Recruitment Mentors Podcast

I'm joined by Ally Esmaeili in this episode who is one of the directors at a specialist cyber security agency called SOAP.

Ally entered the Recruitment world typically later than a lot of people with him making a career change in his late 20's.

We discuss the real challenges Ally faced in the early part of his recruitment career, he didn't have much success, he wasn't as committed as he is now and he wasn't a master of his market.

Since then he has worked relentlessly to know his market inside out, become the best recruiter he can be and always be willing to learn & listen.

Since starting SOAP with his business partners he has excelled in his performance, billing £180K in the first year to now breaking the £300K mark.

We really discuss how he continued to level up his performance and what he learnt a long the way.

You can connect with Ally on Linkedin - Ally Esmaeili

Best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - Hishem Azzouz

If you have any questions, comments on this episode or any topics you would love me to cover with future guests then please drop me a message.

Also feel free to tweet me your comments and questions - Hishem Azzouz.

In this episode I sit down with Louise McMullan who is the founder of White Label Recruitment who recruit for permanent and contract Engineers & Managers within the Engineering, Manufacturing & Production markets.

Louise started White Label after working for SThree for 18 months.

Due to the circumstances Louise found herself in after having her first child she felt like the only option she had was to start her own business.

For the first year it was just Louise and a lot of long nights to build a recruitment business from scratch.

Fast forward 9 years, there are now 17 people who work for White Label and she feels like the business really does have the foundation to scale successfully.

We discuss so much in this episode from understanding your WHY, learnings from hiring the first person for White Label, what makes a great biller in todays market and the importance of mentors.

With Louise having a young family and growing White Label we really discuss the reality of the challenges that have come with being a mum who is growing a recruitment business.

Again apologies for parts of the audio quality on this episode!

You can connect with Louise on Linkedin - Louise McMullan

Best place to connect with me is Linkedin - Hishem Azzouz.

If you have any questions, comments on this episode or any topics you would love me to cover with future guests then please drop me a message.

Also feel free to tweet me your comments and questions - Hishem Azzouz - Twitter

Ladies & Gents I have an announcement to make, Ed Hunter has released his very first book.

For some time now, Hunted have supported me in getting this podcast to even more recruiters all over the world and our shared ethos makes the partnership a dream.

It also means I get the odd perk, like being able to sneak a peek at Ed Hunter's new book, before it hit the shelves. Which it now has. It's on Amazon for free delivery in even small corners of the globe.

I can't recommend this enough and can guarantee you a few laughs. At under a tenner it's also great value and perfect for your colleagues.

Grab yourself a copy with this link - Ed Hunters Book.

If you don't know who Ed Hunter is then you need to, you can follow his account here -
Ed Hunter's Linkedin Page

For those of you who grab a copy please do let me know what you think of it.

In this episode I'm joined by Jamie Fraser who is the founder of a staffing agency called Interex that specialises in Microsoft & Cloud recruitment.

Jamie started his recruitment business at the age of 23 having been one of the highest performing contract billers in the previous agency he worked for.

He started the business in 2016 and he has self funded the growth of the business to today where he has 15 heads in central London with the ambition to scale.

I absolutely loved Jamie's passion, hunger and belief in his own abilities to grow a successful recruitment business that is known for providing outstanding staffing solutions.

What you see is what you get with Jamie and I completely respect Jamies authenticity to stay true to himself.

If you're someone who TRULY wants to be the best of the best then this episode is for you.

You can connect with Jamie on Linkedin - Jamie Fraser.

Best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - Hishem Azzouz.

As always if you want to participate in this podcast, get your questions asked and discuss what you liked about the podcast then tweet me with your questions / parts you enjoyed of the episode.

@HishemAzzouz

I'm joined by Matt Collingwood on this episode who is the managing director of VIQU and also one of the founders of the Recruitment Canaries.

Matt is probably one of the most experienced recruiters I have had on this podcast due to him starting his career in the 1990's.

He stayed within one of the biggest global leading recruitmet groups Addecco for 17 years where he climbed the ranks and was one of the highest ever billing consultants within the Computer People brand.

Matt has always done contract recruitment in IT and his best year to date was a massive £1.4 million in 2003.

Since then he has been building his own recruitment agency VIQU Recruitment over the last 5 years.

We really dive into what Matt has learnt along the way, from focusing on headcount rather than his bottom line, to solving real problems for clients with innovative hiring solutions and much more.

We also discuss why he started the Recruitment Canaries.

You can connect with Matt on Linkedin - Matt Collingwood.

The best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/

This week I'm joined by Will Vamplew who is the Managing Director of the US business within a Birmingham based agency called Consult Energy.

Will has climbed the ranks of this agency from Trainee Consultant to now running his own P&L within the agency for the American arm of the business.

We have a real honest conversation around Will's career to date which has involved him starting markets from scratch numerous times over the last 6 years.

More recently he has been building the American arm of the business for the last 12 months which is a complete new market for the business.

Will experienced a real challenging 5-6 months when building the American desk however Will is really starting to build some momentum.

It's safe to say that Will has learnt a lot along the way so I'm very excited to share this episode with you all.

You can connect with Will on Linkedin - Will Vamplew.

The best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/

With me now being completely dedicated to helping build personal brands for passionate recruiters I wanted to share what I have learnt and the common challenges I have seen recruiters have when it comes to personal branding.

Ultimately I wanted to share with you all the daily conversations I'm having with recruiters around personal branding, what I'm seeing work really well and the common things I'm seeing recruiters do wrong.

I expanded on the following points in this episode.

Topics 

• Like anything you need a plan, this is how I structure my own content plan - Topic / brief content details / Medium / Target persona.
• You have to make the time to plan what you’re going to say over the month so you don’t end up blocking a time out to create content and end up making a post about jobs. 
• How to deliver your message, my best advice, facilitate conversations with your content. 
• Using the engagement to drive sales conversations.
• Linkedin practical advice - Structure of your post all you need to know. 

There will be 3 parts to this mini series and in part 3 I'm going to be answering your questions.

PLEASE send me a message on Linkedin with the questions you would love me to answer on all things Personal Branding Or you can send me a tweet with all your questions.

The best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/

This week I'm joined by Jake Whitby who works for Oakwell Hampton as a Tech Contract Recruiter.

Jake has been on a really interesting journey from starting his career in Manchester to moving over to America to help set up a new desk from scratch and now back in Manchester building a London contract desk from scratch having never done contract recruitment.

It's safe to say Jake has really put himself out of his comfort zone throughout his recruitment career so far and has been willing to take risks.

We have a real honest conversation around how Jake has had to really dig deep to keep resilient through tons of adversity when he moved over to America.

We chat mental toughness, habits that help him remain resilient, advice on approaching building a new desk, the different nuances in the American recruitment market and much more.

You can connect with Jake on Linkedin - Jake Whitby

The best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/

By popular demand we're back with the personal branding mini series, I did a short 3 part series earlier this year which a lot of people enjoyed.

With me now being completely dedicated to helping build personal brands for passionate recruiters I wanted to share what I have learnt and the common challenges I have seen recruiters have when it comes to personal branding.

Ultimately I wanted to share with you all the daily conversations I'm having with recruiters around personal branding, what I'm seeing work really well and the common things I'm seeing recruiters do wrong.

I expanded on the following points in this episode.

Topics 

• Everyone is saying it’s a key part to staying relevant but no one is doing anything. 
• The biggest challenge I get from every recruiter is always I have no idea what to say.  
• The second biggest challenge is being worried about other people’s opinions.  
• Think about what you want to be known for before you start sharing content.
• Being human is the Game. 
• The power of the intro post to your network.

There will be 3 parts to this mini series and in part 3 I'm going to be answering your questions.

PLEASE send me a message on Linkedin with the questions you would love me to answer on all things Personal Branding Or you can send me a tweet with all your questions.

The best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/

This week I'm joined by Kyle Winterbottom who is an Associate Director at Lawrence Harvey based in Manchester.

Kyle started his career at the infamous SThree which then led him to recruiting in Dubai, New York and then back in Manchester.

We spend a lot of time in this episode on Business Development as this has always been an area which Kyle has exceeded in.

However what's clear is how much it has changed since 2011 in SThree and now how you can experience limited success just smashing the switch boards.

Kyle has had to be open to changing how he approaches building his team and desk which has led to him starting an event series which has gone down brilliantly in his market.

We really talk about the importance of striving for celebrity status within your niche!!

You can connect with Kyle on Linkedin - Kyle Winterbottom 

As always if you want to connect with me the best place is Linkedin - Hishem Azzouz