#96: Rebecca Norton – How Coaching Walks Can Guide Us To New Pathways Through Life

03/27/25 • 131 min

The Coach's Journey - build a coaching business with integrity

How do our surroundings affect our ability to think? And can we connect with our sense of place and purpose by immersing ourselves in nature?

In this episode of the Coach’s Journey Podcast, walking coach Rebecca Norton brings her combined expertise in coaching and mountain leadership to bear on these questions and many more, in conversation with host Alex Swallow.

Rebecca and Alex explore the lasting impact that access to the natural world has on our lives, from infancy through to adulthood, and how the coaching walks that Rebecca offers her clients help them to navigate new pathways – both in the physical environment and their internal worlds.

Rebecca, who delivers workshop facilitation and social prescribing alongside her coaching and “wonder walks”, describes how she carefully built up her coaching business while continually developing her skills and experience as an outdoor activities instructor.

She links the idea of being a tourist in your own city and developing curiosity about new perspectives with the importance of getting alongside coaching clients and seeing the world through their eyes.

The many twists, turns, ups and downs of Rebecca’s adventures in the hills act as a powerful metaphor for journeys through the challenges of careers, relationships, families and life decisions. Just as her clients gain new perspective on their lives as they ascend into the hills with Rebecca, so do we as she reflects on her unique, brilliant approach to coaching conversations and many other aspects of her work.

In this episode, Rebecca and Alex also talk about:

The power of experiencing coaching techniques from both sides

How to integrate experiences as we train and gain qualifications

The barriers we place between ourselves and our own fulfillment

Seeing who we need to become in order to achieve our goals

How to lower the importance of gaining a client when building your coaching business

Rebecca also reminds us that personal development can be a grueling expedition, and that if we fail to interrogate our deeper purpose and connect the ‘why’ that guides us, we can be at risk of losing our way. She generously ends this episode with an array of tips to help coaches stay at their best.

THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT THAT YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:

The Coaching Academy https://www.the-coaching-academy.com/

Skill Force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkillForce

Wonder Walks https://senseofdirection.life/wonder-walk/

Peter Sage https://petersage.com/

The Life Coach Directory https://www.lifecoach-directory.org.uk/

The Self-Love Journal: https://senseofdirection.life/product/self-love-journal/

How do our surroundings affect our ability to think? And can we connect with our sense of place and purpose by immersing ourselves in nature?

In this episode, Rebecca and Alex also talk about:

The power of experiencing coaching techniques from both sides

How to integrate experiences as we train and gain qualifications

The barriers we place between ourselves and our own fulfillment

Seeing who we need to become in order to achieve our goals

How to lower the importance of gaining a client when building your coaching business

THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT THAT YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:

The Coaching Academy https://www.the-coaching-academy.com/

Skill Force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkillForce

Wonder Walks https://senseofdirection.life/wonder-walk/

Peter Sage https://petersage.com/

The Life Coach Directory https://www.lifecoach-directory.org.uk/

The Self-Love Journal: https://senseofdirection.life/product/self-love-journal/

Previous Episode

#95: Stephanie Hill from GiveDirectly - Empowering Through Trust: Coaching, Cash, and Lasting Impact

GiveDirectly is an extraordinary organisation, working to end extreme poverty through an idea that is simple but revolutionary: give cash directly to people in extreme poverty and let them decide what they need most. Research shows this approach is not only effective but also deeply empowering.

Since I (Robbie) first read about GiveDirectly in 2017, it has been the focus of almost all my charitable giving: I find the research-backed practices and incredibly meaningful recipient stories so compelling that almost every time I have thought in detail about the organisation and what they do, I have increased my regular giving.

In this special Podcasthon episode of The Coach’s Journey Podcast, Stephanie Hill, the VP, People at GiveDirectly, joins me to explore the connections between teaching, coaching, and leadership, and to outline the transformational work that GiveDirectly does.

From her days working to recruit and develop thousands of teachers in New York City to her role in helping a rapidly scaling global nonprofit build strong teams, Stephanie shares deep insights into learning, growth, and the power of trusting people to know what they need.

In this episode, we discuss, on GiveDirectly:

Why giving cash directly to the poorest people in the world works!

Common misconceptions about cash transfers as a form of philanthropy.

Amazing stories from GiveDirectly’s recipients.

The Power of Trust – why both great coaching and effective philanthropy start from the belief that people know what they need.

And on learning, coaching, culture and more:

The Gradual Release Model – how great teaching (and coaching) helps people build confidence and autonomy over time.

Lessons from Scaling – what it takes to grow an organization quickly while keeping core values intact.

Building a Culture of Learning – how GiveDirectly fosters ongoing development among its globally distributed team.

Leading with Values - how has GiveDirectly taken its company values and actually brought them to life.

Stephanie’s personal leadership journey – what she learned from recruiting and training 5,000 teachers a year and how those lessons apply to coaching, leadership and organizational growth today.

This episode is packed with wisdom for coaches, leaders, and anyone passionate about learning, development, and making a meaningful impact.

I can’t wait to share GiveDirectly’s amazing work with you, but it’s not just that this is an amazing charity that made me want to feature GiveDirectly on the show; it’s that it’s a charity whose work closely aligns with the philosophy of coaching.

At its heart, coaching is about trusting people, believing they have the answers within them, and supporting them to make the best choices for their own lives.

GiveDirectly operates on the same principle. Rather than imposing solutions, it hands people the resources to create their own change. For coaches who want to make a difference in the world beyond their work, I can’t think of a better organization to support: if you’ve never quite found a focus for your charitable giving that really resonates, or if you’ve ever wondered how you can contribute in a way that aligns with the values of coaching — courage, trust, empowerment, and belief in human potential — GiveDirectly could be a powerful answer.

If you have a few pounds or dollars to spare this month or every month, consider giving to GiveDirectly. They will send it to someone for whom those few pounds or dollars will go further than you can possibly imagine, as part of a story of courage, empowerment and trust in the beauty of human nature.

For more information about GiveDirectly, visit: https://www.givedirectly.org/ or https://www.linkedin.com/company/givedirectly

To donate to GiveDirectly, visit: https://www.givedirectly.org/donate/

For more information about Stephanie, visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-hill-1232028

For more information about Robbie Swale, visit https://www.robbieswale.com/.

Read more about The Coach's Journey at www.thecoachsjourney.com.

Music by My Good Man William:

Next Episode

#97: Yannick Jacob – Going Beyond Blueprints to Challenge the Status Quo of Coaching

Growing up with a father and brother who were “never wrong” left Yannick Jacob seeking a life that wasn’t about right answers. That led him to coaching, and more specifically to existential coaching, a space where humanity’s oldest and most profound questions – and the plethora of answers to them – can be explored at a deeper level.

Yannick is an existential life and leadership coach, a positive psychologist, and the programme director of the Accredited Certificate in Integrative Coaching (ACIC) at the School of Positive Transformation. In this episode of The Coach’s Journey, he shares what he learned about himself in order to hear his calling and live his truth as someone driven to explore the whole spectrum of what life has to offer.

Host Neil Mackinnon helps Yannick to illuminate the links between his many passions, such as existential philosphy and DJing, and to demonstrate how integrating his variety of interests enriches his all areas of his work.

Yannick also discusses his groundbreaking Coaching Lab, which offers the chance to witness highly experienced coaches live at work, and Rocket Supervision, which provides coaches with the support they need to practice at the top of their game.

This episode will resonate with anyone who wants to feel empowered to shake up traditional coaching paradigms and create a practice that feels authentic and energising, as Yannick brings his remarkable breadth of experience and expertise to bear on some of the most fundamental questions we face as coaches and as human beings.

In this episode, Yannick and Neil Mackinnon also talk about:

Courageous choices, and how embracing discomfort can help to build meaning

Enlarging your sphere of influence to enable people to connect with you

The power of being financially committed to something, and the benefits to your clients of raising your fees

When we should be brave enough to challenge the traditional frame and share more of ourselves with our clients

Yannick issues a rallying cry to everyone in the coaching space to frame their space, sculpt the approach that works for them, and lean into their passion for their own way of doing things.

THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT THAT YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN:

Rocket Supervision www.RocketSupervision.com

Coaching Lab www.GoCoachingLab.com

Yannick’s Nuggets (mailing list) https://gocoachinglab.com/nuggets

Dr Nash Popovich https://www.personalwellbeingcentre.org/nash-popovic

Martin Seligman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Seligman

RS Lazarus on the Positive Psychology movement https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232977091_Does_the_Positive_Psychology_Movement_Have_Legs

Soren Kierkegaard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaard

Jean-Paul Sartre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre

New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling https://nspc.org.uk/

Christopher Neubert https://human-edge.com/team/christian-neubert/

The Academy of Executive Coaching https://www.aoec.com/

An Introduction to Existential Coaching: How Philosophy Can Help Your Clients https://www.aoec.com/

Yannick’s book, An Introduction to Existential Coaching: How Philosophy Can Help Your Clients Live with Greater Awareness, Courage and Ownership https://www.amazon.co.uk/Introduction-Existential-Coaching-Philosophy-Awareness/dp/0367139995

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

Coaching Starter Kit https://rocketsupervision.com/coaching-starter-kit/

Erik de Haan http://www.erikdehaan.com/

Peter Hawkins https://thoughtleadership.org/staff-member/peter-hawkins/

Montessori https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montessori_education

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