Adventure Partner’s New Website Is Live — And A New Chapter Begins
- Cory McGowan
- Jan 14
- 3 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Today I’m celebrating something that’s been quietly in the works for months:
the launch of the new Adventure Partner website.
It’s more than a redesign.
It’s a marker of how my work has evolved, and how clearly I’ve come to see the power of stepping away — really stepping away — as the most transformative move a leader can make.
Over the last few years, more than 50 leaders have made the trip to Minakami to work with me in retreat settings. They arrived with different questions, different pressures, different seasons of their careers — but they all came for the same reason:
They needed space.
They needed clarity.
They needed time away from the noise to see what actually mattered.
And the results have humbled me.
While these particular stories come from male leaders, they’re representative of the kinds of shifts I’ve seen across the diverse group of leaders who come to Minakami.
I’ve watched one leader become the Country Manager of a multinational organization, stepping into a role he once described as “beyond what I thought I could claim.” I’ve seen a small-business owner double his team and hit record sales, not because he worked harder, but because he got clearer. Another leader redesigned his approach to work in a way that lifted performance across his team — and also gave himself permission to finally buy a beach home, creating both spaciousness and long-term personal wealth.
These aren’t miracles.
They’re what becomes possible when a leader finally stops long enough to listen to themselves.
We’re Living in Times That Push Leaders Toward Mechanistic Behavior
The world we’re leading in right now is intense.
Fast.
Foggy.
Full of competing demands and constant disruption.
And in times like these, the pressure is always the same:
move faster, optimize harder, be more efficient, reduce the friction, tighten the screws.
It’s a subtle push toward becoming more mechanistic —
less human, more machine-like.
But the real truth is this:
What teams need most right now is not a more optimized leader.
They need a more human one.
Someone who can regulate their own nervous system.
Someone who can create safety rather than urgency.
Someone who can see clearly instead of react quickly.
Someone who remembers what matters — and can help others remember too.
And the best way I know to evoke that humanity is simple:
Reconnect with nature.
Return to something older than the noise.
Remember where you come from and what you are capable of.
The fire, the mountains, the river — they strip away the performative layers and bring leaders back to the person underneath the role. And that shift doesn’t stay with the individual. It ripples outward: through their teams, their decisions, their meetings, their families, their culture.
Retreat is not escapism.
It’s a recalibration.
A return to the ground you lead from.
The new website reflects this truth:
Retreat isn’t an add-on to my work. It is the work.
The fire, the mountains, the long conversations, the silence — these aren’t metaphors. They’re the conditions where leaders rediscover who they are and what they want to build next.
This launch marks the beginning of a clearer, bolder chapter for Adventure Partner.
One rooted fully in the belief that leadership grows best in spacious, honest environments — far from the pace and pressure that usually define the working week.
If you’re curious, I’d love for you to explore the site, read through the retreat insights, and see what might resonate for you or your organization.
And if something in this moment of transition stirs something in you — a question, a desire for clarity, a sense that it might be time for your own step away — you’re welcome to begin with a 90-minute Spark Session.
It’s the first step into the kind of space most leaders wait too long to give themselves.
A Note of Gratitude for the Website Design
One last thing that feels important to name:
This site was designed by my best friend, Shin Fukui. He brought patience, creativity, and a kind of intuitive understanding of my work that only comes from years of walking through life together.
If you’re impressed by the site — its clarity, its feeling, its coherence — that’s Shin’s touch.
If you’re looking for a designer who can bring that level of care and craft to your own project, reach out to him here:
Here’s to new chapters, honest leadership, and the kind of vision that can only emerge when we step outside the rush and into something real.
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