Rethinking Journalling: Calm, Creativity, and the Power of Visual Reflection In this episode of reThink, Nicki Hambleton is joined by educator, coach, and podcast host Kim Cofino for a reflective conversation about journalling, not as a writing habit, but as a visual, calming practice. Kim shares how journalling supported her through a demanding year, helping her slow down, process experiences and remember everyday moments more clearly. Rather than focusing on written entries, the conversatio...
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Rethinking Journalling: Calm, Creativity, and the Power of Visual Reflection In this episode of reThink, Nicki Hambleton is joined by educator, coach, and podcast host Kim Cofino for a reflective conversation about journalling, not as a writing habit, but as a visual, calming practice. Kim shares how journalling supported her through a demanding year, helping her slow down, process experiences and remember everyday moments more clearly. Rather than focusing on written entries, the conversatio...
Rethinking Journalling: Calm, Creativity, and the Power of Visual Reflection In this episode of reThink, Nicki Hambleton is joined by educator, coach, and podcast host Kim Cofino for a reflective conversation about journalling, not as a writing habit, but as a visual, calming practice. Kim shares how journalling supported her through a demanding year, helping her slow down, process experiences and remember everyday moments more clearly. Rather than focusing on written entries, the conversatio...
What Happens When You Stop Typing and Start Seeing Your Notes? An Introduction to Sketchnoting Most of us type far more notes than we ever return to. We capture everything, but remember very little. So what actually changes when we stop writing pages of text and start seeing our notes instead? In this episode, I share how sketchnoting transformed the way I process information over ten years ago, because dense text overwhelmed me, bored me, and stayed hidden on my computer. I needed a way to s...
In this episode, Nicki is joined by creative facilitator and multipotentialite Angel Takooree for an insightful conversation about what truly makes a workshop engaging, human, and meaningful. Angel shares how her squiggly career, spanning food innovation, interior design, service design, LEGO® Serious Play®, and visual thinking, has shaped her approach to facilitation. She talks about designing workshops through the senses, rethinking space, using visuals to reduce overwhelm, and creating env...
Episode 44: Rethinking Journalling. One Day. One Drawing. In this reflective episode of Rethink: The Podcast, Nicki Hambleton explores why traditional journalling is so hard to sustain and how a simple daily drawing ritual can turn reflection into something calming, consistent, and deeply grounding. Nicki shares her own struggle with keeping a diary, yet drawing, especially ten minutes a day, became a meditative practice she could return to again and again. So what happens when you combine th...
Episode 43: Look Again! How Community Helps Us Feel Seen In this reThink episode, Nicki is joined by educator, facilitator and community-builder Maxine Buttigieg, founder of Mira: Where Teachers Connect. Together, they explore what it means to look again; to slow down, notice what’s often overlooked and understand why feeling seen is essential to well-being. Maxine shares the story behind Mira, the inspiration drawn from Spanish children joyfully shouting “Mira!” (“Look!”), and her commitment...
Rethinking the Feedback Loop: How to read the room you can’t see What happens when you present online, but your audience is all together in a room you can’t see? In this episode, Nicki shares the story of presenting a visual-thinking workshop to a group of art teachers in Singapore. The content focused on a challenge dear to her heart, the teachers were engaged, but one thing was missing: the feedback loop. We explore: Why online-to-room teaching feels so differentThe psychology of micro-feed...
Episode 41: Stop the Scroll with Stand Out Designs (with Nadia Fernández) How do you make people stop scrolling and pay attention? In this episode, Nicki Hambleton talks with designer Nadia Fernández, whose cinematic, story-driven carousels have become instantly recognisable on LinkedIn. They explore what it means to design with identity, not just style, and how breaking the rules can help your content stand out for all the right reasons. 🎯 You’ll hear Nadia talk about how she: Create visual...
See the Challenge, Strengthen the Team Every team has its wobbly blocks, those small things that quietly hold everything together until they’re overlooked, pushed aside, or forgotten. In this episode of Rethink: The Podcast, Nicki Hambleton explores what really makes teams wobble and how simple visual strategies can bring them back into balance. Drawing from conversations with leaders, educators, and facilitators, Nicki unpacks common challenges around communication, collaboration and clarity...
The swan, the lift and the blue phone: finding calm, clarity and connection. What if your greatest strength wasn’t doing more, but simply being there? In this powerful and heartfelt episode, Nicki Hambleton talks with leadership and wellbeing coach and veteran Dave Hill, whose message is simple yet profound: helping people realise they are designed to thrive in any situation. From his time in the military to his work supporting veterans and leaders, Dave shares deeply human stories abou...
When the Octopus Meets the Eagle – Where Creativity Meets Clarity Two very different creatures: one that thrives in the depths, the other high above it all. The octopus explores through curiosity and creativity; the eagle soars with vision and focus. But what happens when they meet at the surface? In this short story from Rethink: The Podcast, Nicki Hambleton explores how creativity and clarity need each other to thrive. You’ll hear how the octopus represents our brilliant, idea-filled minds...
Episode 37: Deep Thinking, because good enough isn't good enough. The enemy of creativity is "good enough". In this engaging conversation, Nicki Hambleton and guest Felix Riley explore the themes of creativity, education and the importance of visual thinking. They discuss how brainstorming can unlock innovative ideas and the systemic issues within the education system that stifle creativity. Felix shares his journey from comedy writing to public speaking, emphasising the need for ...
🎙 Episode Title: Rethinking How We Remember People Have you ever met someone and instantly forgotten their name, even though you remember what they were wearing? Or struggled to recall details about someone you actually care about? In this episode of Rethink: The Podcast, Nicki Hambleton explores how visual thinking can become your secret superpower for remembering people, not just their names, but who they are. Inspired by a simple idea from her teaching days when she created Top...
Episode 35: Rethink the way you explain your work Explaining what you do isn’t always easy, especially when, like Nicki, your work reaches into many areas at once. In this episode of Rethink: the Podcast, Nicki shares the story of how the “octopus” metaphor first came to life when she was teaching in Singapore, wishing she could help every student at the same time. From workshops and team coaching to study mentoring, art tuition, teacher support, portfolio guidance, courses, and sketchn...
Episode 34: What Leaders can Learn from Teachers In this episode of Rethink: The Podcast, Nicki Hambleton explores what leaders can learn from teachers. Drawing on her own experiences in the classroom, including a tough period working with disengaged students, Nicki reflects on the parallels between classrooms and boardrooms and why disengagement looks different, but feels the same, in both. Nicki highlights five powerful teaching strategies that can transform the way meetings, workshops and ...
Episode 33: Shining the light on how visuals support executive function In this episode of Rethink: The Podcast, Nicki Hambleton speaks with executive function coach Suzanne Kamal, who specialises in helping children and families build routines, strategies, and systems that support learning and everyday life. Together, they explore how visual thinking can be a game changer for learners who are neurodivergent or studying in English as an additional language (EAL). From simple sketchnotes to ca...
Episode 32: Inside–Outside In this episode of Rethink: the Podcast, Nicki Hambleton explores the Inside–Outside strategy: a simple yet powerful visual tool to help us see beyond the surface. We all project something on the outside through our actions, body language, and behaviours, but inside we carry thoughts, feelings, and hidden strengths that others don’t always see. This episode guides you through drawing your own outline figure, to capture external pressures and internal exp...
Episode 31: Authenticity in the Age of AI In this unscripted and personal episode, Nicki Hambleton pauses the regular format to reflect on what it means to stay authentic in an increasingly AI-shaped world. Recorded straight from her lounge with no script, no polish, Nicki explores the quiet tension between using AI to support her creative work and the risk of losing her own voice in the process. From a conversation that challenged her to define her "authentic Nicki voice" to her concerns abo...
Episode 30: Rewind & Recap – 7 Months of Visual Thinking In this episode of Rethink: the podcast, host Nicki Hambleton reflects on the first 30 episodes and seven months of recording since launching in January 2025. The episode highlights the major themes that have emerged, the problems they help to solve, and the insights that visual thinking continues to unlock. Nicki revisits four central strands that run throughout the podcast: Learning & Memory – exploring concept mapping and des...
Episode 29: Constellation Mapping – Connecting Ideas into Shared Direction When ideas are flying in all directions, it can feel like looking at a night sky full of stars, beautiful but scattered. In this episode, I introduce Constellation Mapping, a visual strategy for gathering, clustering and connecting ideas so your team, class, or group can see patterns, choose a guiding “North Star,” and move forward together. You’ll hear how to use this approach, discover the origins of the KJ M...
Episode 28: The Bridge – Turning Insight into Action You’ve done the deep thinking. You’ve uncovered what’s really going on. But now what? In this episode, I introduce the Bridge Framework: a visual strategy to help you move from insight to action. Whether you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or standing at the edge of something new, this simple tool will help you break things down, find your footing and take your next small step. I’ll walk you through: – Identifying where you are no...
Rethinking Journalling: Calm, Creativity, and the Power of Visual Reflection In this episode of reThink, Nicki Hambleton is joined by educator, coach, and podcast host Kim Cofino for a reflective conversation about journalling, not as a writing habit, but as a visual, calming practice. Kim shares how journalling supported her through a demanding year, helping her slow down, process experiences and remember everyday moments more clearly. Rather than focusing on written entries, the conversatio...
