In this behind‑the‑scenes monologue, host Hishem Azzouz welcomes a sold‑out audience of about 100 people to a live podcast recorded in London’s Borough/London Bridge area. He explains the event’s format, the rationale behind the panel composition, and the importance of offering audience members at least one relatable speaker. He introduces the three panelists—Dan Cox (UK‑scale profitability expert), Ricky (intentional, high‑profit, smaller‑scale recruiter), and Michael Boyd (co‑CEO of the 200‑plus‑person LHI Group)—and describes how their differing backgrounds provide a balanced perspective. Azzouz outlines logistical details such as seating arrangements, outfit considerations, and the venue’s vibe, emphasizing a non‑corporate, relaxed atmosphere. He stresses the podcast’s mission to deliver practical, useful insights through an organic conversation, noting his role as moderator is to warm up the panel and draw out actionable nuggets for the audience. The tone is informal, enthusiastic, and focused on creating a valuable learning experience for industry peers.
Chapters
Definitely get a bit nervous just before. So if you could grab a seat. But then as soon as you start, so nice to see so many of you. That's not helpful. Quarter past 5. Loads of time, nice and organized. Whenever you come to an event, what can be frustrating is if you can't relate to anyone. Whenever I put a panel together, I'm thinking, how can we make sure that there's at least one person on there that someone in the audience can resonate with? Not everyone wants to scale a massive huge recruitment company. Some people do. Everyone that is on the panel who I'm learning from are just wildly different and nowhere near where I am and where I want to be. You could potentially walk away and go, I'm not sure how much I enjoyed that. And on the new audience, there's someone on that panel that they can resonate with is the thinking. Sit down and get the memo. How we doing? Dan, Mike. You're right, Mike. At least you haven't become the same. You're going to fit in the middle. Oh shit, yeah. Mine's for slimming purposes, unfortunately. If you've seen Ricky and Mike, they're wearing the same outfit. So we can't have them next to each other. I don't think that'd be fair. I feel like the table should probably, like, you should have the three and then the table. Do you not think? It should be you and then— Yeah, yeah, 100%. Yeah, so we'll put Dan in the middle because he's got a different outfit on. Dan Cox, who's a big champion of you can scale profitably in the UK. We did a podcast ages ago, remote. Will actually be the first time that we're meeting in person, which will be pretty cool. Ricky is more on the intentional, don't have plans to be this huge, massive company, but highly profitable, highly productive. And I think that is where a lot of people sit, if I'm honest, when they think about their recruitment business. We've got Michael Boyd, who is co-CEO of a 200+ recruitment agency, LHI Group. So they've been through scale challenges. So we've got a really good mix. Managed to sell out this event, which is absolutely awesome. There should be circa 100 people, which is really cool. Wednesday night in London, good weather. So we're competing with beer gardens and rooftop bars. Are you happy with the venue? Mate, sick. The brief is always the same. Not corporate stuff in Boring. I think this fits that brief. Good location. Borough, London Bridge. Probably my favourite part of London, if I'm honest. I'm big on my prep. So all the guys on the panel will have the document I have on my iPad. And we would have built that together. Sure. Show you. With the podcast, what I want it to be known for is it being practical and useful. So we go there with intention. It's an organic conversation, which tonight will be, but we've got things that we want to talk about that we think would be beneficial for the people in the audience. So this is, this is the secret sauce, mate. So we may not cover all of this, and it looks like a lot, but people I've found, they warm up. Not everyone is straight away like dropping bombs and dropping nuggets. It takes a bit of warming up. The way that I see my job is my job is to get the best out of the guys. You could grab a seat, nip to the loo if you need to, but we are going to start in a couple of minutes. Really cool that everyone here is wanting to learn, wanting to meet industry peers, and they're choosing to spend their Wednesday evening after work learning and trying to grow, which is what the podcast is about, which is what this is all about. So It's exciting. As soon as we start, there's no room for nervous. You're just, you're just in it. Without further ado, let's put our hands together for the panel and we'll get stuck in. I know I said about the behind the scenes stuff, just got to lean into it, innit? I feel like, because I want to do this is what I want to do more of.
