The RAG Podcast - Recruitment Agency Growth Podcast

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I was delighted to be joined by Ishpal BansalIshpal 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 week's episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I was joined by Nick Vaughan, Founder of Hamlyn Williams and now CEO & Founder of Talent Ticker an actionable market intelligence platform for the recruitment industry.Nick’s life began as a 3rd generation farmer in Herefordshire who moved to London to work in the city.After learning his trade with S3 and JCW, he launched Hamlyn Williams in 2011, a specialised STEM focused Recruitment Agency with a HQ in Cardiff.Over the next 7 years Nick managed to scale the business to over 100 people across multiple global offices in 3 continents before deciding that his skills were no longer suitable to take the business forward.Today, the business is over 200 people and managed by a new CEO, Nick is fully focussed on the launch of his next venture and what a plan he has!In this episode he shared Nicks start up and scale up storyHow he got to 30 staff with no infrastructure and led to 100% staff churnThe decisions that enabled him to scale to 100+ recruitersHis top 3 tips for aspiring high growth business ownersHis sacrifice at home and the solid partnership with his wife whilst scalingHis daily morning routine for successWhat is Talent Ticker and why should agencies consider using this innovative toolAn extremely inspiring entrepreneur, one you do not want to miss!If you wish to speak to Nick personally - feel free to message him on LinkedIn here---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. If you would like to see some of the fantastic websites that Volcanic has delivered for clients globally, you can visit volcanic.com/our-work which showcases their best-in-class website designs across various locations and sectors, as well as a number of success stories for leading agencies such as Premier Group and Search Consultancy.Volcanic also recently ran a webinar along with Gordon Webb from Idibu and Janine Owen from The Talent Crowd on ‘Conquering the candidate conundrum’. This will soon be available to catch up on demand for insights on how to find those unicorn candidates in today’s war for talent! Keep an eye out…Finally, we are offering RAG listeners an MOT of their current site – landing page is here (and embedded on the above page) The Access Groupwww.volcanic.com/hoxoThis applies to any recruitment website.----Thanks to our second sponsor District 4District4 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 sessionsYou 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 business 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 https://growyourrecruitmentbusinessevent.vipmembervault.com/products/view/1110290

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 beforeI 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/demoLoads 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

On this weeks episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I was joined by David Spencer-Percival, Founder & CEO of Life Science People and serial recruitment entrepreneur.David was in the founding team of Huntress Group in 2000 and exited in 2009 for a life changing sum of money. He then started Spencer Ogden in 2009 and repeated the process all over again! Growing to over 500 people and reaching over £100m in revenue, he then decided his work was done before leaving the company in 2020.He is now back with one of the fastest growing recruitment start-ups in the world, with over 65 people in the business inside 12 months.During his glittering career, David has adopted some really consistent habits and basic principles for success.  In this episode he shared The start up stories of each businessHis formula to scale via graduate academies Why he doesn’t have a computer and runs his whole operation from an iPhoneHis take on why many do not scale Why profit isn’t the driver when scaling and how quick profit arrives when you slow down growthHow he felt when he exited his businesses and why he knew he needed to get back in the game after 3 month breaksHis life outside of work, happily married without children- he balances life in London with rural countryside and Ibiza to keep himself happyHow turning 50 certainly affected his mental health and how he deals with thisFinally his vision for the future and some wise words for budding recruitment entrepreneursOne of my all time favourite episodes, you do not want to miss this!If you wish to speak to David personally - feel free to email dsp@lifesciencepeople.co.uk---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. Over 1800 recruitment websites globally, they supply 30% of the top 100 UK recruiters and integrate with our partners for efficiency, including Access Recruitment CRM, Access Profile, Access RDB, Broadbean, Logic Melon, Bullhorn, Salesforce, Idibu and more Perfect for start up, scale up and enterprise recruitment  businesses We are offering RAG listeners an MOT of their current site – landing page is here (and embedded on the above page) The Access Groupwww.volcanic.com/hoxoAbout the MOT:A visual inspection undertaken by one of our senior website professionals in the business of your current site, analyse performance and identify areas for improvement. Leverage Volcanic's many years' expertise in designing, developing, and delivering recruitment websites to identify how your current site can be improved.Request your FREE, personalised visual 'MOT' website health check including an overview of your:- candidate attractiveness- client engagement abilities- brand-building capabilities- and more.This applies to any recruitment website.www.volcanic.com/hoxo--Thanks to our second sponsor District 4District4 support 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. Join the Recruitment Startup Experts at District4 for this 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.Want to make 2022 the year that you finally take action? Join in from Mon 8th November to Friday 12th November 2021 and explore what being a recruitment business owner could mean for you.  The link to join the challenge is https://growyourrecruitmentbusinessevent.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1110290

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 HaysHays 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.

On this weeks episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I will be joined by a friend, client and mentor - Leo Harrison MBALeo is one of the smartest guys I have ever had the pleasure to meetLeo founded Chapter 2 in Jan 2020 and after an obvious slow start, they are now one of the fastest-growing recruitment brands in the worldBut this isn't Leo's first venture, he was a founding member of the team at OLIVER, a Marketing Agency that builds in-house teamsDuring his time in the business, he helped shape the growth to over 2000 employees!An entrepreneur, husband, and father - Leo has had to build successful habits to manage all areas of his life!---Thank you to our brand new sponsor Volcanic.com - the best in class recruitment website provider delivering websites that look good and perform even better. Over 1800 recruitment websites globally, they supply 30% of the top 100 UK recruiters and integrate with our partners for efficiency, including Access Recruitment CRM, Access Profile, Access RDB, Broadbean, Logic Melon, Bullhorn, Salesforce, Idibu and morePerfect for start up, scale up and enterprise recruitment businessesLanding page is here:Hoxo · VolcanicVolcanic is offering RAG listeners an MOT of their current site – landing page is here (and embedded on the above page) The Access GroupAbout the MOT:A visual inspection undertaken by one of our senior website professionals in the business of your current site, analyse performance and identify areas for improvement. Leverage Volcanic's many years' expertise in designing, developing, and delivering recruitment websites to identify how your current site can be improved. Request your FREE, personalised visual 'MOT' website health check including an overview of your:- candidate attractiveness- client engagement abilities- brand-building capabilities- and more. This applies to any recruitment website.www.volcanic.com/hoxo---Thanks to our consistent sponsor from Season 4 - District 4Join the Recruitment Startup Experts at District4 for this 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.Want to make 2022 the year that you finally take action? Join in from Mon 8th November to Friday 12th November 2021 and explore what being a recruitment business owner could mean for you.  The link to join the challenge is https://growyourrecruitmentbusinessevent.vipmembervault.com/products/courses/view/1110290

The RAG Podcast is BACK!What a first episode we have in store for you!Mark Znowski is a serial Recruitment EntrepreneurHe 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 TalentA 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.

This is the LAST episode of the season!2020/21 has been epic for The RAG Podcast, interviewing over 120 amazing recruitment business owners throughout one of the craziest times we have ever seen!Before I begin my short break from recording, I am excited to be interviewing Jamie Woods, CEO & Founder of JCW Group - a 14 year old  international recruitment agency in London, Frankfurt, New York, Austin and LA.Starting the business from his living room at the age of 24 with 2 yrs recruitment experience, it is safe to say that Jamie has made lots of mistakes and learnt a hell of a lot on the way!In this episode we discussed:🎙The story of launching JCW after only 2 yrs in recruitment🎙How the business was flying going into the Global Financial Crisis🎙The challenge of managing managers at 30 staff and how he overcame this🎙How he doubled the business since 2018 when he went back into a hands on CEO role🎙The vision he has for the future and why he has no intention of selling 🎙His 3 major learnings for any other owners with aspirations of scaleGenuinely down to earth guy with an insane work ethic, if you would like to ask Jamie any questions directly then please DM him on LinkedInThanks so much for listening to the RAG this season, I value every single one of you!Back in Aug 21 for Season 5 -stay tuned!!---------Sponsors:District4: https://bit.ly/3rSuE01Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W 

Hannah is the Co-founder and CEO of Meet Recruitment - a 12 year old  international Life Science recruitment agency in London, Berlin, New York and San Francisco.Like many others I have interviewed, Hannah was a graduate of S3 and started Meet with her co-founders at the age of 26!In this episode we discussed:🎙The story of launching Meet from Charlotte St in London in 2009, just after the GFC🎙How they grew the business in the early days and decided to invest in their back office once they hit 10 staff🎙Launching the US business from London in 2013 and later moving to NYC in 2015🎙How 70% of the business NFI is now from the America’s and how the team adapted to make this a huge success🎙 Why they re-branded the back office to be known as ‘The Hub’ and the impact this has had on growth🎙How she has balanced becoming a mother and CEO and her outlook on this topic🎙Why she wants females in our industry to ASK their leadership teams to support them through building a family and not to turn their back on recruitment during this processSuper articulate and powerful, Hannah is an exceptional leader and it is easy to see why! If you would like to speak to Hannah directly, please feel free to DM her on LinkedIn!----Sponsors:Odro: https://bit.ly/35UrBKrVincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W

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 LondonAn 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 futureHigh 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/3rSuE01Vincere: https://bit.ly/2zOL43W