A Facilitator's Journey: Real Life Stories

This episode is a story about discovering your passion for learning, working out how you can leave the organisation you work for, become a freelancer and work as an associate delivering workshops for others and then testing the idea of finding your own clients. Karen Sargent is an occupational psychologist who is passionate about helping leaders and employees create results and not burn out. Join...

This episode is about what it is like to be a facilitator who travels the world, who works and has lived in multiple countries, experienced the nonprofit and education sectors through to corporate organizations. Romy Alexandra is a learning experience designer and facilitator. She has been in the world of facilitation for over 19 years and has visited over 80 countries. Kirsty and Romy explore wha...

In this impromptu episode, I share an exciting announcement—SoFest, a festival for facilitators, trainers, and coaches, is happening Summer 2025. Join me as I dive into the story behind this bold idea, the challenges I'm facing, and my hopes for creating a vibrant space where our community can connect, learn, and grow in 'real life'. If you've ever dreamed of taking your facilitation skills out of...

This episode is about how we find our way into the world of facilitation and training, what it means to have a co-founder walk by your side, and how you build a brand people recognise. Marcus is a facilitator and co-founder of a facilitation and training business, based in Australia. He has been in the industry for over 23 years, has grown and sold one learning business, and is building another th...

This episode is about becoming a facilitator and trainer later in life, how your previous life experiences can set you up for success, and what you can do to find your first gig. Dani Blue is a facilitator, trainer, actor, model, musician, and swimming coach. A woman who has lived many lives, experienced a rollercoaster ride with a chronic health illness, started over multiple times, and is now ac...

Kirsty shares her personal journey from leaving the corporate world in 2008 to the establishment of School of Facilitation in 2014. This solo episode looks at personal and professional challenges, growth, and the birth of her business idea. It's a story of resilience, self-discovery, and the evolution of a successful venture (got to love AI for bigging you up!) In this episode I talk about what ha...

In this episode of the SOF Podcast, host Kirsty welcomes Mark Walsh, an embodiment teacher, and business entrepreneur, to discuss his fascinating journey from running a small business to a multimillion-pound business and back to a medium-sized business.. Mark shares his insights on the nature of connection and the lessons he learned from scaling his business. This conversation is packed with valua...

Join Kirsty and Kurt Lindley as they dive into the life of running a business as a facilitator, trainer, coach, and consultant. They chat about everything from juggling workloads and managing diaries to the ups and downs of cash flow. It’s a candid discussion about the importance of finding balance in both your professional and personal lives, packed with practical tips for building strong client...

This episode with Caroline Boyd is about being an Associate (Sub-contractor) in the training industry. The benefits, the challenges, the dynamics of the associate-training company relationship, the transition from corporate to freelance, and importantly the journey an associate goes through. The conversation is backed by Caroline's thesis she wrote for her Occupational Psychology Masters. Caroline...

To Niche or Not to Niche - That is the question! Many are told early on in their foray into freelancing that niching is a good idea. whilst logical it can still leave us scratching our heads about how to start, where to start, how to do it and maybe even asking if it is worth it. In this episode, Cat Hase and I talk about finding our niches and how to discover and refine your niche. We share the v...

In today's episode, Kirsty and Claire Vintiner discuss various aspects of freelancing, including valuing oneself and one's work, reframing budgets, setting boundaries, and having great client conversations. Claire Vintiner is a coach, a facilitator, and someone who isn't afraid to bring leaders and organisations together to play a transformative role in addressing people, planetary and systems cha...

In this conversation, Ged shares with me his journey of leaving the world of retail and starting his own business. We discuss the challenges he faced in his early years and how he managed to overcome them. Ged emphasizes the importance of accountability and external motivation in driving his success. He also talks about his strategies to expand his reach and find new opportunities. Ged's story hig...

James Gairdner started out in the corporate world in a variety of roles from commercial to marketing for a well known drinks brand and then diving into Banking in 2007 as that world started to collapse. He chose to leave corporate life to help a coach build their business and from there joined Heresy Consulting. In this episode two parts of the conversation with James jumped out at me. The first i...

This episode is about moving from working in-house to becoming a B:Corp business, how associate relationships benefit from transparency and communication and how niching is beneficial. Phil Walsh is a man with a big heart who works with purpose-led organisations as a facilitator. The conversation in todays podcast follows the natural curve of Phil's career. We cover a multitude of topics: How to g...

Kate Jones was a consultant with PA Consulting until she realised she needed to make a change and get out. For the last 11 years she has run Neon a boutique consultancy which aims to help leaders create more deeply human organisations. In this episode, Kate and I discuss why she chose to leave the corporate world and how she thought she had associate work lined up, but it was retracted. What to do...

This episode explores what negotiation is and how we can have better negotiation conversations. I noticed that sometimes selling and negotiation do not come easily to facilitators and trainers hence my desire to talk to Mark. I want to start to share what you can do when you find yourself in these situations. Mark Davis is known as the Cultural Navigator. He weaves negotiation and cultural intelli...

In this episode, Richard Bellars and Darren Hilton join us in a captivating exploration of partnership dynamics as they unveil the intricacies of their collaboration through The Sourcery Project. Let’s embark on a journey exploring the essence of fruitful partnerships, learning from the experiences and insights of these seasoned professionals.   Through candid convers...

This episode talks about the different relationships we have within our businesses - working with a sibling, our relationship with ourselves, leaving a business partnership that no longer works, and our relationship with goal setting and systems. Meg Bolger is a facilitator, author, and creator of The Facilitator Cards. Meg and I have a candid conversation about What it's like to work with your si...

This episode explores how the inner world of the business leader creates the shape and flow of the business they lead. Our values, beliefs, experiences, thoughts and emotions all lend themselves to the structure, behaviours and outputs of our business. Dr. Simon Kettleborough is the founding partner of Aephoria, an organisation that helps humans flourish. We speak about the four different brains w...

Where does the decision to leave the corporate world come from? How do you know when the time is right? And what are the first few steps you can take as you set up your business? Leanne Hughes is a consultant, facilitator, speaker, and enigmatic human-being. She hosts a brilliant podcast called First Time Facilitator which I highly recommend. In this episode, we talk about: How Leanne decided to q...

Mark and Mark started Total Negotiation as a lifestyle business that was meant to give them time to enjoy their golf, horses, and family. What happened in the last 15 years surpassed even their imaginations and today they have a global business, 30 employees and a 100 associates. In this episode, Mark Cranstoun, the CEO and co-founder, and I discuss how they grew the business from a lifestyle busi...

Dr Myriam Hadnes is a skilled and passionate facilitator. During the pandemic she wanted to create a space for facilitators and trainers to come together and learn from one another. What started as a collaboration between 30+ people in 2020 has now turned into a global community in 2023. In this episode we talk about: what collaboration means in business, how important it is to be clear about what...

How exactly did I, Kirsty Lewis, end up running a boutique training business? This solo episode shares how I accidentally came upon the idea to leave the corporate world. Setting up a business was never in my plans, but here we are 16 years on and School of Facilitation is thriving. So what happened on 7th April 2007 that changed the course of my life? Have a listen and let me know your story of o...

Scaling your business can be exciting and daunting, for you or not for you. Catherine and John Nicholson, founders of The Virtual Training Team, have gone from 2 - 15 people, and a 7 figure turnover in 8 years. They openly admit it started as a lifestyle business and then questions like "what could we create?" started to pop up as their curiosity grew. The episode title references a duck factory a...

Rob Geraghty is the owner of Presenting Virtually. A business that focuses on helping people design and deliver presentations brilliantly. Rob left Vodaphone in 2000 and started working as an associate. By 2000 he had decided to work with his own clients when he realised the financials were more favourable. In this conversation, Rob and I talk about our business finances, pricing, and what investm...