[Top Agency Series] Empathy and Accountability: The Dual Engines of Business Success with Jeremy Jenson of Encore Search Partners

Jeremy Jenson is a visionary leader and the driving force behind Encore Search Partners. With a strong focus on executive search and a remarkable ability to identify rare talent, Jeremy has built a successful business and is a respected figure in the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) community.

Join us as we explore Jeremy’s journey, unique leadership style, and unwavering dedication to his team and the greater business landscape.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [3:14] How Encore Search Partners uses innovative strategies to find the best talent
• [3:25] The power of EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) in growing a business
• [24:04] The potential damage ‘culture killers’ can cause in an organization and how to manage them
• [27:31] The value of having a clear mission, vision, and values in a company
• [29:48] The role of a good business coach in the implementation of EOS
• [31:46] The role of a performance and mindset coach in supporting staff and driving productivity
• [37:25] The importance of strategic sessions in identifying, discussing, and solving company issues
• [39:56] The unique challenges in filling roles in sectors like energy, industrial manufacturing, and technology
• [42:47] The role of ‘actual intelligence’ in Encore’s successful recruitment process

In this episode…

Join us on this episode as we delve into the captivating journey of Jeremy Jenson, founder and CEO of Encore Search Partners. From attracting top-tier technical talent to implementing a game-changing Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), Jeremy’s insights will reshape your understanding of business growth.

Jeremy Jenson, the mastermind behind Encore Search Partners, takes us on an enlightening expedition through the intricacies of business success. Dive into the importance of strategic initiatives, clear company alignment, and the transformative power of a skilled business coach. You’ll be astounded by the impact of core values on company culture and learn to conquer challenges that threaten to undermine your organization’s growth.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, we join host Dr. Jeremy Weisz and guest Jeremy Jenson in unveiling the blueprint to finding exceptional talent across diverse industries. From innovative recruitment strategies to nurturing unwavering trust, Jeremy guides us through his partnership with Honeywell and the art of tackling recruitment hurdles. Brace yourself for insights and walk away with some great ideas about innovation, trust, and forging powerful relationships in the business realm.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Jeremy Jenson on LinkedIn
• Dr. Jeremy Weisz on LinkedIn
• Encore Search Partners
• Inspired Insider
• Rise25

Special Mention(s):

• Travis McAshan on LinkedIn
• Jason Smith on LinkedIn
• Gino Wickman on LinkedIn
• Mark Winters on LinkedIn
• Glide Design
• Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)

Related episode(s):

• “[Top Agency Series] Continuous Development & Growth-Driven Design With Travis McAshan, GLIDE Design” on Inspired Insider
• “[One Question] Closing A Promising Startup with Mark C. Winters of RocketFuelNow.com” on Inspired Insider
• Leading with Passion with Gino Wickman Founder of EOS Worldwide on Inspired Insider

Quotable Moments:

• “Creating a culture around having that shared mission, vision and values is imperative to long term growth and success.”
• “I see $100 million companies, $500 million companies, completely misaligned mission, vision and values.”
• “We recruit for private equity funded companies and venture capital funded companies, because it’s about speed and accuracy to grow and increase the enterprise value of their business.”

Episode Transcript

Intro  0:01  

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz  0:22  

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today is no different. I’m with Jeremy Jenson of Encore Search, and you can check them out before I formally introduce you to Jeremy. I always like to point out other episodes people should check out of the podcast. Jeremy’s a bit and we’re going to talk about this actually EOS big on EOS. Everyone could check out the interview I did with Gino Wickman. Also, with Mark winters of rocket fuel. He co authored the book rocket fuel with Gino Wickman where talks about the visionary and integrator, so check both those episodes out. Also big shout out to Travis, the founder of glide design, this interview wouldn’t be happening without Travis and they’re a values driven digital creative agency in Austin, Texas. So check them out.

Also, we’re gonna You have a great story about a police chief Jeremy, which we’ll get into Jason Smith is an agency owner spotlight social advertising, and he was fighting gangs he was with the LAPD before becoming an agency on earth, not someone I would want to mess with, for sure. But check all those episodes out and more on InspiredInsider.com This episode is brought to you by Rise25 and at Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream 100 partnerships and relationships and how do we do that we actually help you run your podcast or an easy button for a company to launch or run a podcast we do accountability strategy, but the full execution, Jeremy kind of call ourselves the magic elves that are in the background and make sure to make it look easy for the hosts in the company to get everything out there. You know, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking for ways to give to my best relationships.

And I found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you think about podcasting, you should if you have questions go to Rise25.com We have lots of free resources, answering almost every question that we’ve gotten on the podcast too. So without further ado, Jeremy Jenson, he’s founder and CEO of encore search partners. It’s a 40 person direct hire and executive search firm located in the great city of Houston. It’s focused on headhunting professional and technical talent nationwide. He’s a subject matter expert on Eos, like I mentioned, which is the Entrepreneurial Operating System. He’s a fellow member of EO Entrepreneurs Organization and will probably see each other a little bit in Detroit. And eo is a 16 or 16,000 member, global organization of some of the top entrepreneurs all around the world. And Jeremy is also an active investor, innovator and builder of others in his local Houston Community. Jeremy, thanks for joining me.

Jeremy Jenson  3:02  

Thank you. Thank you. That was a great introduction.

Jeremy Weisz  3:07

It’s well deserved. And I want to hear from your words, tell people more about encore search and what you do.

Jeremy Jenson  3:14  

Yeah, absolutely. So as you mentioned, we’re a 40-person direct hire recruiting firm. So companies turn to us as a grudge purchase whenever they’re having trouble finding high level technical talent. Yeah, you know, writing, you know, it’s so funny. I’m one of the few industries where it’s like, the bigger the fee, the easier it is for the client to write the check. And I’ll give you an example. If you’re recruiting an 80k, outside salesperson, you’re writing a $25,000, check 2025 grand, that might be a tough pill to swallow, the person hasn’t sold anything yet. But what if it’s an attorney that’s got a $3 million book of business, and you’re writing me a $250,000 fee, that becomes a lot easier of a check to write, right? They’re gonna bring that book of business, and the profit that comes along with it. So we like to focus on the high level positions for sure.

Jeremy Weisz  4:09  

I want to talk about attracting talent. And this is what you do for other people. It’s actually what you do for yourself. You have some great LinkedIn posts. I want to encourage people to check them out. I was reading them. And one of them was 15 million.

Jeremy Weisz  4:25  

Right? Yeah. Talk about that for a second. Yeah, definitely. So about seven years ago.

Jeremy Jenson  4:35  

I brought on board an individual contributor. His name is Casey Knight. And it was right after oil and gas had crashed here in Houston, Texas. And so I saw my business go from about a million dollars in revenue down to almost zero. So I was flirting with Casey and actually went to high school with him. We weren’t really friends, but we were connected on social media. And he was thinking about making a change. And whenever I visited with him for coffee at black walnut cafe in Katy, Texas, he was voicing some frustrations about his current firm. He was a recruiter for financial advisors. And I’d never even, you know, thought about recruiting for financial advisors.

These are stockbrokers at UBS, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, etc. And when he told me about the fee structure on how he generated fees on moving that individual, it really piqued my interest. And so in May of 2016, Casey came on board as an individual contributor. And today, he is now executive VP in the firm with our largest book of business in his specific vertical, they do about seven and a half million in revenue. So if he was a partner at a law firm, his practice area would be about a $7.5 million book. And, and then that was a celebration that post was maybe a couple of years ago, whenever he hit 15 million. And I just thought that that was like, such, you know, a massive milestone for somebody that came in at the ground floor. They believed in my technical competency. They believed in the vision that I painted for the future of the company and our real estate and our dress code and our amenities. And, you know, he started with one placement, I think it went down in September of 2016. And he hit that milestone in late 2020, early 21 with a 15 million in revenue. So very, very proud to celebrate that. Now, Casey’s probably had 25 million.

Jeremy Weisz  6:37  

Talk about you know, I want to show you something in a second. Because I love this, this post, but I want you to talk about how that was a tough hire.

Jeremy Jenson  7:35  

You know, you mentioned you know, the energy and I appreciate you sharing, you know, the energy, you know, oil and gas business went to, not a lot at that time, and it’s not. Now looking back, it seems obvious, but at that point, in your business, it seems like it’s not necessarily an easy decision to hire anyone for that matter. And I just want to point out like, here’s what made me Jeremy. When I looked at this post, I thought I was gonna be watching a Netflix special. I love the image here. I want to go watch the Netflix special billers.

Okay, so you guys have another business just like putting Netflix special images out there. I love this. But well, this is definitely inspired by the famed HBO series ballers with the rock. And so what we did was we just put Casey’s face on the rocks body and changed the A to an eye. So that’s the actual, I guess, album cover to the TV show ballers? Yeah, I’m gonna go watch billers. I was looking and found it. You know, people often say that I need my own YouTube show or Netflix special. And, you know, I think it could be in the cards in the future one day for sure.

Jeremy Weisz  8:06  

Talk about that being? Maybe not so obvious or tough to hire at the time? Oh, wow.

Jeremy Jenson  8:16  

You know, I think the reason why it may have been a tough hire is because at the time, you know, Casey had a stay at home wife. He had two young children, I believe they were expecting their third at the time. And I had to twist his arm and convince him to leave, leave a firm that he had just made about $180,000 You know, at the last year, right that year before he came on board. And so, you know, we all know that in a recruiting model, or anytime that you generate revenue as an individual contributor and producer, your compensation is tied to what you produce, right?

And that was the very first time that I was faced with needing to pay someone, a six figure base salary, just to get them on board, you know, and, you know, we’re flashing all the way back to 2016. You know, we just started in 2013. And so, you know, when everybody else was at that 50 to 65k. Mark, bringing in Casey at 120 base was a massive pill to swallow. But you know, what’s funny about hiring him and seeing what he was able to create, with his own intellectual capital and network and ideas and creativity. When I saw the difference between a 120 person and a 60 person, and then five months later, that gave me the confidence to go off for another, you know, 150 salary to get somebody at the VP level.

And that gentleman was named Scott Kelly. And I’m proud to say that, you know, in the last six and a half years Scott’s been promoted three times VP, Senior VP, executive VP, and now he’s the President of the company and so I’m so grateful that I, that I took the leap of faith and went and kind of paid more than than I’d ever paid anybody else. Because it shouldn’t all be on my shoulders. And I’m talking about the business development efforts, the creativity, the innovation. And now we’ve got a four headed monster as well, because we’ve added another VP since then, who is Christina Lyles, our VP of legal search.

Jeremy Weisz  10:29  

I mean, it is a hit. At that time, I thought of it as a huge leap. Right? six figure salary. I love to talk about the CLO delegation and that process from deciding to do it to doing it. Because that seems like it was also a big decision as well. Yeah, definitely.

Jeremy Jenson  10:49  

So, you know, in 2015,I was in a group called visited, which I’m not sure if you’re familiar with. But you know, this is just a peer to peer Executive Advisory Group for mid level managers and C level executives. And, you know, I was in there with a young man, kind of venting about my business, man, you know, the recruiters are lazy, their work ethic is poor. They’re taking shortcuts. And he’s like, damn, Jeremy, you must be losing a lot of money. So what are you talking about? I made a half a million dollars last year. And so in having these conversations with Scott in an environment where he didn’t really have insight into a professional service firm, where they had those big individual tickets that yielded this massive amount of net income. He basically told me, he said to me, Jeremy, what if you actually implemented processes, systems and accountability? And I said, Oh, yeah, that sounds all fun and good, but I’m only good at sales. And he said, well, well, I can do it for you. And I said, well, well, Scott, you know, I don’t think I can afford you. And so, you know, it took a little bit of creativity in order to get him, you know, he needed that six figure base, because he had a young family at the time and a single income household. And, he and we negotiated a percentage of top line revenue as a VP, non producer, operations guy. But I knew that we were in an industry where sales would solve the bottom line, right. And I needed somebody that can help hold me accountable to achieving our business milestone goals, and implementing those processes systems and ultimately, accountability for the team. And so bringing Scott in in October of 2016. It was tough. It was tough for my internal people. They all had agency recruiting experience, Ken Scott came from an IT consulting company. He didn’t have any recruiting industry experience. But what he knew was how to implement Eos, the Entrepreneurial Operating system because he’d been doing it the previous five years at his current firm, going from 24 years old to 29 years old.

And it was his personal goal as a kid to be a vice president by the time he was 30. And he’ll tell everyone to this day, he beat it by one month. And so we hired him as VP. That was one of the big stipulations. But his title at the time was Sales and Operations Manager, you never would have thought that this guy would grow up into being the President of the largest privately held executive search firm in Houston, Texas. But he eats sleeved bread and drinks Gino Whitman’s Kool Aid. I’ll tell you about ELS. And so Scott brought that toolbox with him. In 2016, we didn’t really touch the toolbox until December of 2017. Because it took them a full year to learn our culture, you know, the way that we charge fees, who are our target clients, what our unique selling points are, what our rocks are, and then he didn’t want to influence too much change overnight.

Because we were kind of rebuilding after an oil and gas downturn, right. And so in December of 17, Scott implemented EOS. And that’s what really forced our business to skyrocket. I mean, we went from 1 million to 2.6 million to 4.2 to 5.5. COVID was kind of a flat year because we lost revenue for a full quarter. But then last year, you know, we did nearly $12 million in revenue and the goal this year is upwards of 14. And so in a professional service environment, like a public accounting firm, or a private equity firm or an investment banking firm, a $14 million business can yield some pretty profitable margins for sure. Yeah, totally. EOS.

Jeremy Weisz  14:57  

Yeah. It sounds like he came in and really did A lot of learning and listening and understanding. And then he was ready to hit the ground running. And he’s kind of I mean, you’re the visionary type, and he’s the integrator type. And that’s why they call it rocket fuel. Right with Mark Winches and Gino Wickman.

Jeremy Jenson  15:15  

Absolutely. And you know, it’s funny, because I think he had envisioned the whole timeline the entire time, but he never told me, right? And I don’t think that I would have had the guts to go out and buy a 250k Coo, because my business really couldn’t support it. So I got the guy that was 121 50 on day one. And he grew into the guy that I’m proud to say, as my back to back in the company, for sure.