adifferentway is a place for people who want to make the world a better place.
Social entrepreneurs, change-makers, people looking to do something different in their lives, people who want to grow their impact.
People looking for inspiration.
For community.
People who are bored.
Who feel stuck.
Who want to break free.
I created adifferentway to help you to do that.
To find your way.
It's a place where you matter, where you get the support you need and can support others, where you get your questions answered, where your goals are my goals.
Packed with practical insights, training resources and with events and workshops, I lead adifferentway based on my decades of experience starting, growing and thriving as a social entrepreneur at the forefront of complex change processes. And I know a thing or two about personal transitions.
adifferentway lifts you up, empowers and inspires you to travel your own journey in a way that supports your wellbeing and secures the positive change you want to bring in the world.
It helps you be essentially you.
A promise of personal transformation...
My insights, gained by supporting people and organisations through complex change processes, supporting social entrepreneurs, guiding people through personal transitions, and generally just sharing knowledge and experiences through rich storytelling show that we bring change, and create grand transformations for ourselves and others, and experience our best wellbeing, when we live in resonance with our values and are intentional about our self-care.
for all members, no matter their journey.
In adifferentway, my job is to pump up your tyres so you can go out in the world and be the best you can be - mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. Whether you're looking for your own change, you're a changemaker, a would-be or already up and running social entrepreneur or just someone who wants to be part of a community that supports you to travel your own journey of personal transformation, adifferentway exists to inspire you, and to help you to travel your own unique journey.
Frequently asked questions
If you've gotten this far, then the answer is probably "Yes". If you're burning to make the world a better place, if you're desperate to do more, you're ready. I created adifferentway to pump up people's tyres, to help them get out int he world and do the thing they know they want to do; to do is bigger, better, faster and with more impact. So many people are stuck or unhappy where they are. adifferentway exists to help you live your life, to travel your journey. To nail it.
adifferentway is a supportive, inspiring, learning, and action-oriented group.
There is a subscription to join which is CHF64/month or CHF640/year. There are reduced rates for special circumstances - some people from developing countries, students, people in other situations. You can email me at scott@adifferentway.life if you think you might be eligible for a reduced rate.
Why isn't it free? Community founders report time and time again that having a subscription helps people get more value from the community. By subscribing, members turn up fully and are more engaged; they've got skin in the game. My aim is for you to get the most value possible from adifferentway and not just be a passive, non-engaged member. A subscription helps you to do that.
When you join, you can engage with all members' and everyone's posts. You can share your own posts about your journey and ask questions to help you grapple with your unique challenges. You can share your experience to support others, participate in our weekly and monthly events and access curated Training Resources and participate in community-powered courses. There is a chat space - Under The Meeting Tree - and you can DM me and other members individually or in a group, any time.
No, no way. When you join, you’ll have a one-on-one 'Welcome' call with me where together, we will explore the intricacies of your why and your journey. Why did you join? Where are you on your journey? Together we’ll plan and explore how adifferentway can support you.
You will. I am very present.
I host Live events. These are weekly Office Hours where you can share where you’re at and hear how others are progressing on their journeys. You can DM me at any time and I'm regularly in one-on-one calls with members, to support them on their way. You can ask questions, post and I promise deep engagement where I will engage with everything you share. I also lead course events to explore the lessons I've shared in the Training Resources.
I also share posts about my work - past and present -my experience and reflections and you can comment, ask questions, share your own ideas.
You can post your own questions and ideas and you can Direct Message all other members.
I share the essence of my lifelong experience as a coach and mentor, as a social entrepreneur and change-maker in online course format available for every member. These are courses where we come together to talk through the material and dig deeper into how these insights and lessons can help members as they travel their own unique journey.
Yes! We'll have Guest Speakers in Live events who will share stories of their own journeys.
Yes, because adifferentway is an intimate space with many opportunities for small get-togethers. Members will have the opportunity to join Mastermind Groups or the Pro Tier if they want deeper, more focused support in a focused group.
All members have the opportunity for personal mentoring with me. If you want to go further and have more regular calls, we can discuss how to expand our time together.
Definitely! An essential element of adifferentway is to help you to manage your wellbeing.
In the foundational 'The Essence of a different way' course, I share the essential lesson I've learned travelling through complex, incredibly challenging, deeply stressful and gruelling change processes all the while grinding away to keep my social enterprise afloat, travelling the world to meet team members, clients and partners. That lesson is that when we're at our highest level of wellbeing - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually - we live our most full life and we have the greatest capacity to bring positive change in the world. But to get to that level and then stay there, you have to be super intentional about it. And that's where most of us fail.
In the course, I share my experience of living this 'different way' and how doing so helped me bring about unprecedented change and grand transformations in entire industry sectors, not just within one small part of one company. I also share how it helped me emerge from my own very severe, life-threatening burnout that came on me because my journey was deeply, deely stressful.
I am a certified Forest Therapy Guide and hosts in-forest and virtual Forest and Nature Therapy walks which are terrific for helping participants find calm and build their wellbeing amidst the inevitable chaos of their journeys.
I also invite members and others on Big Walks – small group (max 8 participants) multi-day walking events in Switzerland which provide an opportunity to destress and find a connection to self, other participants, and Nature. I also host multi-day mountain Retreats.
It is a lot and that’s why I'm excited to welcome you.
By joining adifferentway, you’re getting an opportunity to access this trove of resources, knowledge, experience and support developed over decades in the harsh fire of reality.
adifferentway is for people who are either already deep in it, who are out there striving and toiling with every sinew to bring change and positive impact in the world, who are looking to bring change in their own life or who just want to be part of such a group to help them travel their journey. Getting started can be the hardest part and adifferentway is here to help you do that.
You get access to all that experience, all that knowledge, all that wisdom of both what has worked and what hasn’t, of the essential lessons developed over decades of practice.
Yes! Apart from your Welcome call, you’ll have chances to interact with me in the weekly Office Hours calls and by posting questions in the Ask Me Anything space or just through DMs. You’ll find me presenting in the online courses and Live Streams. I post regularly as share my experience from both the past and the present, of the real-life challenges I've faced and am facing. There’s even a chance you’ll be get sick of me!
There’s always that risk, but we hope that when you dive in, you’ll experience an opening to possibilities and personal transformation that is so profound that we’ll be travelling together for the rest of our lives.
If you're not sure you'll like it, join using the monthly subscription. If you find it's not for you, you can cancel your subscription at any time. If you leave, you can always come back again later when it makes more sense for you.
adifferentway does have one important rule and that is that if you join but then don't stop by for 4 months, I'll message you to see if you want to continue. If not, I'll gently delete your membership because it's more important to me to have a small number of engaged members than a long list of members who never visit.
That said, if you do exit, I’d love to understand why because that’s how I’ll learn to tailor the experience to be more relevant for everyone.
If you do want to join adifferentway but you're a student or from a developing country, write to me at scott@aifferentway.life and together, we can discuss what might be possible.
"I have a promise for you. You will experience a profound personal transformation if you dive in with an open heart and mind. You will be inspired. You will bring change. You will have an impact and you will thrive. I will always be there for you. You are NOT a number. I will help you be the best you can be and I will always go above and beyond to help you on your journey."
—Scott Poynton
I joined adifferentway just a couple of months ago, but I have already enjoyed it so much! A diverse group of open-minded people all over the world willing to network and exchange. Plus the valuable courses led by Scott, helping everyone on the path to make ideas come true.
Thank you Scott, for starting it, thank you to all members for making it such a pleasant and interesting place to be!
The thing about solopreneurship is exactly that—it's incredibly solo. Add social solopreneurship to the picture and it can be a VERY lonely journey. But then along came adifferentway, and all that has changed for me! It is the magical coming together of extremely like-minded people, all joined in the single mission to help one another succeed in making the world a better place! Аnd help we do!
It is an honest, open, safe place where we can explore, question, learn, and grow as a group. It is a place to ask the questions you can't really ask anywhere else, a place to collaborate, to hear and learn new ideas and approaches… in short it is a beam of sunshine that creates an extraordinary amount of light.
Thank you to Scott for creating this tremendous place for us all!
adifferentway is a great place to meet people around the globe interested in contributing to a more sustainable and equitable world. New perspectives and insights are welcomed and encouraged!
I can't express enough how grateful I am for the overwhelming support I've received in adifferentway. It has become an invaluable professional tool for me to network, gain industry insights, and expand my knowledge base by connecting with like-minded individuals who share their experiences in their respective fields.
Unlike any other platform I've used, this community has a genuine spirit of support and collaboration, without the usual self-promotion and ego contests that can often dominate other professional networks such as LinkedIn.
Each post and story brings a smile to my face, making it a refreshing and positive influence in both my personal and business life.
I wholeheartedly recommend this community to anyone looking to thrive in the sustainability space. Joining this group has made a significant impact on my career, and I'm confident that it can do the same for others.
About Scott: Few people balance a passionate commitment to protect the planet and change human behaviour with the pragmatism and willingness to learn that Scott has. While others criticise from the outside, Scott talks, and more importantly listens, from the inside. He is steadfast in his belief that businesses are run by human beings, and that all human beings have values that drive their behaviour.
Tap into those, and you can transform conversations and actions. With his help and guidance, GAR was able to see a sustainability pathway that worked for the company as well as civil society. He opened up possibilities instead of shutting down options.
I would like to thank Scott Poynton for his empathy, listening and coaching skills and especially for his big heart. I think Scott reminded me of what the famous French writer and aviator Saint-Exupéry wrote in Le Petit Prince. "On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux" (We can only see well through the heart, the essential is invisible for the eyes)
I’m still enjoying the benefits from our last Person-to-Person session. It really helped me to heal, to protect but also to face difficult and tough situations. I thoroughly recommend the P2P program to anyone interested in bringing change to the world.
I have worked with Scott as a mentor and coach during some crucial phases in my career & life and found him to be the most wonderful support I could have wished for. Clearly, he brings an impressive experience and track record in the sustainability sector, having founded and led one of the best-known actors in the space. What makes the work with Scott really special, however, is his ability to listen and speak from his truly authentic self - and to create the space for you to do the same. He was able to create this deep connection during our very first conversation and it has been there since. I’m very grateful for all the support and inspiration along the way.
Scott helped me and my team initiate and navigate the difficult path to sustainability in the palm oil industry. I respect Scott for his genuine interest in sustainability. We came together to work but ended up as friends. I would recommend him to anyone who needs assistance in tackling environmental and sustainability issues.
Perhaps most impactful for me has been Scott’s deeply personal story telling and the space he has created for myself and my colleagues to begin to articulate and share our own stories. Our stories give us the strength to listen openly to others, to speak our truths, and – I hope – to plant the seeds for change. Scott has also spent time with me one on one as I navigate complex relationships with companies, offering invaluable advice based on his many years coaching and inspiring corporate executives.
a different way is full of great people striving to make the world a better place.
And it’s run by me, Scott Poynton.
I grew up in the bush of rural Australia, surrounded by farmland, forest and animals. I loved it. I had planned to be a vet until three days after my 15th birthday but then I listened to an ancient forester – Richard St Barbe Baker, the Man of the Trees - speak about his life striving to protect forests and I instantly knew that was my path too.
I set myself a lifetime goal to protect as much of what remains of the natural world and to heal what's been damaged.
It's been a long, beautiful, hugely rewarding, hugely challenging, many times stressful journey ever since, filled with so many joys and some despairing moments too. I started, grew, and transitioned out of my own social enterprise. I threw myself so completely into the work that it almost killed me.
I mediated massive disputes between some of the world’s largest companies and NGOs. I’ve worked in so many places, so often in dark rooms where big decisions are made. There’s been a lot of firsts and many millions of hectares of forests protected, and the human rights of millions of people improved. I’d like to think that old man would be happy.
Yet, there’s so much more to do. Our beautiful planet is in trouble, and us along with it. To continue making my contribution, I’ve started two new social enterprises. Both are growing and making their way, and with adifferentway community, I hope to support others travel, thrive, and survive their own journeys.
I love helping people. Seeing others find their path and travel it, helping thm to make their own impact in the world brings me much joy. One of the things I've learned is that we don’t change people, we can only change ourselves but through that, we inspire others to find their own path to change. My task is to help others travel their own journey. When they do, beautiful, grand transformations that benefit people and the planet unfold.
Together, we can create more of that.
