What happens when life throws you the biggest plot twist imaginable and you’ve no choice but to crack on?

In this raw, funny and beautifully honest episode of It’s Got Pockets, I sit down with the brilliant Gemma Ray, author, speaker, podcast host, mum and kinship foster carer to talk about what happens when “having it all” turns into holding it all together.

Gemma’s story is ever evolving and has all the curve balls.

One moment she’s running a thriving six-figure business. The next, she’s standing in a school reception, unknowingly about to change her entire life.

Within hours, Gemma and her husband were suddenly carers for two young children; a decision that reshaped everything: her business, her marriage, her identity and her belief in what makes a “mum.”

Together, we talk about:
🔥 The myth of Supermum and why we need to stop performing resilience.
🔥 Cracking on vs. cracking open and how to spot the difference.
🔥 Kinship foster care, trauma-informed parenting and the brutal beauty of doing the right thing even when it breaks you open.
🔥 The Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) model that helped Gemma rebuild connection, calm, and self-trust.
🔥 Why “And so f*cking what” might just be the mantra every woman needs in her back pocket.

This is the kind of conversation that reminds you that survival isn’t weakness, it’s wisdom.

It’s about ditching perfection, rebuilding trust in yourself and remembering that you can’t pour from a cup that’s cracked.

Expect laughter, swearing, heart and a whole lot of truth about motherhood, burnout and the reality of leading life on your own terms.

💥 Quote Moments:

• “We crack on, and crack on, until something small makes us crack open.”
• “I thought I could be Supermum. Turns out, I’m human.”
• “Self-trust is the bridge between who I was and who I’m becoming.”
• “And so f*cking what.”

🎧 Listen if you’ve ever felt:

• Tired of holding it all together
• Caught between ambition and exhaustion
• Ready to stop performing perfect and start living honest

And if you’re in in that life stage, where all the curve balls keep on coming without a break and want to be in a room where lived experience counts, where you don’t have to translate yourself and where backing yourself becomes the work, you’ll find your people through FoundHer Fire.

This is It’s Got Pockets. Stories for women with experience who are not done yet.

Now crack on.

Thanks for listening. This episode was sponsored by Birkdale Insurance Group – a people-first business with a powerhouse of talented female board members bucking the male-dominated financial services trend.

Find out more at birkdaleinsurancegroup.co.uk

Sarah is the founder of FoundHer Fire; a women in business membership and community. She is also the author of The Human Scaffolding System - the personal operating system for cracking on, on purpose.

FoundHer Fire provides coaching, peer intelligence, expert input, practical development and real-time support in one ecosystem, so the woman behind the job title, behind the business has somewhere to strengthen her clarity, courage, confidence and energy while she is still doing the job, running the business and managing everything else around it.

And why now? Because the environment these women are leading through keeps asking more of them. Change, uncertainty, restructures, business transformation, career transitions and the collision of work with life load do not arrive one at a time. Capable women compensate for a long time, which can make the cost almost invisible until something gives, they disengage, reconsider what they want or decide they would rather take their experience somewhere else. FoundHer Fire gives them scaffolding before that point.

Find out more about me and how I can work with you:

• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On FoundHer Fire
• Or drop me an email sarah@sarahknight...

Why your zigzags were never a problem...

Your career doesn’t look like a neat ladder.
It looks more like a patchwork map.
Different roles. Different sectors. Breaks. Detours. Chapters you didn’t plan and moments you just cracked on through.

This episode is for women who have lived a bit and are done apologising for it.

In this solo episode, I unpack something it took me far too long to own. Having a layered career, multiple specialisms, and a zigzag path is not a lack of focus. It’s range. Depth. Leadership in the making.

I share my own breadcrumb trail, from PR and marketing to leadership, coaching and culture work. From redundancy while pregnant to entrepreneurship before I felt ready. From chasing titles to realising the work I was meant to do had been quietly following me all along.

This is a real career story. Lived, not polished.

What we get into

• Why careers make sense backwards, not forwards, and why curiosity beats self criticism.
• How the parts you thought were messy were building cognitive flexibility, adaptability and leadership capacity.
• Why even the most “linear” CVs hide zigzags, mat leave, caring responsibilities, burnout, restructures, grief and quiet identity shifts.
• Why your path does not need to be tidy to be valuable. It needs to be yours. And you need to own it.

The behavioural science underneath it...
I weave in why lived experience matters. Cognitive flexibility and career adaptability explain why women who have navigated complexity become exceptional leaders of humans, not just processes.

This is the science that gives language to what you already know.

• The weekly pause
• Take five minutes. Proper five minutes.
• Where in your path have you mistaken range, breaks or detours for a lack of direction?
• What changes when you see those chapters as evidence of depth, resilience and brilliance?

This episode sits with women who are questioning their path and quietly reassessing what comes next. It reframes years of self doubt and hands you back ownership of your story.

Pass it on to a woman who keeps apologising for her CV when she simply needs to own her brilliance.

And if you’re in your plot twist era and want to be in a room where lived experience counts, where you don’t have to translate yourself and where backing yourself becomes the work, you’ll find your people through FoundHer Fire.

This is It’s Got Pockets.
Stories for women with experience who are not done yet.

Now crack on.

Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by Birkdale Insurance Group, a people-first business that cares about who gets a seat at the table and making sure everyone is included.

Sarah is the founder of FoundHer Fire—a membership space for experienced women in business who know real success isn’t just about strategy, it’s about self; a place, a space, a community where women find their fire, for women who aren't done yet and who are ready to write their own rules of success. Sarah also co-founded The Plot Twist (un)Awards, celebrating female founders and women smashing through glass ceilings with purpose, passion and joy.

Find out more about me and how I can work with you:

• On LinkedIn
• On Instagram
• On the Web
• Or drop me an email sarah@mindthegap.academy