PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking.
The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a great leader and how we can become even better, no matter who or what we are leading.
For additional materials and resources, head to our website and take the leadership reflection even further!
If you are interested in coming to one of our conferences as a guest, please reach out to us on membership@pixl.org.uk.
PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production.
PiXL is a partnership organisation of schools, colleges, alternative education providers and educational organisations spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership
In 2000, Blockbuster laughed Netflix out of the room.
In the sixth episode of PiXL Pearls Series 10, Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO) takes on the story most people think they know and complicates it. The Netflix origin story is neater in the retelling than it ever was in reality. The late fee, the flash of inspiration, the obvious idea: none of it was quite like that. What it was, was messy, uncertain and made up as they went along. Just like most things worth doing.
But behind the brands and the balance sheets are people trying to work things out in real time. And some of what they learned along the way translates directly into school leadership. Marc Randolph's caution about title inflation, hiring job titles instead of people who can do the job. The evidence that meaningful work outlasts any perk or incentive a school could offer. And the Netflix principle that sits at the heart of their culture: treat people like adults, give them direction, and trust them to find the way.
The Last Blockbuster is still open in Bend, Oregon. It sells merchandise to tourists. It is a museum to the cost of standing still.
How much do you love your job and how much do you love the title? And are you treating the adults around you like adults? Tune in today.
If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls...
Check out the PiXL website: https://www.pixl.org.uk/ for free downloads
Read Rachel's four books:
Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them
Time to Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them
Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead
Connected: Focusing on 'me' and 'we'
Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Spotify
PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking. The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a good leader and how we can become even better leaders, both in and out of schools.
PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production.
PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership
27 Sept 2026
Albatrosse
A single poem, published in 1798, changed the reputation of an entire species.
In the fifth episode of PiXL Pearls Series 10, Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO) starts with the albatross, a bird that was once considered a symbol of luck and protection by sailors, that became, thanks to Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a byword for burden, guilt and inescapable consequence. A reputation shift that has lasted over two centuries.
The episode uses that story as a way into one of the harder conversations in leadership: what do you do when your organisation's reputation is working against you? Or when the reputation people have of you as a leader doesn't match who you are? Drawing on three practical principles, facing reputation head on rather than hoping it resolves itself, doing the work to actually fix what's broken, and actively building the narrative of change, this episode offers a clear-eyed look at what reputation management actually requires from a leader.
Because repackaging is not the same as fixing. And if the problems stay, so does the reputation.
What is your reputation out there, and what do you believe the truth is in here? What's the gap between the two? Tune in today.
If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls...
Check out the PiXL website: https://www.pixl.org.uk/ for free downloads
Read Rachel's four books:
Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them Time to
Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them
Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead
Connected: Focusing on 'me' and 'we'
Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Spotify
PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking. The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a good leader and how we can become even better leaders, both in and out of schools.
PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production.
PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5.
Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership
13 Sept 2026
Thinking inside the box
The clue was in the box all along.
In the fourth episode of PiXL Pearls Series 10, Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO) takes on one of leadership's most overused phrases and turns it inside out. Because thinking outside the box is only half the story. The other half is what Christopher Clayton Hutton did in World War Two, when he hid silk maps, compasses, files, real currency and a tiny saw inside a doctored Monopoly board and smuggled them into German prisoner of war camps under the noses of the guards.
744 airmen escaped. The secret stayed hidden until 1985.
Hutton wasn't the obvious hire for MI9. His CV said journalist, Hollywood publicist, RAF pilot. What got him the job was a passing reference to trying to outsmart Harry Houdini. His interviewer heard something in it and asked him to keep talking. That moment, a sliding doors moment that could easily have been missed, is the first of three leadership ideas this episode unpacks: the power of unseen interests, the discipline of starting with what you already have, and the ability to look at familiar things and see them differently.
The pieces were there all along. Someone just had to look at them differently.
What do you know about what your staff love? And when did you last let someone walk through your school and tell you what they see? Tune in today.
If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls...
Check out the PiXL website: https://www.pixl.org.uk/ for free downloads
Read Rachel's four books:
Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them
Time to Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them
Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead
Connected: Focusing on 'me' and 'we'
Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
Subscribe on Spotify
PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking.
The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a good leader and how we can become even better leaders, both in and out of schools.
PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production.
PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 29 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
23
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
85
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