In this presentation, Hishem Azzouz urges recruiters to develop an authentic personal brand that reflects their genuine values and service quality. He argues that authenticity is essential; building a brand around false beliefs is unsustainable and can quickly expose a recruiter’s lack of integrity. Azzouz tackles the common objection that recruiters are “too busy,” proposing concrete 30‑minute daily actions such as posting short videos, writing LinkedIn articles, or commenting on candidate and client posts. He frames the ROI in terms of potential loss versus missed opportunities, emphasizing that consistent content can generate new relationships worth significant business. He advises starting with a single LinkedIn post, choosing the platform where candidates and clients are most active, and focusing on documenting daily interactions rather than creating polished content. He warns against expecting immediate returns, recommending collaboration with satisfied candidates and clients to amplify reach. Small wins—recognition of one’s name or face—are highlighted as motivation boosters. Finally, he likens personal branding to building a recruitment desk: it requires time, persistence, and consistency, and when combined with traditional recruitment methods, it can position a recruiter as the “recruiter of choice” and give a competitive edge over peers.
Chapters
Cool. Alright, let's do it, yeah. Every single person in this room tonight has an opportunity. Now that opportunity is to build a personal brand. Now what is the most important thing to me about personal brand is the personal part. You have to be authentic and stay true to yourself. Now I know that's difficult when you're worried about other people's opinions, but if you try and build a personal brand around things that you don't actually believe in, this is simply not sustainable long-term. So if you're a great recruiter and you try and invest in your personal brand, you will be perceived as a great recruiter. Now, if you genuinely care about the candidates and clients that you provide a service to, your candidates and clients will perceive your personal brand that way. Now, if you're a shit recruiter and you're thinking, 'How can I gain from having a personal brand?' and you start sharing content around things that you don't actually believe in and aren't true, you are literally one comment away from being completely exposed for what you stand for. So, what I'm going to talk about now is the most common objections I hear when I speak to recruiters about investing in their personal brand. So, the first one is, 'Hishem, I'm too busy, I'm a recruiter.' You're going to have jobs to work, you're going to have candidates to find, you're going to have business development calls to make, and you're going to have meetings to attend. Trust me, I get it, I've done it. What do I have to say to people that tell me they're too busy to invest in their personal brand? Fucking bollocks. That's what I have to say. So let me give you some food for thought, OK? I think it's very conservative of me to say that you all at least spend 30 minutes a day scrolling through your LinkedIn newsfeed. And if you're like me, you spend longer than 30 minutes each day going through your LinkedIn newsfeed. So what could you actually do in 30 minutes to invest in your personal brand? You could record 30 1-minute videos for LinkedIn. You could share 2 LinkedIn Pulse articles. You could write 6 LinkedIn posts. You could comment on 10 of your candidates' and clients' posts. You could do so much. In 30 minutes. Okay, Hishem, I'll make the time. Well, what's the ROI in having a personal brand? The way I like to look at this is what could you potentially lose and what could you potentially miss out on? Like building a recruitment desk, building a personal brand takes time and consistency. We all know how rare it is to pick up the phone for the first time to a client and pick up all their jobs. But, If you consistently share content, you are literally one post away from connecting with a candidate or client you don't currently know. How much could that new relationship be worth to you and your recruitment desk? So, how can you actually start building a personal brand? The first thing you need to do is fucking start. That is what you need to do. So this week, say to yourself, I'm going to do one post for it on LinkedIn and then build momentum from there. Where are you going to share this content? Should I be on all social channels? Should I be doing videos? Should I be doing blogs? Should I be on LinkedIn? Start with what you feel most comfortable with and then build from there. But give some real thought. Where is my candidates' and clients' attention? I'd probably say LinkedIn is the best place to start for the majority of recruiters. Now, In terms of that, what should you be writing, what should you be sharing? You speak to candidates and clients every single day. Share what you talk about. Don't let being creative hold you back from sharing your thoughts. Documenting over creating will allow you to stay consistent, OK? Now, you cannot share content with the expectation of getting something in return, because you're going to be disheartened, you're going to be discouraged when you share 5 posts, and you get absolutely fuck all for it, which means you're gonna stop before you've even started, okay? But what can give you a potential quick win is collaborating with others. So this week, get on the phone to your candidates and clients that absolutely love you and sing your praises, and get them to share a post online. Instantly, you're gonna be in front of a brand new network that you've never been in front of before, okay? What helped me stay motivated were the small wins. So if you speak to a candidate or a client for the very first time and they say, "Oh, I've actually seen your content online," or, "I recognise your name or your face," take a mental note of that. That is the power of a personal brand, and that will make your job as a recruiter a lot easier. Now, before I finish, building a personal brand is exactly the same as building a recruitment desk. It takes time, persistence, and consistency, OK? Everything that I've spoken to you guys about tonight is not to replace the traditional methods of recruitment, okay? It still works. But if you combine marketing with everything that you're doing at the moment as a recruiter, I really believe that you have the chance to become the recruiter of choice in your space. So the opportunity is there to be taken with both hands, and if you start tonight, you're probably going to be ahead of 75% of your competitors. And we all love to shit on our competitors. So be you, and you have every chance of winning. Love it.
