Hey Subscriber First Name

I’m starting this week’s edition of TrimTabs a little differently. Normally, I begin by exploring the question I left you with last time. But last week, I broke with tradition.

Instead, I invited you to step outside and notice one thing in the natural world that’s changing right now and to pay attention to the conditions that make that change possible.

That small shift mirrors a bigger one I’ve been feeling in myself as I’ve written these newsletters.

The original inspiration for TrimTabs comes from engineering. The trim tab is a tiny mechanism that steers huge ships, reminding us that meaningful change can come from small, well-placed actions. That idea has always resonated with me but as I look back at my own path from marketer, to sustainability strategist, to coach, I can see that nature has become a deeper guide at every step.

Corporate systems are built on extraction, fear and scarcity. Nature works on very different principles of regeneration, reciprocity and abundance.

As we enter a new era of business, technology and AI, much of our thinking still carries the logic of the corporate world, just with a greener tint when we want to talk about ‘saving the planet’. But if we want real change, we need to rethink the environments we’re creating and draw on a different kind of wisdom.

That’s why I return to nature as often a possible. Nature is our ultimate teacher and helps us remember what we already know. The answers to our most complex problems are inside all of us, we just need to slow down enough to listen.

When we look through an anthropological lens, we can see that 95% of the human existence has been spent in deep connection with natural cycles. It’s only been the last 4000 years where we have shifted our approach and been in a constant state of flux ever since. So maybe it’s time to remember who we are and what it means to be truly flourishing.

The planet’s accelerating changes are a mirror of our disconnection. The answers won’t come from office-based thinking, they’ll come when we step outside, listen without agenda and let the natural world recalibrate both our nervous systems and our imaginations.

That’s the foundation of much of my work and I’m excited to share where this shift is taking me next.

I love that quote from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. It’s a book that reminds us nature always believes in us. For me, that’s deeply reassuring, that despite everything going on in the world, we can return to nature to feel grounded, nourished and cared for.

And that’s the intersection where my work sits.

On one hand, natural systems are our greatest teacher. On the other, we still live in a western world that asks us to pay bills and put the bins out.

Holding both those realities together has allowed me to create a model I use just as effectively in coaching as I do in business strategy.

I call it Inner Roots, Outer Fruits™.

Grounded in the psychology of Carl Jung, the ancient wisdom of Rumi and my many years in senior leadership roles, it’s built on a simple philosophy that our inner wisdom drives our outer impact. I’ve been using this model with clients for some time, but this is the first time I’ve talked about the origins. It feels right to bring it forward now, because it sits at the very centre of my work.

I’ll be launching this model with an exciting initiative based in nature and I look forward to opening that very soon.

To give you a taster, this approach at its heart shows that we live within a spiral of life, an ecosystem that perpetuates itself through principles, values and outcomes.

To move with it, we must learn to plant, grow and let go, just as nature does. It’s a way of seeing that life is rooted in natural cycles, but it applies equally to our own lives and to the businesses we build.

I see it as a new lens for understanding how our inner and outer systems connect and I’m looking forward to sharing more of it with you in the weeks and months ahead.

We’ve got some great gatherings on the horizon:

• People Planet Pastry - Bournemouth, 28th August
  We’ll be back at Patch for another morning of connection, conversation and (of course) pastries. As it’s the summer holidays, remember that young people are always warmly welcome. We love the intergenerational energy these spaces bring.

  Book your pastry here.

• New initiative launching soon
  Building on the theme of aligning with natural rhythms and grounded in my Inner Roots, Outer Fruits™ model, I’m preparing to launch something new this September. I’m opening a soft invitation list now. If you’d like to register your interest (with no commitment), I’d love you to drop me an email here. It will help me gauge interest and water the seeds I’m planting.

Thank you for being here with me this week.

I’m taking some time off next week, so there won’t be a newsletter.

I may, however, pop into your inbox with an early announcement about the September launch of my nature based initiative.

But don’t worry, I’ll be back with Edition 22 on the 2nd September for a special birthday edition of TrimTabs and I suspect I’ll have plenty to reflect on after some time off and celebrating another year of life!

Until then, with compassion and curiosity,

Nick

Well that’s it for another week. Boo!

But we don’t have to stop there. Hurrah!

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