The RAG Podcast - Recruitment Agency Growth Podcast

Season 8 | Ep22 Kyle Winterbottom on how building his brand isn’t just attracting clients—it’s making his business an acquisition target!

10 snips

Mar 12, 2025

Kyle Winterbottom, founder of Orbition, shares his unique approach to recruitment, focusing on community building over outbound sales. He discusses the creation of a global network of 1,500+ Chief Data Officers, emphasizing trust and credibility as key sales drivers. Winterbottom dives into monetizing engaged audiences and the challenges of scaling a business reliant on inbound revenue. He also highlights how his brand, Driven By Data, has not only attracted clients but has also positioned his company as a potential acquisition target.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Bold Beginnings

Kyle joined the host's boot camp in month one of his business, a bold move.
The host predicted his success, but the speed at which it happened was unexpected.

INSIGHT

Unsustainable Growth

Kyle scaled his business rapidly during a market boom, leading to unsustainable growth.
He acknowledges making common recruitment mistakes, like growing too quickly and not adapting fast enough.

ADVICE

Balancing Inbound and Outbound

Focus on building a sustainable recruitment business model.
Don't rely solely on inbound leads, as consistency can be a challenge.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Here is a recruitment business that doesn’t rely on outbound sales

Kyle Winterbottom has done things a little differently to the rest

Kyle and I sat down for this week’s episode of The RAG Podcast to discuss how his business has evolved since he was last on the show in 2022.

He’s built a global community of 1,500+ Chief Data Officers, driving all of his revenue through inbound relationships.

His brand, Driven By Data, isn’t just attracting clients – it’s making his business an acquisition target.

In this episode, we break down:

How community building generates sustainable, high-value recruitment revenue.
Why brand trust and credibility are the ultimate sales drivers.
The strategies behind monetising an engaged audience.
How inbound business creates new challenges for scaling and delivery.

If you’re serious about building a recruitment business that thrives on brand, credibility, and inbound opportunities, this episode is for you.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to growth in recruitment

02:56 Kyle's journey and business evolution

06:08 Market challenges and business adjustments

09:01 Streamlining operations and team structure

12:00 The importance of community in recruitment

15:07 Revenue insights and business sustainability

18:10 Future vision: recruitment landscape shifts

21:06 Driven by data: building a community

23:58 Monetising community engagement

28:53 Removing bottlenecks and building community

30:00 The power of quality networks in recruitment

31:50 Monetising community engagement

33:43 Sponsorship and revenue growth strategies

35:06 Consistency as a key to success

37:09 Building trust and credibility in recruitment

38:11 The importance of inbound relationships

40:11 The role of brand in sales

42:23 Long-term strategies for community building

44:55 Facilitating knowledge and connections

45:33 Valuing community in business acquisitions

47:28 The power of audience in monetisation

50:35 Expanding community beyond borders

52:44 Purpose beyond placements

54:30 Balancing short-term and long-term strategies

57:20 Future opportunities and business value

_________________________________________

Episode Sponsor: Untapped

Untapped is THE market leader and go-to agency for finding and hiring tried-and-tested offshore talent into UK, US and Australian-based recruitment companies.

They’re providing top-class TEAMMATES, NOT OUTSOURCES!

We use Untapped for Hoxo’s own offshore hires, and it’s been a total game-changer for our team. No one else can compete with the quality of their network, their in-depth candidate assessment process or their time to hire.

If hiring elite-level overseas talent into your business to boost sales and increase productivity whilst saving yourself a huge amount in employment costs isn’t on your radar for 2024, it should be!

Untapped are hiring recruitment, sales, marketing and support staff into recruitment agencies of all shapes, sizes and specialisms globally and they are growing rapidly!

Join the waiting list today so you don’t miss out on the next cohort of business-launching hiring projects. https://bit.ly/47GGdvZ

_______________________________________

Episode sponsor: Hoxo

Recruiters: are you sitting on a goldmine of LinkedIn connections without knowing how to turn them into real opportunities?

Most recruiters spend hours every day on cold outreach and endless scrolling, hoping for replies that never come. But what if LinkedIn could work for you instead?

The Hoxo 7-Day LinkedIn Challenge is a simple, step-by-step framework designed to help you:

Identify warm leads already in your network
Start meaningful conversations with potential clients and candidates—without feeling pushy
Share content that gets noticed and builds trust – without spending hours online

Transform LinkedIn into an inbound lead generator in just 7 days!

This challenge isn’t about writing viral posts or spamming DMs.

It’s about small, proven actions that take just 20 minutes a day – and start generating results from day one!

Ready to unlock your LinkedIn potential?

Over 7,000 recruiters worldwide have already used this framework to generate inbound leads, grow their pipeline, and win more business. Now it’s your turn.

Join the FREE 7-day LinkedIn Challenge today and start unlocking the opportunities already in your network.

Head over to https://hubs.ly/Q031DT2s0 to get started. See you there!