What does it take to grow a global recruitment company, secure private equity investment, and aim for a £100M valuation – all by the age of 31? On this week’s The RAG Podcast , I’m sitting down with Joe Jani , founder and CEO of Metric Search , one of the world’s fastest-growing recruitment firms. Here’s what we uncover: 🔥 How Joe scaled Metric Search from zero to 90 staff across the US and UK since 2019 . 💰 The story behind his seven-figure private equity buyout , de-risking his future while ...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 9Ep. 8
If you are a recruitment founder planning on spending time and money on LinkedIn next year, then chances are, you’re likely to make this one critical mistake – and it will cost you big time. On this week’s episode of The RAG Podcast, I’m sharing insights from my live talk at the Recruitment Agency Expo in Birmingham. I’m revealing how recruiters can use traditional methods to unlock LinkedIn’s full potential in 2025. Here’s what you’ll learn: 🔑 The #1 mistake recruiters make on LinkedIn (guaran...
Nov 20, 2024•25 min•Season 9Ep. 7
This week on The RAG Podcast , I’m sitting down with Jim Sloan, CEO and founder of Navartis a specialist recruitment agency in the infrastructure sector. Jim’s journey is an incredible story of growth to a team of 110+ across multiple countries and significant profits of £2M EBITDA Here’s what we discuss: 🔑 How Jim started the business as a new brand within a larger group 💼 The pivotal MBO process that happened shortly after and set the stage for exponential growth. 📊 Why understanding net ma...
Nov 13, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 9Ep. 6
On this week’s episode of The RAG Podcast, I’m joined by Craig Whiting, founder of RLS Search, who shares his incredible journey from solo billing to building a 15-member team specialising in tech talent for investment management. In this episode, Craig opens up about his transition from running a small operation with his partner—billing £1.5 million annually over 6 years—to managing a growing team, expanding internationally, and learning to "step off the tools." Here are just a few reasons to t...
Nov 06, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 9Ep. 5
Ever wondered what it takes to build a thriving recruitment business with your partner? On this week's episode of The RAG Podcast, Kate Cross joins me to reveal the highs, lows, and secrets to creating sustainable contract revenue while maintaining a successful personal relationship. Kate is co-founder of Harvey Jacob, a construction recruitment agency that’s generated over £500,000 in contract revenue annually for the past 17 years. Kate worked alongside her husband Simon as a recruiter before ...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 9Ep. 4
From no recruitment experience to solo founder billing £1m a year– @Paul de Rozarieux’s Journey in Recruitment This week on The RAG Podcast , I’m joined by an incredible guest, Paul de Rozarieux, founder of Fusion Search. Paul’s story is truly one of a kind. With zero recruitment experience, Paul built his business from scratch, growing it into a seven-figure success without formal training or support. But there’s more to Paul’s story than just numbers. After 20 years of running a generalist rec...
Oct 23, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 9Ep. 3
AI is set to transform recruitment, and this episode will blow your mind! On this week's episode, I am joined by Jordan Shlosberg, founder of Atlas, to discuss how his AI-powered CRM is set to transform the recruitment industry! Now, Jordan knows a thing or two about building successful businesses. He took his previous company, ProSapient, to a massive $40 million in revenue before exiting. He launched Atlas with one goal: to eliminate the tedious admin work recruiters face. Now, with over 1,000...
Oct 16, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Season 9Ep. 2
Season 8 premiere! In this episode, I’m bringing back one of the most talked-about guests we've ever had: Tom Glanfield , the founder of LHi Group (originally Lawrence Harvey). Last time Tom was on, he shared his hilarious and inspiring growth journey and plans for exiting the business. Now, he’s back after successfully securing a massive exit! We dive into what life looks like after selling his company how he’s spending his time managing his wealth and balancing his personal life. Tom opens up ...
Oct 09, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 9Ep. 1
Today, I'm excited to look at another of Access Group's products. This time, it's an automation platform called ELAY that was recently acquired by the Access Group based on its initial success in integrating well with Vincere and its customers. In this episode, I interviewed Mehdi Este, the founder and automation general manager, and Nick Beecroft, the head of new business for Access Recruitment. I've known Nick for a long time, but this is my first time meeting Mehdi. They are a really good duo...
Jul 10, 2024•56 min•Season 8Ep. 48
What really happened to Volcanic and why they are making huge progress under The Access Group. On this week's show, I'm joined by Nick Thomson and Rachel Kirton from Access. Nick is the GM of Access Recruitment, and Rachel Kirton is Senior Product Manager for Volcanic. Volcanic is an iconic brand in our sector. Famous for SaaS recruitment websites, they were acquired by The Access Group in 2019. Similar to the situation with Vincere, post acquisition, there’s been some noise in the market. It is...
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 8Ep. 47
On this week's show, I've decided to completely pause the schedule and remember the amazing Ryan McCabe, who sadly lost his life this week. I really don't have words to describe how amazing Ryan was. I personally didn't know him that well, but we had great interactions. We spoke semi-regularly about our businesses, and I always felt that we were similar and that we saw the world the same way. He was among the first to sponsor the RAG podcast and take a chance on me. He was a guest on the show tw...
Jun 27, 2024•52 min•Season 8Ep. 46
On this week's show, I'm super excited to be joined by Helen McGuire. Helen is the exited founder of Diversely.io, a technology business acquired by Access Group in 2023. Entering the pandemic in 2020, Helen ran a recruitment business dedicated to helping return-to-work mothers find flexible jobs. Helen understood this cause well, as she’d previously been in this exact position herself. But she soon realised that her recruitment agency's business model limited the number of people she could actu...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 45
I'm excited to be joined by Callum Beaumont, the founder of Cordell Beaumont, a specialist recruitment firm headquartered in the UK with an international client base in the shipping and maritime sector. In this episode, we talk about Callum's five-year journey as a recruitment business owner and ultimately focus on the five biggest mistakes he's made in that time. Callum reached out to me after listening to many of the shows I've done recently and said that he wanted listeners to hear his honest...
Jun 12, 2024•58 min•Season 8Ep. 44
In this episode, I want to walk you through our very own Hoxo inbound lead generation model. You probably see team Hoxo and I online each month, generating lots of content and engagement… What you may not know is that we achieve an average of 1000 NEW inbound leads every month - all from our series of 5 consistent tactics (1360 leads in May 2024, to be precise :) Our tactics are super simple and easily repeatable. 100% of Hoxo customers come from these leads, and I am really proud to say that we...
Jun 05, 2024•24 min•Season 8Ep. 43
Diane started the business with her husband without ANY experience in the industry. But what she did have was the vision to build a scalable and sellable business. And in this episode, she shares how she did it. Diane saw the value in focusing on one staffing niche; in this case, they decided on title insurance and mortgage. Listen as she tells how they grew their team, why they hired people with industry-specific experience and their steady expansion into new regions. The goal was always to exi...
May 29, 2024•56 min•Season 8Ep. 42
On this week's show, I'm releasing my talk at this year's Recruitment Agency Expo, all about why AI and automation could be the biggest mistake you make in your recruitment agency in 2024. In March, I was on stage in front of a room full of recruitment leaders who had been subjected to countless suppliers from technology companies promoting their latest AI tools and tech to automate parts of the recruitment process. Everyone agreed that this tech sounds logical, efficient and exciting. Personall...
May 22, 2024•25 min•Season 8Ep. 41
Leo is the founder of Core3 Finance Recruitment, headquartered in Bristol, with 10 employees. Although the company is only two years old, Leo’s team has already reached just under £1 million in revenue in their second year. What I love about this business is that they're all about making a positive social impact. They are B Corp certified and believe that business has a greater role to play in society than just making profit. This is why they’ve pledged 3% of their sales to people, planet, and p...
May 15, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Season 8Ep. 40
On this week's show, Jake Frazer, CEO and Founder of Precision Talent Solutions, shares his journey of building a recruitment firm specialising in government contracting talent. Jake is based in Switzerland, but the company is 100% remote, with employees working from 12 countries around the world. The company's unique talent model involves hiring senior people from the industry and converting them into high-performing recruiters. The team is made up of 35+ people, all recruiting specifically wit...
May 07, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 8Ep. 39
This week’s episode is a collaboration between RAG Podcast and Recruitment Mentors Podcast! Hishem and I host two of the most well-known, highly-regarded podcasts in our sector. We started them at roughly the same time, and we even used to record them in the same Hoxo HQ studio! After sitting down together at the recent recruitment expo, we realised that we’ve released well over 500 recruitment episodes and interviewed/met 1000+ over this period We thought it would be interesting to come togethe...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 8Ep. 38
I'm excited to be joined again by Lysha Holmes. Lysha is the founder of Qui Recruitment, a specialist Rec2Rec based in Manchester. Someone I've worked with since the pandemic who's now built a 100% inbound business. She went from being an amazing recruiter with incredible integrity who would only represent the best recruiters in the Northwest to carrying on that and building an online brand that is seen by thousands of people every single day! She now sources all candidates via 100% inbound enqu...
Apr 24, 2024•56 min•Season 8Ep. 37
On this week’s show, I'm joined by Scott Brown, the founder of Heriot Brown, a UK-based in-house legal recruitment specialist agency. Scott started his recruitment business almost by accident. He made the switch to recruitment because he felt unfulfilled as a lawyer and wanted to have more control over his career. He wanted to gain sales experience. Less than two years later, he launched his own recruitment firm. Scott admits that his lack of experience before launching his business had both pos...
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 8Ep. 36
I'm joined by an old client of mine, Paul Smith. Paul is the Managing Director of Deploy Recruitment, a specialist infrastructure and technology recruitment business heavily invested in the rail sector. Paul started the recruitment side of this business just over 10 years ago. In this episode, he tells me about the last year and how he completed the MBO to buy out the original Partners and fully own the company. Today, so many recruitment founders partner with other people — whether business par...
Apr 10, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 8Ep. 35
I'm super excited to be joined by Mirtes Lobaito, the CEO and founder of AGM Tech Solutions, a recruitment firm headquartered in New Jersey in the US. Mirtes shares her inspirational journey from Brazil to the US, where she started her business with no English language skills and worked her way up from cleaning homes to tech sales. She eventually entered the recruitment industry and decided to start her own company. Despite facing challenges and self-doubt, Mirtes grew AGM Tech Solutions into a ...
Apr 03, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 8Ep. 34
I am so excited to be rejoined by Chriss Abbass, the CEO of Talentful, four years after our first episode together. For those who don’t know, Talentful is the world's leading embedded talent recruitment solution, working with some of the best tech companies on the planet. I had Chris in my studio in London back in 2019. At the time, his business was 4 years old and had already grown to 150 people and £9 million in net margin. Today, another 4 years have passed, and their last company account was...
Mar 27, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 8Ep. 33
I'm super excited to be joined by Oliver Legg, the co-founder of Aspiron Search, a specialist headhunter in the cybersecurity market operating from the UK but placing people all over the US. Oliver started his career as a regional sales manager for a home security installation company seven years ago. Today, alongside Joe his co-founder, they generate over 7 figures a year with a team of five in the cybersecurity market. A super modern agency with a focus on brand and content (their podcast alon...
Mar 20, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 8Ep. 32
In this episode, Ephram Stephenson, CEO and founder of Collar Talent Group, joins me for part 2 of the Collar Talent Group story! I interviewed Ephram Jan 2023 when his business was just over a year old and he'd already reached a head count of 100. 13 months later, and the business now has 140 people across multiple Australian offices, making them the fastest growing agency in the country. In this follow-up show, Ephram shares insights on how he has rapidly grown the business, built a strong com...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 8Ep. 31
This week, I'm super excited to be joined by Alex Woodhead, the founder of a brand new 10-day-old talent and engineering consultancy called Apera. A business that specialises in recruitment for future mobility, space and clean energy. This is a super niche futuristic market with so much space for growth. And it isn’t Alex’s first time attacking it! We talk about how Alex started in recruitment: his journey from trainee to Director in his first firm, how he co-founded a company called Strativ, an...
Mar 06, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 8Ep. 30
On this week's show, Oscar Orellana-Hyder, the Founder of Cordell Partners, shares his journey from being a sceptic of personal branding on LinkedIn to building a successful recruitment agency in the UAE. I’ve worked with Oscar since 2021. He was a Hoxo client whilst working for Robert Walters. He went from someone who thought that using LinkedIn was complete nonsense and was billing £350k per year using only traditional methods, to doubling this within 12 months! All through 100% inbound busine...
Feb 28, 2024•58 min•Season 8Ep. 29
On this week's show, I'm joined by Jonathan Berry, the director of the Middle East region for Robert Walters Group. I’ve known him for five years and have been working with him for four years. Jonathan was the first staff member at Robert Walters to join my bootcamp. And I'm now working with over 700 recruiters across the Group. Jonathan came to Dubai after working for Robert Walters in Sydney, and is now running the business in the region. In this episode, he shares his journey from being a law...
Feb 21, 2024•58 min•Season 8Ep. 28
On this week's show, I'm delighted to be joined by Calvin Lee-Pickett, the CEO and founder of Calvin James Recruitment. Calvin came from the UK to Dubai as an employee of Robert Half Recruitment, a global organisation. A few years later, he decided to start his own business. Without any experience as a business owner, he has grown organically over the last five years. And in this past year, things have REALLY changed for Calvin and his team! In this episode, Calvin discusses how he pivoted his b...
Feb 14, 2024•59 min•Season 8Ep. 27
