SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Retained Search, the podcast, where we lift the lid on what it's really like to work retained, discuss the stories we've gathered along the way, and give you all a peek behind the scenes of our amazing community and how they're getting ahead. Hello everybody, and welcome to today's episode of the Retained Search Show. Today's an interesting episode. I'm joined by not just one but three special guests today, and we've got some exciting news for you. Firstly, I want to introduce you to Sophie Robertson, who some of you might know. Sophie's joined us on the podcast before. So not a first-time guest. Sophie, say hello to everyone.

SPEAKER_01: 0:53

Hi everyone. Sorry, I'm an internet waiver, so I'm waving.

SPEAKER_00: 0:57

Oh, and David Wilson Home is also not a first-time podcast guest.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02

Hi everyone, looking forward to chatting with you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04

Well known, I think, to our listeners. Thank you very much, Dave. And last but not least, Adrian Byrra, who might be new to some of you. Adrian, nice to have you here.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14

Hey, thanks for having me. It's great to be a part of you guys.

SPEAKER_00: 1:19

So we've got some exciting news for everybody listening, and there's a reason there's the three of us on the podcast today. Isn't that right, Dave?

SPEAKER_02: 1:29

You're coming to Australia.

SPEAKER_00: 1:31

Yay! I'm going to Australia.

SPEAKER_02: 1:33

Well, are you, Dave? Oh, yeah, I don't live there anymore, do I? I've been new to the point. How professional am I?

SPEAKER_00: 1:45

We're so excited. We um, between the three of us, have been between juggling families and businesses and a life and a million different things, have been cooking up a treat for you all. Um, and today we're gonna share a little bit about what we're doing and why we're doing it. Um, it came because we noticed that there was uh an opportunity for Australian recruiters to get together and learn new tactics and techniques that gets them ahead. And we identified that last year, didn't we, Dave? About this time last year, and launched an event, a full-day masterclass, which was insane, sold out um maybe even more than once over, and was incredible. The feedback we got was immense, and we decided to do it again, but with a slightly different uh lineup and uh an even better itinerary and agenda. So I wanted to invite you. I'd love to come to you um first, Adrian, if you don't mind. Uh, you're newest to the audience. Um, would you mind sharing like who you are firstly, a bit of an intro about your story in the background, how you're doing what you're doing, and then what we're going to be doing together.

SPEAKER_03: 3:10

Yeah, sure. Um, firstly, what an honor to work with you guys, right? And get to join you guys. Um, the only one that probably hasn't hasn't done this as much as everybody else on here. Um I own a company, Lead Group, which is a recruitment and labor hire company um across a multiple sectors, as well as the outsource people that is an outsource company specializing within recruitment and talent acquisition. Um we build that uh basically by building an operational structure in Lead Group to support Lead Group in Manila off the start, and then recognized a whole bunch of um friends that I had, uh ex-colleagues that I had had the same issues as us. Um, and then the outsource people was born and and you know got got a chance to support a number of other businesses in a very similar way. Um so quite excited in this chat. I think I'm sure I'm probably not the only recruitment owner that has gone through um some changes over the last year, right? And the industry has has changed. Some of our industry or some of our spaces that we're recruiting in are quite good. Others have dropped off a bit, but in that change, I didn't even realize going into it over the last year. Um, having the outsource and having AI and having, you know, an internal AI integration person allowed us to transition so much quicker as a company. And so I think I'm I'm really honored to be able to join you guys and discuss that with a lot of other SME businesses and help them navigate what's going to happen. Because not only we don't know if it's gonna get better next year or worse, but what we do know when things are gonna change faster and faster. And I think what I'll be talking about, Majority, is how do we navigate that and how do we maintain agility while growing as as businesses?

SPEAKER_00: 5:09

Wow, that sounds amazing. We could do to know that as well. I'll be listening to it.

SPEAKER_03: 5:17

Probably I have a few things what not to do as well. Um we tend to practice that, trying lots of new things and seeing what works.

SPEAKER_00: 5:28

Um, Dave, we did some work together many years ago, and I think you're probably the reason that people recognise me. I got recognised on a plane in Mallorca, Planet Blind Palmer, the guy behind me. I dropped something and then sort of leant over the back saying, So sorry, I've dropped my um earphones and he said, Oh, hi, yeah, sure. And I was like, Oh my god, it's just recognized me. That's your fault. That's your fault. You made Retrain so famous. I don't know who it was. I didn't, I was too embarrassed to like find out who it was, but I could tell straight.

SPEAKER_01: 6:01

Oh, you didn't say anything.

SPEAKER_00: 6:03

No, I was like, he would kind of flushed, and I went, Oh god oh no. I was like, uh, anyway, so yeah, you you you made we train famous, and I know you've done that for lots of people. And tell us what you're seeing in the market and how you're helping people.

SPEAKER_02: 6:19

Well, first of all, I want to keep apologizing, which I always do, because I was one of the first people to introduce Louise to Australia, and I promoted this webinar, and I'm not a webinar expert, but um I think it was 165 people turned up, and I got the times wrong for Louise, and it was actually on at five in the morning UK time, not seven. I had the wrong invite, and I'm a pretty confident chap, but I went to absolute pieces. I was ringing, texting, WhatsApp, and there's 155 people to let in, and somehow she came in a pajama to practically. I think you had your pajamas on, didn't you? I love that, I love that so much. She nailed it. I think I was I was a mess the whole session off the back of that, and people said you weren't that comfortable, but you know what? You have such an impact, and I I know people that signed up and bought your services after that webinar, and they're still your biggest fans, and so uh I'm so glad I played that little part, a bad part, but I played the part a great part, Dave.

SPEAKER_00: 7:24

It'll go down in history. I've told someone else that story, is I'm not quite sure how we put that off, but but we did, we did.

SPEAKER_02: 7:32

I just uh yeah, well, moving on. So, in answer to your question, um the market, I think there's a bit of fortune out there in terms of what sector you work in, um, and some uh do really well based on that, and they're getting away with it and in you know, driving growth, whereas others are really struggling, and I think that's dependent by a lot of different factors. Um, I'm kind of blessed a little bit because a lot of what I do is personal branding, and you know, I I think that it's almost gone from being a nice to have to a must-have um present day, and so the beauty of my situation is I get to work with very, very well-established good recruiters or good recruitment leaders who recognize that maybe because the market has got tougher or they're doing well, they're gonna capitalize on that. But it's interesting, I had a lead today, a referral, it came in and he said to me, which often happens, I hate social media, I hate personal branding. I've got a successful business for many years, but it's getting to the point where I might have to start doing that. I don't want to, but they always say things like I have on a Facebook page, and you know, I don't use Twitter and I don't do this, and Snapchat, and Instagram is horrible. So I said, Well, I don't really need to convince you you you're either gonna be doing this or you're not, and I think that's the thing. I think um a lot of people are using uh uh thinking about their brand and per branding themselves, and I think it's become a real intention now that you know you can use that to your advantage um from a business development. I think this is really important. I think the industry has evolved now because when you talk to professional consulting firms and professional services, when they talk about business development, they talk about a whole range of different things. Whereas business development in our world historically was this picking up the phone, which I still think is wonderfully critical and important. But personal branding is about strategic partnerships, marketing, and personal branding is one part of that as well, and events and other experiences that you can provide to build relationships as well. So, um, yes, I mean, I I'm always always busy. I have some long-standing clients that dropped off, and then I'm do lots of strategy work and coaching work as well. So I'm I'm I'm booming with business, but I have seen the pain that some of my clients have been through, are really good consultants or leaders as well.

SPEAKER_00: 10:11

Um one of the things we noticed, Dave, um, and um well uh it uh others too, is that at the mastermind event that we just did, there are some people like really killing it at the moment. There are some people doing really well. I think you alluded to that too, Adrian, and um, and there are some people struggling, and that does depend on location and niche and market and character, I think, as well, and just um you know, attitude to to their you know, specific situation. Um, but one of the common themes uh that ran through those that are doing very, very well and have a very optimistic outlook and a very positive outlook on the future, have got a real sense of purpose tied, like through them their personal purpose and their business purpose. And by that I mean um people like um I've got a guy called Rowan, Rowan Fisk, he's recently set up his own business and it's uh called Growth Kind, and his whole ethos is kindness, is is giving. And so one of the things he does is a pro bono search for charity once a quarter, and and that kindness and that giving back to the community is is runs through everything that he does, and so on. So the people that have got this real strong sense of what they are, what they're doing, who they're serving, and why are rooted, you know, seem very stable and okay, maybe isn't as buoyant as it has been, but have a very clear um groove in terms of who needs them and how. And um when when we moved on to the topic of personal branding, well, there were definitely some people in that in this room that would categorize themselves in the category as the guy you just described or girl, as saying, I just haven't done it, I stay away from it, it's not my thing. And there was definitely some people in the room like that, which is kind of quite unusual for our community because they're normally quite ahead of it, but they were. And then when it came up that they didn't like this superficial, um, you know, just posting for posting's sake or using generic uh, you know, AI to produce content and hated that and just didn't want to be associated with it, and then we started sharing examples of the work that you do, which is so values-based and so purpose-driven. And we were explaining those of them, those of other people that work with you, me included, how you that's where it starts. Like, you start with what is that purpose, what's that driver, what's underneath all this? We're not even going to go anywhere near creating anything until we understand like what is the highest value here. And several people shared that that was so deep and so important and such a foundation to them that it's enabled them, well, not only brought them to tears on some sessions that they've been on because it's been so close to the um in a good way, like you know, we're finding uh, you know, you you get to the bottom of what drives us, like you know, for me, a lot of it was about my dad and proving myself to my dad. I'm like, why am I talking to this complete stranger about how I need to prove myself to that? I know.

SPEAKER_02: 13:26

A couple of things. If you're listening to this, watch my video today because there's a video on LinkedIn that I talk about. I've been working with somebody in your uh community, Louise, he's based in America, wonderful chap. And when I'm working with them on their personal branding, it kind of crosses over a little bit because they they have a business, and then when I talk to them about purpose, vision, and mission and values, it often becomes corporate talk. And I unraveled this guy from from the start. It wasn't about the values per se, but it was about his purpose, and actually, when he worked out what it is that he loves to do, he was like, aha, and I was like, but you need to feed that through the whole organization, yeah, you need to get excited about that, you need to communicate, and he and I think we we get we get so lost because I think so many businesses don't go through that brand substance piece, uh, and they probably worked in agencies where it's not been that important, and I think, like anything in life, if you've got purpose, mission, vision, and values, it kind of gives you a sense of belonging and direction that you're moving towards as well. And I think and also go on. I was about to say, and you don't need to be a big corporate company, you can be a five-person company or three-person company and and um connect with people that way.

SPEAKER_00: 14:50

And we haven't just it it's sometimes it's just about you. Like we also noticed between us, and we did a big piece on behavioural motivators and drivers, we had Jess, the behavioral scientist here of accession, um, is that that most people that are really successful are moving away from something or are are trying to are trying to make up for something, you know, like me proving myself to my dad, or and there's so almost everybody in that room was working to try and overcome some sort of insecurity or something they feel is lacking that they haven't achieved, or whatever. And what what I found so helpful about what you do, Dave, is you you get peel that away and then get to the person, and then give that person the confidence to show them the true selves on, you know, in their in their branding. And that means that people relate, you know, the work that we do together, and I'll put a post out, and so many people will message me and say, Oh my god, I've just read your post, and I totally relate to that. And you suddenly become human and you're not sharing generic crap that's boring. And okay, there's you know, there's also work to be done about your business purpose and sharing why you're doing that, but once they relate to you as a human being, all of that is so much easier to share.

SPEAKER_02: 16:00

And the the thing is as well, you've just got to get comfortable with, and I say this on every podcast and webinar, you've got you've got to get comfortable with the fact that some people are going to dislike you or not like your branding, some people are gonna always sit on the fence, and some people are gonna go, I get that. I love the some of our Adrian Byron, I just really connect with it. It's because similar values and beliefs and characteristics. Um we we're as humans, we have we like to find our tribes, we want to connect with people, and that's what that's all about. I think the quicker you get used to that, the easier.

SPEAKER_03: 16:35

Yeah, and David, I was gonna say that because obviously I uh used David in in the past and and got him to push personal branding through our through lead group as well and in some internal conferences we've had. And it's funny that even you do this, David, but you guys measure the ROI or direct when you're marketing, you measure the direct RO ROI of okay, you brought in one client or okay, I got one staff member. But I think the true value of it is if you're authentic and you attract the right people, like it uh probably different for me because I'm I'm looking at it on an employee perspective, but I have three people that are hired now in our business and are still with our business, and they came to me, right? They wrote me and said I've listened to you on a podcast or I looked at some posts and I've been following you for a while, and I really want to work for you. I think the same thing is happening now in our in our company with um with BD. If you're attracting the right client, um you keep the client, right? So is the ROI, you know, the direct, okay, I got one deal, or actually I'm getting the best clients ever, and I never have to look at any others because I was authentically me, which that is my competitive mode, right? They're naturally drawn to me, therefore they're gonna stay with me. And why would they go anywhere else if they really like me and I like working with them, right? So when you talk about purpose, Louise, it's amazing because how much more purposeful are we when we're only dealing with clients in Canada that we love because we've attracted all the people that we want to deal with. Yeah, and just and it all is driven by personal brand. And for some reason, personal branding experts never really maybe it's difficult to put a ROI against that, so maybe don't don't talk about it, but that's the compound effect.

SPEAKER_00: 18:27

Yeah, I agree totally. Yeah, so Dave, tell us what are you gonna be sharing with our uh audience in Australia on the 23rd of October?

SPEAKER_02: 18:41

It's not gonna be too dissimilar to the last time, and the reason why it was so good.

SPEAKER_01: 18:50

I can't wait, I can't wait for your sessions, all three of you.

SPEAKER_02: 18:55

Um well, the thing is, is that everybody I work with, or most people, they just haven't gone into enough detail. I mean, we talk about purpose and values and mission and vision and that authentic, which is unbelievably important, but I always bang the drum about it's about giving value to that customer as well. You've got to you've got to engage and educate and support and you know make them feel like you can improve their life. And I think that everybody I work with, they just don't go deep enough thinking about that from a marketing perspective, and so I've got to help them, coach them, get that out of them. I mean, we all hear ideal customer profile or buyer persona, but I think that it's just a recurring theme that not enough people do that really well. And again, if you do it with one person, one persona in your business, you do well, you can start to do it with different ones. So, for someone like Adrian, he might have personas of consultants that want to work for him, um, personas of potential customers for his outsource business, uh, ideal clients that he wants to bring in. So there's so many different personas, and you've got to create content and communicate to those people. However, I've been thinking while I was walking, it's always when I'm walking the dog, always when I'm walking the dog. When I was walking the dog, I realized there's something that I think that recruiters need a lot of help on, and it comes back down to customer profile. I think we're all trying to use video outreach more, and I think people are using video outreach, and it it can often be hi, it's David Wolstonov from DW Consulting. I just want to show you this short video. We do this, this, and this, and this. Love to know a little bit more about your your hiring needs, blah blah blah blah. If you think about that, that's just potentially going to turn people off, or you're not gonna get the reaction that you you need. So I'm I'm thinking I'm not finished my presentation by any stretch of imagination, but I'm gonna make it part customer profile. But I think it's about outreach, using video outreach and using the customer persona to actually create outreach content that's going to engage with them, and so that's what I'm thinking about for my presentation. It's changed a little bit, so we're gonna thank George and Jimmy for that on the uh the late walk this this morning.

SPEAKER_00: 21:19

Amazing, Dave, amazing, and um Sophie. I am so looking forward to your session. I you ran a version, I think, of the session that you're gonna run. And I I it stuck in my mind so much. Well, I also read your book after you you running that session because you're so good, you're such a subject matter expert. Um, will you share with the audience a bit about your um expertise and like what how you help people?

SPEAKER_01: 21:51

I can, but I really want to comment on what Dave said because when you use when you use the word belonging, Dave, that's just like that's my whole thing. Like people that know me that I coach, right? I talk about belonging and community. And the reason I do that is because the people that are really good at temp, right? So we're talking about temp and contract and interim recruitment. The hard thing today, like in our time now, is to create community and belonging in the external workforce that we have. And that's what temps are, right? They are your we're on hire those people to a host employer. And I love tech, I'm not against tech at all, but I say to people, because of tech, it's done away with the need for us to even talk to people. And that's super dangerous, right? So I am really on the human-to-human kind of bandwagon here. I mean, I always kind of have been, but even more so now, because I mean, I don't know. I don't have the crystal ball, and you know, who knows what's going to happen with AI and stuff. But I what I do know about recruitment is we have what I call the low touch and medium touch and high touch recruiters, right? And there's been a market for all of them. And I'm not being judgy because you know there's been customers for all of it. And some clients actually want recruiters to be no touch or low touch because they don't want you to talk to them. They're like upload CVs and don't talk to us, right? And that has worked till now. But I think with AI, like I say to recruiters now, if you are just a CV slinger, I'd be a little bit worried if I were you. Because AI can sling CVs faster than you and I can. And it doesn't matter how good recruiters we are. I just can't do it to that speed, right? So I think that whole human-to-human community belonging becomes even more so. And that's always been kind of my thing anyway. So there's a few things, I guess, that I want to talk about that I think is relevant in today's market because we know that it economies are cyclical. And in some markets, you know, that post-COVID boom, right? You know, the buffet where there was just a buffet of jobs, and it didn't matter what sector you were in, you know, people could just go to it, right? I mean, sure, most people did perm, some did temp. And you know, I was like the boring auntie standing in the um outside going, don't forget to do temp, don't forget to do temp. And people are like, why? There's so much perm now. It's like printing money. And I said, I get it, I get it. But I also know because I've been in the market for a little while now, right? I think it's three decades, is things turn again. And the market we are in now, like to me, it's super interesting. And I I don't know, I mean, I say to people, there's opportunity in every market, and the opportunities that there are now to build a strong temp and contract business are just tremendous for so many reasons, right? We know that when people are uncertain about the market, they're not sure whether they want to hire perms, they're not sure whether they want to leave their jobs, like there's a lot of uncertainty. That is the best time to talk to your clients about temp and contract, right? And also when you think about all the people that are maybe getting rid of people, like you know, here in Australia, there's banks and et cetera, that have gotten rid of people in call centers and different jobs because they think AI can do those jobs. While those things are in flux, it's the best time to go to clients and say, look, while you're figuring it out, why don't we put some interim people in there? You figure out your structure, figure out where AI fits in, where different things fit in, you do all your puzzle pieces, work that out. But you don't have to take on permanent staff to do that. You can do that with temper contractors, right? So the things I I want to talk about, I guess, that day are um one of the main reasons why many clients when they contact me is either they've tried to build temp and contract and they do it to a certain extent, and then they can't grow it. And they're like, why can't we grow it? So I want to talk about maybe the things you shouldn't do, and then what you need to do to do it well, and how to take advantage of this market because I think there are real opportunities out there, so yeah, so good.

SPEAKER_00: 26:31

Such a lot. Um, I I totally agree with you. It is a lot, it's amazing though. Like what you do is incredible, and um, the feedback we get for the sessions that you do for our community is amazing. Um, so the what I love about what you said there was um the I totally agree with you about the human to human piece. Um we wrote an article recently on how um I I'm just seeing like it's splitting really into two almost two different roads. You know, one side the um the the the the the CD slingers, the the low touch stuff, the fastest finger first stuff, um is is just getting swallowed by AI like so quickly, and all the numbers show that, you know, Robert Half's revenues down, Hayes revenues down, manpower's all their revenues are down. And then yeah, all of them. And then you look at your corn fairies and your hydrics, and and they're all up. They're all up by almost almost exactly the same. They're up by the others down, and that's that high-touch consulting, that partnership, that human, human, human, human-centric, but they're supported and augmented by AI and are leveraging that to provide better services and become leaner and be able to have their, you know, menial and and as Adrian's gonna show us, um, become more sophisticated and more streamlined with with um outsourcing and and you and leveraging technology. And for me, like I just I don't know why, but I just I get a little bit anxious when I think about the people that aren't doing either of those things. Like if if you're okay, getting getting your you know, shit together and getting your AI in place and getting your processes and your workflows and your outsourcing and you're you're turning it into this lean machine that can produce CDs really quickly and you know, low human fantastic, super profitable, brilliant, get on it because someone's someone's going to, so you might as well you know get on it. And if equally, if you're going down the high touch human uh, you know, leadership advisory and um senior search work and hedgehunting that can't be done by AI, it can't, um, then brilliant. But don't just sit in the middle and don't do either of those things. Makes me think, bloody hell, like the though, that's those are the people that are going to really um struggle. And I and we see it, we're seeing it, right? We're seeing you know, the people that aren't um aren't making moves in either direction. And what I want to do um at the event in Sydney is to show people that route, is to show people how to cleanly, confidently move in that direction. So if you want to, of course, to provide that high-touch, human-centric, and to work with clients that can't have their that their problems can't be solved by the alternative, by AI and systems and and processes. And and there, there is plenty of them. It's shown by the you know, the figures of the firms that are doing it really well. Um, and so I want to really walk through how to do that, what it looks like, what not to do as well. Sophie, like the things that you know, the mistakes that people make and how to overcome them. And really, in this sort of market, you you can't you can't provide those kind of services on a contingent no in no fee basis. It's just Not commercially viable, it's not feasible, it doesn't work. That's why all the firms that do it don't work like that. And so, yeah, it's the retained model and that human-centered, augmented with um with AI, albeit uh, of course, that I want to I want to share as much as I possibly can. Um, and we're gonna be giving away free one-to-one coaching sessions as well. So yeah, lucky dog places, yeah. Yes, we're gonna be doing that um for those people in the room. So, yeah, I'm excited. I'm really excited. I'm not so excited about the journey, it's a long way. I'm actually I know on afterwards. So I'm going straight from Sydney to Sao Paulo, so I'm doing like 34,000 miles in the trip. I'm just sorting out the ticket at the moment, so it's gonna be a big journey, but I'm very excited to be back to see all you guys, and of course, for the food, food is spare over there in the minute.

SPEAKER_01: 31:03

Yeah, really? Oh, yeah, okay. I mean, I think just to the um further to what Adrian was talking about, like what I think is amazing is how you can use process and AI to give people more time to do the human to human, right? That is the whole point, I think, because I had a client ring me and he said, we've given all our staff, they've got about 30 staff, 12 hours back in the week. That's a lot by process and AI. I said, That's great. I said, Why are you calling me? What do you need me for? And he said, Well, we were hoping they were gonna go out and do more human to human, but they've forgotten how. And I said, Okay, that's my wheelhouse.

SPEAKER_03: 31:44

Yeah, right. Well, so for your point is interesting. Because yeah, I think I think it's you know, the future's a blend. Like you said, give yourself time back for human aspects, which is influence, right? Like we're going through influence training right now weekly internally, because that's you know, and all we do is drive phone time. So arguably the goal is which we'll never get to the goal, but the goal is 38 hours a week, the consultant is on the phone influencing or face-to-face influencing.

SPEAKER_00: 32:12

Or face-to-face, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 32:14

That's the the pinnacle of of what you're trying to drive on each desk. But then temp, I look at certainly AI automation, it's all just building into temp. And then when you're talking about this, what I'm excited to listen to you about is when you mentioned community, because I I I kind of look at it on a longer term basis. What is the human element to temp and how do you combine the two with that? And that's probably oh, if I'm being honest, internally, that's probably the biggest problem I'm looking at right now. Is is how you yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 32:52

So I'm really I love that. That's my that's my thing, right? I love that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 32:57

We got a great plan, and exactly what Louise was saying, you know, personal brand driving like David, pushing retainer, um, pushing consultative work, understanding how to tap our clients in and give them advice on what AI to use in their talent acquisition strategy, all of these layers that we can add. In temp, though, it is it is a long-term relationship of how do I build trust with the candidate, you know, and and the contractors to say, okay, I'm your solution for the next two years of your life while you're going through this. You call me and trust me through this process. I'm tapped into all these processes and all this different automation and AI that I I've built in. So don't worry, I've got you. That's I understand it or the concept behind it, but I think it's the hardest one to implement that I'm looking at it.

SPEAKER_01: 33:50

Day to day, how do we do it, right?

SPEAKER_03: 33:53

Yeah, because they temp so fast and they just get so caught up with driving transactions and driving transactions. So, how do you implement it on a weekly basis to ensure that the relationships are there? And yeah, anyway, I I think that'll shift because if you look at today's uh temp consultant, the one that thrives is somebody that is incredibly fast, incredibly pacey. And I actually think that's gonna transition because that pace is gonna you know get filled up with um different tools to use, and it's gonna actually steer to more of that relationship basis stuff. And so you just said that when you said that community, I was like, that is a great word. You you've actually just opened my eyes to a whole well, I don't know, my brain's heading a whole different route now from that one word.

SPEAKER_02: 34:43

I don't often say this, but um Adrian, I'm gonna sound like a bit of a kiss ass here, but Adrian is one of those leaders that if I was gonna go back into recruitment as a recruiter, I would want to work for him. I think the things that he does, the way he innovates, his visionary visionary uh outlook is is pretty inspiring, and I think he he makes people feel empowered and feel like they belong as well. I think that's what that's what great recruitment leaders do.

SPEAKER_00: 35:11

Yeah, you'll make Jordan jealous, Dave. He thought that you loved him.

SPEAKER_02: 35:18

No one will ever compete with my Jordan.

SPEAKER_01: 35:22

Dave always knows the right thing to say.

SPEAKER_03: 35:25

I'm never too honored with that, too.

SPEAKER_02: 35:27

I have so many male special friends, it's unbelievable. I know.

SPEAKER_01: 35:32

I'm the female one though, right? Yeah, that's right. I don't know, Dave. You're so influential because uh, you know how you made a little video and you might have mentioned my name yesterday. And then so this woman contacts me and she's like, I saw you on one of Dave's videos. And that's all it takes, right? Is that Dave says your name out loud, and that's that's all it is.

SPEAKER_02: 35:53

Well, that was my mum that contacted you.

SPEAKER_01: 35:57

Oh, is her name Kate?

SPEAKER_02: 35:58

Okay, I I think the thing is is that it's Adrian mentioned that word before, it's influence, isn't it? You know, yeah, if you're influencing your target audience and you're building a community and you feel like they're feeling like they're part of a tribe, wonderful things happen as long as you can deliver great work for them. You know, that is that's a that's a sweet spot we need to be in.

SPEAKER_00: 36:25

I totally agree. So, where do people need to go? Um, I won't say it because I'll get it wrong. I've got the location wrong more than once, as you guys know. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 36:38

It's Thursday. A Thursday, and it's at the Sydney Marriott Hotel.

SPEAKER_04: 36:44

Yeah, which is very close to S.

SPEAKER_00: 36:47

Yeah, yeah. So Thursday, the 23rd of October, it's all day masterclass with the four of us, and we've got a little session at the end up our sleeves as well. There'll be giveaways, and it's so cheap, is it not? Well, I talk about it all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 37:11

I get frustrated with the recruitment industry because I you know, when you look at professional services and other industries, when they're doing days of development, you'd be paying double or triple to what we're charging, and I think you know, four for the price of a third of a ticket for a professional service firm. I think it's a conference. Sorry, I think it's extremely valuable. And it doesn't matter whether you drink or you don't drink, you know, we had so much fun afterwards. It I think so many conferences, and people have a couple of drinks and then leave and excuse. We were all there for like three hours afterwards, and it was just so much fun. And then uh, you know, whether you want to call it networking or connecting or business development, sorry, share sharing insights. It it was just great, you know. I was on a high, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 38:00

I think it's David constantly telling me how fun I was afterwards. You told me why I'm doing this, at least like enjoying you guys.

SPEAKER_00: 38:12

Yeah, it was great fun. I I can remember, I think I've got a photo of the drag karaoke bar that we actually and ultimately ended up in.

SPEAKER_05: 38:21

I didn't even know.

SPEAKER_00: 38:22

Yeah, I know it was I neither did anyone else, but that's where we ended up, wherever that was. Um, and obviously, you don't need to stay that long, folks. But if you want to, it was fun.

SPEAKER_02: 38:33

And if you buy a ticket after watching this, I'll give you a picture of me being intimate with the drag queen.

SPEAKER_01: 38:39

Oh, nice. Oh, you said it now, Dave.

SPEAKER_04: 38:46

We have said it.

SPEAKER_02: 38:51

The other thing is as well that um I I think it's a good conference. Yes, we we've we're targeting business owners, but I think billing managers and people with aspirations for bigger things as well. You know, we look at personal branding, we look at maybe growing their temp, you know, if they've got temp teams underneath them or contract teams as well, you know, they want to get smarter with AI. And I think the most important people in a recruitment agency that should be doing retained search are billy managers as well, because they've got so much on their plate, they want that predictable revenue as well. So, you know, I think I mentioned it in a post on LinkedIn recently. We often forget our billy managers and we don't spend money on their development. You know, they they deliver, they've been there years. You know, do something nice, buy a ticket for one of your billy managers, give them a day out of the office, give them support that they can go out and be stress-free, and they will they will they will respond with kindness and appreciation uh for that learning and opportunity.

SPEAKER_00: 39:52

Absolutely, absolutely. They're the ones that should definitely not be spending time on contingent work. They should all, if they're working perm stuff, it should be all retained. There's no way that billing managers should be working contingent. So, yeah, I would be delighted to to have um those people in the room, even recruiters, you know, they need to get out there and start being their authentic selves online and converting their work to retain. In this market, you can't afford to waste time working contingent positions. You've got to be doing any spare time, it's got to be work working to acquiring new clients and refining their uh processes to make it leaner. They they shouldn't be working contingent in this market, uh, so they can all all benefit, and we want to see them all. We want to see all of you. Yeah, help you all. I'm giving away one-on-one coaching sessions freely as well. I'm gonna give lots and lots of one-to-one coaching sessions away. Yeah, just gonna be generous with it. I think that's that's that's you know, we were talking, we were talking about it before we started recording, like how just kindness and giving is just it karma, it comes back, doesn't it? So we help you guys, you guys will do well, and the whole ecosystem is happy and healthy. And that's really what it's about. That's why the ticket price is really low and really affordable, and yeah, a quarter of what you would expect to spend on um a session of this calibre uh because we want to give to you, but it's not about making money, we want to give to you, we want to keep our recruiters happy, healthy, successful, and wise. So thank you very much, thank you, Adrian, thank you, Sophie, thank you, Dave, and I can't wait to see you all there. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_02: 41:38

I want to say one last thing, I'm really excited and looking forward to it. I I don't live in Australia, actually. Sophie's right, I'm coming from New Zealand, but I think you want to talk about your tennis result, don't you? Because you mentioned it three times.

SPEAKER_00: 41:50

Actually, I want to hear about that because you know I took up tennis, and I'm not, I'm not, I'm still working on it, but you know well, most of us are moving to paddle now, and so I feel like I'm maybe a bit old-fashioned still playing tennis. Um, but it's hard, it's really difficult. And uh yeah, I've been working solidly at it for two years now, and I think it's a bit it's very like business, you know. You like you want it to be a straight line, but in actual fact it's not, it's like that. You know, some days I have great days, some days I I've had a few weeks off tennis elbow on a holiday, got back, couldn't fucking hit a ball. I was useless. I lost like three matches in a row, so embarrassing. And then the club championships was suddenly on us, and I wasn't ready, but I just like nailed the like seven days before and did lots and lots and lots and lots of drills and practices, and then it started. And yeah, my mixed partner and I got to the finals, played it on Sunday, and we won the mixed doubles champions finals. So I've got like a little shield and like a silver plate, and it's so exciting, yeah. Well, that's another episode of Retrain Search, the podcast in the bag. Thanks for listening to our wild tales, LinkedIn controversies, and our top tips on how to sell and deliver retained search. Get involved in our next episode. Send in your questions and share your experiences with us by emailing podcast at retrainedseech.com. And don't be shy, connect with us on LinkedIn and come and say hi. We don't bite, unless you're a Shrek firm, that is. We want to say a special thank you to our retrained members for sharing what's working for them right now and innovating new ways to grow and evolve. It's an incredible community. If you're wondering what exactly we mean when we mention our communities, well, we have two separate programs. Our Search Foundation's program is for recruiters who want to learn how to sell and deliver retained search solutions consistently. And we have our Search Mastery program. That's for business leaders or owners already at 50% retained or more and looking to scale and grow and structure their search firm. We cap memberships to these programs to protect the integrity of the community. If you want access, just talk to us. Okay, thanks for listening. We'll be back very soon with another episode of Retrain Search the Podcast.