The Growth Diary

Scailr
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship

Keith Atkinson is an entrepreneur and growth partner, working across business strategy, technology, and automation. He is the founder of Scailr, an AI and automation agency helping growth-focused businesses remove bottlenecks, improve marketing performance, and scale more efficiently. Before business, Keith was an international athlete in windsurfing and a BBC award winner, (15x British Champion / 4th World Ranking/ 2x Vice World Champion) ... experiences that shaped his approach to discipline, resilience, and performance under pressure. He created The Growth Diary to share the unfiltered pages of real growth journeys, conversations with founders, operators, and business owners navigating ambition, uncertainty, pressure, and progress in real time. Each episode explores what it actually takes to grow a business: the decisions behind the scenes, the mistakes, the lessons learned the hard way, and the thinking that shapes long-term success. The Growth Diary is not about polished success stories. It’s about clarity, perspective, and learning in public. This is your corner of the internet to think openly, build intentionally, and understand growth from the inside out. Follow Scailr: Website: https://scailr.agency YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=591fcedda2934743 Connect with Keith: Keith's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atkinsonkeith

  1. Jul 14

    The Blueprint Nobody Teaches: How One Woman Built a Premium Construction Empire on Reputation Alone

    Claudia Hearne studied English linguistics, worked in PR, and had no plans whatsoever to go into construction. Then a family tragedy changed everything. She went to work for her parents, spent five years learning the business from the ground up, and in 2018 walked away to start something entirely her own. Hearne House now delivers high-end residential renovations across London, from Grade II listed apartments in Bayswater to full house renovations in Islington and Clapham. No advertising. No lead generation. No cold outreach. Just word of mouth, exceptional work and a reputation that does all the talking. In this episode, Claudia shares: Why a family tragedy became the unexpected catalyst for a career she never plannedHow she and her husband Nick built Hearne House from a kitchen table with two laptops and two phonesWhy fewer projects and a smaller geography has meant a bigger and better businessWhat it is actually like being a woman in one of the most male dominated industries on earthHow she uses renders, CAD and AI to bring design to life before a single wall goes upWhy she ended up on Good Morning Britain debating banter and how a TV career followed from nowhereThis is a conversation about backing yourself when there is no safety net, building something premium through integrity rather than marketing spend, and why being fifth generation in a trade gives you a perspective that simply cannot be taught. If you work in construction, design or property, or are building a service business purely on trust and reputation, this one is for you. Connect with Claudia Hearne: 🌐 www.hearnehouse.co.uk 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiahearne/ About The Growth Diary After a career as a professional windsurfer on the World Tour, Keith Atkinson has spent over a decade building and scaling businesses across property, technology, and marketing. Through The Growth Diary, I'm on a mission to spotlight the real stories behind successful business growth, what works, what doesn't, and how leaders stay sharp while building something remarkable. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=b32ae294d09c4b1c 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1865496376

  2. Jun 25

    60 Years Inside Construction and rewrote the rulebook - with Richard Saxon

    Richard Saxon CBE spent nearly 40 years at BDP, one of the world's leading interdisciplinary design practices, eventually becoming its chairman. Then he spent the next two decades trying to drag an entire industry into the digital age, whether it wanted to come or not. He was the UK Government's BIM Ambassador for Growth, helped mandate building information modelling across public sector construction, persuaded the EU to follow the UK's lead, chaired the Joint Contracts Tribunal, and has written multiple books that have shaped how the built environment thinks about information, data and the future of construction. He now consults through Deploi. In this episode, Richard shares: What it took to persuade government to mandate digital working across public sector constructionWhy Grenfell became an unexpected accelerant for information management across the entire industryThe real cost of construction errors, why 20% of all project spend goes on fixing mistakes, and how AI is beginning to close that gapWhy building owners remain the biggest bottleneck and nobody has ever simply asked them what they actually needWhere AI genuinely transforms construction and where the hype is running well ahead of realityWhat the built environment looks like in ten years if the industry rises to the challenge, and what it looks like if it carries on as before This is a conversation with someone who has 60 years of pattern recognition on one of the most important industries in the world, an industry so large it is effectively invisible. If you work in construction, architecture, property or technology, or are simply curious about why the built environment still operates the way it does, this one is essential listening. 🔗 Connect with Richard Saxon: 🌐 www.saxoncbe.com 🌐 www.deploi.co.uk 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-saxon-433a694 About The Growth Diary After a career as a professional windsurfer on the World Tour, I've spent over a decade building and scaling businesses across property, technology, and marketing. Through The Growth Diary, I'm on a mission to spotlight the real stories behind successful business growth, what works, what doesn't, and how leaders stay sharp while building something remarkable. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=b32ae294d09c4b1c 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1865496376

  3. Jun 10

    Made Redundant With Two Kids at Home — So He Built a Thriving Estate Agency From Scratch

    It was 2010. The worst recession since the Second World War. Tom Williams had just been made redundant, had two young children at home and had just spent six figures on a house extension. He had no backing, no investment and no safety net. So he built an office in his back garden, leaflet dropped 8,000 homes, and started Find A Home Online before most people had even heard of the online agency model. Four years before Purple Bricks existed. Sixteen years later he is still going strong, still doing it his own way, and still saving home sellers thousands of pounds in the process. In this episode, Tom shares: Why being made redundant in the depths of a recession was the push he needed to go out aloneHow he spotted the online agency model before it became mainstream and built on it before the big players arrivedWhy he still believes upfront pricing works and what the national online agents got wrongWhat the Renters Rights Act is actually doing to landlords, tenants and agents on the groundHow he is using AI in the business and why he is careful about where it stops and human judgement beginsWhere he wants to take the business next and why the franchise model is firmly on his radar This is a conversation about backing yourself when everything is stacked against you, building something that lasts in one of the most disrupted industries in the country, and knowing when it is time to go again. If you are in property, thinking about buying or selling, or just want to hear from someone who has been doing it honestly for 16 years, this one is for you. Connect with Tom Williams: 🌐 www.findahomeonline.co.uk 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/findahome-online-estate-letting-agents About The Growth Diary After a career as a professional windsurfer on the World Tour, I've spent over a decade building and scaling businesses across property, technology, and marketing. Through The Growth Diary, I'm on a mission to spotlight the real stories behind successful business growth, what works, what doesn't, and how leaders stay sharp while building something remarkable. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=b32ae294d09c4b1c 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1865496376

  4. Jun 9

    The Hospitality Industry Is in a Perfect Storm — And Most Venues Still Don't Know It

    Barry Clark has spent nearly 40 years in hospitality. He has walked into distressed properties, turned them around, rebuilt sales cultures from scratch, and watched the industry stumble through crisis after crisis. He has seen what kills a venue from the inside and he is not shy about saying it out loud. Today he runs Events Plus, an outsourced corporate sales service connecting hotels, conference centres and sports stadiums with the agency buyers and corporate bookers they simply cannot access on their own. He also runs a consultancy helping venues build the sales culture they should have had all along. In this episode, Barry shares: What a distressed property actually looks, feels and smells like the moment you walk through the doorWhy the belief that if you build it they will come is quietly destroying venues across the UKThe dangerous gap between working in a business and working on it, and why most owners never bridge itWhy hospitality is in the toughest trading environment he has ever seen, worse than 2008The real cost of employing someone in 2026 and what it is doing to the mid-marketWhere AI genuinely belongs in the sales process and exactly where human beings still have to take over This is a conversation about uncomfortable truths, the state of an industry that is trying to pretend nothing has changed, and what it actually takes to build a sales culture that survives the pressure. If you work in hospitality, events or venues, or are running a service business in one of the toughest markets in a generation, this one is essential listening. Connect with Barry Clark: 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryclarkmih 🔗 Events Plus: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eventsplusvenuesales About The Growth Diary After a career as a professional windsurfer on the World Tour, I've spent over a decade building and scaling businesses across property, technology, and marketing. Through The Growth Diary, I'm on a mission to spotlight the real stories behind successful business growth, what works, what doesn't, and how leaders stay sharp while building something remarkable. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=b32ae294d09c4b1c 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1865496376

  5. Jun 8

    He Saw How the Property Industry Really Works — Then Built Something at the Complete Opposite End

    Lucas James spent years on the inside of the off-plan property sector. He saw how advice was shaped, not by what was best for the investor, but by what could be packaged, financed and sold at volume. He saw incentive structures quietly guiding recommendations. And he saw portfolios that looked fine on paper but were structurally stalling their owners year after year. So he walked away and built something different. Lucas now helps investors design portfolios that function as capital engines, not just collections of properties, where every asset has a job, capital moves with purpose, and the next move is always built into the structure of the last one. In this episode, Lucas shares: Why the advice gap in property investment is structural, not personalWhat the quiet stall is, why so many portfolios suffer from it, and why nobody notices until it's too lateWhy yield is not a strategy and what questions investors should actually be askingHow expected value thinking changes every property decision before a single asset is selectedWhy most investors inherit their buying criteria from the wrong placesWhat capital architecture actually means and why it is fundamentally different to just owning properties This is a conversation about thinking clearly before you buy, understanding the system behind the opportunity, and building a portfolio that creates its own momentum rather than quietly consuming it. If you invest in property, are thinking about starting, or are wondering why your portfolio feels stuck despite doing everything right, this one is essential listening. Connect with Lucas James: 🌐 www.lucasjames.co.uk 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/company/lucas-james-property-advisors About The Growth Diary After a career as a professional windsurfer on the World Tour, I've spent over a decade building and scaling businesses across property, technology, and marketing. Through The Growth Diary, I'm on a mission to spotlight the real stories behind successful business growth, what works, what doesn't, and how leaders stay sharp while building something remarkable. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=b32ae294d09c4b1c 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1865496376

  6. Jun 4

    He Taught AI at University, Then Built a Property Empire From Scratch

    Nasser Abouzakhar spent years in academia teaching AI and cybersecurity, writing research papers, supervising students and publishing books. It was intellectually rewarding. It just wasn't enough. So he started buying properties on the side. Then more. Then moved his entire family from Watford to Manchester to be closer to the business. He went on to win AI Champion of the Year and appeared on TV show; Homes Under the Hammer. Then completed a government-funded AI project with Salford University to help property developers convert commercial buildings into residential units using generative AI. Today he runs Anzar Property Group, a deliberately focused Manchester-only, families-only buy to let portfolio, built on a simple but disciplined model of buying, renovating, tenanting and refinancing. In this episode, Nasser shares: Why a stable academic career was not enough and what made him go all in on propertyThe buy to let model he has refined over nearly two decades and why he has never strayed from itWhat Homes Under the Hammer did for his profile and what it accidentally did to auction room competitionHow his AI background is now being applied directly to property development and conversionWhy he believes family business models have a unique advantage and a unique tensionWhat the next chapter looks like as commercial to residential conversion moves centre stage This is a conversation about intellectual curiosity meeting entrepreneurial ambition, and what happens when someone who genuinely understands AI decides to build a property business around it. If you are in property, interested in where AI is actually going in the real estate world, or building a business around deep specialist knowledge, this one is for you. 🔗 Connect with Nasser Abouzakhar: 🌐 www.anzar.co.uk 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/nasser-abouzakhar-64878a60 About The Growth Diary After a career as a professional windsurfer on the World Tour, I've spent over a decade building and scaling businesses across property, technology, and marketing. Through The Growth Diary, I'm on a mission to spotlight the real stories behind successful business growth, what works, what doesn't, and how leaders stay sharp while building something remarkable. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=b32ae294d09c4b1c 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1865496376

  7. Jun 4

    She Took Her Redundancy Cheque, Ran and Built One of the UK's Most Loved Travel Businesses

    When Wendy Haines was handed her redundancy after 20 years in a job, she didn't hesitate; She took the cheque, ran, and built something entirely her own. What followed was over a decade of grinding, networking, working behind a pub bar just to meet locals, and slowly building a client base that now books holidays two and three years in advance. Today Wendy runs an award-winning independent travel agency, holds the title of top agent for Riviera Travel across the UK and Ireland, and has created one of the most talked about solo travel communities for women in the country, Wendy's Wanderers, with over 1,200 members and trips running back to back across the globe. In this episode, Wendy shares: Why she took redundancy and never looked back after two decades on the high streetHow she chose which village to move to specifically because of how it would grow her businessThe origin of Wendy's Wanderers and why it accidentally became a national movementWhat the current travel market really looks like and how she is holding her own while others are down 20%Why her clients book years in advance and what that says about the value of trustWhere she sees AI fitting into the business and what she still needs to figure out This is a conversation about backing yourself when the paycheque disappears, building a business on reputation rather than budget, and why the travel agent is far from dead. If you are building a service business on loyalty and word of mouth, or simply love the idea of adventure without the hassle, this one is for you. 🔗 Connect with Wendy Haines: 🌐 www.wendyhainestravel.co.uk 🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/plantwendy About The Growth Diary After a career as a professional windsurfer on the World Tour, I've spent over a decade building and scaling businesses across property, technology, and marketing. Through The Growth Diary, I'm on a mission to spotlight the real stories behind successful business growth, what works, what doesn't, and how leaders stay sharp while building something remarkable. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=b32ae294d09c4b1c 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1865496376

  8. Jun 2

    He Picked Up a Toolbox and Built One of London's Most Impressive Property Businesses

    Ravi Jheeta didn't finish his law degree. He picked up a toolbox instead. Twenty years later, starting from nothing and coming from humble beginnings, he has built Kaya Landmarks into a full turnkey London property development business, controlling everything from land acquisition through to construction, delivery and now development finance through his own lending arm. It is one of the rarer models in the industry, and it was built entirely from the ground up. In this episode, Ravi shares: Why he walked away from law and went all in on property from scratchHow controlling the full life cycle of a development de-risks everythingWhat it means to be a lender who has actually been on the tools and run the sitesWhy he stripped his team back post-COVID and became more productive with lessHis vision for floating the business and building a serious loan bookThe one thing he believes most people in property consistently get wrong This is a conversation about backing yourself when you have nothing, building a business around people rather than process, and why focusing on execution rather than rewards is the only way to build something that lasts. If you are in property, construction, or development finance, or simply building something from the ground up with no safety net, this one is for you. 🔗 Connect with Ravi Jheeta: 🌐 www.kayalandmarks.co.uk About The Growth Diary After a career as a professional windsurfer on the World Tour, I've spent over a decade building and scaling businesses across property, technology, and marketing. Through The Growth Diary, I'm on a mission to spotlight the real stories behind successful business growth, what works, what doesn't, and how leaders stay sharp while building something remarkable. 🎙️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=b32ae294d09c4b1c 🎙️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1865496376

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About

Keith Atkinson is an entrepreneur and growth partner, working across business strategy, technology, and automation. He is the founder of Scailr, an AI and automation agency helping growth-focused businesses remove bottlenecks, improve marketing performance, and scale more efficiently. Before business, Keith was an international athlete in windsurfing and a BBC award winner, (15x British Champion / 4th World Ranking/ 2x Vice World Champion) ... experiences that shaped his approach to discipline, resilience, and performance under pressure. He created The Growth Diary to share the unfiltered pages of real growth journeys, conversations with founders, operators, and business owners navigating ambition, uncertainty, pressure, and progress in real time. Each episode explores what it actually takes to grow a business: the decisions behind the scenes, the mistakes, the lessons learned the hard way, and the thinking that shapes long-term success. The Growth Diary is not about polished success stories. It’s about clarity, perspective, and learning in public. This is your corner of the internet to think openly, build intentionally, and understand growth from the inside out. Follow Scailr: Website: https://scailr.agency YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheGrowthDiaryPodcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4xRw4dfe3u1LYqja07KgTg?si=591fcedda2934743 Connect with Keith: Keith's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/atkinsonkeith

Information

  • Creator
    Scailr
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Scailr
  • Show Website
    The Growth Diary