Retrained Search

They called us into a meeting and said:
“That overdraft you have… you don’t have it anymore.”
Just like that, our bank removed our working capital and cancelled our credit cards.
Overnight we went from operating normally to having zero capital and zero cash flow.
I remember saying in the meeting:
“This is going to kill us.”
And they replied:
“Yes… we know. We’re sorry.”
Moments like this force you to find out what your business is really made of.
Because when the safety net disappears, process, discipline, and resilience are the only things left.
Full story here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0sQk8x0

David Plummer had already “made it.”

He’d built and sold a recruitment business.
The money was there. The cars were there. The houses were there.
From the outside, it looked like success.
But standing at the top of the mountain he’d spent years climbing, he found himself asking a question many founders quietly face:
“Is this it?”

In our latest podcast, David shares the raw truth about chasing success and the deeper lessons he learned about identity, leadership, and meaning.

We talk about:
• Why tying your identity to your business is dangerous
• The difference between building to sell vs building something worth selling
• Why culture (not strategy) created the real value in his company
• And the question every founder should ask themselves: How will other people measure your life?

One of the most honest and thought-provoking conversations we’ve had.

Listen here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0sQkh50

A £140,000 fee.

Nine months of work.

The hire left.

Contractually?
The search was complete.
The guarantee had expired.
There was no obligation to replace.

But here’s what happened next.

Instead of pointing to the T&Cs…
He found a replacement.
In his spare time.
And didn’t charge a penny.

Why?

Because retained isn’t just a commercial model.

It’s a partnership model.

Full podcast episode here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0s2drv0

“You want a purple squirrel.”
And when you walk through Richmond Park…
how many purple squirrels do you see running around?
Exactly. None.
When a client asks for something that doesn’t exist, most recruiters say:
“Of course, we’ll find it.”
The best recruiters say:
“It doesn’t exist. Here’s why.”
And then they prove it.

Full podcast episode here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0s2fkn0

“I’d love to sell retained… but I don’t want to turn down contingent work. Isn’t it all or nothing?”
No, it isn’t.
Contingent works perfectly well for straightforward, low-risk roles.
Retained is for hires that are business-critical, niche, senior, complex, or simply too important to leave to chance.
This isn’t about abandoning contingency forever.
It’s about matching the model to the problem.
You don’t have to burn down your contingent desk to start selling retained - you just need to stop treating every role the same.
Another retained misconception coming next Monday.

One of our members shared this during a collab call and it captures exactly what retained should feel like: “Now I can’t imagine doing anything differently because this is the way I want to work.”

Personal branding gets talked about constantly in recruitment but very few people explain what works and what damages credibility.

Listen to full episode with David Wolstenholme, founder of BrandMeBetter: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0rJyCs0

❌ “If I take a retainer, I have to guarantee a fill.”

I hadn’t seen Shoanak Mallapurkar (Sean) in 5 years.
In recruitment-tech years, that’s basically a lifetime.

Sean is the Founder & CEO of Recruit CRM and one thing stood out immediately:
They’re not winning because of a shiny feature.
They’re winning because they obsess over adoption.

Sean shared that their human support response time averages around 40 seconds (24/7 across time zones). And AI now resolves a huge chunk of tickets instantly - not as a gimmick, but as a way to keep humans free for what matters.

We also got into the bigger picture:
Recruitment is splitting into two worlds:
- Admin-heavy work that gets automated/offshored
- Higher-value search work where rigour and outcomes win

If you’re building a firm and trying to move up the value chain, this conversation will give you a lot to think about.
Listen to our latest podcast episode here: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0rxCkG0

From order-taker to trusted advisor and 3 retained wins.

Gretchen didn’t lack credibility.
She’s a Vice President based in New York, specialising in Financial Services across FinTech, crypto, and Web3.
She was already operating at a senior level.
But like many experienced consultants, she had a clear ambition:
“I always had the goal of operating more retained work.”

Before the programme, retained made up less than half of her business.
More importantly, she wanted to work on higher-quality mandates with clients who didn’t treat her as an order-taker, but as a true advisor.
As Gretchen explains:
“I wanted clients who saw my profession and my expertise, and the way I could help them, in a consultative, advisory capacity.”

Since completing our Search Foundations programme, Gretchen has:
✅ Won three full 360 retained searches
✅ Become far more confident with the retained model, especially on complex, high-stakes hires
✅ Elevated both the quality of her work and the quality of her client relationships
✅ Successfully navigated challenging retainers with ongoing expert support

This is what happens when you stop trying to “sell retained”
and start leading clients through a process they trust.

If your goal is to elevate the quality of work you do and the relationships you build with clients, this is exactly what our programme is designed to deliver.