The BBC told her she was "a little bit too nice" and asked her to be more dragonlike before her Dragon's Den screen test. Most people would have nodded, taken the note, and put on a mask for the camera.
Sara Davies MBE did the opposite.
She looked straight down the lens and told the head of the BBC: "I'm fully aware I'm very different to all the other dragons you've recruited before me. But if you do hire me, this is the me you're going to be getting."
They hired her. She went on to become the youngest woman ever to sit on the Dragon's Den panel — and built one of the UK's most recognised craft brands, Crafter's Companion, from the ground up.
In the latest episode of the ActionCoach Podcast, Sara sat down for one of the most honest, practical and genuinely moving conversations you'll find in the business world right now. If you're a London business owner who's ever felt the pressure to be someone you're not in a boardroom, a pitch, or even a difficult conversation with your team — this one is for you.
What You'll Actually Get From Watching This
This isn't a highlight reel. It's a full excavation — of Sara's mindset, her mistakes, and the specific decisions that changed everything. Here's a taste of what gets covered:
The domino effect of one brave decision. Sara traces every major turning point in her career back to a single moment of choosing authenticity over performance. She maps it out in real time during the conversation — and it's a framework you can apply to your own life immediately.
How she overcame imposter syndrome — and how to coach it out of your team. Her approach is counterintuitive and it works. She's used it with her own staff for years. If you manage people, this section alone is worth your time.
The 93% rule that most leaders completely ignore. Only 7% of what people take from a meeting is the actual words spoken. Sara explains how she reads — and controls — the other 93% in every meeting she walks into. In the age of Zoom and AI notetakers, this insight is more relevant than ever.
The post-pandemic mistake that almost cost her everything. Sara built Crafter's Companion to a £40 million turnover business. Then she made one decision — one that felt reasonable at the time — that sent it into decline. She walks through exactly what went wrong, and the five-step turnaround plan that brought it back.
Why "nice" and "direct" are not opposites. After six years in the Den, Sara has a very clear view on feedback, radical candour, and why the feedback sandwich is doing your team a disservice. She puts it better than any management book: "Lose the bread. Just deliver the steak."
The baby-to-teenager business analogy every founder needs to hear. If your business has grown beyond you — or if it's stuck because the people who were right for it at year two aren't right for it now — this section will give you language for something you've probably been feeling but couldn't quite name.
Why London Business Owners in Particular Should Watch This
At BizX 2026, Sara walked into a room of over 1,200 business owners and had them before she'd said a word. That's not charisma as a personality trait. It's the product of years spent understanding how people read you — and making a deliberate choice about what you want them to read.
In a city where everyone is performing a version of themselves in every meeting, every pitch and every networking event, Sara's argument is simple: the performance is exhausting, and it's unnecessary. The version of you that got invited to the table is good enough to sit at it.
That's not motivational fluff. She backs it with a decade of decisions — some brilliant, some painful — that prove the point.
One Line to Leave You With
"Later doesn't get easier. It just gets later."
Watch the full episode now. Take notes the first time. Go back and take more notes after.
That's Sara's own advice. She said she's going to do the same.
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