It’ll be great, they said… “you’d be perfect”…
“It’ll be great,” they said. “You’d be perfect,” they said.
What could possibly go wrong? I thought.
So, fuelled by coffee and encouragement, I stepped out of the fast-paced, airline-heavy world of corporate learning and development… and into education.
A world of:
small chairs
exuberant learners
and an astonishing number of snotty noses
Still fuelled by coffee, obviously.
A different kind of learning curve
After years of graft, I qualified as a teacher and found myself immersed in early years education just as I was raising my own small children.
Learning suddenly became very real, very physical, and very human.
I watched babies learn from scratch.
I saw curiosity before confidence.
I saw how environment, emotion, and safety shaped learning long before content ever mattered.
Pinterest became my new best friend.
Playgroups followed.
Arts and crafts activities were carefully designed and quietly mapped back to the early years curriculum.
Turns out, you can take the girl out of L&D… but you can’t take the L&D out of the girl.
Learning instincts don’t disappear they evolve
Bloom’s Taxonomy seems to run through me like words in a stick of rock.
Even birthday parties became learning experiences.
Not intentionally, it’s just how my brain works.
And I loved it.
Being part of so many children’s learning journeys was a privilege.
But it was also all-consuming.
And somewhere between the glue sticks and snack time, I realised something else.
I missed designing learning that changed how people worked.
A pivot but not backwards
I didn’t want to return to my old life.
I wanted to move forward.
Not a circle.
A spiral.
Taking what I’d learned from:
corporate L&D
early years education
lived experience of learning from the ground up
…and bringing it into adult learning with fresh eyes.
Because learning is learning, whether you’re four or forty-four.
People need:
clarity
relevance
safety to try
permission to fail
space to grow
That doesn’t change with age.
Only the context does.
What this shaped and why it still matters
That journey is why Jessanol exists.
Why I care so much about:
learning that fits real life
performance, not content
curiosity over compliance
experiences that actually change behaviour
As Robin Williams once said:
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”
I still believe that.
One learning experience at a time.
Still fuelled by coffee.
If this resonates…
If you’re someone who:
cares deeply about learning
feels frustrated by training that misses the point
believes people can do better with the right support
You’re in the right place.
I share thinking like this regularly, the reflections behind the work, not just the outputs.
👉 If you’d like to stay close to that thinking, you’re welcome to join my mailing list.
No spam.
No funnels.
Just useful reflections on learning, performance, and work written by someone who’s lived it from more than one angle.
The Name
My company is called Jessanol. With a surname frequently misspelt: Feilden- it has Danish origins, I needed an easier business name.
I took inspiration from a truly beloved dog and Jessanol arrived.