She started with £5, two puppies, and a husband who'd just left. That's not a crisis - that's a maverick opening line.

Nicola Venetia Steele is the founder of Venetia Steel Boutique in Bridgend, South Wales - a woman who turned dyslexia, redundancy, hand-me-downs, heartbreak, and a garden shed into one of the most distinctive boutique brands in Wales.

But this isn't really a story about clothes. It's a story about identity. About what happens when a little girl grows up feeling overlooked, underdressed, and underestimated - and turns all of that into style, grit, commercial instinct, and fierce self-belief.

In this episode, Nicola talks about:

• Growing up as the youngest of four, excluded and in hand-me-downs that didn't fit

• Turning up to school in her uniform on wear-your-own-clothes day - because she had nothing else

• How dyslexia became her greatest business superpower

• The mentor who gave her wings - and the lesson that changed how she handles people forever

• Building from a kitchen table to a garden shed to a standalone store

• The dream that told her to sign the lease

• Why she built a boutique specifically for women over 40 who feel invisible

• Losing her dog Zosia - and what that taught her about love and priorities

• Why independence has been both her greatest strength and her greatest cost

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction - "£5, two puppies, and a dream"

01:10 Were you born a maverick or did life force you to be one?

05:30 The Fiat Panda - what freedom really looks like

10:30 Wear your own clothes day

14:00 Fashion as control, confidence, and belonging

17:00 How dyslexia became a superpower

22:30 The mentor who changed everything -Linda

28:00 Dreams, instinct, and signing the lease

33:00 From kitchen table to garden shed to boutique

38:00 The redundancy - and protecting her team

43:00 Building Venetia Steel Boutique

50:00 Women over 40 - visibility, style, and confidence

56:00 Zosia

1:02:00 Maverick Maxims - quick fire

1:08:00 "A maverick is someone who..."

ABOUT INSIDE THE MAVERICK MIND

A podcast hosted by Emyr Afan exploring the minds of unconventional thinkers, builders, and creators. Each episode goes beyond the business story to ask what really drives the people who refuse to play it safe.

What does it take to survive a dictatorship, build a career across five continents, beat leukaemia - and then run 270 kilometres across the Sahara?

In this episode of Inside the Maverick Mind, host Emyr Afan sits down with Lucia Rowe - linguist, travel industry leader, cancer survivor, and ultramarathon runner -to explore one of the most extraordinary life stories you'll ever hear.

Lucia grew up in Ceaușescu's Romania, where the knock on the door in the night was a constant terror. Two of her school friends were killed in the street during the revolution. And yet, from those dark beginnings, she built a 25-year career in the travel industry, helped launch and scale A-Rosa River Cruises in the UK and beyond, and became a powerful voice for breaking down barriers in business.

Then came the diagnosis nobody wants - leukemia, during COVID. With no immunity and a global pandemic raging, Lucia chose to fight. She made a plan. She drew on something bigger than herself. And five years later, she is in full remission.

Not content with that, she took on the Marathon des Sables - one of the world's toughest ultramarathons - was medically withdrawn the first time, and went straight back to finish it in 2026.

This is a conversation about fear, endurance, sunshine moments, solidarity in the sand, and what it really means to keep moving towards the light.

Topics covered:

Growing up under Ceaușescu and the lasting trauma of the Securitate

Building A-Rosa River Cruises from scratch in the UK market

Facing a leukemia diagnosis during COVID and choosing to fight

Running 60+ marathons and 15 ultramarathons post-illness

The camaraderie and raw humanity of the Marathon des Sables

Raising £50,000+ for Ruben's Retreat and the Family Holiday Charity

What success, freedom, and resilience really mean

Ruben's Retreat:

Family Holiday Charity:

Inside the Maverick Mind - conversations with people who do things differently.

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Nick Hounsfield didn't set out to build a tourist attraction. He set out to build the kind of medicine you can't prescribe.
A former osteopath, Nick spent 18 years treating the symptoms of stress, burnout, and disconnection — until he realised the real problem wasn't in the treatment room. It was in the environment people were returning to.
So he left his practice, made a promise to his dying father, pitched to over 230 investors, fought for planning permission on greenbelt land, and built The Wave — the UK's first inland surf destination, just north of Bristol. A place designed to make people healthier, happier, and more connected, without them even knowing.
Then, just months after opening, Nick had a major stroke.
In this episode, we explore what it means to build a place of recovery and then become the person who needs it most — and how that experience reshaped everything Nick thought he knew about ambition, resilience, and what actually matters.
We cover:
* Why Nick walked away from a thriving osteopathy practice to build something "impossible"
* The 10-year journey from £500 and a sketch to a £30 million destination
* What 230 investor rejections taught him about vision, timing, and personality fit
* The stroke that stopped everything — and the clarity that came with it
* Blue health: the science of why water makes us happier and healthier
* His new mission, One Blue World, and why it goes far beyond surfing
* The difference between stubbornness and vision
* Why pause is as important as push
Nick's story is a masterclass in maverick thinking — and a timely reminder that sometimes the boldest thing you can do is build the world you think people need.

Andy Middleton is a pioneering force in sustainability, ecologic thinking, and biomimicry - and he happens to be based in one of the most breathtaking corners of the world: St Davids, West Wales. As founder of the TYF Group, co-creator of the World Freestyle Kayaking Championships, and a key contributor to Wales' groundbreaking Future Generations Act, Andy has spent decades helping individuals, communities, and businesses think - and act - differently.

In this conversation, we explore how growing up on the Pembrokeshire coast shaped his worldview, why he believes shareholder capitalism is in its "death days," what biomimicry and ecologic thinking can offer a world in crisis, and why the most powerful conversations happen not in boardrooms but in nature.

We also dig into the DO Lectures, the dangers of AI singularity, legacy, family, and what it truly means to be a maverick.

🌊 Topics covered:

• Growing up in St Davids & founding TYF
• Coasteering, kayaking & being #2 in the world
• From adventure business to sustainability pioneer
• The Future Generations Act & Wales as a global model
• Biomimicry, ecologic thinking & the rules of physics
• The DO Lectures & community on the edge
• AI, singularity & upgrading our "maverick quotient"
• Legacy, George Bernard Shaw & being "fully used up"

From 100% commission door-to-door sales to co-creating a Glastonbury for Business - Frankie James joins Emyr Afan on Inside the Maverick Mind.

Frankie is the force behind the Great British Entrepreneur Awards and Ideas Fest, an outdoor business festival that blends entrepreneurship with music, wellbeing, and genuine human connection. Co-created with economist Dylan Jones Evans, Ideas Fest has grown into one of the UK's most distinctive spaces for founders to think, connect, and be inspired.

In this episode, Frankie shares:

• How brutal door-to-door commission sales shaped her approach to people and business
• Why she went to university after working - and what she'd do differently
• The real story behind launching Ideas Fest during the pandemic
• Why community beats competition and how collaboration supercharges growth
• The importance of honest founder spaces - not just highlight reels
• Her Maverick Moment: taking over a field and throwing thousands of entrepreneurs into it
• How to scale something special without losing what makes it human

Whether you're a founder craving connection, someone building community around a bold idea, or just looking for permission to do things differently — this one's for you.

🎙️ Inside the Maverick Mind - the show where unconventional thinkers share what really goes on behind the business.

📌 Find Frankie James:

• Ideas Fest: ideasfest.co.uk
• Great British Entrepreneur Awards: greatbritishentrepreneurawards.com
• Instagram/LinkedIn: @FrankieJames | @IdeasFest

📌 Subscribe for more maverick conversations every week.

#Entrepreneurship #IdeasFest #MaverickMind #BusinessPodcast #GreatBritishEntrepreneurAwards #Founders #CommunityOverCompetition #Wales #StartupUK

The Voice Behind the Anthem: John Parr on Fame, Betrayal & Never Giving In

In 1985, a song exploded out of a Hollywood cinema and never really stopped playing. That song was St. Elmo's Fire — and its writer and singer, John Parr, joins Emyr Afan on Inside the Maverick Mind for one of the most honest, surprising and inspiring conversations you'll hear this year.

Born on the wrong side of the tracks in a Nottinghamshire mining town, John Parr spent 20 years grinding his way to a room with David Foster — then wrote a number one anthem in three attempts on a single afternoon. But what came next wasn't the fairy tale the world imagined.

In this episode, John opens up about:

• The real story behind "St. Elmo's Fire" — and the wheelchair-bound hero who inspired it
• Why his record label hated the song and refused to promote it
• The betrayal that cost him 20 years of his career — and how he survived it
• What it was really like touring with Tina Turner, Toto, The Beach Boys and Journey
• Working with Mutt Lange and the lesson that changed how he creates
• His growing obsession with Welsh culture, Hedd Wyn, and a film that could change everything
• Why he believes the next great anthem needs to be about mental health
• And the uncanny sign that made him certain he was on the right path

This is the story of a man who never gave in — even when everything gave out.

🎵 "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" | 🎬 Filmmaker | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Friend of Wales

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Henry Engelhardt didn't just build a successful company. He built one of the most loved workplaces in British corporate history - and did it by betting everything on a single, radical idea: that happy people build better businesses.

Starting as a complete outsider to the insurance industry - a Chicago kid who'd worked a hotdog stand, the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and McDonald's on the Champs-Élysées - Henry co-founded Admiral Insurance in 1993 from a standing start, without offices, without a name, and as the seventh player in a market already crowded with giants. By the time he stepped down as CEO, Admiral was a FTSE 100 company employing over 10,000 people across four continents, had been named one of the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For more times than most businesses even try, and had made its entire workforce shareholders.

On his final day as CEO, hundreds of staff lined the car park wearing T-shirts printed with his face.

That's not a corporate valediction. That's a movement.

In this conversation, Henry talks candidly about growing up in 1970s Chicago, the mentors who shaped him, why being an industry outsider was his greatest competitive weapon, how he turned culture into a hard financial advantage, the four pillars that drove everything Admiral became, and why - even now - he writes down what he's grateful for every single day.

This is one of the most honest, warm and genuinely useful conversations about leadership, people and business we've ever recorded.

Inside the Maverick Mind is the podcast that goes beyond the boardroom and behind the breakthrough. Each episode, host Emyr Afan sits down with the entrepreneurs, leaders and rule-breakers who didn't just build successful businesses — they changed the game entirely.

These aren't polished corporate interviews. This is real talk: about failure, obsession, instinct, culture, and what it actually takes to build something that lasts. From startup scars to FTSE 100 boardrooms, from Chicago hotdog stands to Cardiff Bay — every guest has one thing in common: they refused to play it safe.

New episodes every [frequency]. Subscribe and join us inside the minds of the people who dared to think differently.

Until next time — remember, the world doesn't change by playing it safe.

YOUTUBE DESCRIPTION:

In 2022, Craig Maxwell OBE was told he had a rare form of cancer and 12 months to live.

Most people would stop. Craig accelerated.

In this extraordinary episode of Inside the Maverick Mind, Craig — a former Welsh Rugby Union executive and one of the youngest commercial directors in world rugby — sits down to talk about the moment that changed everything. The diagnosis. The fear. The clarity that followed.

But this isn't just a story about facing death. It's a story about what you choose to do with the time you have.

Since his diagnosis, Craig has run marathons, cycled across countries, climbed mountains, and walked the entire Welsh coastline — all while undergoing treatment. In doing so, he has raised over £1.7 million to fundamentally change how cancer is diagnosed in Wales. So that others are found in time. So that no one else hears the words "we can treat it, but we can't cure it" when it's already too late.

In this conversation, Craig talks about:

• The moment he received his diagnosis — and what happened in the hours that followed
• What he's most afraid of, and the things no one can prepare you for
• How a terminal illness made him a better husband, father and friend
• What "keep going" really means when the stakes are as high as they get
• The £1.7 million mission to save lives through early cancer detection
• What he wants his children to know about who their father was

This is one of the most remarkable, thought-provoking and life-affirming conversations we have ever recorded.

Please watch. Please share. It could save a life.

🔔 Subscribe for more conversations with people who think differently when the stakes are real.

CraigMaxwell #CancerAwareness #EarlyDetection #TerminalCancer #Podcast #WelshRugby #LungCancer #Mindset #Legacy #InsideTheMaverickMind