Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered Sage

Dan Kieran is the incredible co-founder and former CEO of award-winning publishing platform Unbound. He also happens to be the best friend every entrepreneur needs. 

In this episode of Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered, Dan shares his insights on everything from having that lightbulb moment to getting started, building your brand, raising money, and developing the right mindset to manage your mental health as a founder.

Jason Millar, also known as Jay, is the inspiring founder of Jay's Barber Club and Jay's Pro Barber Academy in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Despite a difficult upbringing, which included growing up with an alcoholic mother and being orphaned at a young age, Jason has overcome drug and alcohol addiction to build a successful business that not only keeps the community looking sharp, but also gives back to it. 

Jason's commitment to mentoring fellow barbers and helping those less skilled to change their lives or start a new career has made him a hero to many. He has even written a book, "From Jason to Jay," about his remarkable journey. 

On this episode of Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered, Jay shares how he took control of his life and built a thriving business. 

Celebrated broadcaster and author Emma Gannon had achieved everything she had hoped for in her professional life: multiple best-selling books, a glittering portfolio career, a trail-blazing podcast, and speaking engagements that took her around the world. She was successful, no doubt about it. 

But despite her many accomplishments, and a hunger to do more, she couldn’t help but feel burnt out and unhappy.

Through some self-reflection and conversations with successful guests on her award-winning podcast, Ctrl, Alt, Delete, Emma discovered that the problem might be the way we look at success as a society. She’s even written a book about it, The Success Myth, out in May 2023. 

On this episode of Sound Advice: Entrepreneurs Unfiltered, Emma shares her journey from burnout to a better relationship with work, debunking some of our most widely held beliefs about success along the way. 

Meet Sophia Procter, a former communications manager and the founder and CEO of Munchy Play. After almost ten years at British Airways, Sophia faced redundancy upon returning from maternity leave in 2017. But she wouldn’t be defeated so easily–Sophia rallied, turning that tumble into an opportunity to follow her entrepreneurial dreams and start her own business.

Determined to make things more fun for her picky-eater son, she put a train track around the plate–and it worked like a charm. Her son not only came to the table but ate his meal without any fuss. That was the "lightbulb moment”. Join us as Sophia shares her unfiltered story of creativity and perseverance, and how she brought a never-before-done idea to life. 

His Dragon's Den pitch is imortalised as the tv show's 'best ever', and Harry Redknapp describes him as having the workrate of a top footballer. This is how Sam Jones convinced stars like Tinie Tempah to invest in his tech start-up, Gener8. 

Thinking of setting up your own creative business in the New Year? The fabulous founder of Cake or Death talks making a sell-out product from your side hustle. It's practically an MBA in leopard print letterbox brownies.