EP38 – From Big Corporate to Boutique Agency: Mastering The Recruitment Basics w/ Joe West
In this episode of The 1% Better Recruitment Podcast, I’m joined by Joe West from Insite Recruitment — a seasoned recruiter with 12+ years at Michael Page who’s now scaling a boutique agency and building a seriously impressive culture. 🔥 We dive deep into: ✅ What it’s really like moving from a corporate giant to a boutique agency ✅ The trait that separates average recruiters from top billers ✅ Why training fails (and how to fix it with a top-down coaching mindset) ✅ The danger of “coasting” once you start billing well ✅ Coaching, leadership, commercial acumen, and how to create future leaders ✅ How Joe is helping shape a new generation of recruiters at Insite We also talk imposter syndrome, BD tactics, emotional intelligence, the myth of KPIs, how to structure better questions, and the real reason recruiters don’t want to get on the phone. If you're serious about getting 1% better every day in recruitment — this is unmissable. ⏲ Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro 01:35 – Meet Joe West & his journey from Michael Page to Insite 06:24 – Big agency vs boutique: what actually changes 10:58 – Top-down coaching mindset explained 15:43 – Why most recruiters don’t want training (and how to reframe it) 21:19 – Coaching high performers vs rookies 27:15 – Why bad managers kill good training 31:01 – Creating a coaching-first culture 35:40 – How to coach someone with low commercial acumen 42:11 – Building training that actually lands 46:52 – Traits of top recruiters (resilience, curiosity, agility) 52:25 – Coaching someone who “just doesn’t get it” 58:44 – Teaching better questioning & commercial awareness 1:05:20 – Real talk on KPIs, retention & ownership 1:09:44 – How founders sabotage performance with ego 1:14:07 – Joe’s 3 core traits to hire on 1:19:50 – The power of analysing your own performance 1:23:01 – Joe’s definition of getting 1% better 🔗 Connect with Joe West on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joewestinsite/ 🔗 Connect with Charles Kyriakou on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charleskyriakou1 📰 Subscribe to the newsletter - https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7244346543967731712 🎙️ Follow on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/46LjJfw0Y4IVJwnigCdxJX 🎧 Follow on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1-better-recruitment-podcast/id1775201502 📲 Follow Charles on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@charles.kyriakou?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Subscribe for no-fluff, high-impact recruitment advice that actually works. 💼🔥 &D
