The Last Days at Learndirect, with NLP

July 18th, 2018. The final day. The day the illusion finally shattered.

For months, we had been fed carefully crafted half-truths, designed to keep us delivering, keep us focused—until the very last minute. Line managers smiled through their teeth, assuring us that things would “work out,” that restructuring was “normal.” But we knew. We had seen the reports, heard the whispers. Learndirect was finished, collapsing under the weight of a failed Ofsted inspection, political maneuvering, and years of mismanagement that had finally caught up with them.

And yet, I stayed calm. Not because the situation wasn’t serious, but because I chose to.

While others spiraled into panic, I leaned into what I knew—my state management skills, the tools I had developed through NLP. I knew how to stay centered, how to separate myself from the chaos. After all, isn’t it true that we can’t always control what happens to us, but we can always control how we respond? And when the ground beneath us starts to crack, isn’t it interesting how some people freeze, while others find a way to move forward?

I chose to move forward.

The redundancy package was disappointing—barely enough to cover the transition—but I didn’t waste energy on resentment. I shifted my focus. What was possible now? What could I build with the skills I already had? What if this wasn’t the end, but the beginning of something greater?

And within two months, I had my answer.

Corporate contracts. The kind of stability I hadn’t expected to find so quickly. The kind of work that not only paid the bills but restored my confidence. Within weeks, I was delivering employability training on my own terms, stepping into rooms where I was valued for my expertise, not just as another cog in a broken system.

How had I gone from redundancy to security so fast? Was it luck? Or was it something else—the ability to adapt, to see opportunity where others saw loss?

Then came 2020. Another shake-up. Another moment where the world shifted, leaving many scrambling. Training rooms emptied, face-to-face teaching vanished overnight. But instead of resisting, I asked myself: What else is possible?

And that’s when everything expanded. I took my business online. I reached students across the world. I deepened my expertise in NLP, not just as a tool for myself, but as a way to help others navigate their own uncertainty. And by 2021, I had built something stronger, something that no single job, no single company, could ever take away from me.

So here’s the real question: When life shakes your foundations, what do you do? Do you hold on to what was? Or do you step into what could be?

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this—stability isn’t about what’s happening around you. It’s about what’s happening inside you. And once you learn to master that, no amount of chaos can ever take your power away.