IN SEARCH OF DOC EP.01 - TENERIFE

TRANSCRIPT

Introduction to Steve's Unique Recruiting Approach So you will cut this, right, so I can I can do some jokes in the beginning? Yeah. Steve is a is a very special, partner, not headhunter. Like, he's he has the the the the unique ability to really partner not only with you as a recruiting team, but really with everyone in the organization to really understand how an organization functions and understand the actual demand, not just what he's briefed. I worked with Steve on different scales, like early stage, later stage, hypergrowth, and I think he has the ability to really attract the right caliber, the right level of talent that the organization needs, do this on an international kind of floor, no matter if it's from the Valley or from other, like, more, like, Asian and scaled up, organizations. He really has the ability to bring in talent that internal recruiting teams rarely even find or able to to engage for first conversations. That really makes him special. I would always work with him, and I I do. Testing one three team two. What's that now? Testing one two two two two. Let me go get my headphones. I mean, I'll dial back in a second. I'll get my headphones in my mic. Two six. Yeah. Go on, mate. This this tends to be a typical dilemma on on every call. I think I'm the only person globally that uses Google Meet. Like, if one uses Zoom's Teams, and it's a bit of an ambush really when they're trying to trying to connect. But I can't I can't use Teams or or Zoom. It's really weird. Like, the no matter what camera I use, it just comes up with these really weird angles. Preparing for the Recruitment Process So I I can turn this whole thing in, like, two weeks, I reckon. Like, I can be quite aggressive with it, but I wanna make sure that we are that you are prepared at every stage. This is good. What what I'll do leave this for me. Let let me have a chat with with Corinne. I'll get something lined up for tomorrow. I will send you, like, a mission brief before the call. So I'll just give you, like it's quite comprehensive, mate, but I find it's pretty useful because it just gives you, like, outline the blueprints of how to run the call and what they're looking for. Mate, it's exciting. Awesome. Sounds good. Yeah. Alex, listen. I'll I'll ping you on WhatsApp a bit later, and we'll we'll go for tomorrow, and then I'll we'll work backwards after we've confirmed the the time and that. Sounds good. Alright. Thank you, Tom. Identifying the Right Candidate Profile Cheers, mate. He's he's definitely, like, he fit he ticks a lot of the boxes. The difficult thing with this search is that the sort of person they need, you won't find it's not like a straight keyword search. Right? So you're looking at their profile and going, oh, yeah. He he's got all the technologies or whatever. He can do it. And we want someone that can operate as a tier one at tier one level. So, like, strategy and and depth, but can execute it, but also has the ability to to write business, right, and structure deals. There are some gaps around, like, subject matter, but and I like him as well. He's young enough. He's a lot younger than the guys that they're already in there. They're, like, late sixties, a lot of the guys that are trying to run with it. So, yeah let's see I've called this early he'll definitely get to a final. I just need to make sure that he's really well briefed before any any meeting. So that's that's one of the key things to increase the chances of success so reduce any sort of risk of rejection. I normally have a chat to the client, analyze the transcript, then look at the profile, then identify the gaps and then come up with like a you know, a brief or blueprint of what they need to cover in order to ensure that they get through. Hence, my conversion rate is two to one as opposed to five to one industry standard standard. Yeah, watch this space. The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in Recruitment He's one of the best scientific minds we have today. It just seems odd because it's not been done. It's massively outside of my comfort zone, you know, and thinking about, is this the right thing that I should be doing? Who cares really about this? But, you know, I've always thought that this is this is one of the most under, like, valued trades that still exist. Like being able to find someone, reach out to them, speak to them and convince them to change a job and to join a company that they most likely never heard of before you spoke to them. It's a powerful thing. If you think about how important people's careers are on jobs and how much trust they need to have in you in order to have that conviction to change. It's it's a massive responsibility. And I think it's I think it's it's really diluted because of this whole idea of LinkedIn and just being able to, like, flip a few messages out. I I I come from the generation prior to LinkedIn where it was just cold calling, where I think that you had to have a lot sharper emotional intelligence to navigate those those head on calls. Anyway, that's how I've always worked. I I I can't sit at a desk, staring at a wall, slapping the phones. Like, it's I have to be inspired. And not everyone will agree with this, but I've never really had this work life balance. Think both worlds are fully integrated. They bleed into the other. So I always want to be in a comfortable setting where if I stop working, I'm still in a good place, the sun's shining, I'm still thinking about work, I'll go back to it. Like, with the level that I try to operate at, it's not nine to five. It's like I work from the moment my eyes are open, or think about work, researching, thinking about how to approach it. Because each search is like a game of chess, and you constantly need to be on thinking about that. So I always try to be in a setting where, look, I'm not working, this isn't work to me. This is like, I don't know, I don't know if you'd call it a hobby, but it's something I I I deeply care about, I'm passionate about. And I love the game as well. Like, it's it's very rewarding. Building Trust with Candidates It felt really good to just, you know, click with someone. His style is a lot more, I'm gonna say, cool. It it's not like a lot of other recruiters where they're, you know, just clearly out for a check at the end of the day. So if I had a message for founders who are engaging in defense and want to, you know, have Steve on board, the advice I'd give is treat him as a partner, not as an external consultant to recruiter. The more involved you can get him into your internal operations, the lot more valuable he will be. He's got great, you know, like personal relationships and interpersonal skills. So if you treat him as someone who's actually part of the company, even though he's not, he'll give a lot more value to you. I think he found that a chef in the market, and we should just roll these out of you. Tell you what. This is innovation. Can't beat it. Orange juice. Fresh. I'm just do I I'm just buying these because I love doing it. Who is that? I can see the pattern now of what you're doing whenever I'm in distress. You put the camera out. Trying to just have, like, a authentic discussion, just focusing more on, like it's more intuitive. Like, is this person a culture fit? Can they go deep enough? Are they motivated? They're the sort of things that I always look for. Because largely, when you're doing sort of high profile search, it is like a logo grab, right? So you know that they're high calibre if they're coming from a top company. My job is to actually engage, build trust, and can I motivate this person just to have that first initial conversation? And then you can start working on closing and preparing. So I try not to over engineer the first one. It's just about building trust, motivating them and getting them engaged, really. I first came into contact with Steve in October when he approached me about a really great job, really interesting position in a big defense company. I've stayed in contact with Steve since because I really enjoy talking to him. He's an excellent ball partner. I really like his approach and style. He really stands out against all the other hunters who've contacted me. I would say absolutely give Steve a call. We'll challenge you. I think he's really unique in terms of finding talent and putting great teams together. The journey. Reflections on Work-Life Balance and Career Journey Crazy. I think reflecting on it, I don't think that my work life balance has ever existed. I think that I always have this crazy obsession with when I used to work for companies, it used to always be wanting to be the top biller. And then I started my own company when I was in my early twenties. And funny enough, like, we've done incredibly well. Like, we grew it to sort of three, four million top line revenue, just kids. But the wheels fell off of that because what I recognize is that I'm not a very good manager. Like, I didn't I didn't understand business that come a lot later in life. But one thing that was always a constant is I I was always in competition with myself. And I think when I got to my early thirties, that's when I my perspective changed when it comes to headhunting. I started to think different, and I developed, like, a new, like, business model, which which was kinda like recruitment, but a little bit wider than that, like a retained search. And the deal sizes got bigger. The scope got bigger, but I was working with less clients. And since I've been doing that, like, I've completely had, like, a paradigm shift with what's possible as a as a headhunter, like, revenue wise, what you can generate, how you can work. I mean, at the moment, I don't have a dedicated vertical or domain or industry sector. I think if you're a good headhunter and you have good fundamentals, you can work any sector, like, efficiently, effectively, still command very, very good fees. Evolution of Recruitment Strategies So I'll I'll give, like, details of my entire career on another video because that's it's literally like, it's too crazy for now. But in summary, I would say that my my journey's been so many downs, a few ups, but it's been like a learning a constant learning experience. Right? So every time that I made a bit of cash, I used to wanna leave recruitment. I'd try another crazy project and that would fail. So I've had plenty of arrows in the knee, and I would always come back to recruitment. It was like my go to. And now, you know, I realized that recruitment or building companies, this this is an art form. And I truly believe it's one of the most interesting and rewarding because you genuinely get to move the needle. Like, you help companies grow. The Impact of Recruitment on Careers You really impact, the people that you you headhunt. Like, truly, like, all of all the candidates that I have become my my friends. Like, I truly feel like I'm representing them and doing them a service and and helping them actually get their dream job. If you like the footage, if you like what you see and you get some value from it, don't forget to like and subscribe. It really helps the channel and everything else. See you on the next one.

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