In this powerful episode, entrepreneur and endurance athlete Bruce Bignell joins me to share an honest, inspiring and deeply reflective journey, from childhood trauma and blended family life, to building a tech business, redefining leadership, and becoming the kind of man his younger self needed.

Bruce opens up about growing up between private school and state school, navigating complex family dynamics, searching for male role models, and the challenges young boys face today in a world of algorithms, screens and identity confusion. He explores how social media shapes validation, why kids are outsourcing self-worth to strangers online, and what parents must do to help them reconnect to real life, real people, and real values.

He also shares how a 3-month period of radical change, running ultramarathons, rowing the Channel, and transforming his nutrition, completely shifted his mindset and taught him how to back himself when everything felt impossible.

We dive into:

• Success: health, wealth, wisdom
• Masculinity: raising boys, male role models & blended families
• Mental health: resilience, identity & future self thinking
• Leadership: calm in crisis, inspiring change, seeing opportunity
• Risk: starting Evolve during Covid, hitting £70 in the bank, rebuilding
• Childhood: class, trauma, intuition, grounding and learning
• Technology: AI, humanity & why people will always matter
• Personal growth: redefining how you want your story to go

Bruce’s story is emotional, practical, honest and incredibly useful for anyone navigating business, fatherhood, mental health or big life transitions.

00:00 – Introduction

03:17 – “You alright mate?” Bruce checks in

04:46 – Lessons from a tough year

06:54 – Success = health, wealth & wisdom

09:44 – Lifelong learning & curiosity

10:44 – Teenage Bruce: success, football & business

17:00 – Class, identity & bridging different worlds

20:42 – Male role models & blended families

24:32 – Masculinity & the Lost Boys

25:41 – Teens, rebellion & identity

31:31 – Social media & outsourcing validation

36:30 – Intrinsic vs extrinsic self-worth

41:04 – Early business exposure

46:04 – Sales, rejection & resilience

54:51 – Crisis, clarity & leadership

57:54 – What makes a true leader?

1:02:15 – Work Up & endurance challenges

1:07:51 – Nutrition & trusting his body

1:19:36 – Risk, money & resilience

1:23:03 – “There’s always another way”

1:31:03 – Building Evolve

1:35:49 – How we respond to life

1:47:00 – Future self vs current behaviour

2:00:40 – Advice to 16-year-old Bruce

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucebignell

👉 https://www.different-hats.co.uk/podcast

Brown Bear Audio 👉 https://brownbearstudios.co.uk/

Carpenter Box 👉 https://www.carpenterbox.com/

Rivervale 👉 rivervale.co.uk

Produced by: H2 Productions www.h2productions.co.uk

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

What does success really look like once you’ve “made it”?

In this powerful conversation, I sit down with entrepreneur and former RocketMill CEO Sam Garrity for a deep and emotional exploration of ambition, success, fear, leadership, culture, mental health and reinvention.

Sam shares how RocketMill grew from a Yellow Pages idea to a high-growth agency, built on people-first culture and relentless belief. He opens up about anxiety, panic attacks, childhood trauma and the fear of embarrassment that silently shaped his drive.

He reveals the benefits and the cost of being “all in”: the emotional load, the mental space it consumed, the presence he lost at home, and why selling the company brought grief and joy.

This episode dives into:

• Panic attacks, anxiety and the roots of self-belief

• The fierce drive behind RocketMill, and the application behind “All in” mentality

• Culture, leadership and why behaviours matter more than values on a wall

• The emotional reality of selling a company, the euphoria and the grief

• Rebuilding identity, relationships and purpose after the exit

• Breathwork, emotional release and healing old wounds

• Why pride, integrity and community now matter more than ever

It’s raw, human, inspiring and full of lessons for anyone chasing big goals, navigating change, or trying to understand what success really means.

0:00 – Introduction

5:13 – “You alright mate?” — honest check-in

7:28 – Redefining success through purpose

9:04 – Success evolving through childhood → adulthood

17:27 – Ambition vs purpose

19:09 – What really drives Sam

21:11 – Upbringing, instability & resilience

27:05 – Fear of failure & self-belief

31:12 – Embarrassment, failure & reframing it

42:26 – Early career: Express, Daily Mail & culture

55:36 – The birth of RocketMill

1:00:00 – Betting the farm & starting from nothing

1:02:07 – “Are we all in?” — the RocketMill mentality

1:07:32 – Sacrifice: being there but not present

1:12:32 – Advice to founders: be braver

1:13:59 – Pushing the boulder uphill

1:26:17 – COVID: guaranteeing 200 jobs

1:28:50 – People-first culture in action

1:30:17 – Selling the company — everyone wins

1:39:31 – Euphoria & grief after the sale

1:50:00 – Breathwork, emotion & healing

1:51:26 – Community, Samaritans & purpose

2:00:45 – Seek pride in everything you do

2:02:34 – Storytelling card

2:05:26 – Closing reflections

A profound conversation for founders, leaders, parents, creators, anyone striving to succeed while staying grounded, healthy and human.

Brown Bear Audio – Elite podcast studio. 👉 https://brownbearstudios.co.uk/

Carpenter Box – Accountancy & advisory specialists. 👉 https://www.carpenterbox.com/

Rivervale – Making motoring manageable. 👉 rivervale.co.uk

Produced by: H2 Productions – h2productions.co.uk

👉 https://www.different-hats.co.uk/podcast

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