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It starts with people.
Organizations are made of people. And people learn best when they're engaged with their whole selves. That conviction shapes everything about how this consulting is designed and delivered.
Every engagement begins with your organization's actual terrain—your mission, your commitments, your people, your specific moment. The approach draws from Appreciative Inquiry, building from what's already strong in your culture before reaching toward what's next. No off-the-shelf curriculum. Each workshop, training, or speaking event is designed for your context.
I come to this from the outside. Not from a corporate background, but from twenty years building communities across difference in higher education, and from coaching hundreds of professionals who work inside organizations every day. That outside perspective is what makes this land differently. I don't arrive with a program. I arrive with a practice and I build with what's already there.
Wayfinding Experiences
Some learning happens best when people are moving. Wild Wayfinding's organizational experiences—labyrinth walks, guided walking sessions, and off-site reflection days—bring the body into the learning and create the kind of connection that a workshop alone rarely produces.
These experiences work as standalone team events, as additions to an existing offsite or retreat, or as opening or closing experiences for a conference day. Each one is designed for your group, your setting, and what you want people to leave with.
“Lea is an expert guide who began by encouraging us to define an issue for which we sought clarity. Lea provided a workbook which served as a valuable tool to help guide our thinking. Each activity promoted self-awareness and added a new layer of depth to the experience. At the end of the day, I found myself with a newfound sense of clarity.”
—Wayfinding Day Participant
Speaking
THE WAYFINDING SERIES
Four standalone talks. One coherent journey.
A Well-Worn Life: What Our Scars Know About Resilience
Every scar has a date. A story. A before and an after. This talk shares a chronology of scars not as a catalogue of suffering but as a map of a life fully lived. Not a resilience talk about bouncing back. Rather, something quieter and more real.
Best for: Women's associations, healthcare and wellness audiences, higher education, HR Available in 30, 45, and 60-minute formats
Disorientation: The Talk Nobody Gives at Midterms
Every campus has an orientation. Nobody programs for what comes next. This talk names the middle—too far from the beginning to feel hopeful, not close enough to the end to feel relief—and offers something more useful than reassurance: a real practice for finding your way through.
Best for: Higher education, student affairs, organizations in transition Available in 30, 45, and 60-minute formats
Something Comes from Something: A Wayfinding Approach to Flourishing
This talk makes a radical and deeply practical case: we always have something to create from. Every fragment carries a trace of what it was. The losses, the pivots, the worn-out seasons—these are not obstacles to a meaningful life. They are the material.
Best for: Corporate teams in transition, women's associations, higher education, wellness retreats Available in 30, 45, and 60-minute formats
You Are Here: Learning to Read the Signs Your Longing Is Sending
Most of us have felt it: a physiological restlessness, a philosophical ache, a something-more-than-feeling that surfaces and won't quite go away. This talk introduces the Taxonomy of Longing, an original idea for reading the body's interior signals as navigational tools rather than problems to be solved.
Best for: Conferences, corporate teams, women's associations, wellness retreats, higher education Available in 30, 45, and 60-minute formats
Interested in bringing a wayfinding talk to your event? hello@wildwayfinding.com
“Lea graced our stage and left us all in awe. She spoke with raw honesty, reminding us that ‘flourishing comes in choosing to make the best out of the moment.’ Her journey is a testament to resilience—not just surviving, but thriving with grace and intention. Lea's presence is powerful.”
—Ehmandeh R.
Workshops & Trainings
Every organization has its own terrain—its own culture, its own people, its own specific moment of change. Workshops and trainings with Wild Wayfinding begin there, with what's already strong in your organization, and build from what's present.
Each engagement is designed for your context—your mission, your commitments, your people. Past sessions have included building a personal resilience toolkit across four dimensions (connection, curiosity, confidence, and calm); mindful practice through the five senses and through artistic expression (breathing, poetry, journaling, movement, drawing, and music); and a workshop on glimmers and microbreaks that gives people a practical language for noticing what restores them at work. Each of these emerged from a specific organization's moment. Yours would too. No off-the-shelf curriculum. Formats range from 60-minute workshops to half and full-day training events, delivered in person or virtually.
“Lea's calming presence, thoughtful guidance, and intentional approach created such a grounding and meaningful experience for all of us. She reminded us of the power of slowing down, tuning in, and being present—not only in our work but in our everyday lives. The practices she shared will stay with us and continue to support our wellbeing moving forward.”
—The Wellness Team
Where Wild Wayfinding shows up:
Lea Appleton holds coaching contracts with BetterUp and Spring Health—platforms that serve Fortune 500 technology and financial services companies, defense and military organizations, healthcare systems, higher education institutions, and emerging technology startups across the United States and internationally.
Beyond those contracts, selected engagements include:
• Facilitator of an online wellness retreat for alumni/ae of Erickson Coaching International, on their Erickson+ platform
• Presenter and workshop facilitator on wellbeing at work for the online women's leadership network at global fintech company
• Presenter on building resilience at the African Coaching Summit based in Morocco
• Featured speaker for She Stories, Flourish Storytelling Event
• Guest lecturer in the course, “Current Issues in Career Education and Counseling,” at Cal State Northridge
• Three-time presenter and panelist at President Obama’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge in Washington, DC
• Keynote speaker at the UM Benefits Conference in San Diego on the topic of clergy wellness
• Presenter on community building and human connection at numerous national professional association conferences
Wild Wayfinding is the solo practice of Lea Appleton. I design and facilitate every engagement. When scope calls for it, I collaborate with trusted partners, and you'll know who they are. When you see "we" on this page, it means you and I working together. Based in Southern California, I'm available for in-person and virtual engagements and am willing to travel.