Send us Fan Mail

Title: The Girl They Underestimated: Inside the Maverick Mind of Jessica Shipman

Description:

She was called "a bit thick." She was labelled an "attention seeker." She was "that girl" in the boardroom. Jessica Shipman was underestimated at every turn, and she refused to shrink.

From peeling potatoes in a pub kitchen at 13 to chairing the NatWest Cymru Board, Jessica's story isn't about a valleys girl learning to become corporate. It's about what the corporate world gains when she refuses to become smaller.

In this conversation, Jessica opens up about:

• Growing up neurodiverse in a world that didn't understand her
• Building a jewellery business at 15 and buying gold in the science lab
• The disastrous haircut that changed her career path
• Being called "that girl" in a client meeting and what it taught her
• Leading £10 billion of funding supporting Wales
• Why she asks "what else?" in every deal
• Raising neurodiverse children and fighting for acceptance
• Living with an entrepreneur and why they don't work together

She didn't climb the ladder and pull it up. She turned around and made it wider.

Chapters:

00:00 The girl in the green car

01:40 "She's a bit thick"

04:48 The signature red lipstick

07:28 The pub kitchen and peeling potatoes

09:12 Buying gold in the science lab

11:47 Building a jewellery business at 15

13:06 The factory that could have been her prison

16:00 University vs the burger van

17:16 The disastrous haircut

19:49 Running the salon from the reception desk

20:53 Miss Wales and learning to pitch

22:07 "That girl" in the boardroom

26:09 The woman who introduced the smallest version of herself

28:09 Confidence is overused. It's about control.

30:49 The leaked banking paper

32:44 Teaching inclusion

34:19 Neurodiversity and the accelerator program

36:26 The bank isn't a box. It's an enabler.

38:52 "What else?" and the multimillion pound deal

41:10 Rebuilding a team from bottom to top

43:06 750,000 customers and counting

44:23 The Wales Air Ambulance

45:32 Meeting Johnny

48:05 Maverick Maxims

59:15 What the little girl in the green car would think now

Subscribe for more conversations with the people who refuse to fit in the box.

#JessicaShipman #NatWestCymru #WomenInLeadership #Neurodiversity #MaverickMind #WalesBusiness #Podcast

Send us Fan Mail

At 38, Darren Briggs had to borrow £2.50 from his mother for deodorant before walking to the job centre. He had lost his business, his savings, his relationship - everything. Today, he is the founder and CEO of Ascona Group, a nationwide roadside retail business with 74 forecourts, 910 employees, 350,000+ customers, and over 6 million litres sold every week.

This is not a story about petrol. It's a story about resilience, reinvention, and refusing to roll over.

Darren takes us through a jaw-dropping journey that spans childhood paper rounds in his parents' newsagent in Milford Haven, a catastrophic business failure that cost him £250,000, a brutal David-vs-Goliath legal battle with a corporate giant that nearly broke him, and the maverick decision to chase high growth when most people would have walked away.

From renting a single unloved forecourt in Pembroke to building the UK's seventh-largest independent fuel retailer with £200 million in committed funding - Darren's story proves that rock bottom can be a location without becoming an identity.

In this episode:

🔹 Growing up in a community newsagent and the three golden rules from his father

🔹 Losing everything at 38 - and the £2.50 that changed his mindset

🔹 The Costcutter legal war: 18 months of fighting for survival

🔹 The maverick moment: deciding high growth was the only way out

Surviving COVID when cash dropped from £4 million to £30,000

The health wake-up call: losing five stone and a near-death experience

What comes next: 100 sites, a Sahara trek, and building on his parents' land

Key quote: "Don't be afraid of failure. Be afraid of regret."

—

📌 Guest: Darren Briggs, Founder & CEO of Ascona Group

🎙️ Host: Emyr Afan

📺 Show: Inside the Maverick Mind - Ep 28

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

01:36 - From paper rounds to Pam's newsagents

04:18 - Three golden rules from his father

07:08 - Losing his dad and what it taught him

08:09 - The full-pay cancer policy

09:30 - Spotting a gap in the market: BigOil.net

12:46 - The media venture that went up in flames

16:39 - Losing £250,000 and signing on the dole

19:39 - Why he didn't declare bankruptcy

21:20 - Renting Bush Hill: the first forecourt

27:02 - The Costcutter deal that turned toxic

38:50 - The bridge moment: hitting rock bottom

40:06 - "Costcutter Are Fucking Wankers": renaming the company

48:18 - Valentine's Day mediation: drop hands

50:24 - The maverick moment: going for high growth

54:06 - When Barclays pulled the rug

59:06 - Winning Fast Growth 50 - with Barclays as sponsor

1:06:35 - COVID: cash down to £30,000

1:10:05 - The health crisis: losing five stone

1:14:30 - Near-death on the operating table

1:16:49 - What a petrol station becomes when petrol isn't the main event

1:19:43 - Wales Air Ambulance & giving back

1:23:00 - Flying helicopters: the one place he can't multitask

1:23:45 - Maverick Maxims

1:29:10 - Building on his parents' land: the final chapter

1:31:03 - "A maverick is someone who never gives up"

🔔 Subscribe for more episodes of Inside the Maverick Mind.

💬 What would you have done at Darren's lowest point? Let us know in the comments.

👍 Like this episode if it resonated - it helps us reach more people.

#InsideTheMaverickMind #DarrenBriggs #AsconaGroup #Entrepreneur #BusinessResilience #PetrolStation #Turnaround #StartupStory #WalesBusiness #MaverickMind

Send us Fan Mail

Born with cerebral palsy and deafness. Four days old when doctors said there was nothing more they could do. Bullied at school for her disability. Dropped from a Paralympic relay team an hour before the race. Told by her own parents to walk away from the sport.

Livi Breen didn't just keep going. She became a world champion, Commonwealth gold medallist, and captain of Wales.

In this episode of Inside the Maverick Mind, we go far beyond the medals to understand the person behind the smile - the family that refused to overprotect her, the twin brother who was her first competitor, and the coach in his 70s who learned to understand her body before he taught her anything.

We cover:

The meningitis that nearly took her at four days old

Discovering she could run at a school sports day

London 2012 - competing at 16, the false start she didn't hear, and Paralympic bronze

Rio 2016 - the heartbreak of being dropped from the relay and how it changed everything

Moving to Loughborough and becoming world champion within ten months

Coach Aston Moore - patience, honesty, and breaking everything down

Paris Paralympics - jumping the same distance as bronze and losing on countback

The Adidas briefs controversy that went viral and changed the rules

Captaining Wales to gold and silver at the Commonwealth Games

The psychologist she's worked with since she was 15

Why she face-plants after her best jumps - and why she laughs about it

Her maverick mindset: "Never say you can't, because you will."

This is a conversation about resilience, identity, leadership, and what really sits behind that extraordinary smile.

Hosted by Emyr Afan OBE

New episodes every Monday at 6pm. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one.

#InsideTheMaverickMind #LivvyBreen #Paralympics #ParaAthletics #TeamWales #WorldChampion #CommonwealthGames #Resilience #DisabilitySport #AstonMoore #CaptainOfWales