It’s a wild and stormy shoot day. Window wipers are on double speed as we make our way to Georgie’s mum’s house, not far from her own home, in Enniskerry. We brace ourselves and battle out of the car and against the elements, staggering our way to the front door. Georgie answers wearing short shorts, a cosy cashmere, her hair up in curlers – we fall in, and we fall into hugs. A storm may be raging outside, but now we’re home, literally and figuratively, because there’s something about Georgie Crawford that feels like home. There’s also something about her mum, Siobhan’s gorgeous and welcoming home – where we are based today for this shoot – that feels like peace. With our plans to shoot outdoors shelved, we settle in happily for a day of glam, and coffee, and catch-ups, and later, giggles with their girls, when Jamie her husband, arrives with their doted-on daughters, Pia (8) and Tahlie (2).
Still, the storm outside feels symbolic because storms, as we know, make trees take deeper roots. And that’s precisely what Georgie did ever since Jamie’s multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis 13 years ago and ever since her cancer diagnosis eight years ago. This power couple, who together now run The Good Glow (podcasts, run clubs, retreats and lifestyle products), will admit that they work well in crisis mode, because between their illnesses and their surrogacy journey to have Tahlie, they have spent a good chunk of the first decade of marriage in crisis. But what being in crisis has taught them, is to appreciate the good times when they come.
“I know that so many people might be in a difficult chapter right now,” Georgie tells us. “We’ve had our difficult chapter, and I know there will be more to come, so when the days are good, I really appreciate them.”
With the photos done, we sit and talk about it all, about health, happiness and habits…
Georgie Crawford, happy New Year!
Thank you! I’m so excited to start a brand-new year! Things are really good for us at the moment, there’s a lot of momentum in the business right now, which is really exciting, and Jamie and I obviously work together, so we’re really content and happy, we’ve big plans moving forward. Every day is a privilege.
Indeed, it is. Do you like the fresh start that January brings, or do you begin again each day anyway?
I definitely give myself permission to begin again as many times as I need. And I always say, since 2017, since the cancer diagnosis, that I’ve begun again a thousand times. But I do love a fresh new year. I know that when I stepped into a fresh new year after I was sick, it felt really empowering, and I felt really grateful for that new set of numbers; it just meant a lot to me.
With resolutions, they say we should focus on systems, not outcomes, on creating loop habits rather than rigid goals. Have you created any loop habits that have stuck?
What I do at the start of the year is I set an intention, so I lean more towards intentions than goals. This year, my intention is to focus on my wellbeing and then as I move through the year I try to align my actions to my intention. That way if I feel like things are getting a bit out of control, like I’m getting stressed, or burning the candle at both ends, I remind myself my intention is my health and making the right choices for me and my family, and I look at how I can bring that into the moment, whether that’s a meditation, an early night, a stop in the middle of the day to go outside and get some fresh air, whatever that may be, I will lean towards it. Each year, I pick a new feeling. In 2024, I picked confidence and really worked on myself and my self-worth. In 2025, I picked peace. I think focusing on a feeling is a really good way to create new habits for yourself.
So, what new habits have come from setting intentions?
In 2017, when I was told there was cancer in my body, I felt completely and utterly helpless, and I felt the only thing I could do for myself to get ready for my surgery was to get hydrated. So I drank water every single day for a couple of months, I built myself up, and when drinking water became a habit, when I drank without thinking about it, then I moved on to food, introducing the colours of the rainbow onto my plate and then when that became more natural to me, then I moved on to exercise. So, I really think it is one thing at a time. I think that is the only way to create overall change, tiny steps, little habits.
You speak with such clarity and flow, and we know this is your business, your area of expertise now, but where does all this knowledge come from? From the people you interview on the podcasts? From the books you read?
I think it comes from being curious. I remember finishing journalism college back in my early 20s and walking out of the last lecture. I said, I’ll never learn anything again, because all I wanted to do was get into the workplace and work because I was a real workhorse. I look back now on that person, and I can look back with real compassion. I understand that I didn’t know much about the world, but we should never stop being curious. I think I am always learning, always open, and I think I am very interested in other people and the way they operate and live their lives. And because of the podcast, I’ve had the honour of speaking to all the greats like Mel Robbins and Wim Hoff, and I guess I am just in a curious mindset and a curious part of my life, where every day I am learning something new.
2025 was a good year, wasn’t it? For you, for Jamie, for Pia, for Tahlie and for The Good Glow?
It was, and I say it to my family, to my mum, and my brothers and my step-dad every single day, these are the good ole days. And I know that so many people might be in a difficult chapter, and we’ve had our difficult chapter, and I know there will be more to come, so when the days are good, I really, really appreciate them. I really live in such a place of gratitude for every single day. I feel very
lucky to be alive.
Do you think the gratitude has given you freedom and brought you peace?
I think it’s given me patience more than anything else. Patience with my kids, patience with my husband, patience with the people I love. Also, the ability to hunker down in the present moment, which I could never access before because I was always so caught up in my head, and I think what I’ve learnt in the last few years is to get out of my head and into my body and soul. And listen, I’m not waking up every day skipping around my house at all, but I do value what is important. Like over Christmas I was looking at all the ads saying, ‘this is what you need for Black Friday, this is what you need for Christmas’, but what was coming up for me was what I need is a blue sky, what I need is fresh air, what I need is the people I love, just coming back to those things, because we can just get caught up in the bullshit.
You wrapped up 2025 with your big show at The National Concert Hall – we met you a couple of days afterwards, and you and Jamie were still wiped. It must be exhausting putting on shows like that and working together at such an intense level?
It definitely is. Jamie and I work really well in a crisis, and because we’re running a small business together, every day can feel like a crisis! But we love it! [Thinking] I remember one day hearing somebody say, your purpose in life is the job you would do even if you had all the money in the world. I read that, and I looked up at Jamie and said, ‘Jamie, if you had all the money in the world, what would you do?’ And he said, ‘I’d take people on adventures around the world into mountains on runs’. And I looked at him and said, ‘Well, that’s your purpose, and you’re doing that, how lucky are we?’ People say to me all the time, you must be so tired you have the run club at the weekend and all of your trips, but they give us life.
Which reminds us of what performance coach Gerry Hussey says…
Yes! He says, sometimes we think we’re tired from too much of something, too much work, too much going on, but sometimes we can be tired from a lack, a lack of love, a lack of connection, a lack of joy. The Good Glow community and the run clubs supercharge our souls.
Talk to us about The Good Glow community, it’s quite a movement now.
So, we started in 2023 with 100 people in New York for the half-marathon, and by April this year, we will have brought 1,000 people overseas to run half marathons with us! We have four Good Glow trips this year, starting with the Alps this January, then we have New York in March, Lake Garda in April, and then we’ll go off to Rome to run the half marathon in October.
Gerry Hussey, your good pal, talks a lot about self-limiting beliefs, and you used to have a self-limiting belief in relation to running, didn’t you?
I absolutely thought I was not a runner. But then I ran the New York half-marathon with Jamie in 2022, and I got such a kick out of it, I thought I want other people to have this feeling too, I want other people who have counted themselves out of things to stand on this finish line with me.
What does running do to you?
I think it reminds me that I am well. It reminds me that my heart is beating, that I am strong, that I can change my mind about who I am. Every single run is hard, but at the end, I feel such a sense of achievement, it’s like meditation for me. I go out and sort out my day; it helps me with anxiety, it helps me with my mental health. Running has given me so much.
We’re reminded of the video clip you played during your show at The National Concert Hall. Can you tell us about that?
It was the 19th of October, and I was running the Rome half marathon, and the 19th of October eight years before was the day my cancer was removed, and there I was eight years later, healthy, well and running…and it’s things like that that remind you how lucky you are. We always say in The Good Glow, ‘we don’t have to do this, we get to do this’, and that is a real mind shifter for a lot of people.
How often do you run?
There are some weeks when I don’t run at all. I now have a running coach Simon Connaughton, who came on board on Team Good Glow, and he’s really good because I’m a bit all over the place and do not prioritise it, so to have an actual training plan is really the only way I can stay on track.
You don’t seem all over the place, but we take your word for it! We’re thinking now about The Good Glow episode you did when you interviewed Jamie, and on it you spoke about how different you both are, how he is all systems and processes and how you are the opposite!
We’re definitely yin and yang! The Good Glow wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Jamie because I’m easily distracted, I’m always thinking about the podcast, I get very bogged down in it, so he’s keeping the show on the road in all other parts of the business. The trips have taken off like something we could never have imagined, we pinch oursleves everyday that this has unfolded for us in the business and that people get so much out of it, but Jamie definitely gets frustrated with me, it’s very hard to pin me down for a meeting, I’ll be in the middle of a sentence and then I’ll be scrolling on my phone!
In that same podcast, both of you also spoke about your diagnoses, eight years ago for you Georgie and 13 years ago for Jamie. What do those numbers mean, or do they mean anything at all?
I think Jamie definitely would have certain times where he would start thinking about MS. There are so many new advances in terms of medication; he always has his ear to the ground about what his next move might be in terms of treatment. I think for me it sometimes feels like I was diagnosed with cancer five minutes ago, and I think what 2025 taught me is that I still have a lot of work to do. It still feels like it takes over every part of me at times, and I get so anxious and so afraid, and sometimes it is just like I can’t see the truth that I have been eight years cancer free. It’s very hard to describe and understand, but I think there will be a part of me that will always be a little bit heartbroken and a little bit scared. But when I had Tahlie, I remember just feeling such a huge sense of relief that Pia had a sister, she brought so much joy and happiness and comfort to our lives… [thinking]…it’s hard to describe, but all I can do each day is wake up and try my best to stay well and I do pray everyday for that.
We’re thinking now, Georgie, about the quote that storms make trees take deeper roots, especially as we watch, right now, this storm bending trees outside…
Storms do make trees take deeper roots. But also, I think we’re all brought into this world with a mission, and sometimes, it’s not until our 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, that we understand what that mission is. But I’m so glad I did find my purpose because it makes me feel very whole. Simon Sinek this incredible motivational speaker said, sometimes when people are going through a tough time they need to help others to help themselves get through it. They find it very hard to just keep accepting help, they actually want to empower themselves. I think that’s what got me through the cancer, literally shouting it from the rooftops and trying to help women understand the symptoms and signs of breast cancer. And then my kids – Pia unlocked so much in me in terms of self-worth, she really helped me believe in myself, and then Tahlie came along, and she just completed our world. I think they are the reason that my life is so different now.
They also brought so much joy to our photoshoot today!
They are joy! Pia is eight now, she’s our sensible queen, we call her our health and safety officer, my step-dad Joe actually bought her a high-vis safety jacket as one of her Christmas presents! She makes sure we’re all up on time, that everything is organised, she always knows where we parked our car, and she always knows what time it is! Sometimes it feels like Pia is our mother! And Tahlie is our wild woman, she’s our free spirit, always very mischievous, always up to something, and she never stops laughing. I was so worried about the age gap between them, but there are absolute soul sisters and always have each other’s backs.
They’re doing a little of baking in these cute photos today, because baking is something you’ve started to do with them too, isn’t it?
I interviewed chef Clodagh McKenna for her book launch and she said something that really made me stop and think. She said that she bakes bread every Saturday morning and that it has made her house a home. So I’ve started to do it with the girls on Saturdays and it has really added something to our weekends. Pia absolutely loves it, Tahlie gets involved. Clodagh is right doing these little rituals helps you hunker down in the present moment and remember what’s important.
You say Pia and Tahlie are like soul sisters which reminds us of the podcasts (Georgie has a podcast called Soul Sisters with her pal Claire Solan), and we know your podcast with Gerry Hussey is back this month, too. Fill us in.
Gerry and I are great friends; he unlocks so much in me in terms of growing and evolving. Our podcast Better Days is out right now with two episodes a week; The Good Glow is heading into its 19th season, and Soul Sisters with my friend Claire Solan is flying too.
This year, you also have some newness in terms of these Run To You retreats. Tell us about those.
I didn’t want to bring people on retreats and do the typical things you do on retreats like yoga because I think you’ll find it hard to find a runner who likes doing yoga so instead of that we decided to do running retreats so each day you go on a different type of run, in through forests, along coasts, helping people run back to themselves. I think typically we’ve thought of running as running away from something, but when I am running, I am actually running back to the core of who I really am. We really feel that these Run To You running retreats with a smaller number of people and a deeper connection, and with workshops where you can unlock even more of your potential, are the next big thing for The Good Glow.
Finally, tell us what’s on your vision board for 2026, Georgie?
Good people, good vibes….and the rest follows!
