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    Category: Podcast

    Recruitment Mistakes #6: Not Posting Original Content on LinkedIn, with Mark Whitby and Leanne Jones Hunt, Ep #159

    Posting original LinkedIn content is an effective way to build your brand, create top-of-mind awareness and become the go-to recruiter in your niche. Yet according…

    Mark Whitby January 25, 2023

    Beyond the Transaction: How to Achieve Growth in an Uncertain Economy, with Greg Hollis, Ep #158

    The key factor that ensures successful recruitment business growth while navigating an uncertain economic climate is having sticky client relationships.  My special guest, Greg Hollis,…

    Mark Whitby January 16, 2023

    The 3 Keys to Growing a Startup Recruitment Agency to $950,000 in the First Year, with Ben Cross, Ep #157

    Imagine starting your own recruitment agency with no recruiting experience and growing it to almost a million dollars in the first year. Sounds unbelievable, right? …

    Mark Whitby December 23, 2022

    How a Recruitment Firm Owner Attained Billings of $1.2M While Growing a Team, with Darwin Shurig, Ep #156

    If you’ve ever tried to grow a recruitment firm, you understand the crazy balancing act of being an effective billing manager. It’s extremely challenging to…

    Mark Whitby December 15, 2022

    How to Grow a Recruitment Agency from Start-Up to $3M Profit in Two Years, with Emily Rushton, Ep #155

    In this episode, you will hear how Emily Rushton grew her recruitment agency from start-up to $1M in profit in its first year and is…

    Mark Whitby December 9, 2022

    How to Improve Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Your Recruitment Process, with Jo Major, Ep #154

    Most recruiters say that Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is important but haven’t actually updated their recruitment process accordingly.  There’s a big difference between talking about…

    Mark Whitby November 30, 2022

    Meet The Recruiter Who Survived And Thrived Through Four Recessions, with Gail Audibert, Ep #153

    Many recruiters are feeling anxious about the economy. Are you concerned about how a slowdown might affect your billings in 2023?   My special guest, Gail…

    Mark Whitby November 25, 2022

    Recruitment Mistakes #5: Doing Everything Manually Instead of Leveraging Automation, with Mark Whitby and Leanne Jones Hunt, Ep #152

    When Leanne ran her own recruitment business, she managed to claw back 25 hours of her time PER WEEK by implementing automation strategies and hiring…

    Mark Whitby November 17, 2022

    Personalized Service as a Success Factor in Recruitment Business Growth, with Frido Diepeveen, Ep #151

    If you believe in providing personalized customer service, you’ll love my interview with Frido Diepeveen. In this episode, Frido shared his wealth of experience from…

    Mark Whitby November 12, 2022

    How to Self-Destruct a $4M Search Firm and Re-Build on Stronger Foundations, with Mark Phillips, EP #150

    Imagine building a search firm from scratch to $4M in billings. An incredible achievement, right? Now imagine that same business suddenly imploding from 14 team…

    Mark Whitby November 3, 2022
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    Forum Description

    Imagine building a search firm from scratch to $4M in billings. An incredible achievement, right? Now imagine that same business suddenly imploding from 14 team members down to just one. How would you bounce back from such a devastating loss? Would you have the heart and will to rebuild?

    This is the story of my special guest, Mark Phillips. Mark is the founder and CEO of HireEducation and in this interview, he shares his journey with unflinching honesty and self-reflection. He takes ownership of the behaviours and decisions that led to the decline of the business. Based on the lessons he learned from both his successes and failures, Mark is rebuilding his business and himself - this time on stronger foundations.

    Mark got into recruiting in the late 90s and has specialized in the Education Technology industry since 2006.  He launched his firm HireEducation in 2010 and by 2019 he built it into a $4M per year business. That same year, he faced his biggest challenge.  You will now hear what he’s doing differently to build an even more successful business that he enjoys a whole lot more.

    Episode Outline and Highlights

    • [02:34] How Mark knows our mutual friend, Jordan Rayboy.
    • [04:38] Thoughts on recruiters as non-conformists.
    • [12:47] How to build trust with people quickly. 
    • [25:26] Growing a firm from nothing to a $4m annual run rate. 
    • [40:41] The value of hiring someone to do the things you’re not good at.
    • [44:23] Overcoming a massive upheaval in 2019.
    • [52:40] Learning from hindsight - Mark’s retrospect on his most significant challenges led to him rebuilding his firm. 
    • [1:06:15] Mark’s core value in rebuilding his team.
    • [1:09:40] What is now being done differently in Mark’s second version of his business?

    Building From Scratch to a $4M Annual Run Rate

    Mark shared the key success factors that contributed to growing a $4m search firm in 9 years. There were a number of challenges they needed to overcome which anyone growing a recruitment businesses will relate to. The two biggest success factors were:

    • Market mastery - having an organized approach to his market.
    • Hiring in 3’s - as it takes the same amount to train 3 people as it does to train 1 person. 

    Hire Someone to Manage You

    Another significant success factor that Mark mentioned is the value of hiring an assistant. Mark’s longest serving employee, Katie, was originally hired as his assistant and has contributed so much and developed her leadership skills to the point that she was recently promoted to CEO. 

    What is the added value of his assistant? “Operational details are not my strong suit. I am acknowledging that. When I hired Katie back in 2014, I said ‘your first job is to manage me and your second job is to manage my inbox.’”  This actually makes a lot of sense. In our coaching group, we emphasize the value of hiring someone, like a virtual assistant, that can support you on administrative tasks or operational undertakings while you focus on your business’ vision and income-generating tasks. This is how Mark puts it, “Having somebody that I trusted operationally was really key from getting from $1M to $4M.”

    Extreme Ownership: Improving Your Results Requires You to Own Your Mistakes

    In 2019, Mark’s business imploded, shrinking from 14 people back down to 1.  That was a really rough experience for Mark which led to a lot of soul-searching and shifts in personal and business focus. At the height of their success, Mark was really stressed and not sleeping well due to significant issues from his working environment. Due to cultural misalignment, a rift developed between Mark and some of his key employees who he had brought on and promoted to Partner level. Ultimately, this led Mark and his top billers to part ways, which snowballed into losing almost his entire team.  It was a truly heartbreaking experience.

    In retrospect, Mark is able to analyze the situation and identify his own role in the decline of the business. As Mark described, “When I think about that time, my relationship with those three partners and team members, was not first. Consequently, it was a house of cards… In the end, it was not relationship first”. This lead him to establish a new core value when he rebuilt his business, which is to always protect the team.

    You will truly appreciate Mark’s candor and humility in sharing this experience, which can also be a learning moment for all of us.

    Our Sponsors

    This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro and Recruitment Entrepreneur.

    i-intro® is an end-to-end retained recruitment platform. Their technology and methodology allow recruiters to differentiate themselves from the competition, win more retained business, bigger fees and increase their billings. Their software combined with world-class training enables you to transition from transactional, contingency recruiter to consultative, retained recruiter. Instead of being perceived as a “me too” vendor, you’ll be positioned as a “me only” solutions provider. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Book your free, no-obligation consultation here: www.recruitmentcoach.com/retained

    Recruitment Entrepreneur is the world’s leading Private Equity firm specializing in the international recruitment industry. If you’ve dreamed of starting, scaling and selling your recruitment business, this is your chance. James Caan and his team at Recruitment Entrepreneur are actively seeking ambitious recruiters who they can invest in. They provide everything you need to grow a successful recruitment business including: funding, financial expertise, coaching and mentoring, operational strategy, backoffice support, marketing and talent attraction solutions. Be sure to mention Mark Whitby or The Resilient Recruiter. Start a conversation here: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/vc

    Mark Phillips Bio and Contact Info 

    Mark first into recruiting in the late 90s and then moved into the Education Technology industry in 2006. He built his firm from a solo desk in 2010 to a $4M run rate in 2019. As a member of the SanfordRose Network, Mark has coached recruiters to the following accolades: 3 Rookies of the Year, 2 Top recruiters in the network, and multiple top 10 in the network performances. His firm recruits for education companies, not schools, but companies that sell products and services to PreK, K12, and Higher Education institutions.

    • Mark on LinkedIn
    • Hire Education website link
    • Hire Education on Facebook

    People and Resources Mentioned

    • How to Build an 8-Figure Recruitment Business That Runs Without You webinar link 
    • Jordan Rayboy on LinkedIn
    • Problem Prospecting by Richard Smith
    • Rocket Fuel book Gino Wickman
    • Joel Slenning on LinkedIn
    • Yosef Colish on LinkedIn
    • Rich Roll podcast 

    Connect with Mark Whitby

    • Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call
    • Mark on LinkedIn
    • Mark on Twitter: @MarkWhitby
    • Mark on Facebook
    • Mark on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

    Related Podcast You Might Enjoy

    • TRR#133 How this Top Producing Recruiter is Putting Health, Fitness, and Family First, with Jordan Rayboy
    • TRR#16 The Mindset of a Million-Dollar Biller During the Pandemic, with Yosef Colish

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