About Me
Founder: Caroline Would
Hi, I'm Caroline!
I wasn’t particularly engaged with school (I just wanted to play sport every day) and drifted through A Levels and university without any real direction. That all changed in 1998 when I joined the Royal Air Force! For the next 16 years, I played all the sport I wanted, worked with the best friends ever and travelled the world. On a professional level, I learnt the real value of teamwork and developed resilience, confidence, leadership and communication skills. Daily life currently involves the numerous challenges and stresses of being a military wife and mother to 2 teenage boys.
Now I work with young people (and the young at heart!) on a wide variety of subjects, including confidence building, resilience, goal-setting, revision motivation, self-esteem & body confidence issues, toxic friendships & social media, imposter syndrome, public speaking, procrastination & perfectionism, GCSE & A Level options, career choices, CV development and interview technique.
I increase their confidence, challenge them to improve themselves and help them to unleash their potential and achieve success! Here’s my story…
Caroline has had a challenging and diverse career over the last 25 years. She spent 16 very rewarding years as a commissioned officer in the Royal Air Force. Her postings included international flight operation rooms, head of RAF recruitment for South East England, instructing RAF student officers at the Air Warfare Centre and training British, Canadian and Norwegian Special Forces personnel.
She also deployed overseas to support operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, spending months living in tents with very basic facilities! One particular highlight was completing a 2 week winter survival course, when she slept in a snow shelter she built herself. She was lucky enough to meet many fantastic people, including the President of the USA on Air Force One, Prince Charles when visiting military families in Malaysia and Prince William, who was one of her students during his flying training. Her career ended on a high, working in a NATO HQ, during which her international diplomacy skills were developed.
Caroline also has vast experience within primary and secondary education. She has been a governor, an academy trustee and worked extensively in, or with, state schools, independent boarding schools, international schools and universities, across the UK and South East Asia. She has taught and mentored teenagers, coached several successful sports teams, provided year 7 bonding experiences and was a “Dragon’s Den” mentor/judge for 3 years at a highly acclaimed international school in Malaysia.
Caroline has spent many years living overseas, including Italy, Qatar, Oman and Malaysia. Her leadership/management experience and coaching skills have been in demand amongst a wide audience and her clients whilst working overseas have included personnel from organisations such as Bosch, Intel, Bose, Dell, Motorola, IHS Market, Hilton Hotels, Royal Australian Air Force, Cobrats Rugby Club, Uplands International School and Universiti Sains Malaysia. As co-founder of “Lean In Penang”, an international non-profit organisation led by Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO), she helped develop female leadership and empowerment across many sectors of Malaysia by developing mentoring schemes, workshops and networking events.
Sport and getting outside is so important for physical and mental wellbeing and has always been a massive part of Caroline’s life. She represented the Combined Services (Royal Navy, Army and RAF) hockey team against Australia and captained the senior and masters RAF Ladies’ teams. For fun (and the challenge), she completed 20 marathons and endurance events, including the London Marathon twice, raising over £7,000 for several charities. Her sporting activity is now casual netball and cycling but mostly shouting encouragement at her boys from the rugby/football pitch sidelines. There is always time for more crazy challenges! Watch this space…
During her time in the RAF, Caroline was seconded to the Prince’s Trust and Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue Service to mentor and train 16 – 25 year olds from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. It was during this experience that she discovered she wanted to work with young people, supporting them at a crucial time in their lives and helping to MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
She has completed extensive coaching & mentoring training (ICF accredited) and has 500+ hours of international coaching experience. Based in the UK, but working internationally, Caroline is providing a unique, engaging and inspirational style of confidence, resilience and leadership personal development coaching, mentoring and training to the education, corporate, youth and entrepreneurial sectors.
She is also available as a motivational speaker. She has shared her stories and experience as keynote speaker at numerous women in leadership, sports award, remembrance, education, business networking and multi-national corporate events."