Episodios

  • How to Scale to £3M with Strategic Bets Not Just Hard Work, with Ollie Scott
    Nov 13 2025
    Why do some recruitment founders scale to seven figures while others stay stuck at £300K despite working just as hard? My guest, Ollie Scott, realized that growth doesn’t come from hustle. It comes from strategic bets. Ollie is the founder of Unknown, a £3 million talent growth consultancy that has worked with more than 500 creative brands including Nike, Apple, and Disney. He launched the business in 2018 with £13,000 on a credit card and a desire to build the opposite of every recruitment company he had experienced. In this episode, Ollie explains how rebellion helped Unknown stand out, why scaling from eight to eighteen people collapsed margins from 45% to 8%, and how he rebuilt the business using a clear operating model and three strategic bets: brand, recurring revenue, and M&A advisory. He also shares why recruiters dramatically undervalue the market intelligence they gather every day, and how agencies can monetise this insight through buy-side advisory priced at six figures. If you want to grow your agency sustainably — with better positioning, better pricing, and better recurring revenue — this episode is full of practical lessons you can apply immediately. You’ll Learn: • Why trying to be the “best” agency is a losing strategy • How Unknown defined a point of view clients cared about • What went wrong scaling from 8 to 18 people • Why profit is the safety net that enables innovation • How to build a productized recruitment offering • Why freelance talent pools are the future of recurring revenue • How recruiters can monetise M&A intelligence • How to price buy-side advisory at six-figure fees Episode Timestamps: [4:05] Selling suits to James Caan’s recruitment firm [10:23] Launching Unknown with £13,000 on a credit card [15:36] Naming strategy and brand distinctiveness [18:26] Writing a breakup letter to recruitment companies [21:44] Why rebellion works early but can’t scale [36:36] Productizing around three ICPs [44:03] Scaling to 18 people destroyed profit margins [48:34] Profit as psychological safety [53:20] Building recurring revenue through freelance talent pools [58:25] Why recruiters have more M&A intelligence than M&A firms Guest Bio: Ollie Scott is the founder of Unknown, a £3 million talent growth consultancy specialising in the global creative industry. Before launching Unknown, Ollie spent six years at Gemini People, joining the board in his early twenties. Unknown now operates across executive search, freelance talent pools, and M&A advisory for creative agencies. Connect with Ollie: LinkedIn: Ollie Scott Website: unknown.media Connect with Mark: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session linkedin.com/in/markwhitby Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach
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  • How to Triple Revenue in 5 Years Without Burning Out, with Martin Herbst
    Nov 11 2025
    Why do some recruitment business leaders triple their revenue while others plateau despite working twice as hard? My guest, Martin Herbst, discovered the answer the hard way. After hitting rock bottom with burnout, he rebuilt his leadership philosophy from the ground up — and within five years, JobAdder tripled its revenue and client base. Martin is the CEO of JobAdder, one of the world’s leading recruitment technology platforms. Under his leadership, the company has achieved record growth while helping recruiters work smarter without losing the human touch. In this episode, Martin opens up about his personal experience with burnout and shares how he transformed that crisis into a leadership breakthrough. You’ll learn how he built a healthier, more effective approach to scaling a recruitment business one that’s rooted in purpose, values, and vision rather than constant hustle. He also breaks down the exact leadership frameworks that helped JobAdder grow sustainably: how to align your team around a clear long-term strategy, why empathy drives innovation, and how to balance big-picture vision with daily execution. Beyond leadership, Martin dives into how technology and AI are reshaping recruitment. He explains where automation genuinely creates value for recruiters, how to avoid the “AI hype trap,” and why human connection will always be the most powerful differentiator in this business. If you’ve ever struggled with overwhelm, exhaustion, or inconsistent growth, this conversation is a must-listen. Martin’s story is proof that scaling your business doesn’t require sacrificing your health or your values. In this episode, you’ll discover: How burnout became the catalyst for a breakthrough The daily habits that keep stress and anxiety in check Why swimming is Martin’s secret weapon for clarity and focus The strategy process behind JobAdder’s 5-year growth story Why most recruitment leaders underinvest in long-term planning How to use vision and values as your ultimate growth levers The fundamental role of AI in recruitment (and where it adds true value) Why the best BD technology is still the telephone Episode highlights: [6:44] The burnout story: high anxiety and insomnia that led to stepping away completely [11:17] Morning and evening borders: the simple habits that prevent burnout from creeping back [19:32] How JobAdder tripled revenue in five years, and why it wasn’t about working harder [23:31] Why most recruitment agency owners underinvest in strategy and long-term vision [32:29] Why recruitment might be the profession most immune to AI disruption [48:36] Why automation has created diminishing returns in outreach [53:59] The #1 business development tool that still outperforms AI Martin’s story is both a cautionary tale and an inspiring roadmap for recruiters who want to build high-performing, values-driven businesses that last. Guest Bio: Martin Herbst is the CEO of JobAdder, a global recruitment software company headquartered in Sydney, Australia. Under his leadership, JobAdder has tripled its revenue and client base in five years. Before joining JobAdder in 2020, Martin spent nearly seven years at eBay running their classifieds business in Australia (Gumtree). He also worked at eBay in San Francisco and at the Wall Street Journal online in digital media strategy. Originally from the United States, Martin now lives in Australia. Connect with Martin: LinkedIn: Martin Herbst on LinkedIn Website: JobAdder.com Connect with Mark: Get your free 30-minute strategy session: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session Mark on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/markwhitby Follow on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach
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  • How a Musician Turned Creative Thinking Into a $1.2M Recruiting Firm, with Justin Levinson
    Nov 5 2025
    How does a professional touring musician go from the recording studio to building a $1.2M recruiting firm without ever making a single cold call? In this episode of The Resilient Recruiter, Justin Levinson, founder of Coming Up Creative, reveals how he blended creativity, authenticity, and smart systems to grow a seven-figure recruitment business serving the world’s top entertainment and gaming brands. Justin’s story is proof that success in recruitment isn’t about grinding harder - it’s about thinking differently. You’ll hear how he built a global team, automated outreach without losing the human touch, and turned every conversation into an opportunity. Listen to discover: How creative thinking helped Justin scale to $1.2M in billings The “anti-campaign” approach that fills his calendar with warm leads Why branding and design matter more in creative industries How to build trust, credibility, and inbound clients without cold calls The diversification strategy that kept his firm thriving through Hollywood strikes If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s possible to grow a high-performing recruiting business without endless prospecting, this episode is your blueprint. Connect with Justin Levinson LinkedIn: Justin Levinson Website: Coming Up Creative Connect with Mark Whitby FREE strategy session: www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session LinkedIn: Mark Whitby
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  • Automate Your Outreach: How to Generate Client Leads Every Day on Autopilot, with Giorgio Zanella
    Oct 29 2025
    The hardest part of business development isn't effort, it's consistency. Most recruiters know what to do, but struggle to do it every day while juggling clients, candidates, and placements. You know you should be reaching out to prospects daily, but between managing active searches, candidate interviews, and client meetings, your pipeline suffers. The solution? Build automated systems that generate leads while you focus on conversations that close deals. Giorgio Zanella is a go-to-market engineer who's built hundreds of automation workflows for recruiters and founders. Working out of Clay's New York office, he's spent three years mastering the platform and helping recruitment professionals scale their outbound without losing the personal touch. In this behind-the-scenes episode of The Resilient Recruiter, we break down the exact infrastructure, tools, and strategies you need to automate your outbound without sacrificing personalization or sounding like spam. This isn't theory. Giorgio has analyzed thousands of campaigns and knows exactly what separates automation that works from automation that gets ignored. You'll learn why Clay.com has become the number one platform for scaling outreach, how to choose the right tools for email and LinkedIn automation, what infrastructure you actually need (domains, inboxes, and warming protocols), and how to achieve 3-5% response rates on cold email when most people can't break 1%. We cover the complete tech stack: Clay for workflow automation and data enrichment, Instantly for email sequencing, HeyReach for LinkedIn automation, and how these tools work together to create synchronized multichannel campaigns. You'll discover how Clay's "waterfall enrichment" replaces expensive tools like ZoomInfo (saving you $15K+ per year), why LinkedIn outreach gets higher response rates than email (and its hidden limitations), and how to build email infrastructure that protects your domain reputation while scaling to hundreds of sends per day. Giorgio shares the exact formula for safe, sustainable outreach: 3-4 alternate domains, 2 inboxes per domain, 12-15 emails per inbox per day, and the two-week warming process you can't skip. He explains why most recruiters wreck their deliverability by sending from their main domain, how to set up synchronized campaigns where email, LinkedIn, and phone calls happen in coordinated sequences, and why relevance (right person, right time, right message) beats volume every single time. You'll learn what "good" response rates actually look like (spoiler: they're lower than you think, but the ROI is massive), how to calculate return on investment for cold outreach campaigns, and why even a 1% response rate can generate huge returns when your infrastructure costs are minimal. Giorgio breaks down why personalization and timing are more important than blast volume, how to track real-time signals like job changes and promotions to time your outreach perfectly, and the practical first steps to start automating your business development this month. This episode is part of our new course, Automate Your Outreach: How to Generate Client Leads Daily on Autopilot, a four-week implementation program where Mark and Giorgio guide you step-by-step through building your own automation system. Whether you're a solo recruiter trying to scale or an agency owner looking to systematize business development across your team, this conversation gives you the blueprint. Episode highlights: • [00:50] Introducing Giorgio Zanella and the vision behind the "Automate Your Outreach" program • [03:30] What is Clay and why recruiters are using it to automate lead generation • [07:35] The tech stack you actually need: Clay, Instantly, HeyReach (and what to skip) • [12:20] How to replace expensive data tools like ZoomInfo with Clay's "waterfall enrichment" • [18:40] Email vs. LinkedIn outreach: which gets more replies and why • [23:25] How to run synchronized multichannel campaigns (email + LinkedIn + phone) • [31:30] Why personalization and timing beat volume every time • [40:55] Building a bulletproof email infrastructure (domains, inboxes, warm-up rules) • [52:00] What "good" reply rates look like and how to calculate ROI on outreach • [1:10:00] Practical first steps to start automating your BD this month For more information or to register for the Automate Your Outreach course, visit recruitmentcoach.com/automate Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: http://www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/ Connect with Giorgio Zanella on LinkedIn Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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  • How to Build $1.6M in 3 Years Working Retained-Only
    Oct 22 2025
    Why do some recruiters struggle to break $300K while others hit seven figures in their third year? My guest, Tito Caceres, spotted a $160 billion industry that most recruiters have never even thought about. And he built a thriving business there with nothing but a credit card and relentless hustle. Tito grew up in his family's landscaping business and swore he'd never work in that industry. Ironically, that's exactly where he found his million-dollar niche. After building a career in sales and recruitment, he recognized an opportunity that others had completely missed. In 2021, he launched Bloom Talent Solutions and went all-in. First year? $600K in billings working solo with no agency pedigree. This year, he's on pace for $1.6 million. In this episode, you'll hear how Tito scaled fast by going retained-only, building a transparency system that keeps clients loyal, and creating new income sources beyond placement fees. You'll also hear why he fired clients to achieve clarity, how he packages candidates better than any resume ever could, and what it really takes to dominate a niche market. If you've ever wondered how far focus and follow-through can take a solo recruiter, this is your playbook. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: How Tito went from despising the landscaping industry to building a million-dollar recruiting business in it First year billings: $600K working solo with no pedigree Why Tito walked away from contingent work in year two (and never looked back) The transparency system that keeps clients coming back: weekly reports, bi-weekly meetings, and QBRs Performance sheets: the mandatory tool that packages candidates better than any resume How Tito built AI-driven recruiting systems that put him miles ahead of other recruiters The subscription model that turns relationships into reliable income before placement fees even come in Hiring misfires, family challenges, and the painful lessons that led to clarity Revenue share partnerships with industry consultants that generate referrals on autopilot CONNECT WITH TITO CACERES: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tito-caceres/ Bloom Talent Solutions: http://getbloomtalent.com RESOURCES MENTIONED: Clay.com Lemlist Recruitment Coach Live Summit Claire Ackers on LinkedIn CONNECT WITH MARK WHITBY: Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/ Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/ Mark on Twitter: https://twitter.com/markwhitby Mark on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRecruitmentCoach/ Mark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/ SUBSCRIBE TO THE RESILIENT RECRUITER This episode is a must-listen if you're ready to scale a high-profit, low-overhead search firm.
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  • Build a $1.7M Recruitment Business with the 70/30 Model No Overhead Costs
    Oct 15 2025
    What if getting fired 20 times wasn't failure—but the exact preparation you needed to build something meaningful? James Rowe went from serial job-hopper (yes, 20+ jobs) to founder of TRE – The Recruitment Experts, a platform generating £1.7-2M annually with just 5 head office staff supporting 18+ independent recruiters. His 70/30 split model is changing how recruitment businesses operate: there is no office rent, no salary guarantees, and no managing underperformers. Experienced recruiters keep 70% of fees while TRE handles the CRM, automation, AI tools, and back-office admin. In this episode, recorded in person in London, you'll discover: The exact 70/30 model that eliminates traditional agency overhead while scaling revenue How James's backfilling campaign uses Clay, ChatGPT, and Phantom Buster to automate outreach (and why one version backfired) Lead magnet strategies hitting 50% response rates with warm clients The two email tactics that boosted responses 20% (hint: one involves typing "Sent from my iPhone") Why general recruiters won't survive the AI wave—and why niche specialists with strong databases will thrive The mindset shift from employee to entrepreneur, and why resilience beats talent Key Timestamps: 5:14 - From 20 firings to recruitment during COVID 14:01 - The 70/30 model explained 29:02 - Automation campaigns that actually work 40:54 - Two email tips that changed everything 56:06 - Why resilience and community matter most About James Rowe: James is the Managing Director of The Recruitment Experts (TRE), helping experienced recruiters launch independent businesses within 4 days. A semi-professional rugby player turned ultra-marathon runner (he recently completed 65 miles!), James applies the same discipline to business systems, AI automation, and helping recruiters break free from the 9-5. Resources Mentioned: Clay.com Lemlist ChatGPT Phantom Buster Want help scaling YOUR recruitment business? Get Mark's FREE 30-minute strategy call: www.RecruitmentCoach.com/strategy-session Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter for weekly interviews with top recruitment professionals sharing proven strategies to grow your agency.
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  • How Agency Owners Can Scale Globally Without Losing Their Culture, with Nicholas Barton
    Oct 9 2025
    Most recruitment agency owners hit a wall around 10–20 people. The culture that made you successful starts to crack, and the personal touch gets lost. Nicholas Barton didn’t just avoid that wall he redefined what scaling could look like. From packing boxes in a warehouse to leading a 100-person global firm, Nicholas built The Barton Partnership into one of Forbes’ “World’s Best Management Consulting Firms,” with offices in London, New York, and Singapore. He built a platform before headcount, gave away 35% of his business through share options, and kept his early hires for nearly two decades. While competitors chased quick wins, Nicholas played the long game scaling internationally without losing the cohesion that made his business special. In this episode: [03:40] How Nicholas found his niche in strategy consulting [10:50] The “spray and pray” moment that launched his career [13:04] The hires who’ve stayed 18 years — and why [18:33] Why giving away 35% made his firm stronger [29:08] The “airport test” and how to hire for culture [35:20] Build your platform before you scale [1:04:42] Why great service always beats great selling 🎙️ Hosted by Mark Whitby, The Resilient Recruiter Podcast
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  • How AI-First Recruiting Could Save Your Business Or Kill It, with Manan Shah
    Oct 2 2025
    AI isn't coming to recruitment. It's already here. And the gap between recruiters who know how to use it and those who don't is widening fast. My guest today has data proving it: recruiters adopting AI correctly are seeing up to 30% increases in GP per desk. Manan Shah is CEO and co-founder of Recruiter Flow, an AI-first recruitment operating system built for search firms, agencies, and solo practitioners doing permanent and contract placements. After accidentally discovering that recruitment agencies were "a decade behind" in tech adoption, Manan and his team have built what could be the most comprehensive AI-enabled platform for modern recruiters. This conversation gets tactical. We discuss how to run your firm with SaaS-level business intelligence, AI note-taking that structures unstructured data, job change alerts that put you in front of clients at exactly the right moment, and multichannel sequencing that lets you scale BD without adding headcount. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN: RecOps: Stop Guessing, Start Measuring Many recruitment firm owners are flying blind. They figure out salary budgets, marketing spend, and incentive structures by gut feel. Manan introduces "RecOps" (Recruitment Operations), borrowed from how SaaS companies run. It means tracking the metrics that matter. In SaaS, they know their customer lifetime value versus what they spend to acquire that customer should be 3:1. You should be spending one-third or less of what a client is worth to you on getting them. Simple, but many recruitment firms haven't made this calculation. Successful firms are now hiring operations people who aren't recruiters but keep the business running tight. Job Change Alerts: Three Opportunities From One Signal When someone in your database changes jobs or gets promoted, you get three plays. First, that person's new company often needs more hires or creates turnover when they bring in their own team. Second, their old company needs to backfill. Third, the one most people miss: that person was probably interviewing elsewhere. Build rapport, and they might tell you about the other positions they turned down. Those companies might still be hiring. Recruiter Flow monitors your database automatically and pings you when these changes happen. Multichannel Sequencing: Scale Your BD Without Adding Headcount Many agencies rely on their best billers to also do all the business development. They're making calls when they remember, sending one-off emails, maybe a LinkedIn message here and there. Nothing systematic. Recruiter Flow's multichannel sequencing lets you map out an entire BD campaign with conditional logic. Send a LinkedIn connection request. If they accept in 3 days, send a message. If not, trigger an email instead. If they open your email 3+ times but don't reply, the system creates a task for your recruiter to call them. This means your team can run sophisticated, persistent BD campaigns that would normally require hiring a dedicated BD person. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: How Manan accidentally discovered the recruiting agency market and why one client signed a 3-year contract after less than a year in business What "RecOps" means and why recruitment firms need to adopt SaaS-style business intelligence AI-first vs. AI-bolted-on and why your ATS needs to be rebuilt from the ground up The three categories of AI adoption: AI-native, AI-assisted, and AI-augmented How AI note-taking captures tribal knowledge and turns it into searchable intelligence Data enrichment built in: contact finder, job change alerts, executive appointment monitoring Why it's a triple opportunity when someone changes jobs MPC automation with branded landing pages and client interaction tracking What's next: 40+ AI agents in development and the ability to build your own custom agents Why AI doesn't just lift the average but widens the gap between top and bottom performers ABOUT MANAN SHAH: Manan Shah is CEO and co-founder of Recruiter Flow, serving thousands of customers globally, from solo practitioners to firms generating over $100M in annual revenue. Before founding Recruiter Flow in 2015, Manan built his first AI company in 2013, long before AI became mainstream. Connect with Manan on LinkedIn or visit recruiterflow.com CONNECT WITH MARK WHITBY: Get your free 30-minute strategy call: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby Twitter: @MarkWhitby Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter for weekly insights on building a scalable, profitable recruitment business.
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