That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Sara Davies

Episode Date: April 4, 2022

On the episode of the podcast this week, Gaby chats to businesswoman, star of Dragon's Den and last year's Strictly Come Dancing, Sara Davies. They talk about how Sara got started in the industry, the highs and lows of 'fame', her time on the nation's biggest dance show, and of course her experience on Dragon's Den. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to that Gabby Rosen podcast, part of the Acast Creator Network. My guest this week is the very lovely Sarah Davies, known of course as being one of the dragons in the den and also one of the stars of last season Strictly Come Dancing. We talked about everything, how she got started, her family, her business, how she feels about being famous now. She's a complete delight and I do hope you enjoy listening to this episode. Please can I ask you a favour? Would you mind following and subscribing, please, by clicking the follow or subscribe button. This is completely and utterly free, by the way.

And you can also rate and review on Apple Podcasts, which is the purple app on your iPhone or iPad. Simply scroll down to the bottom of all of the episodes. I know there have been quite a few now. And you'll see the stars where you can tap and rate and also please write a review. Thank you so much. Sorry, you made me cry today. Oh, what did I do? I was watching MacTalk and the Chili Paste version episode of Dragon's Den and I was crying.

You're not the first person to say that. I think that was my day two ever filming in the den. Yeah, it was. And do you know what? The first day was kind of a warm up. So by the second day I felt really confident like I'm going to go for it. And I remember the first pitch up that day I invested in and then I think I did another one later in the day and Peter was like wow you've really come in hard new dragon and then it was it was about

half past eight at night who or will had been there since six o'clock that morning there was touch and go because we were over running with the filming would we fit on and they said do you know what does everyone not mind finishing late we'll come in and he came through them lift doors gabby with these little guitar singing that song and he had me transfixed from the moment he walked through and then as soon as he told me his backstory i just remember thinking oh my word this is everything I said I wasn't going to do but one by one the dragons dropped out and I thought how is no one want to give this guy a break he's just amazing and my little will you know he's still i still speak to one of regular days he's one of my favorite investments to work with and i do know i'm well into

cooking with his chili paste now i've never had chili paste in my life i can tell you but um it was a real it was one of them really pinch me moments that i i am lucky enough to be in that place where I get to help people like that and really, you know, he's an up and coming entrepreneur and he just needed some help and support. It wasn't about the money. It was about having a mentor who could help him on that next stage of his journey. And do you know what? I've had a wonderful three years with him. How's he doing? How's the product doing? So, you know, he's been hit really hard by the pandemic. I'll not lie, because a lot of his business was going around doing food festivals. But we've got a really robust business plan in place. He's got some awesome

product development on the horizon and he's pulling through it. So I'm so proud of him. You know, a lot of businesses just haven't made it through the pandemic, especially ones that are based on industries that relied on face to face. So I'm so proud of him that he's still going and he's pulling himself back on what's been a really challenging couple of years. Do you know, because I remember I watched the show and I have to say that my dad asked me to tell you, he's in his late 80s and I told my dad I was talking to you and he said, will you please tell us she's my favorite? And it is his favorite. Really? And you're his favourite that's ever been on, ever of the whole, all of it. He says it.

I love your dad already, even though I've never met him. Oh, he loves you. But I was saying, I remember watching that episode. So I wanted to watch it again. So that's why I did before I was going to talk to you. I was completely overwhelmed all over again. And do you know what is so special? I mean, you have the biggest heart. I think we all saw that on strictly. But I get the feeling that from an early age as well, you knew what you loved and you knew what you cared for. I think it's about values, Gabby, and it's about the values you have really underpinning everything you do. And for me, it's family and it's friends and it's supporting one another and it's helping other people up. And I had this realisation, maybe it's about a year ago. Someone asked me why I did Dragon's Den and how I changed.

choose the businesses that I'm going to invest in. And when I really dug down to it, if I'm being totally honest, Gabby, when I have my own personal wealth, I have the option of either investing it in other people's businesses or investing it in my own businesses, where I'm in control of turning my £1 investment into a £2 return, for example.

Or if I invest it in other people's businesses, I'm not in control of that, and it's more risky. And I know I invested in my own business, I'm going to make more of a return. But for me, Dragon's Dent, it's not about the return. It's about having that opportunity to give back and to help other people and to help entrepreneurs. And quite often the ones that I choose aren't the ones that really need my money.

It's the ones that need my help, like Will did from MacTalk, but more than that, it's the ones I know I'm going to love working with. Because it is, it's not just what you see in the day and it's then all the support that goes around it, all the help that we give them, the mentoring. And I want someone that I'm going to really, I'm going to get as much back out of that relationship as what I put in. put in. And it's the same with anything. The more you help in the community, the more you feel like you get back. Same for me with my investments. I get so much learning, so much personal development, so much enjoyment from spending time with a lot of those entrepreneurs. I've got the

privilege of working alongside. And so for me, Dragon's Den is like the perfect job. It doesn't feel like a job. It just feels like this extra, my husband calls at my extracurricular activity. And I just love doing it. But do you get fed off that everyone goes on about your wealth and your money. I get the feeling that you don't like the fact that it seems to be the first thing everyone interviews you about. I don't want to talk to you about that weirdly. It's not, that's your thing.

It doesn't upset me, but for me, money has never defined me, and I've never defined my success by how much money I've made. But that's society, that's how society quite often defines success. So when I go to Google myself, which I only do occasionally. Oh, that's a dangerous thing. Dangerous thing. I know, but every time I go to Google myself, the first thing that comes up with Sarah Davies net worth. And I just think there is so much more to me.

I feel like I've contributed to the world a lot more than the money I've made. It's the employment I've created. It's the difference I've made. You know, when I got my MBA, it was for creating employment services to the economy. And that felt like such a massive achievement. to me, not kind of how much money I've made. But I guess when you're in the world of business, that's how people like to look at how successful you are

or judge your success alongside somebody else. So I get it. But I'd love to think that one day we could kind of change perceptions, that that's not the measure of success. Do you think possibly, though, being a dragon has exacerbated that? Because obviously there's the watch of money. And there's, you know, it's about investment and it's about money. So in a way, that's why people,

see that, although I'm frustrated on your behalf that everyone always talks to you about it. As you say, when you Google you, yes, you know, when I was doing all my research on you, I kept thinking, we'll never just go away, actually. I want to know about you. I don't want to discuss how much money you got in the bank. I want to know about you. Do you know, it's always the first thing people say to me when they ask me about Dragonsden, they go, is that pile of money at the side of you all real? And then the next thing they always ask is, is it really, your money that you invest in companies. I say, well, yes it is. That's why we agonise over every decision. And you know what you see in 12 minutes on BBC One on a Thursday night, a 12 minute clip,

we could have been two hours negotiating that deal, Gabby, and you just see kind of the highlights from it because it's a huge decision. You know, if we're giving somebody 50 grand, 100 grand of our hard-earned cash, we want to know they're the right people and they're fully deserving of it, and they're going to look after it and spend it in the right way. So for you, let's leave this money word. Let's leave it. Let's leave it for now. Your story is so remarkable and that every time I read about your story or I see your story,

this really can happen for anybody. It really can happen for anybody. But you just, you knew what you wanted to do and you knew this was going to work. You really believed this was going to work, the envelopes that you did with your lovely dad. at university. You just knew, didn't you?

I did. And you know, it's funny. So when I was at university and I went off and studied management and Dragons then, it just started then. And Duncan Bannetine was one of the early dragons.

And Duncan actually lived, believe it or not, I moved onto the street that Duncan lived in 10 years ago. No. Yeah, and I remember when I was at university, I remember buying his book.

And his book was called Anyone Can Make It. And I read his book, And I thought, oh my word, he's just normal. He is just literally a normal bloke who worked really, really hard, knew exactly where he wanted to be and went after it. And I thought, there's no reason I can't do that because I'm just ordinary. But I don't mind hard work.

I'm not frightened of it. And so I just set out to try and be like that. And then last summer I got a call from Penguin. And they said, we wanted to know if you'd be interested in writing an autobiography. and I just thought back to what an impact it had had on my early career reading his book because I felt like he was just normal. And then every time I get asked to speak at events or, you know, I speak to my staff every six months or so, I'd do a new staff start talking our business.

And I try and impress on people that I'm not special. I wasn't born into a privileged family. I didn't go up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I didn't have some rich ante along the way. You know, there was nothing out of the ordinary. about me, I just know exactly where I want to be and I will move heaven and earth to get there. And I just find that when I taught people about it, they come away feeling really inspired and feeling like they can do it too like I did when I read Duncan's book. So I've written

the autobiography and it's called We Can All Make it, because I couldn't make his name, could I not? So we could all make it? But it's that same thing. And I just want ordinary people, whether it's an aspiring business person or whether it's another busy working mum wondering how on earth, like I would juggle everything. To read that book and think, do you know what? She's just normal. She has the same struggles as the rest of us. She's just got really big driving knows where she's going. And you've got, you know, the nicest possible way, big bollocks because you need them.

Let's be honest. You do because, you know, for every business that starts up, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds fail and don't keep going. And somehow yours did. And do you, I'm going to use a word that I am quite fascinated by is the determination. Do you think it's determination? And is it a self-belief or is it, what is it that makes, apart from the fact it's obviously a good idea. But there are many that don't work.

What is it that you need? Is it, you know, a personal thing? Is it determination? So the word I always boil it right down to is drive. I have drive in abundance. whether that's drive to succeed at work in my business, whether that's drive to be a fantastic investor for some of my businesses that I've invested in,

whether it's drive to be the best mum I can be, or more recently, it was drive to try and master a skill that I had absolutely no idea about, but knew I was going to love in the dancing. And if you just, if you apply that drive to everything you do, I am not the best at anything. I am not naturally talented at anything really,

but I've got this innate drive and desperation to want to succeed that pushes me beyond the point of anything else. And I love it. I thrive on it. And I think the dancing was a great example. You know, I realised being right at the bottom of the leaderboard in week one, that I am not up to scratch compared to all of these other celebrities here that are dancing. But I wanted that so badly. You know, I loved the show so much. And I didn't want to be out week two. And I was favourite to be out week two.

And I just thought, I'm going to work my little socks off here because I love. of this and I want to do this as long as I can. And it was that drive that got me through, you know, to week to, what was it, week 10, dance number eight I did. It was just, it was incredible what you can achieve when you put your mind to it. Where does this, obviously, you know the cliche question I'm going to ask is where does the drive come from? So people always say this, they always ask entrepreneurs as well. This is this age or thing of, are entrepreneurs born or made? Is it nature or nurture? And I can't tell you which one it is, but I know it came from my parents. So I don't know if I was born with jeans, like my entrepreneurial parents to have that drive,

or I don't know if it's the way they nurtured me when I was young. So did they believe in you? They did. My dad instilled in me, you can go and do anything, kid, you can be anything. And I know you've got to temper that with kids these days because you don't want them to think, you know what, I'm not going to stick in at school because I'm going to be a professional footballer, or I'm just going to be a professional YouTuber when I grow up. It wasn't that, it was that if you work hard and you've got that driving relentless energy,

Whatever you want to achieve in life, you'll get there and I'll back your kid. And he used to say, if you reach for the stars and you hit the moon, that's really good. And I think what my dad never banked on is I wasn't going to settle when I got to the moon. We were going to keep going. We've got them stars. And I'm still not there. You know, we get to one bit and I'm just immediately got my eye on, where do I want to go next? How do I drive that a little bit further?

Well, you like this as a child, though, when you were at school. And I mean, your parents sound amazing. You know, I love when I hear about supportive parents. We hear again and again, and I'm sure you've heard many stories, but we hear again and again about people who succeed and have become successes in whatever they've chosen to do, and their parents said, no, it's not going to happen or, no, I'm not supporting you. But the fact you had your parents' support, but were you like this as a child?

I think so. But what you've got to remember is I was really quite shy as a kid, and I was from, you know, I grew up in Little Pit Village in County Durham and we didn't have an awful lot of money when I was a kid. I was the kid that had the Adidas 4 Strive Tracksu bottoms and, you know, my mom and dad used to buy my new school bag from the car boot sale. And it was, we really didn't have a lot of money and I wasn't, because I wasn't the cleverest kid in the school, but I wasn't popular either. You know, I didn't dress trendy or anything like that. So I was kind of in the geeky crowd, but not smart enough to be one. one of the top geeks and I was all right at everything but not brilliant at anything.

It was the same with sport. You know, I was good enough to get into the top class at maths, but not right up at the top there. So everything like that I was just good at and I could push myself that little bit further. But I think it was, so I met my then-boyfriend now husband when I was 15. Oh wow. I didn't realize. Yes, so 22 years we've been together.

And Simon was four years older than me and Simon is really naturally bright. Sorry, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You were 15 and he was 19. Oh, I can tell you, Gabby, it was quite the scandal at the time. No, sorry, 20. He was 20. Blimey. He was 19.

I was 15. And I remember one day at school, one of the popular kids coming up to me. And I could see she was coming my way and I was shaking, just thinking, oh my God, she's going to come and talk to her. She's going to say, I don't know what she's going to say. And she stood up in my face and she went, is it true that you were dating a 25-year-old? And I loved you to do and I went, no, he's 19. You know, obviously, they've gone around the school and got exaggerating exaggerate.

I was like, no, he's 19. But like the popular kids couldn't believe that A, I had a boyfriend and B, that he had his own car, you know, that was really cool. Oh, yes. Yeah, it was, it's lovely. So my husband actually works with me in the, it's his birthday today. Oh, happy birthday, Simon. He works with me in the business. So, and we've worked together now for the last 13 years.

And he gave, he had a wonderful career. He gave it up a couple of years into the business because it was quite clear that I wasn't coping doing it all on my own and I would never trust anybody with my baby. And so he just came home from work one day and said, that's it. I've handed my notice and at work. I've worked out. We've got enough money in the bank account that we can take money out of the business, which I'd never done, and pay off the mortgage. And then we can live on 10 grand a year each. That's enough to pay the bills. And we're just going to give the company our all. And if it doesn't work, I'll just have to go and get another job. But we can't keep living like this because we were

like ships that passed in the night. He used to have this fantastic high-powered career. He would fly out to Europe, midweek, a couple of weeks in the month. I would be awake consumer shores every weekend, trying to build the business up. And we just never saw each other. And it was quite clear that the business, there was something there, but I didn't have all the skills to be able to make it work on my own. And he taught his, well, like, chalk and cheese, he's the yin to my yang. So now the staff all think it's absolutely hilarious because I run at 100 mile an hour leave a massive trade of destruction behind me. And Simon comes along with a sweeten brush. Oh, that sounds perfect. I can't believe you've been together for 22 years and

that you work together and you're still, when you talk about him, I can, you've got stars in your eyes. Yeah, I literally idolize the ground he walks on still. Oh my word. So what was he doing then? You say he had this high power job. I'm intrigued. What was he doing when it, what did he give up? So Simon, yes, Simon was a management accountant. So he is a glorified bean counter, which is why it worked so well in the business. because I'm one of these totally creative, airy-fairy, want to do all the product development, the marketing, the sales, the fun stuff. And I've got no patience whatsoever from the really dull boring stuff,

like the numbers and the logistics and the operational stuff. He takes care of all of that and I do all the fun stuff. It's brilliant. How did you know that this was going to work? As I said, you started out, I know it's sort of everybody knows now that you started out with the envelope. It was a beautiful car and you thought they need a, proper envelope. But then all the crafting. And I mean, it's huge now. I mean, I write for Prima

magazine and they, and I do a monthly column for them and they love it when I do something about, because I do, I'm mad about fashion, but I say you've got to change things and you've got to do this and this and this and but cooking and making things. And I mean, crafting is enormous. How did you know that this was going to have another growth? Yeah. Do you know, what back then it wasn't that big and it's interesting about Prima because you write all the fashion stuff and I do a crafting column in there I know you do I know you do that's why I mentioned it you love it but so 20 years ago when I first started in the industry it wasn't cool let me tell you if you made someone a handmade card for their birthday you were cheap whereas now if you make

someone a handmade card for their birthday oh my word look at the effort that you've gone to how incredible is that and I think it was so taboo all those years ago and it's so the in thing now and I've just I've watched the industry catch up with what I've been doing and kind of what I've seen and I think it's just I know it's that key buzz where that everyone talks about with the mindfulness but you know especially during lockdown you just look at how many people with stuff on devices we're watching TVs we're obsessed with the news updates or whatever take yourself out of that for just half an hour and do something with your hands you know I learned crochet again during lockdown or people have been I mean knitting's had a huge resurgence

and fabric craft sewing, since the sewing bee's being on, I mean it's one of the biggest shows on TV now, the sewing bee, and it's all these crafts, it's the things that we used to do without grandmas when we're little, that kind of got a bit lost for a while. Yes, you're right, but how did you know that this was going to happen? I just, so what happened was,

I went off to university, the study management, with a view to, I always knew I wanted to run my own business, or I'd take over the family business from my mom and dad when I got a little bit older. So I went to university to learn the theory, behind, you know, what we were doing in practice, which felt like common sense to make, because it's all I'd grown up with. And I went and worked with this tiny little craft company that just opened my eyes to an industry I never knew existed. You know, I knew that people

made cards, but like I said, it was something I kind of thought it was like what your grandma did or what craft is what older people did. And I'm not ashamed to admit it because it's what we all thought, right? And then I saw it and I saw how much joy it brought people. You know, I worked in the middle of that industry for that year that I did an industry and I saw those customers and I fell in love with the customers and I fell in love with the industry and I just thought I want to be a part of this. It's so creative but the people who craft it's more than a hobby to them. It's a real passion and the communities that exist in crafting whether that's virtual communities and people on Facebook or whether it's in-person communities and people meeting up in a village hall once a week

to have a knitting at the group whatever it is the support and the love that's in the that industry, I sort of thought, I want to be a part of this because this has got to take off. This is on the cusp of an explosion. It's got to be. And you know what? I picked the right industry. You did. People always say now, I think people think when you're an entrepreneur kind of at my level and

you get to invest in other businesses, they often call a serial entrepreneurs because people assume that we will sell one business, move on to another one. I'd like to think that my business skills could make me successful in any industry that I put my mind to it. But I don't want to put my mind to any other industry than the craft industry because it won't bring me as much joy. I love what I do. I come into work every day. I still teach.

I fly all over the world or I did pre-COVID. Now we broadcast all over the world from our studios here in the northeast of England. And I teach people how to craft live on TV. That is my job, whether it's on shopping channels in America or whether it's on the BBC doing craft segments. It's massive. crafting is massive in America and I you know at one point I was flying out to America every three or four weeks to do a multi-million pound a multi-million dollar short on the shopping channels in the US because people they watch it it's brilliant the shopping TV for craft you because

you can watch you can learn how to do it and then if you're watching you think i really like that stuff she's just made there you press one button and you order everything i've used and you can have it delivered to your home and then we do hours and hours i still teach hours of tutorials every month on YouTube. There's hundreds of hours on YouTube of me teaching you every different type of craft. And I just think it's that is the side of the industry that I just love, that the teaching, being passionate, you know, working with other crafters and you can, you'll never ever take that out of me. There's never anything I'll find that I enjoy doing as much as that. Although dancing was a really close second. I was going to consider dancing, sucking it all off to become a

professional dancer. At the end of last year, I was thinking I could take some extra ballroom lessons and maybe I could make it to black girl, but then I felt better of it. Do you teach Simon how to dance? Do you and Simon dance together? Oh, no. So Simon's got two left feet. Simon won't even dance with me at a friend's wedding

if he's really drunk, but he was also a little short ginger guy. So now I wouldn't understand the studio. No, no, no, no, no. I was ginger. My eldest daughter's, she's ginger. I love a ginger. I love Simon even more now.

You love him even more. But honestly, we are totally incompatible height-wide on the dance floor. So even if you would dance with me, which I know you won't, I realise I would get a really bad back. Now, I hadn't understood that before I started dancing. Oh, my word, I love that. I can imagine, you say that you're ying and yang. I imagine that he really is this calming influence because we all need them.

Us manic people who love to keep ourselves busy. and doing stuff. We need someone to keep you grounded. Do you know what I really hope, Debbie? I hope when this podcast comes out, I'll go and Google myself and ahead of Sarah Davies' net worth, you'll find who is Sarah Davies' husband.

That's sometimes a second or a third on the Google list of things people want to know about me. So let's see if we can get it to number one. How does it feel, though, now, fame? I'm not going to use the C word because I think the word celebrity is horrible words. I hate it. Yes, so do I. So how does the fame?

How do you feel about the fame? fame now because obviously you were famous for doing all your crafting shows but now fame has gone is escalated because of the den and because of the wonderful series of strictly i mean what a what an incredible series you were involved in because of that how does the fame how do you handle fame do you know it's one of it wasn't too bad after i did dragon's den i could kind of because what would happen is you can tell i'll be walking down the street and someone will stare at me because they can they know they know me and they don't know where they know me from.

They can't place it. And then as soon as I open my mouth, they go, that's it. It's the girl from Dragon's Den. It's always the accent that people tell me for straight away. But since I did strictly, they did say to me, it'll be another level and you won't know what's hit you. And it really hit me the other day I was having dinner with John Waite. I know you know John.

Oh, I love him. And we were having a whole discussion on the best way to cut your pizza. And John put it on his Instagram. And my friend texts me the next morning. and she was like, oh my God, Sarah, they're talking about you in the papers because of how you cut your pizza. You've totally made it now. And I was like, do you know what? It is another level when your life gets scrutinized to that level.

You know, somebody mentions how you cut a pizza on your Instagram story. And it makes the Manchester evening news and the Daily Mail. And it's one of them that you've just, you've got to learn to live with it. And for me, I've always been quite a private person. And Simon's very private. And one thing that was really important to us was keeping our kids out of the public eye. So I'm a really big family person And I just want to shout it from the top of my lungs every day

Like how well my kids are doing at school And the stuff I love to do with them as a mum But I don't want to expose them to any of that world So I keep my kids out of that, out of the media But I remember one day having a massive argument This pap had been following me in Aliash Around when we've gone for lunch sometime We're off to do the school run and pick the kids up

And I just tried to appeal to his better judgment and I said, look, please, I'll stand and you can take a picture of me walking along the street, whatever it is you need to do, but I'm going to pick my kids at from school now, and I really don't want you to follow me to the school or to harass the kids or anything like that. And he scoffed in my face and he said to me, ha, like I wasn't sat outside your house for five hours last night. And it just hit me like a ton of bricks and it terrified me. Yes. And it just made me think, is it worth it?

is, you know, because that's not, that's not what I set out to achieve. I just, I didn't set out to be in the public eye like this. I just got that opportunity to go on Dragon's Den. And I, and I, and I wanted to jump at it because I love the show. And then when I got the call to say, do you want to go on strictly? I do because I love that. That is my favorite TV program. Me and my husband sat down talked about it.

And we talked about the impact it might have on the family and how we could cope with that. And we just accepted that I wanted to do this so much. We would do everything we could. to protect the family from that. And nine out of ten people are really respectful and don't bother me. I don't mind when it's just me. You know, I don't mind if I'm out for dinner somewhere and people want to come and have a self with me.

I never mind that. It's when I'm with the family, I don't want to impose this on the kids' life because I signed up for this life, not them. And I think that's the blurred line where it's sometimes a bit difficult. Absolutely. I could share with you a story about a paparazzi photographer once, but I won't do it now. I'll do it another time.

No, but I just, I agree with you because I've always kept my family out. It's my choice. 35 years I've been doing this and it's my choice. It's not their choice. And they don't want to be out there. So the fame side, then how is Simon coped with, you know, the paparazzi thing, as he said to you. And, you know, does Simon now want to sort of rein you back a bit and say, come on, come back home? Or are you together coping with this?

Do you know, he is my absolute rock. And he can see how much I love what I'm doing. And he wants to be the one there to support me through it all. And do you know what? If I just look this last six months, so the pool lad, he is, because he runs the business with me, he's had to really hold down the foot on the business while I've been away playing little Mr. Twinkled toes. And then the kids are five and eight now, which means that every night there's either

football practice or karate training or swimming lessons. And so he's having to try and leave work early. the grandparents are a great app. We have amazing grandparents support, but just juggling the kids and all their various, you know, extracurricular activities that they do is immense. And then on top of that, you know, I've been so manic not only strictly, but in the strictly live tour. So I'm not there. I kind of still need to rely on him for all the emotional support while he's holding down the family and the household and the business, which I'm not going to lie, we have 250 staff globally. And, you know, We're a 40 million pound business.

It takes a lot of running. And he's just coping with all of that on his own. And all the stuff that comes with being in the spotlight and the press. And, you know, the radio wanted to interview him every week. I was on Strictly and now he felt about that. And he just took the whole lot in his stride. You can see why I still kind of idolized the ground he walks on. Isn't that amazing?

When you were 15 and he was 19, that you probably had no idea that this is how you both were going to turn out. No. This was going to happen. But I did know, I remember within a couple of months, I just felt like I knew that it was, he was the one. But then I was too embarrassed to say that at 15 year old because I thought everybody will say, she's only 15. What does she know about love? I knew within a couple of months and I just thought, that's it. And it didn't mean, you know, I made my life choices around that.

So I wanted to go off to university, but it meant I chose a university that was far enough away from home to justify the tens of thousands of my parents were going to spend on sending me to university but not so far that I couldn't see Simon every weekend and it was just making those decisions you know I wanted to go to university and have have my boyfriend still and I remember at uni there was 18 girls in my halls of residence and if the 18 11 of them had a long-term boyfriends in inverted commas when we started our first year and I remember by the Christmas there was only me was still with my long-term boyfriend going into the second, you know, the second term as it was. And I never regretted that.

I never looked back on that and thought, oh, I wish I'd got to uni with it. It's just, you know, I've been with Simon more than half my life now. And it's, I feel so lucky that I met the person I'm, I get to spend her a whole life with. And I was 15, you know, and I've got to share my whole half my life with him. You, there's a word you keep using. I'm very interested because there's a lot of women who don't like it is you keep using the word juggle. Yeah. And so a lot of women will say, oh, why do you never ask a man about juggling?

But you've used it a lot. So is it something that you feel? Is that, you know, you feel quite strongly that Simon's there to help you with the juggling? Yep. Simon has his own daily juggling act. And then I have the juggling act. And we have to juggle with the two sets of grandparents really being on hand and helping with all of that. But I think the one thing, and I get asked this.

about this a lot. It's how do you manage to juggle everything? And by everything, I mean, you know, the business, I still work in the business full time. My investment portfolio, which I'm now going into record about fourth season of Dragon's Den in the coming months, and that's, you know, that gets added to every year my investment portfolio. I juggle that. I've then got the kids at home. I now present some times for the BBC. I do morning live a lot. I've got other projects underway with the BBC. I've just been on tour with Strictly. the time I had out last year for Strictly and it is a constant juggling act but the way the way I do it I have one golden rule that kind of holds me through everything and that's be present in whatever you

do so whether that's you know I used to fly to America a lot you know like I said every few weeks and what I used to do is I used to get on that flight and I didn't chastise myself for the fact that I was away from warm and I was going to miss the kids for three days or any I just focused on the fact that the kids have been really well looked after, they're having a great time with their dad or the grandparents, and I needed to give work 110% of my focus because I was going to flying out to America to do a massive show, which was worth millions of dollars to the business, and that was keeping 50 people in employment. And then I would work really hard for the whole time I was away, and then get on the plane, back home, catch up on my emails, knowing that when I landed,

that phone was staying at the front door, out of the way, and I was going to be present with the kids, and I was going to have the next three or four days solely focused on family time and I wasn't going to feel guilty that I wasn't in the business and even though it was a Friday I was having the day off to spend with the kids because I just gave them work 110% of my focus for the previous few days and it was the same with the dancing. I remember so the only way I could fit the dancing training in is we used to have to train at six o'clock on the morning so Poo Raleash who thought the morning started at half past 10, 11 o'clock, got a sharp awakening when he came up north to train with me. He used to have to get up at five o'clock every morning. morning, meet me at the dance studio at six. We'd start training at six. And around eight o'clock, we used to knock off for a bit of a break. We'd put the coffee, put the kettle on, make a cup of coffee. And then I'd check my work emails. And I remember after a few days, he said to me, you're so focused when we get in at six o'clock. It's unbelievable how much you achieve. And then at past eight, I lose you a little bit. I can see you not as focus on what you're doing. And what it was is, I was looking at my work emails. And then I was thinking,

right, right, when I get into the office at half past one, I really need to do this, that and the other and then so-and-so's just asked me about this which means it probably got a problem with that so I wonder what we're going to do about that and half my heads in work and half my heads in the dancing so I'm not doing either very well so we had to stop we had to knock those eight o'clock cups of cup where we still kept the cup of coffee I knocked the check and the work emails on the head so that then what I could do is if I could only give him six seven hours or whatever that day I would give him six or seven hours of being totally present really focused on the steps and being 100% in the moment with the dancing,

knowing that when I left at half, 12, 1 o'clock, whatever it was, I could then go and give work 100%. And there's no point ever feeling guilty, whether it's mum guilt, whether it's guilt for not being in work enough. You know, I was feeling guilty for Aliash that I couldn't give him, you know, other contestants could just drop their whole life and go and train for 12, 14 hours a day. I couldn't do that because I still had to run the business.

And I still had to see the kids every day. And I still had to juggle my investment portfolio. or I couldn't give him 14 hours a day. I could give him six, but in those six hours, at least I could commit and be totally present and work my little socks off and do everything that he said. And I find decompartmentalising like that, being present in whatever it is you do,

always tease you up for success. Do you know, Sarah, you are like the best, I don't drink booze, but you're like the best drug, best drink ever. You're just, you're so enthusiastic about life. And I love the fact you're saying you're living in the moment and you feel all of this is important. Long may you reign, my darling. I honestly, I mean it.

Sara, thank you. It's been wonderful. Honestly, I have loved chatting to you. You've really, you've got me feeling good about everything again. Coming up next week, the hilarious Tom Allen. That Gabby Roslin podcast is proudly produced by cameo productions and music by Beth McCari. Could you please tap the follow or subscribe button? And thank you so much for your amazing reviews.

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