Who's Your Captain?

Over 20 years after founding Liquid Thinker, Professor Damian Hughes sits down with Mark Francis for a wide-ranging conversation about what really drives high performance — in sport, in business, and in life. From growing up in his father's boxing gym in Moston to working alongside elite coaches in rugby league and co-hosting one of the world's most-listened-to podcasts, Damian has spent his caree...

Two years into turning around a struggling SaaS business, Signpost CEO Lucas Wilson sits down with Mark Francis to give himself an honest performance review — and sporadically, it's a D. In this episode, Lucas breaks down what it really takes to lead a company through resource constraints, cultural rebuilding, and customer-first reinvention. From his roots in an immigrant entrepreneurial family to...

In this episode, host Mark Francis sits down with experienced trader and educator James Brodie to explore the often-overlooked psychological side of trading. While many people focus on charts, numbers, and strategies, successful trading is just as much about mindset, discipline, and emotional control. James shares insights from years of experience working with traders and explains why ego manageme...

Bruce Martin didn't set out to be a CEO. He spent years in finance, from Vodafone to private equity, before taking the top job at Tax Systems — and in three and a half years, he's doubled revenue, completed international acquisitions, and led the business through a full SaaS transformation. In this episode, Bruce shares how a competitive sporting mindset shaped his approach to leadership, why clar...

What does it actually take to build a learning and development function from scratch in a fast-growing, multi-country organisation – when you're the only person doing it? Tovah Wilde, Head of Learning & Development at Curaleaf International, joins Mark Francis to answer exactly that. With operations spanning the UK, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Canada and beyond, Curaleaf is the global leader in...

Dr. Muddassir Ahmed spent 17 years working his way up through global supply chain roles – from buyer to divisional supply chain head overseeing a $700M business across Romania, China, Germany and the Middle East. What he kept noticing was the same problem everywhere: most supply chain professionals land in the field by accident, with no real theoretical foundation to draw on when things get compli...

30% of the world's food is wasted – and much of it is down to supply chain failures that technology can prevent. Souroush Honary, CEO and founder of SystemLoco, joins Mark Francis to talk about how near real-time data is transforming the way goods are tracked, monitored, and protected from farm to shelf. With over 3 million devices deployed and 50+ staff across the US, UK, and Taiwan, SystemLoco i...

In this episode, entrepreneur and WineFi founder Callum Woodcock shares how wine is evolving from a luxury hobby into a powerful alternative investment class. From data-driven wine portfolios to building a fintech startup in a traditional industry, this conversation dives deep into innovation, entrepreneurship, and smart investing. Callum reveals how WineFi is democratizing wine investment, using...

When Arun Anand bought his first electric vehicle ten years ago, he saw a critical problem nobody was solving: the grid couldn't handle millions of EVs charging simultaneously during peak hours. So he built Electric Miles, a software platform that makes charging more reliable, cheaper, and grid-friendly across five countries. In this conversation with Mark Francis, Arun reveals how Electric Miles...

Discover the powerful leadership transformation that took a failing team to top performance. Darryl Heffline, CEO and author of "Shifting Gears at the Crossroads," shares the brutally honest feedback that changed his entire approach to leadership and reveals the four pillars that build trust in any organization. In this conversation, Darryl breaks down the exact moment a colleague told him his lea...