The Secrets To A 7-figure Recruitment Agency: Elite Mastermind Edition

Hello YouTube, James Blackwell here. And in today's video I'm going to be sharing something really unique and this is inside my highest tier Elite Mastermind that I normally charge $30,000 a year to be in. And basically I'm going to be sharing and revealing our strategy to how to scale up to seven figures and how to structure that self managing team. So I reveal the exact strategies that I've implemented in my agency and how we do that in Elite. So I hope you enjoy the video and what you'll learn from this 20 minute, I think 20 or 25 minute piece of the Mastermind is the exact strategies of how to structure the team in the right way. So I talk around how to go from the old model to the new model and we talk a lot in the Mastermind around having Delivery Consultants, over 360 consultants and the differences between them and why. I feel that if you want to have a truly self managing agency and boutique agency to seven figures, then you really need to develop a strong team of virtual sources along with strong delivery consultants. So I hope you find this Mastermind video useful. And if you do want to book in a call and see how we can help your agency grow automating skill, then feel free to book in a call in the description below. And as always, if you wouldn't mind liking and subscribing to our channel, that would be much appreciated because like I said, I'm going to be trying to give as much value as I can for free to you agency owners and recruiters that are looking to grow automate and skill. And until next time, I'll catch you soon.

So I've maybe sort of planned it out a little bit clearer for you guys so we can maybe dive into all of your business model structures and the growth of what you want to get to a million and beyond. So awesome. I think in terms of what we'll dive into today, we've got quite a few topics to cover. So I've just been taking a few notes this morning on what we're gonna go through. I think we pretty much covered off candidate attraction yesterday, which really ties into the marketing as well. Like marketing is pretty much all kind of traction in what we did yesterday. Does anyone maybe want me to cover off a little bit more around those two subjects or is everyone sort of aware of some good ideas and strategies that want to that they can implement in their businesses? Definitely went away with a lot of good ideas and things to implement, that's for sure. Awesome. Okay, cool.

It's hiring Marketing school. So get on with it.

Yeah. Markman.

In the Philippines.

Yeah, for sure. Like I think building your all building within your niche, your brand around like doing the webinars and event is going to be key which is going to tie into. We'll cover off a little bit more about your platinum clients like because that is the main platform you're going to offer to your platinum clients for them to have a voice for their hiring manager to be able to do talks. You turn them into podcasts, YouTube and a great way to it all ties in with the candidate attraction piece because it all like all the marketing sources are inviting them to these events which makes candidate attraction and the way to develop relationships with those candidates a lot, lot easier than just selling them jobs all of the time. So okay, so we're going to dive into obviously these are different layers that we're going to walk through. So building a team, systems automation, operations and seven figure mindset. And then we're also going to cover off I was also going to cover off tax structures and how you can all pretty much save full cost of the mastermind that you've paid us for a year. I'm going to show you some quick hacks on how you can save all of that money and more probably around on 50k. Yeah so we'll dive into that as well. I'll recover off the profitaire scheme and the golden handcuffs just if anyone wants to go in a little bit more depth of that with their current employees and yeah, so a lot around platinum clients, client events. So I'm going to cover off the strategy that I implemented to get what I would call our like real dream, like top 10 clients and we'll do some a little bit about like the accountancy and cash flow and then probably we'll finish off with an open forum, some hot seats of what's winning for you guys at the minute and maybe diving under the bonnet some of your businesses and then we'll finish off with a three year and one year plan for all your businesses move forwards. So what does everyone want to dive into next? Like I think the biggest bottlenecks for most of you was you all need to make another hire or two for sure like literally asap. So building your team is going to be quite important. Did anyone want me to cover a little bit more in depth? I don't know if you can zoom in on this Joe. Like the whiteboard around a structure of a seven figure agency business and maybe you want me to explain it a little bit more so I was I've, I've sort of mapped it out exactly how it is right now with maybe one, we're probably missing one or two hires that we're going to be bringing into 2022. But this business here with all of that structure is pretty much in terms of dollars like a 2 million a year GP business. And that's a sweet spot I would say including myself. It's 11 employees and one thing I've learned is when you got past 11, 12, that's when you're in wilderness stage and that's when things get more complex. All the systems start to break in, you get more stress, more burnt, you end up like working more more hours, probably less profit in the business. Does anyone have any questions around structuring your seven figure agency or the model itself?

You've also got the offices which is great asset in the business. So even though you've got people working remotely, you can get them in now and then. If I don't have a place of work as such and plan to go fully remote, is there anything you can suggest or we're trying to help, help kind of create that kind of environment. I suppose getting everybody together doesn't need to be a fixed place of work. I suppose do a monthly event where everyone gets together and goes for lunch and drinks and stuff. Hiring office for the day?

Yeah, good question. So I mean we've got probably hybrid approach. So I have some people that work fully remote and then some people do the hybrid one day in the office and then rest of the team in the office. So I think around culture it all comes down first of all to setting your minimum standards Rich and your principles in the business. So in the three day workshop and I think in some of the mastermind training we covered off really like starting the foundations of the business of what's acceptable, what your minimum standards are that you expect and it comes down to obviously the hires. So like making sure to hire from day one. It's going to be very hard to hire a junior recruiter remote. So I would, if you vote for those of you that have got fully remote businesses, I would say it's pretty much not advisable to hire someone that has zero or one year experience in recruitment to work from home or remote. That's just not going to work. So if you can.

Fall into that category, I appreciate them. If they're not recruiting per se, they're probably going to have that level of, level of experience. So is that still a blocker? I know obviously being in the office is Better. But do you think it could work? And I think Mo and Dan, their marketing source remains. Is that right?

We run a hybrid.

We all get together two of these.

Banks in a month. Whenever a new employee start, we're always.

Everyone's here for two weeks and then we switch to.

Yeah. Twice a month.

Right, okay. So it would be. So in that sense, kind of. I said yesterday about fishing geographically, anywhere, but it probably makes sense for me to try and find someone locally so we can meet up and spend time together.

Yeah.

No reason not to be a Bristol, but Bristol's a big place and I was even toying with the idea this morning of hiring somebody in the US because that's going to be one of the areas that I'm afraid of the most. But I think that's probably asked pretty much time zones and distance and everything else. So first. First pilot was Bristol.

Yeah. So on Bristol, like, I would probably do a similar model to what Mo and Danny do. So they've got an office, but I think Mo's pretty much from home and so is Danny. But then they've got, like a base where you can. The more you're spending with that marketing source, the better, because I do think with that role in particular, you need to have a bit of energy within the office, encouragement and working closely with either you or your next recruiter. So having it remote is. It's going to be a bit more tricky, but it's doable. But what I would say is, yeah, so definitely having regular meetups. So I would definitely hire them local in Bristol for you, Rich. So you probably meet with her, like, at least once a week. I would say try and. Try and get in that model of, like, if you just get a CO working space once a week, even if you're spending four or five hours together.

Yeah. My brother's got a recruitment business and, like locally, and he's got some. So I could easily just completely just kind of sit there. Yeah. Like I say, for the first couple of weeks, like most days, and then you phase it down. Yeah. I think the culture bit's important.

Yeah. Yeah. So, like, on the culture, obviously, setting your minimum standard. So actually having your five or ten principles and standards that you set in the business to maintain, and then when you're hiring, it's looking for someone that is highly vibrant. So you can just tell, like, you can see with my employees, like Trish, Lucy and everyone else, like, they've just got it, like, you can tell that within 10 minutes of, like, being around them. Yeah. And you can't train that. Like, they either come with that or not. So that's very important in this marketing role because we interviewed quite a lot and I've been through a lot of marketeers. Some people say they've got a lot of experience but when you go down to it, they really don't know the depths of what they need to know. But also like having someone that if you could put yourself in their shoes, if they're aged between 20 to 24, 25, I think that would be a sweet spot of like higher for this role is they're probably either going to be living at home, living in some sort of a student accommodation with student friends or something like that. So they're probably not going to have a room where they can just sit in an office, like luxury. Like all of us business owners who I think most of us have the luxury. We've got a nice home office or an office. So the environment can be very hard for them to be motivated to do video messaging. That's why I've literally gone through that. I've literally gone through that. My mind and saucer just like, I.

Don'T know anywhere to record.

I'm like, what do you mean? You must have some blank space.

She's like, my place is so tall.

No matter where my camera angle is.

I can't record at night.

And like, so it's. Yeah, that's the real. It's a real thing. Yeah. So I would say like the environment's important. So even if you're getting them in once a week, which the office or having some sort of base in Bristol, I would definitely advise that for the market also. But you've got to remember the long term goal with this is if you can get them to four deals sourced per month for you. I wouldn't even say four deals because your fees are high. Yeah. Like, even if you're getting two deals sourced per month, like it's freeing your time up a lot more and they're going to help really build out your brand within the crypto space for sure. Other things around Luke's, just ask us now, is it, Are we recording? Oh yeah, it's a good point. Well, we are, we are recording. Yeah. Thank you. Recording. Recording on your cameras.

But yeah, we need to record the zoom as well.

Thank you.

See, another thing to be covered. So obviously we bringing staff on. Brian, I have got to type up like the McCormack Partners way so that every that comes in, they sort of know, you know, what the minimum standards are, what their Expectations are, what the market looks like, all that type of thing. Essentially a manual and how this business operates. Is that something that you've done, James, or any of the others that you think should be implemented?

Yeah. What in terms of like when you onboard them, you walk them through, like what you expect from them and how the business runs?

Well, more like just having a look at that to a document via, you know, an electronic one and a binder that basically everybody here focuses on a niche, don't they? So something that just says everything about, you know, how you work, how the systems, the processes work, who the main players are in the industry, technical information on the roles that they'll be working on. So there's like one document here that if they can memorize that and they'll be up to speed on everything type of thing, do you think that makes sense to get that done?

Yeah, like one thing, I like that because we did that and we've still. I think we've still got it in our SOPs when we're onboarding new starters like delivery consultants, etc. Is they're never going to always go through and absorb all that information. But if you make it just clear and concise, like maybe two or three minute, like either bullet points or videos, like walking them through each step, I think is important, but not having a massive document because I remember when I worked for Nigel Frank many years ago, like I was given like a four binder like this and like I read it one night, then after that, like you're just in the trenches and you're just learning as you go. So it just makes sure that it's like, especially for the younger generation, that it's clear and concise and it's just giving them what they actually need to get on board. I always think the best way to teach and show them the standards and the culture is by leading by example. So that's the benefits of, even if you've got a remote team, is making sure you have your two daily huddles, like the morning and the end of day. Because obviously they need to be seeing how everyone else is performing and what their standards are. So, like, if I was bringing in for the remote culture, what you were mentioning there, Rich, was making sure that you're doing your daily huddles twice a day. So we do our huddles like 9am in the morning. So that's for people in the office and remote. They have to be on that call at 9am in Slack and they get sent to Zoom Link and then at the end of day we do 5:30pm end of day, like three wins. They tell us like what they've won for the day and everyone's held accountable. And then you also do in Slack, our end of day report which goes to me. So they'll give me a bullet point synopsis of what they've done that day. And sometimes I look at it like I'll always look at it most days but like I won't go in depth. I'm just making sure that they're remembering to do that so it sets their own expectations of being self managing. But yeah, I wouldn't.

And it worked really well.

Yeah, I think like the Slack updates.

I was just doing one after you trained up, I was just doing one daily Apple around lunchtime.

With vas, that. Yeah, with VAS that's fine. But actually with your employees, like whether it's a delivery consultant or a marketing source, that's when you start transitioning to doing like your daily huddles remote. It's very important to get the boat in. And then what I would do is yeah, you, you want to be like at least doing team incentives and team days or nights out every single month. It's very important to build that bond with them. I'm trying to think for so more you're going, you have your marketing sources like remote but you're meeting up in the office two, three times a month, which is good. How is she adapting with actually doing the videos from home and the tasks? She's actually got a nice place so she's all right.

We've got one of these.