With Confidence Who?

Storytelling is one of our oldest traditions — it makes us memorable, relatable, and credible. Most importantly, it helps us build a genuine connection with our audience.

Origin stories are a powerful place to start. They offer background, reveal values, and make your message uniquely yours. To share an origin story, you could:

• Share how your career journey began to inspire new staff.

• Explain the origins of your name or business name and what it represents.

• Frame a story of growth or transformation to reflect on where you’ve been — and where you’re heading.

Here’s your challenge: Weave an origin story into your next presentation. Show where you’ve come from, and where you’re going. Your story might be exactly what someone else needs to hear.

Welcome to: The With Confidence Origin Story

I’m Ashleigh.With Confidence started years ago.

I was a born teacher. At age 7, I had a birthday party where I set up a classroom, invited my friends, and ended up teaching them as part of the party. I can only imagine what their parents heard:

“Mum… she made us sit down and listen to her reading a story!”

In one of my primary school homework pieces, I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. “Teacher” was at the top of the list.

I enjoyed school, mainly because of my passionate and amazing English and Drama teachers. No matter what, if I was in one of those classes, I was happy. The Drama room became my second home, a place of safety, creativity, friendship, and fun.

Becoming a Teacher? Really?

Becoming a teacher was never talked about as a valued career option. It felt wrong to say that was your goal, like it was aiming too low. One of my own teachers once said:

“You? A teacher? But you could be so much more, have you looked at law?”

I’ve never seen teaching showcased at a careers expo. I’ve never seen a teacher interviewed in front of students to explain why they love their job and why it matters.(No wonder we have a shortage of teachers.)

And yet… teaching is my superpower.

Why English?

I went into English teaching for two reasons:

1. English is a mandatory subject, and the likelihood of getting a job is far higher than in Drama.

2. I didn’t want to give up all my evenings and weekends to Drama rehearsals. I saw how much my teacher did for us (and I’m unbelievably grateful), but I didn’t want to lose all that time myself.

Deep down though, I knew that although I loved English, I was never really all that good at it. I can find a metaphor in anything, but actually knowing the core mechanics of grammar? Not so much. Every time I had to teach a class about verbs or adjectives, I’d pre-write all the answers because I knew I’d get them wrong if I tried to wing it.One of the worst parts of pub quizzes now is when people say,

“Oh a book/grammar question - You’re the English teacher - you’ll know it.”“Mmmmmm… ummm….”

Speech and Drama is my passion

I started Speech and Drama when I was 5.I loved it. The combination of English and Drama, learning and reciting poetry, finding a characterisation, discussing playwrights, researching Shakespeare, developing improvisation skills, presenting talks - it was all I ever wanted to do.

I had an incredible connection with my Speech and Drama teacher, she’s still one of my main mentors in life today. (Goes to show how incredible teachers can have life-lasting impressions. Maybe that’s the story we should be telling more often, instead of the one about poor pay and unrealistic expectations…)

I completed all of my grade exams and went on to my teaching exams. I joined the board for Speech New Zealand, the New Zealand version of Trinity College, and did as much as I could to stay part of the Speech and Drama world.

And yet, English teaching paid the bills.

Becoming a Mum, Again and Again

In 2019, I became a mother, and suddenly, the drive for a new life, a different life, became real.

Being a Speech and Drama teacher had always been the dream. I’d imagined following in the footsteps of my own teacher. But I also knew that starting a private studio meant staying put, you can’t build a local practice and then suddenly relocate.

While I was nursing Ollie, the idea of starting a new chapter and trying something outside of the rigid teaching structure felt appealing. It was actually the best thing having something to focus on and dream about while in the throws of early parenting, it gave me a drive. I decided on the name With Confidence and started building a website. I eagerly connected with schools to try to find one that would be keen to have classes, explored community locations for after-school classes, and reached out on local social-media pages. Two things happened:

1. No one in our local area was particularly open to Speech and Drama teaching, nor were schools interested in having it on offer (and this felt so shocking to me - I knew it’s worth and felt personally afronted that no-one had felt the same enthusiasm I did - why was this not going to be easy? This was the first time I had felt the business burn - just because you have a good idea doesn’t mean everyone else wants it).

2. COVID hit.The closed doors hit my ego hard. COVID gave me an easy out, I could just enjoy being a mother, pretend that none of it had ever happened, and go back to teaching after maternity leave.

But… what if?

The question mark remained.

Round Two

Jump four years, and after a very long, hard road, my daughter, Tilly, finally arrived.

School over those prior four years had been intense, online learning and the fallout of post-COVID education, meant education was experiencing new and added pressures.

Tilly was five weeks old when in the middle of the night I thought with immense clarity:

This is it. If I don’t try With Confidence now, I’ll never know what it could’ve been. I’ll always regret it.

This time, I imagined the business differently. It wasn’t a “Speech and Drama” studio. It was bigger.The mission: to help ANYONE learn how to perform, interview, and present - with confidence.

Fueled by new clarity (and a healthy dose of “one last shot” energy), I jumped.

This time, the doors opened.Or maybe… I just approached them differently.

What Now?

To quote, Steve Jobs in his 2005 Harvard Commencement Speech

“If you live each day as if it were your last, someday almost certainly, you will be right” [and so,] “If today was the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today”?

It is a fair question - and one where I knew that if I didn't try it, test it, live it, I would regret not giving it a really good crack.

My Word for 2025: Trust

It’s exciting and terrifying to have this space. To trust the path. To follow where With Confidence leads.

And I’m ready.

Want to join the ride?

Talk soon,

Ashleigh