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This is a direct transcription from a recent interview with Clair Bush on the incredibly popular topic of personal branding for recruitment directors and owners. Please excuse any rogue typos or grammar mishaps!
Denise: Well, hi there everyone, this is Denise from Superfast Recruitment, and the Recruitment Marketing and Sales podcast. I am thrilled to finally get Clair from Ambush marketing here to talk about personal branding. We’ve tried to get this together, haven’t we, for a while, because it’s a really vast and critical topic at the moment I think for nearly every business owner out there on the planet, particularly in the recruitment sector, Clair, because of what’s going on in the market, with such growth.
I’ve got a whole set of questions here to ask Clair, and I’m going to go through those, but Clair has gratefully agreed to run through one of her keynote presentations for us today. So, some of you may be watching this on YouTube, so if you want to see the slides for our podcast listeners, head over to the Superfast Recruitment channel on YouTube and see them there, and hopefully that will be useful.
So, some of you will know Clair from Rec Expo. She was very embarrassed when I said she masterminds the whole event. I think from a speaker point of view she does, and for delegates she makes everything run smoothly, which is pretty awesome. But another thing that Clair does is she works with many tech startups.
She’s worked with the likes of Bullhorn and various other people. However, I think it would be easier if I hand over to you first of all, and let you chat through more about Clair and personal branding. Also, I’m sure that we’ll get around to answering all these questions throughout this presentation, Clair. So, I’m going to hand over to your good self.
Clair: Thank you very much, and it’s lovely to be here as well. So, yes, thank you very much for inviting me.
If I share my screen, you can see there I’ve got this one I prepared earlier. However, yeah, personal branding, I guess it’s been a passion of mine for a very long time. And that’s kind of because I quite like brands, I’m a bit addicted to brands. So I’ve always had this relationship with really gorgeous looking logos. You’ll see there this is a couple of logos that I’ve worked for. As you mentioned, Bullhorn. I’ve also been at Broad Bean. I now represent about six different businesses from recruitment, technology startups, meet and engage, through to brands that have been around for over 10 years.
I also work with a couple of recruitment agencies, again that have been around a long, long time, but they’re constantly investing in their branding, and they’re continually investing in their market proposition.
I suppose that’s the real reason why we’re talking, and I speak to them a lot about, is their brand value proposition. Also, that’s really where I get love and passion around branding as well. So, essentially a bit more about me, I’ve got a gorgeous 10-year-old son who’s going to be 10 in a couple of days. I’m quite arty, so I love doodling, but also as well, this will probably remind people that marketing is actually about just colouring in. I love the fact that I do have tonnes of crayons everywhere throughout the house. And on every desk that I’ve ever inhabited, I’ve had my crayons and my paper because I like to draw and doodle and colour stuff in!
And that’s my little puppy on the bottom right-hand side as well, so I’m a dog person and not a cat person.
Denise: I knew that’s why we got on, and we like the same colour of dog. Only our dog has got a little bit greyer over the years.
Clair: As you said, Denise, I’ve been around recruitment businesses now for quite a while, and I’ve looked after several different brands. And I’ve always said that that’s basically what I do, I help brands to make the most of themselves, whether that’s individual, people brands or business brands to make money. And I’m quite commercially minded when it comes to marketing in that respect as well.
For me there are three main reasons why branding should be on your radar and your agenda. From a commercial perspective, we’re not here just for the good of our health, although if you do enjoy your job as much as I do, then it makes it a damn sight easier. However, we’re here to make money; we’re here to run businesses and have that commercial reality. We’re here to provide services. Also, a lot of those services are enabled because we can talk about the value that we can add.
So, branding is a way to get communication across. It gives you presence; it gives you a position. It gives you something that you can tell somebody something about your brand, the value of service that you offer, and you can put it across that way.
And then the final part for me is community. So, there’s lots of C’s, but it is about bringing together the community that you serve. And whether you united everybody under one flag, one logo, one icon, it doesn’t matter so long as everybody is part of that community, they drive that forward as well.
And branding’s as much external as it is internal. And I always try to make sure as well that we’ve got a view of both sides of the fence. So, what does your brand mean to your community? However, what does it mean outside of that community as well? And I think that’s a critical point; you’ve got to always see beyond the fence if you like, and make sure that you are projecting the right kind of proposition that you want, and the right vision that you want people to take on from you.
So, I thought it would be quite fun to play a bit of logo bingo. And the reason why I thought this was fun is because I want to think about personal brands, and I want to think about what kind of person sits behind some logos that might be quite famous? So, Denise, you’re going to be my guinea pig right now.
Denise: I could have pre-empted this, and swotted up on it.
Clair: So, here are the CEOs or MDs behind these logos?
Denise: Well, Virgin, I would say is Sir Richard.
Enterprise, I don’t know. I suspect it’s a female, but I’m not sure. Amazon is Jeff Bezos. Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. Tesla, Elon Musk. I cannot, even though I do have an iPhone, I am a bit of an Android girl really, so I have no idea who is now the Apple CEO. And UPS, I don’t know. And GM, I don’t know.
Clair: No, not at all. And the reason why I did this was just to throw out there that actually those figureheads of the businesses that have a massive social presence are really, really instantly recognisable alongside of their company brands. You wouldn’t be able to separate Richard Branson and Virgin. That’s kind of like an instant, especially for us in the UK, it’s real instant recognition. The CEO at the moment for Enterprise is a lady called Pam Nicholson. And the reason why I put this up, my husband works for Enterprise, he’s worked there since he left university 20 years ago. But he’s been in that company for such a long time, and he’s worked in lots of different departments, but what he really loves about that business is that he associated himself as an Enterprise employee through and through.
And he’s worked for lots of different bosses along the way, but what really gets him is the story behind the brand. And now that Pam’s in charge as well, he’s got a real affinity for her vision. And she’s relatively new, I’d say probably in the last couple of years, well newer than Paul is I suppose, but it’s that vision of the boss alongside the logo that basically combines to be what I would suggest, and I think what’s also proven as well, is an amount of value that you can’t separate out.
And there’s a couple of other ladies in there as well. I think Mary Barra is the CEO of General Motors. And Jim Barber is the CEO of UPS. Now, both of those people don’t have a large social media presence, and they’re not very outspoken. But it’s not to say that the value of their business isn’t anything less. But what they chose to do is they chose to internalise their reputation management if you like. So, actually you go and speak to anybody from UPS or GM, and they’ll be able to tell you about the initiatives and the management style. And even the closeness that they feel to their bosses.
So, again it’s not necessary about actually wearing big profiles and being out on social media all the time, it’s actually about being considered, but knowing your audience. And the other thing that I really wanted to make a point of here was that if you can imagine that from a personal brand perspective your company’s market value can absolutely almost double if you’ve got a great reputation in a business leader.
Now, I know there was one question that you kind of came up with, “Hmm,” when we came on air, around co-ownership and partnerships and branding.
Denise: Yes, because it’s interesting, for Sharon and I we own a business together and we both have very different personalities. And it’s like how you make that brand. I’m known for the podcast, Sharon’s known for presenting. Slightly different. It’s probably a little bit different for us, because we can give one another some intense feedback sometimes, but imagine in an organisation where you’ve got two MD’s and one MD is wanting to encourage the other fellow director to maybe step out a bit more, or develop their brand. Any suggestions on that, what might not be the most comfortable conversation to have with somebody, and how it might work?
Clair: Yeah, that’s really interesting. I did an exercise with a really great company back in December around personal branding, and actually I used a SWOT analysis, but slightly changed it up. So, you put down all of your strengths and your weaknesses, but instead of opportunities and threats, I think I switched it around and put stuff that you liked and stuff that you really didn’t like doing. And actually it’s just a real sort of helicopter view of yourself. And then you get your business partner to do the same for you, and you do the same for them.
So, you put their strengths down and what you consider their weaknesses, or areas that they’re not so great in. Weakness is a really kind of derogative term, but it’s not meant to be. It’s like literally saying, “You know what, you know you’re really great at this, but actually that stuff, it’s just not your strength, so let’s not go there.” And what you find is actually you’ve both then got common ground. You’ve got common grounds that you’re both really, really good at, but one of you will shine in a different way to another. And I’m not talking about then just making that your sort of content theme for the rest of the year, but I’m also thinking about actually leveraging that strength.
So, the stuff that I really used to hate was getting up and presenting. And over the course of the last three years, there’s nothing that I enjoy more than standing on a stage and presenting to people. I still go bright red, and I still want to rush off and grab a vodka. But at the same time, I really love just speaking to people and presenting my ideas and theories. Because it’s my stories. And I’ve got really comfortable in the fact that this content is my content, so actually nobody else knows it as well as I do, because it’s my experience.
Denise: Can I ask you a question there? Because when you talked about the weaknesses versus strengths and what you like doing, or what you’re known for. In trainer speak, because we do quite a bit of training as well, it’s always trendy to say, “Your development areas,” rather than, “Your weaknesses.” Do you think that if you’ve got a couple of directors in an organisation and you know Fred is really fantastic at A, B, and C, and Diana is really good at X, Y, Z, do they stay to their strengths and build their brand around that, or what’s the best thing to do?
Clair: I think it’s about looking at the business. So, where does the business need to go? Do you need someone who can stand on stage and tell your story? Do you need someone who’s going to be able to go out and present to a room of peers, whether that’s C-Suite, directors, or even just hold a networking session and facilitate those sort of conversations in a round table kind of environment?
A lot of the time you’ve got people within your business at all levels that can rise up to that challenge and or accommodate that level of interaction and engagement with people. I think it’s really important to really play to strengths, but I also think in the trainer speak, develop those areas that aren’t necessarily right now obvious, because someone might have the ambition to stand up in front of hundreds of people, but not be able to do that today. But with six months training, and really getting under the skin of what the business is doing, and being able to really authentically tell the story, because they’ve been part of it, I think that’s where I find that the best presentations are.
Especially, you know, when I’m putting Rec Expo’s programme together, it’s not so much about having people who are really born to stage, it’s more about having people who are really excited about the stories that they want to tell.
And that makes someone really engaging. So, it doesn’t matter if it’s someone who’s just started or has got 20 years experience. It doesn’t matter if someone’s been running the business for 20 years and has never done something like that. With the right amount of preparation, support and also storytelling practise, anybody can do anything.
So, let’s talk about the reasons why personal branding can mean a lot to your business. And I thought of these six areas, but I think there’s a lot more as well. Adding value to your business based on your own personal brand should be something that you think about, but it’s also something that will just happen if you do it naturally. And I’m not suggesting that all six of these happen at the same time, but quite often a lot of them correlate and a lot of them will kind of bee this chain reaction.
So, if your personal brand is really well and positively aligned and associated with your business, and I’m calling it a business, not a business brand, because your business is the entity and you work within that business.
The recognition that you get, the recognition that you as an individual have, will automatically start to permeate into the business as well. So, if you think about the businesses that I’ve worked with in the past, the reputation management piece that I’ve done at Broad Bean for example.
Broad Bean was such a brilliantly well known brand before I got there, but after I sort of took the realms if you like in terms of the events, and we went out and we did a lot more visual and physical kind of meet and greet in the marketplace, that instant recognition of both the Broad Bean logo and my personal name, my brand. But also all of that of my colleagues as well. That increased our recognition so much, so that actually we just became even more of a confident player in the marketplace, and they’re a really good brand to be a part of.
Once you start to shy away from that, or if you kind of … you’ve got to be consistent I suppose is what I’m saying, because once that recognition is there and it’s upheld, then it’s really difficult for your competitors to break into the market after you. But if you stop investing in that, if you stop being in places where people are used to seeing you, it kind of becomes quite a negative connotation, and really quite quickly your recognition can dwindle. And that affects your reputation as well.
So, that whole negative spin. So, it’s a real fine balance, and I’m not talking about spending lots of cash on it, but actually as an individual, as a business, think about what can I do to instantly increase the recognition that I have? And that might be social media, podcasts are a brilliant idea. But again, that quality is associated. You’re not going to go anywhere, you’ve got a regular slot. Your audience knows what’s coming. And the reputation that you have and you build becomes stronger every month, or week, whenever you release your new content.
There’s a direct correlation definitely, return on investment in marketing as you know is something that we all live and die by. And if we can increase the recognition and reputation, then the bookings will follow for sure.
Denise: Yep, absolutely.
Clair: But also as well there’s knock-on effects that are kind of I suppose secondary, but actually still as important. So, things like collaboration, knowing that I’ve got a really great brand that I’m working with means that I can actually really go after additional collaborations and partnerships. So, I don’t feel embarrassed or held back by going to other companies and saying, “Look, I’m doing this with so and so, it would be great if you want to come and talk to us about integrating.” Or, “If you want to talk to us about how we could possibly work together on an event.” Or, “What kind of content could we bring together?”
Because again, that collaboration becomes easy, because there’s trust there. It’s the reputation, it’s the recognition of the brand.
That expertise, again, direct kind of expert becomes a thought leader. This is really important I suppose to the recruitment leaders out there, because presumably they’ve been doing their job for a while. They either know how to recruit really well, or they know their industry inside out, or they know the candidates and the population of communities that they’ve got really well established with. And so that level of expertise is another dynamic and another level of trust, which again has this sort of circular effect of bringing people into their sphere.
And the final part is the success. And if people see that you’re successful, that you’ve got the expertise, and actually your reputation is upheld, and it’s all really legitimate, and it’s all authentic, and that in itself cannot be beat. So, if you are the expert in the field around a certain topic, then you’re going to naturally attract new business. But it’s business coming into your business, and actually everybody within that business benefits as well.
So, there’s that sort of knock on effect. And what tends to happen is the leaders of business start out with their expertise. They teach everybody within their business either the concepts, the theories, or they distil the working practises within. But then you’ve got other people coming up and taking ahold of that baton and developing it themselves.
So, the other thing that I get really, I suppose not frustrated about, but I get really conscious of, is that recruitment owners want to create a legacy, but they want to share that legacy. It’s all theirs. They’re not about actually recognising all of the recruiters that are brilliant at working for them, and that’s what tends to happen with chairmen turnover and really good recruiters. Really good recruiters get frustrated that their brand, their personal brand, isn’t being recognised as giving value back to the business.
So, what I would say here is that it’s actually a team sport. Personal branding is only as effective if everybody is pulling in the same direction. So, that common thread, that common expertise, that common recognition for the value that you’re adding to your clients and your candidates is the stuff that really needs to shine through. It doesn’t matter what the logo looks like, as long as it’s instantly recognisable and you align with it.
I kind of get carried away with the excitement of the fact that anything is possible, so long as you’re all plugging into a common goal. So, the business leaders that I work with, I’m constantly going back to, “What’s your business objective?” If it is to make £10 million by the time you’re 40, that’s amazing. But how are you going to do that? You can’t possibly do that on your own. So, let’s figure out what everybody can bring. And then let’s figure out how you can make everybody motivated to do that too.
And a lot of that is down to giving back and giving in. Kind of motivating and making it feel possible. But also as well, as an individual, there’s a lot of ways in which you can heighten your own brand visibility. And this is just a couple of ways. So, Google whacking, have you done that lately? Searching for yourself on Google and understanding what … if you do this incognito, by the way, it’s much better visibility in terms of the social truth out there. If you don’t turn off incognito you get basically yourself looking at yourself over time. It just basically shows.
But you want to be doing is really looking at what is that persona that’s being projected that’s actually out of your control? Because we all interact online day in day out, we’ve got tweets, we’ve got Facebook, we’ve got LinkedIn. We’ve got all these different channels that are creating the social impression of ourselves, or digital impression of ourselves. And so what you need to think about there is how can I positively affect my online presence?
And just I wouldn’t say check in weekly, because nothing changes much weekly, but keep an eye on it. Quarter by quarter you can see a difference.
The other things I would recommend are things like presenting. So, we talked about this, getting up on stage is something that I forced myself to do when I was back at Broad Bean, and I really found a passion for it, even though some days it was more difficult than others. But being able to stand up and talk in front of people is not something that everybody wants to do, or even loves doing. But if you can try to do it, and just figure out where it really matters for you to have a voice. And if you can’t present on stage but you can do a podcast, you don’t want to be seen but you can basically talk to camera, then that’s fine.
What about blogging? Again, another really great way of getting your voice out, but without actually being on video or audio. So, writing articles as well, getting yourself published. You don’t need to have hundreds of pounds being placed in PR and content and reputation management staff in order to get your articles published. You go to places like Global Recruiter, you go to the Recruiter, you go to Recruitment International. There’s so many different Trade Press that I would recommend for recruiters to start telling their stories.
And these are stories around innovation, real innovation. Stuff around real candidate engagement and experience. Stuff where they’ve had letters in, or they’ve had flowers delivered. Experiences that can be retold and add value to other communities, or other parts of those communities.
Denise: And I think sometimes there it’s very easy to say, “Yeah, but everybody does that, so is it really newsworthy?” And often we talk to our clients and say, “Well, actually it is, because, no, not everyone does that.”
Clair: No, and you don’t want to be talking about the opening of an envelope and all that sort of stuff, but you know in yourself if you feel embarrassed by what you’re saying, that it’s probably not article material. But if you’ve had a new client that actually you’ve worked around a brand new different proposition for them, or you’ve developed for the first time contracts desk where you were only ever permanent before. But actually you’re now helping two or three different clients in that community of specialist candidates, then that is something different and new, because what it’s doing is actually showing the rest of your audience that you are able to adapt and you are able to be spontaneous, or more flexible in your approach to solutions and service delivery.
And that’s newsworthy. And again, applying for awards and things, I know a lot of my previous bosses would be like, “Not another award submission,” and to be fair I don’t think I’ve ever really delivered an award submission, because everybody was like, “No, don’t want to be doing that. Just looks a bit vain, it’s vanity.” But actually the recognition of the work that goes into the projects, and if they are, like I say, full-on projects where you’ve delivered something of note that’s of worth, that’s affected your end clients or candidates, and they can vouch for you and say, “Actually yeah, this was really amazing,” then go for it.
We need to as an industry raise the bar on what we’re really good at. We don’t talk about what we’re really great at. We take our own beatings almost and we kind of self beat ourselves down as well, whereas actually I think talking about the way that we are adapting and the speed in which the industries adapting is great, compared to five, 10 years ago when I was amazed. I came out of the legal profession, and I know that that was really slow to adapt to marketing, but recruitment’s never been slow to adapt to marketing, but it has been slow to adapt to the use of technology, and things like video, and audio, and stuff like that.
These should be options for you to use time and time again, which kind of brings me onto the interview side of things. What’s to stop you sticking a Zoom call on with a client and interviewing them over a Zoom call? You don’t need to physically take a camera crew into someone’s office nowadays, although there are brilliant companies out there that do loads and loads of great stuff with video. But, it can be as cheap and cheerful as literally having a Zoom connection videoing it and then sticking a couple of logos on, and topping and tailing that.
It doesn’t need to cost the earth. But it’s a different way of putting your stories out there. And then the final part is the social media piece. And I know we’ve probably talked about it to death, but it’s another channel. And it’s a really nice, light touch. And it’s where you should start if you’re nervous about having people have an opinion for themselves in your business. I think back to maybe 15 years ago and I was working for an agency, and I suppose Twitter had just started. Collectively the board had decided that we would only have marketing with outside external access to Twitter and Facebook.
So, none of the recruiters had access to Twitter, and it was just like well, actually the grads that we were taking on and onboarding as new recruits were so used to conversing over Twitter and Facebook that actually it was like them being instantly handicapped. And I remember there was one recruiter who did all of her recruiting for a very specialist technical role on her knees with her phone, basically her phone under her desk. And she was just tweeting away to her community, and she was filling all of her jobs, but there was no paper trail. And she only got caught out because there was no paper trail on the CRM.
So, she had to basically double admin all of the connections and content and had to come clean and say, “Look, I’m filling my jobs because I’m part of Twitter, and this is my group, and these are my followers. And that’s what I do.” And then it was a case of well, now you’ve got to go and write a policy for social media. And actually we just get on with it now, it’s second nature. And so yeah, that’s kind of the truth around personal branding.
I wrote this presentation with the view that actually it was the business leaders in mind. But if you’re not yet the boss, then I though these are really important steps. And if you are the boss, then start here as well, because actually as soon as you get used to it, and as soon as you start to really apply these principles, the quicker and the more value your team will be able to add to your business as well. So, starting to build your brand out now, define your purpose. Work out what your niche is, so kind of go back to that SWOT analysis. What are you really good at? What you don’t like doing. Get someone else to compliment you there. And then start building this personal brand and tell your story.
Denise: So, let me ask a question, because you mentioned a couple of times about … and you talked about your own personal experience, I don’t particularly like presenting, but now I do. What suggestions have you got for people listening to this podcast, watching this video, around if you’ve got this limiting belief about you and how personal branding will work for you, any suggestions on how to handle that one?
Clair: I think it’s just taking it slow and start small. And the one thing that I really took, and I suppose this as well just before we came on air, I know what my expertise is. I know that marketing is the thing that I get out of bed every morning. So, it’s always been that way for me, and I’m kind of really blessed I suppose to have this sort of purpose. But there’s got to be something that you really get excited by. Whether or not it’s golf, or if it’s, I don’t know, climbing walls like this at weekends. Whatever your passion is, start there. Because it’s so much easier for you to believe in the expertise that you have, than to try and go and learn something new.
Clair: So, if you have been a recruiter for 20 years and you’ve been really successful at it, because you’re still a recruiter, and you’ve run your own business and now you’ve got employees and they’re all there, then obviously one of your really good strengths is running a recruitment business. So, then maybe start a conversation around what are the lessons that you’ve learnt? And can you share those with other people? I think one of the conversations, I did a Rec Expo Spotlight today with a couple of guests, and we were talking about personal branding and the recruiter lessons as well. And actually just being able to ring-fence what it is that you like about yourself gives you such a really good starting point.
Denise: That’s a really good suggestion.
Clair: Yeah. I mean it’s what people kind of see in you. That’s the authentic you. And if you start from a place of authenticity, you can’t go wrong. It’s when you start believing in the hype that I think people become unstuck. Or living up to a false impression. And there’s a lot of work I’ve done on my own personal journey through whether it’s being a manager, or a director, and now I’m running my own business, figuring out what makes me tick is really important. So, I spend a proportion of my week really thinking about am I happy? Just even those little moments enable me to adjust my business plan, my life plan. I book an extra day off, or I kind of go off and do some camping, or whatever makes me feel like I’m actually connecting back to myself.
We live in a world that is always on, 24/7. Whether you’re running your own business or not, life is mad. It’s hectic. There’s so many different calls on your time. If you start throwing yourself into challenges, like getting up on stage and talking to people when you’ve never actually felt like that, then you’re going to come unstuck really quickly. And I don’t want that to happen. So, don’t do that.
Denise: Going back, and I think you’ve probably weaved this in quite a few times, but for those, the very focused individuals that think, “Yeah, yeah, personal branding, it’s all a bit fluffy.” How does it really relate to marketing? And if I go ahead and I start creating this personal brand, what are the results that I’m going to get?
Clair: I think it’s about asking a couple of questions for yourself first. And I like to always go back to the objective. It’s kind of what we do in marketing, strategy. It’s what we do when we’re looking at business. So, combine the two, and think about, “Okay, so what value does your brand, or could your brand actually bring to the business? And what does it do today?” So, if you are a business owner and you’ve set this up because whether you’re two years in, five years in, ten years in, it doesn’t matter, what is your personal brand actually bringing to that business right now in terms of is the network of new business all yours? Or have you taught the methodologies or the concept around the industry to your employees?
Have your employees taught you some things? Have you picked up some things that actually you’re like, “Ooh, that’s exciting, I can get on with and do that?” And then think about what else can you do to accelerate that value? So, is it taking yourself off and doing … so, Bill Bowman is a really great friend of mine, but also a really great mentor. And he turned around and said to me the other week that I should actually do a standup comedian workshop. Not to become a standup comic I will hasten to add, but in terms of what that does from a workshop perspective is it just breaks you out of your comfort zone, and it gets you to be really, really good at telling stories.
And I’m like, “I don’t really want to do that.” But actually there’s a part of me that’s going, “Oh my god, that’s the worst thing in the world, I can’t possibly want to be setting myself up to be laughed at. But actually that’s what I do when I get up on stage. I want people to laugh at the jokes, but if they don’t know me and I can’t project me, then the audience won’t know when to laugh at the bits that I find funny. So, it’s all about being able to figure out where you can add value as well, and that personal journey never stops.
And if you’re really interested in expanding that value, I mean going back to that stat, if you can align another 44% of the value of your business just by stepping up on stage, then isn’t it worth it?
Denise: Absolutely, absolutely. So, we’ve asked you a lot of questions, and you have really delivered in that presentation. I particularly liked that slide where you talked about reputation and how that will add value and success. I think it really summarises everything there, Clair. But is there anything else I haven’t asked you that you’d like to talk about today, that you think might just add value for the audience as well?
Clair: Well, I can do a shameless plug for Recruitment Agency Expo if you’ll let me?
Denise: Absolutely, because we’re going to be there, so of course you can 
Clair: I can’t wait. So, yeah, we’ve got Recruitment Agency Expo. That’s taking place in Birmingham at the NEC on the 2nd and 3rd of October. And also in London Olympia in February, and that’s the 4th and 5th of February I think. But over the course of those two days it’s literally three theatres with over 200 people coming to listen to 50 presenters. Now, if you want to know about how good or how nerve-wracking or how scary and how exhilarating it is, then obviously come and speak. Sharon’s going to be presenting again for us in Birmingham. But it’s just one of those things where you can see the content come to life for people.
Clair: These are stories about businesses accelerating. There’s ideas for strategy and growth. There’s lots of personal stories that are in the programme and baked in on purpose because I want to showcase businesses that are growing. And it’s all about the strategic growth, whether you’re looking to break new markets, or if you’re looking to develop your people. These are all the topics that are going to be discussed along the way, and it’d be great to see you there.
Clair: So, yeah, if you want to see all of this in action, you’ll probably see me whizzing around like a mad woman with my hair on fire as I’m running between three theatres. It’s my annual diet week, so I can basically put my running shoes on, and away I go. But no, it’s great fun, and there’s going to be 1,000 or so of your peers there, so why not come along, network, meet people. Meet loads of vendors as well. There are some amazing technology companies that are out there. And obviously service providers like yourself as well who are going to be around.
Denise: Big thank you, Clair. And I’m not sure if I’m going to be there, but maybe I should be there, shouldn’t I?
Clair: You should.
Denise: Come to the Expo, think about standing outside comfort zones and all that sort of things.
Clair: Yes.
Denise: Yes, yes, note to self. So, thanks again for today and for those of you who might be listening to this on iTunes, head over to YouTube and you’ll be able to watch this as well and you’ll see all of Clair’s slides. And definitely a photograph moment. And Clair, if people want to get in contact with you, how do they do that? I know you’ve just put a slide up now, but if you want to do that as well?
Clair: So, my website is am-bush, and that stands for Accelerated Marketing by me, Clair Bush. I’ve put my marketing consultancy mentoring and training mobile number and email address, and I’m all over LinkedIn. And you can tweet me @ClairBush as well. So, yeah, looking forward to connecting with anybody who fancies asking questions.
