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The Fun Side Of Business
Let’s keep it real, business life isn’t all boring meetings and stiff suits. Behind the polished pitches and fancy titles is a whole other story!
We’re talking about the real stories, the unfiltered, uncut moments you won’t find in any polished promo video.
Behind every brand is a story—unexpected, totally entertaining, and 100% human. So here’s to the real ones: the dreamers, the grinders, the risk-takers.
Business life? It’s not what you think. It’s way more fun.
The Fun Side Of Business
Life’s Detours Make the Best Stories
This episode is only available to subscribers.
The Fun Side Of Business - The Extra Slice
Exclusive access to premium content!What happens when career paths take unexpected turns? In this revealing conversation with private investigator Barry Parker, we uncover the fascinating journey of a man who transitioned from professional football to prison work to running a respected investigation agency—all without a master plan.
There's something uniquely comforting about hearing these unvarnished stories. While everyone appears polished and purposeful from the outside, the reality of entrepreneurship is messier, more organic, and arguably more accessible than we're led to believe. We're excited to continue bringing you these authentic conversations that reveal the genuine human experiences behind business success
Good morning. Welcome to the extras edition of the Fun Side of Business podcast. Hi Gem, hi Jim. Do you know I never quite know how to do the hi? Hi, it's so weird. Anyway, let's go and talk.
Speaker 2:We don't even say hello to each other like that in the mornings, to be honest.
Speaker 1:You're alright, dickhead?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're alright, dickhead, yeah, you're alright, idiot, All right.
Speaker 1:so Barry Parker.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, so we, God, you've known Barry. For how long have you known Barry?
Speaker 1:Barry, I have known 15 years maybe.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I'm coming on, since I started the virus. So what five?
Speaker 1:No 18 years, 17 years so we've both known Barry.
Speaker 2:I mean you've a lot longer, but we've known Barry for a little while. Yeah, I you probably knew longer, but we've known. Barry for a little while. I you probably knew I didn't know the whole prison life, not him being in prison. Let's get that straight.
Speaker 1:You do realise that someone could be on our premium service listening to this and not?
Speaker 2:listen to the actual Barry. We need to find an ex-con to come on.
Speaker 1:Maybe we'll do a teaser just to kind of go oh my god, barry was like he spent that long in prison.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, but I never knew he worked in prisons.
Speaker 1:I found that fascinating I, I think that the like how he got into it, because I, I mean, I remember when I first, first, first met barry, there was another guy on the scene. I don't think I ever met him, but it was almost like, yeah, there's a silent partner right and I think either barry was working for him, with him or something, but it was mainly the other guy's business okay um, so I just assumed oh yeah, you know, he's come from ex-police or ex-something yeah for how to get into being a private investigator, because, I mean, I don't know the career path of a pi.
Speaker 1:I mean, you only know what you know on the tv, right?
Speaker 2:it's like, oh yeah someone's a private investigator, you either get excited or get really shit. What are they looking at? You just want to hide everything you've done in the past. Not that I've got anything to hide, obviously. Before you jump on that, obviously do.
Speaker 1:You know we're going to just keep on playing this one. You know gavin and stacy, where they keep talking about the boat trip yes I'm going to keep doing it and talking about the turkey story but never actually reveal the turkey story. We'll have it on like a premium, premium, premium, premium turkey story, no one's gonna know what that story is that's it.
Speaker 2:there are other places to visit, but no, I loved his life. It's just wow. And when you say someone's an investigator, you think yeah, hiding in bushes. Now he's cleared that up. He doesn't just hide in bushes and look through people's windows.
Speaker 1:Well, probably not professionally.
Speaker 2:He might just do it as a hobby now, but no, I found that fascinating.
Speaker 1:I think to kind of hear the story about. You know where he got to in football.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because you wouldn't think it with Barry right.
Speaker 2:I'm not making a comment.
Speaker 1:Well, there's no comment there, it's just that you just wouldn't think it. By the way, everyone who knows Barry Parker, by the way, please feel free to comment and just go. No, honestly, I definitely would have seen him as a footballer when he was younger. But yeah, I think. I think to just hear that story and you know, again, it was similar to when we spoke with Helen and it was almost like the accidental falling into it and that's exactly what it was. You know, it was a oh happens to be a chance conversation and a shall we try and do this?
Speaker 2:And then, before you know it, there's a fully fledged business, which has been the way with the past few of our guests. When you speak about people that are in business and finding their way to where they are now, it hasn't always, for most of us, not been a straight road.
Speaker 1:I don't think there's many that literally have that.
Speaker 2:That let's all think this is what I'm doing, and they're in it, or even that point of going.
Speaker 1:you know well, my ideal goal in 10 years time is I want to run my own business doing X. So in the meantime I mean obviously not X, twitter, but whatever like to kind of have a. This is what I want to do, and then to try and work jobs to learn the skills to be able to go out on your own and do it.
Speaker 2:I don't think there's many people who actually do that. No, and it's refreshing to know, because there's probably so many people out there thinking I don't, their story's unique. Like I didn't, I didn't know what I was going to do when I left school. I went to uni. I went to college, got all these qualifications I never used. Well, you're not alone.
Speaker 1:That's, that's most of the people out there but you just see everyone, and everyone's so polished and everyone's so you know. Oh, they're so good at what they do. I mean, you look at barry in terms of private investigators, he couldn't be any more. You know, polished in terms of he's the member of the association of british investigators, he is campaigning, you know, he's on their board, I think of like high level stuff of you know, let's professionalize this and let's do that, and you think he's the most polished private investigator ever.
Speaker 2:But I bet he wasn't, you know, when he was playing football or I don't even want to think of some of the stories we didn't ask him. None, none of the stories from when he was at football, did we?
Speaker 1:no, I bet there's some stories there as well. Maybe what we'll do is, if enough people go along and say I really love this podcast or write some enough comments about it, we'll have him back we'll have him back.
Speaker 2:Part two so yeah no, that was really I'm not gonna. I don't want to let anything slip. In case people have listened to this before that one no, do it, just only do teasers okay, even the people he met in the prison, yeah, people he came face to face with, yeah, some named inmates well, that that was the thing I mean.
Speaker 1:I've known him, as we said, I've known him 17 years. Yeah, didn't know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it Full stop at the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah mic drop moment. But yeah, I think just to sort of see. And again, I think that shows the rawness of this podcast, where people are coming in and I would almost promise you, if you ask, barry, before we started that podcast, are you planning on talking about this and this and this?
Speaker 2:yeah, I bet you wouldn't have been.
Speaker 1:No, it's something about this room. Maybe we'll just ask people for their pin numbers or something, if we just start asking people for their pin numbers halfway through and we'll just make a career out of it yeah um, but yeah so it's definitely definitely one of my favorites awesome, awesome, having barry on very good, thank you barry.
Speaker 1:Thanks, barry, if you're listening and if you're not, um, anyone else who's subscribing to premium, just send them a message saying I can't believe they said that about you in the extra section and boom, one more subscriber. So anyway. So yeah, thank you very much for listening people. Thank you for subscribing. Jem doesn't want to thank you at all, by the way. I'm looking over like do you want to? Do you want to say thanks or not, or no?
Speaker 2:we'll just ignore them I'm so thankful there we go there we go.
Speaker 1:we're also grateful. You know all, all two of you, so, yeah, so thank you ever so much for your support, um, and we will look forward to catching up with you on the next one. If you haven't already heard, you will find somewhere in the section we have done our Nick and Gemma under the hot seat or in in the oh yeah whatever. So if if it's not already there, it will be coming soon and we want to release that content for um just you guys.
Speaker 2:We both took turns to interview one another. That was strange, wasn't?
Speaker 1:it, it was odd. It was odd, but yeah, we'll probably do something else. We don't know, I think. I think, if nothing else, it's very clear we're not scripted, we're not whatever I don't think you should have said that because people think we're so scripted professional at this yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1:Hang on a second jam in the script. You are supposed to thank the subscribers. Yeah, yeah, prompt line, um, but yeah, so you know how we get, how we progress, how we go. You know we want to hear from you guys because obviously, as subscribers, you're either our friends, our family, or you really enjoy the content. So you know if you've got any comments, if you've got any suggestions or routes or directions you want us to take it. You know we'd really love to hear from you, um, and also if there's any guests that you want us to particularly try and get. Obviously we probably can't get lady gaga yet or ed sheeran yet, um, but you know, in terms of anyone in suffolk business, yeah we can probably reach out and get them.
Speaker 1:So if there's some people you want to hear their backstory, or you know where they've came from, or you know they're quite an inspiration to you and you'd like to hear their journey, um, please let us know and we'll do do what we can lovely, awesome thanks for listening, guys and, um, yeah, we'll speak to you soon.
