Community Highlights: Meet Lea Appleton of Wild Wayfinding

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lea Appleton.

Hi Lea, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
More than twenty years in higher education gave me a formation I couldn’t have planned and wouldn’t trade in how people find their way toward each other across genuine difference, and what it actually takes to build something together.

Another education was always happening alongside it, more tangible, more solitary, learned through the hands and the body. I am a musician, a gardener, a photographer, and an avid outdoor enthusiast. Each one is a practice that keeps teaching me something different, but underneath all of them is the same invitation: to stay curious, to wonder, to remain open. I’ve written about some of these ideas in Walking & Wayfinding: Create Your Own Mindful Practice, One Step at a Time, a #1 Amazon Bestseller in Walking and in my chapter, “Walking Towards Well-being,” in the anthology, Confident You—The Raw Conversations: Real Stories of Courage, Healing, and Redefining Confidence.

I hike with a zirconium hip and I blog about aging boldly outdoors at Hip Hiker. I believe the trail teaches things the desk can’t. And I built Wild Wayfinding for the person who is ready to find out what those things are and apply them in their own work and life.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been an interesting road, full of all the twists and turns that can make life fun and sometimes uncertain. I’ve worked in a couple of non-profits, in the outdoor industry, and local government, in addition to my two plus decades in higher education, so I’ve learned from lots of different kinds of people in many contexts. Probably my biggest obstacle was deciding where I eventually wanted to spend my work life since everything was so interesting. And I pivoted again over five years ago to running my own business full-time.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Wild Wayfinding is a coaching, consulting, and guided experiences practice based in Claremont, California. I work with late-career professionals, often people who have spent years carrying significant responsibility for others, who find themselves at a point where the map they’ve been following no longer fits the terrain. My practice offers a different kind of navigation. Through one-on-one coaching, cohort experiences, walking-based events, and writing, I help people learn to read their own longing or restlessness as a form of direction—and to take the next step, even before they can see the whole trail.

I’m known for bringing walking into the center of this practice, not as a metaphor but as a literal methodology. When the body moves, the mind slows. That shift creates conditions for a different kind of listening to oneself, to what’s next, to what’s been quietly asking for attention. I offer coaching with my own signature framework informed by walking, wayfinding, and appreciative inquiry. I provide workshops and guided experiences like Labyrinth Walks and Wayfinding Days—opportunities for quiet reflection for groups, teams, and for the general public. Find out more about the next public Wayfinding Days at www.wildwayfinding.com/wayfinding.

I hold credentials as an International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach, a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and an Erickson Solution-Focused Coach. I’m also a qualified mentor coaching provider through ICF. But the credential that shapes everything is the one I earned in a pair of hiking shoes on the Southern California coast where I created my own DIY Pilgrimage after my trip to walk the Camino de Santiago was cancelled during COVID-19. This one walk was the catalyst for all the walks that follow.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think the combination of an adventurous spirit along with stick-to-itiveness have led to my success. I courageously follow my heart and when I find something I love doing, I persevere with confidence that I have chosen the right path for me. I also am quick to laugh, enjoy play at least as much as work, and care deeply about people and our world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wildwayfinding.com/about
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildwayfinding/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lea-appleton/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wildwayfinding
• Other: https://www.hiphiker.com

Image Credits
Two photos of Lea Appleton with her computer outside by Haven Hunt.