How to Scale Your Recruiting Firm with Jeremy Jenson
Jeremy gets you. He's been there. How do you take a successful one or two person recruiting firm and scale it up to multiple Millions of dollars in production? In this episode, Jeremy Jenson will tell you how he did it.
Find Jeremy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyjenson/
Transcript below auto generated from content above
00:04.87
Brad Owens
Welcome back Everybody to another episode of the transform recruiting podcast as always I'm your host Brad O Wins but through this crazy recruiting world. You get introduced to some quite amazing people in a.
00:05.37
Jeremy Jenson
Um, welcome back everybody to another episode of the transform recruiting podcast as always I'm goes to Brato wins but through this crazy recruiting World. You get introduced to some quite amazing people. In a very small world way I got introduced to someone. That's really interested to have you all here more free. There are there are rare people in the recruiting space that really understand how to scale I Know there's a lot of.
00:21.29
Brad Owens
A very small world way I got introduced to someone that I'm really interested to have you all hear more from there are there are rare people in the recruiting space that really understand how to scale recruiting firms I Know there's a lot of ah of you out there that are really listening and thinking.
00:39.13
Jeremy Jenson
Out there that it really doesn't even thank you kind of got 1 maybe 2 or 3 people held in world to be scaled this think this is not going to make it up way I've got to get out of just managing deals. We've got it actually makes money here. How do I scale this person system and they consider with themselves quite an expert subject. So I'm curious to have you all learn a little bit more from Mr.
00:40.68
Brad Owens
I've got 1 maybe 2 3 people how in the world. Do we scale this in because this is not going to make enough money I've got to get out of just managing deals I've got to actually make some money here. How do I scale this thing. Well this person has done that and they consider themselves quite an expert on the subject. So I'm curious to have you all learn a little bit more from Mr. Jeremy Jetson Jeremy welcome to the show man.
00:59.35
Jeremy Jenson
Jens Jey show me excellent man. Thanks for having me I'm excited to be on so give everyone just the little 30 I give 1 minute intro on who is Jes been where you.
01:02.86
Brad Owens
So give everyone just the little 30 second 1 minute intro on who is Jeremy so they know where are you coming from.
01:11.36
Jeremy Jenson
Excellent. so ah so I own a 38 person direct hire recruiting firm here in Houston it's called Encore Search Partners I'm the founder and Ceo. My first business was actually a lead generation business that I started in 2010 and then I did that for a couple of years and I realized holy shit man like all my clients are staffing and recruiting companies. Why am I charging these guys like three four thousand a month and then they're making 3 4 direct hire placements a month from the service that I do so in 2 13 I started a recruiting company. And I accidentally got into the space and so for the last ten years we've grown from you know, just me as a solo recruiter to now we've got 38 employees. Everybody's at w two we're we're we're extremely corporate. We've got base salaries. We've got four 1 k we've got. An in-housed performance and mindset coach world class amenities and I just feel like we've built the best recruiting firm in the entire United States man that's me a lot of people in so you and that realization.
02:12.20
Brad Owens
That's incredible. We've got a lot of people that would want to get to that point. So when you had that realization of hey I'm generating all these leads I could probably be a pretty good recruiter and then he turned into recruiting you'd be like hey I'm actually a pretty okay recruiter.
02:20.56
Jeremy Jenson
Hey I'm generating all these leads and I can probably be a pretty good product. Yeah, and then he turn into recruiting and be like hey I'm actually a video game recruiter. Yeah, what was that realization point hey this thing needs to be bigger when in that game.
02:28.68
Brad Owens
What was that realization point of hey this thing needs to be bigger kind of when did that hit you.
02:35.53
Jeremy Jenson
Yeah, so one of the things that was never really a challenge for myself was generating job orders right? because of my lead generation background and so you know whenever I was you know twenty seven Twenty Eight years old and I was making a quarter million dollars a year it could have been real easy to get complacent on saying hey I'm I'm doing enough. This is somewhat of a lifestyle business but I never really turned off that lead generation funnel that spicot right? And so I kind of grew by accident because the job orders. Were essentially forcing me to hire new recruiters constantly right? and so hired the first one in January of 13 a second one in may another one in September and then the rest is history just organic growth from there. Um, you know being in Houston Texas we were really tied to the oil and gas industry. Um, in late 2014 the price of oil went from one hundred and twenty eight dollars a barrel down to about 60 in less than three weeks and so that really put a massive throttle on the recruiting industry here in Houston which forced us to diversify nationwide. Um, and then we kind of just you know, released our lead generation and email marketing efforts on a national basis and and rebranded in 2015 and and here we are on course search partners sure you've guys my kinds of stories my gosh I mean.
03:58.80
Brad Owens
That's so fun I'm sure you've got hundreds and hundreds of stories of oh my gosh I made this huge mistake so thinking back to just that very early days of maybe you've got one to your third recruiter comes on the end of the year. What's.
04:05.24
Jeremy Jenson
Go yeah so thinking you back? Yeah to just that very early game and you've got one to your third grade. So what kind of things looking back in to be like wish i.
04:15.43
Brad Owens
Kind of things looking back on them when you're like man I wish I would not have done that.
04:20.70
Jeremy Jenson
Oh man, there's probably a long list right? You know I wish I would have hired an operator much sooner than I did um you know you look at me starting the business. The original business back in 2010? Um, I'd grown into about $1000000 in revenue. And again, that's a pretty good lifestyle business in direct hire I was making five six hundred grand I had some associates that were doing the candidate side of the deal and I was keeping the account side and I was really working a ton man I was I was really focused on grinding and hustling and and building my business. And I had this false sense of accomplishments this false sense of security and really, what was happening is is I was spending so much time worrying about filling job orders and doing job order intakes to where my marriage was failing I had three young kids under four I had a working wife. And really just you know wasn't developing the emotional time that was needed in order to to keep the marriage strong and so I reached out to a buddy of mine who I'd I had known through visestage which is a peer to Peer Executive Advisory group and I was kind of complaining and he said all right? Let's grab a beer and I didn't want to leave so I invited him over to the house and we're hanging out on the back patio and I basically was complaining about my business. You know I've got recruiters that are lazy lazy.
05:41.86
Jeremy Jenson
Ah, you know these guys are making you know one hundred and fifty two hundred thousand dollars a year they're taking 2 hour lunch breaks they're doing coke at their desk. They're ah not providing an amazing candidate experience. They're kind of just getting complacent because they've got this never ending supply of job orders right? and um. And he basically said you need somebody to come in and run your business and so um, he planted the seed you know over the course of the next three months we developed a compensation structure that gave him the confidence to walk away from one hundred and sixty K job to where I gave him kind of like 100 k base and then a percentage of revenue. And so you know in the first year I could keep him whole on comp just if we stayed flat. Um, but he was really focused on bringing processes systems and technology into the organization that way we could lay the groundwork to scale. And that was what was critical into to helping us become a real company and not just a lifestyle business support that game I was yeah, always seemed like re of it.
06:42.79
Brad Owens
You talk about that groundwork though. That's the part that came back to bite me like consistently when I was building up the the firm that I had it always seemed like we were reinventing the wheel every time. A new search came in or we were trying to.
06:56.99
Jeremy Jenson
Like time. A new search came in we were trying to I don't know like a new recruiter could come on and we have the same sort well justing. So yeah, so so yeah, think about your systems you started getting and placed in mini.
07:01.22
Brad Owens
I Don't know like a new recruiter would come on and we'd have the same sort of well just sit with someone and you'll kind of learn as it go like it's It's so rough So when you think about your systems you started putting in place to help with that scale. Any top things come to mind for you as a like this was killer.
07:16.40
Jeremy Jenson
Of course absolutely so Scott joined the organization back in. Let's say November of 2016 in December of 2017. So mind you, it's been a full year of him just kind of learning our industry. He wasn't even in recruiting. He was the director of sales and operations for an it outsourcing company and he had helped them scale from 6000000 to 35000000 kind of as a you know an individual contributor then a mid-level manager and then a director and so he kind of seen how the sauce was made. Um. But he brought in a system called Eos the entrepreneurial operating system. Are you familiar with the os. Yeah yeah, love it. So he was an expert in traction. Um, it took him a year to learn our business before he felt comfortable implementing traction.
07:55.75
Brad Owens
Oh yeah, traction's on my bookshelf.
08:09.10
Jeremy Jenson
And then implementing that groundwork right? It kind of forces us to do a 90% turnover of our personnel and then that way we can get everybody on board that kind of bred the same mission vision and values as us and then that's really what accelerated our growth from there.
08:24.32
Brad Owens
I like it. Yeah, the eos stuff is I still use their. What's the 90 Whatever that meeting style. They've got I forgot all the names I just yeah I just do it now. Yeah I love that.
08:27.30
Jeremy Jenson
Yeah I still use their bigger than meetings level 10 level 10 l ten excellent so you've got these systems now you've got.
08:40.25
Brad Owens
So you've got these systems now you've got these recruiters that are firing on all cylinders. Hopefully after 90% turnover that's kind of rough. Um, but you got these recruiters that arerying on all cylinders. What was the next thing that you were like oh wasn't expecting that.
08:43.61
Jeremy Jenson
<unk> that are faring on all cylinders. So we answer. Yeah yeah, you got these recruiters that are brighter all cylinders. What was the next thing as you were like all. Yeah so when the bottom fell out of the market right in fifteen. We were really really invested into into oil and gas. And that spawned me to bring in an individual contributor that had a complimentary skillset to myself right? I was an expert in energy industrial and manufacturing and I'd met a guy who was an expert in recruiting into in the wealth management space and he was kind of burnt out. He'd been doing it for about 7 years and he was looking to escape. And come to us because he'd seen us you know, kind of on social media because we were a lead generation firm and after sitting with the guys names casey knight in learning more about the area in which he recruited. Ah, basically convinced him hey dude I don't think that you need to abandon all this intellectual property that you've got in the wealth management space I think you're just in the wrong system. You need to be with a firm that ah that is intentional about investing in their people and their technology right? And so. Um, really what transformed our organization was really identifying the benefits of becoming an expert in a very very niche subvertical and not necessarily being a generalist.
10:07.96
Jeremy Jenson
In finding that the riches are actually actually in the niches and so when you look at Casey's business unit today last year we did about six point eight million in revenue direct tire not staffing, no payroll. You know what? I'm saying direct tire billings. In the wealth management space now he started back in 2 16 right? So it's been eight years in order to accelerate that growth but being intentional about developing focus expertise in a certain practice area then you can get way more acute in your marketing your messaging. Way more intentional about skill marketing and mpcing active candidates that are really really valuable in a space. That's what transformed our organization hearing systems hearing make it very not.
10:51.66
Brad Owens
I Love it. So I'm hearing focus I'm hearing systems I'm hearing um, making sure you're not going and alone actually finding people that you trust to help you run this kind of thing. What else has been instrumental to where you are today.
11:00.81
Jeremy Jenson
This is rest. What else has been instrumental. Ah you know another thing that's been instrumental is recognizing that just because I'm the best at something in the firm doesn't necessarily mean that I need to be the 1 doing it right? so. You know we've got a full time. Ah you know marketing manager we've got project managers executive assistants bd managers client development managers all this overhead in the organization that are non producers that are here to turn a 300 k producer into a 400 k producer ah, five hundred into a 700 so really like investing in people that can focus hyper focus on one area of what maybe the owner or executive team would traditionally do and that way we could elevate ourselves to to work on strategy and execution right. Not necessarily the tactical components of the business. So that's a hard thing to people to give mind when you got to best j versus tactics do or you yeah so number one the reason why.
11:55.33
Brad Owens
So that's a hard thing for people to give up what did you find when you got to that strategic versus tactical split in your career. What did that do for you and your day-to-day.
12:11.78
Jeremy Jenson
I kind of got there was I joined eo the entrepreneurs organization and here I was making $1000000 a year I was the most successful guy on my street had an adireight in the driveway and thought I was fucking successful right? and then I joined eo and I met people that didn't make a million dollars a year they were making $1000000 a month and they were working less than me. They were happier than me. They had better relationships with their wives with their kids and that's really what planted the seed that said man I think I I almost need to work less and delegate and elevate right? And so you know my president. Ah. Who is that vp that I hired back in 162 that's been promoted 2 times from vp to co and then from ceo o or president he had me do an exercise that helped me identify. Okay, what are the things that I'm great at doing and that I love doing what are the things that I'm great at doing that I don't love doing you know one of those quadrants right. And then really kind of delegated everything and then I realized that I didn't necessarily want even to be the ceo of the company I really wanted to be the chief marketing officer so identifying. Okay, what is my superpower.
13:16.63
Brad Owens
Here.
13:22.85
Jeremy Jenson
What do I love doing what are my strengths in every other thing in the organization I was going to hire someone to do That's really what bred that flexibility and and bred that happiness and coming to work every day is how can I generate marketing content right in order to do 2 things. Create an environment where top talent wants to come work and then also right create an environment where high performing organizations want to outsource their their direct hard recruitment I'm just doing marketing all day baby. That's it.
13:53.98
Brad Owens
Q and I can share a beer over that 1 right? like cool, let me make some content y'all figure out what to do with it like I could do that all day.
14:00.51
Jeremy Jenson
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like amazing content you because then you accidentally get in front of somebody. That's like oh I'm ready to buy and you're the guy I want to buy from right? if you put yourself if you put yourself out there enough I mean golly.
14:11.67
Brad Owens
Um, it's insane right.
14:16.00
Jeremy Jenson
You know shit just kind of kind of works itself out and you make a couple million bucks a year. It's fantastic. Yeah itory genuine connections that kind and I think people or hi honest is because we're just a gift to renouncing states like churn.
14:20.86
Brad Owens
It's very weird. Yeah, but it's through genuine connections though like none of this stuff that either you or I are doing constantly is because we're just like hey let's throw it out see what sticks like we're targeted about this stuff. We're focused about this stuff. So yeah I love it. Um.
14:35.98
Jeremy Jenson
1 little pivot here so you have been running this organization and being a part of a what was one based now built inage kind of pretty organization.
14:36.79
Brad Owens
1 little pivot here so you have been running this organization and being a part of a what was 1 niche now multi niche kind of recruiting organization. What have you seen change that organization the most in the past.
14:51.44
Jeremy Jenson
What have you seen change that organization passed oh in the past twelve months who um I would say it's been somewhat of a focus on.
14:55.30
Brad Owens
Twelve months yeah
15:05.36
Jeremy Jenson
Going for individuals without recruiting experience has been pretty pivotal in our in our growth and success. Um, so yeah, so I would say that early on you know you don't have the time to allocate to train and develop people right.
15:11.94
Brad Owens
Um, to hire. Okay.
15:21.57
Jeremy Jenson
And so you end up taking other people's b players because the a players they're being financially rewarded. They're on an escalator. They've got a pipeline They've got the golden handcuffs. They can't walk away from a job where they're making $300000 a year right. So you know getting the folks that have got five seven ten years of experience and they're making a hundred hundred and twenty right the b players right? And what the challenge is is like a players. They don't want to work with b players. The ones that have a really really strong business acumen. Have the ability to learn at an incredibly rapid rate have incredible work ethic focus discipline and personal accountability right? and so having the b players on the team was holding back the a players from really like developing or even wanting to come work for us right? And so. Ah, what we started to do is we really started to just hire a players that are like super early career right? because I can hire an a player with 0 to one years of experience for 60 grand 65 grand right? because I'm competing against adp.
16:23.49
Brad Owens
Is.
16:29.25
Jeremy Jenson
Paychecks and sparity align group pay come all the big. You know we trained them well and they become killer shops because like the b players they're making forty five fifty grand right out of school right? and so you kind of looking at that. Ah. That disparity between an a a player and a b player and saying hey we're going to develop the processes. We're going to develop the systems. We're going to have the automation we're going to have the technology right? that knowledge transfer resource system. To completely accelerate the development of these a players to where we're turning first year associates into 300 k producers in their second year they're doing four fifty third year my vice president of legal as a senior associate in her third year build one point eight million dollars in direct hire billings.
17:09.65
Brad Owens
Hell yeah.
17:22.27
Jeremy Jenson
As a third year associate imagine the income she made on that in the transformational growth that is created in her life right? Professionally socially relationally then we said hey let's hire a marketing team. Let's put her on camera to share her story. Right? And then now we're attracting other a players that don't have staffing and recruiting experience. They're selling tax consulting they're selling public accounting. They're selling who knows what right? and then they find an industry where you can make forty fifty thousand dollars in commission. By brokering human beings the staffing in recruiting industry is one of the only industries where when the client signs a recruiting agreement. They want to pay us $40000 they want to pay us isn't that insane I'm not excited about paying my bankruptcy attorney my divorce attorney. My m and a attorney. No. One's excited about writing that check. But in recruitment. Oh shit, you helped us find our vp of engineering. Thank you jeremy who do I make the checkout to this is an incredible industry man. It's unbelievable for a couple different reasons. You just mentioned that there's a fee layer that's already in here.
18:31.72
Brad Owens
For a couple different reasons. You just mentioned that there's a b player that's earning over 6 figures that doesn't happen like other industries like oh my gosh like we are in such this recruitment bubble. But i.
18:40.65
Jeremy Jenson
At other firms. Yeah, yeah, you're right? That's a good point. Ah, but you hear this food. You know I'm telling you know I'm telling the truth though. Dude you can just by showing up to work at Robert Hath just
18:49.17
Brad Owens
I get you? yeah.
18:57.14
Jeremy Jenson
Showing up and like not fucking over someone you can make 12130 grand but it creates this like very false sense of accomplishment that you've become successful why because you're driving a 2022 camera and live in the fucking suburbs. You know, like who wants that life man come on it. It's very interesting to see how the the March there is this inflection point like gave another piece of now like just they have their yes 3 we you will fire versus.
19:16.52
Brad Owens
It's it's very interesting to see how the the larger like there is this inflection point of like a billion dollar plus firm that is now like just they have their own engine and you're just throwing more fuel on the fire versus. A smaller more niche type firm like you're growing now where they truly have to come in and be ready to hunt.
19:32.77
Jeremy Jenson
So interesting like you're bringing everything community. Be ready to hunt that entrepreneurial mindset eat what you kill type environment right? That's what we've that's what we feel like we're we're migrating more towards right? um. Because maybe we were a little bit complacent when we were 18000000 relying on the house job orders and now we're in that if if I could use maybe the opposite of a digital transformation. We're in that human transformation of bringing in those aggressive ambitious and. And individuals that are focused on self-improvement and continuous improvement bringing in those folks to really help accelerate our growth from 12000000 to 25000000 who can't be completely devoid of technology. So there's got to be some sort of technology that's helping you with this.
20:17.47
Brad Owens
I like that so you can't be completely devoid of technology. So there's got to be some sort of technology that's helping you with this training and upscaling I mean unless you've got tons of people that are doing this but I'm curious. What do you feel like is so.
20:29.39
Jeremy Jenson
Traininging and homes scaling I mean unless you've got tons of people that are doing this when curious. What do you feel like is boarding and bringing have no background. Yeah, so you know obviously I mentioned that we did a great job of upgrading our systems and our processes.
20:35.97
Brad Owens
Forwarding that effort to bring in these people that have no background and getting them up to speed.
20:47.32
Jeremy Jenson
Um, and so as an executive team. We meet once a quarter and we identify our rocks right? What are the things that we need to accomplish that quarter and so creating a mid-level manager her title is director of talent acquisition learning and development right? But she's essentially our corporate project manager. But every single idea that we have as an executive team. We delegate it to her and then she has her finger on project managing all these strategic initiatives because it's hard to pull away a division vp that's responsible for carrying a $4000000 you know p and l line. It's hard to take away the Ceo the president who's making 7 figures and say hey do you want to focus on like the website redesign. It's like no like we know we we need to do it but I kind of just want to like write the check and make sure that it gets done right? And so. Creating that layer of mid-level emerging leaders investing in their ah their confidence their presentation skills their own professional development and business hackmen and technical development with those people that get it want in capacity to do it. That's been transformative in helping us kind of scale past that $10000000 Mark I'm gonna ask me question here because there's a lot of people out there that would love to have doesnt yep people sayrely over' see it and know.
22:00.80
Brad Owens
So I'm going to ask you an interesting question here because there's a lot of people out there that would love to have those kind of people that would be able to say all right? They're early on in their career. They've got the potential I see it in them. They can become someone great here.
22:16.22
Jeremy Jenson
Can yep, give me your favorite interview questions to ask those people so understand the members O man. So.
22:18.18
Brad Owens
Give me your favorite interview question to ask those people to understand that they're the right person. Ah I come hard.
22:29.95
Jeremy Jenson
So I'm a big believer this is gonna sound pretty messed up because I own a recruiting company but I don't like to interview people that aren't just obsessed in begging me to work here does that make sense. So. So we do a good job of digital marketing on Instagram on Linkedin. We've got followers on my personal pages. Obviously the company pages we have a full time video person that's constantly producing so content and so what I found is is I'd rather hire the person. Who is obsessed about working at Encore Search Partners right and then we give them an aptitude test and a personality test that is administered ah from a firm called the criteria assessment center but it's basically called criteria. Um, and I just hire smart people that have aligned learning styles and personality styles that are obsessed because if they're obsessed I don't need to convince them to stay late on a Tuesday to finish a project right? because they want to do it. I don't need to convince them to just do what I say not what I do not to say that I do anything that's out of pocket. But but if they view me as their mentor if they view me as an expert and in my space and a leader is somebody that they want to emulate and develop into.
23:54.87
Jeremy Jenson
I don't need to wonder you know if they're going to take shortcuts on you know what I taught them? No, they're going to just do w wjd. They're going to wear the little bracelet every single data work. What would Jeremy do you know? and so we hire people that are obsessed dude. You know that and not people that are needing.
24:07.21
Brad Owens
So ah.
24:14.41
Jeremy Jenson
To have their arm twisted to come work here right? and so you know in the beginning who was obsessed. It was people that wanted to make a lot of money right because I made a lot of money and then we got better and then it became people that wanted to make a lot of money who had strong work ethic who who were focused and discipline. Right? And now because we're like encore search 3.0 we can find people that want to make a lot of money who are focused and disciplined who have an high aptitude and similar learning styles and core values to us and so really, it's It's being a little bit more picky through every evolution of our development right? and being intentional about only hiring a players because when you have our technology and our resources they're capable of even so much more than I could even teach them man I'm it's unbelievable. It's incredible to see. How much a human being can influence the growth of an organization. Not just the company think that'stenance and which a single individual kid it toje you all right? So I like to keep these things under a half hours of the people kidding
25:12.10
Brad Owens
So I think that's the tagline for the entire episode right? there how much a single individual can influence a trajectory of your company I love it all right. So I like to keep these things under a half hour so that people can walk their dog and back so with another 1 minute anything else. You want to leave everyone with before we sign off.
25:27.10
Jeremy Jenson
Their dog and back so within another 1 minutes anything else. You want to be a little bit. Yeah, you know what I can say is is that we're in the season of life where we really really intentional about creating content that breeds engagement. Um, and so I'd really encourage you guys to follow me on Linkedin. It's just my name at Jeremy Jenen J E N S o n and I want to hear your guys' opinions. What content. Do you want to see. What do you want to engage with if there's something that you and you disagree with I want to hear about it right? because we we want to constantly refine our craft and we want to be known as the purple squirrel hunters in all of national recruitment in the United States of America if you're looking for. Ah, left-handed single mom in juau Alaska that has a cpa and a cfa. We want to be that firm that finds it for you? Absolutely all right? Everyone well links to je's linked real while being in the show notes to this one can't say thank you enough thanks to spend some time with us and educating on now out of scale.
26:21.57
Brad Owens
Love it! Absolutely love it all right? everyone well links to Jeremy's linkedid profile be in the show notes to this one can't say thank you enough. Thanks for spending some time with us and educating us how to scale affirm the way that you did and yeah I'll just sign off with that. Thanks so much.