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.