The ActionCOACH Podcast

Sara Davies MBE on Why Authenticity Wins in Business and Leadership | Dragon's Den Star InterviewWhen the BBC asked Sara Davies to be "more dragon-like" before her Dragon's Den audition, she made a choice. She walked into that meeting as herself, legs crossed, warm demeanour, Northern accent intact, and told commissioners exactly what they'd get. That decision transformed her career.Sara Davies MBE is founder and CEO of Crafter's Companion, a £40 million craft business. She became the youngest woman ever on Dragon's Den, where she's been an investor for six years, and is one of the UK's most recognisable entrepreneurs.In this episode, Sara explains why being authentically yourself is your biggest business advantage. She spent her 20s shape-shifting to fit each room until her husband asked which version was the real her. That question changed everything.If You're Building Your Personal Brand: Know what you stand for, then show up as that person consistently.If You're Managing through Decline: Accept the situation, make the hard decisions fast, and stop using money as an excuse to delay.If You're Leading a Team: Read what isn't being said. Pair direct feedback with genuine care for growth.This conversation cuts through the noise with genuine insights on why authenticity works, how to make hard decisions fast, and why emotional intelligence matters as you scale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sales: You're Already Selling (Here's Why That Matters) | Jeb Blount Fanatical Prospecting Author InterviewMost entrepreneurs think they're not in sales. Jeb Blount knows better. In this backstage episode of the Business Growth Podcast at BizX 2026, we reveal why every business owner must become their company's chief sales officer and how keeping your pipeline full changes everything about how you sell, close, negotiate, and choose customers. Jeb built a 1.2 million-person email list over 20 years, hosts the Sales Gravy podcast (top 10 in its category), and has written 18 bestselling books including Fanatical Prospecting.What You'll Learn:Why Pipeline Is Life: A full pipeline makes you better at every aspect of selling. When you have options, you close better, negotiate stronger, and select the right customers instead of taking anyone who says yes.Selling as Consulting: The value bridge concept reframes selling from pushing products to guiding people toward their goals. Start with integrity, ask better questions, and position yourself as an interpreter who helps buyers reach their desired future state.Multi-Touch Prospecting That Actually Works: Phone calls, voicemail, email, LinkedIn messages, in-person visits, newsletters, and podcasts combine to create powerful sequences. Single-channel approaches fail because no one channel works alone anymore.Why AI Is Breaking Email: Salespeople send 8 times more email than 4 years ago but get one-eighth the results. AI-generated messages have saturated inboxes, forcing email providers to filter aggressively.Bold Calling Is Back: In-person prospecting is experiencing a resurgence. Jeb shares how he scaled a chain-link fence past 'Beware of Dog' signs, met a business owner, and later closed a $1.2 million deal.Key Quotes:"Pipeline is life. When you have a full pipeline, you're better at selling, you're better at closing, you're better at negotiating, and you're better at choosing the right customers.""Selling is helping people get what they want. If you start with integrity and don't sell people things they don't need, you're just guiding them toward their goals.""The phone still works. Nobody answers a phone that doesn't ring. Pick it up."Jeb Blount's Background:Jeb Blount is a sales trainer, author of Fanatical Prospecting and 17 other bestselling books, and founder of the Sales Gravy podcast (top 10 in its category). He built a 1.2 million-person email list over 20 years and runs a 34-person consulting firm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richard McCann - Peter Sutcliffe Killed His Mother. He Chose to Help OthersRichard McCann grew up in Scotthall, a deprived area of Leeds, with his mother's alcohol struggles, a violent boyfriend involved in drugs, and constant chaos. Just before his sixth birthday, his mother went out and never came home. At 5:30 the next morning, Richard and his sister Sonia searched for her at a bus stop. Police took them to a children's home: "Mum's been taken to heaven." She'd been murdered by Peter Sutcliffe.Six-year-old Richard reframed the tragedy. His mother was no longer suffering. He and his sisters had a fresh start. That survival mechanism -what psychologists call "explanatory style" -kept him afloat for decades. The meaning you apply to a situation creates your reality. But self-doubt followed. He looked in the mirror and saw an "ugly kid." He felt unworthy of relationships or success.From age 16, Richard sought relationships to feel worthy. His subconscious didn't believe he deserved them, so he'd self-sabotage. He'd push people away, see things that weren't there, and accuse his girlfriend of being with another guy when she was with a friend. He joined the army and lied about his mother because he was ashamed. They discovered the truth after a year. He was discharged following a drunken rampage. Then came drug dealing, arrest, and imprisonment in the same jail that held Peter Sutcliffe 29 years earlier.Rock bottom came after his release in July 1997. He faced house repossession with six weeks to find a job. After five weeks with nothing, he attempted suicide. Nobody would hire him because he had a criminal record.What changed? His sister Sonia stabbed her violent boyfriend and faced prison. Richard impulsively decided to write a book to defend her. He had no qualifications but got "Just a Boy" published. The book led to TV appearances and liberated him. He didn't need to be ashamed of his mother's behaviour.Speaking invitations followed. He was shocking at first, reading from the book with no understanding of how storytelling works. After two years, he realised he could make more of a difference through speaking than through social work. He was getting letters from people he'd helped.Richard discovered that turning trauma into purpose didn't erase the pain. His story became a blueprint for post-traumatic growth -you can grow because of trauma. Lose your job but find work you love. End a relationship, then meet someone you have children with. His workshop helps people identify their first setback and how they grew from it, building belief in their ability to handle future setbacks.Today, Richard helps others reframe struggles using his "bounce back graph." You cycle between red (setback) and green (recovery). He teaches that self-doubt can be challenged with evidence. His process: identify thoughts that aren't serving you, write them down, ask "Where's the evidence?" Use the reticular activation system -when you believe something, you see it everywhere. Henry Ford said it: "Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right."His younger sister passed away from lung cancer just before the pandemic. Grief doesn't diminish. But he had belief: "You'll get through this." During the pandemic, his business ground to a halt. He earned £400 in April 2020. Pain and love never disappear because that's part of being human.He's written "Teach Me Gently" to help parents support anxious children. His own daughter had six months of school refusal due to anxiety. His key advice: children need to feel safe before any reasoning. When a child is anxious, they're in fight or flight -you can't reason with that. It might take two hours to make them feel safe, but that's the foundation.Richard still lives in Leeds. He had mentors like Stuart Hardy, his boss before prison, who gave him belief and treated him like a son. His core message remains simple: the emotional pain of loss never disappears, yet neither do you have to stay in the red. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Significance in a Disconnected World | Penny Power OBE InterviewWe're more digitally connected than ever. Yet we're emotionally disconnected, anxious, and treating relationships like transactions. Penny Power OBE calls it what it is: a massive Silicon Valley psychological experiment that's changed how humans interact.Penny founded a social network in 1998 with her husband, Thomas Power. She built that business to a £60 million valuation before realising she was chasing someone else's dream. Now she runs a small business focused on helping business owners build deeper relationships with clients, staff, and family.Her core insight? Significance, making people feel they matter, is a human need we've forgotten in the age of personal brands and broadcast-driven social media. This episode, recorded at BizX 2026, is about getting it back.What You'll Learn:How Social Media Changed Human Behaviour: Penny contrasts early social networking (1998, meaningful connection) with social media post-2009 (broadcast, performance, comparison). We've shifted from building relationships to building audiences, and it's costing us our mental health.Why Significance Matters More Than Success: Significance means making others feel they matter. Contribution means giving meaningfully to the world. Individualism and a culture of personal branding conflict with our need for deeper relationships, leaving us isolated despite constant connectivity.The Dopamine Trap and Content Culture: Constant media consumption attacks your dopamine reward centres, worsens focus and ADHD symptoms, and feeds constant distraction through comparison.Fear-Based Thinking vs. Love-Based Thinking: People navigate toward fear (news addiction, scarcity marketing, pain-focused content) or love (abundance, community, contribution). This choice shapes your relationships, business decisions, and life outcomes.Why You Might Be Chasing Someone Else's Dream: After building to £60 million, Penny realised she was chasing scale when she actually wanted calm. Redefining wealth around time, values, and resilience made her happier and will likely add 20 years to her life.Define what success actually means to you, not what you think it should mean. Scale or calm? More time or more money? Write it down. If you're stuck, consider therapy or coaching. Understanding yourself is foundational to designing the life you want.Whether you're a business owner tired of transactional relationships, an entrepreneur chasing the wrong success, or a parent protecting your family from toxic content, this episode helps. Subscribe to the Business Growth Podcast for conversations that challenge how you think about business and life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.