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/

On this week's episode, I was joined by Dan Taylor, MD of Morgan Hunt, a UK Public Sector specialist agency with 150 staff.

Dan started at Hays in 1996 and has worked his way through many positions in his 26-year career.

In 2018 he became MD of Morgan Hunt and has been on a journey to change the business for the better.

Dan shares his unique insights into leading a large recruitment agency on a daily basis and how he never actually considered starting his own agency.

His reason - he wanted to work at scale from day 1 and this is rarely possible with a start-up business.

A genuine, warm, and inspiring story from someone who shines positivity onto our sector.

On this episode of The RAG Podcast I was joined by Joshua Rayner, the Founder & CEO of Rayner Personnel, a specialist in UK Property Recruitment.

I originally interviewed Josh in February of 2019 in my first Hoxo office in London.

At the time, Josh had a team of 13 who were all operating as franchisees. This involved buying into the business and scaling a branch of RP in their specific geographical area of the UK.

In the first year, this approach appeared to be working (listen to the first episode for more on that!).

But in late 2019, it was clear that he had the wrong model and the wrong people.

As the pandemic began, Josh made the bold decision to release all but one of the franchisees and start again.

He redesigned his business model whilst at home and went out on a mission to grow.

Since then, he has built a team of 20 self-employed licensees, making a small change to the old model with huge benefits for Josh and his people.

In 2021, he wrote a book about his journey as a serial recruitment agency owner - The Recruitment Rollercoaster is available via Amazon and is a current best seller! All the proceeds from sales go to Mind Charity.

A really interesting story with a unique approach to scaling a recruitment firm!

The RAG sponsors

Vincere:

Vincere have refreshed their homepage! They’ve redesigned their look and feel to incorporate the full universe of tools in their stable. Vincere’s platform has evolved so much over the past year that their website and branding needed to catch up. The new visuals are a clear reference to the solar system, with the Vincere CRM/ATS at the core and all their other modules working in harmony around it. Go check it out at https://www.vincere.io/ -

If you’d like to request a demo, follow this link https://www.vincere.io/rag - they’ve got an exclusive deal for RAG listeners!

District4:

Do you feel like you’re not surrounded by peers and you’ve stopped learning? Imagine only working alongside other experienced recruiters who you can really collaborate with, while having the freedom to do work your way. If you’re thinking of a change, check out District4, where you can launch your own business and not be alone!

Visit www.district4.io/hoxo to see what they can do for you.

Launched in the middle of 2017, the business is almost 4.5 yrs old and has grown extremely well in that period.

In this episode Chris shares the story of why he decided to build a rec agency that gives 5% of operating profit to charity and the impact of having such a clear and powerful mission.

Across the industry, attracting internal talent is arguably the most difficult thing right now. Hiring strong recruiters will allow any agency to capitalise on the crazy opportunity in the market today

SR2 have been hugely successful in attracting experienced talent and believe their brand is the secret weapon!

The RAG sponsor

Looking for ways to stay ahead of your competition in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

Through the end of this month, any Hoxo listeners who request a demo of Talent Ticker will receive a free, personalised list of leads to help them get a jump on the rest of the year.

Talent Ticker is the world’s first recruitment intelligence platform, providing you with accurate contact information for passive candidates and matching them with companies looking to hire them.

What is unique to Talent Ticker is that they predict when a company will be hiring whilst giving you the projected hiring roles and contact info for the hiring managers.

Any recruiter who uses this tool will be calling the right person, at the right time and for the right reason. Don't wait. Head over to get.talentticker.ai/hoxo/ and claim your free leads today.

On this episode of The RAG Podcast, I was joined by Emrah Baykal, the Founder & CEO of RO, a specialist energy-focused recruitment agency. The agency is based in London & Houston with 10 staff, and is part of the Tempting Ventures Group of over 80 recruiters.

Emrah is the first to admit that in the early days of his recruitment career, he loved a billers’ lunch or two.

In the first couple of years as owner of RO, he would find any excuse to take his team out for drinks (mainly because he fancied one!).

However, his attitude to all of this changed during the pandemic, as he began to exercise daily with a colleague.

Emrah began running and weightlifting and taking his nutrition more seriously. He began to develop better habits and in turn feel much healthier for it.

Since then, he has implemented some amazing ideas to ensure his own team follows suit and adopts a healthy lifestyle!

This was a great episode and one for any owner who is seriously thinking about changing their own lifestyle and the culture within their business!

The RAG sponsors

Vincere:

Vincere refreshed their homepage - galaxy/Nasa space vibes theme.

Vincere’s platform has evolved so much over the past year and their website, new modules, and branding needed to reflect that.

They've refreshed their visuals and the product diagram. What you see is a reference to the solar system. With Vincere CRM/ATS as the core and all the other modules working in harmony around it - just like nature intended.

Go check it out: https://www.vincere.io/

If you’d like to request a demo, follow this link https://www.vincere.io/rag - they’ve got an exclusive deal for RAG listeners.

District4:

Do you feel like you’re not surrounded by peers and you’ve stopped learning? Imagine only working alongside other experienced recruiters who you can really collaborate with while having the freedom to do it your way. If you’re thinking of a change, check out District4, where you can launch your own business and not be alone!

Visit www.district4.io/hoxo to see what they can do for you.

On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast I was joined by Jake, my little brother.

One of the most charismatic and successful guys I know (and annoyingly good-looking!)

We got into recruitment in Melbourne together in 2011.

Later in Sydney, Jake became a recruitment owner in his mid 20's, but in 2016 he sold his shares in TheDriveGroup.

He was building a great business but, for some reason, he wasn't happy.

He put this down to being 'home sick' and moved back to the UK.

In 2017 he launched One Life Social Media – a fast-growing 7-figure global digital marketing agency in the fitness industry.

With no experience in the industry, he built a business that operated in 20 countries with over 600 clients, helping them with customer acquisition and lead generation online.

He led a team of 20+ people too, all before the age of 30.

Jake had all the extrinsic measures of success that society says we need to find fulfillment and happiness – wealth, status, validation from others, approval, a growing company, recognition, etc.

But something wasn't right.

Over the next 2 years, Jake’s life completely changed forever.

He suffered the most severe anxiety and depression I have ever witnessed. Due to this, the pandemic, and realising he simply wasn’t happy and needed to change, Jake closed down his second business.

I have watched him focus on recovering and embark on a journey of reconnecting to his mind, body, soul, health, consciousness, relationships, and life.

I am so happy and proud to say that now he is a completely different person from two years ago.

He is happy, healthy and present.

Jake is now dedicating his life to helping other high performers who are suffering from the same issues of burnout, anxiety, and depression.

I am going to warn you that this is an extremely raw account directly from Jake.

He talks about the pain he suffered.

How he even had suicidal thoughts (this breaks my heart.)

But it’s all true and I feel like the future is bright.

If you would like to speak to Jake about his story or his coaching services then you can contact him directly on Linkedin here or via his website www.onelifemindsetcoaching.com

Recorded during Mental Health Awareness week. If this helps just one person in any way then I know Jake and I will be delighted!

Sponsor:

Looking for a way to grow your recruitment business in 2022? Talent Ticker is here to help.

More than 300 recruitment agencies are using Talent Ticker to automate their recruiters’ most monotonous tasks, help them predict who will be hiring 3 months in advance, and provide simple tools to identify ideal passive and active candidates to pitch for open roles.

Learn more at get.talentticker.ai/hoxo and take advantage of their special offer for our listeners.