008 - Pit Pony Vicky Thurkettle - Classroom to Chocolatier

In this compelling episode, we meet Vicky Thurkettle, a teacher who found more than a career in the classroom - she found purpose, family, and what she believed was her path for life. Known for her unwavering dedication, Vicky poured her heart into her work, shaping young lives and embracing each day as part of her own.

But after returning from maternity leave, everything changed. Within just seven weeks, she made the unimaginable decision to leave the career she thought she’d never step away from. In this episode, Vicky opens up about her journey, the challenges she faced, and the resilience it took to leave a job she once loved so deeply.

Listen to Vicky’s story of self-discovery, courage, and transformation as she shares the reality of finding new strength and purpose beyond the classroom.

The Rawsome Chocolate website HERE
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Tune in for an inspiring story about how life after teaching can be just as fulfilling—especially when chocolate's involved!

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Edited with finesse by our Podcast Super Producer, Mike Roberts of Making Digital Real

Transcript

Sharon Cawley: 0:05

Hello and welcome to the pit pony podcast with myself, Sharon Corley and may Sarah donward, in which we talk to teachers from all walks of life who exited the classroom from what they thought was a job for life, and thrived on the other side of teaching. Coming up in this episode,

Vicky Thurkettle: 0:27

my twins were born in the march. My head teacher, who I'd loved and worked with for 11 years, retired that Christmas just before, and the school became an academy over the Christmas holidays, and in that time, what was a lovely family atmosphere, everybody working together on the same in the same direction, everybody Pulling together as a team, suddenly became very fragmented. Suddenly became everybody having to toe the party line and having to do what the academy said. And it wasn't a case of negotiation at any time. There was no sort of discussion about what was already going well at the school. It was just you are doing it this way or the highway, basically,

Sharon Cawley: 1:24

hello, hello, hello, and welcome to a wonderful episode of The Pit pony podcast with somebody who, well, I can't wait to hear all about this, and you'll realize there's a special interest. As we get into it, it gives me the greatest of pleasure to introduce Vicky thurkettle as our pony guest today. Now, Vicky is 43 years old, and she taught for 11 years in the classroom. Her last position was as an assistant head teacher in a big inner city Infant School in Birmingham. 97% of those kids were EAL. She loved working with them, with the families who many of them were very new to the country, so it's a really, really significant and fulfilling role for her. She talked about a fantastic job and a job for life, no doubt about it. And when I've talked to Vicky previously, what was beautiful about what she said, more than anything, was she considered the people she worked with family. It was like a family feel great. SLT, superb situation to be in what we all want to be in as teachers, but left in 2019 left the job. Hello. Vicky thurkettle, and can you tell us what you do now, please.

Unknown: 2:50

I am a chocolate here, nice

Sharon Cawley: 2:54

and not just any old chocolate as well. Sarah, and we'll get into that in a bit, not just any old chocolate. So thank you, Vicky. Thank you so much for spending time with us. It's always a pleasure, never a chore.

Unknown: 3:09

Great to be Yeah,

Sharon Cawley: 3:10

thank you. What we like to do? We don't do a chronological structure as we know. We dive straight to the end. It's 2019 and you're exiting. Can you talk us through a little bit about the circumstances surrounding the exit from a job you felt was family?

Unknown: 3:35

Yes, I was very heavily pregnant in 2019 my twins were born in the march. My head teacher, who I'd loved and worked with for 11 years, retired that Christmas just before, and the school became an academy over the Christmas holidays, and in that time, what was a lovely family atmosphere. Everybody working together on the same in the same direction, everybody pulling together as a team, suddenly became very fragmented. Suddenly became everybody having to toe the party line and having to do what the academy said. And it wasn't a case of negotiation at any time, there was no sort of discussion about what was already going well at the school. It was just you are doing it this way or the highway, basically. And as I mentioned, I was already very, very pregnant when they took over with twins. Could barely fit behind the steering wheel of my car anymore and starting to struggle a little bit, and there was no consideration of what I had done before, what I'd achieved before, and how I was still contributing to the school, but obviously having to take a bit of a step backwards from so much of my teaching role I was teaching probably about 50% At the time, at that point, as I was also out of class doing curriculum, lead assessment, lead, English, lead, Key Stage One, lead. So lots of, lots of hats to wear. So I wasn't in class the whole time, prior to the academy coming along. And then they wanted me to do more and more and more, and I went off on maternity slightly earlier than I planned and never returned.

Sharon Cawley: 5:28

I don't think that's an unfamiliar precursor to you, Sarah, in many respects,

Sarah Dunwood: 5:32

no, and I'm just listening to it and listening to the pattern of family. Feel great. SLT, great. Head Teacher Retirement. It completely resonates with me, personally, in that whole almost on a knife edge, it flips and it changes, yeah, and that's that's devastating to process.

Vicky Thurkettle: 5:58

It was, I mean, there were three of us in the SLT when I was working there. So there was a head, the deputy and myself, and then obviously the team of teachers, year group leagues and so on. And it was a lovely school. Everybody knew everybody so well. The support was there. It was just such a lovely environment to work in. And then as soon as the head left, the deputy was still there, and she was brilliant and fantastic, but somewhat ham struggled by the Academy, and it was just very difficult to maintain that sort of feeling that the school had had before. We also, whilst I was off on maternity, we had previously been a separate infants and Junior School. The two schools amalgamated, and the juniors had had certain issues, nothing that they couldn't overcome. But obviously they they had a lot of people who'd been promoted into higher roles than maybe they should have. Maybe I shouldn't say that, but obviously, when I came back, going into the job that I had left, or when I was planning to come back, they'd basically disseminated my role between these multiple, multiple assistant heads that they'd had in the juniors, and my role had evaporated and gone. So what? So I just roll

Sharon Cawley: 7:19

when you came back. What? What What would did that look like? Did it bear no resemblance to the role you love that very

Vicky Thurkettle: 7:25

little resemblance at all. I had previously been like say aht, in charge of P stage one, English and assessment, with my main hats and various other little bits here and there. When I came back, I was offered a class and ICT. ICT was the job role the curriculum lead that they wanted me to do, and it didn't look like the job I'd left at all, you know, and I'd worked hard to get to the position I was in, and it felt like a massive backwards step. It felt like all the work I'd done had been completely disregarded. And it just didn't feel like, well, they didn't want me back, essentially, because what they would have had to done, had to have done, is continue to pay me on a leadership scale, because that was where I left, and give me a UPS job. So I wrote them a letter, I wrote them an email, and basically said, you know, after a lot of discussion to and fro with them and with my husband, I basically said, you don't want me back. I don't want to come back to the role that you're offering me very cheaply. Then went on to say, if I don't come back and take your money on a higher pay scale, you will give you. Will let me get off paying my maternity back, won't you? And they agreed, to my surprise, which was fantastic, but it was a big sort of cut off. That's the end of my job in that school anymore. So I think

Sharon Cawley: 9:06

about seven, seven months was it from returning to leaving?

Vicky Thurkettle: 9:12

No, it wasn't even that long I had. I didn't really go back again at all after my maternity, um, I went and did my kit days where, basically I was used as a glorified supply teacher, rather than going back in and, you know, getting up to speed on what I was supposed to be doing. It was like, Oh, that past needs a cover today. So can you go and do that? It was like that, really, what you want me to do is that the best use of me today, it was all many saving exercises from their point of view, really. So I

Sharon Cawley: 9:47

don't think there'll be many of our listeners falling off the chairs listening to that story, quite frankly, because I think many of them could write it. Many of them have gone through it, and it all just sits on the right side of legal. I think. It's just about, just about sits on the right side of legal. I'm not going to use the word moral. I will go, it just about sits on the right side of legal. So you leave.

Unknown: 10:15

I left. Yes, 2019

Sharon Cawley: 10:18

that's it. Now you had twins, correct?

Vicky Thurkettle: 10:24

I had twins, little boy and little girl. Very much wanted, like I say, the school previously had been so supportive, because we had to go through IVF, and we went through four rounds, which is not a small amount, no, and obviously I'd had to have little bits of time off to do that, but my previous head and Deputy were just unbelievably supportive, because they knew that this was our one shot of having a family. They knew that this was something that we had really wanted. And they were just amazing, just absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, we had a lot of difficulties with the birth, and my daughter was born with cerebral palsy. That's a whole other story for another day. But she was born with cerebral palsy, and so it was also the situation that I had contemplated. Requested to go back part time, because obviously she has additional needs that, you know, we we required physio daily. We require, as she got older, speech and language. There are so many people involved with her, which is amazing we are. We have got an amazing team around her, and she's doing incredibly well. But things like my commute was an hour to get to work when you love the job and you don't have so many responsibilities outside of work, an hour's nothing. But when you have to be on call. And, you know, things may have gone wrong whilst I was away with my daughter, and I had to get back quickly. An hour was another consideration into my leaving. It wasn't just the lack of support at the school, it was also the consideration of my daughter being poorly and needing to be able to be on call for her, you know, at short notice, potentially

Sharon Cawley: 12:25

so, with a sadness you leave, but with with a real purpose and cause, really because you needed, you needed elsewhere. And I suppose we could argue that if you'd have gone back to the old school, you would have been part time, you would have been supported. Everything would have worked to keep you there in any way possible. But as soon as you start to say the old head teacher required a multi Academy trust came in, it's paint by numbers. As far as I'm concerned, it is paint by numbers. That story. So it's 2019 we are about to lock down the role of the Chocolatier is not a suspect at the very forefront of your life at this stage. Because how was lockdown for you? Because lots of teachers either love it or hate it, but it is absolutely a defining moment in the decision making process. They have talk me through your lockdown. It was a bit of

Unknown: 13:22

a strange time. My husband also works in the entertainment industry, so that closed down absolutely and completely. So he he work, he has his own business. He runs he works for himself. So we had 18 months of no income from his side. I was doing supply teaching by the time lockdown came. And of course, that is essentially a zero hours contract, and so we had no work coming in at that time. So lockdown became, for me, a time of learning. And I did things like the TEFL course, and considered, you know, online tutoring, teaching English as a foreign language, and then just messing around online, looking at YouTube videos, kind of started going, that looks interesting, looks like something I could have a go at. And I had a history of baking ish, I used to always take cakes into work constantly, and I'd made a few wedding cakes for family and friends and myself, although my own fell on the floor before anybody got to see it. But new, yeah, so we had the cupcake to cut instead. It was, it was excellent. Beautiful symbolic,

Sharon Cawley: 14:42

symbolic. So you've Timbo, you love baking, but you've also got this little YouTube thing going on that you Yeah, digging down the digging down the root of so how'd you go from baking? Because this is a bit of the fight back. This is a bit of we're in, we're in lockdown. I'm. Uh, not returning to the job I loved, but you said something really lovely there. I started to educate myself. I started to do my own CPD, which is something we talk about all the time. So you're going down rabbit holes on YouTube, and what are you finding there inspiration

Vicky Thurkettle: 15:19

and starting to realize that actually teaching doesn't have to be the rest of my life. And that's not to say that that was the moment it stopped. I carried on doing supply teaching for quite a while afterwards, but it was just nice to explore and to try new things. And I mean, the chocolate wasn't the first thing I tried. I you know, I tried other baking things. I tried some sewing things. I tried crafty things, basically a range of them. But the food has been kind of a passion, I suppose, a hobby for a long time. If you could see my tummy? Yes, yep. Um, and the chocolate kind of intrigues me a bit, because it's a bit sciency this. You know, there's more to it than just melting a bit of chocolate and pouring it into a mold. There's a bit of science behind it, and there's a whole world of trying to get the ethical side of it as well, because chocolate is is actually quite nasty. When you dig into it and you think about your chocolate on a supermarket shelf, actually, what goes into making it is not very pleasant.

Sharon Cawley: 16:33

Oh, don't you're about to burst the bubble of my life. I've had a lifelong relationship supermarket chocolate. What kind of nasties are in there, then

Vicky Thurkettle: 16:43

it's more the way it is grown and cultivated, okay, and all the way that big companies tend to exploit the farmers and the environment that it is grown in. So something like 80% of our chocolate comes from West Africa, and most of that chocolate is bought by the big companies who drive down the prices as much as they possibly can. And the result of that is that ecosystems, environments are cut down, burned quite often to create a monoculture plantation, so only one crop is grown. Another thing is that, obviously, farmers are paid the minimum they can get away with. In fact, you know, they're probably driving down costs even more at the moment, because the price of cocoa has gone up 300% in the last few months, which is crazy. But one of the offshoots of that is the farmers to bring in the cocoa need to employ their children to do it. So there are children as young as seven and eight using machetes to harvest the cacao, and it doesn't sit quite right with me, so I went on a bit of a mission to look for more sustainable plantations, more sustainable places to get it from. And there's a few amazing consortiums around the world who basically work with the farmers to pay them a good price so that they are employed in a healthy, sustainable way, who work with the environment to grow it's called the agro forestry management system, so they grow within what is already growing there. So it's, it's as sustainable as we can manage at the moment. Wow.

Sharon Cawley: 18:37

So you, you really did go down a rabbit hole of it, so it wasn't really sad. I don't just want to produce things that go into molds and a novelty thing. You spent your time in lockdown, researching, looking at this and immersing yourself in a very, very different environment than education. Still, still a moral purpose, still very much feeling as though you're going to be in a position to serve, but you've moved away from education at this point through an interest, an interest that you have. So I think there will be many people listening to this, because Sarah, Sarah, at the same time, had a passion for photography. Okay, so not dissimilar to yourself. It's it's a craft, it's something creative. But both of you will will both agree with me here, that's all well and good, but then you've got to create a business structure that sits around this. Where did you start? Sarah, when you decided you'd come out the classroom, you wanted to create a structure around the photography. What were your first steps?

Sarah Dunwood: 19:45

I'd dabbled for for quite a while, anyway, so I had a little bit of a quiet side reputation in terms of word of mouth and referrals for for what I was doing, which was wedding photography. Essentially, and I had enough of an understanding of business because that's where my that's where my degree worked, to kind of go. I did the same as you Vicky. I went down rabbit holes on YouTube. I found online business courses and followed photographers on Instagram and just started kind of not from a perspective of copycatting, but what are you doing? How are you getting your reach? How are you positioning yourself? So I kind of used what was out there as the starting point for what I wanted to do whilst thinking about how I wanted to do it differently, how I wanted to position myself. So I had gone with a very specific niche in terms of my wedding photography, because I didn't want to do that kind of standard, wholesale, cheap as chips wedding photography, fundamentally.

Sharon Cawley: 21:01

So you'd been tinkering, Sarah, and it was evolving. What was your starting point? Did you create a product? Vicky, or did you create a business structure first? What did you do?

Vicky Thurkettle: 21:12

I made a sale first. So I Okay, I started off on Instagram. Just kind of going, does anybody want to try this? You know, joined a couple of Facebook groups and things, and was like, I'm thinking about doing this. Would anybody like to taste it and give me some feedback? And sent it out to maybe 15 or 20 people who did then do a Google form, little feedback sheet for me, and gave me some very harsh criticism in some cases, but actually it was all part of the learning process, and really useful to be able to tweak and change and, you know, adjust things as I went along. And then made my first sale on Instagram just posting on there, and that's what turned it from just being a hobby into being a business. So So you dipped your

Sharon Cawley: 22:11

toe in the water. You didn't sit down and say, right? I need a website. I need a big Facebook page. I need to register at company's house. I need a sales funnel. You had something that you enjoyed doing, and you just dipped your toe in the water. And I think why that's important is because a lot of people think they can't do something because there's so much that needs to be done first. Yes, I made my first sale as a tutor by opening my front door. Come on, sit down. There you go. Because I'd got a note up in the post office, and I took 25 pound in cash off the parent. That was it. So I think the clear message to people out there who are considering, I don't like the expression, but I think it starts it's a side hustle, just tinkering around the edges in other areas. Just do it. Just start small, and just do it now and and, sorry, Seth, just,

Unknown: 23:09

I just want to jump in the what, what you've described. Vicky, about giving, giving stuff away for feedback, a helped you to develop your product. So I mean, worth it for that alone. But actually, that's part of the my favorite phrase, ripping the sticking plaster off and putting yourself out there, isn't it? I'm here. I've got something please. Can somebody try it? And I don't think you can underestimate the power of doing that when you've got something to sell, absolutely not. I think just getting out there or doing it is the most important thing. Don't worry about business plans, don't worry about funding streams and things like that. At the beginning, it's just seeing if your concept will work

Sharon Cawley: 24:00

for it. Your concept is not just chocolate, is it? Tell us a little bit about what's the company name, Vicky.

Vicky Thurkettle: 24:07

The company is called Raw some chocolate, R, A, w, s, O, M, E, and it is a plant based and roasted chocolate brand. Can't speak chocolate brand, so the reason it's plant based is because when my son was born, he had a dairy intolerance. And as you can imagine, as a new mum with twins, quite desperate for a lot of chocolate at the time, it was an absolute pain in the backside. And even just five years ago, the options for dairy free, plant based chocolates were not very nice, quite frankly. So that was obviously once I'd started sleeping again. That was when I started dabbling in making my own versions. And what was really nice was people coming back to me and saying that tastes just like normal chocolate, and that sounds very mundane and very low key, but actually that was the nicest compliment, because the plant based chocolate out there, it was powdery and nice kind of No, not great at all. So to be able to produce a plant based chocolate that tasted like chocolate was yay, you know, I've made, you know, I've achieved something there. So that was fantastic. And I think that's where having that sort of difference to other things on the market has really helped and finding your niche, it's, it's quite tricky, because you want to be something that everybody wants you want to be. You know, there for the whole spectrum burns when you niche down and you find your thing that makes you a bit different. You are going to put off the majority of people, probably, but the people that are your target audience are the people who will rave about you, will come back again and again, and will be, will be your little cheerleaders, you know, and that is what you are aiming for. Really, when you're starting the business, you don't want to be. I was about to say you don't want to be the same as everybody else. You do and you don't. Because if somebody else is doing what you're doing, that doesn't mean that, oh, that that niche is filled that's done it. It means that that's proved the concept works. If somebody else is doing it already, then there's a market out there for it. Oh, that's, that's

Sharon Cawley: 26:43

what we say, contra betition, if, if you, if you are entering into a world, and I can only speak from the tutoring world, where there's loads of tutors about, good, because that tells you there's loads of parents about and there's loads of children needing tutoring. So I think these are really, really important messages. Because I think if you are creative and you've got an idea within you, there will be people sat listening to this, and if they're listening to it as a couple someone, I can see someone nudging or told you, get your duvets out there. Your duvets are better than ever, told you, and I about those models you've been doing, and actually, I found you on a thread we put on the life after teaching Facebook group because you were advertising your business on vlog it Friday. And then when, when we met and when we talked, you walked me through the process of how this business evolved. And you said it started on Instagram, and then you moved to doing some pop ups and selling and and that kind of thing. But at the same time, it grew slowly. It grew at your pace. And spoiler alert, you know, you're not in competition with Cadburys. It's serving you for where you need to be. It's not a seven figure business. You're not living in Barbados. But then

Vicky Thurkettle: 28:01

it would melt out there. Be terrible.

Sharon Cawley: 28:06

But what you did was then you sort of like said, Well, okay, I've started with these small steps, but you then moved into the world of seeing what CPD was available for you for free. You started looking at the Chamber of Commerce and mentoring and and you did level up a bit in your knowledge of what was needed at that time. So talk us through the next stage from you. They were just in that

Vicky Thurkettle: 28:30

places, actually, that have really, really helped me in terms of the business side of things, not the creative side of things, that is another side, but the business side of things, the Chamber of Commerce and rebel Business School, those two have been an absolute gold mine for information and support. I went on a week long course with the rebel Business School, which was absolutely free. They do them all over the country. I sound like I'm advertising for them now, but

Sharon Cawley: 29:01

I just No, you've given, you've given a you've give it free, for free. It's the rebel Business School.

Unknown: 29:08

Perfect. Yes, the rebel business school, they do pop ups all over the country, which are essentially week long, intensive training into how to start a business for free. And that sounds unbelievable and incredible, but it is just a gold mine of useful information, things like how to set up a website for free, how to how to do your marketing for free. You know, utilizing social media, Pinterest, Facebook, all of those things, how to do those for free, and it's, it's just a lovely community of people. And you know, the group I did it with in Stratford are still messaging each other now, almost a year later, kind of going, Oh, have you seen this? Happening. Do you want to come along to this event? Or, you know, really supportive. It's a, really, is

Sharon Cawley: 30:05

it almost like, is it almost like a watered down version of the community you had in the school before you left? You've got people around you down, yes, but watered down. But you're not alone.

Vicky Thurkettle: 30:17

You're not alone. I mean, it's WhatsApp messages, if, if you've got a question, you can, you know, ask the group, what's, you know, what do you think about this? And they'll either say, don't know, do this instead, or, yeah, that's a great idea. Give it a go, and we'll give you feedback, sort of thing. So it's a really lovely group to be part of. And the other thing was the Chamber of Commerce, which, again, they I've used them twice now. When I first started out, I joined the little business coaching sessions, which were for for newbies, essentially. And there are some things in there, which, since then I've kind of, you know, writing a business plan. Never actually written a business plan. I've never actually needed a business plan, but they did teach you how to do things like that, and their mentorship was so many hours. I can't remember how much the first lot was, but it was so many hours, including webinars and training in specific areas like finance, like spreadsheets and all of that sort of thing, which, you know, is the slightly more boring side of running a business, but essential. And then I literally finished last week, actually working with another mentor from the chamber who was really, really helpful. We had 12 hours of one to one sessions where we just went through my business with a bit of a fine tooth comb, looked at my website, picked up on things that I could be doing better there, looked at my sales and where I should be pushing my marketing to. You know, hit those sales in the most time effective way, really, because I'm a chocolate maker, I have products that cost six pound 50. I had to sell an awful lot of six pound 50 chocolate bars to paying the bills. Yeah. But if I target things in different ways, or if I look at different products as I've got, you know, we just talked about how that could make more of an impact and pay, pay my bills, essentially. So it was a really useful, again, free resource, which is out there for anyone

Sharon Cawley: 32:33

to use, also the Chamber of Commerce, is free.

Vicky Thurkettle: 32:36

That was free, yes, yeah,

Sharon Cawley: 32:39

wow. Wow. So you've the Internet has really been your friend, hasn't it? Because you've gone on to YouTube, and, to be fair, you've you've really created something quite lovely. You get joy from it. You're very proud of your product. You'll be the first to admit, well, it's not made you Brewster's millions, but has it kept the wolf from the door to the extent that you needed it to financially?

Unknown: 33:07

It has. I mean, it's not replaced my teacher age, but, like I say, I was SLT so, you know, on a decent wage at that point, but then I had a family, and I would have gone part time anyway, I expect. And having a daughter with a disability as well does mean that I wanted to be at home with her and my son, but I wanted to be at home to support her, to go to the physio sessions, to be able to do all the appointments and make sure that she was right. And had I stayed in school, I'd have been handing over that to somebody else. Yes, if it had happened at all, and that wasn't ever get you know, I went through four and five, yeah, if I had children, to have children, not to give them to somebody else to bring up. So it was always going to be the likelihood I would go part time, whether she was, whether she had cerebral palsy or not. I would have probably always have gone part time, however, because she had to be able to say, actually, my schedule is my schedule. I can work when I want to, and I can be there for my family when I want to. That is just more valuable than the financial side of things. Really

Sharon Cawley: 34:36

did you have an identity crisis when you were into one? Okay? So, yeah, walk away from teaching, and you have this Who am I if I can't call myself legitimately a teacher, talk us a little bit about your identity. Crisis

Unknown: 34:52

probably still hasn't completely gone away, and I think I still call myself a teacher, and I. Do still do occasional little bits of teaching here and there. I don't think it's anything I will completely pack away and say that's the end of it, because it is who I have been for 20 years. I qualified in 2004 so yes, it is 20 years this year, and it's that sort of, it was who I got to, I did, did the job every single day for such a long time, it's very difficult to kind of just go, that's the end of that. Less apart from the fact, you know, I miss the kids, I miss the teachers that I worked with. I I didn't just have a job. I had a community that I was part of, and nowadays I work by myself at home, and it's very quiet and it's very it can be quite isolating sometimes, but I can also stick on a podcast and sing along to the radio and choose my hours. So, you know, there are pros and cons to both things. But leaving teaching was definitely. There was a period of time where it was, well, what do I do now? Who am I?

Sharon Cawley: 36:14

I think, I think that's common for for so, so many teachers who leave, who am I? If I am, and, you know, people still stop you in the streets and ask you advice, as if you are a teacher. You know, neatly. I

Vicky Thurkettle: 36:27

mean, I had a friend text me a week or so ago. She's got a little boy who's starting reception next year, and she's like, What am I looking for? I have no idea. What do I look for in a good school when she's, you know, going around various schools looking for what to put on her forms. And I still get asked a lot about, you know, a neighbor who I tutored her little girl over lockdown. But I still get asked, Can you, can you just help? Can you just check through her homework with her, that sort of thing? So it's, it's still there. It's still a part of my life. It's just not the main part of my life anymore.

Sharon Cawley: 37:10

That's, that's a nice way of putting it. So my question to you now, Vicky, third kettle, watch your sliding doors moment. We like to bring our podcast episodes to a close by asking our pit pony guests the sliding doors question. We are referencing the 1998 film with Gwyneth Paltrow. If you know, you know, but if you don't, I strongly recommend you watch the film. We asked them if they can share a moment of their lives that they know categorically they wouldn't have experienced had they have stayed in the classroom.

Vicky Thurkettle: 37:51

My sliding doors moment was winter 2021 my son had started walking when he was about 13 months old. My daughter obviously with cerebral palsy. We were told Originally she would never walk, but we were persistent, and she is a determined little monkey, and we were walking around our cul de sac, me holding her under the arm. Pixels by that killing me because she was tiny, and I was bending over. My son was running ahead, and suddenly she broke free from me and took some steps. And it was something that would not possibly have happened if I hadn't been there to work with her on a daily basis, making her muscles work, making her move around all the time, and yeah, and also, if I had been at work, I may have missed it. Even if she had done it, I might have missed those few steps. Wow,

Sarah Dunwood: 39:00

there you go. I'm ruined.

Sharon Cawley: 39:02

I'm ruined. I mean, there are some, there are some moments I've listened to because I've got a mild obsession with sliding doors moments, but I've got to be honest, that is that's amazing. I mean, to so many parents miss the first steps of their children anyway, but under those circumstances, and I bet there's no stopping her now, I bet she's often Yes,

Vicky Thurkettle: 39:29

so she's just learned she's she's five now, and she's just learned how to ride a pedal bike without stabilizers. We were told she would be wheelchair bound, to fed, never speak, and she has defied all those odds, and she's a determined little monster, bloody minded perhaps.

Sharon Cawley: 39:51

Well, I just think thank you so much for sharing your story, in particular, the end of your story, which is not being. Dry eye in the house, quite frankly, on that, because that that's that's amazing. Your story started off typical, very, very typical, but you have certainly gone down a real roller coaster of a journey to bring you to where you are now. You've, you've, really, you've opened my eyes about chocolate, and I thought I knew everything about chocolate. So thank you. Thank you for sharing the ethics that sit behind that your product. What you've doing, you've given, you've given some great value for free with the rebel business school, with the Chamber of Commerce. So on that note, pit pony, Vicky, I think you've thrived on the other side of the classroom. I really, really think you have and on behalf of myself and Sarah and the listeners, thank you so much. Now you can find out more about the chocolate because we're going to put all of your links down below to your Instagram where we can purchase it from, because we will, Sarah be buying that chocolate there were, there's no two. I'd made that decision before we made that decision last week. We certainly did. So thank you. Thank you ever so much for your time, and I hope to see you real soon. Thanks Vicky,

Vicky Thurkettle: 41:17

thank you for having me on. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.

Sharon Cawley: 41:21

Wow. What did you think of that?

Sarah Dunwood: 41:24

So much in terms of the the human impact? I mean, it isn't it this, this story is the starting point of the story. And I think we're going to get this a lot. The starting point of the story is so familiar, but then the took my breath away when she talked about her sliding doors, moment that grizzly just took my breath away. I'm

Sharon Cawley: 41:53

so glad we weren't I'm so glad that was audio, because your glasses just filled up like buckets of water. I got no words. I mean, how do you begin to imagine that as a sliding doors if she'd have stayed, if she hadn't have found a way out where her daughter would be now? And

Sarah Dunwood: 42:19

and I go to, I go to a question that's commonly asked in the group about the impact of leaving on on salary, and actually, how many people will come back with but the impact On Life is, is immeasurable. You can't put a price on what I'm like Vicky was able to. You just can't. My Words aren't working.

Sharon Cawley: 42:50

I know I just, I just had this vision of around that cul de sac. She's she's there, she's helping her daughter, her other little boys, run off, and her daughter walks, having been told that was never, ever going to be an option fold. And I know, I know it just it mind blowing, mind blowing. And why I liked Vicky's story was she's really humble. She's by her own admission, she is not making the same amount as a teacher's salary. She's not coming on as one of these great business gurus and and look what you can do. And put a value on that. Put it put a value. She's doing something she loves. She still feels a sense of purpose. She still considers herself a teacher, and she's now on a completely different path. I have no words, really. This is just me and you just like the reality of what she said was mind blowing.

Sarah Dunwood: 43:59

It's life changing in a, in a in a really specific way, isn't it? But I think going going away from that to some of the things that she talked about in terms of her business journey, there were some real, real golden nuggets there for me in terms of the just do it. Just Just have a go, just make a sale. Don't worry about everything that sits around it. Don't overthink the I've got to have a Facebook page and a website and all of that sort of stuff. I think that was, was brilliant and and what a piece of advice about rebel Business School.

Sharon Cawley: 44:41

Yep, she's she almost without articulating it. Set said, do exactly the opposite of what you've been doing for 20 years as a teacher. Stop planning. I don't have a business plan. Just do something. Make something. Test something. Try something. Thing, and that's a huge leap when you've had to do short term, long term, median plans, plan this, plan that, and then to go, well, actually, my world does not include a plan. And going with the flow, I'm going to do this the backwards way around, but still then took counsel for free from the business world.

Sarah Dunwood: 45:24

Do you know what I've got in my head? Go ons going right back to the 80s. Do you remember summer holidays? No, I don't. Why don't you? Yeah, just get off the sofa. Just it's that mentality, isn't it? Why don't you just have a go? Yes,

Sharon Cawley: 45:41

if you've got something and you want to go out there and do it, just do it and and see, see what happens. And it was just, it was just a great, great story for people out there. There's loads of teachers who are on Etsy. People sell on Etsy, a great deal with crafts and with products. Instagram's amazing. And I just think it was a fantastic blueprint, without it being a blueprint,

Sarah Dunwood: 46:14

yeah, yeah, it was, it was it to use. It is a pun, but it was, it was organic. It was, it's a business that's based around organic chocolate, and it was a real story of genuine organic growth of a business. And I love that. I liked it as well. I liked her reasons for it, and felt desperately sorry for her losing the job she

Sharon Cawley: 46:40

loved under the circumstances that she did, but she was really fair about it. You know, sometimes I miss it, sometimes it's lonely, sometimes I'm listening to a podcast, but the main one was, I'm okay. I'm okay, and if that's if that's the best we can hope for. Because had she have stayed, her life would have been very, very different, I

Sarah Dunwood: 47:04

suspect. And I think, Okay, I'm gonna quote you with something that you said to me last week, which is, enough, is a feast.

Sharon Cawley: 47:15

It is, it is, we don't strive for these moments of great happiness. We're just okay. It's it's those little pockets of happiness, those glimmers that we get in the day. And I suspect her day is filled with glimmers. But what a sliding door story, my friend. So what a great, great episode. And I do hope people who are in Vicky's position, get the inspiration that we're hoping for from that very typical of our guests, very, very typical of the richness of the guests that we've spoken to. So yeah, I think that's going to go down as one of my one of my favorites, I think in that respect. So until next time, my dear friend, I'll see you on the other side. Aurovoir, thank you, as always, for listening to our pit pony podcast. On behalf of Sarah, our guests and all involved with the production, we're so grateful for your support. Please subscribe to our channels. Follow us on social media, and we look forward to seeing you next time, when we will have another inspirational story from a fellow pit pony who has exited the classroom and thrive. You.