Boyd Varty

Storyteller, Life Coach, Tracker, Wildlife and Literacy Activist

Topics: Storytelling, Personal Development, Adventurers, Education, Inspirational & Motivational, TED Speakers, Energy & Environment, Health & Well-Being, Leadership, Societal Issues

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Biography

Boyd Varty is a wilife and literary activist, as well as a tracker, life coach, storyteller, and the author of Cathedral of the Wild and The Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life. He earned a psychology degree from the University of South Africa and is a certified Master Life Coach, as well as a TED speaker. His speech on Nelson Mandela reached more than 1.7 million views.

Born and raised at Londolozi Game Reserve in the South African wilderness, in a family of conservationists, Boyd had an unusual upbringing. He lived in a place where man and nature strive for balance, where perils and wonders exist side-by-side.

Founded more than 90 years ago as a hunting ground, Londolozi was transformed into a nature reserve in 1973 by Boyd’s father and uncle, both visionaries of the restoration movement. Not only is the place a sanctuary for the animals, it is now a place where ravaged land can flourish and the human spirit can grow. It is a place that has grown legends like Nelson Mandela, who sought solace in Londolozi following 27 years of imprisonment.

Since childhood, Boyd has shared his home with lions, leopards, snakes, and elephants. He grew up speaking the local language and learning how humans and nature can naturally and beautifully coexist. He has spent the majority of his life in apprenticeship to the wisdom of nature and though he has survived a harrowing black mamba encounter, a debilitating bout with malaria, and a vicious crocodile attack, his biggest challenge has been overcoming a personal crisis of finding purpose.

As a university student, Boyd studied psychology and ecology, supplementing his education by learning martial arts in Thailand, hiking through the jungles of the Amazon, and apprenticing with a renowned tracker from the Shangaan tribe, ultimately deepening his relationship and knowledge of the natural world.

Like a tracker, he continues to follow unconventional paths. He has worked intensively over the past seven years in ceremonial spaces as an apprentice to a Peruvian shaman, while generating his own system of coaching called “Track Your Life,” which draws lessons from the ancient form of tracking to motivate individuals to uncover their purpose and building more meaningful lives.

Boyd has spent the last ten years refining the art of using the wilderness – and the tracking mindset – to create deep introspection and personal transformation in others. At the core of his work, Boyd is driven toward healing, wildness, and wholeness. He coaches individuals in both South Africa and the U.S. where he connects people to nature and to their own internal tracking system. His philosophy and story has been featured in The New York Times, NBC, and more.

Videos

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TRACK YOUR LIFE

Track Your Life is a storytelling presentation that will take you into the African wilderness with the best animal trackers in the world. Learn the process of tracking and then use the lessons of this ancient art form to begin to track the subtle signs that are guiding you to a life full of meaning, purpose and passion.

In this talk tracker, coach and storyteller Boyd Varty, who grew up in the African wilderness, will teach you how to find the “track” of your own vocation. You will journey into a new landscape, have encounters with creatures and discover an ancient process that will give you a new perspectives and tools to begin to track your right life. It will teach attendees to develop the “energy state” needed to be an effective leader, decision maker and creator. Tracking is an excellent modality for finding a new direction in your business and teams. It will take you into greater performance and into a more joyful medium.

Boyd Varty has a degree in psychology and ecology. He is a storyteller, an author and a life coach. Having spent his life in apprenticeship to the natural world, he now brings what he’s learned to a wider audience. Having grown up at the world renowned Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa, he was very young when local Shangaan trackers first taught him the ancient art of tracking. Boyd had discovered that the art of tracking is a powerful metaphor that will help organizations, teams and individuals think about adapting to change in modern life.

The talk will connect each individual with a set of tracker tools, and the power of the tracker within. Boyd brings you into a new awareness about how to find what you are looking for in your life right now.

Tracker Tools Takeaways:

- Use your body’s signals as a compass to navigate the uncertain terrain of your life.
- Establish your unique trail and boldly follow it.
- Decipher increasingly subtle signals from yourself and from the environment, allowing you to make faster and finer course corrections along the way.
- Move fluidly between extreme detail and a broad vision for yourself.
- Generate an energy state that is playful, focused, resilient and committed.
- The ability to read the landscape of your body
- To increase your awareness of and sensitivity to the subtlest shifts in the ever-changing, organic environment of business.
- The ability to move fluidly between extreme detail and a broad vision in order to execute rapid outputs.
- The ability to create what you want in the world.

UBUNTU - AFRICA'S GREATEST TEACHER

One of the most ancient lessons from Africa is Ubuntu: I am because of you. It is more relevant today than ever before. Boyd Varty will be using the traditional medium of African storytelling to introduce his audience to a deeper understanding of the philosophy of Ubuntu.

The talk leads you in discovering how people- and in fact the whole natural world- can help us to deepen our own humanity. Boyd’s talk shares stories of his time with Nelson Mandela, his experiences in the African bush with his friend and tracker Solly Mhlongo, as well as other encounters at the world renowned Londolozi Game Reserve.

Takeaways:

- Information on African philosophies
- A vision for a more collective society
- Tools for modern day village building
- How to create belonging in our societies and within our natural environment
- A greater relationship with our own humanity
- Fun, laughter and heartwarming tales
- The ability to generate an energy state that is focused, resilient and committed, yet also lighthearted and playful.

Testimonials

Boyd’s unique combination of wisdom, humor and spirituality makes him a captivating speaker. He keeps diverse audiences in rapt attention and gales of laughter and leaves them moved.

– Audience Member

Boyd truly speaks the language of the world’s wild places. He has a way of making you feel that you’re sitting at your campfire at dusk in the depths of Africa and the first lions are beginning to roar.

– Audience Member

There’s something that we have called “the Boyd effect”. When Boyd is talking, his audience is both completely captivated and jumping out of their seats to take action to build their village and reconnect with nature. His heart-centred, spiritual approach never fails to connect with people from all backgrounds, uniting them in their common humanity.

– Audience Member