Episode 300: Emma Jane Clarke, Martinstown Lodge: Leadership Coaching With Horses, No Saddles, No Cowboys, No Hiding

What happens when a senior executive walks into an arena with a horse and discovers the horse is not impressed by their title, their car, their bonus, their LinkedIn bio or their carefully manufactured air of command?

That is the business Emma Jane Clarke has built at Martinstown Lodge in Co. Meath.

No horse riding. No cowboy tricks. No corporate away-day nonsense with beanbags, beach balls or frostbite. This is equine-centred leadership development, where horses are used to help leaders and teams see how they really show up.

Emma Jane is no flake. Far from it. She was a senior leader in a government agency, managed large teams and multimillion-euro portfolios, and before that was the only female harvesting foreman in the UK forestry sector. Then, after a major accident left her in a wheelchair, she went after the dream: a farm, horses and a business helping people get out of their own way.

On Episode 300 of That Great Business Show with Conall O Morain, Emma Jane explains:

Why horses are brutally honest leadership mirrors

Why senior managers cannot bluff a horse

Why your thoughts are not necessarily reality

Why checking in too much can interrupt the flow of a team

Why confidence, presence and trust matter more than title

Why some CEOs need less PowerPoint and more paddock

Why no one, absolutely no one, gets to play cowboy

She also explains the business model, the client base, the expansion potential, the international ambition and why this strange-sounding idea is already working with serious companies.

And in Hire in a Heartbeat, Emma Jane chooses Steve Bartlett, Jay Shetty and, best of all, her 89-year-old mother Dorothy Clarke, who recently started her own podcast. That is competition. Family competition. The worst kind.

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She Got Into Tesco... Then One Rogue Zero Nearly Blew It Up | Erica Sheehan, Homespun

Real business. Real lessons. Listen to us — or learn the hard way.

Everybody loves a success story.

Few sees the panic behind it.

This week on That Great Business Show, Erica Sheehan returns three years after her first appearance to reveal what really happened behind Homespun's growth.

The headlines look great:

• Tesco listings

• SuperValu success

• Amazon UK sales

• New product launches

• Growing retail footprint

The reality?

• Five years searching for the right manufacturer

• A supplier pulling out after months of development work

• A coconut oil shortage threatening production (Monaghan seems to be a good source of coconut oil!)

• Thousands of online orders arriving overnight after one influencer mention

• A Tesco launch nearly derailed because of a single rogue digit in a barcode

This is entrepreneurship without the Instagram filter.

Erica also reveals how a chance encounter in Avoca led her to the manufacturer who finally cracked the code, why Amazon is far harder to sell on than most people imagine, and the advice she received from the late, great Ray Coyle of Tayto.

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HIRE IN A HEARTBEAT

Erica's picks:

• Katie McNally (Craigavon) — content creator who helps bring the Homespun brand to life online.

• Ian Dobbie — veteran food industry advisor and mentor whose experience has helped Erica navigate growth and avoid costly mistakes.

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They built a fried chicken restaurant. Then accidentally built a sauce empire.

Most couples argue about whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher.

Sofie Rooney and Garrett FitzGerald argue about chicken.

And somehow that turned into Chimac — one of Ireland's most talked-about restaurant brands and now a fast-growing food business stocked in Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Selfridges, Whole Foods and beyond.

On this episode:

• How a trip to South Korea changed their lives
• Why Sophie got scurvy from eating too much fried chicken (true!)
• The restaurant that nearly broke them
• The US distributor disaster that left them stranded
• How they went from packing sauce bottles in their sitting room to exporting internationally
• Why food businesses are brutally difficult
• Why they still think it's worth it
• 
  

And yes, Garrett also explains why Ireland should become a global ham superpower.

This is business at its messiest, tastiest and most entertaining.

Their 'hire in a heartbeat'? Sophie went for Fiona Fitzpatrick, founder of Brand Growth Heroes and former Nestlé, Gü and Japoni executive. Sophie describes her as one of the most insightful consumer-brand strategists she has encountered and would hire her to help Chimac scale internationally.

Garrett chose William Exner, a former Chimac team member from Brazil. Garrett highlighted his intelligence, work ethic, adaptability and positive attitude, describing him as someone he would hire again immediately. 

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She GAVE AWAY her company. To the staff.

No Silicon Valley gimmick. No kumbaya management retreat. No hippy dippy stuff. Just hardnosed business.

Just one brutally practical question: “Michael Smurfit regarded equity as blood… so why would you ever sell ?

Conall Ó Móráin sits down with Joan McCoy of White Ink Architects — one of the leading voices in employee ownership across Ireland and the UK — to explain why businesses owned by staff often outperform traditionally-owned firms.

And then comes the jaw-dropper. In Ireland? It is often CHEAPER to sell your business to a foreign buyer than to your own employees. Madness.

This episode covers:

• Why employee-owned firms often grow faster

• Why staff suddenly start acting like owners

• Why Ireland is behind the UK and Canada

• Why ordinary workers getting wealth matters

• Why architects are suddenly talking like economists

• Why the Tánaiste may finally be waking up to this issue

Plus:

• Wolfgang Digital

• John Lewis

• ARUP

• Housing chaos

• Social housing economics

• And the most Irish Department of Finance problem imaginable

Joan's 'hire in a heartbeat', Michael Keaveney, Director of Land and Acquisition at Grainger plc.

She described him as someone with a very direct style who can “cut through the noise and really get to the crux of the matter”, particularly around housing viability, social housing economics, and having “the right conversations” about the real scale of the housing crisis. 

This is one of those episodes that quietly changes how you think about business.

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#EmployeeOwnership #IrishBusiness #SMEs #SuccessionPlanning #Architecture #Leadership #BusinessIreland #WolfgangDigital #JohnLewis #ARUP #HousingCrisis #Entrepreneurship #ThatGreatBusinessShow

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E296 That Great Business Show

How to get a month a year of your time back. And it's free.

The Two Barrys: One Built the System. One Was Drowning — Until It Worked.

What if you could get a THIRD of your working week back?

Not by hiring. Not by working longer. Not by burning out (more). But by stopping bad decisions.

ON this episode, two Barrys walk into the studio — and one walks out with his life back.

Barry Cryan built a system to eliminate “micro-decisions” — the tiny interruptions that kill momentum, drain energy, and keep founders trapped in their business.

Barry Flanagan was running THREE businesses — Lock 13 pub, Kildare Brewing Company, and Pro Culture Kombucha — and hit the wall.

60-hour weeks. No clarity. No headspace.

Now? Structure. Systems. Staff aligned. Time back. (And he's no longer manning the chip fryer on a Friday evening).

This is not theory. This is before-and-after business.

Expect:

• Why “busy all day” is actually business failure

• The hidden tax of micro-decisions

• How founders become the bottleneck (and don’t realise it)

• Why 2.5 hours a week can buy back 10–40 hours

• The moment a business owner realises… they don’t actually have a business

And yes — we ask the uncomfortable question: If you’re working IN the business… do you even own one?

This episode is brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil. No waste. No cans. No landfill. Just the best shave you’ll ever have.

DeFactoShave.com

Our Gentleman’s (and ladies’) Agreement is simple:

We do the work. You hit subscribe. Fair exchange.

00:00 The question that changes everything

01:30 What “systems” actually mean

05:30 From burnout to 5x productivity

10:00 The Instagram ad that changed everything

15:30 Why founders are the bottleneck

20:00 The solopreneur reality (and opportunity)

25:00 Delegation vs control

30:00 The cost of NOT changing

34:00 Hire in a Heartbeat

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Rihanna’s knickers.

That’s where this episode starts.

From there, Conall Ó Móráin meets Lisa O’Riordan live at the RDS Finding Common Ground Festival to unpack one of the biggest unseen business opportunities in the world: Waste.

Her company is tackling single-use PPE — used in the tens of millions across healthcare and industry — and turning it into a circular, compostable solution.

But this is not a feel-good story.

It’s a hard-edged business reality:

Margins matter

Procurement blocks change

And “cheap” is still king

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The shaving oil that goes on your face — not into landfill. DeFactoShave.com

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€50 MILLION.

MULTIPLE ACQUISITIONS.

ONE PLAN TO BUILD IRELAND’S FIRST LUXURY EMPIRE.

This is not a startup story. This is a land grab. Ashley McDonnell — back on That Great Business Show and one of the tribe since Episode 181 — is building Vyko Group to buy, scale and globalise Irish fashion, beauty and luxury brands. She’s not launching a brand. She’s building a portfolio to compete with the biggest players in the world.

From working on Europe’s biggest IPO at Paco Rabanne owners Puig (how she got to work there is one of the best stories...)… to scanning 500 Irish brands… to lining up her first acquisitions — this is one of the most ambitious Irish business plays in years.

And we’ve been following it from the start.

In this episode:

• Why Ireland has never built a luxury group. Tony O'Reilly did try (Waterford Wedgewood), Don Carroll (Carroll's cigarettes) did try. As the Americans say, 'Third time is a charm'??
• How Vyko plans to scale Irish brands globally
• The smell of money Why fragrances are the secret weapon
• The real power of negotiating as a group
• What she learned inside LVMH, Dior, Google and Puig - she really has served her time
• 
  

Sponsored by another great brand name, De Facto Shaving Oil

No cans. No landfill. Just the best shave you’ll ever have.

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ON Episode 293 of That Great Business Show, recorded at the RDS Finding Common Ground Festival, Conall Ó Móráin speaks with Enda Buckley of Carbery Group.

This is not a farming story.

This is an energy story.

A profitability story.

A “what are we waiting for?” story.

Denmark is moving fast on biomethane — turning farm waste into gas and aiming for self-sufficiency by 2030.

Ireland?

We have the farms.

We have the feedstock.

We have the need.

But, according to Enda, we do not yet have the push.

And that is only the start.

In this episode:

• Why sustainability-focused farmers were about 28% more profitable
• How “green poo” could replace imported soya
• Why grass could become a human food ingredient
• The parish-level biorefinery model that could transform rural economies
• How biodiversity may become a revenue stream, not a regulation
• Why Ireland risks missing a major energy opportunity

This is about turning what we already have into something far more valuable.

This is real business.

Brought to you, as always, by De Facto Shaving Oil — the world’s finest shaving oil. Not a beard oil. It’s for shaving any and all of your bits.

DeFactoShave.com

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What keeps a GP practice running?

Not just doctors. Not just nurses.

It's the same for any business.

Cashflow. Systems. People who actually make it all work.

On Episode 292 of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin speaks with Rachel Bothwell, founder of GP Practice Ally — a business now supporting up to 75% of GP practices in Ireland.

This is a story about stepping in when everything could have fallen apart — and building something that became essential infrastructure.

Find out:

• How one small Irish company became critical to GP practices nationwide
• What actually breaks inside a GP business (and how to fix it)
• Why cashflow — not medicine — is often the biggest risk
• What every SME can learn from running a “mission-critical” business
• 
  

This is real business — messy, essential, and closer to home than you think.

Brought to you by De Facto Shaving Oil. DeFactoShave.com.

business ireland, SME ireland, healthcare business, GP practices, entrepreneurship ireland, cashflow, small business growth, operations, scaling business, Irish business podcast

00:00 Intro — “75% of GPs??”

01:20 How Rachel stepped in

05:10 What actually goes wrong in GP practices

10:40 Cashflow crises nobody talks about

15:30 Scaling to national level

20:10 Lessons for every SME

25:00 Hire in a heartbeat

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“WHY IRELAND CAN’T BUILD HOUSES… EVEN WHEN WE HAVE THE MONEY”

Episode 291 — David Ward, Founder, Ward Personnel

Ireland has the money.

Ireland has the demand.

Ireland has the plans.

So why can’t we build houses?

On this episode of That Great Business Show, Conall Ó Móráin goes straight to the front line of Ireland’s construction crisis — with David Ward, founder of Ward Personnel, a €40M+ business supplying workers across Ireland and Europe.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

• We don’t have enough brickies, sparks, or chippies
• We’re competing with Europe for workers — and losing
• Irish builders are now exporting their expertise… just to survive
• 
  

And here’s the kicker:

Is this actually a growth story… or proof the system is broken?

David explains:

• Why Ireland cannot hit housing targets (no matter what politicians promise)
• Why Polish workers are no longer coming
• The real reason apprenticeships collapsed
• Why Irish construction firms are now following Big Tech across Europe

Plus:

• The chaos of running a 600+ workforce across multiple countries
• The truth about “messers” on site
• And why “compliance” is the only thing keeping the whole thing from falling apart

This is not theory.

This is the reality of building — or not building — Ireland.

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