Inside The Maverick Mind
Inside the Maverick Mind is an invite-only vodcast hosted by Emyr Afan — long-form conversations with people who don’t quite fit the mould.
Each episode features a Maverick from business, fintech, innovation, tech and the creative world, revealing how they think, what drives them, and how they turn “you can’t” into “watch me.”
Episodes drop weekly on YouTube, with audio available on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.
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Inside The Maverick Mind
Ep 24 | Hayley Parsons OBE | Challenge Accepted!
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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.
Haley Parsons did not follow the system. As a schoolgirl, she mitched off six weeks of school and even rang in pretending to be her own mother. Years later, that same school would celebrate her as one of its most successful former pupils. She left the safe route behind. She built ConfusedHot Comm. She walked away from security. She founded Go Compare, selling the business after eight years when it was valued at 190 million. She took on Tesco. She helped create one of the most recognizable advertising campaigns in Britain. And when Welsh rugby needed challenging, she was not afraid to speak up. This is not just a story about business. It's about instinct, disruption, visualization, reinvention, values, and the courage to back yourself before anyone else does. I first met Haley in Vegas through the villain de Charity Bike Ride, and even then, before I knew all the detail of the business story, what struck me was the energy, the confidence, the sparkle, the sense that this was someone who was never going to sit quietly in the background. This is Haley Parsons OBE. Let's get inside her Maverick Mind. Welcome.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for having me. You make me sound so super cool.
SPEAKER_00Haley, before the business story, who were you and how did you get away with six weeks of no school?
SPEAKER_02I hated school. I was awful in school. Yeah, every day it was like, well, how do I get out going into school today? So, um, so yeah, and I didn't turn up for my exams. The school rang my dad, and he went absolutely crazy, hunted me down and found me, took me into school, and then I mean, literally for three months after that, he would drive me to school every single day. He'd drop me right at the door, and I'd get out the car, I'd walk through the school, straight through the school, out the back, and uh try and get out of there as quick as I can. That was pretty much yeah, my whole school journey, really.
SPEAKER_00Six weeks' a long time. There must have been a plan.
SPEAKER_02Oh, absolutely. There there was a plan. I was always very mature, so I always had a really good telephone voice. I would call in and pretend to be my mother and make excuses for being sick. Or the school would phone and I would answer the phone and pretend to be my mother and give reasons why I wasn't in school. Um, you know, and if if if I wasn't doing that, I'd unplug the phone. So on a Monday I'd unplug the phone and it would just stay unplugged until Friday, and then I'd plug it back in again. So uh yeah, mum and dad never really got the calls either.
SPEAKER_00What was it about school that didn't work for you?
SPEAKER_02Academically, I struggled in school. So I would always sit at the back, I would always I was never really engaged in the process at all. I'd try and just kind of, you know, sit at the back and go unnoticed. You know, I never really had friends in school. It just really wasn't a happy place for me. I spent my whole school in desperate to get to the day that school finished when I was 16, so I could get out into the big wide world.
SPEAKER_00So how does it feel like now that the same school celebrates you as one of its success stories?
SPEAKER_02Great. However, through my schooling, they did tell me that I would probably amount to nothing. Um so yeah, it's great that they celebrate me now. Fantastic.
SPEAKER_00Do you think some people who do not fit the system are the very ones who are later on change it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
SPEAKER_00There's so many people who have come on the show, and school wasn't for them, and we don't know how to find these people. That drive, you were already thinking differently in school. You wanted to get on with life. You didn't, you know, you didn't see the point in everything else, and you know, not whether it's uh issues like dyslexia or other things that help some people back, but you know, thankfully you found your way. So let's talk about your dad, Roger, or Dodgy Rogers.
SPEAKER_02Dodgy Roger, yeah.
SPEAKER_00As he was known. What kind of influence did he have on you?
SPEAKER_02So my dad has always been a a real hard worker, a real grafter. Um, even now, he's 76, he works, he starts work at 4:30 in the morning, uh, he he works longer hours than anybody else where he is. He's still, you know, he's a groundworker, he's a he's a machine driver, he's done that all of his life, and there is no sign of him slowing down. So I definitely get my hard work and my craft from my dad. So a huge influence in that. I think he actually then gave me my passion for success because I he would he would drive this awful green Vauxhall Viva. It only had a driver's seat, no other seats in there, so we had to sit on milk cartons, and um that was because he it was always full of building equipment and um and and anything else he wanted to fit in there. And I hated it, so I was always like, I'm gonna work really, really, really hard so that I can have a really fantastic car, because there's no way I'm driving around in an old voxel viva when I'm older. But uh, it definitely inspired me to, you know, you know, want good cars, want nice things.
SPEAKER_00And that's not change, is it? Because you're you're a great believer in visualization. What did you visualize?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, oh I think I must have been about 12 when I said to my mum mum, one day I'm gonna have a red Ferrari.
SPEAKER_01What did she say?
SPEAKER_02She didn't dismiss it. Okay. You know, and that for me then, when when I say things like that, that sticks in my head, and that's a statement that I've made, and that drives me because I'm like, I am going to do that.
SPEAKER_00But it wasn't really about the car. It was more about what the car represented.
SPEAKER_02Uh no, it was about the car. It it really was about the big flash, red, amazing, gorgeous, stunning car.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's a good answer. You get nothing but odyssey from here. But you do seem to visualize success before it happens. Have you always done that?
SPEAKER_02So any conversation I have with somebody, any ideas I talk, I literally see it right there in front of me as I talk about it. Most of the people are not the same, so it's quite I find that quite difficult then, because we'll we'll talk about something and and it's there, it's right in front of me. I know exactly what it looks like. I know exactly where we're gonna get to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, I just wish other people could see it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I find that frustration. So you eventually did buy the Ferrari.
SPEAKER_02I did buy the Ferrari.
SPEAKER_00And what did that moment mean when you finally got the thing you were wanting?
SPEAKER_02It was probably a little bit of disappointment. Um, because I'm kind of thinking, oh, is that it now? It my I've I've reached all my goals. What what the hell do I do now?
SPEAKER_00That for me feels like one of the biggest Mavic moments, because you're you're not just dreaming vaguely, you're very specific. You had a picture in your head where you wanted to go. How powerful has visualization been in your life? And sometimes people don't get how important it is.
SPEAKER_02Actually, I think it can be a bit of a problem sometimes. When you when you say something, when I say it, I mean it and and I visualize it, and then I am so driven to make it happen. The problem is, when I got to the stage that I could that I could buy the car, there wasn't really one that I wanted. So at that point, I probably should have reviewed it and said, well, it's okay to have made that decision back then. Maybe it's the wrong decision now, so maybe I should uh, you know, look a little bit differently and find something else. So I did hang on and hang on until one till till a Ferrari came up that I really liked, and I was like, that's the one. That's fine now. I can deliver on my target.
SPEAKER_00And we'll come on to Go Compare, but the Go Compare visualisation was a box in the stadium.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the Go Compare story, it was always like, yeah, when when when we exit this, my treat is gonna be a a box at the Millennium Stadium, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Which you did take the box with.
SPEAKER_02Which I did take the box for a long time, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So it didn't come through the traditional academic route. How did you get your first break?
SPEAKER_02The school sent me for an interview for my very first job. It was a it was a YTS scheme, I think it was £29 a week. It was at a local insurance office, which was literally half a mile down the road from me, so that was perfect. Um what they actually did was they sent me for an interview along with my best friend at school. So we both got sent for the same interview. Oof. We both had to sit in the room together and we got interviewed together. And actually, that was a game-changing thing for me. You know, getting that job set me up for the rest of my life in an industry that I absolutely loved and adored.
SPEAKER_00Why did you get it and she didn't? Because she was, from what I understand, a bit of a star.
SPEAKER_02She was cleverer than I was, she was she was better at everything academically than I was. I don't know, but as soon as I got out of school, and my passion for working and my independence was just so clear. Um so I don't I don't know why I got the job over her, but I'm so glad I did because it really did set me up for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we'd I'd like to meet that panel again to say what a choice.
SPEAKER_02Well, it was actually you know, it was a great first company to join. It was a husband and wife team, um and and they were fantastic to work for. And actually, when I look back, I've worked with and for the most amazing people all through my career.
SPEAKER_00So you started an accountancy and then built your career through practical experience. There's nothing you haven't done in insurance, is there?
SPEAKER_02No, I I really did work my way up from the very, very bottom. So my you know, when when I first started at 16, my job was literally the most basic of admin paperwork, file in, making the tea and coffee.
SPEAKER_00And even then you wanted to be in a certain position straight away.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, as soon as I started. So I remember going into the office and and on my first day, and it was it was like a shop window. So there was a desk in the front window, and then you went up the stairs to another desk. As soon as I walked in, I was like, right, I want to be in that shop window, sat there talking to all the customers that come in and selling them their insurance policies. So from the day I walked in, that was my goal there.
SPEAKER_00Your visualization of it?
SPEAKER_02My visualization. I can see it now right in front of me.
SPEAKER_00And you got it. I did. And what happened then?
SPEAKER_02I do my finding work, I do the jobs that um I was initially taken on to do, and then I would be there every hour that office was open, I would be there. So outside of my normal working hours, and I would just teach myself everything I needed to learn to be able to deal with the customers, everything I could about insurance. I was very lucky that the the female owner of the business really took a liking to me, so she put a lot of time and effort into me. So she taught me a lot. Um, so you know, you know, kind kind of within the year, I was there front of office, doing all the selling. Um awesome.
SPEAKER_00Were you ever made to feel that you lacked the right the right qualifications?
SPEAKER_02No, never.
SPEAKER_00It's because that's that's what's great, I think, is that the insurance path trained you for life. Yeah. You know, there was no barrier. But it's in contrast with school, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00How committed you were every hour that was open, you were there.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, absolutely. And I I I kind of got this thing really that I kind of left school and then I'm like, right, she doesn't exist anymore. That Haley doesn't exist anymore. New Haley, I'm gonna reinvent myself now to who I need to be for this next stage of my life. And then every time I move on, whilst I'm very visual, I also talk to myself and have these conversations with myself. So I would literally be, right, it's time to move on, time to reinvent myself. What does new Haley look like? What's she gonna achieve?
SPEAKER_01Anybody watch you for talking to yourself?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, my children and my husband pick it up or pick me up on it all the time.
SPEAKER_00So we're going on to another company that didn't work so well, and I think you saw the underbelly of a how a business shouldn't work. What was that like?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you know, from from so my first job, absolutely fantastic. Um, and then I got headhunted. So actually, when I think about it, I've only ever really had one job interview, which was my very first job interview at 16, which I got sent to with my friend. From there I got headhunted to a insurance to a larger insurance brokers. Um so I I joined them and they gave me so I was you know, I was running my own branch at 18. So that was a real experience. I mean, that was a real fantastic experience.
SPEAKER_0118.
SPEAKER_0218, yeah. A real fantastic experience of how not to do things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's important too.
SPEAKER_02So and I genuinely, genuinely believe in, I don't know, I think I was there for two years, what I learned and experienced in those two years is more than I would have learned anywhere else in 20 years.
SPEAKER_00And then soon after that, you went into Admiral for 13 years.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So a friend rang me up and said, Haley, I've just joined this fantastic company, Admiral. You will love it here. So I joined Admiral. Oh, very early on. I think I maybe I was employee number 40. 40. So very, very early stages. Great bunch of people. We were all heavily incentivised on sales. So, you know, the office opened at 8 o'clock in the morning, it closed at 10 o'clock at night. We'd we'd be there selling away all day. Um, we'd, you know, we're doing we're doing good money, we're doing good commission. So that's where I started to really build my friendship group. Well, when I never had friends in school, as soon as I started working, it just started to make the most amazing friends and build up this fantastic friendship group. And then wherever I went, they kind of come with me.
SPEAKER_00I've not those. What did those years teach you?
SPEAKER_02I think for me it was just all about always enjoying what I was doing, always looking at what the next opportunity w was going to be, I guess. I always had to be working for people that I really respected and that I learnt from and that I enjoyed. And again, I've been really blessed in that area. Um, I really enjoyed my time on sales, but I really had my eye on getting back into the the broken market. For me, that was much more fast-paced, much more exciting.
SPEAKER_00You live on that, don't you?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. So there was three-through the window again, on that. I know, I know, absolutely. There were three actually there wasn't three, there was a number of really awesome, amazing people at Admiral. Um, and I had great exposure to them over my time there. So obviously you had Henry Engelhard, you had Andrew Probert and David Stevens, you also had some fantastic women there, which I'll always be, you know, really grateful to. So Heather Stevens. Yes. Um Dame Heather Stevens now.
SPEAKER_00Yes, Dame.
SPEAKER_02And um and Kate Armstrong. So, you know, the five of those have always been like really, really inspirational to me. And big part of a big part of my life and and my learning. They kind of made me. Yeah. They really helped mold me. Yeah. They they really did. So Dave Stevens was uh kind of head of marketing, so I would, you know, often, very often, just go and knock on his door and say, David, this insurance brokers that you, you know, mentioned many, many, many months ago, we should do it. I could do it, let me do it for you.
SPEAKER_01Let me have a go.
SPEAKER_02Let me have a go, please. I promise I won't let you down.
SPEAKER_01Don't think you did.
SPEAKER_02And I think I I mean honestly, I would this is the thing with me. If I've got my I go on and on and on until I get what I want. And I think in the end, he probably just had enough of me. And he was like, Okay, fine. So I I mean, I gosh, how old was I then? I was kind of 19. I think I was 19 when I joined them. So, you know, maybe I was heading into my twenties. He kind of gave me the opportunity to link up with this company in London, which um an insurance broker's called Alan the Alan Allen Group. So I knew I knew the guys there already, so so that was brilliant. So they so they gave me the opportunity then to kind of work on the concept of setting up an insurance brokers within Admiral, within the Admiral group. So I did that, did a proof of concept for them for a year. That became a business called Gladiator Insurance Services. That went on to turn over in excess of £20 million. We had, oh, I think we had close to 200 staff working in the operation over kind of a you know, a few years. So that was that was an awesome, that was an awesome business.
SPEAKER_00But what came next was the the the precursor to Go Compare, because a lot of people know you founded Go Compare. They may not realize how important you were in the creation of Confuse.com.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. The broken market was getting really tough. Um, you know, the internet was coming along, everything was looking different. So it kind of made sense then to kind of outsource that business, if you like, or move that business on. So I managed the outsourcing of that business to HSBC.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, that all that all ended really, really great. The business continued, that was fantastic. And then I'm at the point, like, okay, what do I do next? Then so HSBC wanted me to go with them and manage the the kind of broken side of the business. Yeah. So I remember kind of having a conversation with Henry and kind of saying, Henry, they've offered me this job. I'm I'm you know, I'm I'm considering that maybe it's probably the right time for me to go. I think Henry strugg always kind of struggled with me in the business because I am I am difficult. I do have my own views on things, and I don't let and you know, there are times where I just won't let something go, and I will keep going and keep going until I get it my way. And I think Henry would struggle with me on those things. So I thought Henry would be glad to see the back of me. But actually he surprised me and kind of said, Well, hey, I know you've I and actually I think his exact words were, I do struggle with you. You know I struggle with you and and some of your ways, but I know you're really great at what you do, so I certainly don't want to lose you. So would you work on this project for us of looking at a proof of concept for Admiral Commercial Insurance Direct? So I said, Yeah, okay, absolutely, I will look at that for you. So I worked on that proof of concept for a year. That went to the board and got board approval, but as that was getting board approval, there was this other idea that was floating around.
SPEAKER_00Of course there was.
SPEAKER_02That yeah, that I thought, oh, that looks really interesting over there. And that was this idea that became Confuse.com. At that point, Admiral, of all the leads that were that they generated, they only maybe wanted to ensure around 15% of those leads. So then they've got an excess of 85% of leads that come to them that they don't want, so they need to monetize them. They you know they were very good at selling a lot of those leads on to insurance brokers, but but there were still a lot of excessive leads there, and now they were people using the standards of the internet. So it was how do we cater for those leads on the internet? Can we build some technology that can do what insurance brokers do, do what direct insurance companies do, put it all together and do it on the internet. My only problem with it was that so that was the concept, and I loved the idea, and I thought that sounds really exciting. There's nothing that exists like this. This is right at my street. I so want to get involved in this. The only problem was for me, the lady that was leading it was a lady called Kate Armstrong. She scared me. She's probably the only person in my life that's ever really scared me because she was this crazy Australian uh lunatic, honestly. But funny enough, Kate actually wanted me for the role. So I met with Kate and actually instantly I I completely changed my view and kind of thought, do you know what? We're gonna do something awesome together. And our skills were very different. So Kate was marketing and IT, and then I was relationships, insurance knowledge, um, but between the two of us, we kind of covered off all the areas, really. So um, yeah, that was the start of Confuse.com. Henry struggled with both Kate and I because we're both really difficult and we can both be hard to handle. So we always joked that almost they kind of chucked us out of the the main Admiral building, shoved us in a little room across the road by ourselves to just get keep us out of the way, and then they gave us this idea to play around with and see what we could come out with. And literally we we stayed locked in a room with no windows, no furniture, nothing. We just had a dry whiteboard, some markers, and we just plotted, plotted and planned the whole thing out.
SPEAKER_00Sounds like a pad itself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it did feel like it at some time at some point.
SPEAKER_00So no glamorous office.
SPEAKER_02No God, no, absolutely not. No, and in fact, we were in um so we started off in Dominion's Arcade up on the sixth floor. You know, so I remember one night they locked the gates up at I think it was like 12 o'clock at night. So we even got locked in working away because um yeah, it was gone past it was gone past midnight. So we we were locked in, we had to stay in the office all night.
SPEAKER_00But you knew you were on to something. So that that drive and that lunacy. Yeah it takes a bit of it, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_02Oh, do you know? It was awesome because we were absolutely making it up as we were going along. There was nothing, there was nothing to cut to kind of copy. We we really were kind of first to mark it, first to do it, flying by the seats of our pants.
SPEAKER_00And it worked. It did work. It was extraordinary. Do you think that Admiral really understood with the growth how big the model could become?
SPEAKER_02I think when you start something from nothing and there's nothing out there that exists like it already, and you're very first to mark it, you've got no idea where it's gonna go. For me, I always Believed this would absolutely we are absolutely going to completely change the way people buy insurance, specifically car insurance, and it absolutely did.
SPEAKER_00But once after you've been across the road and put into hibernation, what was it like when you came back into the building? Just paint the picture of what happened in the following years. How successful was it? And how did it satisfy you by the end of it?
SPEAKER_02Confuse.com was a phenomenal experience. When you get the opportunity to create something that that ultimately completely disrupts the whole insurance market and the way that people purchase insurance. Now, when I look back on what we actually did, it was absolutely game-changing. And the journey was phenomenal. So really, my role was to convince the insurance companies that this was the new way forward. This is how consumers were going to buy insurance in the future. So I started by going around all my old contacts within the insurance world, and I would, you know, and I'd kind of say, Oh my gosh, there'd be times I might rock up and I'd I'd cry and I'd say, you need to support me on this, please. I need, I need you to believe in me and just give me the opportunity to show you this is the way forward. And whatever tactics I needed to use to get them on board, then I would. Some of the direct writers were a lot more difficult, especially given that we were owned by Admiral, one of their main competitors. Um so trying to convince them and talk them around was probably one of the hardest challenges. So I got there with the majority of them pretty early on. But actually, um, I remember going to Direct Line and Direct Line saying to me, We will never entertain this, we will never ever pay you any money or have anything to do, and pretty much took me out of their office. So I remember kind of walking out of their office thinking, ooh, challenge accepted. That's my next goal is to get Direct Line on the panel to deal with comparison sites. And when they do, the first person they're going to come to is me. Um and they did. And they did. Interestingly, though, they the first time they did join, they did come to me, but it wasn't in my confused days, it was then in my go compare days.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Okay, we still But I you know, my strategy with that was I'll play the long game, I will play good with them, I will play decent with them, when they're ready, I'll be there.
SPEAKER_00How successful was Confuse.com in those early days?
SPEAKER_02You know, we had a couple of years of trying to work through and figure out the business model. We went through, you know, a number of a number of different models. So actually, if I take you back very back to how we started, we built technology that would pretty much do what the consumer would do when they look for insurance quotes, um, and then we would cater for it in volume. So instead of you going off and entering your site 20 times into 20 different insurance companies, you would come to us, enter your information once, we would send it off to 20 different insurance companies and deliver you a list of prices. You know, for the first couple of years, trying to figure out that technology, trying to get that established and working was a real challenge. Um so it took us a couple of years to kind of figure that out. Then we had to drive the volume. So I remember we, oh God, I remember I remember we made this really awful cheap advert that I think I remember, I think our budget was £75,000. That was to make the advert and to put it on air. And we kind of thought we'll run it on air for a month, we'll drive volume, we will give the volume to the insurance companies, and then we will approach them and say, look, we've shown you now we can deliver you volume, now's the time for you to start paying us for our services. We were charging the consumer to use the service. Right. So for me, that model was never gonna work. Then we discussed moving on to charging the insurance companies a cost per quote. Again, that model was gonna net was never gonna work because it was just too risky from for the insurance companies, you know. So in my head, it was always we have to charge insurance companies a cost per sale.
SPEAKER_00So how did you unlock that cost per sale? How did you win?
SPEAKER_02I remember my phone ringing one day, picking the phone up, and it was somebody from the marketing team at Norwich Union, so Aviva, as as they're known now, um, you know, one of the biggest insurance companies in the UK. And they said to me, Oh, we're getting all these quotes from you. And I'm like, Yes, absolutely, you are. We are giving you so much volume. I'm so glad that you rang, because now it's time for us to talk about how we start a commercial agreement with you. So we've shown you now how much volume we can give you. So let's talk about now how you can start paying us for these leads. Um and and and they and on the other end of the phone, they kind of said, okay, so so what are you thinking? So at that point, I had no clue what that should be, because our discussions have always been charging the consumer for a sale or charging an insurance company for a lead. Um so literally off the top of my head, I said, How about £40 a sale? There was a bit of a logic behind it, which I was thinking average premium at that point was about £400, 10%, £40. So they were like, Yeah, okay, great. So we literally did the deal there and then, and they started paying for all the leaves that we sent them, £40 sale, and that was the month that we actually turned a profit. So up until that point, we were making big losses, um, and we were literally going from month to month. So that conversation and that deal was the real game changer.
SPEAKER_00It's a pivoting moment, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00What I can't get over, I was living in parallel this life, seeing confuse.com coming on the scene, believing that some boffin had got this nailed or something using the service. It was a little Haley on the phone with Donna Julia trying to get them to do something.
SPEAKER_02It's funny, isn't it, that you have these moments that are just game-changing moments. And and actually I've had quite a few of them in my life, but this was an absolutely game-changing moment in the whole industry. Because if we didn't start making some money at that point, I don't know how long we would have continued for. Wow. So that month we was the first month we made any money, and then every month after the profits just grew and grew and grew. So by the time, you know, you know, five years in, we were making a million pounds a month profit.
SPEAKER_00How many staff?
SPEAKER_02Uh 20, 25 staff.
SPEAKER_00That's a ratio, isn't it? Was that already a part of you thinking I could do this myself?
SPEAKER_02You know, I had 13 wonderful years working Admiral. They gave me some great opportunities to set up Gladiator for them, to set up Confuse.com for them. You know, that business was Kate and I, and we had a wonderful journey, and Kate decided it was time for her to move on. She was ready to retire. It devastated Kate's going, but okay, that job should be mine now then. Kate and I built this business, that job should be mine. And that isn't how it panned out. So Admiral decided they were bringing somebody external in to take over Kate's role. You know, I kind of get it. Kate and I could be very difficult, we could be a pain, you know, it could be a pain in the ass. And maybe they wanted to bring somebody in that might be a little bit more easy-going, might do as they told, a little bit more. Um, who knows? Anyway, I don't know. Again, for me, a magic moment that I didn't get that job because um that was the first time that I kind of thought, maybe my time has come here now, maybe it's time for me to kind of think of moving on.
SPEAKER_00Deep down, were you hurt, angry, or did it simply make things clear about your next role?
SPEAKER_02I I just kind of crack on and get on with it. I kind of thought, well, obviously they don't think I'm good enough for it. They they'll they'll bring somebody else in, then fine. I will help them in any way that I can, and that's absolutely fine. So that happened, and then I remember getting a phone call from a good contact of mine that I'd worked with for years and years, saying to me, Haley, just to let you know I'm leaving, I've been offered an opportunity with USwitch to go and set a comparison service for them. So again, I remember thinking, oh, well, if you can go and do that, I can definitely go and do that. If I'm gonna do anything, I'm gonna set up my own comparison service. Because one of the issues I was having at this point professionally was everything was driven by price. So every policy that we sold, it was always the cheapest quote. So insurance companies were getting savvy as they are, so they would strip down all the policy cover. So they would maybe remove windscreen cover, they would put higher excess on the policy, um, there'd be no stereo cover. So the policies were getting less and less, so they could get the price cheaper and cheaper, so they'd get to the top of the comparison list. So I had an issue with that because for me that just wasn't being customer-friendly, customer-focused. And the insurance companies were kind of taking control. And part of the beauty of comparison services for me was to give that control to the consumer. Ultimately, that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a consumer, the consumer champion. What I needed is finance, then, you know, I know my team that I will take with me. One of the guys who became my co-founder, a great guy called Lee Griffin, who's still the CEO now at at Go Compare, he's been there 20 years now. So my history with Lee actually was he started working for me when he was 17, having a year out from school. Anyway, stayed with me through the gladiator journey. When we then outsourced that business to HSBC, he went to HSBC along with that business. He says I sold him to HSBC, which technically Like a gladiator slave. Yeah, technically true. I did kind of sell him to HSBC, I guess. Fast forward then years later, when I'm thinking I'm leaving, I'm thinking, well, I'm leaving, and Lee's coming with me, of course. Um I can picture like it was yesterday. I'm driving along, he sat right next to me, and um I say, right, Griff, I'm leaving. I need to know where your loyalties lie. Are you staying Admiral or are you coming with me? So I kind of look at him and he looks at me and he says, Well, I'm coming with you, H, of course. At this point, no discussion on what we're gonna do, on what the business opportunity is or nothing. He's just like, Yeah, if you're going, I'm coming with you. That's it. No more mention of that now for the rest of the journey. I think it was six weeks later, I actually met up with the guys to discuss funding and literally sat down and had breakfast with them. Within 20 minutes, they were like, This is amazing. We would absolutely love to invest in this venture with you. Um, and we we agreed that they would invest a million pounds. I, you know, I go, I go back to the office after agreeing to the funding, say to Lee, come on, Lee, let's go and have a spotted lunch. I haven't seen you in ages, I haven't spoken to you for ages, let's go and uh have a catch-up. And then I say to him, Right, I've got the funding, I've got the plan, we're off, we're leaving tomorrow. So he says, Oh my god, eh? He said, I thought I dreamt that conversation. He said, You haven't mentioned it in six weeks. He said, I honestly thought I dreamt the conversation, and it never really happened. I was like, oh no, it's really happening, and we're leaving tomorrow. So um, this is when it kind of all gets a bit chaotic then, because um he's like, Okay, but who's gonna do the IT side for us? I said, That's okay, Dan's gonna do the IT side for us. He said, Well, you've spoken to him. I said, No, no, I haven't spoken to him yet. Sat down with him and kind of said, Right, I'm leaving. Lee's come in with me. I couldn't believe it. Within about two minutes, he was like, Yeah, I'm in. My gosh, this is easy. So literally then, like within a couple of hours, that was it. There was the team of three. We all had this vision of moving the model on and doing things better. Following morning, I went in, met with uh the person that then headed the business up and kind of said, I'm leaving. Dan's leaving with me, Lee is leaving with me, you know, just to be up front, we will be doing something in the comparison space, you know. That was a bit of a shock. So I was immediately escorted off the premises. Then they went and got Dan, escorted Dan off the premises. Poor Lee, they didn't come back for Lee. They left him sat there for the whole for hours for the whole day. He sat there thinking, well, has she resigned for me? What's happening? They've escorted her off the premises, they've escorted Dan off the premises. I'm just sat here. Um, maybe she hasn't done it for me. Um, so bless him. That went on for hours and hours until they eventually come and spoke to Lee and escorted Lee off the premises. Um, and then I remember kind of like standing outside, standing outside the the Admiral building with with Lee and Dan. I remember I clearly oh, I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember David Stevens coming over to me. Uh, you know, Dave's always been so fantastic and inspirational to me. So the thought of like letting him down in any way is heartbreaking for me. And actually, he he just came over and he gave me a hug and he just said it'll all be okay, Hayley. And I just cried and cried and cried. And then I remember looking at Dan and Lee and thinking, Oh my god, I'm re I'm responsible for you, Pin now for the rest of my life. And I also remember Henry saying, Whatever you do, we will never ever work with you. Again, in my head, challenge accepted. So when I sat down with the guys then to plan what became Go Compare, um, my very first thing was, we are going to create the number one comparison site in the UK. And when we do, I will get hold of Admiral and they will join our panel. We will not ask them until we get to that point where we're number one, and then they'll have no choice but to work with us. So literally, the day we officially became the number one price comparison site in the UK for car insurance, literally, as that report landed on my desk, I had a little smile to myself. I picked up the phone, I rang David Stevens and said, David, you'll now know we're the number one price comparison site in the UK. Now's time for us to sit down and have a conversation about how we work together. He said, Yes, Haley, you are absolutely right. And then we worked together ever since.
SPEAKER_00For me, this is the big Maverick moment. You leave Admiral after 13 years, you leave security, you leave status, you leave a successful career. And then you find yourself, well, standing in the middle of the road thinking, What have I done?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, cry my eyes out.
SPEAKER_00You know, what happened in that moment is incredible, but it's also the resolve that drives you to that kind of I'll show them. And and it's when people with the maverick, you see, is that when people quietly doubt, it's not a confidence thing, it's like, watch me.
SPEAKER_02And and and let's be really truthful here, that's the real driver, right? In that moment, that real driver is look at what you could have had. I'm gonna show you what I can do. And again, in the middle of that road, at that moment, in my head, old Haley's gone. That's it. Old Haley over in the Admiral Building, she's gone. That was the point that I'm like, what does New Haley look like?
SPEAKER_00New Haley's very exciting. So people followed you from Confuse.com. Yeah. Did that give you confidence or did it add pressure? Because it wasn't just those two, others came later.
SPEAKER_02Oh, they were they're my tribe. They these are my people, they were my tribe. So I was loyal to them, they were loyal to me, we were an amazing team. When you just put great people together, they can create magic.
SPEAKER_00When Go Compare began, what was the old first office like? And what was the mood in the early days?
SPEAKER_02Oh gosh, quite co- it's quite funny actually when I think back. So we work we work in work in my house, work on my work around my dining room table for the first couple of weeks, work in the pub, and then I'm like, need to find some office space. What I realized at that point was whilst I've set up a number of businesses for Admiral, it was within this great group that did all those those things that you just don't think about.
SPEAKER_01Toilet rooms and all sorts.
SPEAKER_02But but like office facilities, that's right, like like a desk, like a computer, like all of those things. So I'm like, oh God, I didn't think about this. We need to get an office. So I found the nearest office space to my house, and they were like, we've got no furniture. So I was like, fine, I can go to IKEA, buy desks, we've got no computers, we've got no services. And then I'm saying to the guys, right, guys, this is the point now where we have to call on all our friends that that we've got and all the contacts that we've got to get these things done. So who do you know that does networking? And so so Dan said, Yeah, a friend of mine's just set up, he's just setting up his own business in networking. Brilliant, get him in. Who do I know that can do this? And you you you kind of rope them in. So again, really, really making it up as we were going along.
SPEAKER_00At some point you grew exponentially, and then you realised Go and Compare needed serious scale.
SPEAKER_02We can't do anything the way that we used to do it. So then I'm saying to the IT guys, right guys, we've got to build this now in a completely different technology than you've ever used before. So whatever is the newest, latest technology out, you have to learn that, and that's what we're gonna develop our services in.
SPEAKER_00A new language.
SPEAKER_02So absolutely new language, really I mean a big, huge risk to take. So for a wee while, whilst they were building the technology, I didn't actually have a lot to do. So so I'm kind of thinking, right, million pounds gets us to launch. By the time we get to launch, we then need to refund um and to to to go for it properly. So I was like, right, let's get to the point where the tech the technology is all built, we can show them what we've got, and then I'll look for new financing. You know, Confuse.com was doing fantastic. You had money supermarket then, they were doing absolutely fantastic. But both of those businesses took years and years to build the technology to, you know, get established to get off the ground. And I'm like, I want us to build this now really as quickly as we can.
SPEAKER_00But you uh worked out that you needed 30 million.
SPEAKER_02I worked out that I needed serious investment. I'm not gonna get it from a bank, I'm not gonna get it from traditional sources, I need somebody within the insurance industry that will really take a big risk with me on this. There was only one person that came into my mind, which is a gentleman called Peter Wood, who had founded Direct Line. He was the top guy in the industry, the biggest, most entrepreneurial, risk-taking, awesome person in the industry. I want Peter Wood as my investor. Of course you do. Bizarrely, Peter had the same idea. He knew what we were working on, he knew what we'd done at Confuse.com, he was thinking exactly the same thing. So uh, yeah, so as soon as I rocked up, he was already there waiting for me to have exactly the same conversation with me as I wanted with him. We'd we'd talk through all the plans and all the ideas, and we were like, right, you know, 30 million pound investment.
SPEAKER_00This feels like another Mavic moment for me because you didn't wait to be discovered. Nothing came to you. You chased the person.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I'm making it up as I go along, flying by the seats in my pants always.
SPEAKER_00But but the thing is, you've got that scale, but then Tesco entered the market, uh the comparison market. That must have been a huge moment for you because what was your first reaction?
SPEAKER_02So again, I think I mean they were declaring war. Another game-changing moment. You know, I there's there's lots of game-changing moments actually through my life. More more than is normal, I'm sure. So the plan was to build the business steady over the next three years and spend 10 million pounds a year over three years. And then I had a phone call. A friend of mine on the end of the line, he's like, Haley, you're not gonna believe this. I've just had a meeting with the guys at Tesco. They are looking to launch Tesco Compare. They want to take you out of the market before you get off the ground, really, and before you start. They're recruiting heavily, they're gonna chuck all the money at it, they're going to chuck all the staff at it, and they're gonna take you out of the market. So I remember thinking, shit, okay, thanks for that. Great. I remember then kind of sitting back down with everybody and kind of saying, look, this is a huge, huge risk to us. You know, they said they're looking to launch within six months. So I'm thinking, right, six months. So we have to bring everything forward and literally throw everything at it. You know, at the time of that phone call, that was a really, really scary moment. So that is, we either go for it big time or we sit here and we wait to be taken out to the market. So obviously, we went for it big time. We did some really crazy risky things, we really did. So, as it turns out, we launched with six members of staff, a million pounds in a six month time period. The big corporate giant that was Tesco Compare, uh, are rumoured to have spent £20 million, had over 200 staff, took over two years, and never really got off the ground. But they didn't have Hayley Parsons, didn't they? They didn't have Hayley Parsons and they didn't have my team, that's quite right.
SPEAKER_00We never really saw them after that.
SPEAKER_02Just never really got off the ground, you know, at the point at the point that they launched, we'd already dominated. We we absolutely dominated, and they just they just couldn't get a foothold in the market then. So thankfully they give up and went home. Stuck they stuck to shopping.
SPEAKER_00Another classic Maverick moment because the giant enters the market. Yeah, the obvious response is fear. Yeah. Your response was accelerate. Yeah. I love it.
SPEAKER_02Bring it on, let's go for it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But you either fight or flee. Yeah. You're not gonna back down, are you? So was that one of the moments when you thought we're not here to survive? What do you like with board games?
SPEAKER_02I get I'm too competitive.
SPEAKER_00Right then, I want to talk to you about the Go Compare campaign. Yeah. At the time you were frustrated with traditional marketing agencies. Yeah. What weren't they getting?
SPEAKER_02We had a lovely ad on TV, it was all working, it was all good. I think it was during a Christmas period. I remember sitting at home watching TV on my own. And then this advert came up, and it and I remember thinking, what the hell is this all about? And it was the mere cats. And I remember sitting there thinking, gosh, this is a game changer. This takes us into a whole different area now. Where the hell do we go with this? We need to figure out where we go with this now. So my marketing guy, you know, they spent a long time talking to different media agencies, looking at kind of, you know, different advertising campaigns, you know, I'd have all these agents, they come in and present and everything. I'm like, no, I don't like it. No, no, no, hate it. I'd kind of lost my cool on it then. I was like, right, I'm gonna have to sort this out myself. So I kind of sidestepped the marketing team, go back to my investor, Peter Wood, who'd done some phenomenal marketing campaigns, you know, with ESHO and Sheila's Wheels and Directline and, you know, all of those game-changing things. So I was like, Peter, can you introduce me to your your creative guys? He's like, I can, Hailey, but they're retired. They've been out of the game for a long time now. I'm like, do you think we can persuade them to come back and work? They'll come back and work for you, Peter, surely. So he's like, Yeah, of course they will. You know, they were like, Oh yeah, this sounds great. Of course we'll, of course, we'll come up with a concept for you. We'll come up with an idea for you. Leave it with us. So they delivered this one concept for me. They read a script for the very first advert, um, and I was sold at that stage. I they played the music, the tune to over there. They presented me a character which was an opera singer. He was a very scrawny looking guy in a tuxedo with this crazy mustache. So I was like, absolutely love the concept, but visually that's wrong. I want a big, round, jolly opera singer. So they said, Well, we're not gonna find an actor that can do the adverse and that can sing, so we'll have two people. So I'm like, no, no, I don't like that idea. I want one person, he's got to be a big, round, jolly opera singer, he has to be able to sing, he has to be able to act, that's what I want. Like, you're being ridiculous, hey, we're not gonna find that. I'm like, that's what I want. And he must be Welsh. So they're like, you are really being ridiculous now. And I'm like, that's what I want. So off they went to find me the impossible, and then oh, probably about a month later, they send me a DVD over. So I sit down to watch the presentations. I watched the first one, 30-second clip. No, don't let that one. The second one that came on was Wynne Evans, and literally, as soon as I saw him and as soon as he opened his mouth, I was like, that's him, he's the one for me. And I didn't even look at the rest.
SPEAKER_00That's incredible, and it transformed his life, and it was the brand that we all remember, one of the most iconic campaigns.
SPEAKER_02Interestingly, presented it to my board. I was so excited about it, and I was expecting them to be the same. And they're like, Hayley, this is this is awful. What are you doing? We don't like this. So I ended up saying, quite honestly, I don't care what you think, I don't care if you like it or not, we are doing it, and that's it. And I kind of, you know, left the boardroom, slammed the door behind me, and just went ahead and did it regardless.
SPEAKER_00Just as well you did.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Oh, imagine the joy I had for all those years after of saying, see, I was right.
SPEAKER_00Did you ever worry though it was too much? Because or was too much exactly the point? You know, because what did that campaign teach you about being remembered? Because everybody remembers that. It's iconic.
SPEAKER_02I completely changed the script. You know, I completely changed the script. The the brief completely changed. And the brief was, forget everything else that's gone on. We are now in the entertainment space, and the only thing that matters is brand recognition. So it's just get that name out there. Nothing else matters.
SPEAKER_00What did the numbers look like?
SPEAKER_02The numbers were scary because I remember one of the you probably give me one of the most important pieces of advice I've ever been given, which was ignore the red line and just go for it. So the red line actually said we were going to lose 10 million pounds in the next year. And that's terrifying. When you can't when you kind of you look at that and you kind of think 10 million pound loss, he's like, yeah, yeah, ignore that. You've got your plan, just go for it and don't look back. So we went from a projected 10 million pound loss, which actually only turned out to be an 8 million pound loss in that first year. So I was delighted with that. I think second year we broke even, third year we made 36 million pound profit. Um, and that's on the backdrop then of Tesco Compare never really been able to get off the off the ground.
SPEAKER_00After eight years, Go Compare was valued at 190 million. When you hear that figure now, what do you feel?
SPEAKER_02They're not really things I I focus on. You know, I'm all about the people. So my stories are all around the people and the fun and the things that we did, and amazing. Um very pro I'm just so proud, generally, of everything that we've done.
SPEAKER_00So, okay then, you've got this baby which is yours, and you've created it. What was it like to sell?
SPEAKER_02That's a great question, actually.
SPEAKER_00Um Did it give you freedom? Were you grieving, relief, or all of it?
SPEAKER_02So the kind of plan all along was to build it, sell it. So I start businesses, I found businesses, I get them to a stage, and then so in my again, in my plan in my head, it was you you build it, you grow it, you get it to that stage where you then hand it over to somebody then that will take it on and take it to where it needs to be. And I guess I kind of just stuck to plan really and and did that. I'd also spent kind of 25 years working non-stop, um, and it was my number one priority, and I put everything into it, but I had children, um, I had a I had a life that I kind of wanted to have, start building outside of outside of the the the business. So it kind of just felt like the right thing to do in hindsight. I do look back and kind of think, should I have maybe stayed involved in the business um and taken a step back? The problem is I don't think I could have done that.
SPEAKER_01I don't think that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_02I think I have I think it was always me, it was always my way. It wouldn't have been fair to have expected somebody else to come in um and take on that role with me still around. But the most important thing to me was that it continued. This is a Welsh business that is still here now in Wales doing its stuff today. So that was the most important thing to me was that it continued in Wales and that my my team was safe.
SPEAKER_00You are all about the team and the people, and there's a brilliant story early on in your career where you're not political, you're not bothered by any external things. Getting you on this show has been my mission. But you're not bothered because you know you don't like talking about these things, which I love, you know, and I'm thank you so much for sharing it. You're invited to 10 Downing Street, and yeah, you weren't that keen. Tell me about that.
SPEAKER_02My PA Catherine, she comes running to my office, she says, Oh Hayley, Hayley, how exciting! You've been invited to Ten Downing Street. Catherine, I'm far too busy, I've not got time to go to London and go to 10 Downing Street, and I've got no interest. She gave me one of her looks, she stormed out of my office, and as she said, that is unbelievably rude. I'm gonna tell your mother on you. Five minutes later, my phone rings. I answer the phone. Young lady, if the Prime Minister invites you to Ten Downing Street, you will be going to Ten Downing Street. I have bought you up better than that. You will not be so rude to the Prime Minister. And in fact, I'm going to escort you there to make sure you go. I'm so obviously she's remembering my school days, you know, where I used to pretend I would go and kind of much up and not really go. So I think she was taken back to there that I might tell her I was going, pretend to go and just not turn up. So uh she did indeed escort me to London. I said, Well, okay, if we're going, then at least we're gonna have a nice lunch. We had a fabulous lunch, in fact. We went to Clarid's, had a couple of bots of champagne, um, was very, very merry. So I remember leaving then, jumping into the taxi and saying to the taxi driver, Drive, take me to Ten Downing Street. So he was like, Yeah, yeah, where do you really want to go? I was like, No, no, I really need to go to Ten Downing Street. He said, Yeah, they all say that. So I showed him my invite, oh yeah, you really are going to Ten Downing Street, aren't you? So uh anyway, I went into Ten Downing Street and actually had the loveliest time, but they keep topping you up with alcohol, right? So I turned up drunk and this little wine waiter just followed me around for the next two hours, topping my glass up. So by the end of it, I I really was off my face to be fair. So I was like, right, I need to go home now, I've had enough. So I get to the top of the stairs to leave, and you've got like you've got like two big flights of stairs you need to walk down, right? To walk back out that door that says number 10 on it. So I'm at the top of the stairs in my four-inch heels, thinking I'm not getting down there in these shoes, that's just not happening. So I took my shoes off. I was happy, I was in my lovely little, I'd had a lovely little time, walked all the way down the stairs with no shoes on, out the door. Look at my mother's there at the gate. She's mortified. I've got my shoes on my shoulders like this. I'm walking out like I've got, you know, her hair drops, and she's like, Oh my god, I cannot believe you did that. Yeah. Super embarrassed her.
SPEAKER_00True to nature, but there was a time when you made her proud.
SPEAKER_02I don't know, probably six months later. Again, I'm in my office. One of my friends, Laura, who's our office manager, she comes running through the door. She's like, Hey, hey, oh my god, come and have a look at this. So she's got this letter, so I, you know, we sit and have a look at it, and I read it through, and it says you've been nominated for an OBE in the New Year's Honours list. So I'm like, ah, that's a wind up. That's one of my friends taking the mick. So she said, Yeah, I thought that too. So we're we're reading it, so I does sound quite official. It does look quite official, and we kind of debate for 15 minutes if it's a wind up, who you know, who out there in the office would, you know, would do such a thing. And it was quite a long list to be fair. So it was real. So I did get to take my mum to Buckingham Palace and absolutely best day of her life. She cost six grandkids, but Buckingham Palace was definitely the best day of her life.
SPEAKER_00But both stories are funny, but they speak volumes about who you are and how you've stayed grounded through the whole process. So, you know, to this day, uh, it's not about you, which I I love. When do you think about the schoolgirl who skipped school, the daughter of Dodgy Roger, and the woman receiving an OB? What do you feel?
SPEAKER_02Oh, do you know? I'll always be at heart that 16-year-old grounded counsel house girl that just wanted to do it really, really hard and earn her own independence. Uh, you know, that's that's who I am.
SPEAKER_00Right then, Haley, time for Maverick Maxim's quick answers, short, sharp, and fun, okay? What's the best advice you ignored?
SPEAKER_02Oh, the best advice I ignored was my good friend Dan Francis that told me, do not leave Confuse.com to set up as a rival company because um you can't take on the big beasts that that's already been created.
SPEAKER_00I'm glad you ignored that. What's the biggest myth about success?
SPEAKER_02Oh, that people can get there easily. They absolutely cannot. It is hard work, it is craft, and you have to kind of put everything into it. But actually, with the right mindset and the right attitude, if you uh strap your balls on, you can re- and really go for it, then who knows what might happen.
SPEAKER_00Which is the most important, money or freedom?
SPEAKER_02Freedom.
SPEAKER_00And why?
SPEAKER_02Oh, freed uh well, money, I guess money gives you options. Yeah. Doesn't make you happy, gives you options.
SPEAKER_00Product, brand, or guts, what matters most?
SPEAKER_02Product, brand, or guts. Well, they kind of all matter, but the big I mean the biggest one has to be guts, right? It has to be just absolutely going for it and don't let anything stop you.
SPEAKER_00What's one thing people underestimate about Welsh ambition?
SPEAKER_02Oh, again, for me, you see, I've always been surrounded by the most awesome, fantastic, inspirational people. So for me, business people in Wales absolutely rock. They've got so much like heart, so much personality, so much like fun and engagement, and they're like the best people to work with. So for me, there are so many people here that that seriously do not lack ambition and really, really go for it. Um, I just think maybe focuses on for a lot of people, focuses on the negative, not the positive. Yeah. But for me, it's sort of this there's some awesome, fantastic people out there. So I look at it, I look at it the other way. Like all of these things, I tend to look at it from a different angle to most other people.
SPEAKER_00I guess because we're a small nation, people put us in a smaller box, but we definitely punch above our weight.
SPEAKER_02Oh, absolutely we do. But for me, I you know, I'd never have anybody put me in a box, or I literally just crack on and get things done, and I don't stop and think about what other people think about it.
SPEAKER_00Tiaras, confidence booster or silent weapon?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I anything glitz, any bit of glitz and glam, I am all over it.
SPEAKER_00When I first met you on the Villindra Clancer bike ride, you were out for the tiara. I think, who is that?
SPEAKER_02Vegas, baby. Anything goes in Vegas. But remember, what goes on in Vegas stays in Vegas.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so next reference. If your life became an autobiography, what would you call it?
SPEAKER_02Oh, life is too short for long hair. Or you're never gonna believe what happened next.
SPEAKER_00I look forward to reading that.
SPEAKER_02The problem is I need a few people to die first before I can tell all the real stories.
SPEAKER_00By the film rights now.
SPEAKER_02The problem is with the book, of course, you can't tell half the stories. And you can't kind of, you know, confess to half the risks that you've taken and a lot of the things that you've done. So yeah, the the chances are there will not be a book.
SPEAKER_00So I'm on to best and worst decisions, okay? What's the best decision you've ever made?
SPEAKER_02Leaving Confuse.com to set up CoCompare.
SPEAKER_00And what's the one that taught you the most?
SPEAKER_02I think something like an eye open of an eye-opening thing for me was when we went through the sales process, I was very lucky that I had a lot of support around me from my investors that kind of um prepared me financially for selling, that prepared me mentally for going through that process. One of my regrets is I didn't do that necessarily for the team below me. So a lot of my original kind of shareholder founders, um I think that was that big that was quite difficult. So any kind of new businesses that that I that I kind of talk talk to now, that was a difficult thing for me because I because I was prepared and I was ready and I was coached and I was helped, and I regret that I didn't kind of give that to my shareholder founders, because actually when we did exit, I think they went through a really tough time. Um and I'd always been there for all of that time to always look after them. Um and yeah, that that that that was a bit of a that's a difficult thing. That's something that I kind of reflect on and wish I could maybe have done more on or done differently.
SPEAKER_00It says a lot that you care about that because if you didn't care, you wouldn't feel, you know, and they wouldn't have been your team. So, Haley, if you could go back to the moment you were standing in the road after leaving Admiral, wondering what you had just done, what would you say to yourself?
SPEAKER_02Exactly as well, exactly the same thing as I said when I stood there, which is game on, we can do this. Challenge accepted.
SPEAKER_00And if you could leave people with one message from your story, what would it be?
SPEAKER_02Don't stop and think about it for too long. Just go for it. Just you just have to get out there and do it, but don't underestimate the work that you have to put in. But again, you know, I think my mind works differently to other people's. So I just I have a goal and I just go for it. And whatever I have to do to get there, I will do. Um and nothing will stop me. So mindset. Mindset's a big thing, but I think people spend too long thinking of reasons why they shouldn't do it rather than just bloody well doing it.
SPEAKER_00We always finish with this line. Complete the sentence for me. A maverick is someone who dot dot dot.
SPEAKER_02Oh, for me, a maverick is somebody that just bloody well goes and does what they want to do, regardless what anybody else tells them.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, Hailey. I mean, what I love about your story, it's not just about building a company, it's about seeing things differently. I think the way you visualize the future, you know, and reach those milestones is phenomenally inspirational. And, you know, I hope our listeners will take something from that, you know, in terms of get your goal, go for it, head down. It's as simple as that, really, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Well, it is extraordinary when I think back, and I and I and I actually look at what we have achieved over the years and how we absolutely transformed the whole insurance industry and how it operates today. But more importantly, we put control back to the customer on what they were buying, and actually we were also able to keep prices much, much lower than than they should have been because everything was so open and transparent. We brought openness and transparency to the insurance world.
SPEAKER_00I've really enjoyed getting inside your Maverick mind. You are the ultimate Maverick, Haley Parsons OVE. So that was Haley and her story, founder of Go Compare, Welsh entrepreneur, investor, disruptor, and a woman who has built her life around backing herself and backing her people. Her story is a reminder that success rarely follows a straight line. Sometimes it starts with not fitting in. Sometimes it starts with a picture in your head. Sometimes it starts in the middle of the road, wondering what you have just done. And sometimes the most maverick thing you can do is refuse to wait for permission because the world doesn't change by playing it safe. I'm Embi Raban, and this is Inside the Maverick Mind.