‘It's all forming, changing and rising as I find my roots with my husband and my lovely dog here in North Devon, in our new place’ - Aly King-Smith, 56-year-old wife, mum, friend, coach, founder of Clearworks and self-described sporty outdoor cat.

From a life-changing pilgrimage along Offa's Dyke to building a new home and business in North Devon, Aly reflects on how nature became more than a backdrop; to her guide. Her decision to leave the Midlands after twenty years was the answer to an inner yearning to return to the mountains, sea and herself.

Drawing on her background in physiotherapy, commercial leadership and more than a decade coaching senior leaders in STEM and biotech, she shares profound shifts she's witnessed in the business world. Today's leaders are no longer asking, "How do I achieve more?" but "Who am I becoming?" and "What legacy do I want to leave?"

We dive into why taking coaching outdoors transforms quality of thought, how movement helps ‘unstuckness’, and why reconnection with our own bodies can be the first step towards reconnection with the living world. Aly reveals her trust in intuition through subtle signals, patterns and inner "knowings" that emerge when we slow down and pay attention, then how she gently weaves these insights into her coaching practice.

The conversation touches on Aly's belief in reciprocity with nature and her commitment to building healthier communities through the recently founded North Devon Pickleball CIC, a not-for-profit initiative with a simple but ambitious vision: to get more people moving, connected and less lonely.

From pilgrimage, systems thinking, leadership, community and the more-than-human world, this conversation is an invitation to redefine success focused on productivity or performance, to a deeper belonging, relationship and a return to what matters most.

Bio

Aly King-Smith has been leading Clearworks since 2013, working with lead teams in the STEM sector. Drawing on two decades of creating businesses, scaling initiatives, and shaping teams, she works alongside leaders to launch & lead projects and teams, clarify vision, and build high-performing cultures.

Aly is a lifelong advocate for sports and the outdoors and started her career as a physiotherapist. She champions healthy, happy, high performance and rages against the burnout epidemic that grips so many leaders now.

Aly lives & works in North Devon. Now in her mid-fifties, she has a deep interest in the wisdom that we’ve forgotten as humans, the information in our bodies, communities and in nature. After feeling the massive benefit of a long trail walk two years ago, she now encourages leaders to include walks, especially long walks (or pilgrimages) into their work together. Connecting STEM leaders who live in their heads, back to their bodies and their intuition, is bringing a real shift at Clearworks.

Website: www.clearworkscoaching.co.uk

LinkedIn Profile

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘In Gaelic, it's called ‘duchas’. It's that connection to place and belonging and heritage and land. And I thought, wow, what a beautiful word, why have I not had that in my own language? There's this actual word to describe this sense of belonging to place’ - JK, Coach & Creator of The Burrow at Little Seed Farm

What does it mean to truly belong to a place, community and yourself? In our conversation, JK reflects on identity, heritage and the journey back to the wildness that lives within us all. From her Gaelic roots and the concept of dùthchas, a profound sense of place and belonging to her childhood spent feral, JK explores how our names, landscapes and life experiences shape who we become.

Together they discuss the pressures of high achievement, burnout amongst mental health leaders and the irony that those caring for others often neglect their own wellbeing and self-care. JK describes how rediscovering walking became a pathway back to joy, guiding her from a life driven by external validation to one rooted in curiosity, stewardship and trust in the more-than-human world.

The conversation explores coaching as an emergent practice, learning from landscapes rather than simply working inthem, and her creation of ‘The Burrow’ at Little Seed Field near Ripon which is a space for reflection, confidentiality and renewal. They also delve into grief, ritual, seasonality and our often-fractured Western relationship with endings, asking what nature can teach us about loss, regeneration and hope.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen deeply and remember that sometimes the simplest act of being present with the land is enough to begin coming home.

Bio:

Jennie-Kate (JK) McQuinn is the founder, coach and facilitator behind Where the Mind Grows, a nature-led coaching organisation helping individuals and teams reconnect with the wild and rediscover their true nature. She delivers trauma-informed, regenerative approaches from woodland in North Yorkshire and other wild spaces across the UK.

With a background in mental health and employability service leadership across the voluntary, private and public health sectors. JK found her own path back to nature, not simply by being in it, but by learning from it and designing life and work to belong as the natural world.

She launched her coaching venture in 2017, the same year she lost her father. Over time, she recognised that grief and loss were present in much of her work with people and teams.

Drawing on ecopsychology, nature reconnection and traditional coaching approaches, JK supports others to navigate life, work and adversity, including bereavement, change and the turbulence of life with compassion & courage. Just like the wild!

Website: www.wherethemindgrows.co.uk

Instagram

LinkedIn - Personal Profile

LinkedIn - Where the Mind Grows

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com

‘How can we overcome this polycrisis, if you like, the sort of disconnect with nature, the disconnect with each other, and the disconnect with self. How can coaching play a part in that?’ - Paul Rodwell, Regenerative Thinker & Coach

From the stunning Tramuntana Mountains of Mallorca, surrounded by Holm Oak and plum trees Paul Rodwell reflects on a life of service that has taken him from the luxury hotel industry in Chile’s Atacama Desert and Morocco’s Marrakech to the diplomatic world of the UK Civil Service and Foreign Office.

Throughout his life encounters with Indigenous communities, sacred rituals and powerful landscapes have sparked a profound shift in how he understands identity, place and our relationship with the natural world.

Together, Anna-Marie and Paul explore themes of colonialism, belonging, spirituality and regeneration, and discuss how awe, silence and connection to place have shaped Paul's coaching philosophy. They examine the discomfort and possibility of liminal spaces, the growing movement towards coaching for nature, and how regenerative thinking might transform the future of the profession.

The conversation also explores professional coaching standards, Paul's alignment with the International Coaching Federation, the evolving role of AI in coaching, and a provocative question for the profession:

Is coaching still fit for purpose in a world facing ecological, social and spiritual challenges?

Bio

Paul Rodwell is a coach, coaching mentor and outdoor facilitator exploring how deeper connection — with nature, with each other, and with ourselves — might help both people and planet heal and thrive. Born in Kent, England, and now also a Spanish national, his life has been shaped by deep roots, movement and a quiet spirit of exploration.

Over the last thirty years, he has lived and worked across Europe, North Africa and Latin America, first through hospitality and wilderness travel — including managing the explora lodge in Chile’s Atacama Desert and also Aman in Marrakech — and later through sixteen years as a diplomat with the UK Foreign Office. Encounters with remote landscapes, indigenous cultures and people from very different walks of life deepened his curiosity about simplicity, presence and what human beings need in order to feel connected and alive.

Now rooted in Mallorca’s Tramuntana mountains with his family, Paul’s work centres on nature-connected coaching, retreats, regenerative leadership and co-creating a foundation exploring how reconnecting people with place might help villages in Mallorca flourish once again.

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram @paul_rodwell_inspires

Resources

Laura Storm / Regenerators Academy - Regenerative Leadership Journey, a year-long journey

Presencing Institute / Otto Scharmer

u-school - courses such as Leading from the Emerging Future

Outdoor Facilitation course — Change in Nature

The Outdoor and Nature Coaches’ Handbook

Imagine If… by Sir Ken Robinson and Kate Robinson

Coaching Outdoors Podcast - Giles Hutchins

To find out more:

www.rootedrisingpodcast.com