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She skipped six weeks of school, rang in pretending to be her own mother — and that same school later celebrated her as one of its most successful former pupils.

Hayley Parsons OBE didn't follow the system. She built it her way.

In this Season 1 finale of Inside the Maverick Mind, Emyr Afan sits down with the founder of GoCompare — one of the most recognisable brands in British business history. Hayley shares the real story behind walking away from a 13-year career at Admiral, launching a comparison site from scratch, taking on Tesco Compare with 6 staff against their 200, and creating one of the most iconic advertising campaigns the UK has ever seen.

This conversation is about more than business. It's about instinct, visualisation, reinvention, and the courage to back yourself before anyone else does.

In this episode:

• How she got away with six weeks off school — and what it taught her
• Building Confused.com from a windowless room
• Why she ignored her board and ran the GoCompare opera ad anyway
• The phone call from Norwich Union that made them profitable overnight
• Taking on Tesco — and why they never recovered
• Selling GoCompare for £190M and what came next
• Her one regret from the exit process

"Game on. Challenge accepted."

🎙️ Inside the Maverick Mind is back for Season 2 in September.

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He Died at 21. This Is What He Did Next.

At 21 years old, Andrew Jenkins was dragged from a car wreck, lost six pints of blood, and was pronounced clinically dead at the scene. He spent four weeks in a coma. Doctors told his family he would never walk, talk, or recognise them again.

He proved every one of them wrong.

But surviving was only the beginning. For the next 24 years, Andrew carried the weight of that moment in silence - battling depression, a loss of identity, and the invisible aftermath of a traumatic brain injury - all while wearing a smile and holding down a career in banking.

Then came The Traitors. And a walk of 750 miles across four nations. And the conversations he'd been putting off for two and a half decades.

In this episode, Andrew sits down with Emyr Afan on Inside the Maverick Mind to talk about:

• 💥 The night of the accident - and what his parents were told at the door
• 🧠 Waking from a coma to be told he'd never walk again - and arguing with the doctor
• 😶 Why he never told his son "I love you" until he was 22 years old
• 🎭 What it was really like being a Traitor - and why he says he was "too honest to win"
• 🚶 Walking 750 miles for Headway brain injury charity - and who was waiting at the finish line
• 💬 The conversations he avoided for 24 years - and what happened when he finally had them
• 📱 Why he's known as "the antidote to Andrew Tate" in schools across the UK
• 🪞 How holding a mirror up to yourself changes everything

This is one of the most honest, moving, and quietly powerful conversations you'll hear this year. Andrew is a normal guy from a council estate in the Welsh Valleys. And that's exactly what makes this so important.

"85% of what we worry about never comes true. Be brave. Have the conversation."

🔔 Subscribe — new episodes every Monday at 6pm

👇 Who in your life needs to hear this? Share it with them.

📌 Chapters:

00:00 — Introduction: Clinically dead at 21

02:30 — Growing up in a Welsh valley — rugby, masculinity & silence

08:00 — The night of the accident

15:00 — Waking from the coma & proving the doctors wrong

21:00 — 24 years of hidden depression

27:00 — The maverick moment: finding the surgeon who saved his life

33:00 — Telling his son "I love you" for the first time

38:00 — The Traitors: being too honest to win

45:00 — Walking 750 miles for Headway

52:00 — Being the antidote to Andrew Tate

57:00 — What strength really means

🔗 Find Andrew Jenkins: [Add his social links here]

🔗 Headway Brain Injury Association: headway.org.uk

#AndrewJenkins #TheTraitors #MentalHealth #MensHealth #BrainInjury #Coma #Resilience #InsideTheMaverickMind #Podcast #Wales #Headway #Courage #StrengthInYou

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What does it take to lead a national institution through budget cuts, crumbling buildings, and a crisis of relevance - and come out the other side with a bolder vision than ever?

Jane Richardson, Director General of Amgueddfa Cymru / National Museum Wales, joins Emyr Afan on Inside the Maverick Mind for a conversation that's as surprising as it is inspiring. From a 400-year-old clam that witnessed the Sistine Chapel being painted, to tiny marine worms tracking climate change in real time, to a Welsh hip-hop exhibition sitting next to Turner - Jane is rewriting the rules of what a national museum can be.

In this episode:
🐚 Why Wales's national museum isn't "distinctively Welsh enough" - yet
🔬 The marine worm researchers whose skills could disappear forever
🦣 Tom Bones the mammoth - and why he's actually 3D printed
🎤 Hip-hop next door to Turner, and why that matters
🌍 New international partnerships with Japan and why Wales needs to be round the table
🏛️ The vision for a cultural quarter in Cardiff
💛 Be curious, be brave, be kind - and what those mean when everything's falling apart
🏓 Pickleball, biscuits, and the China trip she'll always regret
Jane is a leader who steers by her own North Star. This one will stay with you.
🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode of Inside the Maverick Mind.

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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.

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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.

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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"

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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