Catch Up: Alice Attlee-Grant, Coaching the Leap

I’ve been wanting to do something for a while to celebrate and share the work of some of the wonderful people I have been lucky enough to meet, work and learn from. So today I’m introducing a new little series to my Substack: Catch Up.

I wanted a casual series title to reflect that these exceptional humans are also often my friends or former teachers/students, and I’m hoping to offer something deeper than just a shout out or signal boost. Something that speaks to the depth and quality of these individuals and relationships.

I hope these conversations can showcase the power of community, collaboration and mutual support. I’m hoping that they normalise figuring things out as you go, making mistakes, changing course, building something up only to take it all back down again. Many of the people I’m hoping to catch up with run their own businesses, or teach a variety of movement modalities (or write their own substack). While I’ll of course be platforming their work, I’m aiming for these posts to feel like you’re sitting in on a chat between friends (which is basically exactly what you’re doing).

Each Catch Up I’ll send my guest a set of questions via email, and I’ll share their responses here with my own replies added in italics, so it flows like a conversation and you feel like you’re getting to know my guest (and me) a little better.

My first Catch Up guest is Alice Attlee-Grant, of Coaching the Leap.

To be upfront: Alice is a dear friend and also my coach. I pay her for sessions which she very kindly offers me at a friends and family discount (thank you, you are the sweetest). I’ve been working with Alice as a coach since the beginning of 2026, and I’ve truly been amazed at how helpful I’ve found this process.

I have always been skeptical of coaching, though it mirrors the yoga industry in many ways. It’s unregulated and truly profitable for a very small number of people, and there are certainly examples of predatory training, sale and marketing practices. See this episode of Conspirituality for a great discussion. I remember talking through some of these ideas when Alice was actually doing her coaching certification, and I applaud her for the transparency and critical thinking she brings to her coaching practice.

At the beginning of this year, I knew I needed some more support around my work. I was just over 18 months postpartum, and really struggling to find my rhythm with work. It felt like one false start after another, and I couldn’t find momentum or flow. With the deadline for my second book approaching, I knew I wanted a space where I could process and reframe what I was experiencing. Gently trying to return some structure and direction to my work process.

The way I work has changed dramatically in the past few years. I’ve gone from having a large team of teachers working on various trainings, to just me leading the majority of teaching. I’ve scaled back the trainings I offer, withdrawing my 200 and 300 hour trainings. I’ve stopped making my podcast, and closed our Community Library. Instead, I’ve turned my focus to deepening my work in the sphere of Pregnancy and Postnatal Yoga, and have been trying to write my second book. I no longer have an assistant, so it’s me handling all the enquiries, admin, bookkeeping (not my strength), social media and marketing. I’m a one-woman show these days, and it feels good in such a deep way. It’s a way of working that suits this phase of my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way right now.

That being said, there is an isolation that comes with the territory. Being a yoga teacher, or one of the many other kinds of self-employed individuals, is a lonely profession at the best of times. Many will know the feeling of arriving to teach in a studio or hired space and being the only responsible person there. Teaching your class and then packing up alone as well. I’ve written elsewhere about how I think community and supportive peer-to-peer relationships are essential priorities for yoga teachers.

Add writing into the mix, and you can become a solitary little creature. Gone is the season of daily contact with colleagues, teachers, studios and various other contacts. My working world is much smaller, and I knew that the challenges I was facing would benefit from considering my values, beliefs and attitudes around the work I do and where I am in my life. Acknowledging all of these elements of my life which inform my work can then springboard into developing strategies, challenging assumptions and reframing ideas. I need some structure and accountability and someone to think out loud with.

Alice immediately came to mind the person I wanted to approach to help me. As you’ll find out below, we have a great track record of working together in the past. She also knows me incredibly well (she is so perceptive and experienced with how I like to work and how my brain thinks, I’m always in awe of her insights), plus she knows my business, my values AND has an appreciation of the complex social, cultural and personal impacts of motherhood and family life.

As I’ve said to her many times, she’s the only person I’d consider working with to support me like this, and it’s been a gift and a joy to see how she has developed and grown since we first worked together years ago.

That’s enough from me, let’s dive into my Catch Up with Alice. My responses are in italics.

1. How did we meet?

Harriet was the super cool yoga teacher my new boyfriend (now husband) told me about when I first moved to Oxford in 2021, when I was fresh out of my own teacher training, and was looking to find a yoga community in a new city.

As soon as I met Harriet I knew I wanted to be in her orbit, and soon an opportunity arose for us to work together: I worked as Harriet’s admin assistant/social media manager/ helpful business support for about 6 months and she soon became (and remains!) the best boss I’ve ever had.

Working for Harriet taught me what building your own business could be, and through working with her I learnt so much about work-life balance, authenticity, ethical rigour, radical rest and self-discipline.

Being able to support Harriet through coaching is such a full-circle moment, because so much of what I care about as a coach came from watching her build her business, and from attending various courses run by her.

This makes me smile so much! I still remember the first time meeting you in the cafe (I think?!), and it was one of those meetings that just feels so natural and spontaneous. Working together felt like an obvious YES and I’m so glad we’ve remained friends and cheerleaders for each other over the years. Truly a joy to watch your life unfold and family grow!

2. What interested you in coaching?

We could be here a while for this one!

To try to be brief: I built my own business after working with Harriet, and simultaneously fell pregnant.

Trying to be a present parent and a successful business owner was a hugely humbling experience, and I started to understand how deeply entrenched my own views of success, productivity and motherhood were in patriarchal ideals.

I realised that the business I had built had no space for me in it: it only worked if I gave everything to it and left nothing for myself and my family. Which might work if you’re not a primary caregiver, but it certainly wasn’t working for me. So I had to take my business apart and rebuild it in a way that honoured who I was after becoming a mother.

During this time I also started a podcast that allowed me to have conversations with people who had built businesses and/or created lives for themselves that were truly aligned with who they were and what they wanted holistically (not just from their careers). I realised how much I enjoyed thinking around this topic, which I guess grandly I would call self-actualisation.

These two experiences led me into undertaking a coaching qualification, which now enables me to work with others as they figure out how to be themselves while creating a livelihood.

I really relate to thinking through and rebuilding your business to honour your matrescence and family. This has been such a big theme for me in the past two years, and almost every decision I’ve made has been viewed through the lens of “does this align with my values and priorities now?” Rather than holding myself to who I was (or thought I was) before I had a baby. It’s also tough to do alone, and having a sounding board, someone who knows what I’m going through because they are as well, has just been so so valuable to me.

3. How would you describe your approach in working with clients?

In my client work, my challenge is holding the needs of the person in front of me on a specific day and in a particular moment, with what they want out of their work and lives in the long-term.

Weaving these two priorities together is the key to a successful coaching dynamic for me.

You know I love an overarching framework! But I also love how you check in and help me think about what I need at this moment. Often I’m so caught up in what lies ahead, that coming back to the present is important.

4. Can you share one of your proudest moments as a coach?

I can honestly say I have a “proudest moment” in every coaching session. I friggin’ love what I do and I am lucky to work with some pretty amazing people.

Whenever a client reaches a conclusion they couldn’t have reached alone, or finds a new perspective through the conversations we have, or has what we call an “aha!” moment, when everything suddenly shifts and their path becomes clear, I feel incredibly proud to do what I do.

I love that you LOVE what you do. It shines through into every aspect of your work and is totally infectious.

5. What does an average day look like for you?

My days are pretty chaotic at the moment: I have a four-year old and a four-month old and I am gently working, so balancing ongoing client work with adjusting to life as a family of four (five if you count the dog) is pretty gnarly at times!

On weekdays, my days loosely go something like this:

6am-9am: Wake up, big family cuddles in our bed, breakfast, wrangle my four year old into the car for pre-school (“please take your pants off your head, please take your pants OFF YOUR HEAD” etc!).

9am: My husband takes Robin (4) to preschool and Blythe (4 months) goes along for the ride. This is my little window of time for myself: either I go on a very slow run, or do some yoga.

10am: Walk the dog, and have a catch-up with a coaching client, with Blythe on my front in the carrier.

11am-1pm: Blythe usually transfers from the carrier to her bed and I work for an hour or so, either on my own business admin or coaching a client.

1pm-3pm: Life admin (read: attack a very large pile of laundry) or I meet up with a similarly exhausted mum and we agree that a) What we are doing is very hard b) We do love it really and c) There should be more gold stars in parenthood.

3-5pm: Robin’s back from preschool! We try and do something outside if it isn’t actually raining: anything to distract him from his absolute desperation to have…

5pm-7pm: TV time! Then dinner, bath and bed for Robin.

8pm: Legitimately when I go to bed. I have a bath with Blythe and we snuggle up together and get our only good chunk of sleep for the rest of the night.

Realistically I could also take you through the night because Blythe is still waking pretty frequently, but I’ll spare you this bit!

*Also, because I know comparison is the thief of joy and there’s something about reading through somebody else’s life that can make us feel like we’re doing it all wrong: there is usually also a day in my week where I am in bed for most of the day, eating cereal and breastfeeding a baby while watching Grey’s Anatomy. I’m not a strict routine person and in this season of life, plans have to go out the window when I’ve had a particularly rough night of sleep.

I’m a person who finds joy in using my time well, but I am also disciplined at knowing when the to-do list needs to get in the bin in favour of rest and formless time staring at my baby. So please don’t imagine I’m nailing the above routine every damn day!

We love a routine and we love some rhythm! But you’re also so right: there’s no way we’re nailing it all the time. Balancing rest and routine is so important and tricky. I always value that this is an element you bring into your coaching sessions. I don’t feel like you’re trying to squeeze every ounce of productivity out of me, or optimise every process in my life. There’s such attention to detail in figuring out where I’m at and what I need, and you really consider the whole ecosystem and structure of my life, like I’m (astonishingly) a whole person, not just a business owner, writer or mother. I can be my whole self in our sessions which is priceless.

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Thank you so much Alice for sharing your thoughts with me and my Substack crew, and being the first Catch Up guest. I really appreciate you and your incredible work!

Alice currently has some space to take on a new coaching client. She is looking specifically for individuals working on creative / business projects who would like the holistic accountability and support she offers, and who feel comfortable working with a woman who is also in the throes of early motherhood. If you are interested, do get in touch with her, even just to say hi and have an informal chat (she offers a free consultation).

You can get in touch with Alice:

• Email: alice@attlee.net

• Website: https://coachingtheleap.com/

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachingtheleap/