How this Veteran Recruiter Averaged $750K Annually for 29 Years Straight, with David Bradley, Ep #216

The Resilient Recruiter

Being a high biller requires a combination of hard work, skills, and strategies. But what does it really take?

My special guest, David Bradley, is a 29-year veteran who averaged $750k in annual billings his entire career! In this episode, David shares the strategies and mindset that make him a very effective recruiter! On top of that, David also manages high-volume accounts with a team of 60 headhunters. If you are a recruitment leader like David, you will find insightful takes on how he manages KPIs and how they drive a culture that is geared towards performance.

In 2009, David helped start Movement. He is a partner with Movement and has been an instrumental part in helping the firm grow from 3 to 65 plus headhunters over the past 14 years.

Movement has 5 brick and mortar offices across the United States.

Episode Outline and Highlights

• [02:29] How David got into the recruiting business.
• [07:14] Top recruiter secrets & grinding on a 10-5-2 formula.
• [10:32] Structuring daily activities & time management best practices.
• [17:52] You need to get three critical pieces of information when speaking with a candidate.
• [24:26] The foundation of what makes David a successful recruiter.
• [26:50] Movement’s culture and mission.
• [34:30] Striking the balance when managing your team’s KPI.
• [37:40] Retaining the momentum in 2024 - key to continuous growth and eight-figure billings.
• [45:20] How Movement’s owners play different roles?
• [52:29] David’s future growth plans.

What it Takes to Be a Top Recruiter

What does it take to become a top recruiter? It certainly involves grind and hard work. David’s 29-year experience provides him with a credible perspective on what it takes to be successful. This also gives him an advantage as a recruitment leader - his capabilities are a testament to how his team has been performing. Below are the critical topics that David and I discussed:

• 10-5-2 Formula

• Being cognizant of your time

• Planning ahead of your phone time

• Mindset

If you are listening, as a recruiter or recruitment leader, David's insights are inspiring!

The Foundation of Being a Successful Recruiter

Being consistently successful in a long time requires more than hard work. There is something else and David generously shared his secret sauce:

“So I think having that gratitude, understanding that we get to talk to people for a living and have just an incredible life, incredible income opportunity, incredible balance, we can manage our life any way we want it… And I think that fuels getting up in the morning and saying, you know what? This is gonna be another great day. It's gonna be a great year. It's gonna be a great month. Well, if it's not been a great month, next month's gonna be great. So having that sort of mindset, I think, is really, and factor a lot of fun into this.”

This fantastic mindset is an invisible but highly influential factor that determines your success as a recruiter or recruitment business owner. Possessing a positive mindset enables us to navigate the favorable and unfavorable changes we encounter with resilience.

The Keys to Continuous Growth and Eight-Figure BIllings

David shares how Movement produced $20M in billings around 2022-23. It was a great year for them post-Covid, and the systems and frameworks they had at the time enabled them to retain the momentum even when things appear to slow down in 2024. I wanted to pick David’s brains on the culture and systems they have in place, given that not many recruiting firms get above 8 figures.

My takeaway is how they emphasise creating and enabling a culture geared towards high performance. They have annual trips for the top 10% of producers, on top of regular social activities and loyalty bonus programs. They also have annual meetings where they fly everyone in, including their staff’s spouses. Doing so contributes to relationship-building and as David said, “an essential part of the culture.”

David also discussed their profit-sharing scheme. What I also loved was his insights on managing KPIs while not micromanaging everything.

Our Sponsor

This podcast is proudly sponsored by i-intro

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David Bradley Bio and Contact Info

David is a 29-year veteran of the headhunting business. David stumbled into the business in 1995 when he was working with a headhunter to help him find a sales job. The tables got turned and David actually got hired as a headhunter. He spent the next 16 years working for Spherion. He enjoyed success right from the beginning. He billed $175K in year 1 and the following year billed close to $400K and he never looked back from there.

In 2009, he left Spherion (later known as Ranstad) to help start Movement. He is a partner with Movement and has been an instrumental part in helping the firm grow from 3 to 65 plus headhunters over the past 14 years. Movement has 5 brick and mortar offices across the United States.

* He has been a leading producer at Movement with 750+ placements since 2009 with the most placements in the firm's history (Personal billings of $1.3M in 2023, $1.1M in 2022, and averaged $750K+ in billings throughout his career)

* He manages high-volume accounts with a team of 60 headhunters

* He has helped mentor aspiring headhunters into the business.

* He has completed over 2500 placements throughout his career.

* Member of Pinnacle Society since 2023.

* David holds an MBA from Franciscan University.

David has been married to his lovely wife for 32 years and has 5 grown children (ages 17 to 31) He is an avid hockey player and resides with his family in Clarkston, MI.

• David on LinkedIn

• David on Facebook

• David on X (Twitter) @jdavidbradley

• David on YouTube

• Movement Search website link

People and Resources Mentioned

• Pinnacle Society website link

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