The Watchword Podcast

Adam Hugill spent 18 months riding his bike 20,000km through Asia and North America having been in the Army before that. When he returned he found it difficult to re-adjust to normal life and starting out on a new career. In this episode he talks us through how how he made that adjustment, the role cold water has played for him, the importance of finding a community you relate to and the five key...

Krishna Thapa grew up in mountains of Nepal, he applied to join the British Army's Royal Gurkha Rifles as a teenager and was successful. He spent 7 years in the Gurkhas before attempting SAS selection, becoming one of the first two Gurkhas to ever join the Regiment. Krishna spent 17 years in the SAS, deploying overseas 12 times. During one of his first deployments a team mate was killed right...

Paul spent 35 years in the Army, reaching the rank of Major General, having completed his initial training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst he returned nearly 30 years later to run the Academy. During his career he also commanded an Armoured Brigade of 5,000 soldiers before latterly being responsible for Army recruiting, Army basic training and the centre for Army leadership. In this episod...

Huw founded the Motivational Preparation College for Training 23 years ago after a long career in the military. Whilst working in Army recruitment he spotted a gap between the standards the military required vs how prepared some applicants were. Huw started the MPCT with a handful of people, 23 years later their team is 180 strong, has 35 colleges across the UK and has trained over 20,000 learners...

This week's episode is with rugby player Toby Flood, Toby has played professional rugby for nearly 17 years, earning 60 England caps during that stime. He started his career at Newcastle, moved to Leicester Tigers where he captained the side and won 3 Premiership titles, then in France where he played with Toulouse and became fluent in French before returning to where it all began with Newcastle....

Alex spent 10 years in the Army, six of which were with the Special Forces. His journey into the Army was result of a childhood ambition but his career in Special Forces started as a result of a setback… Alex left the Army in 2020 and now works for cyber security company Senseon as an Account Executive, he has also founded his own business called WILDNIS, which exists to provide bespoke adventures...

There has been a lull in podcast related activity despite having some great guests in the pipeline. The delay has been caused by Covid related activity. Last year I spent several months working with the Army Reserve in support of the effort to counter Covid-19, spending time working on the testing programme before moving into a regional headquarters. When I went back to running Watchword Security...

Martin started mountain biking age eleven, and as you’ll hear, his passion for it is all consuming. His journey reflects the why the podcast exists – his childhood passion, the deviation away from it due to the challenges of everyday life, but then a return to mountain biking and then the planning and delivery of a huge project in the most dramatic fashion. Martin had an idea to build the first de...

This bonus episode is a short 8 minute breathing exercise with Clemmie. We hope you enjoy it.  You can find out more at her website Clemmie.london or on Instagram @clemmie.london You can also find the Watchword podcast on LinkedIn , Facebook and Instagram – if you enjoy the podcast please leave a review on iTunes as it makes all the difference!

Clemmie worked in office-based jobs for about 10 years but gradually came to the realisation that it wasn’t for her, she became desperate to do something else and having discovered yoga she found the courage to leap from a safe career to running her own business teaching yoga, which she has subsequently taken all over the world. The reason for doing this podcast is twofold – firstly to explore a b...

Scott started life as a talented all round sportsman without a particular plan. He followed his passion and studied Sports & Sports Science in great detail, eventually gaining a PHD and a PGCE. As Scott explains, he didn’t have a plan, he kept studying because he was passionate about sport and performance. People often say that we should follow our passions in life, whilst this is certainly tr...

Marianna is an anthropologist who started her career in Marketing, she has forged a unique path combining the two disciplines leading her to her current role with Rainmaking Venture Studio. So why anthropology? Well it’s largely because I came across Marianna's work which puts a modern spin on something that we automatically think of as ancient or traditional. The world of work fascinates me, the...

Sean changed tack from having a normal job to breaking endurance world records and writing books for a living. In this episode he tells us how. When he was young Sean had an ambition to travel the world working as a photographer, he didn’t quite achieve his aim, and after 10 years and reaching the age of 30, he was working in the UK and specialising in school portraits. Whilst he was doing well pr...

* This episode contains detailed explanations of improvised explosive device detonation and the associated impact.  Kim joined the Army aged 16, he became an Ammunition Technician and then Bomb Disposal Operator. He completed 10 operational tours during his career including three tours of Afghanistan. During his first tour of Afghanistan he neutralised 119 IEDs in six months and was awarded t...

Kev spent most of his career working on the River Thames in a job with 400 years of history behind it. Watermen used to row the passengers to and from tall ships moored up in London and whilst the role has evolved the traditional skills of rope work, boat handling, navigation and knowing the tides are still required. Kev’s passion for the outdoors led to an encounter with one of the best-known adv...

Lulu is the sole founder of Clothes Doctor, a business she started in 2016 having made the leap from a successful career in the city of London. We talk about the learning curve involved in starting a new business from scratch, the challenges of being a sole founder, fund raising via crowd funding platforms, how she plans on reinventing clothing repairs, the impact fast fashion is having on the pla...

Nick is the Director and Head Chef of The Patricia, the restaurant he founded in 2016 having worked at the Michelin starred River Café in London before that. Nick talks us through how he became a chef, running his first pub and subsequent experience at top restaurants in London. I thoroughly enjoyed this story for a number of reasons, but ultimately because it is one driven by Nick’s urge to start...

Danny is the technology correspondent for The Sunday Times newspaper. He has worked at the paper since 2008 and launched his podcast 'Danny in the Valley in 2017', it is one of the best podcasts out there, highly recommend it if you are interested in technology, the world of silicon valley and even the future of humanity, because sometimes it gets pretty deep, as Danny explains. In this episode we...

Musah grew up in rural Ghana, he had to work as a child to cover the cost of going to school. He struggled to do so and after making a shoe shine box he decided to leave home aged 14 to travel and make a living shining shoes, he made a treacherous 5000km journey from Ghana to Libya before seizing the opportunity to travel to the UK and eventually join the British Army. Now having been forced to le...

Jon spent 9 years as an officer in the Royal Marines, serving in Cyprus, the USA, Brazil and twice in Afghanistan. His military career came to an unexpected end and he transitioned into the corporate world, first working for Amazon. Jon tried desperately to make it work but in his own words was dying inside. Married with 3 children he remained strong for his family but had lost his purpose. Things...

I really enjoyed talking to Oz, his perspective having built many teams, started a business and commissioned to serve as the first black officer in both the Parachute Regiment and the UK Special Forces make his story unique. I hope you enjoy the episode and you can connect with Oz on Twitter, LinkedIn and find his company CybSafe at cybsafe.com . If you enjoy the podcast please leave a r...

Stuart started a business after leaving a successful career in consulting, having been Chief Operating Officer of KPMG UK. Four years after it’s creation, Stuart’s business Crossword Consulting has experienced considerable growth. In this episode we talk about the challenging reality of starting your own business, the attributes required to succeed and the importance of managing your own wellbeing...

John joined the family business Timpson in 1963 before the organisation went through a serious board room disagreement which saw the business go out of family control. John continued to work there and eventually enabled a management buyout before leading the business on to considerable success. In addition to running the business, John and his family have supported their team of colleagues in a wi...

Nick joined the Army aged 23 and deployed to Afghanistan one week after finishing his initial training. Three months later he was in Musa Qualeh when he was injured by a rocket propelled grenade. The injury led to Nick being in a coma for three weeks and was the start of a long journey of recovery. Despite his injuries, Nick went on to return to Afghanistan twice more, he has now left the Army and...

Mark joined the Grenadier Guards aged sixteen and spent 25 years in the Army. He went on to become one of the first members of the Help for Heroes team when the charity was formed in 2007.  Their original aim was to raise £10,000, thirteen years later the organisation has raised millions. This incredible journey has helped a huge number of wounded, injured and sick service people and their fa...