Kevin Stafford 0:00
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast I am your as you can probably tell already delighted host Kevin, because I’ve just got a chance to meet Graham snowfield, and I’m already kind of wanting to go to bed with him. Go like to Oregon, I’m going to go up and meet him in Vancouver BC. This gentleman is amazing, and I can’t wait to a get to know a little bit better and be sharing with you. So let me give you a tiny taste of Graham. Graham’s purpose is to be a constant and expanding example of what is achievable. I love that statement. Among his many endeavors and adventures, he is the founder of wild walks, remote wilderness coaching, and Sempra leadership certified coaching. As you’ll find, if you click over to LinkedIn or go down in the show notes he’s he’s up to a lot of stuff has been and probably always will be up to a lot of stuff. So Graham, thank you for making some time today, it is truly a pleasure to get to know you.
Graham Snowfield 0:52
They very much likewise, I’m excited to be here.
Kevin Stafford 0:55
Awesome. Well, let’s, let’s go back to the beginning, not the beginning, beginning because obviously we don’t have that kind of time. But your your origins as a superhero. How did you get your powers as a coach? How did you discover or find the right mentor or the right mentor found you? Who gave you the right words at the right moment to trigger that beginning of your coaching journey?
Graham Snowfield 1:16
It’s a great question. And it’s, it is interesting, because like many others, I hit a transition point, I would say in my life in my career, I’d been hard charging in the world of real estate development, real estate sales and marketing for about a decade, working with very large international developers and those based in Vancouver. But it just wasn’t that thing that was excited me the same way. Also, in my corporate career, I was typically the person that got hired because the company wanted change. And for the first six months, they really liked that idea. And then eventually, like wait, no, we don’t do it like that. Or that’s not how we do it here or we’re not ready for that. And you start bumping up against this friction. And so as I started to hit this friction transition points, very graciously, my dad actually asked me if I ever thought about working with a coach, if I wonder working with a coach, and he had a relationship professionally with a firm and so I met one of their coaches. And he and I had a great relationship. I worked with Bradley for the ROI group for I’m gonna say sort of like six to 12 months. In that range. It’s a really great work about figuring out what do what are my life’s design principles? What really fulfills me? What am I most excited about? How do I want to go and do that. And that shifted my trajectory really sort of put me more on the path of a lot more parts of development, taking a more of a coaching perspective to leadership. I transitioned my career a couple of times when of the sports sponsorship and marketing and worked with Western black home work with a competitor group which was purchased by Iron Man. So I’ve done some nice stuff in that space. And then I had another transition point or friction point in the most important relationship in my life with my with my now wife. And I had another coach who had shown up in my life sort of around the periphery. And, you know, I was I went for breakfast one day, and I asked him a question. I said, Here’s my four or five things I need to work through. And he responded by saying, What do you realize it’s actually one, two and three? Oh, crap. Yes. And he asked me some really great questions. And that was all the time I could learn the power of asking really powerful questions. And so, Bill, and I think we had that conversation now nine or 10 years ago. We have now spoken every Friday morning, for that entire time period. A few years ago, about five years ago, I transitioned from working and I worked for the largest fitness company in Western Canada. The founders were the same as sort of 24 hour and crunch and UFC gyms, some of the bigger US brands, both on the east and west coast, the US. So I was running their sales and marketing in Canada. And then I transitioned to working for our financial services company. I think, as you mentioned earlier, if you look at my LinkedIn, it’s like how do these threads weave? The thread is leadership. But it was also interesting as I transitioned to work for the financial services company, insurance brokerage, it was really an opportunity for me to come in and lead as a coach inside an organization operate as a coach. I was doing stuff outside of it on my own. But I came in I just really had the opportunity I became a certified High Performance Coach. Through Brendon Burchard. I’ve now six or seven times certified through his group. Yeah. And so that sort of led me to I saw the power of my benefit and experiencing growth with coaches, I saw the positive impact that it had on all of the relationships in my life. Yep. And I just went like this is I’ve always also had lots of coaches in the athletic space. And so I really just sort of went, I was like, this is, this is what I want to do. And that’s when I really started figure out my purpose while being that class explaining example of what is achievable. And I really love helping people figure it out for themselves. And it’s interesting, because we talk about things like paydays. And the emotional payday is always so much greater than the Yes, I appreciate the one that helps pay my mortgage. Yes, but it doesn’t bring that was like positive tears in my eyes, the same way that seeing somebody have a breakthrough does
Kevin Stafford 6:00
being on either side of an investment like that, and an investment paying off whether you were invested in and or invested in yourself, and you put the time and you put the effort and you put the resources in and then having that basically flourish. Like it’s like, it’s like watching a flower bloom or the sun come up. And I know that sounds kind of romantic and poetic. But I really genuinely feel that way. And I think, I think that’s what you’re describing is that there’s there’s really nothing quite like that payday. And it’s really like, it’s obviously you’re in the business to make money. That’s, you know, it’s kind of the way that things work. But it’s also what really keeps you in it. And what really like gets you out of bed in the morning and really drives you forward. Is that, that buy in literal and figurative that you get from your clients, and then you get to work with them towards and I love that you identified this because it comes up all the time, that that discovery of better questions. Just like, Yeah, I had five, you know, actually, it’s three. And then as you keep going, you keep like you’re looking to cut, you’re refining, you’re sharpening iron sharpening iron is that kind of stuff goes. And there’s just there’s really nothing quite like it. And I know that’s an easy thing to say. But I think that’s why so many, in my opinion, great people are drawn to coaching because there’s really nothing quite like not just that you’re being helpful, but the way in which you’re helping someone discover for themselves, how they’re going to become their best self, the version of themselves that they want to be. And you get to be a part of that journey without it being your journey. And that’s just, quite frankly, I’m in love with the whole thing. Obviously, a lot of coaches are too, there really is a spark of romance to what we get to do and how we get to participate in the in the lives and the growth of others.
Graham Snowfield 7:35
No, you’re dead on it. It’s even interesting, because I was we were talking before the show began about the Tim Ferriss podcast like that. And I was sharing about, you know, listen to the interview with with Andrew Superman. And I was listening that episode and I just came out of a group coaching session that I do with he’s in tech sales team inside organization. And a lot of us know the question of what would you do if you knew you could not fail? Or what would you attempt if you could not fail? And in this episode with 10, men and human, they flipped the question at one point and flips the question about if you had five projects in front of you, which one would you still do? Knowing that you would fail? What would you glean from the process? What would you learn? What relationships would you have to build? And it was really interesting, because in this conversation, there’s five or six people in this small group coaching the sales team, we’re literally over the next six weeks, we’re literally going to work through each one of them a major prospect and major business opportunity that they have pay. So what would you learn? What would be worth, which prospect would be worth trying to win because of the overall benefit that you would experience the relationships you would build what you would learn the skills you would develop? Who else you would share that information with? And it’s it really is this waterfall moment for a lot of people and it’s and it’s fairly exciting as people start to sort of figure Okay, yeah, here’s what I need to do, or they start seeing these light bulbs go off.
Kevin Stafford 9:05
And I were getting very meta here because I also listen to this episode. And I remember that exact moment where they flip that question is what would you do if you knew you would fail? And I was excited about it for weeks after I first listened to it. So I was just like, that’s exactly what coaching really is. It’s like all you did was really moved from words around in an already well known question, you shifted the perspective relatively slightly, and opened up a whole new avenue a boulevard of opportunity to explore what really matters about what we’re doing what really matters to me, what matters to the organization, what’s gonna matter to the people that we serve, and really interrogating that from a perspective that it’s it’s counterintuitive at first and then once you start it, you’re like why didn’t I do this years ago?
Graham Snowfield 9:48
And it’s interesting because it is that premise of helping people get a different perspective. That is sort of the impetus for In my bike sharing, you know, I’ve created this program called Wild walks, remote wilderness coaching. So I’m gonna, I’m gonna grab that segway. And I’ve spent a lot of time in the back country, I’ve done a lot of my athletics, I’ve been Ultra distance endurance athlete, I’ve done 250 Kilometer self supported races, so she’s got Imperial measurement listeners, I think that’s sort of like 185 miles, over five or six days, you carry all your stuff on your back. But just this for the past decade, at a bare minimum, I have spent 10 consecutive days in nature without access to a cellphone signal. And so I know the benefit that my body gets from recharge that for my mind that gets recharged from from doing that. And when COVID hit, a lot of people started spending more time in the outdoors, especially in the Pacific Northwest, as you would know. And so a lot of the places that were sort of these undiscovered gems starting to get discovered. And so I started looking a little bit further I started going okay, what is what is different? What is newer? How can I create these types of experiences for people. And the very simple pitch for people is, we drive until the road ends, we fly until land ends. And then we get picked up in five days. And it’s interesting, we do some different environments. One of the things that’s very interesting to do for people is usually on day two, we’re in some very picturesque and beautiful, rugged wilderness, or some alpine lake. And sitting above a waterfall, nice get everybody, okay, everyone needs to sit 30 yards, 50 meters apart. And you don’t get your phone, because you don’t have access cell phone signal, y’all get your journal, and you’re gonna sit here for 60 and 90 minutes.
Kevin Stafford 12:04
I love it. Oh, I love it. I love it. And you know what that you say that. And it sounds simultaneously, like the easiest thing in the world is sit there and don’t do anything. And also the hardest thing, which is why it’s so valuable, I think,
Graham Snowfield 12:19
well, that and that’s the whole thing is that this premise, let’s get people away from the distractions, so that they can actually really start to figure out what matters most. At the same time, give themselves their own time to build perspective to think through things that are really important to them, to figure out what is if it’s in their business, if it’s in a relationship, it’s just a project, they’re trying to work on that opportunity to really have them sit in that space, they can’t be distracted, they have to think about it. while also being in nature. I’m sure many of your listeners know the huge benefit to being in nature. So I won’t go into that necessarily today. But if you don’t, all I’ll say is three days that you need three days to get a out to get better than a 20% improvement. And then in stress, anxiety and PTSD. It’s literally called the 3d effects. If you want to google it, there’s studies around it. It’s amazing.
Kevin Stafford 13:13
And that sounds conservative to me in my my personal experience, which I’m of course biased because I love the outdoors and have derived so much, so much both energy and peace. You know, it’s kind of it’s kind of it’s one of those things where I like I like how often I ended up speaking in borderline paradoxes when talking about some of the effects of just intelligent and curated coaching experiences like what you’re putting what you put together here. There’s there’s something both relaxing and motivating, like enervating and also stilling about it. And again, I As you probably noticed already, I tend to wax romantic and poetical when it comes to these kinds of things. That’s because I find it is the best way to access the real. I mean, again, this sounds trite, but the real life changing experience you could have even in you know, three to five days, like it’s just it’s amazing. And if people will just like say yes to it and let that like let’s crack the door open. It’s like it’s a shot and see what happens. I mean, it speaks for itself, but I love having you speak for it as well.
Graham Snowfield 14:13
Noticed that that trip was one of the destinations that I really love is you land on an old logging dock and you end up on a you know, a Forest Service road that is still somewhat maintained on the on the west coast of British Columbia. Within about 100 meters, you are seeing animal prints of wolves and bears. Now we land at the middle of day on purpose because it’s the only part of that route that is inland. The rest is on the coast on the beaches on rock so you’re safe, but very quickly. The guest or the client is immediately aware that they are somewhere different and very with a very safe environment. We control it they get it is very safe. We take proper precautions, however at the same time, it’s it’s very, it’s very different than the physical challenge on it. Someone asked me a couple of years ago, what is the total elevation gain? On one of these trips, it’s about, like, I think it’s 47 meters. Oh, geez. Ever Yeah. So it’s not very much. And that’s like, that’s over five days, because you’re on what I remember, what are my people were doing this at sea level on the coast. So we’re not going up a ton of elevation. Because I don’t want to do it this is I don’t want to create a experience that is only for people that are in amazing physical condition, it’s essentially walk eight kilometers in two hours, you could do this.
Kevin Stafford 15:52
very achievable. And I really do, I could talk about this for hours, just this this one little narrow aspect of it. But I really do appreciate how and again, it’s because you’ve curated the experience, which is something I keep coming back to it’s very, very careful, your your pre coaching your pre guiding just by the way you construct the experience, but I love that you don’t, you not only want to remove that barrier for entry, like you don’t have to be you don’t have to be able to run like a five and a half minute mile or you know, go 1500 feet on an elevation change in a day. But it also removes the temptation to turn it into some sort of physical challenge, like another achievement unlocked, because that’s not really that’s not what you’re there to do. It’s something different. And that difference, that sense of difference is what you’re inviting in. And it’s what it’s what you’re hoping that people will experience from the jump because the moment they experience that, and I love that you describe the experience where it’s like, hey, well tracks bear tracks. Hmm. Not people tracks. And that’s, and that’s where the change journey begins. Right there, right from the jump and it opens them up. And then you guide them through. I just, there’s so many things I love about the way you curated that like I said, I could I could dig into it for hours. But I want to ask you, I mean, obviously, like you said, is one of the one of the physical requirements is be able to walk, you know, you know, at, you know, six to 10 kilometers a day, you know, relatively leisurely pace, in a relatively flat environment. What, what other aspects? Do your clients have? Like, it’s like, Who is this really? Who is this for? Primarily, I’m sure you get all kinds of people interested in doing something like this. But who is it at least the at least right now, primarily, that you’re serving with this particular aspect of your coaching and I again, I’m gonna have to have you back on to talk about everything else you’re up to. But that’s, that’s a problem for a different day.
Graham Snowfield 17:36
No. And so it is very interesting. There’s, there’s a couple of interesting demographics. There’s some of it as a younger demographic, like some of Gen Zed is, is very interested in it. It because it’s so different from anything else that they’ve done, you do have the VP, or C suite type person who has achieved something in their career, but they haven’t really taken on this sort of challenge, you’ll also just sort of find people that are generally approaching a transition point, or think they’re a transition point. I think that’s interesting. When they think through the transition point. There’s usually I keep these groups small, like five people. Nice, very good. Plus a videographer plus volunteer to help out. But I find that people that are they think they’re coming in for, they think they’re at a transition point. They’re the ones that have really interesting perspectives, and experiences, because they’re going wait, how I was holding that very similar experience that I had, when the coach said, you realize your problem is actually this, this and this. They’re like, Oh, crap, I was trying to make a decision about something that wasn’t actually me, addressing the thing that I want to address, it was I’m gonna, I’m gonna break up with this person, because I’m unfulfilled in my career. Right, but they’re hiding behind, or I’m going to change my job. But really, I need to go and have a very important conversation with my spouse, or just something like that, where these people are sort of hitting this transition point. And it really requires them to pause. And they go Wait, what is the real challenge because usually what will happen if someone on that on day two, they will have come to a conclusion about what action they’re going to take, but they can’t take it for three more days. So by day three, so by day five, I’ve had three days to think about this. They will usually come to me and say, Hey, do you have a few minutes, we can chat. Here’s what I’m thinking. And they walked me through their entire thought process because they’re spending a lot of time just thinking and process and shifting your perspective in the career, and so it’s it is really exciting to see people have that experience and there’s also by putting P Bonus environment and having it be somewhat of a physical challenge. All most of these people turn they’re going like I’ve never done something that’s like this before, I didn’t realize I could do something like this. Nice, which is very empowering for them. Yeah. And then coaching them through the coach them through the reentry is also important.
Kevin Stafford 20:20
So, man, there’s, honestly, we could do an episode on each individual aspect of just this coaching experience. I love this stuff. And one thing in particular, and I’m gonna wrap this up here real quick, because we’re running out of time, and I’m just, I’m planning out our next half dozen episodes over the next like, year and a half. This is just so you know, but um, or if I love that, the decision Arriving at a decision and then sitting with it, that’s something that we typically I say we use, like, I’m using the royal we human beings in the modern day, I think you’re kind of terrible at once that decision is made me feel like then action must immediately occur right after that, like the decision was the was the end of the friction. It’s like, you know what, and I love that one of the one of the benefits, one of the many benefits of this of this coaching program that I’ve seen, wild walks, remote wilderness coaching, I’m gonna say one more time, one of the benefits of just having to sit there with a decision and not be able to act on it. And what moves into that space, what changes about the questions, you’re asking yourself, what angles do you look at that decision from that you wouldn’t have, if you had just gone from from zero to 60, in point three seconds with that decision. I I’m very, very taken with that. Because that’s something that I try to practice myself in my day to day life. But it’s challenging, because my day to day life, wants decision, action, decision, action, decision, action, keep moving forward, lots of noise, lots to do lots to get done. And having something that is structured and curated, to do lots for you. But in particular, let you sit, invite you demand that you sit with a decision about something you think is very important. For a few beats, whatever, if you beats me for a few moments, a few days, what comes out of that I’m just honestly anybody who’s listening to this, work on this practice in your daily life, do something like wild walks so that you can experience what this is like when you just sit with a decision for a little while. Lovely, lovely, lovely. So I should let you talk. I’m like, I’m doing a terrible job of interviewing you, because I’m so excited by what you’re doing. No, I
Graham Snowfield 22:28
think and I would say even just as a, an entry point. For people at this, there’s, there’s a book called The comfort crisis, written by a gentleman named Michael Easter. And he’s got great data in there too. But really, if you are, I’m not quite ready to go and be in the wilderness for five days, with these crazy people. Three walks a week, with just over of just over 20 minutes with some sort of nature around you. So that can even be trees, you know, that are on a boulevard like that sort of counselor if you can get into a park a little bit. And even in an urban environment for without touching your phone for 20 minutes and six seconds, has a tremendous impact. So even just starting there, I promise you those first 21st time you do this, those 20 minutes will be really uncomfortable. You’ll probably check your watch. And that’s thing if you I don’t wear a watch, so I can’t check my phone. So I have to just the first time I did this, I was like let me just see how far I go. And I put a little alarm on my phone. I was like I can’t touch it. But I found myself wanting. Okay, this is interesting. So yeah, just a great place to start is just 20 minutes out in a walk without touching your phone.
Kevin Stafford 23:56
very revealing how you how you react, where you’re where you’re not just where your mind goes, but what your body does. How often do you pack your pocket? It’s just It’s again, and that’s one of those. It’s basically a very good question to ask, Does this so this practice functions as a good coaching question. Because what comes out of that? What new, more interesting questions come out of that good question right there. And that’s, that’s, that’s a great place to start thinking, Okay, I gotta get you out of here. This is a fantastic two part question to close things up here. We already kind of talked about a little bit where can people go to find out more about you, who you are, what you do, why you do it stuff like this. Obviously, your LinkedIn profile is a good place to go. I’m sure you have a website we can direct people to and if it’s different, where can people best reach out to you contact you to either you know, talk about wild walks or talk about any of the coaching initiatives you have or just say you’re really cool, dude, I’d love to get to know you better. Like how can people connect with you if they’re looking for that to
Graham Snowfield 24:55
know I appreciate that. So say yes on on LinkedIn. It’s Graham Snow. wellfield Yes, I’m on the other social channels, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, I do have threads haven’t started yet. That’s coming up. Also gram, gram snowfields.com as well, for another day that we can talk about this, you might find me somewhere under grams, Snowden s n o w DN. When my daughter was born, my wife and I blended our last names to create snowfields. Awesome. So that can also be interesting conversation for some people who are interested in that. Yeah, if you see Graham Snowden it’s also grim. snowfields.
Kevin Stafford 25:32
Excellent. All right. Well, yeah, I’ll put links to all the stuff we talked about and everywhere in the shownotes. This has I said at the beginning, basically, like future casting, that this was going to be a delightful conversation. I was wrong. It was some word above delightful. Full of delight, however, I gotta say, this has been great. Thank you for spending some time with me today.
Unknown Speaker 25:53
I really appreciate it. Yeah, I’m
Kevin Stafford 25:55
really not kidding. I wanted like the next available opportunity on chat with you again, just to explore. Honestly, any of the things we touched on could be hour long conversations, which again, is exactly how good coaching feels. In case you’re curious about what it might be like to work with Graham, you got a little tiny taste of it here and this little 30 minute episode, and you’re probably gonna want more. So do yourself a favor. And now I’m talking to the audience. reach out, connect with Graham find a way to get into his life, get into his orbit, learn about what he’s doing. If you get a chance to talk to him. Trust me. It’s great. So do that. And yeah, you have anything you want to add before I before I cut you out of here. I feel like we’ve we’ve covered so much.
Graham Snowfield 26:33
No, honestly, this was I really appreciate being here. I really love the conversation. I know when people hear that and others, you know, like this, this person really that that thankful, and that, you know, full of gratitude like it honestly, yes, this was a lot of fun for me. And this is we were talking about emotional paydays. And certainly this is just this energy. It’s, it’s, I know, the rest of my day is going to be better. And I’m going to show up with greater presence for the people in my life. As a result of this. Thank you very, very much for having me.
Kevin Stafford 27:01
Same thing, Sandy, I’m at a standing desk and it’s been it’s been everything I could do to not be bouncing on the balls of my feet. I’m like, what I’m watching my head bounce around the screen like a screensaver. And I’m like, okay, Kevin, reel it in. It’s okay. You’ve had too much coffee. Graham, thank you one more time. And I echo your sentiments the same. This has been fantastic. And again to the audience, you know what to do. I hope this has lifted your day just as tiny fraction as much as it’s lifted ours. And hey, we will talk to you again here on this feed very, very soon. So thank you
