Produced By - The Story Behind noticed.: Building More Than Just A LinkedIn Agency | 171: Niall Ratcliffe

Episode Date: September 28, 2026

Niall Ratcliffe is the CEO and co-founder of noticed., the UK's leading LinkedIn agency. After recognising the opportunity LinkedIn presented before most businesses had fully embraced it, he quit his job to build an agency with his brother from the ground up. Today, noticed. works with some of Europe's fastest-growing companies and global brands, including the NHS and Ocean Beach, helping them generate leads, build authority, and grow through LinkedIn while scaling the business to over £1M ARR. In this episode, Niall shares his journey from university and his first marketing role to building one of the UK's fastest-growing LinkedIn agencies. We discuss the realities of starting a business, hitting a £100k run rate in just 11 days, why sustainable growth comes from consistently doing the small things, and how they earned the trust of major brands. We also explore how LinkedIn has evolved, where it's heading next, and Niall's practical advice for finding clients, standing out in your career, and spotting opportunities before everyone else. Connect with Niall:https://www.linkedin.com/in/niall-ratcliffe/https://www.niallratcliffe.com/https://www.noticed.co/ Timestamps: 00:00 - Why business success takes longer than you think 01:11 - Meet Niall Ratcliffe 01:45 - From economics to marketing 04:15 - The moment he knew he wanted his own agency 06:01 - £100K in 11 days 09:15 - How he spotted the LinkedIn opportunity 13:30 - LinkedIn then vs LinkedIn now 18:40 - Is it too late to start on LinkedIn? 19:35 - Why people misunderstand LinkedIn 21:33 - How to stand out in today's job market 24:49 - How to get your first clients 28:16 - The client he'd love to work with 29:05 - The inspiration behind noticed. 31:10 - Running, jiu-jitsu & life outside business 34:00 - Books that changed how he thinks 36:03 - The future of LinkedIn 37:28 - How noticed. got its name 39:30 - Why LinkedIn is still the biggest opportunity Connect with Tomas:Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Patreon: https://patreon.com/tomaslouckyNewsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRiverside: https://riverside.partnerlinks.io/2752q1ai767zRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I always imagined business is either you start and fail or you start and it's a rocket ship. So what I mean by that is like generally speaking in the news, you see people who've started a small business and failed and they go under within a year. I think it's like 90% going under within a year. And then the other one is like they started a business and suddenly they're doing millions. And I thought it was one of the other. And when we had our early success, I thought, okay, great, we're off to the moon here. This is easy.

But the actual reality of business, it's a really slow and steady race of chipping away week in, week out. I think one thing we got wrong for the first year of the business was we were constantly waiting for another big explosion of growth. And one thing that we've learned over the last four years is that growth is actually a day-to-day thing and an everyday task, and it's just chipping away slowly and slowly.

If you looked at our business growth, you'd say it actually looks on the outside as it has been a rocket ship. We've grown like a virtually 100% year-on-year for the last three years. But the reality is it's actually been real slow stepping stones every single day doing the little thing, the boring mundane tasks.

So if I was giving anyone advice who were getting into business, I would say like simply set out a plan and just act on that plan every day. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you. Hello, Nail. Thank you for join us today and welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to chat. I feel like we've got a lot of interesting stuff to go through. So Nail, for those who don't know,

can you please introduce yourself? Yeah, I'm Nia Rackcliffe. I'm the CEO of Noticed. We're the number one LinkedIn agency in the UK, and that's what I'm most well known for. Over the last kind of three and four years, we've worked with some of the fastest growing B2B startups on the planet, from massive organizations like the NHS to massive hospitality brands like Ocean Beach, Ibiza, a lot of the fastest growing B2B brands in Europe come to us for our LinkedIn strategy, and that's what we do best. It sounds exciting, of course. We'll be looking forward to dive into it deeper, and maybe to start, what is it actually that you maybe studied when you are younger, and what did you want to become? Great question. If we zoomed right,

back to when I was like 13 or 14 years old. I used to tell my parents I want to be a dentist. This is quite a different career trajectory. And I think honestly I used to say that because I was academic and I thought that was like a career that was be respected. After that I tried to pursue every kid's dream of trying to be a footballer. I wasn't fast tall or good enough at football for that to come true. And then later on I transitioned into marketing. And for the last kind of 10 years, that's been my obsession is just how to get brands in front of the right people and how to drive their leads and that has become a business and that's where we kind of are today. And out of course, is that also something that you studied, marketing, or did you actually study maybe dentistry?

Yeah, it's a good question. So actually, when I went to university, I went to university in America, so it's a four-year degree. And for the first year, I can't really call it, but you don't choose your major for your first year in America. And I remember that after the first year, I decided that I wanted to do economics as my major. So I want to do my degree in economics. And it's quite funny because a year later, as I transitioned and said, actually, no, I think marketing is back if I want to go down. And literally, it was probably two years into that degree that I started to realize that marketing was something that really interested me in something I wanted to go forward with. Ironically, I don't think I've taken one lesson I learned at university about marketing into the

actual business world. So it shows how useful that was. But nonetheless, I did get a few marketing classes in there. Yeah, I guess that's the reality of studying, isn't it? I can very much relate to my own experience as well. Yeah, literally, I remember doing my, like, Like in University in America, they have what they call a capstone class, I believe it is, and it's essentially the last class of the degree. And the idea is to be like a really hard class, and it's about marketing. And it was about business as well at the time. And at the time, I was already working a full-time job in marketing.

I remember sitting in the classes thinking, like, this has like no relevance to my job, and it's going to have no relevance for the rest of my life. I don't say that had a good time in university. Maybe that's the biggest lesson. But they need to add a disclaimer, like for people who are listening, and there might be students, not to make it sound like that university is a waste of time. It's obviously, I don't know, my help with networking or connections or other stuff. I 100%.

University is great. It's, university is great. I had a great time there. I met some amazing people. I learned lots of life lessons. I just didn't learn many marketing lessons, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And did you then want to work, like, as an employee in some kind of marketing company,

or did you actually have, like, a dream or idea to set up your own business or agency? It's a good question. I think I've always been entrepreneurial, so I've always had a tendency to want to work for myself. And I felt one of my first roles in marketing, I was 19, I got a job at a startup in London, and it's a personal branding agency. And I was employee number three there, and I watched that company go from three to 16. And I learned some amazing lessons in that role. And I actually really loved the role. I enjoyed turn up to work every day. But more than anything, and this sounds really bad, but I remember getting on calls with my boss. It's called Sam, and I'm quite a good friend. How was it Sam from Kurogo? Corogo, yes, yeah. I spoke with him a few episodes back, so it was very nice. And I'm happy to hear that. He's amazing, and like I said, I love Sam now. We talk regularly.

I remember when I was in the job, like, I just always remember, like, thinking, oh, I want to be you, not me, as in like, I want to run the company, not work in this company. And that would, like, eat away at me on a week-to-week basis. And I think that was when I really realized, like, oh, I'm not built to be. be a team member here. I'm built to run a company. Because that was like the fire that was really lit inside of me was seeing Sam and thinking, like, I want to do what you do, not what I'm doing. And that was honestly probably the first real spark of actually I probably should go and start a business. Yeah, yeah. But I understand, but I can imagine because at the same time, it's a bit outside. It's exciting on one side, but scary as well because it's like starting your own business.

So maybe like from your experience, firstly, what was it like? Obviously, I don't know. know, first months or when you started. And then secondly, if you have like any advice to share for people who might have similar ambitions. Yeah. So interestingly, I had a very interesting like business starting experience. So at the time I built about a small following on LinkedIn, I maybe had 3,000 followers. And we had this idea that we could essentially take to market a LinkedIn marketing agency. And they weren't really a thing at the time. There was some like big ads agencies that did LinkedIn ads or B2B agencies that did LinkedIn ads, but not really LinkedIn marketing in terms of like content outreach organic side of things.

So I posted about it on LinkedIn. I kind of was like, I've quit my job. I don't really know what I'm doing. Here's kind of the general idea of what I'm thinking of doing. And within 11 days, we'd hit 100K run rate, which means that we were doing 100,000 a year within 11 days. And that sounds fantastic. It was actually disastrous in a sense of like,

I had no idea how to like invoice people, how to run a business, how to hire people, like what HR was, what the legality was, how to like pay taxes. So it was very stressful and disastrous in that sense. But one thing that really I was surprised by almost, because we had such early success, I was like, I always imagined business is either you start and fail or you start and it's a rocket ship. So what I mean by that is like generally speaking in the news, you see people who've like started a small business and failed and they go under within a year. I think it's like 90% going to within a year. And then the

other one is like they start a business and suddenly they're doing millions. And I thought it was one of the other. And when we had our early success, I thought, okay, great, we're off to the moon here. This is easy. But the actual reality of business is a really slow and steady race of chipping away week in, week out. I think one thing we got wrong for the first year of the business was we were constantly waiting for another big explosion of growth. And one thing that we've learned over the last four years is that growth is actually a day-to-day thing and an everyday task. And it's just chipping away slowly and slowly. If you looked at our business growth, if you'd say it actually looks on the outside as it has been a rocket ship. We've grown like

virtually 100% year and year for the last three years. But the reality is it's actually been some real slow stepping stones every single day doing the little things, the boring mundane tasks. So if I was giving anyone advice who are getting into business, I would say like simply set out a plan and just acts on that plan every day and you're more than likely get where you're going. But it'll also be drastically less exciting than you think it's going to be as well. It's interesting. I'm obviously firstly happy to hear that there was such successful start. But then I think that might be like the side that people may not realize that it then sets such high expectations straight from the start and it's hard to either repeat it or continuously keep, you know, improving because if the

start is so big and so good, then it's obviously hard or impossible to keep doing that regularly. 100%. Not to mention there's a massive gap between hundreds of thousands and millions a year. And people see them as like the next steps. Oh, I've done hundreds of thousands. now, I'm going to do millions. And it's like, no, like, a jump from 200,000 a year to 2 million a year isn't a few thousand. It's 10x. While it thinks, like, you feel like, even if you say a million a year, if you're

doing 200,000, you're like, oh, I'm going to do a million a year next. It's like, oh, no, that's like 5X, the company that you are today. And it's just sometimes it's when you actually zoom out, and you look at the numbers, you realize that, as I said, a long journey to go on. And like, it's a very much incremental day-to-day chipping away at it. Yeah, yeah. And do you think then that headstock, that it was like if there was like one factor or multiple factors for example there was less

competition maybe you had just like strong i don't know good strategy or something to start with or what do you think was like the reason for that my about section on lincoln says first few lines say something like i'm a very ordinary guy with a very fast growing business because of two reasons i saw an opportunity and i capitalized on it and that is how i would summarize it is at the time i was working at kurogo personal branding agency and And I was in playing number three. And at the time, the company was very much finding its feet. So we were doing everything for personal brands.

We were doing like PR, getting on podcasts, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, whatever the client wanted, we did it. So while I was managing these accounts, I was literally working across all of these different social channels. And everyone at the time was talking about TikTok and YouTube and how you could go viral on these platforms. And I was watching those two clients in particular. It made a real sum of money on LinkedIn. So there was one coach who made like six figures just in his LinkedIn DMs. And I was watching him firsthand send back and forth with these prospects and sign these clients. And there was another music startup founder who raised eight figures while I sat there watching him,

virtually in his LinkedIn DMs. He was going back and forth. Like, what's the check size? What are you investing? Okay, great. Here's my deck. And then next minute he'd send us a WhatsApp and say, oh, just raise this. Can we do an announcement?

And I was like, well, everyone's talking about TikTok and YouTube, but I'm looking over here and there's this like job site called LinkedIn. where he seemed to be able to get in front of the best audience possible and make the most money. Maybe there's something there. And what really kicked me over the edge is that someone got in touch and essentially offered me my full-time salary just to take them on as a client and just to do their LinkedIn. And that's when I called Morgan, my co-founder and brother, and I said, there seems to be something that I think there's a business in it.

And that's when we did the announcement post. And it just showed that we luckily stumbled upon a real opportunity and a real market. and the demand was shown by how quickly we grew to six figures. I'm happy to do. A quick note before we continue. One of the things I've realized from hosting this podcast is that I spent a lot of time thinking about the conversations long after they end. That's one of the reasons I started unproduced,

a solo podcast where I share ideas, lessons, observations, and questions I'm still figuring out myself. If you'd like to check it out, you'll find a link in the description. Now, back to the episode. And Neil, as you mentioned, actually, your first line in your about section on LinkedIn, I was about to mention it because I have it open here. And I liked it when I was reading about it because it says that you are a pretty normal guy. And I think that people, like, you know, when you see someone successful,

you think that they are like something more or something unachievable. But then when you read something like this, it actually reminds you that, yes, you are successful, but still you are the person like everyone else is. So it makes it much more realistic that anyone can achieve things. Obviously, if you work hard, if you spot the opportunities. I was just about mentioning that I really like that line and it stuck with me. Yeah, and I think that's the reason I use it is I think it's really important. I came from a really working class background.

My mom grew up in a council house. My dad worked in a factory's entire life. Like, I didn't come from a family with any money at all. Very little to get by with when I was a kid. and I think that I always saw these entrepreneurs and thought like, oh, there's a gap between me and them that they have something on me. They've got a trust fund or they've got, they know people. And the more more people I've met in business, and I've talked with the top execs at the NHS, we've worked with the former CEO of Pandora, former global marketing director at Sainsbury's. I've met the CEO of John Lewis.

And it's just like, every time I meet these people, they're still great achievements and I have massive respect for them. but very quickly you realize like, oh, there isn't that much of a gap. Yeah, there is a gap. You know what I mean? If they're at these massive levels, there is a gap. But it's not unachievable. And like you said, they are very human. And when you see them from the outside, you think, oh, actually, they're different from me.

But when you see them on the inside, you realize, oh, actually, they're just like me. They're just in a slightly different position right now. I'm happy to hear that. I feel the same when I speak like with successful or big people on the podcast. And it reminds me as well. then Neil as we discussed before obviously that you found opportunity and grew the business can you compare what was it like before and what is it now on LinkedIn like if you feel like that there is still obviously not the same opportunity as before but if there is still you know if the market

is saturated or if you feel like that there is still you know space for other agencies and businesses yeah great question to understand the journey of LinkedIn and that the journey LinkedIn's on right now you have to understand the journey that facebook and instagram have been on So in about, I think it was 2006, when Facebook was really starting to gain traction, you could go viral on there, just like random videos. And there was creators like King Batch, I think was on their log and poll. They would just post videos on Facebook and next minute they do these millions of views. And I remember when I was growing up on Facebook, I literally see these like viral videos that were on Facebook.

And then soon after, I think it was 2008, they launched meta ads or Facebook ads at the time. And slowly the reach just completely dwindled. And it dwindled because they were essentially charging brands now to. in front of the audience, it didn't really make as much sense of them to push it. But there was also a supply and demand equation that changed. So when Facebook was first going, they had a massive amount of users, but not many of them actually posted great content. So those that did post content got exposed to a massive audience.

If a thousand people need a feed full of content, but only 100 people posts that content, Facebook has to show those 100 people's post to all 1,000 people, which means you get this explosion of reach. The same thing happened with Instagram. I think it was about 2010. You could post a photo on Instagram of like an assai ball, or a fruit bowl, and it would explode in reach, and you had like the Kylie Jenner's of the

world who'd like post a photo on vacation, it just explode. Like, by the way, like, try posting a photo on Instagram nowadays and like organically and getting reach. It's like it doesn't exist anymore. And that was that change when the supply and demand changed and more users were posting on Instagram, but also when the ads launched on the Instagram platform as well. And you see the exact same trajectory we've linked him. So in about 2020, when I'd first joined the platform, There was this massive supply and demand equation. Everyone used to talk about the fact that about 1% of users were actually posting on the platform. So you had hundreds of millions of people turned up on LinkedIn every day, 1% posted.

LinkedIn had these really small portion of posts, and they had to send it to everyone. So this organic reach just exploded on LinkedIn. And for anyone who was posting on the platform at the time, you would average probably 20, 30,000 impressions of post, just posting anything. I would post a selfie of me and say, like, oh, people should go on a walk. and it would be like, boom, 50,000 impressions. And I had like 2,000, 3,000 followers. And it's a really crazy time. And I call it the LinkedIn Gold Rush.

And in that time, a couple of things happened that changed the platform. Firstly, everyone on other platforms saw LinkedIn reach exploding. So if I'm on Twitter or Instagram, I go, oh, over there on LinkedIn, everyone's getting better reach. I'm just going to go and post there. So there's massive influx of content. And then, chat, we Tled on, so I think it was 2020 or 2023. And boom, anyone could now create. content. So the supply and demand

equation really changed on LinkedIn from 1% and it actually jumped up to about 5% of people posting, which sounds like a nothing jump, 1 to 5%, it's only 4% jump. That's actually tens or hundreds of millions of people posting every single day now on the platform. And there was a report done by Shield Analytics

and Shield Analytics were the actually just recently shut down, but were the biggest analytics platform for LinkedIn, amazing company at the time. And they did a report and they said that now in 2026, if you have 10,000 followers, the average impressions you get is about 734 per post. If you look at that massive flipping reach, it's gone from 20,000 impressions, 20,000 impressions of course with a thousand followers.

So now you have 10,000, you average 734 impressions, which is shocking. But what people are forgetting is, if I just showed you those statutes say, well, LinkedIn's dead. Move on to the next platform. Why is now selling LinkedIn as a platform? But if we go back to Facebook and Instagram, the billion-dollar brands weren't made in the organic reach era. They were made after meta ads launched. The brands like Jimshark, Oa Ring, MBMT, they came after Organic Reach collapsed. If we go to Instagram, the same thing happened.

Once the Organic Reach dropped off, again, it was like the Jenna Brands, Jim Shark as well, a massive on Instagram, exploded after that. And I think on LinkedIn, now that organic reach has dropped, you'll start to see the real money being made. And the reason I believe that is because when things get slightly, harder and organic reach drops off. LinkedIn's got the attention of the major brands, but they have to think more strategically and have real marketing strategies. And that's why we're

really supporting the major brands now is coming to LinkedIn with exceptional strategies that are effective, but also the fundamentals of LinkedIn are still the same. It's still a massively high quality audience. It's the best platform on the planet to get in touch with decision makers. It's the easiest platform on the planet to start conversations with them. So the fundamentals are the same, but now people are having to think really strategically. And ironically, that's where the real ROI and the real money's made. And so I'm massively bullish on LinkedIn over the next two to four years. I think we'll see a lot of major brands.

It's actually the platform very, very seriously. It's interesting. I didn't know that statistics might make sense. What would be then your answer to the people who say it's late to start LinkedIn? You know, people say that often, but what would you say to such people if it's late? I would say imagine in, let's say it was, I don't know the actual day, but let's say it was 2010 when Facebook launched Facebook ads. imagine sitting in 2012 and saying, I'm too late to Facebook ads. And what a silly statement that would be to make.

And it's just the truth, you know, like, now there'd be an argument to say, oh, am I too, are you too late to Facebook ads now? No. Like, Facebook ads are still one of the most effective marketing channels for every major brand on the planet. And in 2012, 2013, are you late? No, you're massively early. People forget how early they are to LinkedIn. LinkedIn was a job site three, four years ago.

is only seen as a job site. Now it is starting to be seen as a marketing channel. We are still so, so, so, so early. That is true. I like it and I agree. And actually, as we are speaking now about LinkedIn and the updates, what do you think of the latest update with reporting AI Slope on the posts? I think it's a PR stunt from LinkedIn.

I will say that. I think it's a PR stunt. I just think it's like everyone paying too much attention to it is just showing a fundamental misunderstanding of LinkedIn. I was recently, I was talking in Slovenia, I was the opening keynote, a LinkedIn conference. And I made a big point to say that, like, everyone is just thinking about LinkedIn incorrectly. And the reason I say that is because people think of LinkedIn as a social media platform.

And they think of it that way because it has all of the traits of a social media platform. So there's a feed where you see content. You can share content. You can repost. You can like. You can comment. All of those signal social media platform. But the actual reality is that it was built fundamentally as a networking platform.

They make money. them connecting you for the people you want to connect with. That's from a recruiting standpoint, and they have their recruiter platforms, which are incredibly expensive, by the way, to get in touch with the right candidates or a sales navigator to help you get in touch with the right leads. The platform is built to connect you to people.

And they have this massively high-value audience, and they have the tools and the availability to get in contact with them. That is why LinkedIn is a great marketing channel. It's not because you can post content on the platform. And thinking LinkedIn's biggest benefit is views, reach brand impressions is a fundamental misunderstanding of LinkedIn. And I say that as an agency, we generate seven million impressions a month for clients. So there's still a reach opportunity there. I'm just saying it's a fundamental misunderstanding of why you would come to the platform.

The platforms, we're getting seven million impressions across our portfolio. We don't necessarily care about increasing that to 10. All we care about is that we're able to get our clients in one of the right people. And that's the only thing that matters. I like it. It's interesting. First, when I saw it, I'd know if it was a joke and then I actually check, I was like, oh wow, it's actually true. I thought it was fake. I thought it was fake when I saw it as well. Me too. It was funny. Yeah. And as we are speaking about the recruiting, I know that you are now, or maybe we are hiring, like for your company. And basically, market is competitive and it's hard to find a job. So from your experience, I cannot imagine like how many applications you

went through. But what is your advice how to stand out from applications? Because I think now it's must be even harder, like with AI, because it's maybe faster and easier. So what would you advise from our experience to stand out, get no, get noticed, see what I did there. I like you did there. And just succeed, yeah. Yeah, 100%. So we had a thousand applicants for recent jobs.

We were hiring for four roles. One had 600. I think the other three had 100 plus. A massive amount of applicants, very, very tough to go through. And there's an issue there where platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn, they're trying to sell to companies online that you can. can get lots of applicants on the platform. So they make it as easy as possible,

as low friction as possible to apply for jobs. There's this thing on LinkedIn called Quick Apply, which is my most hated feature. And it means that people can just click Apply, and that's it. It just sends your CV and nothing else. So I don't get any information on whether you tried to do it or anything like that. And when I call candidates regularly,

if they quick applied, they literally will be like, hi, and I'd be like, it's now some notice. And they'll be like, oh, right. And I'll say,

why did you apply for this role? And they'll have like absolutely no idea what role it is. they've applied for a thousand. So the simple way to stand out if you're applying for a job in 2026. One is just simply connect with the hiring team or the leadership team at the company. Just send them a simple message on LinkedIn. So connect with them and just say, hi, currently applying for this role, really love what you're doing at the company, thought it was good to connect.

You're going to do anything crazy. All you're doing is just putting your name front of mind. If I'm going through 600 applicants, if I'm scrolling, and it's like, oh, actually, I think someone said that they messaged them. Let me have a look at them. Okay, great, yeah, worth an interview. The second thing is find the email of the hiring team or someone in the team and just email them, your CV, a little intro to yourself.

You can say simple things like, hi, just want to send you my CV over. I've recently applied for this role. Want to make sure you got it. And a little introduction to myself, I'm Nile, I work in X, Y, and Z. Just a really simple intro is all you need. It's not that hard. And then the last thing I would do is like, if you really want the role or you really want get in touch just showcasing whichever way you can that you want the role and that you are

interested in the company that could be a piece of content you post that could be you creating many website with like replete or lovable so easy nowadays one of the my favorite applicants for our content strategist role created a website where we talked through how we could have the biggest impact on our content team like not only did he show me that he was going above and beyond but i now have a clear understanding of the value you can provide and that's like a no-brainer let's interview them and for our Connect Strategist role in particular, the first thing I did was before I went through the 700 people who applied on LinkedIn or anything else, I went through my LinkedIn messages, I went through my emails to the hiring team, and we offered each one an interview.

Everyone who had the fit the, obviously fit the criteria, but everyone who messaged, everyone we were emailed for the first people to get set up with interviews, and then we worked for the rest of them. Such a simple few ways to stand out. I like it, yeah, and obviously such a big number, a big competition. So be creative and stand out and just be different and do the effort. And then, Neil, if we go big back, I think many people are or might be struggling how to find clients. So what will be your advice, how to find your first client? And if somebody is struggling in general, advice for clients in general.

Because I can imagine it's especially hard if you don't have any portfolio or like any testimonials from before. So what will be your advice on this? Okay. If you want to generate leads, especially through LinkedIn right now, at the simplest level, I'm trying to get my first client, I would just do this. One, I would post content three times a week, and I post content about what I'm doing to the people I want to work with. If I was an SEO agency that helped people get rankings in AI, LLMs, I would literally post content about how to rank in LLMs as a certain type of business. Boom, I'd post it three times a week. I'd just try and make it

as valuable as possible. I'd probably do out of the three posts, probably two on the value base, and one would be just sharing my story of like the things I'm learning, what I'm doing, who I am and that is it. I would then use a tool like juggler or Trigify or I could do it manually. I would go through everyone who engages on my content and anyone who's an ICP fit, I would connect with them and I would reach out with a really simple message that says like, hi, so are you engaging on my content around this topic? Is that something you're chatting about internally? Or I would create a document that's valuable. So a two-page doc on how you do it. Hi, so we've been engaged on this content. I've got a two-paid document that shows kind of how

we do it in more detail, while you again to be sending it over. Something really, really simple like that, I'd send it to anyone who engages who could be an ICP, an ideal customer profile. That's what I'd do simply. But if you're going larger scale and you want to get clients regularly, you have to understand that marketing is becoming a technical sport. And what I mean by that is marketing used to be a creative game. So it was all about like how creative you could get and how standout things could be. And there still is a massive amount of creativity in marketing, but more than anything, it's becoming a technical sport. What I mean by that, is it very much comes down to the data you can collect, how you harvest that data, how you use it,

and then how you action it in the campaigns. So at a large scale, I would start to do more interesting things. I could use a tool like jungler, and I can scrape my competitor's leads. So LinkedIn's a public database. So I can see every single person who's engaging on my competitor's key leadership teams, their CEOs, heads of sales, etc. I can also use engaging on their company page. I would use a tool like jungler, but you can do it manually as well. I would go through everyone who's engaging on my competitors and I would do the exact same thing. I would build out a clay table. I would map out what their problems might be and I'd personalised message to each, every one of them with Claude or whichever AI you want them to do it. Something in the lines that

it could be, hi, I saw you recently engage on some content on this topic and I know you guys are growing your headcount by 20% yo an year. Seems like stellar growth. I'm guessing lead generation is a massive thing you need right now off the SEO agency. I'm guessing getting ranked in MLMs is a massive talking point for you right now. internally, I have a two-page document that shows how we did it for this company that's similar to yours. Are you against me sending it over? And that is a winning formula from anyone from a 10-person company, up to a thousand-person company, 5,000 person company. It's all about finding your ICP, which are on LinkedIn if you're a B2B company, deep understanding their problems and what they're

one, and then simply offering them a low-comitment solution in a message. And that's exactly what we're doing right now. Well done. And well explained. You mentioned some of the clients that you worked with before, obviously impressive companies and clients. But do we have like a dream client someone that you would like to work with or some kind of reason? Good question. This sounds really boring, but I'd love to work with HubSpot. I say HubSpot because I massively respect the marketing they do and their marketing leadership team. They have Kip, who's their CMO, Kieran, who I think is their VP of Marketing. They have a podcast called Marketing Against the Great. It's fantastic. They're very, very intelligent marketers. I would love to work with them just because it'd be a real notch on our belt

of how good we are at what we do. And that would be a great chance to showcase that we are leaders in the industry. So while it's not a brand that I think like people would be popping champagne over, I think it'd be a massive achievement to be able to deliver our social support. Yeah, that sounds pretty cool. And then maybe similar question, but do you have like some kind of, let's say, inspiration or someone who's maybe in a similar field or similar position as you are and you look up to them. Yeah, great question. So if I turn my notifications off,

I can show you my screensaver on my phone. So if you look at the screensaver on my phone, there's an office space. It's got a slide in there. And that is the social chain, the old social chain office in Manchester. It's been a massive inspiration for my entire journey. Social chain was an agency that started by Stephen Bartlett and Don McGregor.

And the reason it's so inspiring for me is that they essentially were two lads who didn't have anything and attacked this new idea around social. media and they did it in Manchester where they couldn't in so many other places and they built not only a very successful agency, probably the most well-known agency at the time in the UK. And what that did was not just make them incredibly successful and lead to many other things, but it made everyone who worked at that agency successful as well. We joke about it that they have the social chain mafia. And what that means is that everyone who worked at social chain, especially in the early days,

went on to be successful because they had this stamp on their resume that said, I worked at Social Chain and every other agency said, that's interesting. We'd be curious to have a chat with you or they went and started their agency. You have Ash Jones, who now is one of the best personal branding advisors in the UK. Nick Crompton went out to walk with Jake Paul in the US. You've got Campfire started by two ex-social chain people and now one of the biggest social agencies in Manchester. They're just success after success after success that came out of that agency. And it's a massive inspiration for me. We got the pleasure to work with Dom as an advisor for many, many years since early on in the agency. And, we've just been very close to that journey and for me it's just like that's what i want like i want that i want that office i want that feeling and i want that impact for every single person who works with us and that's what we're trying to do well i'm happy to hear that and when you mention it i knew before that social chain was founded by stephen bartle but i didn't know the megregor then i saw on your website and then they clicked i was like wow this is pretty cool it's actually working so well done yeah yeah they did an awesome job and then you know just to be aware of time i want to ask you kind of lighter questions

by the end. So what are some of your hobbies or things that you like to do in your free time? Good question. I'm currently training for a half marathon. I've run a marathon before. I'm trying to get fast. My biggest peep in life is that I was born slow. I was born slow at football. I've been slow in life. I've been trying to get fast. About a year ago, I did a 20 minute 5k, which I thought was unachievable. Now I'm trying to do a hour and a half, 90 minute half marathon. To my current challenge. I go to the gym, I run. I'm a blue belt in jujitsu. But mainly, Why, you train Jiu-Jitsu? Oh, my God, I didn't know.

Oh, nice. How long do you've been training for Jiu-J-J-Z-Suh? Probably four or five years now. Started in America. Started in America. I've trained in Portugal for two years when I live there, now we're in the UK. But yeah, I love Jiu-Jitsu. I don't like getting punched in the face, but I like martial arts.

So I like Jiu-Sui is perfect for me. Do you prefer Ghi or Nogi? No-Ghi. Oh, no, yeah. But that's still impressive when I didn't know that. I always get choked. with the ghee. Like if I go against like a brown belt or purple belt, like they'll choke me with the ghee and I don't know what's happening. With no ghee, I feel like it evens the playing

feel it a little bit where like I can see the arm and feel it on. There's nothing worse than like trapped with a weird ghee choke. And like I'm sat there like I don't even know what was choking me. My own ghee was wrapped around my head. I hate that. I know. I was about to say that I haven't noticed if you have cauliflower ears because you have headphones otherwise. I would way you know. Oh dear. As you mentioned before a marathon, why didn't you join your brother

over there on, if I'm not mistaken, over the weekend? Morgan takes things to new levels. He's always had this ability to go like one step further with everything, especially in endurance in life. And for contact, he did four marathons in 24 hours on Sunday. Someone else who...

I had to double check like when I was reading it, if I read correctly or so. Yeah, literally it's just crazy stupid. A guy who finished. at the same time as him got rushed to hospital because his kidneys were failing because that much muscle breakdown when Morgan literally passed out, it was a mess.

So yeah, I wouldn't recommend that, but Morgan does do some crazy endurance events. I like to stick to races with a finish line and I like to stick to nothing above a marathon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, and obviously you do separate here about judic. Also, question with jujitsu, do also compete? No, Morgan does regularly.

I don't, I think I'm a bit too soft. Morgan actually, he won two or three tournaments from where in Portugal, but I've never competed. Yeah, it's something that I wish I would have done while I was in Portugal. Now I'm always a little bit worried that, like, I will get injured. Yeah, it's probably something that's on my, the back of my mind is like something that I've like, I would like pussyed out of. Like I've always avoided, which I probably should do at some point, but realistically,

I can't lie to you. It's not happening anytime soon. No, I understand. Maybe in the future. And then Neil, do you read books? And if so, have you got any recommendations? Great question. There's a couple of, so I got into, I've read my whole life, like, since we started the business.

But I spent a lot of time reading, like, business books. And over the last few years, I've learned that I learned more lessons from biographies or nonfiction stories of historic achievements than I do from actual business, actionable advice. So some simple ones I'd recommend is, first of all, Obvious Adams. Obvious Adams is one of the thinest books I've ever read. It's literally like maybe 100 pages. But it's a great book about this advertising executive or just obvious things. It's just a great reminder that good decisions are much simpler than you think. Oftentimes the best decisions are the simplest ones and oftentimes we can't overcomplicate it.

So I love that book. Sam Walton's autobiography, he has the founder of Walmart. He has this amazing book where he talked for his entire journey. There were some really key insights that I took away from it on how he did things. And actually, there was a few meetings that he held that I've now introduced into our company as well, which I think were great. Yeah, I always recommend biographies over actionable business books. Like I've read so many like traction and Daniel Priest's 24 assets. Oftentimes I find those books.

You think you're learning a lot and then you actually don't do very much. But I find it much easier, at least personally, to embody how a person acts. And then I naturally make better decisions. I can relate to it. And I like the first book recommend because I've never heard of it. So I will have a look. And I relate to what you said because it also shows you that those people, they went through struggles as well.

they are super successful and everything. And then you hear that it's been, I don't know, very hard, even failures. And I don't know what else. So it again shows you that after a lot of people as well. Yeah, 100%. I love that. There's so many different autobiographies. But yeah, autobiographies is a way to go, I think.

Then, Neil, do you have any, let's say, goals or ambitions in upcoming, I don't know, weeks or months and you'll be willing to share it us and with the audience to be excited about? This is a great question. Do you know, I used to really want to have a hundred thousand. thousand followers on LinkedIn. And over the last probably 12 months, that goal is just completely not something I'm interested in at all. Like, I'm purely interested in how we can drive the company forward. We did a million in sales through LinkedIn this year. I would like to make that like 10 million a year. That's a massive goal. But I really want to showcase the potential the platform has.

And there's no better way to showcase it than us showing the success that we're having using it as our core marketing channel. We're our best case study, technically speaking. for our best case study and I get to take so much confidence in knowing that every client that comes on the service we provide is our own marketing strategy that we use for ourselves and if they've come and got in contact with us it's because of the marketing we're doing for ourselves and that's exactly what we'll do for them I like it and I would say just for the context you mentioned 100k but still you have 60k which is impressive anyway yeah yeah 60k is okay but 100k would have been nice I should I should have gone for it last year I'm sure you'll

hit it anyway. And then can you please summarize where people can find you, follow you and promote any of your services? Yeah, 100%. So now, Rackcliffe on LinkedIn, LinkedIn is the only channel. I'm starting to post on YouTube a little bit more this year. So you can find me at now Rackleff on YouTube as well. And then notice.com is the website. So take out, look at what we do and try to get in contact, you can get in contact through the website there. Out of curiosity, who came up with the name noticed? Me in the shower. It was interesting. At the time, we really called the business Ratcliffe brothers and it was Don McGregor from social chain who we sat down for our first advisory

session with him and we explained the whole business the brand the service the augustructure everything he sat there and he kind of paused for a second and we were like what is going on here and he went boys the brand way off and we were like what do you mean the brand's way off like it's our name like it can't be way off it's way off it's never going to work it's never going to take it that far with that brand and we said right and he said take seven days and come back to me with a new name so for the seven days we were trying to figure out a new name for our company and we had the team of maybe 15 at the time so it was felt like quite a big decision so we were going through the alphabet like a a ab and we were trying to think of an outcome so like we had ideas like last impression or impression

and we're trying to find it and I was in the shower and I was literally going through the alphabet B B B C C C E I was going through it and I got to end and I said no notice notice I said noticed actually I jumped out of the shower I wrapped a towel

I ran downstairs and I was like most check the domain noticed so we typed in we went notice dot com and it was on sale for 140,000 pounds

and we said we can't be noticed dot com so then we went notice dot co and it was there I think it's still like 600 pounds and we said like

it was a big ticket and we were like buy that right now that's going to be the names. We bought it. We trademarked the name and the rest is history. I was going to say that I like it because it's one word. It's simple, but at the same time, it's kind of unique and it just turns out so it's a good one. It couldn't have turned out better and I have no idea what we would have called ourselves, if not this, and it fits so well and I love it.

Yeah, yeah. So then Neil, very last question. Is there anything I should have asked you and did not or any final message to leave the audience with? The last message for anyone is that if you run a business, the number one marketing channel you should be looking at right now or thinking about or considering is LinkedIn. And if you don't run a business, probably the biggest impact you can have on your career right now is obsessing more of a LinkedIn. It has the highest quality audience and the easiest way to get in contact with them. There's not another place on the planet where you can get in touch with CMO, COs so easy. Last thing I will actually say, which I forgot to mention earlier, is on LinkedIn you have a connection feature, which means I can take less. at a CMO of Amazon, and I can hit connect, and when I connect with them, they get to see my content,

I can see them, and we can message each other. If any other platform had that feature, it would be worth thousands. In fact, if LinkedIn took it away, I would pay thousands for it. I imagine if I could go to YouTube, and I could go to Logan Paul, and I could click Connect, and he would then see my videos. It would be priceless. I could add people into my network. If I went to Instagram and I could literally go on to someone that I want to see my content, click on them, and they would then see my content. Again, this would be worth thousands of thousands of pounds a month. It's completely free on LinkedIn.

And just understanding that, I think, is a massive thing to leave everyone with. It's a great point. And I agree. Sometimes I forget about it as well. So it's a great reminder. And it's a great point to finish with. Neil want to say a big thank you, obviously, for a time. It was also great to meet you and listen to your story.

You achieved a lot. It was inspiration for me. And just thank you for joining me. I will be following and supporting and wishing you all the best on your journey. So thank you very much. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. I felt you had a great shout.

Thanks for listening to Produce By with Tomen. Check the show notes for all the links. And don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon.