Coach spotlight: Francesca Dal Bello

Sure, with pleasure. I’m Francesca, a three-year qualified life coach, gold-accredited by the Association for Coaching, who in 2017 swapped a successful corporate career spanning 22 years to explore outside of office walls in search of more purpose and freedom.

Hi Francesca! Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’ve since established Gr8fool! as my coaching practice to support others committed to positive change, reveal their uniqueness and gain clarity and confidence to set themselves free to go after their dreams.

The adventures that followed the transformation of 2017 helped me fall even more in love with life and become a big fan of anything related to positivity, gratitude and foolishness.

As a curious people-person who loves a challenge, I find it rewarding to take people along an adventurous journey of growth.

What led you to the coaching industry?

Gr8fool, as a name and brand, was originally created for fun to brand one of my “foolish” (and fund-raising) adventures in September 2017, when I faced several fears whilst embracing a new passion for riding my motorbike, a cute Harley Davidson 883N Iron, named HeiD. HeiD and I undertook an epic six-day solo ride from my home base in London to my birth town in Italy, Asolo (Treviso) - North of Venice. A 1500km-long transformational experience!

Earlier that year, I had signed up for a life coaching training course, initially for selfish reasons: to learn the tools to support my journey of discovery and personal development. The course was key to the success of that adventure across Europe.

It was later, during my Camino de Santiago in 2018 (a 930km pilgrimage walk to Santiago de Compostela and beyond) that, on reflection, I realised my desire to share the benefits of coaching with others. This direction supported a newly recovered life purpose: contribute to a happier world, helping people live more authentically, joyfully, and freely.

You mention that you support people with authenticity and living in alignment with their values. Can you explain why this is important? 

Authenticity is the power to live true to who we are and what is really important to us, aka “our values”. My mission is to help people make life and day-to-day choices that are aligned to those values, and the process starts with the identification of what these values actually are, as they vary from person to person and with time as we evolve. 

I believe that a lifestyle-values misalignment causes frustration and dissatisfaction, leading to further consequences. 

I chose the title Freedom Coach because my coaching process ultimately aims at releasing any and all layers that stop us from living as ourselves, free. Inside – out. 

To me, freedom is a combination of two things:

1. Having choices

2. Making conscious choices.

Living free means living with integrity and making deliberate choices that fulfil our unique desires and values.

What’s beautiful about my job as a coach is that I am continuously witnessing that at the core we all have similar needs and often they are: 1. to do those things we love, and 2. share these in a way that positively contributes to the lives of others.

Be selfishly selfless or be selflessly selfish.

What would you say is the first step someone should take if they're struggling with confidence?

It’s not easy to pick a step that suits all cases of struggles with confidence, as these can stem from a variety of individual reasons, beliefs and experiences. I love the coaching process because it allows clients, as the best experts in their lives, to identify that first step to best suit their situation.

We generally suffer from confidence deficiency in those areas that challenge us, where we don’t feel comfortable. To grow confident, we, therefore, need to prepare to get uncomfortable, feel scared and embrace potential defeat. So, I would check the level of commitment to embark on a challenge.

Personally, I fuel my confidence with three ingredients: curiosity, courage and vulnerability. Curiosity pushes me to explore beyond my comfort, where I can grow and learn something new; courage means to go ahead regardless of how fearful I feel. Vulnerability gives me permission to be human, including feeling emotions and making mistakes.

I would, therefore, encourage cultivating these ingredients by exploring opportunities that would expose them, no matter how small. 

What should someone expect from a coaching session with you?

I look to create an enjoyable experience with positive connection, powerful questions/tools and non-biased listening; all within a safe and fun space to work in, together. 

I use a spontaneous and holistic approach to raise self-belief and awareness, and guide the conversation towards recognising the starting point (A), identifying the ideal outcome (B), and filling the gap in between: e.g. your why, what needs to happen, what can support you and what may hold you back. 

I enjoy playing an active part in my client’s journey, sharing key session notes and relevant tools and resources to maintain the momentum.

A successful session is one that leaves you feeling expanded and inspired, through insights and commitment to take action.

What happens during a coaching session can be truly powerful, yet I aim to allow for the transformation to continue on afterwards and in between sessions. Boosting motivation to step up, take action and achieve sustainable change.

What is one thing you wish more people knew about coaching?

Good question! The simplicity of its process, as well as the benefits of trusting said process. I’m saying simple, not easy.

Coaching can bring value in all areas of life: personal, relationships, education, and at work.

Two years ago, I started delivering coaching at schools, as part of their co-curricular programmes, because I believe that educating with coaching can build strong foundations from a very early age. It can empower young people to raise self-awareness, believe in themselves and others more, and generally develop a more positive and healthy approach to life.