On this episode I share my interview with Bronwen Thornton, Chief Executive Officer of Walk21 an international charity dedicated to ensuring the right to walk...everybody does it, nobody thinks about it.
Bronwen and Jim (as you'll hear on this podcast) often smile when asked what it is they do. In short the answer is they promote walking. People want to work with Bronwen and Walk21 because they fundamentally believe in it and people pick up on her passion.
On work-life balance;
We (Jim and I) work from one list. We don't have separate lists for work and life. We work together and we work from home. We juggle it together. Sometimes you might work hard for a couple of weeks and then you have to re-balance that.
Where it all began
It sounds a little cheesy, but I can only tell it how it was. I had an epiphany.
I was in Australia, working in the transport sector and a friend of mine mentioned the Walk21 conference that was coming to Perth in 2001.
Bronwen was initially surprised that there was a conference about walking but through talking more about decided that she really wanted to go. So they went together. Sat in the conference for 2 days, Bron felt that she had finally found her path.
In her words, she'd always admired people who had a singular passion.
This was more than transport;
This was about who we are as people and the spaces and places that we build within which to be and live our every day lives.
Key decisions
Following on from Bron's epiphany she made 2 key decisions at that point;
That it was all about walking and she had to start working in walking
To move to the UK in order to make that happenNobody was doing anything about walking in Australia at the time and so Bron looked at where walking was already established and happening. People were working on projects and ideas about it in London.
It's worth noting that the UK was leading this arena at the time as well.
Walking is something you may have taken for granted
The thing about walking is that it is for all of us.
It's greatest strength is also it's greatest weakness.
It's greatest strength is that it's intensely inclusive and it's all of us.
It's greatest weakness is that everybody does it, nobody thinks about it.
Ultimately it's enabling people to be part of their communities.
Find out more
Finally if you would like to start a conversation with Bronwen, you can find her on;
Alternatively, find out more about Bronwen by reading the latest Ignite blog; Leading the walking movement
More details can be found about Walk21 on their website.
If you enjoyed this episode you can leave the show a rating and review on iTunes or the platform that you use to listen to podcasts.
