Ep 19 | Nick Hounsfield | 230 Rejections, One Stroke, and a £30M Wave

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.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Some people build companies. My guest built a wave. Nick Hounsfield didn't sell out to create a tourist attraction. He wanted to build the kind of medicine you can't prescribe. A former osteopath frustrated by treating the symptoms of stress, disconnection, and burnout, and turned £500 and a stubborn idea into the wave, the UK's first inland surfing destination. It took years, more than 230 investor pitches, and a level of persistence most people would call madness. Then just months after opening it, he had a major stroke. So this isn't just a story about building something extraordinary. It's about what happens when the person who creates a place of recovery has to learn recovery for himself. Nick Hounsfield is our guest. Let's get inside his Maverick Mind. Welcome, Nick. Hi. Good to have you on the show. Yeah, great to be here. You started as an osteopath, helping people one at a time. At what point did you realize that treating symptoms wasn't enough?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Um, I guess it's sort of built up over time. Um, just realizing really the sort of, as you say, sort of frustration where you're going, Well, I'm I'm pretty much um helping people one at a time, one treatment at a time, but actually were then sending them out back to the normal world and the various stresses of life. And then they were coming back sometimes just as broken as they were when they came before. And so just felt like I was constantly um yeah, trying to got a sinking ship that I need to keep bailing out. Um, and then I just started to sort of constantly think about right, I'm definitely just treating the symptoms, not the cure. How can I really start to look at the real issues as to why people are coming and seeing me and how I can actually look at uh the cure rather than just the symptoms?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

So the wave, in some sense, was your attempt to build the kind of medicine you couldn't prescribe in a clinic.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah, 100%. It was about trying to understand, you know, where where people were coming and and you know, coming to see me when they're feeling ill, and actually a lot of that time it's around a disconnection, you know, from themselves, from the you know, from nature, from community, feeling lonely, and how actually you could create something that would reverse that so that then medicine becomes something you experience rather than a pill you swallow.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Heled Warchem, the new Welsh Government Minister for Culture and Sport, has stated that she intends to move more funding from the health budget into both culture and sport. I'm guessing you would agree 100% with that.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah, I mean it's it's it's around what you know it's around looking at stuff preventatively and without you know in a culture and sport and arts, that's where people can feel a belonging, uh, an experience which will lift their spirits, lift their moves, create a community. And rather than trying to constantly fund so-called health, which actually is illness, um, actually it's about preventing. Uh preventing, you know, the main thing that that people get unwell with, and that is a lack of connection and a feeling like they've got a purpose, rather than constantly just being told you're unhealthy, go and get healthy, actually just do it by default, hack into it in a completely different way, and that's ultimately around being around people and being outside or having a completely different purpose.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

And before any of that, um, what did water give you personally early on in your life that stayed with you?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

I mean, yeah, w water for me, it's it's just always been the place that I go to to feel happy, healthy. That's where I go and reset. And I can so many times I can I can go back and and think about, you know, even as a kid feeling, you know, even as like a teenager feeling a bit kind of angsted around, you know, being a teenager as you do, but actually a go-to water to just try and like calm myself down, um, and feel happy, feel feel free really. So it's just always been that element that I just go to, and it's something that I more and more over time I realised actually, so many other people feel exactly the same, and how can we you know bring that to more people?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

I'm particularly pained by the wild swimming craze that well, not craze, but it's something really important. Back in my time, we used to call it swimming. Yeah. Just go for swim, yeah. But I get it, it's called lakes or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And of course, surfing is a big part of your life as it as it was in mine.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Yeah, I mean surfing since since I was really, really young. Um, I guess for me, um surfing what I love is you know, it's the reset and being in and around water, which is really important for me, but it's also you know, that real sort of ebb and flow of being right in the moment, like having to absolutely focus in a moment to catch a wave, but then sort of paddling back out to to the lineup where where you wait for the waves, and just that calm as well. So, like real sort of ebb and flow of emotions where you've got to be like mindful and still, and then suddenly it's like all systems go, um, you know, huge adrenaline rush, and then flipping back to okay, a bit of calm and and um mindfulness, really.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Let's talk about what we call the Maverick mindset. You didn't start with a market trend, you started with a belief. Where did that conviction come from?

SPEAKER_00 5:35

I guess it's sort of more like lived experience rather than a spreadsheet or anything. It's just like um absolutely just seeing that I guess experiencing how I felt and how I could see more and more people were tapping into looking at ways in in which people are wanting to be healthier, happier, and then seeing you know, surfing is something that absolutely can create that. Um and also then seeing that that surfing and the cool, like the coolness of surfing and the marketability of surfing was actually being uh was selling stuff that actually isn't necessarily that cool, you know, fizzy drinks, um, you know, loads of alcohol gets marketed through it, um, watches, cars, all the rest of it, and going, well, actually, fundamentally it just makes people happier and healthier. Why don't we sell surfing for happiness and health and the great culture that is still embedded within surfing rather than the sort of more marketing aspects which it started to be, I guess, bastardized a little bit over time. In a nutshell, describe what you've created. The wave is just north of Bristol, it's this huge slice of ocean, basically, it's like four or five Olympic swimming pool size, which creates absolute perfect waves rolling down the lake. Um, and it's all been designed to make sure it's accessible for people of all ages, all backgrounds, all abilities. So lots of care's um gone into it to make sure that people with disabilities and wheelchair access or blind or um or uh got cultural barriers and and also financial barriers and making sure that we've got sort of programs that run so that people have got full access to it. So it isn't something that is um purely about surfing, it's actually a place and a space that you can go and visit and be in and around water, um, get the vibe from from the water and from the amazing team that work there, but also just be there to like you would if you went and walked along a pier down by by the waterside. Um it's it's a place for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

It's an incredible place, um, so inspiring. But in many ways, I'm comforted by the fact that you went through more than 230 investor pitches to get there. Yeah. What did you have to keep telling yourself so the idea didn't die in everybody else's doubt?

SPEAKER_00 7:59

I guess I needed to sort of pull apart the sort of the vision um and what I wanted to achieve um from rejection. Um because that was familiar. Yeah, because if you just listen to the rejection, then you probably would give up after five, ten, ten of those investor um meetings. But actually being so clear on the vision and and and where I needed it to get to, and making sure that um the people that you will help by being able to make it is more important than anything else, and that kind of fires your own personal ego over it. It takes everything out of the equation, just says, look, this has to be built for the people who will benefit from this, and just keeping that really, really, really key in your mindset, and just realize that actually, you know, the the people who say no, it might be it's not the time for them, it might not be the right personalities that are coming on board, they might not see it, they might not get it, and therefore they might not either you've not explained it well enough, or if you've been really good at explaining it, then they just don't get it, and probably they're not the right people to be doing it. So it's like kissing lots of um frogs before you find a prince, really. And it's just finding the person where sometimes it is just about timing, but more and more often than not, it's personality uh and having somebody who absolutely feels that same emotional belief that what we can achieve together is far beyond um uh any sort of normal investment brochure.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

So when somebody finally said yes, did you follow the chair?

SPEAKER_00 9:43

I was um uh I mean all all these things kind of take time. Um, and in many ways we had um we had you know lots and lots of no's. And eventually somebody came back and said, uh, this is really interesting, let's let's follow up on this. And actually they were wanting to build one um elsewhere. So in many ways, it's like, right, well, we've got the money, you've got you know the expertise about bringing this together, so why don't we why don't we come together and then and then we can go and build other ones later? Let's still go. I mean, the the wave over the last six years has gone through lots of sort of ups and downs, yeah, exactly. Waves, but I'm sure that um yeah, it these things are are set to be um become even you know, we were the first one in the world with this particular um uh uh technology, and there are 70 being built all around the world, so it's right at the start of sort of a nascent industry. Um, but we were kind of lucky or unlucky enough to do it first. Um, yeah, lots of learnings and lots of people have been learning from from our learnings. Yeah. Trailblazer is it. I mean, what's the difference between stubbornness and vision? You kind of need to be stubborn, without a doubt, but I think it's um vision, I guess, is something that should last a life, don't you? Like it should should always be sort of at the forefront. That's kind of, I guess, like the North Star is it is absolutely your purpose and should never be compromised on, I think. Um and stubbornness, I would say stubbornness is more I think it's fine to be stubborn, but I think you also do need to know when you need to sort of tear up the plan and change the path to get there. So um, so that getting the vision and particularly doing something that is potentially trailblazing, um, then it does need to you have to constantly, constantly be evolving, changing your plan, pivoting, whatever you want to call it, to be able to get there. Um, and if you're too stubborn and and become too dead set on on being hard and fast rules, um then I think there's a real opportunity that that you can fail then.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Yeah, you've got to have your your radar for feedback switched on and then finally tuning. I'm in the middle of a major pivot at the moment, and I have to listen. And it's not a skill that that I used to have, but I have learned to take on board, you know, it's a partnership with any investors, isn't it? They want something out of the deal, you've got to leave enough on the table for them to feel as if it's in their interest to do so. Yeah. Let's get into the mechanics. You turned the sketch and 500 pounds into a 30 million destination. What were the turning points that made it real?

SPEAKER_00 12:23

The big things were really first of all going and seeing the technology in action for the first time. I had to um uh fly over to um uh San Sebastian in Spain, northern Spain, best country, um, and go and see the technology in action. Um and all I'd seen are some grainy videos on on film just on a YouTube thing, and and obviously anything that that goes into onto YouTube's probably a little bit polished in terms of you don't quite see everything. So going and seeing it for the first time, seeing a perfect wave just come out of a lake, what felt like a muddy pond, but like this perfect wave running down the lake, um totally blew my mind. I honestly was just tearing up, just going, Oh my goodness, I think I think we found the perfect technology. And seeing that and going, if we put that in Bristol, it's gonna it's gonna be mind-bending, it's gonna be so good. So that was massive. Um, seeing the technology in action. Um, I guess then finding the land, but more importantly, getting planning permission, had no idea how hard it is to get planning permission. It was in greenbelt land as well, so um, you know, it was came under all of the sort of various um issues that you would get to making sure that if you're building in green space, you're doing it properly. Um, and you know, we had amazing people who were following us and backing us, but we also had quite a few local people who were really against it. And um, if you're like me, you you're constantly listening to the to the people are sort of saying no, saying no, trying to think how can I change them? How can I change their view? But then when we got planning permission, like when they they had to go through a vote, and um, and I was there at planning, and suddenly when they said, Yeah, planning has been approved, I was like, Oh my god, this is amazing, and then suddenly go, Oh yeah, but we still got to raise like 30 million pounds. So, but it like all the way, it's just about sort of just finding those little those little obstacles, you know, like get over that obstacle, so yeah, there'll be another one, but but just be there, celebrate that, and then and then build the steps to the next obstacle again. Um, but those were the ones that I I guess were sort of I felt like they were um yeah, real moments. And I guess when when we sign the deal for the first investment, that's massive because suddenly you've got more and more people who are believing in you, and then you know that's that's really dangerous. And Maverick who's actually got people around them that believe in them, that's like it's dangerous. Um, but that's the moment where um you suddenly go, I I think we can do this. I really think we can do this.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

I wouldn't say it's a joyous journey, but it it has moments of ecstasy. Yeah, totally. Yeah, you know, and that's why we do it. Yeah, totally, yeah, yeah. You so probably when you saw that wave in the lake, did you want to go and get your board from the car?

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Oh, totally, yeah. Yeah, and actually the first time we went that we couldn't get in there in the lake because at the time we didn't realise that there was no health and safety or anything around it. Actually, if I'd jumped into the lake and tried to surf out, I probably would have um uh some had some horrible machinery um munch me up. But just the fact that I saw that perfect wave was like that can be done, that can be done now. Um, and then yeah, over iterations of their technology, they then managed to get to a point where it was like commercially viable and ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

I think that visual manifestation is really important. You saw it and you knew you had to build it. Yeah, you know, and I think things that can be on a drawing, but they're not the same as when you experience them with your own eye, and you're not going to settle until you build it.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yeah, and I think when you start, you know, I'm probably a very visual person, I am a very visual person, and so the whole time, like it's the whole time when building the wave, it was just more and more stuff that I'm just sort of banking. Like, I like this. It could be it could be anywhere, it could be go to a restaurant or it could be walking anywhere and go, I like that, I like that. Almost become a magpie where it starts to fill your your vision, where you go, actually, I can pretty much now look, smell and taste what that looks like before I'd even even have found some land to be able to build it on. But I just knew what it could look like. Um, and I think that then becomes it becomes really ingrained in you where you just just to start building that picture the whole time. Um it's important though, yeah, really important.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Sounds very familiar to my process and visual. At what point did you realize you weren't just building a surf venue? You were creating a new movement.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

When the wave was opened, and I saw that the people who are using it weren't just your average Joe Block surfers. Um surfing is a very white, male, middle class sport. Um, and being able to see people who came to us who aren't necessarily there for surfing, they also just wanted to see it and were like the awe of the place that we'd created, but also the people that were coming, they're in wheelchairs, elderly people, kids who've never ever been and seen the sea before, never seen a wave in their life. I started to realise that actually that's getting back to the original vision, which was around like health and well-being based around water and waves rather than purely surfing. A few people have asked, like, what have you been your best times at the wave? And it's when I've seen that real diversity of people using the place. Um, that to me, that's that's the bit where I'm feeling okay, that's healthcare.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

If someone's trying to build something impossible right now, what's the one piece of advice you'd give that they don't underestimate?

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Um, time. Time it always takes much longer and more expensive than anything else. But whatever, whatever you your your budget sets out is is you're guaranteed to be um uh different to that. The bit I would always say is just how important it is to look after yourself, really. Um and how taxing that is. Um, because when you've got an amazing idea and you really, really, really from your gut want it to happen, it becomes it becomes your everything. It's what you wake up in in the middle of the night, wake up in the morning, go to bed thinking about, and actually that does that is taxing. Um and and therefore should never underestimate the amount of um stress. I mean stress can be b positive if utilized well, but it can be negative if you don't give yourself a break from it. And and looking after yourself is is so important when you first start, you know, and knowing that at the start is really important to make sure you've got that longevity.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

On that point, I want to talk about something uh that you know I'm gonna bring up. The wave opens in 2019, but then in early 2020 you have a major stroke. What do you remember most clearly from that time?

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Um fear, absolute fear. Um yeah, without a doubt, fear of God just ran through me. But I then I guess at times it was a bit more a bit more sort of simple clarity, really, going I slightly screwed this up. I like I've I've pushed myself too far. Um and actually just need to step back and make everything much, much clearer, really. Um so this sort of weird chaos and then this weird clarity with the chaos where you're going, I've got to I'm gonna have to rebuild now. Um those were the those were the main things, and I guess that sort of perspective that the fear gives you. This is going to either keep getting worse and I'm gonna die, or I um yeah, you just get a perspective that you just need to look after the things that that really matter.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

I think I've heard you say it that it was a stroke of luck in some ways.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Yeah, yeah. In terms of in terms of trying to put perspective on stuff where you start going, what really, really does matter, that it that's massive. And I think you know, anybody who's had a like a life limiting condition or a moment, then that's yeah, it just puts perspective and it's and and and to me it's then just trying to remind myself like you don't want to you don't want it to you know um become a always a heavy cloud over you, but you also have for me I have to keep reminding myself like you weren't that great for a while and just don't go back there. So like having to keep keep myself in check to say, okay, Nick, those the warning signs are there, you're starting to do that again, but you can't do that, don't go back there. And and I guess the reflection really is oh, but I I need to because I've got investors and I've got this project to build and the rest of it. Actually, that doesn't really matter. You've got your family, you've got three sons, you've got a wife, you've got friends, that's what matters now. Um and I think most people well a lot of people f never really realize how important that is until their final days or you know, either or it's just too late. Um so it's just like okay, the stroke of luck is finding that out early enough that I can try and Something about it. And how's your recovery been? Yeah, I mean, as good as I mean, I kind of say like 85, 90% better, probably probably plateaued now. Um, but you know, I lost all speech and um some sort of physical issues that that that came back. Um but yeah, it was more around just having to rebuild and just I guess almost a bit of grieving of my old self and realise I can't go back there again, and that's quite good in many ways, but also realize that I have to sort of rebuild myself and become a slightly sort of um a different version of myself that means that I could then maintain uh yeah, maintain life really.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

So, how did it feel to have built this place of renewal and then suddenly become the person who needs rebuilding?

SPEAKER_00 22:52

It's just so ironic. I mean it's so ironic, you know, and then and just you know, building something and being associated, and it wasn't just me, obviously, we've got an amazing team around me that that helped there, but being known to be the person that's of building something to then actually having to refocus myself in rebuilding myself. Um, and like anything, like any new business and anything around your you know your own health, it's you've got to go right back to the foundations, right back to basics and get really, really clear on what um uh yeah, if you've got real firm roots, get back, you know, put back down again. And we you know, we did it with with the the wave and the business, like had really clear vision, cultural understanding about how we're gonna be as a business, some real red lines um about how we were gonna be as a business, and it kind of needed to then transpose that onto my own personal health and go, right, these are things that I need to care about from now on. These are the the foundations and the roots I need to get back in the ground again so that I can start to rebuild again. Um, so yeah, the irony was not lost in me about sort of building something uh from scratch and then going, okay, I might have to rebuild myself from scratch again. Um, just take those learnings really about how to build something sustainably valuable for long term. And you can look at the business and your personal health in the same way. It was like, well, I I was trying to do that in business, and I've clearly not done that in personal health. Actually, the two need to be done hand in hand.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

What did recovery teach you that ambition never could?

SPEAKER_00 24:36

I guess ambition just constantly feels like you're having to push, push, push, push, push. And that is part of that mindset that you need as you know, as an entrepreneur or a you know, maverick is that you're just needing to push and keep gritting it all out and all the rest of it. But actually, the recovery from the stroke showed me it works two ways. Showed me I just got to stop, first of all, and actually pausing can be a huge part of progress. You know, you're you don't just sit there not doing anything, but just building yourself back up again was so important. But I guess it's now flipped back to looking at you know stuff that I'm working on now, going actually pause. Pause is really, really important part of building a business where you're actually stepping back and trying to see um, you know, reading the room and actually reading the bigger picture and going, actually, sometimes pausing is is good because you're not rushing into stuff. And you know, for instance, you know, took 10 years to build the wave. Well, it was because there was many, many things that we had to overcome before it was going to be successful. And actually, if we rushed into it, we would either have done the wrong deal with the wrong investors or built something that we shouldn't have built, or not given it the right thought. Um, so to me, sort of yeah, recovery and sort of being ambitious and sort of trying to understand how the two can work together, it's not always about push, push, pushing. Um, and recovery and having that pause is so important.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

What you're saying is helping me hugely, because I can't find the off switch. And when I do, you know, it it whether it's cycling or swimming or surfing or whatever it is, it's it transforms me for the days to come. So I think yeah, I'm gonna take that into the weekend with me.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Yeah, it's like how to build that into your life so that actually you become the most sustainable person that you possibly can because ultimately you're the most valuable person with the people around you, and you need to be there for them, but more importantly, you need to be there for yourself. So it's just yeah, it's it's so important, and if you can get that balance right, then there is a there is a balance that that can be made, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Working on it. Um your next chapter feels like the original idea getting bigger. You've written do blue and now you're building one blue world. What are you trying to prove now that maybe the wave alone couldn't prove?

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Well, I think the wave, you know, we we look at it and say, well, that is a that is proof that you can build what was seemingly impossible for in a lot of people's eyes, although I always knew that that that we would be able to, it was just gonna take time. Um, and being able to prove that actually you can get people to come and use a space and a place, um, and create an environment by which you can see a change in behaviours and a change in attitude and bringing people together that has been really hard to see and almost feels like we've been sort of doing less of it over the last sort of 10-20 years. And actually, if you build something in the right way with the right vision, the right ethos, the right culture, with the right values, then actually you can bring people there of all ages, all backgrounds, and all abilities, and have a positive health impact on them without them even knowing. So to then you go, right, well, we've managed to do that in one place. Um, and actually what we need to be doing is um how can we build more places like that, not necessarily more waves, but more places and spaces which bring people together outdoors in nature, um, and see how when you change the environment, you can change the behaviours, because ultimately that's kind of what's happened, I think, in health is that we're we're not changing the environment. So therefore, the same behavior is going to just be repeating and repeating and repeating itself. If we can build new places and spaces where people live, work and play around um much better places to thrive, then it's more likely that they will feel healthier, be healthier, and therefore you can start to change some of the sort of issues that we've got, particularly health-wise, in society at the moment where it's it's you know very much put on an individual to improve your health. Some people have got access to that because they've for whatever reason have managed to make that access happen. There's so many people don't have access to that. That's and that to me is a real breakdown that we need to change. And that's blue health. Yeah, so blue health really is how being in and around water makes people feel, feel happier, healthier. Um, and there's now lots more science that's backing up the fact that you know that's exactly what happens when we send somebody out into the water, whether it's surfing, swimming, being in and around water, then that has a real positive effect on their cortisol levels, on their blood chemistry. Um, there's really good science now backing up the fact that being in and around water is is so much better for you, and therefore we need to make sure that that is there's accessibility for more people to be able to experience that. Yet at the moment, you know, you know, even in the UK, we're we're we're an island nation, and it's incredible the number of people who are disconnected from water, and even if you do get to water, how filthy the water can be, because we're you know completely screwing it up with our uh water companies and and all the rest of it. It's like how we can create a better affinity with water. So, what where can we be and around water? How can we build communities that are based around water again, rather than it being a sort of add-on green space and blue space, they're really good for you. Actually, how can we ingrain that into where people live and work and play?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

How would you describe your audience? Who are you speaking to?

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Everyone, and I I guess it goes back to it goes back to health, really. You know, ultimately we want people to just be living on a world healthy and happy. It's like it's it's so simple, but so hard to do. And ultimately, anybody, I guess the audience is anybody who um really realizes actually how their health and also the climate health and the planetary health and and natural health is so important, so ingrained. And actually, if we look after ourselves better, we'll probably look after our environment better, which means we'll look after ourselves better, we'll and it it just keeps going. Whereas at the moment we're um we're so disconnected from from nature, from green and blue spaces, because we're not connected to it uh in the way that I guess uh in eons ago we would have done that that disconnection means that we're then making the wrong behavioural choices. We're you know relying on computers and phones and uh alcohol and drugs and all the things that are are creating ill health in us. We actually just should be going, let's find where the health is in in society and actually let's let's reconnect us to it again because it's going to be better for better for us. So I think anybody who cares about their health but doesn't necessarily just want to do a health programme, they actually just want to be surrounded by something that's that's much better for them.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

So it could be the reader decides to go to you know the beach that weekend, or it could be a councillor that's overlooking a housing plan decides to integrate water into that scheme. It's anybody really that applies the rule of blue health.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Absolutely, and and and even find, you know, you don't have to, you know, you could you could be living in um you know in a council estate, um, you know, high-rise flat, you know, what we even looking like how can we create like little pocket pocket little bits of blue health that you could, you know, almost like a little tiny little goldfish pond um pond, well not goldfish, but but a pond like places where you can sit and be close to water, or even when you go to work, like where's your where's your route that you go to work? If it's one minute extra and you can go around um by a a pond or a lake or wherever it might be or or a stream, like make that connection so that actually you're connected um to something that's that's healthy, or a green space, make sure you're going through the park rather than the you know the shorter walk that goes straight down the main road. You know, those places and spaces are still there, and you look at you know Bristol and Cardiff and London, they're actually still really green cities as long as you go and find where they are. Uh, and the more likely you are to use it, the more people will start to respect it as well.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

Hearing you speak now, I where we were living before in Kinkoid, I would gravitate my route via Ruth Park Lake, seeing the water glisten in the morning, the swans, it just lifted my mood. And now we've moved to the garden village, you know, it's like being in the constables in Wales. Yeah, yeah. And that lifts my mood, walking the dog. Yeah, 100% your your your vision for that. There's always, however, tension when something purpose-led becomes commercial. Um how do you keep people, planet, and profit genuinely in balance, not just on a slide deck?

SPEAKER_00 34:21

Believing it to start off with. If if the founder and um and person starting starting off a venture uh doesn't believe it, then it's just never it's gonna get dismissed straight away in the boardroom. It's just it won't be. Um, you know, quite often investors are very quick to find the areas by which they can go, that's nice to have, but you've got to make profit first. Obviously, like profit is the fuel that will keep a business going, but you know, um purpose is helpful in that. Um, but you know, ultimately it is a balance, but it needs to, I guess, make sure it's ingrained in the business. So, you know, there's definitely amazing um ways in which you can do it. We did it through B Cor, where we set up a B Corps, which means that you have to also, it's about benchmarking, yes, your profitability from a financial point of view, but also um from a social point of view and from a planetary point of view. First of all, make sure you are um asking the questions, trying to get the benchmark data about what you do and how you could improve it. Because if you're not even looking at it, you're never gonna care about it. Um, but it's a constant balancing act, and it's a balancing act that then allows, and I guess it's almost like creating a decision-making matrix so that anybody who's working with in the in your business understands okay, what's the impact on profitability from an economic point of view, but also this decision, how will that affect um people, and how will that also affect the planet? And for us, as long as you can keep thinking about the PPP planet profit and um and people in all your decision making, then at least then you're you're just going through that that that cycle of of of at least thinking about it, and it's just a constant reminder and a way in which you can on a daily basis be able to any small decisions or big decisions just goes through that that matrix first.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

That B-corp um infrastructure is so good in terms of its existing, you can apply it, you know, to your own business, and it also helps the external uh person looking at this know that there's a kite mark of values driven by this business. So I think, yeah, I agree with you. It's difficult to get that in councils sometimes or to get it in some sort of but you're right, profit does have to drive sustainability as well. You know, it has to wash its face. Yeah, absolutely. So it's always a tension between the commercial and the the sort of purpose of it. Um most people I hope would get that right if they were getting into the water in the first place. What was your true Maverick moment? The point where you realized you weren't just following the path, you were cutting your own.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

I would say it's probably when I decided that I had to stop what I did before. So I, you know, I was an osteopath um working in healthcare for about 18 years. I built up a really busy busy practice with my wife, um, and you know, I trained for four years to become an osteopath. When you become an osteopath, that's what you do for life normally. So yeah, 18 years I was doing that. And I guess there was a point in time where I had to go, and particularly once investors were coming on board and they wanted to see that I was going to make that commitment, so I had to say, right, I'll I'll you know, from this day I will not be an osteopath anymore. I'll take myself off the register. Um, and once you've taken yourself off the register, I'd have to retrain and go back to to college to get back into the work again again. That was the real sliding doors moment where I'm going, like, okay, I'm fully committed now. I think it was good in many ways, so that I had a sort of moment of closure where I'm saying that was then and this is a new chapter. I kind of needed that as well for you know, for the investors and for my family to understand, right, this is a kind of a new a new venture now. Um, you know, but equally, I guess, sort of going back, it's sort of I'm still in healthcare, it's just a very different form of healthcare. So it's a definitely a change. But that's a moment where I'm going, right, I don't I don't have any income coming in anymore, and you know, I was getting a decent bit of income, um, built this sort of nice practice up and was doing really well. And so many people just say, Why would you walk away from that? But ultimately it was because the what what will come was going to be even more even more beneficial for people's health and well-being, and would bring probably more of my personality and and what I care about to life. And to me, it was, you know, that was became so important.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

That's one of the best marving moments I've heard. Because people must have thought you were crazy, it's like a guy who wants to build a a wave in the middle of the land.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Yeah, yeah, um they didn't say that to my face, but I'm sure they said it, said it behind closed doors. And you know, the the whole thing was um, you know, it I I'm I'm I made the wish to my dad on his deathbed um that I would build the wave or or build something in his honour. He was an osteopath like me, and he's the person that um that that brought me, you know, brought water to me, really. You know, he he was always the person that that sort of um gave me uh my love for water. And actually it's kind of weird because he's probably the most risk-averse person that I know, and I think by him passing, weirdly, he would be the person that says, Don't do it, don't do it, you're crazy. Stick with your job, it's safe, it's like you don't have to do that. But actually, it's through his passing, I think that it meant that I didn't have that on my shoulder. My my dad probably would be saying, Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. And because he wasn't there saying don't do it, I was just like, right, I'm doing it.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

Right, Nick, Maverick Maxim's quick answers, first instinct. What's the best advice you've ignored?

SPEAKER_00 40:29

Probably start small. Um keep yeah, keep visions kind of tight and demonstrable. People who said, no, just just start this, just test and move, just test and move. Like, no, just let's go go big or go home.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

You certainly did that. Well, I think you had to, yeah, you know, and there wasn't the time either. What's the one thing most investors still don't understand?

SPEAKER_00 40:55

Building something slowly over time, build trust, relationships with your customers, all the rest of it, that actually that might take an extra five, ten years uh across the lifetime of an investment, but actually the value of that investment is so, so, so much better and will last so much longer. So I to me it's I I think that real short-termist view is still too too prevalent, really. And and most investors that I've spoken to is like they're just looking for that quick return within three, maybe if you're lucky, five years, and they'll say that they're long-term investors and they're really wanting to build value, but so often that they're not. Um, and I just think that culturally in in investment circles, that's something that that does need to change. Look at long-term vision, just taking you know egos and logos out of it and just build something for longevity because that's where the value gets properly put in.

SPEAKER_01 41:50

Back in the day, there's incubation time. That's some of the biggest brands in the world didn't happen overnight or within two or three timeline, two or three years timeline. No, you're right, and I I think take the ego and the the brand names out of it is a very good name, you know. Yeah, good, very good thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

It's like generational thinking, which is we just don't do that, and you can say that across politics and governments, all the way down to business, where actually it's just long-term thinking, like into you know, thinking about generational thinking is is so important. Um, and and you know, take yourself out of the picture. You know, this was not a place the way wasn't something that was I wanted to build, and I would be happy that it was built. It was this is something that I want to know 50 years' time is still there, sustainably delivering all the impact that I wanted to create, as well as making sure it was sustainable from financial point of view, to a degree where we can be doing two, three, four of these elsewhere so everybody gets benefit from it.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

But when you think about the legacy for your boys, you talk about your father, you know, that's what it's about.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. And I, you know, to me, you know, we've we've had some ups and downs when COVID and you know, we were kind of um the business uh had to be sort of get new investors and all the rest of it. There's definitely been times where thinking, oh my god, like we might not get stay above water. And the thought of how sad, well, when I've come home uh times uh and having supper with the kids and saying, I'm not sure whether we're gonna be able to survive this this one and how how sad they were. Just going, okay, I can't let that happen. I cannot let that happen because I want their kids to see this and be happy that they're using it and all the rest of it. So yeah, it's so important. I know that what that feels like.

SPEAKER_01 43:44

What's a belief about health you've completely changed your mind on?

SPEAKER_00 43:48

You know, I guess uh for me uh health was always something that I I'd have to go and seek out or have to be really cognizant about wanting to change or improve. And I think what I've really changed my mind in is that actually if you create the right environment, then being healthy is easy. It should be easy. Actually, if you just live in a good environment or create good environments to live in and surround yourself with the right environments, then actually your health will improve. You will automatically make the right choices. And I think everybody should be able to have access to that. And I think so many more people can have access to that. And to me, that's the thing that's really changed. And I think probably COVID and all the rest of it helped me see that more. And I think has helped lots more people see it more, whereby they are more happy to talk about mental health and you know, ill health, and you know, everybody trying to find their little fixes during COVID that will keep them happy and well. But the things that we absolutely know is um being outdoors, being connected with each other, uh, being part of a community. Those are the things that we lost in COVID, and to our you know, poor health from doing it, and something that we have got back, and we need to then go, right, well, what's a new version of healthcare? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_01 45:16

I think you're very right. Um, that reinvention of ourselves when we had the time and space and the fear as well of you know taking our health for granted. Yeah. And something coming along that could have derailed that complete undead for so many people. Yeah. What's one word that sums up water for you? I'll go with home. Good minus joy.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

It's just the place that I feel home. What's the biggest myth about resilience? I think the myth around resilience is it's something that you've just born with, and I just think that that's just absolute rubbish. It's something absolutely that you can learn. I think most people have got resilience that they don't even know that they've got until they've been pushed, and probably it's the fact they've just not been pushed at times. And that ultimately resilience isn't breaking down, it's breaking down and then building yourself back up. And that's how you build resilience. Um, it you don't necessarily have to have one massive life change that you suddenly go, oh, he's popped back from that. Oh, isn't he very resilient? Um, or her. Actually, it's it's by breaking and then coming back and breaking and coming back. A daily habit that keeps you grounded. Uh it's normally the dog that wakes me up, wants to be put outside. We've only got a small little little um uh garden, but I always uh let her outside and I always just sit there um on the bench, having a cup of coffee, outdoors. That's a thing where I kind of start the day connected to being outdoors next to water. What's one thing you know now that 2012 Nick didn't? Your health and your family, you know, everything else. Does it does anything else really matter? It's like you've got to make sure that you're alive so that you can do your best for your for your family and and the people that you love. Building the wave was like trying to create a new baby. It was like but it was for a big period of time, it was the only it was the only baby in the room. Um and to its demise to some degree, and to my demise to some degree, um, but being able to have that stroke of luck to then go, how important that is. Like if that all washed away and never actually what's more important, your you know, the people that you love and your family. Um I wish I'd known that then.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

Yeah, that obsessive maverick when people say don't do it and you say watch me is can be destroying as well. And I think that advice to anybody who has driven you know, the ambition is there, the purpose is there, but that idea of perspective as well, you know, it's really difficult when you're you can't have a helicopter view on it, you've got it now. But at that moment, if there are people listening to this vodka or or listening to it, you know, stop, pause. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

You know, and also just it's important to not not it for it to always be on you, just take your ego out of it and say, actually, this is something that we do as a team together, like we are going to be successful as a team on that. Being able to just stand up and say, I built the wave, actually I didn't. You know, I came up with a vision and pulled together the team, and I've got so many things I brought to the table to make it happen, but it is the team around it, and actually trying to offload that as a maverick to other people, and nobody will be able to talk about it as well as you do, but you could definitely get two or three people who will have a damn good job of doing it as well, and who absolutely, from a guttural perspective, believe in what you're doing, and actually that's the important thing is is like build build a network of people who can be your advocates as well.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

What has life taught you that business never could?

SPEAKER_00 49:07

We are on this world for one you know one period of time, and again, going back to perspective, how important that that is um to spend it with the things that probably business won't necessarily always give you, which is necessarily love and care and compassion and all those things, and how important that those things are. And it's weird for me because actually, what I really wanted to do and have been to a large degree with work is try and just bring my being and my love into business as well, so actually they're not so so taken away from each other, um, and that comes with some pretty massive health risks as well. We live our lives in a certain way, and then we suddenly go to work and business and kind of become a different person. Yeah. To me, it's like, no, that yeah, you just need to be, you know, the emotional intelligence that you would bring around a dinner table or sorting some problems out around home, you should be bringing that same level of compassion um to work as well, so that actually they're not so separated rather than this sort of high-flying, you know, emotionally robust person that you're seen to be as a leader of because I don't, you know, if you've got resilience and you've got grit and I'll I'll bust through every door. Actually, it's really important to also tell your work and your business you are still human. That's probably something that we all need a bit more.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Yeah. Yeah, great answer. What's the best decision you've ever made?

SPEAKER_00 50:42

I would go back to saying stopping what I was doing before as being an osteopath and realizing that I can still achieve everything that I was doing before, but could really explode it, like really scale it up the uh the level of ambition. I was actually having in a TV interview and and uh straight afterwards I said, Oh, do you not miss healthcare? And I was like, Yeah, but this is healthcare. Stand around you, look at people here, and then suddenly went through the numbers like so. I was probably seeing about four or five thousand people a year treating as an as an osteopath. I'm now probably somewhere like 200, 250,000 people improving their people, you know, their their health and well-being on that particular day through delivering the wave. It's like that's you know, that's scaling up, that's something to be proud of and yeah, a good decision. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

But the conviction to see that through, that's incredibly empowering. I mean, but you know, everybody has these thoughts, but it's actually making it happen, um, seeing it through that resilience, which is what you know, come what may, because your your North Star was so clear. Yeah. You know, that purpose. So if that's the best decision, what's the one that taught you the most?

SPEAKER_00 52:07

I guess the impact it had on my health and and how that nearly took everything away. Literally took everything away. Um, you know, I'll always from now on be a real, hopefully, somebody who will impart the wisdom of like sort yourself out first. It's like it's no good trying to cure the world when you're actually um dead underground.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

I'm gonna take this um to heart in this talk because I'm in the middle of that second go again cycle, you know, reinvention and different things, and you know, the last thing I tend to put in the mix is what I eat or you know, time I need to give to the family or to walk the dog because of that overriding ambition to get it back on track or to get to, you know, but you're you're just going down in circles if you don't know because because all the people around you are going, okay, I need to be that person.

SPEAKER_02 53:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:01

You don't need to, and actually, if you like in the lowest times is when you need to be the optimist, and at the highest point, you need to be the person that kind of calms people down, a little bit of a middle ground, but ultimately um it's it's a it's a poor reflection if leaders uh in business are are not looking after themselves um and and creating uh the wrong environment of success.

SPEAKER_01 53:26

If someone listening to this or watching this feels disconnected from themselves, from nature, from other people, what would you want them to hear?

SPEAKER_00 53:34

If you're feeling like that, you're not broken. You're not broken. It's all it's all there, um, ready for you to just step back into, really. It's just creating an environment by which you're making better decisions and better behaviours. So it starts anything from turning off your phone at times, getting outside, um, actually seeing what the weather's doing, you know, feel the weather um against your skin rather than protecting yourself around it, find green spaces, blue spaces, connect with people, um, uh, you know, find things that you love to do, you know, a bit like what you were saying with um the Welsh minister, sort of looking at investing in into sort of art and culture and sport rather than like find those groups and people who are like-minded so that there isn't uh a lack of connection. Don't read ever don't read everything that you see in the newspapers, particularly the Daily Mail. Um just you know, switch yourself off from the stuff that stresses you out. Because actually the the path to feeling better, better connected both for yourself and with people and with nature, they're all there, they're just waiting for you. It's just like little steps you can start to make towards that. I think that's the main thing, really.

SPEAKER_01 54:45

I often think that's why we were so happy kids sometimes is that we were outside playing, making a den, going on the bike, you know. And that that reinvention of what we were, you know, that childlike um inquisitiveness to want to and want to, you know, can I go outside now? Would be the question. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Maybe that's the title of your next book. Um we always finish with this line complete the sentence for me.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

A maverick is someone who A Maverick is somebody who understands the need to achieve something and won't won't listen to people who will say no.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

Nick, it's been fantastic to speak to you. You've always been an inspiration to me since I heard you speak at the do lectures. So thank you so much for coming on the show. You were you were you were one of the people that I wanted in that chair as soon as possible. We got you writing books at all sorts. From osteopath to founder, from waves to recovery, from one site near Bristol to a much bigger idea about how we live and feel. Next story is a reminder that sometimes the boldest thing you can do is build the world you think people need. To everyone watching, the world doesn't change by playing it safe. Sometimes the Maverick move is building a place or an idea that helps people come back to themselves. Some people build companies. My guest built a wave. Nick Hounsfield didn't sell out to create a tourist attraction. He wanted to build the kind of medicine you can't prescribe. A former osteopath frustrated by treating the symptoms of stress, disconnection, and burnout, and turned £500 and a stubborn idea into the wave, the UK's first inland surfing destination. It took years, more than 230 investor pitches, and a level of persistence most people would call madness. Then just months after opening it, he had a major stroke. So this isn't just a story about building something extraordinary. It's about what happens when the person who creates a place of recovery has to learn recovery for himself. Nick Hounsfield is our guest. Let's get inside his Maverick Mind.