The story behind the brand – and why it’s been living in me for longer than I realised.
A long time ago – in what genuinely feels like a different lifetime – I took a secondment into a SAP finance trainer role. For those who don’t know SAP is a technology solution that helps organisations manage and plan their resources.
Finance. Tech. Training. I know. Try to contain your excitement.
It was a system implementation, most of us were brand new to both the system and to being trainers, and we had a manager called Christine who was, quite simply, brilliant. The kind of person who made you feel capable of things you hadn’t tried yet. You always knew where you stood with her. I loved working for her.
One of our first tasks was to come up with icebreakers for our sessions. Because here’s the thing about finance and technology – people often arrive in the room already slightly glazed. It’s not their fault. These are subjects that carry a reputation. Dark arts. Black magic. Things that other people understand.
So, I digress, we needed something to warm the room. Something playful. Something that would get people talking before we got anywhere near a laptop.
And I had an idea.
The icebreaker that never was
Hats.
A selection of hat images – different styles, different personalities – and the invitation to pick one. Which hat feels like you today? Which hat would you like to wear into this session? And if you don’t want the one you picked – what hat would you rather have on?
I loved it immediately. It made me smile. It made me laugh just thinking about it. Because in one simple question you could learn something real about a person – the way they saw themselves, the way they wanted to show up, the gap between the two.
You could be playful with it. Challenging. Human. Even in a room full of finance data.
After several giggles and a lot of laughter Christine and I decided (begrudgingly) it probably wasn’t workable. We went in a different direction.
The hats icebreaker never happened. But the idea never left.
| “The icebreaker never happened. But the idea never left.” |
Mr Ben and the magic wardrobe
Do you remember Mr Ben? The old children’s cartoon – a man in a bowler hat who would walk into a changing room, try on a costume, and step through a door into an entirely different adventure. Whatever he wore, that’s who he became. That’s where he went.
I loved that as a child. The idea that what you put on could change everything. That you could step into a different version of yourself just by choosing a different outfit.
And as I got older, I started to notice that’s exactly what we do. Just less consciously. Less joyfully.
We have groups of friends, and each group brings something different out of us – a different hat, a different part of who we are. We walk into work and suit up. We step into family gatherings and shift into a role we’ve been playing for decades. We show up in the world as the version of ourselves that the moment seems to require.
Some of those hats we chose deliberately. Some were handed to us. Some we’ve been wearing for so long we’ve forgotten they’re even there.
The difference between labels and hats
I’ve always hated labels. Growing up, I was one of only a couple of children in my class from what people called a broken home. I resisted being put in a box. I pushed back against the definitions other people made about my life, my options, who I was and what I could become. That has never really changed.
Labels felt fixed. Final. What they say on the tin. Limiting. Heavy with expectations and assumptions.
But hats – hats feel different. More nuanced. More human.
| “Labels are what they say on the tin. Hats are more nuanced — we don’t always realise we’ve started to fulfil a role. We don’t always notice the hat we’re wearing.” |
And that distinction matters. Because it changes how we approach change.
When something feels like a label – fixed, attached, named – it can feel almost impossible to shift. But a hat? A hat you can take off. A hat you can choose. A hat you can hang up on the stand and walk away from.
That feels like possibility. That feels like freedom.
Tea, incense and a moment of recognition
Fast forward many years. A different career. A different life entirely.
I was sitting in my office, at my desk, tea in hand, incense burning, reading through the final copy for my coaching website. One year in the making. And somewhere in that quiet moment, the conversation came back up.
Hats.
The icebreaker that never happened. The idea that never left. The image I’d been carrying for decades without quite knowing why.
And suddenly it made complete sense. Because when I thought about the people who come to coaching – the executives exhausted by the version of themselves they have to be at work, the people navigating change they didn’t choose, the ones who wake up one day and don’t quite recognise themselves anymore – they’re all, in some way, dealing with hats.
Hats that are too heavy. Hats that don’t fit. Hats that were never theirs to wear in the first place.
And what they’re looking for – what they’re really looking for – is permission to take them off.
| “Who are you when the hats come off?” |
That became my brand. My tagline. The question at the heart of everything I do.
Not because I invented it. But because I finally recognised it – in a training room idea I’d carried for 20 years, in a children’s cartoon about a man and a magic wardrobe, in my own complicated relationship with labels and identity and who gets to decide who we are.
So here we are
One year in. A brand new website. A coaching practice built around a single, simple idea.
We all wear hats. Some chosen, some inherited, some so old we’ve forgotten they’re there. And underneath all of them – all along – there’s a version of you that’s been waiting.
Fuller. Freer. More you.
That’s the work. And I am so glad to be doing it.
With warmth – and a nod of my hat to Christine, who started out as my boss and became one of my dearest friends. She’s no longer here, but her brilliance, her warmth and her belief in the people around her absolutely is. This one’s for you, Christine. 🎩
Karina