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The Grown UP Business Podcast

The Grown UP Business Podcast

By: Paul Avins
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The Grown Up Business Podcast is a scale-up podcast for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs who want proven strategies for scaling a business sustainably and building companies that work without them. Hosted by Paul Avins, Business Transformation Expert, this podcast draws on over 21 years of coaching experience, supporting 20,000+ entrepreneurs and helping facilitate £150m+ in business exits. Each episode Paul shares practical insights, disciplined leadership thinking, and real-world scale-up frameworks to help founder and CEOs find new levels of personal and professional performance. On the podcast, you’ll hear: Expert Interviews Candid conversations with successful founders, CEOs, investors, and subject-matter experts covering leadership, scaling, funding, operations, exits, wellbeing and personal development. Actionable Scale-Up Strategies Clear, practical frameworks built around Paul’s four pillars: Level UP (founder mindset and CEO identity) Team UP (building high-performing leadership teams) Scale UP (sales, systems, and operational discipline) Fire UP (harness the power and energy of mind, body, spirit connect) Real Business Stories Proven strategies and hard-won lessons from leaders who have scaled businesses, failed and rebuilt, in the real world — with clarity, structure, and purpose. This CEO podcast is for you if you want to: - Scale a founder-led business beyond day-to-day dependency - Build a high-performing leadership team - Create a scalable and sellable business - Move from operator to confident scale-up CEO - Invest in your self and your personal development You’ll learn how to scale a business without chaos, implement systems that support sustainable growth, and build a company that delivers results, with or without you at the centre. A sellable business is also a great business to run. The Grown Up Business Podcast shows you how to build both. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your favourite platform and join thousands of ambitious founders already scaling with Paul and Team Purple. Level UP. Team UP. Scale UP. Fire UPCopyright 2025 Paul Avins Economics Leadership Management Management & Leadership Marketing Marketing & Sales
Episodes
  • Shop Floor to $100m: How An Elite Sports Performance Mindset Transforms Teams - Kevin Mark-Watts

    Shop Floor to $100m: How An Elite Sports Performance Mindset Transforms Teams - Kevin Mark-Watts
    Aug 21 2026
    What if the difference between a business that stalls and one that scales past $100M isn't talent or budget, but whether you build your team the way elite sports teams build theirs? In this episode, Paul Avins sits down with Kevin Mark-Watts, author of The 10 Ten-Minute Rules, a specialist in peak performance, and a leader with over 30 years across retail, HR, and commercial leadership, including seven years as Commercial Director of Crystal Palace Football Club. His work has been published in CEO World, and his framework takes the principles of elite sports performance science and applies them directly to business. Kevin's own story starts a long way from boardrooms. Dropped from his school football team as a ten-year-old for a cheeky comment to his coach, he spiralled into failing his exams and left college before finishing his A-levels. A retail job selling made-to-measure suits changed everything: within weeks he'd found he was a natural salesman, and by his early twenties he was running stores, then managing areas, then leading HR for a 700-store, 7,000-employee retail chain. A redundancy led him to Simon Jordan's fast-growing mobile phone business, which scaled past $300M in turnover, and from there into Crystal Palace, where he helped run the club through promotion, relegation, and one of English football's more chaotic dressing rooms. Paul and Kevin get into the moment a Crystal Palace manager assaulted a player, refused to admit the mistake, and lost the entire dressing room within weeks. They talk about the ProZone data system that helped get Palace promoted through marginal gains most clubs weren't tracking yet. Kevin explains the $400K ceiling he hit as an entrepreneur, why second and third generation hires are rarely as invested as the founding team, and why only 7% of businesses ever break past the $1M mark. He also makes the case for treating founders like athletes: pre-season kickoffs, recovery, and reinvesting 10% of income back into yourself. What you'll learn: Why a school coach dropping him at ten years old shaped how Kevin leads teams today. How a redundancy from a corporate HR role led to running a $300M mobile phone business. The Crystal Palace story: a manager who assaulted a player, never admitted the mistake, and lost the dressing room within weeks. Why leaders must get their key influencers on side before they can fix a culture problem. How ProZone's match data and marginal gains helped get Crystal Palace promoted. Why he built a "seat avatar" to track whether the right people are in the right seats as a business grows. Why the team that gets you promoted isn't always the team that keeps you there. Why he hit a $400K ceiling, and how second and third generation hires are rarely as invested as the founders. Why only 7% of businesses ever break past the $1M mark. Why meeting rhythms have to change as a team grows past five or six people. Why he treats entrepreneurship as a full contact sport, with no off-season unless you build one in. Why he spends 10% of what he earns on his own personal development. Why he's proud of being made redundant twice, because it proved his teams were self-sufficient. His definition of a grown-up business: when the person at the end of the chain talks about your values as passionately as you do. Apply this: Get your key influencers on side before trying to fix a culture problem, they carry your message further than you can alone. Track the data on your team the way elite sports teams do, not just how people feel about their performance. Reassess whether the people who got you to your last milestone are the right people for your next one. Build a pre-season into your year, a kickoff, a half-year review, don't assume a team performs at full speed from day one. Put 10% of what you earn back into your own development. Have the uncomfortable conversation and admit the mistake before it costs you your best people. About Kevin Mark-Watts Kevin is the author of The 10 Ten-Minute Rules and a specialist in applying elite sports performance science to business teams. With over 30 years across retail, HR, and commercial leadership, including seven years as commercial director of Crystal Palace Football Club, his work has been featured in CEO World magazine. He now works as a coach and advisor to founders and leadership teams building high-performing cultures. Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-mark-watts-13123822/ Scale with Paul Avins If this episode resonated, Paul's work focuses on helping founders step out of the day to day and scale with structure and confidence. Connect with Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulavins/ Book a call with Paul: https://www.paulavins.com/book-a-call Subscribe to the Scale Up Newsletter: https://www.paulavins.com/newsletter-opt-in Level Up. Team Up. Scale Up. Fire Up.
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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Stop Hustling, Start Leading: The Psychology Behind Scaling Beyond $10M - Deborah Henley

    Stop Hustling, Start Leading: The Psychology Behind Scaling Beyond $10M - Deborah Henley
    Aug 7 2026
    Why does the same approach that got you to $5m stop working past $10m? Because at that point the constraint isn't the business anymore. It's you. In this episode, Paul Avins sits down with Deborah Henley, author of Your Leadership Story (a finalist in the Business Book Awards), creator of the REAL leadership model, and an executive coach who has spent years working with leaders at Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and the Ministry of Defence. Deborah and Paul dig into the real difference between management and leadership: management keeps the wheels turning, leadership gives people something to believe in. She talks about why growth is about what you do, but scaling past a ceiling is about who you are, and why so many founders hit an $18-20m plateau and go looking for a new strategy when what they actually need is to become a different kind of leader. Deborah also shares her own story. An idyllic childhood in Hong Kong that ended abruptly when her parents split up when she was 11. Eight schools and three boarding houses by the time she was 18. A stint as a clapper loader on Sofia Coppola's first film before she trained as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist and spent years working in addiction recovery. She talks openly about a late miscarriage that stopped her sense of the future in its tracks, the mantra "presence in the present" that carried her through it, and the moment her husband finally believed she'd written a book, because he didn't quite trust it until he was holding it. Paul and Deborah talk about the difference between intention and expectation, why founders need everyone pulling in the same direction (what Deborah calls aligned ambition), why hustle culture is really a dopamine addiction, and why the people you spend the most time with shape your habits and your ceiling more than any strategy will. What you'll learn: The real difference between management and leadership, and why one keeps you small. Why growth is about what you do, but scaling past a ceiling is about who you are. Deborah's REAL leadership model: Results, Emotional intelligence, Authenticity, Legacy. Why intention and expectation aren't the same, and how closing the gap predicts whether you'll hit your goals. How releasing your bottom 20% of clients can 4x revenue by creating space for better ones. Why hustle culture is a dopamine addiction, and why letting go of tactical wins is the hardest part of scaling. Why most businesses stall when the founder stops investing in their own growth, not when the market turns. How growing up across eight schools shaped Deborah's adaptability, and where adapting tips into losing yourself. Why she trained as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist and spent years working in addiction recovery. Why the five people you spend the most time with define your results more than any strategy. Why retreats accelerate growth: nature, community, distance from your usual stories, and dropping the armour. Why leaders should ask "who needs me to show up as my best self today?" every morning. Why authenticity, not perfection, is what makes a leader trustworthy. Why the leaders who stand out now are the ones willing to be real, in a world that's getting more automated by the day. Apply this: Ask what result you intend and expect for the day, not just what you're hoping for. Build a leadership team before you hit $10-15m, not after. Audit your bottom 20% of clients and create space for better ones to show up. Have the uncomfortable conversation now, you're usually only a few of them away from a lighter business. Spend deliberate time around people playing a bigger game than you. Get comfortable being present instead of chasing the next dopamine hit. Choose your own game, scale and exit or build and lifestyle, and stop measuring yourself against people playing a different one. About Deborah Henley Deborah Henley is a leadership and executive coach, author of Your Leadership Story (a Business Book Awards finalist), and creator of the Real Leadership Program and the REAL leadership model. She has coached senior leaders at Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, and the Ministry of Defence, and draws on more than 20 years across clinical psychology, hypnotherapy, and NLP. She also hosts the podcast Perfectly Flawed. Connect with Deborah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-henley/ Scale with Paul Avins If this episode resonated, Paul's work focuses on helping founders step out of the day to day and scale with structure and confidence. Connect with Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulavins/ Book a call with Paul: https://www.paulavins.com/book-a-call Subscribe to the Scale Up Newsletter: https://www.paulavins.com/newsletter-opt-in Level Up. Team Up. Scale Up. Fire Up.
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    1 hr and 45 mins
  • Scale Sales with YouTube Ads in 90 Days (Without Wasting Budget)

    Scale Sales with YouTube Ads in 90 Days (Without Wasting Budget)
    Jun 20 2026
    What if the secret to scaling your sales in the next 90 days isn't working harder or hiring more salespeople, but mastering one platform most business owners completely overlook? In this episode of The Grown UP Business Podcast, Paul Avins sits down with Tom Breeze, founder and CEO of Viewability, a specialist video advertising agency that has managed multi million pound ad budgets for brands like HelloFresh, Mindvalley, ClickFunnels, and Performance Golf. Tom has spent over 13 years running YouTube ads, managing spends of up to £100,000 a day, and has just written the definitive guide to YouTube advertising. This conversation goes deep into why YouTube is the highest quality traffic source available, how the advertising landscape has completely changed in the last three years, and why creative is now 80% of your success. Paul and Tom unpack the psychology behind high performing ads, the five A framework that makes advertising work on any platform, why most entrepreneurs waste budget by skipping the fundamentals, and how to get started with as little as $5 a day. Tom explains why video is no longer optional if you want to scale, how to engineer spontaneity in your content, the difference between YouTube and Meta advertising, and why most agencies get it completely wrong. If you want to scale sales predictably, reduce your cost per acquisition, and build a marketing engine that works without you, this episode is essential. What you'll learn: • Why YouTube delivers the highest quality leads of any advertising platform • How Tom went from helping people overcome fear of public speaking to running a multi million pound ad agency • Why Google AdWords with a £30 voucher changed the trajectory of his first business • The five A framework: Aims, Acquisition, Account, Audience, and Ads • How the algorithm has shifted from manual control to AI driven placement and what that means for advertisers • Why ads with whiteboards, flip charts, or visual demonstrations massively outperform talking head videos • How video disqualifies bad leads and attracts only high intent buyers • How to get started with YouTube ads for as little as $5 a day using in feed video ads • Why you need five conversions a day in your ad account for the algorithm to learn effectively • How to target by postcode, audience behavior, and interest without over narrowing your reach • The difference between YouTube and Meta advertising and why platform specific expertise matters • How video collapses the sales cycle and reduces the skill level required from your sales team • Why most businesses fail at ads because they skip the financial modeling and customer journey mapping • How to test small, learn fast, refine, and scale without breaking the bank • Why the first video you create will suck and why that's actually good news • How to use the circle of excellence technique from NLP to mentally prepare before going on camera • Why authenticity and spontaneity in ads outperform polished scripted content every time Apply this: Map out your customer acquisition model on paper before you spend a single pound on ads. Know your cost per lead, cost per show, cost per sale, and lifetime value. Start with $5 a day running in feed video ads on YouTube targeting a specific audience with one piece of content you already have. Test the waters without breaking the bank. Create a pen and paper style ad where you diagram out your framework or solution on camera in a spontaneous authentic way. Film it handheld or with minimal production and test it. Upload your customer email list to your YouTube ad account to help the algorithm learn who your ideal buyers are and build lookalike audiences. About Tom Breeze Tom Breeze is the founder and CEO of Viewability, a specialist video advertising agency focused on YouTube and Meta. He has managed multi million pound ad budgets for brands including HelloFresh, Mindvalley, ClickFunnels, vShred, and Performance Golf, with ad spends of up to £100,000 a day on YouTube. Tom has over 13 years of experience in video advertising and has worked with major training platforms like Google and Digital Marketer. He is the author of the definitive guide to YouTube ads and helps entrepreneurs and business owners scale sales predictably using video advertising. Connect with Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tombreeze/ Visit Viewability: https://www.viewability.co.uk Get the book on Amazon: Search for Tom Breeze YouTube Ads Scale with Paul Avins If this episode resonated, Paul's work focuses on helping founders step out of the day to day and scale with structure and confidence. Connect with Paul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulavins/ Book a call with Paul: https://www.paulavins.com/book-a-call Subscribe to the Scale Up Newsletter: https://www.paulavins.com/newsletter-opt-in Level Up. Team Up. Scale Up. Fire Up.
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    1 hr and 46 mins
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Loved the conversations with amazing speakers - great things you can apply in your business as it grows, about recruitment, your past and present etc

Awesome learnings from a range of speakers !

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