Kitiara Pascoe

Adventure pushes us out of our comfort zones and into a solution-based way of thinking. It helps us challenge our identity stories – those beliefs we hold about what we can and can’t do, what we are and are not capable of. I went from being a complete non-sailor, to sailing 20,000 miles double-handed around the Atlantic. Convinced I was never capable of undertaking such a journey, I found myself plagued by self-doubt and questioning myself at every turn. But the further I sailed from England, the more I realised that no amount of evidence would make me believe in what I was capable of. It was something I had to change from within. It’s easy to live in our little bubbles. Easy to accept the limitations that we and others put on ourselves. But there is so much more that we can do when we start looking at the world and ourselves from a different perspective. This talk helps your audience understand that the story they tell themselves is not necessarily the right one.

It’s no secret that many students want to be writers and authors but they’re so often told to have a ‘back-up’ plan or to just write as a hobby. If writing is such a challenging job to land though, how come we each read thousands, even tens of thousands of words every day? Who is writing those? From working as a copywriter and writing articles to getting non-fiction books commissioned and positioning yourself as a specialist, this talk helps university students start working towards a rewarding career as a writer and helps college students understand just how many options are within the reach of their pens. It’s perfect for university and FE institutions but can be suited for secondary school students as well.