How to Achieve Rapid Success in a New Recruitment Market, with Alec Borlin, Ep #230

The Resilient Recruiter

How does a recruiter go from new to market to Champions Club in just two years? For Alec Borlin, the answer lies in the power of disciplined planning and relentless consistency.

Alec is a CPA turned recruiter. He started with one of the world’s largest recruiting & staffing companies, where he did extremely well before starting his own firm BGC Search in 2022.

He places accounting and finance professionals with privately held middle-market companies in the Greater Cleveland Area.

Alec recently launched The Recruiter’s CPA which provides bookkeeping and tax services for recruiting and staffing companies.

In this episode, you will hear how Alec structures his day with daily habits and strategies that result in consistent billings. He also shared the concept of having an ideas bank, how to utilize AI when enhancing content, and why LinkedIn is still his trusted platform for lead generation.

Episode Outline and Highlights

• [01:00] How Alec got into recruiting.

• [05:36] Early successes in agency recruiting.

• [09:58] Discipline and daily actions for success.

• [16:42] Launching BGC search - Alex walked us through what motivated him to launch.

• [21:19] How Alec achieved $100k revenue in Q1 from inbound leads alone via LinkedIn.

• [27:49] Trusting LinkedIn as a relevant platform to get results.

• [34:05] Consistent posting by having an ideas bank and how to enhance your content with AI.

• [39:11] Alec discusses Recruiter CPA and how it helps staffing and recruiting firms in accounting.

• [44:10] The challenges of being a solo recruitment business owner in terms of tasks and time management.

• [48:38] What is next for Alec and his team?

Planning and Strategies That Set Alec Apart

In his second full year as a recruiter, Alec became part of the “Champions Club” for two consecutive years despite being new to the market. What sets him apart is his work ethic which includes consistency in planning. Alec sets himself apart by maintaining a consistent and disciplined approach to daily activities. His early career success was rooted in structured habits, such as waking up early, exercising, planning his day the night before, and following a rigorous schedule that included conducting at least 10 interviews and 3 client meetings per week.

Here are the key takeaways from Alec's approach as a successful recruiter:

• Consistent daily routine: Early mornings, exercising, and being in the office by 7 AM helped set a productive tone for the day.

• Proactive planning: End-of-day planning allowed Alec to focus on specific goals for the next day, ensuring efficiency.

• Structured activity targets: Conducted at least 10 interviews and 3 weekly client meetings, keeping himself accountable to those numbers.

• Learning from high performers: Alec absorbed successful habits early in his career by observing and emulating top billers.

• Breaking tasks into manageable steps: Rather than being overwhelmed by big goals, he breaks them into smaller tasks, which keeps him focused and motivated.

• Prioritization and time-blocking: He allocates specific time slots for high-priority activities, ensuring he tackles important tasks first.

• Using productivity tools: Leveraging tools like Asana and calendars to track tasks, organize workflows, and stay on top of both personal and professional goals.

• Accountability and follow-through: Alec holds himself to a high standard, consistently executing his plans and commitments.

Trusting LinkedIn as a Relevant Tool in Generating Leads

How much do you invest in LinkedIn as a lead-generating platform? Alec shared an interesting case study about how they were able to build more than $100k from inbound leads in the first quarter of this year using LinkedIn.

“Twelve months of consistently posting on LinkedIn and not seeing a result. Right. So that was, it was posting videos, it was posting copy. So just words, just word posts, posting images, carousels, and constantly trying to interact with my audience and give them the insights that they're looking for… All you can do is continue to post and try to provide value to the people that are in your network and then eventually you'll get this random, beautiful message, hey, we have this need.” What was his thought process that made him persistent?

“So I just, I think it's, it's the belief that LinkedIn is a place that will continue to be very important. We see Fortune 500 companies starting to develop their LinkedIn presence and marketing, if you will, on platforms like that. So just kind of trusting that there are people smarter than me investing their time and resources into the platform.”

I encourage you to visit Alec’s LinkedIn profile to see the type of posts and content he shares with his audience.

Do You Have an Ideas Bank?

Somehow related to the topic of consistent posting and content creation, I wanted to pick Alec’s brain on how he can always come up with fresh ideas. He mentioned the concept of an ideas bank. He also shared how he utilizes AI when translating these ideas into content or posts. To summarize:

Alec draws a lot of his content ideas from the conversations he has during the day or moments of inspiration, such as while at the gym. He captures these ideas quickly by emailing them to himself or storing them in Asana or Google Docs. He then organizes these ideas by different content pillars like sales, marketing, and operations. On uninspired days, he revisits these ideas for fresh content.

When it comes to using AI such as ChatGPT, Alec envisions creating a personal "copywriter" by training AI on his best-performing content, allowing it to generate new posts or ideas based on his style and tone. He believes that AI is a starting point and not a replacement. Hence, personalizing AI-generated content by avoiding generic languages and creating a unique tone by adding personal context is necessary so that your content does not sound artificial.

Alec Borlin Bio and Contact Info

Alec Borlin is a CPA turned recruiter. He got his start with Parker + Lynch, now LHH before starting BGC Search back in 2022. He places accounting and finance professionals with privately held middle-market companies in the Greater Cleveland Area.

As a multi-award-winning Senior Executive Recruiter with a Global Fortune 500, Alec has used his passion for recruiting and accounting to place over 100 candidates throughout the United States with large publicly traded companies and smaller privately held businesses, ensuring a sound match for both parties.

• Alec on Linkedin

• BGC Search website link

• Recruitment CPA website link

People and Resources Mentioned

• Asana

• Loom

• Trello

Connect with Mark Whitby

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• Mark on LinkedIn

• Mark on Twitter: @MarkWhitby

• Mark on Facebook

• Mark on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

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