Walk With Cory McGowan: Nature as a mirror for leadership and self

Episode Summary: What happens when you step out of the environment that shaped you — and into one that reveals you?

In this conversation, Cory McGowan shares how living and working in the mountains of Japan reshaped not only his life, but how he supports leaders and teams. Through immersive experiences in nature, he helps people step outside their patterns and see themselves more clearly.

We explore how nature becomes more than a setting — it becomes a partner in the work — and what it means to return to everyday life with a deeper understanding of who you are.

Show notes

After years working in Tokyo’s corporate environment, Cory McGowan found himself living in Minakami, Japan — a mountain town shaped by rivers, deep seasonal rhythms, and a kind of aliveness that’s hard to ignore.

What began as a relocation became something more: a shift in how he lives, works, and understands leadership.

In this conversation, we explore the idea that many of us “armor up” to function in our environments — adapting in ways that help us succeed, but may quietly pull us away from ourselves. It’s often not until we step outside of those environments that we begin to see those patterns clearly.

Cory now works with individuals and teams through immersive, nature-based retreats, where the goal isn’t escape, but clarity. As he describes it, nature becomes a co-facilitator — creating the space, challenge, and perspective that allow something deeper to emerge.

We also hold an important tension: not everyone is meant to leave their life behind. The real opportunity may be learning how to reconnect with yourself and with nature within the life you already have.

This conversation is an invitation to notice where you may be adapting more than you realize — and what might shift if you created even a small amount of space to step outside of it.

Key Themes

• Nature as co-facilitator in leadership and personal development

• “Armoring” in modern environments and what it costs us

• Remembering vs. reinventing who we are

• The role of challenge and adventure in expanding possibility

• Individual vs. collective development in different cultures

• Integration: bringing insight back into everyday life

• Leadership as fuller self-expression

Key Takeaways

• Nature doesn’t just support the work — it actively shapes it.

• Many leadership patterns are adaptations, not truths.

• Time and space are prerequisites for meaningful clarity.

• Challenge (physical or emotional) can expand what feels possible.

• Integration determines whether insight becomes change.

• You don’t have to leave your life to reconnect with what matters.

“We armor ourselves to function — and forget the cost of wearing it.”

Reflection Prompt

Where in your life have you adapted in ways that helped you function — but may no longer reflect who you are?

What might shift if you created even a small amount of space to step outside of that environment?

Connect with Cory

Japan’s Coach for Adventurous Leaders: https://www.adventure-partner.net/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-mcgowan/

Prefer to read? The full transcript is below.

• Full Transcript

  Susan
  All right — well hey, Cory, it’s great to finally meet you.

  Cory
  Yeah, same here.

  Susan
  I’m excited to have this conversation. As I was preparing, I realized there are a lot of directions we could go. But given the focus of this podcast — well-being and the connection with nature — I have a feeling we’re going to have some fun exploring that, and maybe even get into some things I haven’t considered before.

  So I’m really looking forward to it.

  Let’s start at the beginning — your origin story, so to speak. Go as far back as you’d like, but I’d love for us to land where you are today, especially in the context of nature and well-being.

  Cory
  Okay. I’ll follow where my mind goes.

  It probably starts with my childhood. My dad, in particular, was really into outdoor activities. So I was introduced to that pretty early — camping, canoeing. I grew up in New England and spent quite a bit of time outside.

  Some of my memories are actually of not enjoying it — climbing mountains with what felt like too heavy of a backpack, crying, complaining. I’m sure my dad didn’t love that part.

  But there was a lot of time outdoors. A lot of adventures. We also lived in a wooded area, and I spent a lot of time outside with my dog. So it was always just part of life.

  I didn’t really start to embrace it on my own until later — after college — when I started going on my own trips and expeditions.

  I studied French and Spanish in university, and what excited me most about that was travel. I spent most of my 20s traveling, primarily in South America and West Africa.

  Then a friend invited me to Japan. He had been living there for a couple of years and found a language school. He said, “Why don’t you come check it out?”

  I had never been to Asia, so I showed up with a backpack and a surfboard, thinking I’d stay for a few months.

  It’s been about 25 or 26 years now.

  Susan
  Wow. A backpack and a surfboard.

  Cory
  Yeah. Not quite half my life, but almost. I’ve now lived outside of the U.S. for more than half my life.

  More recently — about eight years ago — my wife and I moved out of Tokyo. She’s Japanese, and we have two boys. We relocated to a town called Minakami.

  Japan has prefectures instead of states, and it’s in Gunma prefecture — about an hour by bullet train from Tokyo. It’s a town of about 18,000 people, surrounded by mountains, and along one of the longest rivers in Japan.

  It’s been a kind of homecoming, even though it’s on the opposite side of the world from where I grew up. It’s really been a reconnection to nature — and ultimately, a reconnection to myself.

  Susan
  That’s such a theme of this podcast — the power of nature to reconnect us to ourselves. I love that.

  Let’s stay there for a moment. Can you share more about why you describe it that way?

  Cory
  Yeah.

  I didn’t realize it until we had been here for a couple of years, but I became aware of how much I had been “armoring” myself to live in Tokyo.

  I’m not really a city person. And I’ve never fully felt like I fit into the business or corporate world. But when I got married and we were going to have kids, we were in Tokyo, and I knew I needed to do what I had to do to support my family.

  So I took on different roles. They were good roles — I learned a lot and did well in them.

  But I didn’t fully understand the cost at the time — shaping myself into ways of being that didn’t really feel like me.

  Being here — in the mountains — and also starting my own business, which wasn’t originally the plan, has opened up a lot of freedom in how I live and work.

  Even now, years into it, I’m still kind of stunned by how different my day-to-day life feels — and how much more it reflects who I actually am.

  Susan
  So you really did, in a way, run off into the woods and leave your corporate life behind.

  Cory
  Not exactly, but… sort of.

  Susan
  I ask because I had a similar moment when I was walking the Camino last year. There was this sense of remembering — like, this is where I’m meant to be.

  And I really sat with that. What does that mean? Am I supposed to completely change my life?

  I’ve spent 25 years in corporate work, even though I have a background in science education. That could have been a very different path.

  So it’s fascinating to hear you describe your version of that — choosing a life more connected to nature.

  Cory
  Yeah. My wife and I had been talking about leaving Tokyo for a while, and that was more about me than her. She’s very comfortable in an urban environment.

  A series of events led us here, and it worked out really well. But the plan wasn’t for me to start my own business or be doing what I’m doing now.

  My commitment was that I would keep my corporate role in Tokyo for stability. It’s only about an hour away by bullet train.

  But within a year, I was offered a role at an outdoor adventure company here. It seemed like the perfect fit — combining leadership, business, and being local.

  And then, within a year of that… thanks to COVID and other factors, it was done.

  None of it was going the way it was supposed to.

  But the one thing I was clear on was that I wasn’t going back to Tokyo. I wasn’t putting a suit back on.

  And that’s when I hired my own coach for the first time — which helped me see a completely different way forward.

  Susan
  My brain is peeling layers right now.

  Before we go into your work, I’d love for you to describe where you live — especially for listeners in the U.S.

  What does it feel like from a nature perspective? Does it feel similar to the mountains here, or very different?

  Cory
  Yeah, it’s different in a lot of ways.

  Cory
  It’s different in a lot of ways.

  I grew up in a wooded area in Massachusetts, but I hadn’t really lived in the mountains before. And I was actually more of an ocean person. I spent a lot of time in Maine, and even when I lived in the Northwest, I was near the ocean.

  So this was new for me.

  The place where I live now — Minakami — is much more wild than anywhere I’ve lived before.

  In the winter, we get some of the deepest powder skiing in the world. Some areas get four or five meters of snow.

  And then in the summer, it’s in the high 90s, humid — it almost feels like a jungle.

  So there’s this full spectrum, and everything feels very alive.

  It’s also been really educational for me — not just in terms of animals and plants, but the landscape itself. The mountains change. The river changes.

  And in Japan, there’s this concept of micro-seasons. There are about 24 seasons in a year.

  You can actually see those subtle shifts — week to week, sometimes even day to day.

  Susan
  Wow.

  Cory
  Yeah, and there are also a lot of animals here. Wild boar, bears, monkeys — and plenty of smaller creatures.

  That’s very different from where I grew up. There, it was more like deer, raccoons, skunks.

  Here, you’re much more aware of being part of a larger ecosystem.

  And we live right on a river — one of the longest in Japan — so that’s constantly changing too.

  It’s just… alive in a way that I’m still learning from, even after eight years.

  Susan
  Being on a river is something.

  It’s interesting — I’ve been developing more awareness of the nuances of nature myself. I used to just say, “I love water.”

  But more recently, I’ve realized I really love rivers.

  Someone once told me it’s because of the movement — the energy of the water flowing. And that resonated.

  There’s also something about the diversity of life you can find in such a small stretch of river compared to a larger body of water.

  And the idea of 24 seasons — that fascinates me. Are they actually tied to specific dates, or is it more fluid?

  Cory
  It’s not exact, but it’s recognizable.

  My wife has this calendar related to the micro-seasons — it’s tied to a traditional practice she does — and I’ll look at it sometimes.

  Each season has a name, often tied to something very specific, like the first signs of spring.

  And it’s interesting because you’ll notice it outside — maybe a shift in the light, or a slightly warmer day.

  It’s not perfectly aligned every year, but there’s a rhythm to it.

  And sometimes it’s surprisingly accurate.

  Susan
  What’s coming up for me is how special it is to have language for those nuances.

  And at the same time, Japan also has a word for death from overwork.

  So there’s this paradox — deep reverence for nature, and also an intense work culture.

  I’m curious if that shows up in your work.

  Cory
  Yeah, it does.

  About half of my coaching clients are Japanese, and the rest are mostly people living in Japan.

  For more traditional coaching work — sessions over Zoom — I do work with Japanese clients.

  But for the retreat-based work, especially individual retreats, I haven’t had many Japanese clients.

  And I think part of that is cultural.

  Taking several days just for your own development is less common here. There’s more emphasis on doing things collectively.

  So team retreats are more familiar — because it’s something the group is doing together.

  But individual retreats can feel like a bigger step.

  Susan
  That makes sense.

  So in a way, part of your work is helping people step outside that intensity — even briefly — to see something different.

  Cory
  Yeah, exactly.

  Susan
  Let’s talk more about that individual work.

  You mentioned starting with a few days in nature. Why do people come to you? And what are they really seeking?

  Cory
  One of the most important parts of any development work — especially coaching — is being clear on your “why.”

  And that’s hard to do in the middle of daily life.

  You might try to carve out a bit of time here or there, but it’s not the same as stepping away for a few days with intention.

  So I bring people out for what I call a wilderness visioning retreat.

  The goal is that by the end of it, they have a clear vision for what they want the next year to look like.
  
  Cory
  And part of that process includes some kind of challenge.

  Toward the end of the retreat, I’ll take them on an experience — something river-based or mountain-based — designed around what I’ve seen showing up for them.

  It’s meant to push them a bit outside their comfort zone.

  Because what often happens is people underestimate what’s possible for them. So that experience can open something up — it expands their sense of what they might create over the next year.

  Susan
  What role does nature play in that? How would you describe it?

  Cory
  Yeah… this is something I didn’t fully anticipate when I started doing this work.

  But nature really becomes a co-facilitator.

  Most of my clients are coming from Tokyo or other urban areas. So even just leaving that environment starts to shift something.

  We don’t go straight into the mountains. We ease into it.

  I have a small office that looks out onto the river and the trees, and we’ll spend a couple of hours there just talking, letting things settle.

  You can already start to see a change in how people are showing up.

  Then we move to the outdoor location — a place right on the river, at the base of the mountains.

  And from there, a lot of it is about creating space.

  People set up their own tents. They spend time alone. There’s reflection, writing.

  We take silent walks in the woods.

  And what I’ve realized is that I don’t need to plan every moment.

  The environment does a lot of the work.

  The sounds, the smells, the movement — even just the energy of the place.

  It’s a place where things happen. The river shifts, the mountains change. It’s very alive.

  And people start to reconnect — not just with nature, but with themselves.

  Susan
  That idea of remembering keeps coming up for me.

  Cory
  Yeah, exactly.

  It’s less about becoming something new and more about remembering who we are.

  Recognizing that there isn’t really a separation between us and nature.

  And seeing what happens when people start to reconnect with that — it’s pretty powerful.

  Susan
  I’m curious about the return.

  After an experience like that, do people want to go back to their everyday lives?

  Or is there a pull to stay in that environment?

  Cory
  That’s a great question.

  I haven’t explicitly asked people that, but my sense is that the pull of their normal lives is still strong.

  They have families, responsibilities.

  So I think it’s less about not wanting to go back, and more about having a deeper appreciation — and maybe a bit of surprise — that a place like this is accessible to them.

  That they can step into something like this without completely changing their lives.

  But the key piece is integration.

  Susan
  Yeah.

  Cory
  That’s why the retreat is followed by a coaching engagement.

  We keep revisiting what came up — the vision they created — and working with it over time.

  Otherwise, it risks becoming just a powerful experience that doesn’t actually change anything.

  Susan
  That resonates.

  When I came back from the Camino, I was looking for someone who could help me integrate that experience — and it was hard to find.

  So I really appreciate that part of your work.

  I’m also curious — what kinds of shifts do you see in people over time?

  Cory
  The more I do this work, the more I see it as helping people become a fuller expression of who they are.

  Not fitting into a model of leadership, but bringing what’s uniquely theirs into the world.

  And nature seems to support that.

  People start to see their patterns — the things that get in the way — and they become more willing to work with those.

  So the shift might show up as more willingness to take risks, to try things that feel more genuine.

  To lead in a way that actually reflects who they are.
  Susan
  That aligns with how I think about this work too — unwinding stories, removing layers.

  I’d love to hear how this shows up in your work with teams.

  Cory
  Yeah, this is becoming more and more of my work.

  And I think there’s a growing desire for it — especially as people become more immersed in technology. There’s something about wanting to be together in a different kind of environment.

  The way I approach it is to first work with the leader to understand the intention.

  Are they looking for a quick team-building experience? Or are they actually interested in deeper, longer-term change?

  From there, I speak with each member of the team — what I call discovery interviews — to understand what’s really going on beneath the surface.

  Then we design the experience based on that.

  Ideally, it’s a few days.

  The first day is about disconnecting from daily life and reconnecting — both to themselves and to each other.

  Slowing down is a big part of that. Being in nature, sitting in hot springs, doing things that help people come out of their usual pace.

  The second day usually includes some kind of shared challenge.

  Not extreme, but something that stretches them — and brings out patterns around communication, trust, risk-taking.

  Then we come back and start to reflect. What did we notice? What did we learn?

  And the final day is about integration.

  What does this mean for how we work together going forward? What are we actually going to carry with us?

  Susan
  That sounds incredible.

  And I really appreciate what you said about working with an outside perspective.

  There’s often this belief that leaders should be able to figure everything out themselves.

  Cory
  Yeah — and the reality is, we can’t step outside our own context.

  We’re all operating within a certain frame, and there are things we literally can’t see.

  That’s where coaching can be so valuable — having someone reflect back what’s happening.

  And over time, the goal is that the team starts to do that for each other.

  That they’re able to see and name what’s happening in real time.

  Susan
  I’m glad we went there. That feels important.

  Before we wrap up, is there anything else that feels important to share — related to nature, well-being, or this work?

  Cory
  I think the one thing I’d say is that I don’t think everyone should do what I’ve done.

  Living in a rural place — especially in Japan — is not easy. It’s a lot of work.

  And while it’s been incredibly meaningful for me, I don’t think the answer is for everyone to leave their lives behind.

  What I think we need more of is people staying where they are — in cities, in their work — but doing their own work.

  Finding ways to feel more connected, more aligned, within the life they already have.

  Susan
  Yes — I agree.

  It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

  Even small experiences in nature can be incredibly impactful.

  Natural Favorites

  Susan
  We’ll close with a few quick questions. I call this “Natural Favorites.”

  First — favorite animal, and why?

  Cory
  I’ve always loved birds of prey.

  When I was younger, someone came to my school with hawks and other birds, and it made a big impression on me.

  More recently, I did a sea kayaking trip in Mexico and spent a lot of time around ospreys. I even learned how to whistle in a way they would respond to.

  So yeah — not one specific bird, but birds of prey in general.

  Susan
  I love that.

  Next — a practice or ritual you use in nature to stay connected.

  Cory
  This might sound strange, but that’s actually something I’ve struggled with.

  I tend to be very goal-oriented — even in nature. I’ll go trail running and focus on getting to the top.

  So for me, the practice is slowing down.

  Walking instead of rushing. Paying attention.

  And my dog helps with that. He stops constantly to smell everything, which forces me to slow down too.

  So really, it’s just being present — noticing what’s around me.

  Susan
  I relate to that.

  I’ve started using those moments — even when walking my dog — to pause and take in what’s around me.

  Those small moments matter.

  Susan
  Next — a place in nature that matters most to you right now.

  Cory
  There’s a hike here near a mountain called Tanigawa.

  It’s a powerful place. The landscape is intense, and there’s a certain energy to it.

  That’s a place I keep coming back to.