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The Resilient RecruiterAuthor: Recruitment Coach Mark Whitby
Join "the Recruitment Coach" Mark Whitby as he and his guests unpack the secrets of what it takes to be a profitable and long-lived professional in the recruitment industry. Language: en Genres: Business, Careers, Entrepreneurship Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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How to Bounce Back Stronger After Your Business Falls Apart, with Gemma Downing
Episode 328
Tuesday, 1 September, 2026
What do you do when the recruitment business you've poured everything into starts to fall apart? Gemma Downing Mapp came back from holiday to find Mixxos £100,000 behind budget. Two months later, the company recorded its highest-billing month ever with roughly half the team. Gemma is co-founder and CEO of Mixxos Group, a boutique recruitment consultancy she built with her business partner, Chris. They grew the company from a team of two into a multimillion-pound firm, with the numbers moving in the right direction year after year. But the foundations had not kept pace. Gemma and Chris knew within the first few months that a senior operations hire was not working. They liked the person and wanted the appointment to succeed, so they continued trying for 18 months. During that time, leadership became misaligned, standards slipped and financial forecasts became unreliable. Gemma is open about the responsibility she and Chris carried for allowing the situation to continue. She explains why recruitment business owners delay difficult people decisions, what finally forced them to act and why the first thing she would fix is always the person leading the team. The turnaround involved restructuring the company, reducing headcount by 50% and redefining the founders' roles. Gemma became CEO, responsible for the people and culture. Chris became Commercial Director, focused on revenue and gross profit. They also brought in Sam to restore operational control. He introduced consistent one-to-ones, clearer financial reporting and a skills matrix, while helping the business prepare for a new technology rollout and launch a retained executive search desk. Throughout the restructure, approximately 99% of Mixxos clients stayed with the company. Gemma credits the relationships she and Chris had built and their determination to do what they said they would do. In this episode, you'll learn: How fast growth allowed problems to develop behind the scenes Why Gemma and Chris delayed a senior leadership decision for 18 months The danger of wanting success for an employee more than they want it themselves Why the leader between an owner and the team shapes everyone's standards How Gemma and Chris divided their roles around their strengths What Mixxos changed about hiring, onboarding and accountability How the company achieved its best month with half the headcount Why strong client relationships protected the business during the restructure Episode highlights: [05:58] Five years of growth and the foundations that failed to keep pace [09:57] Returning from holiday to a business, Gemma no longer wanted to be in [11:44] The cost of delaying a senior leadership decision for 18 months [22:00] Gemma becomes CEO and Chris becomes Commercial Director [28:29] Launching the retained executive search desk [31:04] Achieving the best billing month in company history with half the team [40:17] How Mixxos retained approximately 99% of its clients Podcast Partners: This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox About Gemma Downing Mapp: Gemma Downing Mapp is co-founder and CEO of Mixxos Group, a boutique recruitment consultancy based in Milton Keynes. She and her business partner, Chris, grew Mixxos from a team of two into a multimillion-pound firm working across permanent, temporary and retained executive search. The business now also delivers retained search assignments in EMEA and the United States. Connect with Gemma: Mixxos Group: https://mixxos.com/ Connect with Mark Whitby: Get your free 30-minute strategy call: https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/ Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/ Mark on Twitter: https://twitter.com/markwhitby Mark on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRecruitmentCoach/ Mark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/ Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter: https://plinkhq.com/i/1489513354
