James Mitra’s 40 Minute Mentor podcast racks up 500,000 downloads

Founder of recruitment company JBM, James Mitra launched the podcast to add value for clients and networks.

The company was set up 10 years ago by James, who was frustrated with the recruitment industry, which he felt was too transactional.

His focus is on relationships, so he set out to create a business with strong values and a mantra of ‘disrupting the transactional recruitment industry’.

Over the last decade JBM has developed organically, now working with founders of, and investors in, high grade start-ups.

It’s a lean, entrepreneurial and creative business, always trying to think differently about how to add value and this is where the idea of the 40 Minute Mentor podcast came from.

James says: “We felt very privileged to speak every day to these incredible founders who are building companies that are genuinely disrupting industries and changing the world, so why don’t we open up those conversations to our audience.”

The mission was to create a podcast that provides mentorship from individuals who most people would never get the opportunity to be in a room with, and to be able to spread that mentorship at scale.

“It was also a great way to demonstrate JBM’s authentic voice,” says James. “A lot of recruiters talk a good game, but we believe we’re different and the best way to show that is with people seeing the types of people we work with, hearing the way we think about things and talking about topics like diversity, inclusion, mental health and dealing with anxiety.

“And then raising aspirations, a big part of what we do is inspire the next generation of leaders. A lot of that is sharing the stories – not just the unicorn fluffy nice stuff, but really digging into the challenges to overcome, the grind of entrepreneurial life, the stuff that people don’t always talk about.”

When the podcast was first launched, the company leveraged the networks it already had. This was also a good opportunity for clients to raise their personal brands and company profiles, to get their message to a captive audience of relevant people.

“In the early days I just got a builders bag with a bunch of kit, and we’d go round to people’s offices and interview them and then we’d begin to share it,” James explains. “It wasn’t meant to be a money-spinning thing; it was a side hustle for a good few years and just a way for us to create really high quality content.”

When the pandemic hit everything went remote so there was more time to invest into the podcast. James says they noticed the ripple effect it was having on making a big impact.

“We were starting to win clients from it and also getting wider brand recognition,” he recalled. “We were also seeing a real impact it was having on peoples’ lives from an inspiring and educational perspective.”

This is when things really began to take off and so the company employed a Head of Marketing and partnered with podcast production company, Mags Creative to make the podcast more professional and expose it to a wider audience. It didn’t take long for downloads to increase from a few thousand to half a million, making it one of the leading entrepreneurship and career podcasts.

The core audience of 40 Minute Mentor is a combination of the candidates the company works with: “Individuals from tech startups, investors, HR leaders, people leaders and COO’s,” James explains. “We do a lot of COO recruitment and search, younger talent from tech companies who want to move up their careers – any aspirational young person I guess,” he adds.

The podcast has a diverse, global audience from over 50 countries, with 55% being female, 26% are 23 – 27 years old and 31% are in the 28 – 34-year-old demographic.

James is aware that a lot of business podcasts aren’t the most diverse, he says they have been very deliberate in making sure there’s a 50/50 gender split with their guests. He also says that around 34% series to series have been black or ethnic minority guests to really showcase a diverse representation of society.

“As a result, I think our audience is diverse because of that, and something we’re keen to continue because we think it’s really important,” he says.

There hasn’t been a temptation to go down the showbiz celebrity route because it isn’t really what the podcast is about. It has featured some very high-profile businesspeople, plus the likes of Olympic athlete Jess Ennis-Hill, World Cup winning rugby coach Clive Woodward and some politicians.

“The main purpose is to inspire, and given the audience, a lot of it is about providing actionable business mentorship,” says James.

He adds that they are currently talking to an actor who may appear on the podcast, but that’s because it hasn’t featured a career path for actors yet.

As 40 Minute Mentor grows, there have been more opportunities. They were asked to host a live recording of the podcast at the Sifted Summit, one of the biggest tech conferences in Europe, where they talked about purpose over profit.

They also did a live podcast at the Podcast Show, which James says, was a bit daunting for him, with Louis Theroux on the main stage, but at the same time great to be asked to talk about something they are passionate about.

“It’s been lovely to be asked to do those type of things,” says James. “And I think the vanity metrics are lovely, we’re proud to be getting 30 – 40 thousand downloads a month, having grown the listenership considerably in the last couple of years, but we are more interested in the impact we can have.”

The feedback they get about the positive impact on people’s lives and careers the podcast has, is most important because that’s what they set out to do with it. For James, the most fulfilling aspect is the ripple effect and the referrals from guest to guest, plus being able to keep the bar high when it comes to guests.

He adds that now it’s revenue generating, that helps, because running a podcast is expensive. Getting sponsors and winning clients off the back of it provides a good ROI, making it even more worthwhile.

40 Minute Mentor has been a very positive experience for James, which he says has been a bit like a mini-MBA, handpicking some of the best leaders in his industry and hearing their stories and learning from their mistakes.

It’s also led to some clients becoming good friends with him: “Selfishly, as someone who wasn’t that experienced when I set up my business and kind of blagging it as I go, it’s been hugely valuable. That’s probably the thing I’m most grateful for,” he admits.

As for the future, there are plans to do more live shows, although James joked that they won’t be selling out the Apollo any time soon, but they will continue with intimate live shows.

They intend to keep growing their ambassadors, more people want to be involved in the podcast and help to promote it.

“We don’t just want sponsors, we want partners where we can co-create amazing content to have even more impact and reach bigger audiences, so we’re always on the lookout for that,” says James.

He adds that there are ongoing conversations with “exciting” businesses, and they intend to be bigger and bolder to keep creating that amazing content!