EE 356 - Mentor Moment - Always Take The Money - Dan Fox, founder & CEO of Johnson Hanna

Sara Davies built the business that changed her life. Then she had to fight to save it. In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Sara tells the story of what happened when Crafter’s Companion, the company she founded from her bedroom, ran into serious trouble and ultimately entered administration. She talks candidly about buying the business back, the brutal 18 months that followed, and what it feels like when the company that has defined so much of your life suddenly becomes the source of enormous pressure. This is not simply a story about business recovery. We talk about the decisions and warning signs that founders can miss when a company is growing, including the uncomfortable reality of doing around £20 million in revenue while struggling for cash. Sara also opens up about stepping away from Dragons’ Den, the pressure of trying to be a founder, investor, television personality and mother at the same time, and reaching the point where she knew something had to change. We explore ADHD, hyperfocus, motherhood, guilt, resilience, investing and the psychology that has allowed Sara to keep moving forward through some of the most difficult periods of her career. In this conversation: • What really happened inside Crafter’s Companion • How a business can generate huge revenue and still run into cash problems • Why Sara decided to buy her company back • The toughest 18 months of her business career • The founder mistakes she can now see more clearly • Why she stepped back from Dragons’ Den • The pressure of combining ambition, business and family • Sara’s experience of ADHD and hyperfocus • How she evaluates entrepreneurs and investments • What difficult periods have taught her about resilience This is a very different side of Sara Davies. It is a conversation about what happens when success becomes complicated, when the business you built needs saving, and how you rebuild both the company and the founder behind it. The Entrepreneur Experiment is about one central idea: Build a better founder, not just a better business.

James Haskell has spent most of his life performing under pressure. He won 77 caps for England, toured with the British & Irish Lions, played professional rugby around the world and then had to figure out who he was when the game stopped. Today, James is an entrepreneur, broadcaster, author, DJ and co-host of The Good, The Bad & The Rugby. He’s also building Blackeye Spirits alongside Mike Tindall and Alex Payne. But this isn’t really an episode about rugby. It’s about building a better founder, not just a better business. We talk about why self-awareness may be the ultimate competitive advantage, how elite sport teaches you to handle brutal feedback, why ambitious people struggle to recognise when enough is enough, and how James rebuilt his identity after rugby. We also get into focus, saying no, buying back your time, therapy, accountability, personal branding, choosing business opportunities, the creator economy, why information is becoming free and why implementation is becoming more valuable. James is candid, funny and completely unfiltered throughout. If you’re ambitious, stretched across too many things, or trying to work out what success actually means to you, there’s a lot in this one. In This Episode We cover: What professional sport teaches you about business Why “you can lie to everyone else, but you can’t lie to yourself” How to receive feedback without letting your ego get in the way The four things James believes you can actually control Why achievement can leave high performers permanently unfulfilled The difference between chasing outcomes and mastering process What Eddie Jones taught him about excellence Reinventing yourself when your first career ends Why James started preparing for life after rugby at 20 Learning to say no to opportunities How he decides which businesses and projects deserve his time Why he refuses most equity-only deals Authenticity, personal branding and protecting audience trust Why information is becoming free but implementation will remain valuable Therapy, mental performance and changing your emotional state His approach to focus, batching and avoiding distraction Why even a former professional athlete pays someone to keep him accountable Buying back your time Defining how much money is actually “enough” Turning The Good, The Bad & The Rugby from a podcast into a media business Why modern podcasts need to think beyond audio Building Blackeye Spirits and the mission behind the Blackeye Rugby Fund Links & Resources James Haskell: official site covering his rugby, books, music and other projects. James Haskell official website (https://jameshaskell.com/) The Good, The Bad & The Rugby: James hosts alongside Mike Tindall and Alex Payne; the show describes itself as the world’s biggest rugby podcast. The Good, The Bad & The Rugby (https://goodbadrugby.com/) Blackeye Spirits: James, Mike Tindall and Alex Payne’s spirits business. The brand says its Rugby Fund aims to eventually invest £1 million annually supporting injured players, research, risk reduction and recovery. Blackeye Spirits (https://blackeyespirits.com/ James’s books: What A Flanker, Ruck Me and Approach (With)out Caution are all featured on his official site.

This is one of the most personal founder stories we’ve recorded on The Entrepreneur Experiment. Danny Buckley is the co-founder of ADHD Now and a 2026 EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. But the company exists because of a far more personal story. Danny spent much of his life struggling with distraction, emotional dysregulation, anxiety and a lack of structure without understanding why. His wife Simone believed he had ADHD. Danny dismissed it. Then life changed completely. After years of serious health challenges, Simone became critically ill. The day before she died, she told Danny that life was short, that he needed to stop inflicting suffering on himself, get help for his ADHD, understand who he was and back himself. Danny eventually followed her advice. His diagnosis at 32 gave him a new understanding of himself, but getting there exposed another problem: accessing ADHD assessment and support was extraordinarily difficult. Danny saw an opportunity to change that. Together with his co-founders, he built ADHD Now around a simple idea: people should be able to get answers in weeks rather than wait years. We unpack how they found clinical capacity, built the technology and processes, generated demand, scaled the team and created a service that expects to see 13,000 patients in 2026. But this conversation goes far beyond business. Danny speaks openly about grief, becoming emotionally available for his son, sobriety, faith, asking for help and learning to live with structure and discipline. We also explore why ADHD appears so frequently among entrepreneurs, how hyperfocus can become both an advantage and a liability, and why Danny eventually had to recognise that not every exciting business opportunity deserved his attention. His personal framework is beautifully simple: desire, hard work and help. And each morning, he returns to his Three Cs: Connection. Compassion. Contribution. This is a story about what happens when you finally understand yourself, accept what you cannot control and put your energy into what you can. As Danny puts it: “Life is short. Enjoy the life you’ve left.” IN THIS EPISODE Danny’s experience of living with undiagnosed ADHD The final conversation with his wife Simone that changed the direction of his life Why he travelled to the UK to receive his ADHD diagnosis How diagnosis brought structure, discipline and emotional awareness into his life Why getting a diagnosis is only the beginning Turning his own experience into the idea for ADHD Now The stranger Danny met outside the hospital who would later back the business How ADHD Now went from idea to launch in a matter of months Recruiting clinicians when the healthcare system was already at capacity Using technology and systems to reduce friction for patients Why private providers may form part of the solution to healthcare waiting lists The relationship between ADHD, hyperfocus and entrepreneurship Why Danny bought two bakeries while scaling a healthcare company Learning when ADHD-driven curiosity becomes distraction Danny’s formula of desire, hard work and help His Three Cs: Connection, Compassion and Contribution The moment at EY Entrepreneur of the Year when Danny finally felt proud of himself Why he rejects the idea that founders have to be miserable to succeed Faith, fatherhood and redefining what success means Why “action removes anxiety” Our Sponsors: Nostra: https://bit.ly/nostra26 Azure Communications: https://bit.ly/azure26 🔗 Links & Resources: ADHD Now: https://adhdnow.com/ie Danny Buckley on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danibuckley90 Danny Buckley on LinkedIn: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/danny-buckley-84840b2a0 Book recommendation – Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss: https://amzn.to/4dshO2a Follow The Entrepreneur Experiment: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneurexperiment/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@entrepreneurexperiment Podcast: https://www.mrgaryfox.com/podcast

Building a trusted brand rarely comes from one viral moment. It comes from showing up consistently, solving real problems and earning people’s attention over time. In this Mentor Moment, Laura Dowling shares how she built credibility by making complex health information easier to understand and creating content that genuinely helped her audience. It’s a valuable lesson for any founder or creator trying to grow a brand: trust compounds, consistency matters and meaningful impact will always outlast a temporary spike in views. 🎧 Listen back to Laura’s full conversation in Episode 466 of The Entrepreneur Experiment for more on her journey from pharmacist to educator, entrepreneur and trusted voice in women’s health. Follow and subscribe so you never miss a Mentor Moment. *Our Sponsors * Nostra: https://bit.ly/nostra26 Azure: https://bit.ly/azure26  Follow The Entrepreneur Experiment: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneurexperiment/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@entrepreneurexperiment

In this episode of The Entrepreneur Experiment, Gary Fox sits down with professional heavyweight boxer and Thirst co-founder Thomas Carty to unpack how he built one of Ireland’s fastest-growing hydration brands while pursuing a career in professional boxing. The idea began with Thomas’s own search for a convenient electrolyte product to support his training. When the brand he relied on stopped shipping to Ireland, he decided to create his own. Within just ten weeks, Thomas and his business partner had developed and self-funded their first 300 boxes—but producing the product was only the beginning. After pharmacies, health shops and supplement stores refused to stock them, Thomas loaded the boxes into his car and began selling them one at a time to coffee shops and saunas across Dublin. Today, Thirst works with more than 20 distributors and is stocked across Ireland in hundreds of cafés, vending machines, gyms, forecourts and major retail groups. Thomas shares the reality behind that growth: the uncomfortable early sales, the importance of moving quickly, how founder-led content helped build trust and why the right business partner allowed him to balance building Thirst with training up to 11 times a week. If you have an idea you’ve been waiting to launch, this episode is a practical masterclass in product development, distribution, founder-led marketing and getting started before everything is perfect. 🎧 Show Notes: In this episode, we cover: 🥊 How Thomas’s Olympic ambitions led him into professional boxing 💡 The sauna conversation that sparked the idea for Thirst 🤝 Finding a business partner with complementary skills ⚡ Developing and self-funding the first product in just ten weeks 📦 Starting with 300 boxes across three flavours 🚪 What happened when pharmacies and supplement stores refused to stock the brand ☕ Creating a new route to market through coffee shops and saunas 🚗 Driving across Dublin to sell one box at a time 📱 Using social proof and founder-led content to build trust 🎙️ The podcast appearance that created a major spike in sales 📈 Growing from one distributor to more than 20 🛒 Designing packaging specifically for convenience and retail 🏪 Expanding into hundreds of cafés and vending machines across Ireland ⏱️ Why speed has become one of Thirst’s greatest advantages 🧠 Balancing a growing company with 11 boxing and training sessions each week 📓 The physical diary Thomas relies on to manage his life and workload 🌍 Why export—not launching a canned drink—is the next priority 📣 Why social media remains the most powerful free tool available to founders 🚀 What Thomas would do differently if he were launching Thirst again 🔥 Why blind faith and hard work form his personal formula for success 💬 “The secret sauce is graft. There’s no secret.” – Thomas Carty 🔗 Links & Resources: Thirst: https://thirstlife.com Thirst on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirst.life Thomas Carty on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_thomascarty Thomas Carty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-carty-775516162 Book recommendation – Relentless by Tim Grover: https://timgrover.com/relentless/ Our Sponsors: Nostra: https://bit.ly/nostra26 Azure Communications: https://bit.ly/azure26 Follow The Entrepreneur Experiment: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/entrepreneurexperiment/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@entrepreneurexperiment Podcast: https://www.mrgaryfox.com/podcast