Season 9 | Ep31 Nathan O'Connell:Building a £1M R2R business on 4 x Retained Clients

About this episode

Nathan O'Connell discusses how his military background influenced his success in building a recruitment business with a unique model.

Nathan O'Connell spent nine years as a British military officer. Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan. He finished on the withdrawal with 16 Air Assault Brigade and left the forces two weeks before his 30th birthday with no sales background, no LinkedIn profile, and no recruitment experience of any kind. He got into rec-to-rec by accident. Spotted an advert on his wife’s Instagram, joined R2R Global, and was given a cold desk focused on energy and renewable energy recruitment companies in London. Within 12 months he was their top biller in London. By year two, he was number one globally. Then he left. And instead of replicating what he’d done, he built the opposite. O’Connell Search Partners runs retained mandates with a maximum of four clients per geographic region. A team of four billing from Liverpool, covering London, New York, and Texas. In four months they invoiced £427,000. “I had nothing to sell at the time. So it was truly just a genuine interest.” This week on The RAG Podcast, Nathan breaks down how a military background shaped the most deliberate rec-to-rec model you will hear about this year. We cover: How a British military officer with zero sales experience became a global top…

People in this episode

Host: Sean Anderson

Guest: Nathan O'Connell

Topics covered

• military background
• recruitment
• business growth
• retained mandates
• sales experience
• client selection

Keywords

• recruitment
• military
• business model
• retained clients
• sales
• energy recruitment
• top biller

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: R2R Global, O’Connell Search Partners

Places: London, New York, Texas, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan

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• Season 9 | Ep30 Emily Angeloni: Why She Nearly Walked Away From WOW After 9 Years of growth · May 19, 2026 · 1h 10m
• Season 9 | Ep29 Charlie Saffro: What Nobody Tells You About Selling Your Recruitment Business · May 12, 2026 · 1h 22m
• Season 9 | Ep28 Blaine Daws: £1.5M Year One to £15M Today. Working 7 Days a Week to Get There. · May 5, 2026 · 1h 16m
• Season 9 | Ep27 Andy Strong: Why He Waited 17 Years to Start His Own Recruitment Business · April 28, 2026 · 1h 17m