What does confidence really look like?

Is it appearing calm, capable and completely in control?

Or is real confidence being prepared to step into the unknown, knowing you might fail, and giving it a go anyway?

In this episode of The School Run, Jane is joined by Phil Holdcroft, founder of High Performance Journey, former Royal Air Force pilot, endurance athlete, speaker, husband and dad.

And Phil’s story is quite a journey.

At school, he didn’t have his future mapped out. He studied biochemistry, found himself on a graduate programme in London with the salary, company car and mobile phone that should have meant he was doing brilliantly... but he was deeply unhappy.

Then came the Royal Air Force.

Phil describes it as discovering “the thing I never knew I always wanted to do”, beginning an incredible two-decade military career and finding a sense of purpose he hadn’t experienced before.

But one of the biggest challenges of Phil’s life happened away from the military when his youngest daughter, Isla, was diagnosed with leukaemia at just 22 months old.

Suddenly, all the toughness and resilience Phil thought he understood were tested in a completely different way.

As Isla began her journey towards recovery, Phil set himself five increasingly difficult physical challenges over five years, raising money for the charities and people who had helped his family.

The final challenge?

Rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic.

Phil and Jane talk about resilience, purpose, leadership, mental fitness and the importance of human connection. They explore what happens when an identity that has defined you for years changes, and why leaving the military forced Phil to think carefully about who he was without the uniform.

There’s also a fascinating conversation about the advice we give young people and how even loving, well-intentioned words can sometimes create beliefs about what we are and aren’t capable of achieving.

Today, through High Performance Journey, Phil uses everything he has learned about leadership, performance, teamwork and resilience to help individuals and teams discover what they are capable of.

And his definition of confidence might just change the way you think about it.

Confidence isn’t the absence of fear.

It’s having the courage to show up, step into the arena and try, even when success is far from guaranteed.

An inspiring, moving and wonderfully honest conversation about purpose, family, identity, connection and discovering just how much might be possible when you’re prepared to have a go.

If you enjoy The School Run, please follow the podcast, leave us a review or share this episode with someone who might need to hear Phil’s story.

You can find out more about Little Voices, our classes, our work with schools and how we help children build confidence for life at:

littlevoices.org.uk

Follow The School Run on Instagram:

@theschoolrun_official

If you’d like to support the podcast and help us keep these stories flowing, you can buy us a virtual coffee at:

buymeacoffee.com/theschoolrun

Podcast Production:

The School Run Podcast is edited and produced by Mike Roberts at Making Digital Real.

makingdigitalreal.co.uk

Disclaimer:

All views expressed in this podcast are shared as respectfully as possible and are those of the individual participants. The information, opinions and recommendations presented are for general information only. Please seek appropriate professional advice where needed.

What if the thing you’re naturally brilliant at is something you haven’t fully recognised yet?

In this episode of The School Run, Jane is joined by photographer and entrepreneur Sarah Aires for a wonderfully warm conversation about confidence, creativity, education and finding the path that actually feels like yours.

Sarah’s journey certainly hasn’t followed a straight line.

At school, she was academic and initially thought her future might lie in science, medicine or law. But something didn’t feel quite right. A brave decision to change direction became one of the first steps towards understanding something that would take her years to fully appreciate: just because you’re good at something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s where you belong.

Sarah shares how her career took her through business, sales and account management before she eventually discovered the combination that really worked for her: creativity and people.

Today, she brings those strengths together as a professional photographer, with a fascinating approach to capturing people at their most natural. She even creates professional headshots remotely, photographing people and teams without needing to be in the same room.

But this conversation goes much deeper than photography.

Jane and Sarah talk about comparison, creativity, trusting your instincts, finding your own “superpower” and why we can spend far too much of our lives looking sideways at what everyone else is doing.

Sarah also shares the story of unexpectedly homeschooling her two daughters for two years and what that experience taught the whole family about education, different learning styles and bringing the wonder and excitement back into learning.

And when Jane asks Sarah what confidence really means to her, her answer is beautifully simple:

“Knowing your worth.”

Because perhaps confidence isn’t about being the loudest person in the room.

Perhaps it’s about knowing who you are, understanding what you bring and being comfortable enough to stay in your own lane.

A warm, honest and uplifting conversation about finding your strengths, doing things differently and becoming more comfortable with exactly who you are.

Podcasts for us are all about learning, sharing stories and starting conversations. They are, of course, completely free to listen to.

If you enjoy The School Run and would like to buy us a virtual cup of tea while we’re planning future episodes, you can support us here:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theschoolrun

Get in touch:

You can find us on Instagram @theschoolrun_official.

For information about Little Voices, visit:

http://www.littlevoices.org.uk

Podcast Production:

The School Run Podcast is edited and produced by Mike Roberts at Making Digital Real.

Disclaimer:

All views expressed in this podcast are shared as respectfully as possible and are those of the individual participants. The information, opinions and recommendations presented are for general information only. Please seek appropriate professional advice where needed.

For this week’s Summer ReRun, we’re heading back to a very personal episode of The School Run, and this time Liv is taking over.

Instead of Jane asking the questions, Liv turns the tables on her mum to find out more about the woman behind Little Voices and the journey that brought her to where she is today.

And what a journey it has been.

Jane talks about discovering her love of singing as a little girl, training as an opera singer, performing on stage and eventually studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

But, as is so often the case with the stories we share on The School Run, life didn’t follow the plan.

There’s the London Marathon, an experience Jane credits with teaching her some of her biggest lessons about resilience and determination. There’s the devastating aftermath of what should have been a straightforward operation, which led to numerous surgeries and the possibility that she could lose part of her leg.

Then there’s the realisation that the career she had spent years preparing for might not actually be the life she wanted.

What followed was teaching, motherhood and, eventually, a conversation around a coffee shop table in Blackburn that would lead to the creation of Little Voices.

What began with a couple of classes in 2007 grew into something far bigger than Jane could ever have imagined, helping children across the country find confidence, friendships and, most importantly, their own voice.

It’s a wonderfully honest conversation between mum and daughter about dreams changing, overcoming difficult chapters, following opportunities and recognising that the destination you originally had in mind isn’t always where you’re supposed to end up.

And there’s another reason we wanted to bring this one back...

If you’ve ever wondered what Jane actually sounds like after all those years training as an opera singer, make sure you stay until the end.

There’s a rather special performance waiting for you.

A lovely trip back into The School Run archives, and an episode that captures perfectly something we’ve believed since the very beginning:

You really don’t have to have it all figured out at school.

Podcasts for us are all about learning, sharing stories and starting conversations. They are, of course, completely free to listen to.

If you enjoy The School Run and would like to buy us a virtual cup of tea (or Liv’s favourite, a chocolate fudge brownie frappe with soya milk, coffee and cream!) while we’re planning future episodes, you can support us here:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theschoolrun

Get in touch:

We always love hearing from our listeners. You can find us on Instagram @theschoolrun_official and @mrsjanejames, search for Jane James on Facebook, or email us at mrsjanejames@icloud.com.

For information about Jane’s company, Little Voices, visit:

http://www.littlevoices.org.uk

Podcast Production:

The School Run Podcast is edited and produced by Mike Roberts at Making Digital Real.

makingdigitalreal.co.uk

Disclaimer:

All views expressed in this podcast are shared as respectfully as possible and are those of the individual participants. The information, opinions and recommendations presented are for general information only. We are simply a mum and daughter sharing our thoughts, personal experiences and conversations with guests we respect. Please seek appropriate professional advice where needed.