(Podcast) Sam Brenner: Building an Agency From Scratch

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In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Sam Brenner, Founder and CEO of CRB Workforce, a recruitment agency headquartered in L.A.

Listen in as Sam looks back on his decision to start his own business three years prior, and gives his encouragement and advice to those looking to start their own agencies. One of the main factors that drove him was his own mission, which is simply to change the industry.

As opposed to those agencies that prioritize KPIs and raw numbers above all else, Sam wants CRB Workforce to put the client and the candidate first in everything they do. In other words, they seek to be an agency that is “high-touch, low-volume.”

He goes on to discuss the attributes that differentiate CRB, their go-to outreach and measuring tools, and what drives their people at a cultural level.

Sam lists autonomy, collaboration, entrepreneurship, attitude, and effort as the traits he looks for in every new hire, and he makes sure to empower employees to become leaders in their own right—to make many of their own important decisions in their day-to-day work.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• [02:00] Why Sam decided to start his own recruitment agency
• [04:30] How Sam differentiated himself in the marketplace
• [07:26] Which type of client is considered a good match for CRB Workforce
• [13:59] Why CRB focuses on the long-term
• [17:14] CRB’s go-to tools
• [22:31] Nurturing CRB’s culture
• [28:00] Hiring for attitude, training for skills
• [30:56] Leadership in a work-from-home culture
• [34:15] Finding the right employees
• [38:01] How Sam measures employee productivity
• [43:32] What keeps Sam up at night regarding this business

Key Quotes:

• “When we look at clients, it’s all about the match. Are they a good match for us? Do they fit into our process? Do we fit into their process? When we’re talking to candidates, it’s all about the match: ‘What are you looking for?’ ‘What’s the right job?’ We rarely, if ever, sell a candidate on the role. The role ends up selling itself because it’s a good match.”
• “We’re high-touch, low-volume.”
• “What’s keeping me up at night is growth. We’re at an inflection point where we’re ready to go to the next step. I think we’ve been playing in the gig leagues and we’re wearing Little League uniforms. We’ve been hustling.”

Additional ways to listen:

• Web: https://recruitingtrailblazers.com
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/recruiting-trailblazers/id1520017210
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5eIWFNmNThe54LYFbEk00c?si=c287df128b8d4307

About Marcus Edwardes, host of Recruiting Trailblazers:

Learn how the best recruiters do it! Marcus Edwardes deconstructs the mindset, methods, and magic of top practitioners in the recruiting profession. Marcus talks to internal recruiters, talent acquisition professionals, agency recruiters, personal branding specialists, recruiting technology vendors, and recruiting technology specialists. If you are looking for a job in recruiting or looking to change jobs in recruiting – this is a great place to improve your skills and understanding of what’s working for successful recruiters. Informative discussions about candidate experience, personal branding, sourcing for candidates, recruiting and recruitment technology, LinkedIn, and how to use LinkedIn properly. And of course, candidate outreach and the need for personalization to differentiate oneself as a “relationship recruiter” as opposed to a “transactional recruiter”.

Work from home/ remote work is also a recurring topic. One of the central themes is the idea that recruiters need to prioritize their candidate’s needs before their own needs – it’s when you build a solid relationship and become a trusted advisor to candidates, that the magic really starts to happen as a recruiter.