Leadership Trail
Five days in the Swedish wilderness with 6 to 8 business-owners who get it. Built to break the two things that quietly stall leaders: isolation and stagnation.
What the previous trail looked like?
In March 2026, the Leadership Trail brought a small group of entrepreneurs into the Swedish wilderness for five days. They arrived as strangers. They slept under the open sky, discovered their limits, sat in silence longer than felt comfortable, and built the kind of camaraderie that usually takes years. One participant, who leads several family-owned franchise locations, described it as the first time in over a decade he could switch off completely, and it changed how he shows up both at work and at home.
Two things nobody warns you about when you run a business
Half of CEOs say they feel lonely in the role, according to Harvard Business Review research. Not because nobody is around, but because most of the people around them need something from them: an answer, a decision, a result. Few offer a place to just be honest.
At the same time, the instincts that built your business start working against you as it grows. What got you here won’t get you there, and there’s no peer group left who’ll tell you that to your face.
Left alone, both cost you more than they first appear to. Isolation narrows your thinking exactly when you need other perspectives most, and it wears on the people closest to you, who feel the distance even when you can’t name it. Stagnation doesn’t announce itself either: you keep solving this year’s problems with last year’s playbook, and you don’t find out until the numbers, or your team, do. Fix one without the other and neither holds.
You could take a week off and sit in nature by yourself, for free. What you can’t do alone is sit across from six other leaders and/or business owners who see through the performance and call it. That’s what you’re really investing in.
Who this is for and who it isn’t
This is for you if:
- You’re a business owner leading a small team, and the hard decisions land on you.
- You value evidence and results, but privately sense you’re running on willpower more than purpose.
- This is a personal investment. Nobody else needs to approve your budget for it.
- You’re ready to be direct with other men, and to be on the receiving end of the same.
This isn’t for you if:
- You need HR or board approval to attend. That process usually kills it before it starts, and this isn’t designed around it.
- You’re looking for a quiet week off. This is structured, confronting in places, and physically active.
- You’re in acute personal or mental health crisis. This is leadership development, not therapy or a substitute for professional care. If that’s where you are, the right first step is a conversation with a licensed professional, not a trail.
What’s included
- 5 days, 4 nights in the Swedish wilderness. Full accommodation and food from arrival to departure. You only have to show up for the work.
- 2 pre-trail online group sessions. Before you land in Sweden, you’ll already know the men you’re walking in with and you will arrive as a group.
- 12 x 1:1 coaching sessions (even before and after the trail). Direct support, diving into your leadership dilemma’s and turning what surfaced in Sweden into decisions in your business and at home.
- Monthly group call. The same men who saw you in the wilderness, checking in on what you said you’d change and holding you accountable.
- A men-only room built for candor. No performing for clients, staff, or family, we work with the version of you that’s actually leading/ running the business.
- A different model of leadership. We work with the unique Authentic Leadership development model that’s been tested with 200 clients. Direct, honest feedback on the blind spots that are quietly capping your growth, from men who have no reason to flatter you.
Logistics
- Location: Storån, Ytterhögdal, deep in the Swedish wilderness.
- Getting there: fly into Stockholm, then travel by train and bus into the wilderness. Niels and Jan Willem meet you personally along the way.
- What to bring: your own warm layers (winter edition). Everything else, tracker, headlamp, first-aid kit, fire steel, knife, plate and cutlery, is issued to you on arrival. A full packing list is sent after booking.
- Group size: 6 to 8 participants, kept deliberately small so we can offer personalized feedback and guidance.
What will happen out there
You’ll notice this isn’t broken into Day 1, Day 2, Day 3. That’s deliberate. Below you’ll find snippets of what happens on the trail. What you won’t find is the order, or exactly when each moment lands, because knowing the sequence in advance would let you prepare an answer instead of finding one. Every exercise on this trail is built to catch the part of you that’s usually three steps ahead. That only works once, and only if you don’t see it coming.
Across the five days, you will:
- Experience the wilderness, by canoe in summer or by snow scooter in winter
- Share -and reflect on- your life story with the group, the moments that shaped who you are, and set a concrete intention for the week.
- Carve a piece of wood into a totem that represents your leadership, in a knife and wood workshop.
- Hike a mountain, share a meal at the summit, guided by stories, and mark letting go of what holds you back as a leader.
- Spend a night alone, building your own shelter from branches and moss, or a snow cave in winter, with only what’s in your pack.
- Reflect and understand where you come from in order to change course moving forward.
- Learn real navigation, by map, compass, and stars, alone and in pairs.
- Real workshop in self-defense, and what it feels like to actually be tested.
- Intensive one-on-one development conversations with both Niels and Jan Willem.
- Close with a ceremony built around your leadership manifest.
- Winter edition only: a shot at the Northern Lights, conditions permitting
Who’s guiding this
Niels Loendersloot
Niels Loendersloot
Niels spent years in technology, in roles built on responsibility, pace, and complexity. It was there he saw how easily a leader, and a person, can drift further from himself without noticing. That experience shaped the work he does today.
He holds the ICF Master Certified Coach credential, the highest level awarded by the International Coaching Federation, and has logged over 3,500 coaching hours across the last ten years. Alongside one-on-one work with leaders at ASML, Rabobank, Siemens, Flextronics, RoyalHaskoningDHV, and TU/e, he founded BolsterKracht in Eindhoven to help leaders find direction, rest, and ownership again, not by adding more knowledge, but by making room for what’s already there and ready to be seen.
“I spend my own downtime outdoors, kitesurfing, on a mountain bike, wherever there’s no signal, because that’s where I do my clearest thinking. I built the Trail because I wanted the men I coach to have that same reset, but with people around them instead of alone.”
Jan Willem Westerbos
Jan Willem Westerbos
Jan Willem is the founder of Mijn Krachtig Pad and a former member of the Korps Commandotroepen, the Dutch army’s special forces. His training in sport pedagogy and his years within Defense shaped a different view of what real development requires: not more theory, but movement, honesty, and the edge between comfortable and uncomfortable.
He brings strength and softness in equal measure. As a teacher, mentor, and coach, he takes participants outdoors deliberately, because insight tends to surface when the body is moving too. From that insight comes a choice, and from that choice, action.
Off the trail, Jan Willem is a son, brother, husband, and father himself, roles he says remind him that none of us are meant to carry everything alone.
Testimonials
“For the first three days, I couldn’t sit still in the silence, I kept asking what’s next. On day four, I walked into the forest alone. Months later, I still do it deliberately. It’s changed how I lead and how I show up at home.” Matthijs, Business Owner, March 2026 cohort
“Challenging in many ways. At 58, it’s remarkable how much change costs your ego, it’s difficult. I need time to reflect on that. Standing on a hill in the cold doing breathwork on a mountainside, those are, for me, truly beautiful moments.” Rowen, Business Owner, March 2026 cohort
Across the April cohort, participants rated the trail’s personal impact between 8 and 10 out of 10, and the new insights it gave them between 7 and 10 out of 10.
Return on investment
What you’re investing in isn’t five days of community, nature, and a new kind of leadership. It’s a lifetime’s worth of development: the awareness and habits that make you a better husband, father, friend, and entrepreneur, not just a more successful one. The support that comes with it goes beyond your business. It’s there to help you build a life that’s genuinely meaningful and balanced, not just profitable.
The program includes accommodation, food, and all activities for the five days, plus the pre- and post-trail support outlined above. Flights not included, please book a call to learn more about the investment costs.
Only 6 to 8 seats. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and close one month before departure, when we confirm the group and lock the roster
Questions
Can I come alone, without knowing anyone else?
Yes. Almost everyone does. That’s the point: the two pre-trail sessions and the first day are built to turn strangers into a group before anything hard is asked of you.
Why don't you publish a full day-by-day schedule?
Because part of what makes this work is not knowing what’s next. Above, you can see everything that happens on the trail. What you won’t find is the order, or exactly when each moment lands. If you’ve ever caught yourself planning your reaction before something’s even happened, that’s precisely the pattern this is designed to interrupt.
Is this therapy?
No. This is leadership development, facilitated by an ICF Master Certified Coach with ten years of experience, not clinical treatment. If you’re currently dealing with an acute mental health crisis, the right first step is professional care, not a trail, and we’ll tell you that directly on a call if it comes up.
Can my business survive five days without me?
That’s usually exactly the question worth sitting with. If the honest answer is no, that’s information about how you’re leading, not a reason to skip this.
Do I need to be in serious physical shape?
No, but expect to be physically active: hiking, being outdoors for long stretches, and in the winter edition, cold conditions. If you can comfortably walk for a few hours, you’re fine.
What happens after the trail? Am I signing up for more coaching I have to keep paying for?
No. The post-trail support is included, not sold separately. See Inclusions above for exactly what that looks like.
Why is this for men only?
Transformational leadership work asks men to confront vulnerability, identity, and unconscious patterns, and conditioning around strength and emotional control often blocks that in mixed company. A men-only group creates the safety and candor needed to actually get through it.
What if I sign up and realise it's not for me?
Talk to us first. Book a call before applying, we’d rather find out together whether this is the right fit for you than take your money and find out on day one.
