Now, it might not look like it from this picture but this man was, and quite possibly still is, a lethal weapon. This is Andy Powell and Andy is an ex elite SAS soldier. I was asked to shoot some portraits of Andy for giffgaff a couple of months ago and I have been meaning to share a little more about the shoot. Andy is now a very successful businessman and was invited into giffgaff HQ to talk about his inspiring story to the company.

When I got the call from giffgaff asking me to shoot some portraits of an ex SAS soldier, loads of ideas came to mind of gritty locations and strong, hard-faced portraits of a man who has seen and experienced war first hand. I had a preconceived idea of what an ex SAS soldier might be like and how I should shoot him. The minute I met Andy, all of these ideas went out the window as they just didn’t suit the man that was stood in front of me…

Andy was constantly smiling and his positive energy was infectious in the best possible way! I always think it’s important to try and capture the essence of the person you’re shooting so I decided to scrap the gritty locations and hard-faced ideas as it wouldn’t have been a true representation of him and I just let Andy and his positive personality do the talking in front of the camera. This infectious personality comes through in the images and I’m not sure we got a shot where Andy wasn’t smiling or laughing. We genuinely had a great laugh shooting these portraits together and I was left buzzing from Andy and his energy. Sadly, we didn’t get a huge amount of time to shoot together as Andy was giving a presentation to the whole of giffgaff HQ so he was soon ushered away as he needed to prepare.

Left alone for a minute or two, once Andy and the giffgaff team had headed to the presentation, I couldn't help thinking about how wrong my preconceived ideas of what an ex SAS soldier might be like were. I had imagined, as I have said, someone very serious, hard-faced, battle scared and in some ways a little intimidating! I have worked with other ex-military people who often come across like this and for good reason I’m sure. I know every person is different but I thought of all of the things that Andy must have seen and experienced in his life and I wondered how he was still smiling. As I sat and listened to Andy talk to the team at giffgaff it quickly became clear to me how and why…

Mindset!

Andy spoke, to a packed atrium at giffgaff HQ, about his life and experiences in the armed forces and also his successful business career once leaving the military.

Andy joined the Royal Corps of Signals straight from school and spent many years as an electronics engineer. Even then Andy had the mindset of challenging himself and always wanting to learn. He approached his commanding officers and said that he wanted a new challenge. They suggested the SAS!

Andy spent five years serving with the elite SAS. He won rapid promotion and was one of the army’s youngest staff sergeants at 26. It’s through hearing some of the harrowing stories (these are his stories so I wouldn’t feel right telling them) he tells of this time in his life, serving in Bosnia, the first Gulf War as well as many other global conflict zones, that you really start to realise some of the things that he has seen and experienced that would probably break or do serious psychological damage to the average person. It’s a testament to Andy’s inspiring mindset and strength that he has the positive outlook that he has today. It stuck with me the way that Andy described it during his talk…

Andy left the military and, moving forward, took the skills that he had learnt and embarked on his very successful business career. Before starting his current role Andy was COO of an FTSE 250 company. Now Andy is CEO of The Training Room a company that provides a full career service to predominantly young people. As well as training, it offers loans for courses and even guarantees students will get a job interview.

The Training Room began by training mainly 18 to 30-year-old men, from predominantly underprivileged backgrounds, to be personal trainers. More recently they have seen an influx of women into the industry. The Training company now also runs IT training, and courses in health and social care. It’s preparing to launch courses for event management and teaching assistants as well as many more in the future.

Andy and his company have an incredible impact on many peoples lives and careers, helping them to a better future. Once again testament to the character and mindset of Andy and his team.

Let’s just say that Andy left a huge impression on me and it was an honour to meet and photograph him for giffgaff. I came away from the shoot feeling inspired to be a better person, as deep as that sounds but when you are in the presence of people who have seen and experienced so much and still use those experiences to better not only themselves but those around them, it’s hard not to be inspired and want to do more and be more! Maybe that’s just me?

Anyway, this all reminds me of one of my favourite quotes from Robert Nesta AKA Bob Marley, which is always a good way to close out a blog post. So until next week…