Beyond The Boardroom with Aleksandra

Robin Deller went from a failed apprenticeship to building a £200 million global travel empire. In this episode, Aleksandra sits down with the founder of Imagine Cruising — part-owned by The Emirates Group — to uncover the real story behind his success.

From borrowing £65K from family to selling companies to Virgin Holidays, Robin shares what it takes to scale a business from scratch, build teams that last decades, and lead with honesty above all else. His unique “traffic-light” method for decision-making and people-first hiring mindset reveal how he's stayed grounded while growing across the UK, Australia, South Africa — and soon, the US.

If you're curious about global entrepreneurship, leadership rooted in values, or how to turn rejection into redirection, this episode is for you.

🔑 Topics:

• How Robin Deller built a £200M business

• Virgin Holidays & Emirates Group deals

• Scaling travel ventures globally

• The mindset behind honest leadership

• Hiring, mentorship & money philosophy

A high-signal masterclass in human behaviour with Gavin Stone — ex-intelligence officer, body-language & behaviour expert, and real-world spy strategist.

Alongside Aleksandra, he decodes the animal instincts behind influence — lioness energy, cheetah calm, chameleon personas, and the wolf that won’t be trained. Expect practical tools for negotiations, leadership, sales — and a few secret-agent-level techniques for reading people fast.

💥 In This Episode You’ll Learn:
👀 The “compressed lips” tell — agreement while holding something back
⚡ Why 3+ cluster cues beat pop-psych myths every time
🧠 How to baseline before judging — home vs. work vs. court
💨 Blink rate & breathing shifts — the fastest stress signals
🗣️ Statement Analysis 101 — how real denial sounds vs. pacifying talk
🧩 Identity-based persuasion — why people buy who they are, not what they need
🐺 Animal archetypes — territory, dominance, pack dynamics, and calm under pressure

🔍 About Gavin Stone:
Former intelligence professional turned behavioural specialist, Gavin advises governments and boardrooms on deception detection, strategic thinking, and spy-grade human performance.

🎯 Upcoming Course:
SpyQ Intelligence Officer Training (UK) — 2 days of mental resilience, strategic thinking, and human decoding, hosted at a DSET army-barracks with elite guest speakers.
📅 Dates: 27–28 October
🎟️ Details & tickets → https://spyq.co.uk

💬 Join In:
Which archetype fits you under pressure — lioness, wolf, cheetah, or chameleon?
Share your insight below — your answer might reveal more than you think.

📲 Follow Aleksandra:
Instagram → https://instagram.com/king.aleksandra
TikTok → https://tiktok.com/@aleksandraking
X → https://x.com/aleksandrabking
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksandraking
YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@AleksandraKing

📩 Business & Collaborations:
https://aleksandraking.com | [email protected]

📢 The views expressed by guests are their own and do not reflect those of Aleksandra, the podcast, or its producers. This podcast is for entertainment only.

Aleksandra King shares her experiences of appearing as a candidate on the BBC Reality TV show 'The Apprentice'.  

How did she get in, what happened to her during this reality TV show, and what was the reaction of the public, her freinds and family after news broke that she had walked off the show during production!

WATCHTIME is the LIVE, weekly, chat show, hosted by x-BBC Apprentice Candidate, Aleksandra King and Digital Agency Founder and CEO, Elliott King. Produced by Digital Agency, MintTwist and Multistreamed with Restream.

About the WatchTime Show:

Are you interested in marcomms, technology or the creative industries? Fancy a more 'light-heartedly entertaining' way of gaining new insights and ideas?

If you answered yes and yes, why not join Aleksandra and Elliott, every week for a story, some new ideas and a littlle discussion?

About the hosts:

Aleksandra King is the well spoken media commentator, former candidateon BBC Apprentice candidate and marketing consultant, who is opinionated on most things and in her view, is always right.

Elliott King, her husband, is the insightful CEO and Co-Founder of an International Digital Agency, As a part time University Lecturer he likes to think of himself as knowledgable on marketing, business and technlogy - he's a bit of a nerd.

The WATCHTIME Show is produced by Digital Agency, MintTwist and streamed via ReStream

Aleksandra King beat 150,000 applicants to make it into the BBC TV show 'The Apprentice'. 

In this episode Aleksandra shares her top tips interviewees who want to win in interviews, whilst Elliott shares his insights from the poiunt of view of the interviewer.

WATCHTIME is the LIVE, weekly, industry news and chat show, hosted by x-BBC Apprentice Candidate, Aleksandra King and Digital Agency Founder and CEO, Elliott King. Produced by Digital Agency, MintTwist and Multistreamed with Restream.

About the WatchTime Show:

Are you working in marcomms, technology or the creative industries? Fancy a more entertaining way of keeping up with the most important news stories for your industry?

If you answered yes and yes, why not join Aleksandra and Elliott, every week to get behind the headlines (from 'their' points of view)?

About the hosts:

Aleksandra King is the well spoken media commentator, former candidateon BBC Apprentice candidate and marketing consultant, who is opinionated on most things and in her view, is always right.

Elliott King, her husband, is the insightful CEO and Co-Founder of an International Digital Agency, As a part time University Lecturer he likes to think of himself as knowledgable on marketing, business and technlogy - he's a bit of a nerd.

The WATCHTIME Show is produced by Digital Agency, MintTwist

Which personality type are you and what can you do with that knowledge?

Have you heard of the 'Meyer's Briggs' personality test?

According to the 'Meyer's Briggs' personality test, there are 16 possible personality types, which are scored based upon preferences in four areas:

Where you get your energy from: Do you gain energy from being around others or from being alone? On the other hand, do you construct your world based on outer or inner information? This is labeled Extroversion (‘E’) or Introversion (‘I’).

How you perceive information: Do you collect information based on your five senses. Conversely, do you observe patterns and trust your gut? This is labeled Sensing (‘S’) or Intuition (‘N’).

How you make decisions:  When making decisions, do you look at logic and human values? Or, do you go by your own emotions about things? Scientists label this as Thinking (‘T’) or Feeling (‘F’).

How you view the world: In daily life, do you enjoy a more structured existence. On the other hand, are you more of a “go with the flow” type? Researchers label this as Judging (‘J’) or Perceiving (‘P’).

Which personality type are you and what can you do with that knowledge?

... We explore this question and more in this weeks episode of WATCHTIME.

WATCHTIME is the LIVE, weekly, industry news and chat show, hosted by x-BBC Apprentice Candidate, Aleksandra King and Digital Agency Founder and CEO, Elliott King. Produced by Digital Agency, MintTwist and Multistreamed with Restream.

About the WatchTime Show:

Are you working in marcomms, technology or the creative industries? Fancy a more entertaining way of keeping up with the most important news stories for your industry?

If you answered yes and yes, why not join Aleksandra and Elliott, every week to get behind the headlines (from 'their' points of view)?

About the hosts:

Aleksandra King is the well spoken media commentator, former candidateon BBC Apprentice candidate and marketing consultant, who is opinionated on most things and in her view, is always right.

Elliott King, her husband, is the insightful CEO and Co-Founder of an International Digital Agency, As a part time University Lecturer he likes to think of himself as knowledgable on marketing, business and technlogy - he's a bit of a nerd.

The WATCHTIME Show is produced by Digital Agency, MintTwist

"How to Win Friends and Influence People", is a self-help book written by Dale Carnegie, published in 1936.

Over 30 million copies have been sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time

Carnegie had been conducting business education courses in New York since 1912 and went on to become one of the most celebrated trainers in the arts of business and inter-personal communication.

But what lessons can modern day marketers learn?

... We explore this question in this weeks episode of WATCHTIME.

WATCHTIME is the LIVE, weekly, industry news and chat show, hosted by x-BBC Apprentice Candidate, Aleksandra King and Digital Agency Founder and CEO, Elliott King. Produced by Digital Agency MintTwist and Multistreamed with Restream.  Sign up to try multistreaming with $10 of free credit from here: https://restream.io/join/wVjgM

The Social Dilemma is a 2020 Netflix film directed by Jeff Orlowski and written by Jeff Orlowski, Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis

It's a documentary with drama inclusions that explores the impact of social networking on our human minds.

WATCHTIME is the LIVE, weekly, industry news and chat show, hosted by x-BBC Apprentice Candidate, Aleksandra King and Digital Agency Founder and CEO, Elliott King. Produced by Digital Agency MintTwist and Multistreamed with Restream.  Sign up to try multistreaming with $10 of free credit from here: https://restream.io/join/wVjgM

Sales is the arguably the most important subject in business, yet the one that is least studied at school.  Why?
 
 In this episode we discuss the 10 most common mistakes that a salesperson can make. We've made the mistake, so YOU don't have to!

WATCHTIME is the LIVE, weekly, industry news and chat show, hosted by x-BBC Apprentice Candidate, Aleksandra King and Digital Agency Founder and CEO, Elliott King. Produced by Digital Agency and Multistreamed with Restream.

What can we learn about personal branding from the likes of Donald Trump and 'Meghan and Harry' - the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, England?

Which of these brands is doing a great job and which one needs some more work?

WATCHTIME is the LIVE, weekly, industry news and chat show, hosted by x-BBC Apprentice Candidate, Aleksandra King and Digital Agency Founder and CEO, Elliott King. Produced and sponsored by Digital Agency, MintTwist in the UK.

What are the new normal etiquette rules that will govern our post-lockdown society?

What are Google doing about the Digital Services tax being imposed on them by UK and European Governments?

Is it true that Apple is worth more than all of the FTSE 100 combined? (hint: Yes).

The WATCHTIME Show is hosted by Aleksandra King and Elliott King, produced and sponsored by Digital Agency, MintTwist.