to do to learn from his own mistakes 

🎙️How he had to change himself to make the business flourish

Dan was super candid and super humble in his approach, and you can see he's got his fire back to take the business to the next level. 

So anyone listening to this who's thinking about starting a business, this is a real honest account of the highs and the lows, the reality of what you must consider.

But also, if you're in the thick of growth and you think you might be at a point where you can take your foot off the gas, hopefully, this might keep you in the right direction. 

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Thinking about starting a recruitment business in the UK or US? 

Download your startup blueprint and access key information including:

- Funding – how much do you need, and what are your options

- Knowing where you stand - decode your non-compete and understand your restrictions

- Co-founder MUST-knows

- How to automate your way to faster billings

- Business plan basics – what are they, and how do you write one?

- Naming & brand-building – creating a brand that stands out

And more…

Get your copy at recruit-hub.com/startup-blueprint

On this week’s show, I am joined by Adrian O'Connor, the founder of Global Accounting Network (GAN) 

Founded in 2011, GAN is a business of over 27 people headquartered in the UK with an office in Atlanta. 

In this episode, we talked about his journey of growth during the last 12 years, including:

How he has built a remote-first culture with UK headquarters and a US based business all whilst personally living and working from Lisbon, Portugal

How he and his team have built a methodology and a process that has enabled them to have a much higher fill rate in the downturn of the economy. So as job flow has decreased, their fill rate has gone up to 78%.

So if you're interested in building a remote-first company, having a US-based office, living abroad and working completely remotely, or you just want to know more about how you can have a much stronger fill rate in today's economy, this episode is for you.

I hope you enjoy this episode!

__________________________________________

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Thinking about starting a recruitment business in the UK or US? 

Download your startup blueprint from RecruitHub and access key information including:

- Funding – how much do you need, and what are your options

- Knowing where you stand - decode your non-compete and understand your restrictions

- Co-founder MUST-knows

- How to automate your way to faster billings

- Business plan basics – what are they, and how do you write one?

- Naming & brand-building – creating a brand that stands out

And more…

Get your copy at recruit-hub.com/startup-blueprint

Today I was delighted to be joined on The RAG Podcast Live with James Fernandes and Simon Gardiner, the Co-Founders of Carrington West, an award winning agency specialising in technical recruitment for the built environment in the UK.

Launched in Jan 2011, these guys have been on an epic journey!

In this episode,  we discussed:

🎙How and why they left to start the business

🎙Their start up story working from a brothers garage with no heating (and fingerless gloves)

🎙The move to bring on more partners to lead the business in the early days

🎙Their secret to getting the best out of their people

🎙The business today and his vision for future growth!

A pleasure to interview such energetic and inspiring founders, they are more than willing to support the next generation of recruitment owners!

If you would like to chat to James or Simon directly please contact them via LinkedIn!

-------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On this week’s episode, I'm excited to be joined by an old friend, Joe Curtis. 

Initially, Joe was the founder of a recruitment company called 3Search, which then led to building a bigger business called 11 Investments. 

11 Investments is a series of niche recruitment organisations that work together and share a common goal with a central operational function. 

Joe's role as founder is to bring more people into the portfolio, both people who want to start their own recruitment company and also people who want to work for the portfolio. 

He's been responsible for growing the business to 100 people, which they’ve managed to do sustainably and profitably with a clear plan.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Joe’s journey of nine years of growth
• How remaining profitable throughout that process is really important. Manyrecruitment organisations don't make any money, and as a result, they suffer in times like this
• The importance of running a business with a clear direction
• The debate around working in the office and working from home. 3Search, 11 Investments, and the whole portfolio believe in working together in an office in London three days a week with a little bit of flexibility, and they're very clear on how and why they've built it that way

So, if you are in a position right now where you are feeling that, post covid, you don't really know the best way to run your firm - whether it's remote, in-house, or a combination - then you need to listen to this because Joe explains it perfectly. 

He's got to a headcount of 100 and they’re going towards 200, so there's a lot to  learn from this episode.

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support and resources to take you from what I call an offline recruiter, reliant on posting jobs and sending in emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to an online recruiter, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up with in six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons

1) Whilst I've been building the RAG podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients in less than two years. We built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn leading to multimillion pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2) Our track record - not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,000 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds of interest to you, make sure you fill in our contact form and we’ll tell you how we can help: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Epispde Sponsor: RecruitHub

Our trusted partner RecruitHub helps new founders launch their own recruitment business in the UK, US & UAE. The community is growing rapidly with over 70 founders on the RecruitHub platform.

Everything you need to launch your own recruitment business with ease.

- Receive 100% of the fees you bill

- Own full commercial control of your business and increase its value

-...

Today I was joined by Dan Moussa and Kevin Warner, the founders of Telesca. 

Telesca is an 11 month old recruitment business headquartered in Brisbane with a completely unique model. 

These guys recruit in the energy and sustainability space and in a short space of time they’ve built a business with the following

1. 100% retained (30% upfront / 70% on success)
2. Productised model with clear pricing and delivery structure
3. Utlisation of Offshore experienced recruiters in Philippines.
4. Soon to be 11 staff, every member of the team has 7+ yrs of experience

 In 11 months, they've generated over 7 figures but most importantly, they’ve done it in their own way!

In this episode, we talk about

• How they met
• How they started the business
• Why they started the business
• How they have achieved the 4 steps above!

We really go into detail about this model because I genuinely think it's amazing. I mean, it's super profitable, super scalable and sustainable as well, win win!

You don’t wanna miss this!

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: RecruitHub

Our trusted partner RecruitHub helps new founders launch their own recruitment businesses in the UK, US & UAE. The community is growing rapidly, with over 70 founders on the RecruitHub platform.

Everything you need to launch your own recruitment business with ease.

- Receive 100% of the fees you bill

- Own full commercial control of your business and increase its value

- Cutting-edge tech stack, from ATS to sales automation

- No admin - we handle everything from company registration to contracts, to finance and support

- No setup costs on the platform, no recurring fixed costs, and no surprise fees

If you're thinking of taking the next step in your career and want to discuss your business idea, please book a confidential chat with RecruitHub's team or learn more here: https://www.recruit-hub.com/uk-awareness/

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say it’s been a tricky year for the recruitment sector globally. Many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamlining where possible.

However, accessing lower-cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance. But anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time-consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4-stage interview and online testing process to find the top 1% and secure these people roles in UK agencies doing research, marketing, finance, sourcing, end-to-end recruiting, coordination and account management. 

All candidates are benchmarked against UK competency frameworks and are tested for the highest level of communication and language...

In today’s episode, I was completely solo.

In light of the recent restrictions by the government, I wanted to give you an update on what I have seen from speaking to over 200 companies this week.

Also as we enter Q4 of 2020 there are some big changes coming to The RAG Podcast!

We are going to be focussing on the future of our industry, what's working now and what's not as you look to grow your agency in the new digital economy..

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

This week, I'm super excited to be joined by Alex Woodhead, the founder of a brand new 10-day-old talent and engineering consultancy called Apera. 

A business that specialises in recruitment for future mobility, space and clean energy. This is a super niche futuristic market with so much space for growth. And it isn’t Alex’s first time attacking it! 

We talk about how Alex started in recruitment: his journey from trainee to Director in his first firm, how he co-founded a company called Strativ, and built one of the fastest-growing recruitment companies on the planet. 

Within four years, they had a 100+ headcount and £13 million in NFI. 

Find out how they achieved this and why, a year later, he negotiated his exit and started his own business once again. 

Alex is one of those founders who has a crazy work ethic, unbelievable self-confidence and belief in what he’s doing.

But what stands out about Alex – and we get into it in this episode – is that his success is not a result of having the best sales skills. It's about having the best product and then building a business around that product. 

Takeaways

• Building the best product in your industry is crucial for success 

• Confidence is not about being the best salesperson but about believing in what you’re doing

• Leaving a business can be a difficult decision, but you always need to prioritise personal happiness and growth

• Creating something special and having a meaningful impact should be the driving force behind any business

• Focusing on specific markets and going deeper than anyone else is what leads to success and builds trust

• In order to grow sustainably, you need to find the balance between being profitable and scaling 

If you want to grow your recruitment firm or just listen and learn from one of the best leaders in our industry, then you do not want to miss this episode!

__________________________________________

Episode sponsor: Untapped

Safe to say, last year was tricky for the recruitment sector globally. Many have had to operate through uncertain times, making tough calls and streamlining where possible.

However, accessing lower-cost resources internationally has proven to be the 2023 cheat code for business performance. But anyone who has tried it knows it’s not easy to get right. That’s where Untapped comes in. 

Untapped is one of the hottest companies in the market right now, helping agencies in the UK, US, Middle East and Australia transition to the new world, leverage elite remote individuals and even build whole offshore sourcing and recruiting teams. 

They source from the most exciting talent pools on the planet for recruitment staff and embed elite talent into your company to improve diversity, productivity and the cost of your teams. Your UK team will also love the help with some of the repetitive, time-consuming work that lands on their desk, improving their job satisfaction. 

They put around 3000 candidates per month through an intense 4-stage interview and online testing process to find the top 1% and secure these people roles in UK agencies doing research, marketing, finance, sourcing, end-to-end recruiting, coordination and account management. 

All candidates are benchmarked against UK competency frameworks and are tested for the highest level of communication and language skills.  

It’s a simple process: You pay a deposit to kick off the search, they provide a candidates shortlist in 14...

On this week's episode on LinkedIn Live, I was be joined by our new Hoxo US Sales Lead - Joel Lalgee!

I was so excited to record this!

Joel and I connected in mid 2020 after he had been consuming this very podcast. We have been discussing how we see the recruitment industry evolving ever since!

In this show we talked about:

🎙How he went from 10-40k followers on LinkedIn inside 12 months

🎙How he structures his daily content to generate MILLIONS of views per week

🎙How this helped him in his Recruitment Agency career in USA

🎙Why he joined Hoxo and his plans for our US presence

A great guy and a real asset to our business, I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together in 2021!

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On today’s episode of The RAG Podcast I was joined by Adrian Carboni, the founder and CEO of Masento, a specialist technology recruitment agency in London.

Adrian launched Masento 5 years ago after a 15-year career with his previous employer! 

From being one of the top billers in the company to leading the most profitable division, Adrian was granted shares in the business that were projected to yield life-changing returns.

In this episode, Adrian talks at length about the reasons for walking away from the business and what he has learned from 5 years of leading a growing recruitment agency.

Honest, humble, and always adding humour, it's no surprise that Adrian and his team are onto something special!

The RAG sponsors

Vincere:

Nailing your CRM tech strategy Playbook

Vincere published a playbook, like a buyers guide, for those shopping around for a new system. 

Inside you will find:

• ROI-driven strategy to building out a comprehensive feature checklist
• How to assemble an effective CRM evaluation team
• Battle-tested compliance & security vendor scorecards
• Understanding inclusion versus integration
• Power plays & frameworks for vendor due diligence

Download here:  https://bit.ly/3C2G1s3

Go to www.vincere.io/rag to book a demo - RAG listeners get an exclusive deal!

District 4

Do you feel like you’re not surrounded by peers and you’ve stopped learning? Imagine only working alongside other experienced recruiters who you can really collaborate with while having the freedom to do it your way. If you’re thinking of a change check out District4 where you can launch your own business and not be alone!

Visit www.district4.io/hoxo  to see what they can do for you.

I’m still on paternity leave, so I'm going to give you another super valuable piece of content from my recent Personal Brand Taster series. 

In this week's episode, I want to feature the 4 steps that any recruitment company can adopt to become what I call an inbound recruiter.

And that is a recruiter that:

✔️ Lives off warm leads

✔️ Is spotting 25 warm leads a week on LinkedIn and turning that into business

So I'm going to give you four actionable steps that you can take today to do less outbound activity and more inbound activity. 

It's only going to be a maximum of 30 minutes. It's super valuable so take notes.

Enjoy the session.

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support, and resources to take you from what I call “an offline recruiter”, reliant on posting jobs and sending in emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to “an online recruiter”, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up within six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons:

1) While I've been building The RAG Podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients. In less than two years, we built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn leading to multimillion-pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2) Our track record - not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,700 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds interesting to you, make sure you fill in our contact form and we’ll tell you how we can help: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Vincere

Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they

need in one place.

Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal straight within your Vincere account and

configure it to your own brand and theme so it feels like you.

You can publish jobs from Vincere’s Job Portal and sync them directly to your website in one

easy click. You can also offer candidates a quick and easy job search interface, so it’s made easy for them to find their perfect role.

And for your clients, you can offer them unique logins so they can access everything

they need 24/7, so they can rate and review candidates and arrange interviews.

Find out more on vincere.io/rag

On this week's show, I am delighted to welcome back a previous guest, David Spencer Percival, known as DSP. His last episode was one of most listened to episodes I ever recorded!

David is the founder of Life Science People, a specialist life science people recruitment firm headquartered in London with offices in LA. 

They've got over 85 heads and they're only two and a half years old!

I interviewed David in November 2021, where he'd grown to 65 staff  in 11 months.We'd also talked about his story. 

Before he was the founder he was part of a number of businesses. He’s most famous for Spencer Ogden but he was also involved in two other businesses that grew to a £100 million in growth and over 500 staff. 

The reason we brought him on this week was to talk about the reality of the recession right now.

When we interviewed in 2021, the market was going mad. 

There were deals going in for fun and it was an easy place to make money. Life science people were growing super fast! 

But by September 2022, the whole market changed. 

In this episode David explained how perm recruitment literally ‘fell off a cliff’, and it was only because of contract revenue that the business was able to stay afloat.

He lost £800,000 in three months at the end of 2022. They're now seeing a change as there's some positive signs. 

In this episode, we cover:

• Launching the US office just before the recession hit and the impact of that. 

• How he kept himself sane, focused and positive despite confidence dropping all over the place

• How he's managed to work with a whole team of rookies, bearing in mind, his whole model is based on academy graduates - training and keeping a lot of these guys

• What he sees happening and predictions for the future. 

If you are suffering and you're feeling that the market's a little bit turbulent, listen to David. You'll get some real quality information that you can action.

__________________________________________

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Sponsor

‘Wow’ your clients by uncovering tactics and power plays for high-impact candidate submissions.

Download Vincere's eBook "Techify Your Client Experience Strategy"

 -Learn Candidate-driven strategies

 -How to offer the “VIP” treatment

- Leverage tech for high-impact collaboration

Link: https://personalbrand.hoxomedia.com/vincere

On this week’s episode of The RAG Podcast, I am joined by Chris Allaire, the founder and CEO of Averity, a specialist technology recruitment agency.

Averity was initially headquartered in New York City but is now operating across the USA.

They have 30 employees, are completely remote post-pandemic, and were awarded the best staffing firm to work for in the 10 to 20 employees bracket by the Staffing Industry Analyst, SIA, in 2022.

Chris has got energy and is a big biller! This is his eighth startup team, and he clearly comes with a pedigree of knowledge and confidence that has enabled him to not only grow a business to 30 employees in eight years, but to grow one that is incredible to work for!

In this episode, we break down Chris’ career and his mindset around building a team and business, and what has made his organisation the best place to work for in the USA.

Loads of information, loads of energy, loads of inspiration. I hope you’ll enjoy the episode as much as I did recording it.

__________________________________________

Sponsor: RecruitHub*

Thinking about starting a recruitment business in the UK or US? 

Download your startup blueprint and access key information including:

-Funding – how much do you need, and what are your options

-Knowing where you stand - decode your non-compete and understand your restrictions

-Co-founder MUST-knows

-How to automate your way to faster billings

-Business plan basics – what are they, and how do you write one?

-Naming & brand-building – creating a brand that stands out

And more…

Get your copy at recruit-hub.com/startup-blueprint

Today I was delighted to be joined on Hoxo LinkedIn Live by James Johnson, Founder of District4 and former CEO of global recruitment group Nicoll Curtin (rebranded as ‘The Hive’) 

James is a very articulate business leader who never actually worked as a recruiter before taking over his fathers business in 2014.

After growing the business across 4 global locations and learning lots along the way, he decided that leading a large traditional recruitment business was not actually aligned to his personality or ambitions. 

So he sold the group business and created a sub brand that sits in it’s portfolio.

In today’s episode we discussed:

🎙 How in he came to take over Nicoll Curtin

🎙 What he learnt about scaling the business globally

🎙 Why recruitment agencies will not make much profit between 15-60 staff

🎙 Why he decided to sell and start something completely different

🎙His vision for growing a modern recruitment community that is designed to fit EXACTLY what the modern top biller wants!

Intelligent, articulate and honest, I loved recording this episode with James! If you are interested to find out more about District4 or would like to pick his brains on anything re scaling a recruitment business then feel free to reach directly via Linkedin

-------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

In today's live episode of The RAG Podcast, I am again joined by my Project 500 partners Chris Redmond and Tim Roedel, alongside Diarmaid Casey the Deputy Headteacher of the school I used to work as a teacher 10 years ago!

Diarmaid openly discussed the reality of life for parents, teachers and school children in his area in the south east of Sheffield. 

He also confirmed that in his school alone - 333 students currently had no access to a laptop! That is one school, in one city across our nation…

It is devastating to hear these statistics.

We have to do something to help and we have to act now…

Project 500 is a scheme that is designed to help provide some of the UK's most disadvantaged families with the laptops they desperately need.

We are proud to announce that in week 1 we have raised over £32,000 which is exactly 200 laptops for 200 children - 40% of our £80,000 target!

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped us in week 1 - but we can’t stop now!

Please help by donating what you can - to do so please visit https://project500.hoxomedia.com/

In today’s episode, alongside co-host Pete Watson, I was joined on LinkedIn live by Paul Donovan, Regional Director at Bluefin Resources - Australia’s Number 1 Specialist Recruitment Agency.

Paul has been in the industry for over 20 years and has seen 2 x economic downturns. He moved from London to Brisbane almost 10 years ago and soon found himself settled in Melbourne where he has stayed ever since.

In today’s episode, Paul shared his experience of joining Bluefin Resources, a Powerhouse in Sydney at the team with the task of leading an underperforming office in Victoria to a profitable place.

Pauls attitude is an extremely positive one. He talks about the ‘people first’ agenda in his business and how they didn’t let a single employee go during the COVID pandemic.

I love how despite the longest lockdown in the world, Paul managed to stay calm, positive and find humour in every situation, if you would like to reach out to Paul and ask any questions directly, he is more than happy to help.

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast, I was joined by Jez Heard, the founder of Scale-Genesis, a specialist Blockchain & Crypto recruitment agency launched in November 2021

Jez is a 24 -year old lad from South Wales who is direct and honest! He only started in Recruitment in 2020 during the pandemic, and within less than 1 year decided to set up his own business

He worked 14-hour days, 7 days a week

He researched Blockchain and Crypto every single day

He built his personal brand on LinkedIn 

In 6 months he has 

• Billed £500k+
• Hired 6 recruiters 
• Built a personal brand reaching over 250k views a month across the recruitment industry which has helped him hire ALL his consultants and brought in 5 deals worth £100k

Jez is young, ambitious and probably a bit crazy - but it’s working!

An episode not to be missed,  if you would like to speak to Jez about his story then you can contact him directly on Linkedin!

Sponsor: 

Looking for a way to grow your recruitment business in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

More than 300 recruitment agencies are using Talent Ticker to automate their recruiters’ most monotonous tasks, help them predict who will be hiring 3 months in advance, and provide simple tools to identify ideal passive and active candidates to pitch for open roles.

Learn more at get.talentticker.ai/hoxo and take advantage of their special offer for our listeners.

On this week's show, I'm joined by James Emmett, CEO and founder of Hanover Group. 

Having recently interviewed Anthony Pitt, President at Hanover USA, I was really excited to welcome James, the original founder, on to the show.

James started the business 27 years ago and has now grown to an organisation of over hundred people across multiple international locations including both the UK and USA.

The business has not only grown organically, but also has a clear acquisition strategy too. 

In this episode, he talks at length about his buy and build strategy.

This is going to be super important for you to listen to if you are the type of organisation that wants to grow and potentially do this through a similar method. If you're a small recruitment organisation that might actually be interested in being acquired in the future then we also cover the pros and cons to the whole process.

__________________________________________

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support and resources to take you from what I call an offline recruiter, reliant on posting jobs and sending in emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to an online recruiter, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up with in six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons

1) Whilst I've been building the RAG podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients in less than two years. We built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn leading to multimillion pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2) Our track record - not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,000 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds of interest to you, make sure you fill in our contact form and we’ll tell you how we can help: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

RecruitHub Message

Over 70 founders have launched their businesses on RecruitHub in the UK, US, and UAE

One of them is Kyle Winterbottom, founder of Orbition Group, a niche, talent consultancy that operates exclusively in the Data, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence space across the UK, Europe, and USA.

In just a year of trading, the company has gone on to build an impressive client base in the Data and Analytics space and has an industry-leading podcast with more than 20,000 listeners in 128 countries.

Before joining RecruitHub, Kyle had spoken to other start-up support companies which either wanted him to invest a ton of money upfront, then he’d only own the percentage he’d invested against what it costs to start, or they wanted a lot of equity.

For Kyle, RecruitHub was a great option – they weren’t asking for money upfront to launch, they weren’t taking loads of equity and they wanted to be involved; the company has been able to lean on RecruitHub quite

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I was delighted to be joined by Dr. Aria, a high performance psychologist who works with A list actors, singer and C Suites execs and business owners from 7 figures to billion pound organisations (including recruitment agencies)

Just over 1 year ago today, I first heard about Dr. Aria when listening to his powerful story on The Diary of a CEO Podcast with Steven Bartlett..

I was recently single, living alone, and wondering WTF was going on with my life..

Dr Aria's had also been through a similar story personally and coaches people all over the world to stay at peak performance by better understanding their mind and body.

I felt compelled me to contact him and agreed to get to work right away..

I’ve spent 90 mins each week working with him to better understand my mindset.

Since then I feel I have learnt more about myself than ever before

I am clearly not the  finished article and that is ok... Every day is a learning experience..

In this episode we discussed his unique story; how he has helped me and revealed some practical advice for recruitment entrepreneurs and leaders to both feel and perform better each day..

You do not want to miss this!

If you are interested in speaking with Dr. Aria directly relating to his services or just some simple advice, then reach out to www.dr-aria.com or via LinkedIn and Instagram - @dr._aria

---

Thank you to our friends and sponsor today - Odro.co.uk . Odro announced their latest CRM integration yesterday! 

Their video engagement and interviewing tech is now fully baked into the JobAdder system. 

If you know the Odro team as well as I do, you'll know their developers don't do things by halves so it's safe to say it's a really slick integration into the JobAdder CRM that'll really help users to further streamline their processes and get the very best from the tech. The guys are already integrated with Bullhorn and Vincere and there are more to come. 

So if you're a JobAdder user, any of the others or you want to see what's coming next, get in touch with the guys for a demo. odro.co.uk/demo

Loads of my connections are already onboard and the feedback I hear is always really positive so check it out; trust me, it's well worth half an hour of your time. 

--- 

Thanks also to our second sponsor Vincere.io - are officially launching in the US with a new office in Atlanta.. Whilst they have gathered US Clients, they strategically held back from going into the US until they were ready to hire a team and do it in full vinny style! They are ready and looking to work with agencies with 20+ users - as they want to ensure the support is in place to cater for the wider demand of the smaller agencies!

If you are in the US or UK and interested in finding out more about Vincere, they offer great discounts for RAG Listeners so use www.vincere.io/rag

This week we welcome Clare Cooper back to The RAG Podcast for a third time! 

Clare is the founder of Storm3, the second brand in the Levin group.

I first interviewed Clare when she was a global lead for one of the world's most recognised recruitment brands. 

Clare launched Storm3 in Feb 2021, and I interviewed her for the second time just 4 weeks later - when she was the only employee of the business!

Today, Storm3 is 60 people strong, with teams in London, Amsterdam, Dallas, and Singapore. By the end of April, they’ll have reached 150 heads. 

Doing the first few months solo before immediately entering a period of hypergrowth, it is safe to say it’s been a hectic year.

Clare’s previous episodes have been some of the most listened to in RAG history, and this one doesn’t disappoint. 

The world is watching the growth of Storm3 with real interest. Find out why as we dive into Clare’s story!

The RAG episode 13 sponsor

Did you know: around 80% of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions by February? That’s a staggering statistic. Especially if you’d resolved to grow your recruitment business this year.

To support your growth goals in 2022, Talent Ticker is providing an exclusive list of the Top 50 fastest growing start-ups all recruiters should know about. Their data indicates these companies are all on the brink of a significant expansion, and are perfectly primed to decide on a recruitment partner.

You can download the list for free at: https://get.talentticker.ai/hoxo/

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast, I was joined by Toni, the Managing Director of Digital Gurus, a specialist Tech & Digital recruiter with 66 staff across offices in Manchester, London, Bristol and Birmingham.

Toni joined the business as a Senior Consultant 11 years ago. She’d had a successful career in recruitment in Leeds and fancied a change of company and city.

Little did she know when she arrived in Manchester that she would end up managing the whole business!

In this episode we discussed how she: 

• Entered the industry because she knew that earning money was the top priority for her after university. 
• Moved to ReThink Group (DG) and settled in Manchester
• Took on a leadership role and realised that she loved the challenge more than being an individual biller
• Nearly quit to go travelling but was offered the chance to take DG to Manchester and changed her mind
• Has grown into the MD and had 2 children in the same period
• Maintains her family as her priority and is focused on finding a great balance between home and work life
• Is taking the whole of August off work to travel with her kids during the summer!

An inspirational female business leader, we need more examples like Toni to make a positive change in our male dominated industry!

Sponsor: 

Looking for a way to grow your recruitment business in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

More than 300 recruitment agencies are using Talent Ticker to automate their recruiters’ most monotonous tasks, help them predict who will be hiring 3 months in advance, and provide simple tools to identify ideal passive and active candidates to pitch for open roles.

Learn more at get.talentticker.ai/hoxo and take advantage of their special offer for our listeners.

In today’s episode, I was joined on LinkedIn live by Kyle Winterbottom, Founder of Orbition - a startup niche Data, AI and Analytics recruitment business in Manchester UK.

Kyle started his business in Sept 2020 - the heart of this years pandemic. Having been in recruitment for 10 years and effectively starting 5 x teams / business units previously, he felt that it was about time he did this for the final time and for himself!

I have been SO impressed with Kyle on LinkedIn in 2020. I thought his business was much bigger than it is.

In this episode Kyle talks about how he sees ‘building a brand’ and ‘making placements’ as the same thing. In his last role he managed to make 98% of placements via a marketing focussed campaign, he now brings the same approach to his new business.

An amazing example of the modern recruitment business, Kyle is one to watch! If you would like to know more about how he executes on a daily basis then feel free to reach out to him directly on LinkedIn!

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

In today’s episode, I was joined on LinkedIn live by my Co-Host Pete Watson and Stephen Carter, Partner and the founder of Sharp & Carter, a leading Australian recruitment business with 100 staff across 5 offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

The first episode in our ‘Australian Lockdown’ series and what a guest to kick things off with!

In this episode, we talked about:

• Stephens business pre COVID
• The difficult decisions he was forced to make 
• How he personally dealt with feeling like he had let his people down
• How the business evolved to survive a 7 months lockdown
• His vision for the future and advice to UK recruitment business owners in Lockdown #2

An inspiring and authentic leader whom I have had the pleasure of working with personally as part of the Hoxo Academy, it was a true pleasure for Pete and I to interview him.

If you would like to know how to survive and thrive by truly put your people first- this is NOT to be missed!

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

Today I was delighted to be joined on The RAG Podcast Live with Recruitment Entrepreneur and former Dragon - James Caan CBE!

Although famous for his time on BBC TV, James is the most followed recruitment professional in the world today with over 3million Linkedin followers!

In this episode, we discussed:

🎙Launching, growing and selling Alexander Mann in 2013 for £260 million

🎙How he felt when he had enough money to retire at 42 years old

🎙Growing Humana International and moving into private equity with Hamilton Bradshaw

🎙Launching Recruitment Entrepreneur in 2014, investing in more than 32 founders to date

🎙The impact of his 3 million followers on Linkedin

🎙Why he loves the industry and keeps on going when he simply doesn’t need to!

A fascinating chat with James and for me the realisation that despite his huge success - he truly believes that growing a recruitment business is about investing in people and doing the basics well, every single day!

If you would like to chat to James directly please email him at jb@hbpe.com or via LinkedIn!

-------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

Super excited to be back for Season 3 of The RAG Podcast! 

In today’s episode I was joined by Lee Glynn, the CEO and Founder of Reliable Healthcare Group, a specialist healthcare recruitment agency based in Essex.

I wanted to kick off the new season with Lee as I knew he would be prepared to open up about his personal difficulties whilst also running an agency. Lee has suffered with severe anxiety and depression since childhood. Growing up without a father figure in his life and asthma so bad he missed 50% of school time, Lee talked about how difficult he found this time in his life. 

At the age of 17, Lee was a recruiter and after many issues, he attempted to take his own life. Thankfully, he was unsuccessful in his efforts.

Now 39, Lee has learned to open up about his troubles and developed strategies that enable him to not only survive but thrive as a business owner in today’s challenging environment. 

A powerful and honest story from a genuinely nice guy who just wants to help others.

We all have tough times, after speaking to Lee it made me even more confident that talking to trusted people is the key to dealing with mental health challenges.

If you or someone you know are experiencing similar feelings, please do feel free to reach out to Lee directly as he is open to talking and supporting you.

----------------

Rise Recruitment Ventures

https://www.riserv.co.uk/?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=organic-buzzsprout&utm_campaign=rag-sponsorship

---------------

Odro

https://www.odro.co.uk/?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=organic-buzzsprout&utm_campaign=rag-sponsorship

---------------

Vincere

https://www.vincere.io/?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=organic-buzzsprout&utm_campaign=rag-sponsorship

Today I was delighted to be joined on The RAG Podcast Live with James Cox, the Co-Founder of Bio Talent and the CEO of Trinnovo Group. Trinnovo is a fast-growth, international recruitment company, bringing together three market specialists and our own social enterprise:

• Trust in SODA - digital

• Broadgate Search – governance, finance, change

• BioTalent - life sciences

• Ex-MilitaryCareers.com – enabling ex-military career success (social enterprise)

Launched in Jan 2018, this growth in 3 years has been incredible!

In this episode,  we discussed:

🎙How and why he decided to join 2 founders of established agencies and create a new brand - as opposed to launching on his own

🎙His startup story and achieving £900,000 in year 1 revenue!

🎙How the pandemic affected the group brand

🎙His move to CEO of the group

🎙The business today and his vision for future growth!

A super smart leader with huge ambition, if you are interested in launching a multi brand recruitment business then this is one for you!

If you would like to chat to James directly please contact them via LinkedIn!

---------

Sponsors:

District4: https://bit.ly/3rSuE01

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast I was joined by Jake, my little brother.

One of the most charismatic and successful guys I know (and annoyingly good-looking!)

We got into recruitment in Melbourne together in 2011.

Later in Sydney, Jake became a recruitment owner in his mid 20's, but in 2016 he sold his shares in TheDriveGroup.

He was building a great business but, for some reason, he wasn't happy.

He put this down to being 'home sick' and moved back to the UK.

In 2017 he launched One Life Social Media – a fast-growing 7-figure global digital marketing agency in the fitness industry.

With no experience in the industry, he built a business that operated in 20 countries with over 600 clients, helping them with customer acquisition and lead generation online.

He led a team of 20+ people too, all before the age of 30. 

Jake had all the extrinsic measures of success that society says we need to find fulfillment and happiness – wealth, status, validation from others, approval, a growing company, recognition, etc.

But something wasn't right.

Over the next 2 years, Jake’s life completely changed forever.

He suffered the most severe anxiety and depression I have ever witnessed. Due to this, the pandemic, and realising he simply wasn’t happy and needed to change, Jake closed down his second business. 

I have watched him focus on recovering and embark on a journey of reconnecting to his mind, body, soul, health, consciousness, relationships, and life.

I am so happy and proud to say that now he is a completely different person from two years ago.

He is happy, healthy and present.

Jake is now dedicating his life to helping other high performers who are suffering from the same issues of burnout, anxiety, and depression.

I am going to warn you that this is an extremely raw account directly from Jake.

He talks about the pain he suffered.

How he even had suicidal thoughts (this breaks my heart.)

But it’s all true and I feel like the future is bright.

If you would like to speak to Jake about his story or his coaching services then you can contact him directly on Linkedin here or via his website www.onelifemindsetcoaching.com

Recorded during Mental Health Awareness week. If this helps just one person in any way then I know Jake and I will be delighted!

Sponsor: 

Looking for a way to grow your recruitment business in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

More than 300 recruitment agencies are using Talent Ticker to automate their recruiters’ most monotonous tasks, help them predict who will be hiring 3 months in advance, and provide simple tools to identify ideal passive and active candidates to pitch for open roles.

Learn more at get.talentticker.ai/hoxo and take advantage of their special offer for our listeners.

On this week's show, I'm delighted to be joined by Calvin Lee-Pickett, the CEO and founder of Calvin James Recruitment. 

Calvin came from the UK to Dubai as an employee of Robert Half Recruitment, a global organisation. A few years later, he decided to start his own business. 

Without any experience as a business owner, he has grown organically over the last five years. And in this past year, things have REALLY changed for Calvin and his team! 

In this episode, Calvin discusses how he pivoted his business model to monetise the growing candidate base he’d built and the challenges he faced in setting up a business in Dubai. We also talk about the impact of COVID-19 on the business and the importance of building a solid personal brand. 

Calvin is a really great guy who’s building something special. You don’t want to miss this one! 

Takeaways

• How pivoting your business model can create new revenue streams and opportunities for growth
• The challenges (and opportunities) in setting up a business in a new country – and the importance of strategic planning and determination in getting it right 
• Agility and adaptability in the face of challenging circumstances 
• The role of an authentic brand in attracting the right team members, candidates, and clients
• Lifestyle changes and how they can help you become more focused in every aspect of your work and personal life 

__________________________________________

*RAG Sponsor message* Hoxo

Ready to find 25+ warm leads within 7 days on LinkedIn?

As a recruiter, most of the working day is spent chasing people via cold outreach on LinkedIn.

This method is super time-consuming and most people don’t reply because they simply don’t know or trust you.

But it can be different...

If you follow the process in this document, you will hack the LinkedIn Algorithm in just 15 minutes per day and drive warm leads whenever you want them.

A warm lead is a person who you can 100% guarantee knows who you are, and what you do and has shown interest in you and/or your services in the past 48 hours.

Over 5000 recruiters around the globe are following this process daily, and the results have been amazing!

You can have this too!

Access the Hoxo 20:10:5 guide here: https://bit.ly/3PLjaJY

If you’d prefer to consume this information directly from our Co-Founder & CEO, Sean Anderson (the creator of 20:10:5), you can join our free training course now!

Get access to:

• 4 bite-sized training videos that can immediately help you boost business on LinkedIn
• Exclusive access to Hoxo 20:10:5 warm leads tracking template
• Free support from the Hoxo team to help you implement the process and get the results

This course is part of the hugely successful Personal Brand Bootcamp, which has seen over 5000 recruiters graduate and drive millions of warm leads and £££ in revenue as a result!

Get free access to the course once you’ve downloaded our guide.

__________________________________________

*RAG Sponsor message*: Vincere

Vincere’s portals are a quick-win solution for agencies in need of a no-code candidate and client portal. It’s your one-way ticket to attracting top-tier candidates and clients with everything they need in one place.

Easily set up your candidate, client, and job portal straight within your Vincere account and

configure it to your own brand and theme so it feels like you.

You can publish jobs from Vincere’s Job Portal and sync them directly to your website in

On this week's show, I am excited to be joined by Luke McCormack, the founder and CEO of McCormack Partners.

Luke owns a specialist recruitment business in Glasgow that focuses on the commercial roofing and cladding sectors all over the UK.

Luke reached out to me a long time ago to talk about personal branding, and I've witnessed his journey ever since. I’ve been unbelievably impressed by what he’s achieved.

Luke’s got a team of seven billing just under a million pounds this year, and his process is absolutely crystal clear and mapped out:

-He’s the face of the business

-He’s built a brand that has him in industry magazines

-He’s running podcasts and videos

-He gets lots of engagement online

-He has someone booking all of his meetings

-He sells 100% retained or exclusive assignments, paid upfront

-The whole recruitment process and delivery are taken care of by Luke's team

Being the face of the business, Luke requires the right people around him to deliver the retained assignment successfully within 30 days.

It’s a very different recruitment model to a lot of the businesses I've interviewed over the last few years, but one that I believe is becoming more common and hugely successful.

Luke talks about where he got his inspiration from and his energy and drive to become successful despite his humble beginnings. He also breaks down how he does what he does in a visual document and talks about the future and his plans to dominate in the US in the future as well.

Anyone listening to this will gain lots of value, especially smaller recruitment companies and potential startups who are thinking about disrupting and doing things differently by having a model that's modern and digital.

You need to listen to this episode because Luke is doing something extra! 

Sponsor: RecruitHub*

Thinking about starting a recruitment business in the UK or US? 

Download your startup blueprint and access key information including:

-Funding – how much do you need, and what are your options

-Knowing where you stand - decode your non-compete and understand your restrictions

-Co-founder MUST-knows

-How to automate your way to faster billings

-Business plan basics – what are they, and how do you write one?

-Naming & brand-building – creating a brand that stands out

And more…

Get your copy at recruit-hub.com/startup-blueprint

On today’s episode I was joined by Matthew Eames, the Founder and CEO of Eames Group, a global insurance and financial services recruitment agency with circa 140 people across UK, EU, Asia and now the USA

Matthew was a guest on The RAG in Feb 2019 and whilst the business was a similar size back then, things were very different. Most notably:

- Matt was not the CEO at the time and spent 50% of his time externally facing in business development and exec search

- The business operated 5 days a week in the office

- Matthew personally had a 3-hour daily commute

Now approaching the 20-year anniversary of the business, Matt is again the CEO and more excited about the growth journey than ever.

Whilst grand exit plans seem to be on the agenda for most owners in our industry, Matthew proves that you may enjoy the role too much to want to step away any time soon!

Vincere

If you're following Vincere on their LinkedIn page, you'll notice that they’ve been sharing stories from their customer community on a weekly basis.

If you're shopping for a CRM or wondering if there's something better out there. Check out Vincere. They have a library of customer stories from all sectors and recruitment types, perm, exec, contract and temp, available on Youtube: https://bit.ly/3wFYad3

District4

Do you feel like you’re not surrounded by peers and you’ve stopped learning? Imagine only working alongside other experienced recruiters who you can really collaborate with, while having the freedom to do work your way. If you’re thinking of a change, check out District4, where you can launch your own business and not be alone!

Visit www.district4.io/hoxo to see what they can do for you.

On this week's show, I’m speaking directly to our partner, Vincere.

Vincere has sponsored the RAG Podcast for the last three years, and I have a lot of love for the brand and a great relationship with the business. I’m really grateful for the support they've given me and our industry.

However, about a year ago, they were acquired by The Access Group which is the fastest-growing and largest software company in Europe. After they were acquired, the two founders, Bernie Schiemer and Eloise Sutton-Kirkby, exited almost immediately. 

Since the acquisition by The Access Group, there has been murmurings across the industry, and their reputation has taken some damage. 

So I interviewed Nick Thomson, the Commercial Director for The Access Group’s recruitment division. And Kristy Gilham, the Product Director at Vincere. 

She’s been with Vincere pre and post-acquisition. 

We had a really candid, hard-hitting conversation on your behalf. I asked them what the hell they've been doing and why there's so much negative press regarding support and functionality - and what they are going to do about it.

Are they actually going to make changes?

In this episode, we break down

🎙️ Some of the big ticket items they're working on

🎙️ The reasons why you felt some pain and 

🎙️ What they're going to do about the issues brought forward

And, hopefully, you're going to not only learn about the product, but also build some form of connection with the two people who are going to be the face of the brand and are going to be able to help you get to the bottom of any issues you have.

This is the first in a series of conversations we're going to have with them.

 I want you to listen, come back to us with your questions and challenges, and we'll have another conversation. 

Over time, I want to make sure that we're holding them accountable to being the best operating system provider possible!

Hoxo Message

Are you spending hours on LinkedIn and cold outreach and want more business coming to you over your competition? 

Well, if you're the founder or leader of a recruitment agency, here's what we can do for you at Hoxo.

We will give you the training, support, and resources to take you from what I call an offline recruiter - reliant on posting jobs and sending emails to open up new customers, ultimately looking like every other recruiter on LinkedIn - to an online recruiter, being seen by over 25,000 relevant people driving a 200% minimum increase in engagement on your profile and seeing daily lead lists from LinkedIn that you can follow up within six weeks time.

And if you don't perform, you don't pay. 

How can we make such a bold, results-driven promise like this? Two reasons:

1) Whilst I've been building the RAG podcast, we've actually done what we say we’ll do for our clients. In less than two years, we built a business generating from zero to over 1 million views per month on LinkedIn, leading to multimillion-pound revenues with a sales team of me plus two people without making a single outbound call.

2) Our track record - not only have we done it ourselves, but we've helped over 350 agencies and over 4,700 consultants do it as well, all in the last three years. 

Now, if that sounds of interest to you, make sure you fill in our contact form, and we’ll tell you how we can help:...

To date, The RAG has been designed to talk to Recruitment Owners about legacy growth stories to inspire the next generation.

However, in 2020 we find ourselves in the ‘new normal’, an environment we have never lived or worked before.

In today’s episode I was Live on LinkedIn and shared my future vision for the show. I aim to continually inspire recruitment business owners with interesting stories and opinions each week, however now in the pursuit of creating next generation Recruitment Agencies.

This will include stories relating specifically to:

• Marketing, Personal Branding & Social Media 
• Recruitment Technology 
• Digital Operations
• Mental Health & Wellbeing

------

Sponsors:

Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKr

Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

On this week's show, I am joined by James Wardle, who is the founder of Alderson James, a specialist talent acquisition and HR recruitment agency headquartered in the UK with seven staff. 

Now, what was so unbelievable about this episode is how honest and vulnerable James was.

We spoke about the 10 years of running this business and how he started life with pretty much no plan. 

He was a rec-2-rec who wanted to effectively work for himself before getting married and having children. 

Whilst the business has been running for over 10 years, everything changed during the pandemic!

Here James had to be honest with his wife, family, and friends about the fact that he was a gambling addict. This came as a huge shock to his nearest and dearest, they had no clue this was an issue.

He was at a point where he was spending - and winning and losing - on ridiculous bets. 

He was searching for daily things to place bets on in the first lockdown, like football games in Singapore and Thailand. Anywhere in the world he could find sports to bet on, he was betting and he was also investing in crypto and different highly volatile stocks.

It all culminated in September 2020 when he lost $50,000 in a day. 

His business nearly went under. He only one member of staff at that point. He was at rock bottom. 

Since then he's gone cold turkey and stopped betting. He turned it all off, and his business has grown as a result!

James soon hit $2 million in revenue with three people, personally billing £1.6m.

He's now built the team to seven. He is working with clients all over the world - some of the most unbelievable brands. He's switched on, he's focused and he's got a growth plan. 

He wants to get to 20 staff in the next couple of years. 

Now James is not a guest from the biggest business I've interviewed on the show, but it is one of the most honest, vulnerable, incredible episodes I think I've ever recorded. So I really hope you find as much value as I did having this conversation.

__________________________________________

Hoxo

We’re on a mission to help brand recruitment agencies, giving them the means to stand out in the most competitive markets in the world.

Here’s how we can help:

- Recruitment Agency branding

- Personal Brand Academy for recruiters

- Personal Brand Management

Check out our website and social profile for examples of our work in action and to hear what our clients have to say about us. Like what you see? Reach out: https://bit.ly/3jpuEWa

__________________________________________

Sponsor

‘Wow’ your clients by uncovering tactics and power plays for high-impact candidate submissions.

Download Vincere's eBook "Techify Your Client Experience Strategy"

 -Learn Candidate-driven strategies

 -How to offer the “VIP” treatment

- Leverage tech for high-impact collaboration

Link: https://personalbrand.hoxomedia.com/vincere