Sam Johnstone has never worked for a recruitment agency.
He spent three and a half years selling video technology to agency owners. Then he decided to go and do it himself.
Four years in, he has a portfolio of repeat clients and inbound leads from LinkedIn. All built from a cabin on the Scottish coast with a few thousand pounds in the bank.
In this episode, Sam breaks down how he uses video at every stage. Prospecting. Job adverts. Candidate shortlists. Hiring days. And why clients choose him over every other agency they’re talking to.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [1:18] What a video-first recruitment agency actually means
- [5:33] How a chance LinkedIn scroll led Sam from tech sales to launching his own agency
- [7:47] What Sam learned from thousands of product demos at Odro that shaped his process
- [11:21] Starting the business from a seaside cabin – and why the isolation worked
- [15:15] The daily BD routine: personalized video messages, instant watch notifications, call within five minutes
- [17:54] The 30-second video formula that gets prospects to take calls
- [22:29] How a video message to a Rangers fan turned into his first big retainer with Worldpay
- [25:16] Why Sam only works with clients who pay a deposit – and what they get in return
- [32:42] The hiring day model: compressing the entire interview process into a single afternoon
- [43:55] The hiring day that cost Sam money and what he learned from it
- [49:32] Getting paid 180 days late – and the payment term changes that followed
- [51:27] Sam’s monthly recurring revenue model: 22% spread across 12 months
- [1:08:16] Why Sam replaced LinkedIn Recruiter with Clay, Claude, and SourceWhale
The 30-Second Video That Gets Prospects to Pick Up
Sam sends prospects a personalised video. Under 30 seconds.
Using a tool like Odro or Loom, he appears in a small box overlaid on their LinkedIn profile. He references something specific about them. He explains briefly how he can help. And he ends with a heads up.
“I get an instant notification when you click on this video, by the way. So don’t be too creeped out when you receive a phone call from me.”
The moment he sees the notification, he calls. His rule is five minutes.
When prospecting into a new company he sends videos to multiple decision makers on the same day. Each one genuinely personalised. Not the same video sent three times.
“I genuinely wanted them to be talking about me in the office.”
His first major retainer came from exactly this process. He prospected into Worldpay, sent a video to one of their directors, and got a tip that the real decision maker was a Rangers fan. Sam has season tickets at Ibrox. He sent the video. The conversation happened. It became his first big retainer.
That outcome doesn’t happen from a generic InMail.
How Sam Uses Video to Deliver a Better Service
Once Sam wins a client, the work looks nothing like standard agency recruitment.
He takes a videographer into the client’s office. They spend time with the sales manager, with the team, with the people doing the job being hired for. They record a job advert that shows the culture, the people, the environment. Sam posts it to his LinkedIn following of 25,000 to 30,000.
The client gets a professional video asset they can reuse however they want. Sam gets deep access to the team – which means his understanding of the candidate profile is far stronger than any recruiter working from a job spec alone.
It also means clients tend not to leave.
“We’ve never lost any clients. For me, if I can position myself in the absolute best light – yes, we might lose out on one fee this time, but if that worked for them, they would come back to me before they went to another recruiter.”
From there the process runs on video at every stage. Candidates receive the job advert video directly via LinkedIn. Sam tracks who opens it. He screens by phone. Shortlisted candidates complete a one-way video interview. Sam selects the best, compiles a single link with candidate videos, CVs, salary expectations, and notice periods, and sends it to the hiring manager.
One link. Everything in one place.
The Hiring Day: Compressing Weeks of Interviews Into One Afternoon
Most recruiters send CVs and wait. Sam brings all the candidates in on the same day.
The CEO or sales director presents the company to everyone together. Candidates introduce themselves and explain why they’d be right for the role – in front of each other. Then one-to-one interviews follow.
By the time everyone walks in, Sam already knows every candidate well. They’ve completed a one-way video interview. He’s been to the office. He’s seen the culture. He’s met the team.
“We’ve never really been let down by the candidate quality on the day.”
Not every hiring day goes to plan. Sam hosted one for a client who negotiated his deposit from £2,000 down to £500. He hired a venue, brought the videographer, ran an excellent day – and not a single candidate got offered a job. Internal issues at the company halted everything. Sam was out of pocket.
Don’t negotiate on the deposit. And qualify harder on urgency before committing to a day like that.
Sam agrees now. He didn’t see it then.
