Episode #254 - I’ve Learnt To Support My Staff, Even If They’re Leaving The Company - with Mike Dunn
Release Date: 06/23/2023
Episode #512 - ScaleUp Club - Leading with Specialism, Integrity and Authenticity in Recruitment - with Kelly Cartwright
ScaleUp Radio
This episode of ScaleUp Radio brings a fresh twist – a live Q&A from one of our ScaleUp Club sessions, featuring returning guest Kelly Cartwright, founder of Core Recruiter Ltd. Kelly joined us to share honest, down-to-earth insights on building a values-driven, specialist recruitment agency in the highly competitive construction sector. Kelly first appeared on ScaleUp Radio to share her business journey – and this time, she’s back to dive deeper into the practical realities of scaling, culture-fit hiring, navigating economic cycles, and maintaining a human touch in an often...
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Episode #511 - Democratising Data Science for Agencies – with Matias Carpio
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Matias Carpio, co-founder of Onlyscience – a soon-to-launch SaaS platform on a mission to make advanced marketing analytics accessible to agencies of all sizes. Onlyscience is building an AI-powered analytics tool that enables marketing agencies to quantify and optimise campaign performance – all without needing a technical background. The platform, which includes a storytelling layer for actionable insights, aims to help agencies move beyond spreadsheets and guesswork with a simplified yet powerful solution. Though the business is...
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Episode #510 - From Kitchen Experiments to Award-Winning Curry Kits - with Aliza Ratnayaka
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, host Kevin Brent sits down with Aliza Ratnayaka, co-founder of Little Big Flavour Kits — a business that grew from humble beginnings during the pandemic into a multi-award-winning food brand bringing authentic Sri Lankan curry kits to UK kitchens. Aliza shares how she transformed packaging spices for friends into a niche, sustainable product sourced directly from Sri Lankan farmers, including a long-standing partnership with SDS Spice, a family-run cinnamon plantation. Along the way, she’s tackled the challenges of educating customers on Sri Lankan...
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Episode #509 - Pixels with Purpose: Building a Purpose-Driven Creative Collective - with Wes Henstock
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Wes Henstock, founder of Confid3ntial – a purpose-led design and brand strategy agency with a global reach and a truly distinctive structure. Launched in 2006 after an unexpected layoff, Confid3ntial began as a white-label service provider for creative agencies. It has since evolved into a remote-first collective of creatives, united by the mission of delivering "pixels with purpose" – where branding is driven by meaning, not just aesthetics. In their conversation, Wes shares his views on how purpose should infuse every part of a...
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Episode #508 - ScaleUp Club - Turning Customer Service into a Strategic Growth Lever - with Logan Naidu
ScaleUp Radio
This month’s special edition of ScaleUp Radio is a deep dive into what it really means to make customer service a powerful driver of business growth. Recorded live at our monthly ScaleUp Club session, we welcome back Logan Naidu, founder of Kernel Groups and a previous guest on the podcast, for an exclusive Q&A. Logan shares powerful insights from his journey scaling a business that’s not just growing in numbers but creating real impact in the market — particularly through customer service excellence. His firm, Kernel Groups, operates with over 280 employees across the globe and is...
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Episode #507 - From a £10 Startup to Strategic Growth: The Orange Notebook Journey
- with Corina Calugaru and Alina Stancu
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Corina Calugaru and Alina Stancu, the dynamic duo behind The Orange Notebook – a business that started during the pandemic with just £10 in the bank and a whole lot of passion. From a modest marketing agency, it has evolved into a strategy-led consultancy offering business coaching, outsourced marketing, and rebranding services. We delve into how they turned an idea sketched in an orange notebook into a thriving business, and the insights they’ve gained helping other entrepreneurs scale. The conversation is structured in three...
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Episode #506 - Evolving From Handmade Gifts To A Successful Wellness & Lifestyle Brand - with Edith Peterhegyi
ScaleUp Radio
On this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Edith Peterhegyi, the creative force behind Eden Collection, a rapidly growing wellness and lifestyle brand that began as a lockdown hobby and is now a thriving business offering beautifully crafted, all-natural products. From Buzz Bombs to shower mists, facial oils, and home fragrances, Eden Collection has built a loyal customer base through a combination of aesthetic excellence, product quality, and uplifting hidden messages. But this isn’t just a story of pretty packaging—Edith shares the realities of scaling a product-based...
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Episode #505 - Disrupting Home Services: How WarmZilla Is Scaling with Tech, Branding, and Bold Ambition - with Matthew Powell
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent speaks with Matthew Powell, the founder of WarmZilla – a fast-growing disruptor in the UK home services market. From boilers to EV chargers and air conditioning, WarmZilla has built a 24/7 online platform that delivers next-day installations across the nation. Over just two and a half years, Matthew scaled the business to multi-million pound revenues, all without external funding - and they are now in their 7th year. But now, with an eye on £50 million turnover within five years, he’s exploring new frontiers – from international...
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Episode #504 - Finding A Competitive Advantage In An AI World - with Sameer Rahman
ScaleUp Radio
In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent is joined by Sameer Rahman, the CEO of Datamonet – a consultancy helping organisations build data and AI strategies that drive commercial value. With a background in data science and years of experience across sectors, Sameer shares his insights into how small and medium businesses can get smarter with data without needing to become tech giants. Sameer founded Datamonet to tackle a problem he saw time and again – decision-makers who were data-rich but insight-poor. Through tailored consulting, from “power hours” to deep-dive strategy...
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Episode #503 - Why Knowing Your Ideal Customer Changes Everything for Growth - with David Allen
ScaleUp Radio
Hi, I’m Granger Forson, business coach at . You can also find me on LinkedIn. In this episode of ScaleUp Radio, I’m joined by Dave Allen, Managing Director of Square One Network, a B2B telecoms provider based in Bristol. Dave’s journey is a great example of leadership growth in action. Having fallen into the telecoms world in the late 90s, Dave has built his career around the belief that communication is at the heart of all good business. Since becoming MD of Square One Network, he’s steered the company through significant cultural shifts, focusing on building a...
info_outlineToday I had the pleasure to interview Mike Dunn on ScaleUp Radio. Mike founded the Excel TM group and they're a telemarketing company in the construction sector. I love that they have specialised down into a niche and you'll hear some of the ways that that brings them a competitive advantage over general telemarketing companies.
I'd really like you to listen to this episode. Mike's very open and honest about some of the things that didn't go too well as well as some of the things that went well. He's had the situation where they did scale up to 22 people and then they had to drop back and regroup if you like and then and then go again. There's a lot of powerful messages in how he talks about this and definitely worth listening to.
I love his answer to my question around what legacy do you want to leave I think and I recommend you listen out for this.
So some great conversation, quite a lot of it around the people side of things, but listen out for some of the lessons around the cash side of scaling his business and the lessons that he's learned
So I won't spoil it any more, let’s go straight across and listen to Mike for the rest of his story.
Mike can be found here:
linkedin.com/in/mike-dunn-b3033358
07946 767634
https://www.instagram.com/mike.dunn_/
Resources:
Taking Care of Business by Paul Cheetham-Karcz - https://www.waterstones.com/book/taking-care-of-business/paul-cheetham-karcz/9781912587193
Taking Care of Business Podcast - https://www.sedulo.co.uk/podcasts/taking-care-of-business/
Deep Work by Cal Newport - https://www.waterstones.com/book/deep-work/cal-newport/9780349411903
How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - https://www.waterstones.com/book/how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people/dale-carnegie/9780091906818
Diary of a CEO - https://stevenbartlett.com/the-diary-of-a-ceo-podcast/
The Secret Leaders Podcast - https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes
Startup Podcast - https://gimletmedia.com/shows/startup
MyCoach - https://mycoachapp.io/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/