Pressure changes people. So does transition.

When teams shift, titles change, results matter, and the stakes keep rising, what does leadership actually require?

In this first official Forging Resilience Roundtable, I’m joined by two returning guests who bring very different lenses to the same question.

Air Commodore Robin Caine MBE brings the military perspective: fast jets, flying training, decision-making under pressure, human performance, and the importance of staying calm when there is chaos around you.

Rich Hunwicks brings the sporting perspective: over two decades in elite performance across rugby league, including England, Leeds Rhinos, Catalans Dragons, and the realities of building teams that can keep showing up when results are not going their way.

Together, we explore what military and sport get right about leadership, what gets misunderstood from the outside, and what happens when we try to lift a leadership style from one environment and force it into another.

We talk about calmness under pressure, humour in adversity, servant leadership, decision-making with imperfect information, the trap of perfectionism, and why the best leaders simplify complexity rather than add to it.

We also get into the less visible side of leadership: loneliness, fatigue, boundaries, support systems, and the discipline to lead yourself before trying to serve everyone else.

This is a conversation about leadership in the real world and the systems that help us perform without losing ourselves in the role. 

If you’re leading through pressure or change, this episode is for you or share it with someone carrying responsibility right now, and subscribe to Forging Resilience for more conversations on leadership, transition, and staying human under pressure.

Reach out to Robin or Rich via their LinkedIn accounts. 

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Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

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You can be disciplined, ambitious, and genuinely committed to other people and still be quietly running yourself into the ground. We sit down with Sharon Pickering, a human factors expert with experience in safety critical environments, to unpack why “permission” is such a sticking point for leaders, founders, and high performers. The tension is not laziness versus drive. It is the deep belief that we are only valuable when we are producing, carrying, fixing, or achieving, and the guilt that appears the moment we try to slow down.

We explore what Sharon sees repeatedly across teams under pressure: a powerful sense of responsibility that leaves people putting themselves at the bottom of the totem pole. From boardrooms to operating theatres, the pattern is the same. When you feel you must take care of everyone else first, rest and recovery start to look like indulgence rather than a core part of performance. Sharon shares a striking surgical story and what it reveals about shared load, communication, and the tiny moments that keep judgement sharp.

The practical takeaway is refreshingly small: micro recalibrations and mini transitions. Instead of chasing the perfect routine or spiralling into endless analysis, we talk about quick check-ins that take seconds, simple experiments that fit real life, and a dynamic “recipe” you can adjust as seasons change. If you want sustainable leadership, burnout prevention, and resilience that actually holds up under pressure, press play, then subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

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Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram | 

Ben Newton has spent his life leading in extreme environments military, close protection, fire service, industrial rescue. But none of that prepared him for the hardest thing: leading himself.

In this conversation, Ben and Aaron trace the thread that runs through every high-pressure role Ben has held and every identity he has worn. From a near-fatal anaphylactic episode on a rooftop in Afghanistan, to a nine-day cruise where silence finally caught up with him, to finding his tribe on a Brazilian jiu-jitsu mat before sunrise, Ben's story is about what happens when the character you've built starts to crack and what's underneath it.

At the centre of it all is a deceptively simple idea: lead yourself first. Not as a performance. Not as a discipline hack. As the only honest foundation anything else can be built on.

This one moves slowly and hits hard. If you've ever been the go-to person for everyone else while quietly losing ground on yourself this conversation is for you.

Reach out to Ben via Kaizen Summit, LinkedIn or Instagram.

Help us improve! I'd love to get your feedback...

Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram | 

Belonging sounds like a warm word until you realise how often we settle for fitting in, shaving off the edges of ourselves to survive a culture. 

We talk about that difference, from early military moments where the team feels like “little and big brothers” to workplaces where everything becomes an adjustment and you start questioning your place. We talk about how culture, not demographics, shapes whether people feel safe, valued, and able to show up fully.

What happens when your sense of worth is tied to a uniform, a unit, a badge, or a calling like service before self? We explore the question “who am I now?” for veterans and especially for female veterans who adapted themselves to fit a masculine environment and then struggle to belong in civilian life. We also touch the sting of disillusionment, the idea that your last interaction with an organisation you love may disappoint you, and why Afghanistan continues to raise moral injury questions for many who served.

The second half turns practical: journalling as a thinking space, deliberate planning that replaces military structure, setting boundaries that protect family life, and learning to separate who you are from what you do so mistakes stop feeling like a verdict.  

We close the series with a clear message: do not white-knuckle transition alone. Build your own table of mentors, coaches, friends, and peers. 

Find Helen on LinkedIn or via her website.

Help us improve! I'd love to get your feedback...

Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram | 

War doesn’t stay in the past. And neither does the identity you built to survive it.

Parts of this conversation go to some heavy places, including suicide and mental health. 

Today I sit down with James Malone, former Royal Marines commando and now founder of Palpa Films to explore what really happens when you leave one life behind and try to build another.

James walks us through that shift. From Afghanistan to maritime security. From remote mines in Australia and New Zealand to picking up a camera and starting again. It’s not a straight line. It’s messy. At times, destructive. And honest.

We talk about what combat leaves behind. The pressure. The responsibility. The moments you can’t control. And what it’s like when others see something in you before you’re ready to admit it yourself.

This isn’t just about transition. It’s about what comes after.
 The drinking. The avoidance. The turning point.
 James shares the “burn the ships” moment that forced a different path and how small, consistent actions became a way out.

We also get into the work he does now. Creativity. Storytelling. Learning to trust instinct. “Be ready. Honour your impulse.”  And what it means to make something about something not just of it.

There’s a thread through all of this:  You don’t escape it. You learn to work with it. If you’re navigating change, carrying something heavy, or trying to figure out who you are after the role you once held this one will land.

To reach out to James, find him on LinkedIn or via his website.

If this conversation brings something up for you, don’t sit with it on your own. You can reach out to Save A Warrior UK for support. 

Help us improve! I'd love to get your feedback...

Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram | 

Most high performers are running on a nervous system that hasn't been given permission to recover. You feel fine. You're productive. And underneath it, you're running hotter than you know.

Jack McMillan was an elite footballer who kept choking under pressure not from lack of talent, but from a nervous system he'd never learned to regulate. What he found, reluctantly, through yoga and breathwork, changed everything. Not just how he performed. How he lived.

Now co-founder of Optima Performance, Jack works at the intersection of breath, physiology, and human performance  with elite athletes, football managers, and corporate teams of 400 people who all share the same problem: they know how to push, but not how to recover.

In this conversation we get into the mechanics and the meaning. Why dysfunctional breathing quietly drives overthinking, poor sleep, and tunnel vision under pressure. How a single shift from mouth to nasal breathing can lower your heart rate before you've said a word. And why the pause the one most high performers skip might be the most underrated performance tool available.

Jack also walks us through his breathing gears model for difficult conversations, the Reset Breath practice you can do in two minutes before sleep, and why the best athletes he's worked with are the ones who leave their ego at the door.

This one is practical. And if you run on stress, it might also be uncomfortable in the best possible way.

Reachout to Jack vias his website or LinkedIn 

Help us improve! I'd love to get your feedback...

Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram | 

Your service ends, but your decision load explodes. One day you are inside a system that tells you where to be, what to wear, and what matters. The next, you are choosing everything,for some, the smallest choices can hit the hardest.

Helen Lunnon-Wood joins me again for part two of our transition series. As a former RAF fast jet pilot and the founder of High Flight Coaching, she brings a grounded view of what happens beneath the surface when you leave the military. We talk about the messy middle: the loss of structure, the shock of self-presentation after uniform, and the way work boundaries can collide with a lifetime of service-before-self. We also open up the deeper layer around values, ethos, moral compass, and how disillusionment can shape your next move in civilian life.

From there we get into purpose, belonging, and the loneliness that can show up even when you are surrounded by people. We tease apart loneliness versus isolation, why so many of us seek “familiar” organisations after leaving, and how mentoring, coaching, journalling, and honest reflection can turn the boulders on your path into stepping stones. We finish by defining thriving not as glory, but as small moments, gratitude, and choices your 80-year-old self will thank you for.

If this resonates, listen now, share it with someone navigating a veteran career change, and leave a review so more people can find these conversations on military transition and resilience.

Find Helen on LinkedIn or via her website.

Help us improve! I'd love to get your feedback...

Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram | 

This is a conversation about what’s really going on beneath behaviour.

We get into the gap between reacting and responding, and why most of us—especially under pressure—default to the behaviour we see rather than the feeling driving it. Alice breaks down mentalisation in a way that’s simple and practical. Not theory. Real-life application.

We talk about what happens when we’re dysregulated as parents, how that shapes the moment, and why connection has to come before correction if we want to be heard. There’s a strong thread around repair—how families that are “working” aren’t perfect, but they come back together well after things go wrong.

We also widen the lens. The cost of getting this wrong isn’t just in the home. It shows up in mental health, in systems, in society. And equally, the opportunity is upstream—small, consistent moments of presence, attention, and understanding.

There’s a lot in here for parents. But also for anyone leading, influencing, or in relationship with others.

Get in touch with Alice via LinkedIn or her website. 

Help us improve! I'd love to get your feedback...

Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram | 

You can plan the exit date, but you cannot schedule who you become afterwards. Aaron Hill sits down with Helen London Wood, former RAF fast jet pilot and founder of High Flight Coaching, to talk honestly about transition as a living process that keeps evolving long after the uniform is handed back. We get into what it feels like when structure vanishes, when identity suddenly becomes a question again, and when you realise you have been “fitting in” rather than truly belonging. 

Helen shares the jolt of the first month without a military pay cheque and the deeper identity story underneath it: independence, self-worth, and the weight of feeling “dependent”.  Aaron brings a different perspective from leaving earlier in a career and living far from people who share the same background, including the loneliness that can sit beneath achievement. Together, we explore why operational cultures are brilliant at performance feedback yet can leave little room for deeper reflection, and why that gap often shows up during military to civilian transition, career change, or any major life pivot. 

We unpack the triathlon model of transition: pause, remove what no longer serves, take what you truly need, then move into the next leg with intention. We talk about micro-decompression rituals between meetings, the power of commute time as a psychological reset, and how to find community when you feel isolated. If you are navigating leadership under pressure, veteran reintegration, or a big role change, this conversation offers language, reassurance, and tools you can use immediately. 

Subscribe for the next part of the series, share this with someone mid-transition, and leave a review so more people can find it. What part of transition are you in right now?

Find Helen on LinkedIn or via her website.

Help us improve! I'd love to get your feedback...

Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram | 

You can spend years trying to fix a problem that was never locked in the first place. That’s the provocative premise behind our chat with Sam Smith, coach and author of The Door Is Never Locked, and it immediately changes how we think about resilience, mindset, and high performance under pressure. 

We talk about what it looks like when a single insight shifts your trajectory faster than another plan, another programme, or another round of self-improvement noise. Sam shares a turning point from a dark season in his life, why “deserving” can be the hidden barrier to getting support, and how the simplest prompts can help you trust what you already know. If you’re navigating a career transition, leadership stress, or that vague sense that something needs to change, you’ll hear practical ways to create space and move without forcing. 

We also dig into why language matters more than we realise, how reframing a story can open real options, and what flow and acceptance look like beyond the motivational posters. Sam introduces two sticky concepts for personal development and coaching: competing commitments that quietly override your goals, and the “kitchen sink test” that often hits right before a breakthrough. 

What’s one “door” you’re ready to stop treating as locked?

To get in touch with Sam, find him on LinkedIn and here you can find his book.

Help us improve! I'd love to get your feedback...

Forging Resilience supports Save A Warrior

Save A Warrior works with veterans and first responders facing complex PTSD and the reality of suicide.

Through this podcast, we’re supporting their work.

If you want to get behind it, you can do that by buying a bag of  Major Stoke Blend coffee.
All profits go directly to Save A Warrior.

Good coffee. Real conversations. Work that matters.

Support the show

Follow my social media accounts | LinkedIn | Instagram |