Dec 31 2024 56 mins
Finding Nature wouldn’t exist without today’s guest. A man I’ve known for 25 years and has been a role model, coach and mentor to me through much of that. Richard Burton is the perfect person to be kicking off the new year. Why’s that? Being the new year, no matter how much we seek to avoid the platitudes of new year’s resolutions, I find it impossible not to experience moments and periods of reflection. Many of us have a bit of time and space from our usual routines, habits and obligations over this period, and for me that surfaces questions, aspirations, questions and ideas.
Richard is a career coach, a recovering corporate executive, father, husband and truly one of the greatest people I have had the privilege of knowing. In 2023, when I was at a low ebb personally he reached out to me in a way that very few could. He sheltered me from the storms of change occurring in my life and helped create a refuge where I could begin to feel grounded and supported. Later that year, as I began to steady myself I knew something needed to change for me professionally. Lost in my own career, I was reminded of the value of coaching. Listening to others talking about the importance and role of seeking and receiving help for our working lives, it hit me that I needed to revisit work I’d done with Richard over a decade ago in exploring my strengths, interests and motivations to help me become clear on what my purpose is.
Purpose I hear you say? That vague and awful exercise my workplace every now and again attempts to induce me to contemplate in 30 minutes of awkward group exercises. Or that hacky snake oil stuff just about everybody seems to be pushing with their hokey one liners and Instagram-esque quotes. What the hell is purpose? With Richard I was fortunate not to need convincing on the necessity of this work, its role in my life and why I needed professional help. So I went and got it and the gifts of help from a master of his craft was evident immediately. Relief and liberation in assessing where I was, where I’d come from, and able to begin to imagine what was possible. Not only was Finding Nature seeded in those coaching sessions, but my whole approach to how I turned up and engaged professionally was transformed.
The work with Richard was organised, evidence-backed and experiential, and it progressively helped me re-connect to my own sense of confidence and self assuredness that had deteriorated in the previous couple of years. That gift was priceless, and as Richard says in this chat, our careers can be re-framed as 50 year investments, or opportunities to get lost. I’m grateful I took the action when I did, and it’s changed my life.
Richard has worked with thousands and thousands of people. From helping teenagers think about what they might to be when they’re adults, to those experiencing redundancies, to Executives and whole teams.
I need to offer a warning and apology for some of the sound quality in this recording - a technical problem has infected my equipment which I’m confident will be fixed in the next couple of weeks with some tweaks and replacements, but I’m sorry if it inconveniences or affects the quality of your listening experience.
Richard changed my life in my late teens through our sporting connection, then again in my late 20s when I first received his career coaching support, and again 15 months ago. I hope you take from this some of what I have, and it helps to launch you into a glorious 2025.
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