Member Article

‘Accidental global mentor’ pens second book in lockdown

A Midlands-based businessman who inadvertently became a global mentor to furloughed recruiters during lockdown, has published a book aimed at helping people get ahead in their careers.

Steve Guest, Managing Director of Walsall-based S Guest Consulting Services Ltd – a specialist recruitment business for the construction sector – spent almost 70 hours on Zoom calls, mentoring people in 28 countries.

He made the offer of providing one-to-one advice when parts of the sector almost ground to a halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the calls, he discovered recruiters the world over felt fear and said their careers were at a dangerous precipice because they were furloughed, had lost their jobs or had no income because they were commission only.

Realising there was a gap in the market for a training programme for recruiters, he went on to create a 12-week online Expert Recruiter programme, which has been accessed by an ever growing list of recruiters across the world, and he has just published his second book, aimed at would-be entrepreneurs and business executives about building a personal brand.

A Personal Brand Story follows hot on the heels of his first book, Top Biller – The Life of a Recruiter, which was published in 2019 and has gone on to sell thousands of copies in 45 countries and also became an Amazon number 1 best seller across multiple categories.

“I could see during the first lockdown last year that people were worried about their futures and I wanted to do something to help,” he said. “It was the first time I’d done this and it was a real eye-opener. When I wrote on social media that I wanted to offer advice to recruiters who might be having a tough time, I expected about five people to respond.

“But it rocketed and dozens of people approached me for help, from New Zealand to the USA and Japan to The Netherlands. I never expected my offer of help to have such a response and I found the same issues cropping up over and again about business development and branding.

“The people I spoke to all had very different lives and cultures, but all had the same kinds of insecurities because of the impact of the pandemic and I just wanted to help them get through it.”

The results spoke for themselves: not only did Steve create new introductions, he also helped his mentees to garner new-found confidence and look at their professional progress from a strategic point of view.

From just one 30-minute one-to-one Zoom call, one person managed to get his first job in recruitment while a consultant in the UK took his advice and quickly banked £13,000 in fees after placing staff into healthcare roles.

Steve said he hoped his second book would enable people who are starting out in their careers, or are at a crossroads and are considering how to start their own business, how to develop a personal brand and how to differentiate from their competitors.

“My own journey has been a rollercoaster of a journey but I believe my story will help others who are struggling to find a path in their career, after all I was told I didn’t fit the profile of a successful recruiter when I first started out” he said. “We all have different skills and this is about finding your niche, your expertise and offering a helping hand to others.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Meredith Guest .