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 scale

Genuinely down to earth guy with an insane work ethic, if you would like to ask Jamie any questions directly then please DM him on LinkedIn

Thanks 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!!

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Sponsors:

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

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

On this week's show, I was delighted to spend time with Elliot Dell, the CEO of Salt - a well known brand in the Digital Recruitment market, globally. Headquartered in London with 220 staff across offices in Asia, Australia, USA and the Middle East, Elliot joined as a recruiter and worked his way up to CEO after 10 years.

Salt didn’t actually exist when he joined, it was a small, family owned exec search business that soon changed with Elliot’s influence. As Salt gathered momentum, they soon acquired another business named 'Salt’ in New Zealand and that’s where things really took off.

Elliot has an incredible energy and passion for growing a fantastic business that can truly change the Digital Recruitment world. Whilst growing international teams at work, he is also the father of 3 children and has a super active lifestyle - an inspirational guy for sure!

Today I was joined by Doeke, the co-founder of WeAreKeen and agency providing in-house recruitment teams to start-ups, scale-ups and large enterprises across the Netherlands.

In this episode, he talked about how his country has reacted and dealt with lockdown and how his business has had to adapt to the change. Being an in-house agency with a relationship focused approach, he revealed how this has enabled them to stay close and support both clients and suppliers through a time that effects us all!

A refreshing chat from a very innovative recruitment owner, you can connect with Doeke and ask any questions here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/doeke/

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 weeks episode of The RAG Podcast Live, I will be joined by a friend, client and mentor - Leo Harrison MBA

Leo is one of the smartest guys I have ever had the pleasure to meet

Leo founded Chapter 2 in Jan 2020 and after an obvious slow start, they are now one of the fastest-growing recruitment brands in the world

But this isn't Leo's first venture, he was a founding member of the team at OLIVER, a Marketing Agency that builds in-house teams

During 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!

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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 more

Perfect for start up, scale up and enterprise recruitment businesses

Landing page is here:

Hoxo · Volcanic

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

About 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

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Thanks to our consistent sponsor from Season 4 - District 4

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 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!

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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 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

1. The start up stories of each business
2. His formula to scale via graduate academies
3. Why he doesn’t have a computer and runs his whole operation from an iPhone
4. His take on why many do not scale
5. Why profit isn’t the driver when scaling and how quick profit arrives when you slow down growth
6. How he felt when he exited his businesses and why he knew he needed to get back in the game after 3 month breaks
7. His life outside of work, happily married without children- he balances life in London with rural countryside and Ibiza to keep himself happy
8. How turning 50 certainly affected his mental health and how he deals with this
9. Finally his vision for the future and some wise words for budding recruitment entrepreneurs

One 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

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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 Group

www.volcanic.com/hoxo

About 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 4

District4 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

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

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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.

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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