WAKE FIT Personal training

Samuel's own fitness business. His mission statement is to concentrate on his passion: coaching clients and helping them achieve their fitness goals. Samuel practices what he preaches and applies his knowledge by competing in 'physique competitions' and other fitness challenges. He is still involved with elite level sport and performs the role of Strength and Conditioning coach for the GB Luge team. This multi faceted approach ensures he has all the tools at his disposal to work towards the clients ultimate fitness aim, whatever that may be.

Samuel currently conducts his personal training from a state-of-the-art fitness facility in central London as well as outdoor/home visits. Samuel has a diverse portfolio of clients from celebrities, actors and West-end performers to 'office based' professionals. He is also a regular writer and advisor for Men’s Fitness magazine.

Founder & Head coach

Robert Walters

Robert Walters IT Contract Division recruits Technology contractors for Financial Services and Commerce and Industry clients. We align our consultants in a vertical matrix to prioritise candidate skillsets and sector knowledge.

Robert Walters plc is one of the world's leading specialist professional recruitment consultancies with 51 offices spanning 23 countries. 

The vast majority of our competitors operate on an individual commission basis however success through team performance and a non-commision based renumeration model are fundamental values at Robert Walters, when speaking to clients and candidates or interviewing people to join my team I can honestly say that this strategy serves long term relationships.

Because every recruitment challenge is characterised by differing circumstances our candidate sourcing campaigns and solutions are designed specifically for each client.

Recruitment Consultant

Royal Air Force

Co-ordinating and scheduling chartered privately owned aircraft as part of a NATO contract to assist the military heavy lift capability.

Operations Officer (manager)

Officer

RAF- Defence Supply Chain Organisation and Management

Responsibility as part of a team to co-ordinate and plan all RAF heavy lift air movements world wide.  This involved solving complex logistics and mathmatical problems within such issues as crew duty planning, slot prioritisation and fleet management.

Airlift Task Planning

I help busy professional male leaders achieve their body/fitness goals through time efficient online coaching around their lifestyle. Fully personalised high end service achieving a guaranteed lean, fit & healthy body.

After completing my degree in Sports Science I went on to serve 10 years as an RAF Officer initially as a pilot and later as an Operations Officer. During my military career I was fortunate to work in a variety of countries in many dynamic and fast moving positions.  As a team leader I have been responsible for the welfare, training and development of subordinates as well as bearing overall responsibility for mission success. 

I left the RAF in Dec 2012 and took a role in recruitment. During this time I made the decision to follow my passion for exercise and take my fitness work fulltime. I left Robert Walters after an enjoyable year to establish my own business.

Sam Wake

Blue Skies Property Investment

Director

British Airways

Pilot

Thomas Cook Airlines Limited

Cathay Pacific Airways

As a former Hong Kong based airline pilot I was having enormous trouble trying to find a competent partner to help me grow my property portfolio in the North East of the UK. So here’s what I did… 

When I returned in 2016 Blue Skies Property Investment was born to help other investors avoid the same problems I experienced. 

Since then we’ve helped 150+ clients achieve excellent results with Buy To Let and Serviced Accommodation across the North East. 

Incorporating sourcing, refurbishment and management our whole ethos is based around taking the stress, hassle and uncertainty away for our clients allowing people just like you to enjoy the benefits of property investment without the hard work. 

You’ll find a lot more info about how we do this across our socials, a number of my guest spots on podcasts, Youtube, plenty of 5* Google reviews and a summary of all of it on our website:

www.blueskiespropertyinvestment.co.uk

And once you’ve gone through all that if you’re really keen to work with us you can book a call with me here: 

https://calendly.com/mattblueskies/discovery-call

If there's no time there that works please DM me your best email and contact number and I'm sure one of us will be able to work a time that suits. 

I look forward to speaking with you soon,

Matt

Matthew Robson

How To Be Successful In The UK In 2025: Budget Edition

(This is absolutely foolproof…) 

1) Don’t get a job and just claim PIP instead

Anxiety is a nice simple one; it’s difficult to disprove and it won’t raise any eyebrows if Karen sees you in the pub at 2pm on a Tuesday. 

2) Have as many children as you possibly can

I feel 6 children offers the best balance between benefits, size of free house and maxing out your (discounted) 7 seater options on Motobility.

You can choose to have more if you wish, I suppose it just depends if you have time to fill all the forms in between gettting up at 11am and Loose Women starting. 

3) Do absolutely fuck all, ever, and live better than most people with a job. 

SIMPLES!

We make successful business owners more money through sensible property investments. DM me or click on my website for more info 🏘️

A Non-Exhaustive List Of Things That Can Absolutely Fuck Off From LinkedIn And Never, Ever Return… 


👉🏻Any post with:
…Here’s the thing
…Here’s the truth
…Here’s the kicker (we know it’s AI)

👉🏻 AI comments

👉🏻 Actually, anything about AI

👉🏻 Your daily routine (yes Joseph Valente, I’m looking at you, you plucky little business genius you) 

👉🏻 Financial Planners telling me how much money my kids will have when they’re 65 if I invest £100k now (how do they fund all the bad decisions before then, eh? Eh?) 

👉🏻 Anyone telling me their year long, stressy, mega-leveraged HMO that actually cost ~£200k  “only really cost them £x,xxx [insert amount of money left in].

👉🏻 People comparing take-home pay in the UK to Dubai (yeh but a beer is ~£9…) 

👉🏻 Rachel Reeves (I know, I know…)

What have I missed? 

[Note: I would have put Samuel Leeds on here too but he’s already blocked me so I guess he has kinda fucked off]

No alternative text description for this image

It’s lonely in the middle. 

Have you ever sat in a boardroom with empty chairs, multi-million pound turnover, the keys to your Porsche strategically placed on the table - wondering if you were going to make it? 

I’ve been there.

Not the team (they’re all doing actual work).

No applause (not even from my Mam).

No guarantees (other than HMRC arse-fucking you regularly).

Just a dream and the belief that one day the Blue Skies logo would be displayed on U13 girls football kits the breadth of Eaglescliffe. 

Entrepreneurship isn’t glamorous.

It’s lonely. 

It’s painful. 

It’s 47 unread whatsapps from builders asking “WHEN R U GUNNA PAY ME U FLASH C***?!?!”

You’ll lose people. You’ll lose sleep. You’ll lose the will to reply to “can we jump on a quick call to help with your IT requirements?”

But if you can keep showing up when no one’s watching you’ll build a strength no one can EVER take away from you.

(Except possibly Rt Hon Rachel Reeves) 

There’ll be times you want to quit.

Times you think “Maybe I should’ve gone into energy sales…”

But trust me - when it starts to click you’ll realise every single one of those nights was building YOU. 

So if you’re sitting alone tonight, planning how to change your life - keep going. 

Can you relate?

Drop a 💦🍆 below if you’ve also “built character” instead of sleeping.

Thank You Rachel Reeves and The Labour Government

Because of your unrelenting attacks on Landlords I was recently able to buy an unloved house for £100,000. 

I bought this because it seems nobody currently really fancies property investment.

Around a £40k spend later I had it revalued at £190k which meant once I put a 75% loan to value mortgage on it, it stood me nothing. 

A couple, with great credit and a combined salary of £104k a year, contacted me asking to rent it on an AST.

They really wanted to be on this estate but said there was literally nothing else available. 

I explained that because of the complete arse-fucking landlords were currently getting there was zero chance I was ever putting this house on an AST. 

So, long story short they ended up agreeing to pay £2,000pcm on a 12 month serviced accommodation agreement for something that would have been ~£750pcm on an AST a few years ago. 

Even including the bills, that’s probably ~70% more than they would have paid a few years back when there was still a bit of stock. 

For me? 

I’ve created ~£50k in equity in a property that costs me nothing and now generates ~£1,100 per month profit. 

Because if you fuck the private rental sector, we push back just us hard - it’s something to do with this thing called “supply” and “demand”. 

Which is economics so simple even Rachel Reeves could understand it. 

So, remind me again Keir how are all these taxes and regulations actually helping working people again?

Property Trainers:

You will make £200k+ on every development.

You will be Financially Free by Wednesday.

You will only own massively cash-flowing assets that increase in value and you will never encounter any of the issues the rest of the plebs do. 

You will drive a Lamborghini and own a villa in Dubai. 

You will exude confidence and become irresistable to the opposite sex. 

You will become capable of achieving anything you set your mind to. 

You will possess a three foot long penis.

Me:

Keep strategically adding decent assets, manage them well and in about a decade you’ll have some really nice options in life. 

Also me:

Here’s an entirely non-exhaustive list of things I’d rather do than start a big, expensive commercial conversion project right now… 

1. Discuss Macroeconomic policy with Abi Hookway

2. Sign up for a Deluxe Samuel Leeds £15k Mentorship

3. Purchase a Leeds season ticket

4. Explain my political views to someone with blue hair

5. Drink bleach

Please for the love of god, do not believe the hype with this sort of stuff. 

Why?

Because it’s fucking HARD.

The only “decent” people that ever go bust in property are developers, largely because they are at the mercy of SO many external factors. 

So in a high-rate, high cost, high regulatory environment like we currently have, Joe Bloggs investor is on a hiding to absolutely nothing. 

There are a million moving parts in your typical development and it only takes one fuckwit or a slight market shift somewhere along the line, and you are very, very exposed. 

Overworked planning officers.

A dodgy builder.

A pedantic solicitor that means you slip off the end of your bridge. 

There’s honestly loads. 

And the worst thing?

SO many people are doing this in areas with very low underlying property values.

Honestly… why? 

I’ve done a variation on this and 3 years later I was very lucky to survive with the shirt on my back.

The risk to reward ratio is all wrong. 

In fact, most people shouldn’t be anywhere near stuff like this. 

A much better idea?

In a market like this, buying simpler, discounted and relatively turn-key property is a FAR better way to go for most people. 

You can bake a decent profit day one. 

There’s no requirement for expensive bridging and development finance, nor default fees. 

You’re at the mercy of far fewer fuckwits. 

It generates income quickly.

And, the most under-rated… you’ll sleep much better. 

If you have a lump of capital and you want to deploy it into property, you can get sexy returns with very boring purchases. 

Get in touch to find out how.

How’s about this for a steal?

Modern 2 bedroom mid terrace in a great area.

Agreed at £115k.

We have an Automated Bank Valuation at £145k.

Which means by any metric you want to use… we’ve absolutely nicked this for our client.

This one is going to have a quick tidy up and then go into our Serviced Accommodation portfolio where every bit of information we have suggests it’s going to generate around £2k per month. 

If you’re sitting there thinking you want to get into property but don’t really know how you’re going to get decent results…

You know what to do…

BUDGET DAY PREDICTIONS!

Actually, here’s what *will* happen…

My favourite day of the year is this.

I wake-up extra early, usually around 4am.

I pour myself an electrolyte and Jack Daniels, brush my teeth with vodka and brew myself an Irish coffee before mentally preparing myself for the existential crisis I will be having by 5pm following the shitload of business that will have inevitably evaporated by the end of the day. 

I’ll then contemplate the pivots I will have to make to keep the lights on and ruminate over the time I will miss with my kids whilst I figure it all out.

I actually think I love Budget Day more than a Boxing Day home fixture followed by 12 pints with the lads. 

It’s that… exciting? 

Anyway, I digress.

This is what *is* going to happen… 

Said politician is going to open their mouth and generally piss off the smallest, juiciest group right in the middle; not rich enough to be truly economically mobile but just enough to make it worthwhile to squeeze. 

If you’re reading this, there is a good chance this is you.

(If this post finds its way to TikTok you’re probably safe). 

Lots of people in this group of people are going to bitch, moan and throw their toys out of the pram (me being one of them).

Other people are going to take a deep breath, take stock, pivot where required and get on with stuff (also me, they’re not mutually exclusive btw). 

Guess which group is going to be in a better position in 12 months? 

Because here’s something you need to know if you’re not as interested as I am in these things… 

Most Budgets are steaming piles of turd if you have anything about you. 

I don’t like Labour one bit but us property folk have the Tories to thank for the really gruesome stuff over the past 10 years or so.

e.g Section 24 and additional SDLT.

And Reform haven’t proven they can run a bath yet.

So it doesn’t matter who is running the show- if you have a bit of money they’ll inevitably be coming for it.  

Nobody is coming to save you.

Fortunately, this will always, always, always create opportunities.

In property this usually translates into being able to steal properties from twitchy owners. 

They panic, our clients profit and when the froth comes off you end up with some blinding assets you bought for relative pennies. 

Post Kwasi, we bought some properties that stand up there with some of the best we’ve ever acquired in 10 years in this business.

Which almost makes up for the lube-less arse-fucking you will no doubt receive today. 

Same last year, same next year, same until the end of time. 

So anyway… that’s that. 

Wanna get to the front of the queue for some bargains? DM me, we’re class at it. 

Anyway, still not nervous at all… anyone want a brandy?

Pretty fun week was this week.

I managed to do some flying somewhere sunny to miss the worst of the weather. 

The boys went to London where my credit card tells me they consumed their body weight in steak and Guinness with clients. 

This left Helen, Sam and Maddie to hold the fort down, which they did admirably, despite the fact I thought Helen might actually be dying at one point (note: she didn’t die). 

I did manage to steal a ~£90k property for £25k all-in though, so it looks as though the kids will remain in school shoes for the forseeable. 

A big congratulations to Joe Connorton and his better half for a massive achievement this week too (I won’t steal his thunder by telling you what it is) 

And congratulations to Chris Lamb on his new car, obviously.  

Work with us and you might be able to get one too*






[*May or may not be a legally binding offer]

5 Serviced Accommodation Tips From The Coalface

How many of these are you fucking up 👉🏻

1. Work backwards from the end user.

Nobody is leaving a van full of expensive tools on a shite street in TS1 - so why tf are you buying an SA property there? 

2. You’re running a hospitality business

Which means you always, always, always answer the phone and the answer is invariably “yes, how high?”

3. Reduce friction

To booking, to checking-in, to sorting issues - you need to make this seamless or you will struggle to generate repeat business.  

4. Marketing to everyone

The leisure market has wildly different expectations to the contractor market; make sure you know which one you’re speaking to. 

5. Consistency

You need a process for everything and you need to stick to it - because when you don’t that’s when it will go tits up. 

Want to get some help with this?

Drop me a DM.

These Monday posts really do write themselves.

A reminder that these are all for…

~£100k houses.

That have…

No dickhead tenants.

No arrears.

Aren’t…

Getting smashed to bits.

And still…

Look like show homes.

If you’re getting pissed off with the general aggro that comes with letting residential property on AST’s you might enjoy Serviced Accommodation. 

Your bank balance certainly will.

Staying in the game. 

Newish property investor? Read this 👉🏻

I’ve been in property 15 years, 10 years “properly”. 

Not as long as some, a lot longer than most. 

I’ve seen a lot. 

And one thing that is apparent is that in more difficult parts of the cycle people resort to riskier strategies to replace the high returns that were more easily available in the better ones. 

I mean, remember *really* simple flips with £50-70k profit that would sell in days in 2021? 

(Pepperidge Farm remembers) 

Anyway, politely… stop doing stupid shit. 

Right now if you’re new or newish you should be prioritising getting rid of the stuff that doesn’t work, optimising the stuff that does work and adding *high* quality strategic purchases. 

There’s no need to be sticking all your eggs into a commercial conversion in a dead seaside town “up North” because a charity that was set up on Thursday has said they’d pay you megabucks and you’ve blagged a silly commercial valuation.

Because you’ve still got to do the work *and* service the debt, remember? 

You’ll nearly always make a ton in the good times, so don’t potentially leave yourself in the position you’ll be asking “do you want fries with that?” by the time they come back around. 

And I know I bang on about this all the time but I only do it because SO many people do the complete opposite.

Read: 

👉🏻Commercial conversions on dead High Streets in 3rd tier towns. 

👉🏻Large HMO’s which will have stagnating tenant profiles and then become over-leveraged.

👉🏻Anything requiring expensive bridging without an absolute rock-solid exit. 

How? 

Any combination of shit builders, retarded planning officers, dodgy lenders, fraudulent tenants and pedantic solicitors. 

And you’ll rarely see them coming. 

I say this having made every fuck-up you can imagine with this type of stuff.

And do you know what saved me? 

I had a ton of uninteresting and relatively low-leveraged stuff in the background that I could borrow against to bail me out. 

That’s what. 

If I did this the other way around and jumped straight into the sexy stuff, I would have been totally, totally fucked. 

And you’ll only truly learn that when you’ve piled everything you have into a building and somebody brings in a 2 inch thick A4 envelope from a very expensive law firm politely requesting well over £1m you don’t currently have in the next 14 days or they’re going to kick your kids out onto the street. 

(And feel free to ask me how I know all this stuff some time, just make sure you’re buying)

Anyway, pics attached of some tidy little flats that I eventually ended up with.

[TL;DR: Don’t run before you can walk. Let the simple stuff fund the exciting stuff]

Check THIS out for a deal 👉🏻

3 bedroom end-terrace agreed at £96k… 

Comps at £110k.

Needed literally nothing.

Rents at £750pcm.

Day one equity, decent cashflow, hassle-free and will almost certainly creep up in value.

And we sorted it all for an investor who in all likelihood will never even see it in person. 

Property investment really doesn’t have to be complicated. 

Want something similar?

DM me, we’ll get you started.

That time of the week again. 

These are all for…

~£100k properties.

All bought at heavy discounts.

That gross ~£2k a month.

All look like showhomes.

That you can have back at a moments notice, if you ever want. 

And most the of the owners… have never even seen. 

We build source, refurbish and manage portfolios of properties like these for successful business owners based in the UK and abroad. 

So if you’d like something similar, drop me a line. 

[P.s How’s your cheap Buy To Let doing?]

Here’s a £738 booking for 4 nights for a ~£150k house. 

Which is more or less a full month equivalent on an AST. 


(That’s the post)

Never let it be said the Germans don’t have a sense of humour… I mean, have you met my kids? 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Yeh you might be a cool property company but do YOU have YOUR own Monopoly game? 

A big thank you to the person who sits quietly in the background here at Blue Skies for the thoughtful gesture this week. 

You go through periods in business, and in life, where it seems like you just get the living shit kicked out of you and recently has definitely felt like one of them.

But if you surround yourself with good people it is INFINITELY easier than doing it on your own. 

The biggest decision I made was this year was to work more closely with someone who has built a business considerably bigger and better than my own. 

He checks me on my retarded shit, opens doors I never knew existed and is generally a bit of a legend. 

The results have been pretty spectacular so far and I still feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface. 

I shouldn’t be surprised - because it’s fundamentally pretty similar in nature to what we do in helping clients to build property portfolios by leveraging our collective knowledge and experience

So if you’re considering asking for a bit of help, in property or business, then I’d always say to just do it. 

(Unless you’re considering paying Abi Hookway £15k in which case I’d say you’re fukcking mental)

Anyway, are you buying Hartlepool or Yarm? 

And why?

The Budget, The Property Market and The UK

A few meanderings…

Got to be honest, that wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.

I mean, the ethos is ALL wrong, and the UK is absolutely screwed medium-term, but for Joe Bloggs property investor it was honestly a lot better than I was expcting. 

Think of it more like as a gentle Indian doctor inserting a slim, lubed digit up your back passage rather than Eddie Hall ramming a pineapple up there sideways after too much pre-workout. 

The 2% income tax increase?

Lol. Who really cares at this point? 

I mean, they’ve decimated the supply to the point I’ve just got a 3 bedroom semi in Hartlepool away at £2,000 a month (bills included btw before you all destroy my inbox). 

If you’re operating quality properties professionally all you’re going to do is increase the rent by whatever you feel like.

Don’t hate the player, hate the game. 

And it’s difficult not to see more people exploring moving away from the South East into more affordable regions, which has to be good for places like Teesside. 

That all said, I’m generally more positive about the UK long-term.  

Why?

Because when these clowns are laughed out, hopefully as soon as Spring 27, it will have become blindingly, blindingly obvious to everyone that high-tax, over regulation and hammering working people to fund those that don’t is a terrible, terrible way to run a country.

And that means anyone that gets in will be almost certainly voted in on a super low-tax, pro-business manifesto. 

And that potentially sets UK Plc on a glorious recovery. 

Think Kwasi, just costed properly. 

(Yes I’m an optimist, yes this admittedly assumes there any businesses left to fill the void and no, I’m not drunk)

So…

Short-term? Depressing.

Medium-term? Meh.

Long-term? I’m very optimistic.

As ever, thoughts are worth what you paid for them and feel free to tell me why I’m wrong in the comments…

taplio

The Battle

Sam Wake

Matthew Robson

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taplio

The Battle

Sam Wake

Matthew Robson

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Matthew Robson's LinkedIn Performance

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