Season 9 | Ep7 Chris & Gemma built a 7-figure agency by saying NO to 90% of clients

Chris & Gemma built a 7-figure agency by saying NO to 90% of clients

Chris walked into a client meeting. Got the job brief. Then said "No way."

The client looked at him like he was insane.

"You haven't shown me the office. I don't know your team. I can't work on this job."

She'd just told him they were more expensive than every other agency.

He didn't care.

This is how Chris and Gemma built Mixos - a husband-and-wife recruitment agency that operates completely backwards.

They REFUSE to take briefs over email. They WON'T work with clients who rush them. They'd literally rather go bankrupt than cut their fees.

And somehow? Rookies from retail are billing £50k+ quarters. They've grown to 15 people in 18 months. Their LinkedIn DMs are full of warm leads.

In this episode:

• Why they lost one job last month and Chris "felt like someone stuck a knife in him"
• The cocktails-in-Mallorca conversation that merged two agencies during a pandemic
• How they got a psychology graduate with zero experience to £53k in 90 days
• Building a 400-person local community that makes cold calling irrelevant
• Why they walked away from their biggest client (and replaced it with 5 better ones)
• The "blueprint everything first" strategy that stops quality diluting as you scale
• What happens when you tell a client, "I can't help you" in the first meeting

This isn't about growth hacks or AI tools or scaling fast.

This is about two people who set impossible standards, refuse to compromise, and somehow built an agency where saying NO is their superpower.

For every recruiter who's tired of competing on price and wondering if there's another way.

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