This week on The RAG Podcast, I’m joined by Nick Hoadley, founder of Insurance Search, a specialist executive search practice in the global insurance market. Nick quit a successful broking career nine years ago and launched a recruitment business with zero agency experience. Since then, he has shifted from 100% contingent to 100% retained, built a lean team, and maxed out a seven-figure practice while holding 50 to 60% profit margins. He is now expanding in the US with a partner model designed to scale without fixed overheads. We talk about: - How he went from insurance broker to founder with no prior agency experience - The playbook for moving from 100% contingent to 100% retained - Why a podcast and thought leadership now drive executive mandates worldwide - Building a lean delivery engine, research and board search that sustains 50% plus margins - The US partner model that scales without headcount or fixed overhead - What to productise next, from human capital research to peer forums - Practical advice on letting go of delivery to win bigger work If you are aiming to grow an executive search practice while protecting profit, this is the episode to watch. Chapters 00:00:30 Nick Hoadley's Journey 00:01:00 From Contingent to Retained 00:01:28 Impact of Podcasting 00:01:57 Aligning Personal and Professional Goals 00:02:27 AI and the Future of Recruitment 00:02:57 Building Client Trust 00:03:27 Scaling with a Partner Model 00:03:59 The US Market Expansion 00:04:28 Conclusion and Future Outlook __________________________________________ Episode Sponsor: Atlas Admin is a massive waste of time. That’s why there’s Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies. It doesn’t only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it’s entering a whole new era. With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords. Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow. Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that’s not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in monthly billings after adopting the platform. No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus on what actually drives revenue. Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting. Don’t miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/ __________________________________________ Episode Sponsor: Hoxo Every recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn. Spending thousands on Recruiter licences. Building connections. Posting content. Growing networks. But here’s the question almost no one can answer: How much revenue is LinkedIn actually bringing into your business? Most founders have thousands of connections but no clear process to turn that attention into cash. That’s the problem we solve. At Hoxo, we help recruitment founders build predictable revenue systems on LinkedIn, not just noise or vanity metrics. Our clients are turning LinkedIn into £100K–£300K in new billings within months, using their existing networks and a simple repeatable...
