Paul Avins is not your average business coach. After 20 years at the coalface of entrepreneurial development, the CEO of Massive Action Coaching has helped over 550 companies scale past £1 million in revenue — with many reaching £5 million, £10 million, and even exiting for eight-figure sums. But if you think this is another motivational speaker peddling mindset clichés and Instagram aphorisms, think again.
“I’ve never believed in the guru model,” says Avins. “I don’t want clients to think their success is about me. It’s about what we build together.”
We’re sitting in a quiet corner of his office just outside Oxford just ahead of his third Scale-Up Summit, where his team – dubbed “Team Purple” – runs a suite of mastermind groups, scale-up summits and business retreats aimed at entrepreneurs ready to build what Avins calls “grown-up businesses.”
If that phrase sounds unusual, that’s because Avins has spent the better part of two decades redefining what it means to scale responsibly. He’s as likely to talk about mitochondrial health and hydrogen water as he is gross margin or AI automation — all in pursuit of creating high-performance entrepreneurs who don’t just burn bright and burn out.
Nine years ago, Avins suffered a life-threatening asthma attack that led to cardiac arrest. He flatlined for over four minutes. “I’d bought into the classic founder lie,” he recalls. “‘I’ll trade off my health while I build the business, and fix the rest later.’ But later doesn’t always come.”
That experience changed everything. Today, Avins speaks openly about burnout, the mental health cost of leadership, and the critical role of what he calls “founder fitness.”
“I started investing in my health the same way I’d invest in a marketing funnel. Your business can’t scale if the CEO is broken.”
His daily toolkit now includes red light therapy, IV vitamin drips, intermittent fasting and obsessive tracking using biometric wearables. “You’re not going to get to eight figures running on caffeine and chaos,” he says. “You need stamina, clarity, and a nervous system that isn’t fried.”
From “managing director” to “scale-up CEO”
But Avins’ sharpest insights aren’t just physiological — they’re psychological. His thesis is simple: to scale your company, you must first scale your identity.
“One of the biggest red flags I hear from business owners is, ‘I’m still putting out fires every day,’” he explains. “If you’re the one doing that, you’re not the CEO — you’re still the operator.”
He’s on a mission to eradicate the title of “Managing Director” altogether.
“It’s a disempowering title. It implies maintenance, not momentum. A scale-up CEO creates growth — they don’t get caught in the day-to-day.”
This isn’t just semantic. Avins runs the UK’s No.1 Scale-Up Mastermind, F12, where members report average growth of 300% in under 12 months. What’s different? Avins says it comes down to consistency, strategy, and community.
“The first thing I teach clients is this: what got you to £100k won’t get you to £1m. And what got you to £1m definitely won’t get you to £5m.”
He breaks the scale-up journey into distinct phases — each requiring a fresh set of tools, systems, and mental models. “People cling to the same tactics that got them early traction, but scaling is a different game. It’s about team, systems and culture — not hustle.”
That structured thinking is what’s made Avins a trusted mentor to CEOs across sectors — from e-commerce to education, healthcare to hospitality. The combined annual turnover of businesses in his masterminds is now close to £250 million.
But perhaps his biggest impact has been creating a genuine community of growth-minded leaders — people who cheer each other on, share vulnerabilities, and don’t posture or pitch.
“I’ve been to a lot of events full of ego and posturing. Ours aren’t like that,” says Carly Myers, one of Avins’ newest collaborators. “People walk into his world and feel seen, supported and challenged.”
That spirit is most alive at Avins’ flagship event: the Scale-Up Summit. Now in its third year, the two-day event in May brings together ambitious entrepreneurs, practical educators, and unexpected talent — including a robotic artist who recently sold work for £1m at Sotheby’s.
“We don’t do the bait-and-switch stuff. No one’s being pitched a £25k course every hour,” says Avins. “You come to learn, to grow, and to meet people who’ll expand your world.”
Why most advice fails to scale
He’s wary of generic business advice — the “just follow these five steps” school of thought that permeates social media.
“The truth is, the strategy to get from £0 to £100k is totally different from getting to £1m — and then to £5m, and so on,” he says. “There’s no universal formula. There’s just the right move at the right time, for the right business.”
So what are the constants? For Avins, there are three: consistency, evolving your strategy, and surrounding yourself with the right people.
“Entrepreneurship is lonely. At two in the morning, when payroll’s due and a supplier’s dropped out, who do you call? That’s why we built this community.”
His masterminds regularly include six- and seven-figure founders helping each other navigate global expansion, team challenges and industry disruption. “Sometimes a five-minute conversation in the bar saves you five months of stress,” he says.
Despite his aversion to hype, Avins has no shortage of ambition. He describes himself as a strategist, but also a sherpa — someone who’s climbed the mountain and knows how to help others ascend safely.
“I tell people: you don’t climb Everest on your first go. Start with a smaller mountain, build your muscle, and scale from there.”
And when the going gets tough?
“Hold the vision, do the work,” he says. “Your job is to look up and keep the dream alive — while doing the work to become the person who can achieve it.”
Whether it’s a retreat in Spain or a two-day summit in London, Avins creates environments of deep transformation. “The best ideas happen when you step out of your routine and into a room where everyone’s thinking bigger.”
It’s why he places such value on in-person events, even in a digital-first world.
“You don’t know who you’re going to sit next to — but they might just change your life,” he says.
Paul Avins may be one of the most trusted names in scale-up coaching, but what sets him apart isn’t just his track record — it’s his refusal to put himself at the centre of the story.
“I’m not here to build a cult of personality,” he says, matter-of-factly. “I’m here to help people build businesses that last — and lives they love living.”
That’s what he calls real success. And in a noisy world of business bravado, it’s a message worth hearing.
Read more:
‘My job is to grow this, not run it’: Paul Avins on why scale-up success starts with identity